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IAM1211 – CEO of Award Winning Agency Serves both Startups and Global Brands

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 06:16:05 -0500

Laurel is the CEO and founder of the award winning marketing agency, Elevate My Brand. Laurel has created an agency family serving both startups and blue chip global brands like Facebook, Verizon Digital Media Group, PAW Patrol and Zendesk. Laurel's favorite saying is FIOGID. Figure it out, get it done. And that's exactly what's brought the agency top talent and accolades since 2009.

CEO Story: CEO at the age of 26, took over her Dad’s company. Eventually started her own digital marketing company and now it has worked with over 250 brands.
Business Service: Full-service marketing agency – web content, social advertising creative. Launch events, trade shows, conferences, national field marketing.
Secret Sauce: Inspired by creatives but truly driven by data.
- Making sure that marketing lands on to different channels, with its messaging, positioning, and targeting is all proper on the digital and offline for the clients.
- Making sure you and your client are on the same page.
CEO Hack: I call it orbiting the universe. After having the first meeting, I’ll be able to schedule within that meeting for the next touchpoint.
- It’s all about building relationships.
CEO NUGGET: Don’t let anyone intimidate you.
- Your vulnerability and transparency are so critical to the human experience that really helps you connect with your team and clients.
CEO Defined: Standing up for something, showing up for your team, your clients, and for your community.

Website: https://www.elevatemybrand.com

Email: laurel@elevatemybrand.com , eryn@elevatemybrand.com

Instagram: laurelmintz , elevatemybrandla

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30 Entrepreneurs Reveal The Book That Has Been the Biggest Catalyst for their Business

Sun, 05 Dec 2021 12:16:22 -0500

For a business owner or budding entrepreneur, books can be a life preserver. Of course, valuable lessons often come from doing. Business lessons can be learned by trial and error and by putting yourself out on the line. But the same lessons can also be had from a book. Reading about the errors and triumphs of other business leaders can prevent you from making mistakes and push you in the direction of success. Beyond lessons, a good business book can inspire you to lift your business to an even higher level. Below is a selection of business books chosen as favorites by entrepreneurs and business owners.

#1- E-Myth Mastery by Michael E. Gerber

Photo Credit: Kathryn Smithson

E-Myth Mastery: The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World-Class Company – Michael E. Gerber. This series discusses the fundamentals of establishing and running a business. I absolutely love this book because it delves into the difficulties of running a business once it has been officially launched and operating for some time. Michael's personal story of management failures and eventual recovery serves as an important lesson for business owners, as it infuses the entire book with loss and restoration emotions.

Thanks to Kathryn Smithson, PathSocial!

#2- The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

Photo Credit: Girish Redekar

Consistency is the key to success, and I've learned that from experience. If you want to understand why this is critical in business, why you need it, and how to be consistent, you should read Darren Hardy's final choice, the compound effect. I really like and recommend this book because of its straightforward message – multiply your success little by little. The author, Darren Hardy, is also the founder of Success Magazine, so you can be certain he has the winning formula for success!

Thanks to Girish Redekar, Sprinto!

#3- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

Photo Credit: Giuroiu Anton

One book that made me push through having my own business and still pursuing my passion in the architecture field is the book of the New York Times bestseller, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth entitled Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. In her book, she pointed out that the biggest secret in having a successful business is not talent and skills, but a special combination of passion and persistence called grit. This reminds me that as a founder, this requires endurance and your heart towards what you are doing, and it is enough to move forward and strive more.

Thanks to Giuroiu Anton, Homesthetics.net!

#4- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Photo Credit: Logan Mallory

It’s science fiction and (spoiler alert), the main character is a child prodigy/strategist that leads a team of his peers as they unknowingly save the world from aliens. It sounds juvenile, but that book taught me to think about leadership, self-reliance, and strategy. It was impactful to see the hero be someone I could relate to. Or, if you’d like a more adult answer – “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi. This book talks about how important an abundance mentality is – it helped me learn that the pie gets bigger as you help others. It’s a lesson I’m still actively learning, but I would love to have started earlier.

Thanks to Logan Mallory, Motivosity!

#5- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Photo Credit: Virginia Walton

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team was introduced to me when I was in middle management for a national bank. I saw how making a change could have such an enormous impact and it helped me strive to work on my own self-development. This journey not only helped me succeed in the corporate environment but helped me learn the value of service to others. In 2020, an opportunity was presented and I started my own coaching and speaking business.

Thanks to Virginia Walton, Virginia Walton!

#6- The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone

Photo Credit: Nancy Belcher

It gave me the most valuable piece of business advice I have ever received the fact that who you surround yourself with matters. After I took his advice and immersed myself in a community of like-minded people who are always striving to slay their goals, I saw massive movement in my business. Having that type of motivation around me in my daily life gave me the energy and passion I needed to stay driven. The people you hang
out with dramatically impact every aspect of your life, including your business.

Thanks to Nancy Belcher, Winona!

#7- Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life by Neil Strauss

Photo Credit: Chris Campbell

In starting my the company I took the lessons from this book to heart – to always be prepared for anything that might go sideways. Although I read this book years ago and though it's about how to prepare for emergencies like tornadoes and natural disasters, during the pandemic, it has really resonated with me again as an entrepreneur. The lessons in this book apply to doing business today, creating backup plans, anticipating different scenarios, planning in advance for when everything hits the fan.

Thanks to Chris Campbell, ReviewTrackers!

#8- Business Made Simple: 60 Days to Master Leadership, Sales, Marketing, Execution, Management, Personal Productivity and More by Donald Miller

Photo Credit: Karla Fernandes

I am creative, and like many others also full of ideas, with so many objectives, and was never able to know what should be the next step. I always believed that what was missing was drafting my day, I tried bullet journaling, daily planners, did talking with organizers, and after a decade of searching, I found this Business Made Simple. This book brought me clarity. It has taught me much about myself, about my business decisions, its purpose, and gave me the tools necessary to envision the future, think
with clarity, and know exactly what the next step should be.

Thanks to Karla Fernandes, Vitamina K!

#9-Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done Book by Lawrence Bossidy and Ram Charan

Photo Credit: Thomas Cafarella

I read Execution at a time when I wasn’t doing well in life. Execution isn’t a motivational book but strangely, I felt compelled to work and do better for myself after reading it. This is a book that goes beyond the soft skills required to be a leader. As the name suggests, it shows practical advice on leading through execution and how to incorporate a culture that revolves around getting things done in your company. The book puts the most focus on people as an objective, including their selection, training, and development, which is what I have also tried to inculcate in my company.

Thanks to Thomas Cafarella, Ocean City Development!

#10- Start With Why by Simon Sinek

Photo Credit: Eleni Polychroniadou

The most influential book for Sintali has been Simon Sinek's Start with Why book. It has helped us redefine how we talk to customers, how we prepare marketing copy, how we organize our sales pitch, and how we communicate. This book explains how human beings react to information and how it can be applied in the business context. When we were setting up the company, we used the Golden Circle principles received very positive feedback from prospects, partners, and clients on the end result. To this day, we continue to use the main principles as the foundation for all communication.

Thanks to Eleni Polychroniadou, Sintali Ltd!

#11- The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy

Photo Credit: Brady Bridges

This book is an old one, published back in 1963, yet it is amazing how timeless the book is. The author discussed both the spiritual and scientific aspects of our minds in this book. It allows you to think deeply and understand yourself. It empowers your inner self. Once you know how your mind works and how you can manipulate it for your betterment, you become more confident in reaching your goals. It is not just about helping yourself to work hard or reach goals; it helps you with a good lifestyle, better sleep, happiness, fears, and so on.

Thanks to Brady Bridges, Reside Real Estate!

#13- Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel

Photo Credit: Charles Cridland

This thought-provoking book written by a successful tech entrepreneur and investor focuses on business development and entrepreneurship and offers ideas and suggestions for technology startups. The author challenges common opinions on innovation and business success and argues that it starts by learning to ask the right questions that will lead you to find value in unexpected places. The book is meaningful because it contains valuable insights and takeaways and offers solid advice on starting a company, allowing readers to exercise critical thinking.

Thanks to Charles Cridland, Your Parking Space!

#14- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Maybe you can rattle off statistics to show how efficient your team is. Perhaps complaints are at an all-time low. That sounds great; it may even indicate that your business is in a growth cycle,

Now, let’s take a step back and look at some different statistics. How high is your churn rate? How many clients refer their friends or colleagues? If you have a high churn rate and a low referral rate, your low complaint rate is a bad thing.

These factors, examined as a whole, show that your company is in trouble. First, it shows that your clients are leaving without a word. Of more concern is why they don’t complain — they either don’t care enough to help you improve, or they feel that the situation is hopeless.

Would you like to turn things around?

The SupportYourApp team is eager to help you do so. They’ve compiled a list of common myths, misconceptions, and statistics to help you understand the intricacies of service delivery. They’ve also included several tips to improve your service going forward.

This five-minute read is packed with valuable statistics, helpful tips, and enough information to redefine your service strategy going forward.

IAM1210 – CEO Creates Online Courses For Her Clients

Sun, 05 Dec 2021 06:16:47 -0500

Dr. Destini Copp is a business and marketing coach who helps business owners scale their digital product revenue with automated sales funnels and reduce their reliance on services or freelance work.

She is a college marketing professor turned online entrepreneur and a wanna-be, Serena Williams-like, tennis player. She is the host of The Course Creator’s MBA Podcast and the Creator of The OneClick MBA membership.

CEO Story: Her passion in teaching and the dream of having her own business motivates the CEO to build her own personal brand by helping others create their own online courses and digital products.
Business Service: Online courses and memberships, automated sales funnels. It grew more as they listen to their customers asking them to make sales funnel for their own company.
Secret Sauce: Outsourcing for business and personal needs made a huge impact in my life. Freedom and flexibility is my core values in business.
CEO Hack: Making systems in the business and stay organized. I use Gmail Calendar, Asana, Trello, tracking systems that tracks the PR activities that we are doing. And having a standard operating procedure written down.
CEO NUGGET: Don’t worry about the small things like logo or colors. Customers care on how your products is going to help them and how it will enhance their life. Focus on marketing. Focus on building your own business assets – website, email list, the important is the amount of traffic in your website and how you are converting that traffic into paying customers.
CEO Defined: Enhancing the value in other people's life. Everything that we do enhances the business owners so that they can have that freedom and flexibility in their business.

Website: https://destinicopp.com

Book: https://destinicopp.com/book

LinkedIn: destinicopp

Instagram: destinicopp

Pinterest: destinicopp

Facebook: destinicopp

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE

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Why You Should Streamline your Business Processes

Sat, 04 Dec 2021 09:16:14 -0500

All firms are built on processes, which are tasks that a company has to carry out regularly and can be anything from generating reports to shipping a product.

How efficiently these processes are carried out, though, can be the key differentiator between a great and an average company.

By streamlining your business processes, you’re ensuring that each process is operating at peak efficiency, which can significantly boost company performance and productivity.

So in this article, we’ll see what business processes are and why you should streamline them.

What is a business process?

Business processes are a series of steps carried out by teams or individuals to accomplish specific business goals. It’s something that every company does, whether they deliberately create process workflows or not.

What makes a business process different from a task is that it’s repeatable and not a one-time thing.

For example, when hiring new staff, you interview them, make them sign a few documents, give them a tour of the office, and introduce them to other employees working in the company.

For each new hire, you go through more or less the same process (with a few variations if necessary).

The bad news is that some of a company’s processes are often inefficient and over-complicated for no reason. This can hinder the operations downstream and result in reduced productivity.

This is why making a deliberate effort to examine existing business processes and streamlining them using Apromore is vital to ensure your business stays competitive in today’s market.

Why You Should Streamline Your Business Processes: The Benefits

Every business aims to get the maximum return on invested capital. If you are looking to level up your business, here is how streamlining business processes can help you.

Enhances time management

Businesses often have limited time frames to complete tasks. By streamlining business processes, employees don’t need to wait for each other to complete interdependent tasks.

Instead of having to contact various departments, workers get real-time notifications about which tasks need to be executed.

Repetitive and tedious tasks like submitting documents or filling in forms can also be made less time-consuming by automating them.

Overall this can result in faster results, fewer mistakes, uniformity in processing, and more predictable business outcomes. Moreover, thanks to automation and reduced workload, workers can concentrate on more critical areas of business growth.

Lets you track processes more efficiently

Traditional workflows can be challenging to keep track of. It can be hard to tell if an individual has worked on a file after you’ve sent it to them. You will have to spend (read waste) time to reach out to their department to confirm the progress.

Streamlined workflows, on the other hand, are transparent and much easier to track. Once you make a request, you can easily track its progress at any time.

People overseeing the workflow can collect vital data such as the number of requests initiated, which ones got approved, and the involved expenses.

Better process tracking eliminates complacent employees, missed deadlines, low-quality work, and failure to meet industry guidelines.

Reduces the use of paper

Streamlining processes helps reduce the need to rely on printed hard copies. Automated systems can generate electronic reports that can be shared digitally.

This eliminates the need for paper and can help your business save a significant sum of money on office supplies like paper and ink in the long run. Many companies are now going green, and here’s how you can join them.

Using automatic data entry and processing can also reduce your workforce requirement. Moreover, documents processed digitally are usually far more accurate than manually filled papers.

Allows easy and secure file storage

Digital files are much easier to store and retrieve than hard copies. You can save them to the cloud and pull them remotely from any location at any time.

Electronic files are also easier to catalogue and keep track of. You can tell who created or edited a file and when.

Here are 6 smart ways to share files securely.

Helps identify and eliminate bottlenecks

Companies can operate for many years with undetected bottlenecks. Departments and workers often pass the blame on to each other, which can make pinpointing bottlenecks difficult.

But streamlining your business processes can help you figure out and locate the specific areas that are hindering efficiency.

You can then hold the right people accountable for drawbacks or motivate them to be more productive.

You can also identify redundancies and unnecessary tasks and simply get rid of them to eliminate the bottlenecks.

Prevents replication of roles

Businesses that haven’t streamlined their processes have a high likelihood of having workers interfering in each other’s roles and sometimes overlapping in terms of responsibilities.

This can result in similar processes producing varying outcomes and doubling the workload.

A central streamlined system stops this from happening by providing specific channels of information to all employees, preventing miscommunication and the replication of roles from occurring in the first place.

Helps you perform a better cost-benefit analysis

Business owners have to adapt their way of conducting business according to current market trends. But these changes come at a substantial cost, which is why owners need to be sure of the return on investment and whether adapting a change is worth it.

The same Business Process Management (BPM) software used to automate repetitive tasks can also be used to accurately measure the potential outcome of upgrading certain internal processes.

This allows you to observe the effects of adapting and improving a business process in real-time. The generated reports let you make a better cost-benefit analysis to help you decide whether changing a particular process is worthwhile.

Makes communication more effective

A completely centralised software program connecting the workforce can make communication a lot more easy, accurate, and efficient.

Your workers will no longer have to physically meet the HR or accounts team for small queries. They can simply forward documentation that needs approval to the necessary departments directly through the software.

Streamlined communication, therefore, allows each employee to stay closely connected with one another, saves time, and avoids the hassle of having to move around to pass a message.

Guest post courtesy of Rebecca Lee

IAM1209 – Female CEO Equips Young Aspiring Entrepreneurs with CEO Skills and Traits

Sat, 04 Dec 2021 06:16:33 -0500

Sylvia Scott is the founder and CEO of the Girls' C.E.O. Connection which she launched in 2009. Her passion is to help high school girls build bright and fulfilling self-sufficient futures. She wants to see independent thinking cultivated within a global community of young female entrepreneurs. Her goal for the Girls' C.E.O. Connection is to equip and motivate the girls with the skills and traits of accomplished women entrepreneurs. Sylvia's personal commitment is to expand opportunities for them within entrepreneurship. Sylvia is an Ambassador for WED/Women's® Entrepreneurship Day. From 2016 to 2020 she was an e-mentor for Afghan women entrepreneurs enrolled in the Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women's Peace Through Business® Program. She is also a business counselor with the Coachella Valley Women's Business Center.

CEO Story: Started as a conference, which developed into girls creating enterprise organization. Focusing on young women entrepreneurs mentoring and developing their skills.
Business Service: Coaching program for young women entrepreneurs, communicating to connect, and mentoring program.
Secret Sauce: I’d rather be connecting people and bringing people together. Maximizing the high school girls in reaching their visions.
CEO Hack: You really need to know yourself as a CEO. Highly recommended books – Now Discover Your Strength and The Tipping Point. I’m a connector and a maximizer – I like to bring people together and I like to take something that’s there, and make it extraordinary.
CEO NUGGET: Listening is the most important communication skill. You’re learning more when you listen.
Perseverance – when obstacles come your way.
CEO Defined: A leader, role model and visionary. CEO is the one that needs to engage, empower and motivate the entire team.

Website: https://www.girlsceoconnection.com

Realizing A Vision, Your Toolkit For Success. Words of Wisdom for Young Female Entrepreneurs:

https://www.girlsceoconnection.com/realizing-a-vision-the-book/

LinkedIn: sylviarjscott

Facebook: SylviaRJScott

Girls' CEO Connection:

Facebook: GirlsCEOConnection

Twitter: GirlsCEOConnect

YouTube: Girls CEO Connection

Pinterest: GirlsCEOConnect

Instagram: girlsceoconnection

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE

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30 Entrepreneurs Describe The Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) For Their Business

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 12:16:46 -0500

Have a goal that third parties think is impossible? Often entrepreneurs and business owners create their daily, weekly, quarterly or yearly goals around their business. It could be more revenue, hiring clients or launching a new product or service, where setting goals presents a fresh opportunity to achieve different objectives. Some of the goals may sound unrealistic or unachievable to someone but if you and your team believe in it, there’s no reason why you should not go for it.

We asked entrepreneurs to share their Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) and here are the insightful responses.

#1- Become a self-running machine

Photo Credit: Sergio Salazar

My BHAG is to have my business become a self-running machine. Right now, we have a great management staff but a lot of responsibilities still fall under me. Over the next few years, I hope to be able to step back and focus on other entrepreneurial endeavors while my business continues to grow and thrive, providing the same great customer experience.

Thanks to Sergio Salazar, Staylisted!

#2- Be the most downloaded app in the business category

#3- Increase the number of subscribers by 50%

Photo Credit: Dan Ni

My big hairy audacious goal is to increase the number of subscribers to my newsletter and clients by 50% of what they are now by the next year. And not only that, I want my company to go global by signing on more international brands.

Thanks to Dan Ni, Messaged!

#4- Find love for all my clients

Photo Credit: Sameera Sullivan

The Big Hairy Audacious goal for my business is to find love for all my clients. I have a team of recruitment experts who parse through the profiles of candidates and find the best match for the client according to their love type. Through my business, I want to add as much human element in the selection of a life partner as much as I can to be able to find successful matches. I'm focusing on quality, not quantity, and that defines my BHAG.

Thanks to Sameera Sullivan, Sameera Sullivan Matchmakers!

#5- Upgrade in the coming years

Photo Credit: Jonathan Tian

Our BHAG is to upgrade in the coming years. We have put a long-term goal of attaining the highest market capitalization, primarily focusing on our finances and management in a bid to achieve the highest market value and cap position. We are also planning to expand into a new geographic market, penetrate a new demographic, transfer to a new technology platform and put financing sources in place.

Thanks to Jonathan Tian, Mobitrix!

#6- Transform into a global business

Photo Credit: Stephen Curry

My BHAG is to transform my company into a global business by the end of 2022. This has challenged me to take new risks and investments that have helped put my business on the market and increase its sales. My employees have also been motivated to work on overtime shifts and sometimes during off days. Moving forward, I have exploited corporate technology which has proven to be more helpful by improving my data security, productivity and also increasing my revenue streams. The corporate has created e-commerce stores that enable sales teams to target a broader customer base, hence generating new sources of revenue.

Thanks to Stephen Curry, CocoSign!

#7- Double in size

Photo Credit: Deborah Sweeney

My BHAG for our company is to double in size in the next two years! I believe we are on the right track for this growth and I'm excited to keep hiring new talent to come join our incredible team!

Thanks to Deborah Sweeney, MyCorporation!

#8- Get celebrity endorsement

Photo Credit: Alex Buchnev

My BHAG is to become a brand profiting enough to hire a top celebrity that will endorse the company brand. For e-commerce businesses, exposure is everything. And top stars can give you that visibility. From their media followers alone to their loyal fans that are willing to check out what they endorse, everything can be converted to traffic and boost our sales.

Thanks to Alex Buchnev, Paddling Space!

#9- Complete digital transformation

Photo Credit: James Parsons

My Big Hairy Audacious Goal for my business is complete digital transformation, embracing multi-layered cybersecurity and innovative digital marketing solutions. Of course, content marketing still requires professional human writers. But with other business aspects (accounting, metric monitoring, etc.), I'm planning to go completely digital or automated to obtain accurate results and detect, resolve, and eliminate errors.

Thanks to James Parsons, Content Powered!

#10- Empower everyone to become a content creator

Photo Credit: Matthew Stormoen

My BHAG for my business is to empower everyone to become a content creator. Having worked in the digital marketing industry for the past 15 years, I’ve seen firsthand how the content creation process remains inefficient and difficult to sustain. My goal has always been to help marketers and companies generate content at scale quickly and efficiently by expanding their untapped content sources: their employees and their customers. This is why we developed our full-stack collective marketing platform. As such, I want my business to continue to grow so that we can make this kind of collective marketing possible for organizations, where everyone can be a content creator.

Thanks to Matthew Stormoen, Mobibi!

#11- Crash other competitors

Photo Credit: Alina Clark

Our BHAG is to crash other competitors in the niche. Having this BHAG inspires us to be constantly better than our competitors. We may not occupy a big market share, but we sure will give better services and better value to our customers. To think of it, having this goal in mind has created a strategic advantage for our business because it provides a focal point for everything that we do as a business, and how we handle our customers as a business.

Thanks to Alina Clark, CocoDoc!

#12- Digitize operations

Photo Credit: Peter Mann

My BHAG is to digitalize 98% of our services within a period of five years. This means that every service can then be ordered through an app, and the waiting time to not be longer than seven minutes. Complementary to this, I aspire to expand the business throughout a wide range of countries, including U.S. and Europe and also contribute to the overall goal of reducing global emissions by replacing cars which operate on fuels with electric cars.

Thanks to Peter Mann, SC Vehicle Hire!

#13- Scale into a leading tool

Photo Credit: Eden Cheng

My BHAG is to help scale this company into developing the world's number one people search service tool. And while our platform is currently limited to the United States, my goal is to expand our search algorithm and resource database into spanning the entire world, be it in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, etc. The idea that we may someday be able to scale our platform to help users find information on almost anybody in the world is absolutely exciting to think about and as audacious as the idea may be, I am truly determined to stomp out the competition and do my best to turn that goal into a reality.

Thanks to Eden Cheng, PeopleFinderFree!

#14- Have a highly skilled team

Photo Credit: Abe Breuer

I have always admired the adaptability of Amazon’s supply chain and the way they are able to cope with the immense changes as a company in a smooth fashion. So, my BHAG is to have a team of such skilled individuals along with the resources to be able to execute huge changes in my services without causing disruption in the existing channels.

Thanks to Abe Breuer, marketing never stands still, but thanks to the pandemic, the pace of change is accelerating as consumers and businesses alike adapt to a rapidly evolving marketplace environment. For 2022, these are the eight most important trends to consider in your marketing strategies and budgets.

1. SEO and user experience (UX) will be more closely linked

Google’s introduction of Core Web Vitals is the company’s most far-reaching initiative to factor UX into its search engine rankings. What this means is, business websites must deliver a high-quality user experience on desktops and mobile devices in addition to high-quality, optimized content. To improve SEO in 2022, technical website deficiencies such as slow page loading speed, shifting images, and delays in interaction response must be addressed. More generally, companies must cultivate a close working relationship between the SEO team and the web design and development team, involving both groups in the SEO campaign.

2. E-commerce will be everywhere

Pandemic lockdowns created widespread buyer enthusiasm for BOPIS — buy online, pick-up in store. Even though lockdowns have subsided, interest in BOPIS keeps rising. Why? Because even those buyers who distrusted and disliked e-commerce prior to COVID found BOPIS to be more convenient and cost-effective than in-store shopping and in some cases, home delivery. B2B and B2C enterprises with e-commerce capabilities will need to expand functionality in 2022 to keep pace with competitors; enterprises with no e-commerce capability will need to implement one if they serve markets where BOPIS has appeal.

3. Marketing and privacy must strike a new balance

Even though Google recently announced a delay in withdrawing support for third-party cookies in its Chrome browser, don’t assume that privacy issues are going away. Consumers and business buyers alike have deeply rooted concerns about how their private information is collected, stored, and used. In addition, email spam, phishing schemes, and sensational, widely reported incidents of large-scale security breaches and ransomware attacks contribute to a digital marketplace where legitimate email and paid search advertising campaigns are viewed with suspicion. Digital marketing campaigns of any kind must go the extra mile in 2022 to implement user-friendly privacy policies and communicate them broadly, clearly, and frequently. Without doing so, establishing the trust necessary for lead generation or online revenue growth will be next to impossible.

4. Keep your marketing moving by going mobile-first

Only a few years ago, mobile marketing was a mere afterthought for the majority of B2Bs and even many B2Cs. However, mobile Internet access has reached the point where mobile-first marketing is the best strategic option for a substantial number of companies regardless of what they sell. In 2022, optimizing website content and UX for mobile users should be among the highest priorities, especially for businesses that serve local markets, have an SEO campaign underway, or already have a high percentage of mobile website traffic.

5. Headless commerce goes hand-in-hand with omnichannel marketing

Headless commerce, separating the front end of e-commerce applications from the back end, began trending in 2021. Headless commerce enables companies to modify user interface design and content quickly and inexpensively, making displaying different storefronts on their websites, social media platforms and third-party websites easy while keeping fulfillment and analytics centralized behind the scenes. Headless commerce strongly supports omnichannel marketing by enabling companies to present a consistent brand and robust shopping experience across all platforms. These are powerful capabilities that your competitors will be trying to exploit in 2022 — at your expense if you allow them.

6. Chatbots won’t stop talking

You’ve probably noticed chatbots cropping up in your travels across the web, and that is no accident. A chatbot is a form of AI that improves website UX, pleases customers, encourages conversions, and liberates customer service teams to focus on more urgent and complex customer issues. In 2022, website visitors will most likely prefer doing business with a chatbot-enabled company than one without this capability, making next year the right year to introduce chatbots or refine and expand their use.

7. Event marketing will be a real and virtual blend

We all hope live events make a big comeback in 2022, but whatever the environment may be from a health and wellness perspective, a significant segment of the population will prefer attending events virtually rather than in person, whether due to health concerns, convenience, or a limited travel budget. Consequently, firms must tightly integrate the virtual experience with in-person meetings, seminars, tradeshows, and social events. This requires a deep look at virtual meeting technologies, training virtual event hosts, and developing post-event communication techniques to keep live and virtual attendees engaged.

8. Uncompromising flexibility will be the key to a successful strategy

Whatever your marketing strategy looks like going into 2022, make sure it is flexible. We’re experiencing a high degree of uncertainty now, with respect to supply chain stability, pandemic lockdown potential, market volatility, and a host of other political and economic issues. Business may be strong or weak across the board next year, or, as in 2021, verticals may experience widely divergent levels of success depending on short-term marketplace conditions. Meet regularly with your marketing team to make sure goals, budgets, and the overall strategy are consistent with what you expect in the current and next quarter. Embracing change will be the key to great marketing execution.

Author bio

Brad Shorr is Director of Content Strategy at Straight North, a Chicago-based Internet marketing company that specializes in SEO. With decades of marketing, sales, and management experience, Shorr has written for leading online publications including Forbes and Entrepreneur, and for the American Marketing Association.

IAM1208 – Female Mixologist Brings in Top Trending Mixes to Bar and Restaurants

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 08:43:17 -0500

Brooke Brown is a female entrepreneur in the DMV area. She is the mid-atlantic battle of the bottle Champion (mixology competition). Her business Top Shelf Mixology, Mixology & Bar Consulting offers alcohol certification, mixology classes, bartending services and bar consulting.

CEO Story: Grew up in a restaurant industry, doing a pack full of mixology classes with her dad. Until taking it on her own down the road, which spiraled, from something so small built up and it exploded.
Business Service: Mixology classes with menus that are up to the trends in the current market, consultancy for restaurants & distilleries, and bartenders for

Listen to the full podcast. This is Originally posted here.

How Real Estate Entrepreneurs Use Data to Inform Investments

Thu, 02 Dec 2021 09:16:01 -0500

Successful real estate investments often require investors to make well-informed decisions quickly. The property market can change rapidly, and savvy investors need to be able to adapt and move with those changes quickly.

In today’s fast-paced, highly digitized world, there are many useful tools and resources available for real estate entrepreneurs, to assist them in making calculated decisions backed by data. This is where the use of Big Data for the purpose of Predictive Analysis comes in.

Predictive analysis for real estate investors

Predictive analysis is the term used to describe the analysis of data to predict future patterns and trends. Technology can select patterns from data to predict occurring trends, and while it’s not an exact science, it can provide investors with a reliable forecast of future data when it comes to property market trends.

Choosing the best location

One of the most crucial aspects of successful property investing is choosing the right location. Many websites use big data to provide investors with invaluable location insights, and some even publish up-to-the-minute maps that summarize the current data for a particular area. These maps make it easy to compare areas based on their median house prices or their return on investment (ROI), for example. These ‘heat maps’ enable real estate investors to focus on the most profitable neighborhoods by analyzing data such as property prices, rental incomes, ROI rates, occupancy rates, and more.

The value of analyzing non-traditional data

Along with the more conventional data, there is now an increased amount of analysis that utilizes unconventional data sources. Some of these non-traditional data variables can be used by investors to glean a clearer picture regarding an area’s potential and opportunities, as well as any calculable risks. Such variables could include:

The area’s crime statistics
The number of grocery stores in proximity
The number of accessible gas stations
The average rating of local eateries and other services
Demographic information – such as the average age, marital status, and educational level of the area’s inhabitants

Finding the best rental property

Savvy real estate investors are using statistical data to determine not only the best location to invest in, but what type of property will be the most lucrative investment in a particular area.

Predictive analysis of both residential and commercial property data gives investors insight into what properties are the most popular in a given area, and which will return the greatest profits. Depending on the demographics of an area, the best ROIs can be found in vastly differing property types. For example, some areas are favored by young professionals who want convenience and prefer condo living, while other areas are particularly popular with families, in which case two or three-bedroom family homes could achieve the best returns.

Using predictive data analysis also allows investors to consider the long-term possibilities for the property and strategize accordingly. What are the projected numbers for population increase for the area? Will the majority of the area’s residents change in average age or other demographic stats? Are there any significant regeneration works in the pipeline and will they change the rental landscape in the coming years? These are just some of the questions that real estate entrepreneurs need to ask when assessing an area for investment, and data analysis can assist with this. Property investment is typically a long game, so considering any longer-term predictive data analysis is key for a solid investment.

Final thoughts

Analyzing real-time data and predictive analysis is allowing real estate investors to make more informed decisions than ever before. While no one has a crystal ball and unexpected market fluctuations can occur, big data is making it possible for considerably reliable information to be used to make calculated investments.

Big data is transforming the way real estate investments are considered. With access to information that differentiates areas and properties based on small but crucial data, investors are better armed than ever to take far more calculated risks and predict the future cash flow opportunities of investments. The extent of data available today is allowing for opportunity analysis and ROI predictions to be broken down by the street, never mind the suburb. While this analysis relies on accurate data, the availability of both residential and commercial property data has never been greater, and analytical technology is constantly evolving and improving.

The future of savvy real estate investment is certainly in the hands of predictive data analysis.

Guest post courtesy of Denise Langenegger

IAM1207 – CEO Helps Small Business Entrepreneurs Grow through Great Marketing

Thu, 02 Dec 2021 09:04:17 -0500

Amie Thompson is an executive, investor, mentor, and leader and the current President & CEO of Creative Allies, a minority-certified marketing firm for entrepreneurs. Her company offers a wide range of marketing services to grow our client's brand. Creative Allies creates best practices from the lessons learned over its 10-year history to connect our clients with buyers, fans, and followers to enhance the brand story. Amie's passion is helping other business owners grow their businesses through great marketing.

CEO Story: Started investing in a company along with my partners, over time, there was an opportunity to lead the company, so I

Listen to the full podcast. This is Originally posted here.

The post IAM1207 – CEO Helps Small Business Entrepreneurs Grow through Great Marketing appeared first on Black Disruptor.

IAM1206- Founder Helps People Find Worth in Recovery

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 12:57:08 -0500

Stephen Deason is Founder and CEO of the OPA RASA Group, LCC, a Social Enterprise helping people find worth in Recovery, and Executive Chairman of the OPA RASA Foundation.
Stephen was previously CEO of GRYTT, a Socially Conscious Marketing Technology firm and held other C-level positions in previous technology companies. Stephen is an active volunteer who sits on four non-profit boards and the advisory board of two start up technology and telecommunications firms.
Stephen holds both an MBA and MSc in Accounting from Emory University, a BSc in Mathematics from UAB, and an ABD-PhD in Business from Emory University’s Laney Graduate School.

Listen to the full podcast. This is Originally posted here.

The post IAM1206- Founder Helps People Find Worth in Recovery appeared first on Healthy CEO.

25 Entrepreneurs Explain How They Shatter Their Business Goals

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 12:16:29 -0500

Often entrepreneurs and business owners create their daily, weekly, quarterly, or yearly goals around their business. It could be more revenue, hiring clients, or launching a new product or service, where setting goals presents a fresh opportunity to achieve different objectives. It’s not always rosy achieving them due to challenges that may present themselves or other opportunities that distract you from the main goals.

We asked entrepreneurs to share their best ways of shattering their goals and here’s what works for them.

#1- Focusing on customers demand

Photo Credit: Keenan Beavis

Setting business goals based on the demands of your consumers is a sound strategy. Consider your audience's needs and what you can do to help them. Determine how much time and resources you have available to meet your audience's needs. You'll be able to set attainable objectives that will keep you on your toes this way. Your product's features, onboarding, communication, customer support, and more can constantly be improved. Observe what your customers are saying on social media. You'll be inspired to perform better by their feedback and pain points.

Thanks to Keenan Beavis, Longhouse Media!

#2- Understanding the purpose of each goal

Photo Credit: Gavin Johnson

Ask yourself who will benefit from the aim. If the objective will benefit just you, search your heart for if the goal can be adjusted to benefit other people. Come up with goals based on the data you have at the present and not just wishful thinking. The goals should be feasible and assured to happen and ready for a probable catastrophe in case of an emergency. At the end of the day, it should be a mix of having unselfish aims and pushing more people to exceed their limits to aim for having the best of both worlds.

Thanks to Gavin Johnson, EV Cable Shop!

#3- Delegating work

Photo Credit: Hays Bailey

Shattering company objectives is required for every firm to take flight. The best way to do so, in my opinion, is to practice proper delegation. There is nothing wrong with letting others handle a particular task if you know that doing so will help you achieve your goals faster. I have accepted that delegation is something I must learn to embrace there are things I cannot handle all by myself. I ask and accept help from other people if that means I am going to be a step closer to shattering those goals I have set.

Thanks to Hays Bailey, Sheqsy!

#4- Recognizing achievements

Photo Credit: Mellanie Ullrich

I believe, even little victories should be celebrated during the goal attainment process. By rejoicing, you are honoring the work that has gone into your accomplishment while also encouraging yourself to keep moving forward toward your objective. You'll be able to more effectively follow through with your long-term objectives, while also taking modest steps toward accomplishment each day when you follow this effective goal-setting method to meet all your business-related objectives.

Thanks to Mellanie Ullrich, Lashfridays!

#5- Tracking achieved tasks

Photo Credit: Lattice Hudson

When I design my goals and set a guided list for myself to work towards it slowly but surely. A very handy tactic in this respect is also keeping a log of all the tasks that are
achieved over time as it gives you the validation of knowing you are capable of fulfilling your goals even when you are having a bad day. Always keep in mind that you have the option to reset and start over again if things don’t seem to be working with one method. There is never a singular way to do things, give yourself the leverage to find the path that best suits you.

Thanks to Lattice Hudson, Lattice & Co!

#6- Leveraging your power hour

Photo Credit: Logan Mallory

I shatter my business goals by working during my personal power hour. Everyone has a different time of day where they are most productive. Instead of just working the same way throughout the day, take advantage of your personal power hour. Protect it by blocking off your calendar. Prioritize your toughest projects for that time of day. Use that time to dream big. Leveraging your power hour is key to staying productive! My personal power hour is late in the evening, I can get more done between 9:30-11:00 p.m. than almost any other time of the day.

Thanks to Logan Mallory, Motivosity!

#7- Structuring the day

Photo Credit: Mark Pierce

Breaking up your day into different focus blocks helps you stay productive and makes it easier to work towards your goals. Have a block for answering emails and Slack messages, a block for meetings and phone calls, and a block for deep work. This gives your day structure and ensures that you maintain productivity throughout your day rather than getting sidetracked by things that aren’t necessarily urgent but simply pop up.

Thanks to Mark Pierce, Wyoming Trust & LLC Attorney!

#8- Taking consistent actions

Photo Credit: Justin Nabity

I take daily steps toward the ultimate goal with what CAN I do mentally. Even if making a decision is difficult, staying indecisive is considerably worse. As a result, taking one small step is preferable to taking no steps at all. I also have a great support network that I tap into when I require assistance. We make connections and form partnerships so that we might assist one another in reaching greater heights of accomplishment. Goals are attained and lessons are acquired through remaining active.

Thanks to Justin Nabity, Physicians Thrive!

#9- Having a hardworking team

Photo Credit: Sharafudhin Mangalad

If I focus on my vision, nothing will stand in my way of getting closer to it. In addition to smart work, I work hard to shatter my business goals. This way, I complete more work within a minimum duration. Moreover, by working hard, I expect a minimum 50% increase in production. I have a hardworking team, having a good work ethic, and a commitment to putting my goals into action. Overall, the hard work of my team and me help me shatter my business goals.

Thanks to Sharafudhin Mangalad, Edoxi!

#10- Always remember ‘WHY'

Photo Credit: Seb Evans

Don’t be afraid to dream big. It’s always smart to set realistic business goals, but if you really want to exceed your expectations you need to think outside the box. First, identify the “why” behind your goal. Then, plan for the entire year. Set mini-goals that you can accomplish each month, as well as a large annual goal. Be willing to make adjustments along the way if need be, but always keep your “why” in mind.

Thanks to Seb Evans, Banquist!

#11- Monitoring your goals

Photo Credit: Sal
Damiata

I use a life vision to keep me motivated during low moments. This is both in the form of pictures of desired goals and written texts. I make sure to always put those in parts of my room that are well-noticeable. We know that we're the average of the people we spend the most time with, that's also true in business. I use 3 different types of project management tools: 1 a to-do list, 2: a focus matrix, 3: Gannt timeline. That helps me see my goals from micro and macro perspectives and allows a more granular approach to goal shattering.

Thanks to Sal Damiata, Attraction Truth!

#12- Never give up

Photo Credit: Sam Shepler

I can safely say I shatter my business goals by not giving up every time I mess something up. Of course, just like all other entrepreneurs in the world, I make mistakes and bad decisions quite often, but instead of regretting my actions and focusing on the bad things, I acknowledge what I did wrong, get at least one positive thing out of it. I always keep in mind that it's practically impossible to crush your business goals on the very first try because, after all, you'll need both hard works and failure to achieve them.

Thanks to Sam Shepler, Testimonial Hero!

#13- Setting realistic deadlines

Photo Credit: Brogan Renshaw

I set deadlines to motivate and keep me on track in achieving my business goals. Putting a concrete deadline on what I want to achieve keeps me on my toes and discourages me from slacking off on my action plan. Slacking off is the deathbed of goals and milestones, and deadlines make sure you are rerouted from it. However, note that it is important to set realistic deadlines so as not to put unnecessary pressure on you and your team, which will be counterproductive.

Thanks to Brogan Renshaw, Firewire Digital!

#14- Setting S.M.A.R.T goals

Photo Credit: Brandon Amoroso

It's good to be ambitious with your goals, but don't be unrealistic. Start by setting S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Sensitive) goals. These

How to Measure, Improve and Scale your Diversity Recruiting Program

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 09:16:31 -0500

Among the many workplace shifts brought about by the pandemic, diversity and inclusion efforts have been dramatically affected. Many women were forced to quit finding themselves in caregiver roles, both for their children and older relatives. Additionally, jobs held by members of marginalized groups are being eliminated disproportionately.

This is especially concerning when you consider the vast benefits of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. In fact, research has shown that more diverse companies are more profitable, have a better reputation, and are more productive on a team level.

If your company is serious about competing for talent and customers, then ensuring you have a diverse and inclusive workplace should be a top priority. The first step comes through adequate measuring.

How to Measure Your Diversity Recruiting Program

While it’s easy to think of diversity recruiting in terms of quotas, if you truly want to transform your workplace, there should be more in-depth measurements to truly measure the success of your initiatives.

Track Demographic Data Across the Hiring Timeline

For starters, you’ll want to pay close attention to your acquisition metrics. While many recruiters only track time-to-hire, this metric lacks the nuance needed to create a competitive hiring funnel. In addition to recording data at each step of the hiring timeline––from sourcing to sign-on––you’ll also want to pay attention to demographics.

By auditing the data at every stage of your hiring funnel, you might discover that certain steps in the recruiting process result in a disproportionate loss of candidates from certain groups. Knowing this will allow you to address these issues accordingly.

Ask for Candidate Feedback

Another key piece of diversity recruitment will be how you solicit feedback from candidates. Naturally, the way your recruiting process impacts candidates is vital to your success, but you’ll want to also pay attention to any disparities in experience among different demographics.

Never forget that interview culture impacts the perception of your company. If your company becomes known for recruiting practices that disenfranchise certain groups, then this can harm the greater affinity for your company, in addition to impeding inclusion efforts.

Consider Sourcing Metrics

In accordance with efforts to broaden your sourcing outlets to previously untapped events and web portals, you’ll want to pay careful attention to which ones bring about successful candidates.

By tracking numbers of contacts, applications, and people who successfully onboard, you’ll be able to figure out which places offer you the best ROI, specifically when measuring diversity.

How to Improve Your Diversity Recruiting Program

Like any aspect of your business, diversity recruiting initiatives can always be refined. To begin to improve your diversity recruiting program, you’ll have to identify and address any existing challenges and biases in your current process.

Some ideas to consider:

Create clear hiring practices: Unfortunately, some individuals struggle to tolerate people of different backgrounds. To address this, you’ll want to implement clear and easy to follow anti-discrimination practices for every stage of the hiring funnel that result in positive candidate experiences.
Communicate your commitment to diversity: Great employer branding is key to a successful diversity recruiting program. Many companies omit or under communicate their commitment to diversity on public facing materials such as the company website. Be sure to audit all materials a candidate will see and look for ways to describe the exact efforts your company has undertaken to support diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Train on cultural norms: Different cultures have different forms of etiquette and values in the workplace. To overcome any issues arising from cultural misunderstandings, consider training your team on the differences that exist among these cultures. This doesn’t mean put in a mundane video. You could get creative here and allow employees to explain their own cultures. This can be a great exercise to not only learn about different cultures but also unite the team.
Utilize software: To create, measure and improve DEI initiatives, you should consider using software. DEI-specific Technology can allow you to gather and analyze demographic data of candidates through every stage of the recruitment process.

How to Scale Your Diversity Recruiting Program

In order to scale your DEI initiatives, that is, increase their success and influence throughout your company, you’ll need to plan carefully–first understanding the current state of your demographic metrics and figuring out how to assess them accurately going forward.

Many companies opt for a dedicated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) leader. These directors and coordinators will oversee the development and implementation of programs and services that promote diversity, both during the hiring process and in the day-to-day life of team members.

Because Talent Acquisition, HR and DEI leaders are increasingly asking for insights into the diversity of their workforce, a strategy that is particularly useful for mid-market and enterprise businesses is to introduce automated analysis of your people data for instant insights. To do this, you’ll want to seek out the expertise of Included.

Author bio

Laura Close, Co-Founder of Included, a high-growth SaaS startup pioneering the DEI tech market. She is passionate about helping companies meet and exceed their diversity hiring, retention, and leadership goals.

Included gives companies the information they need to create an equitable and inclusive hiring process. Included uses AI to analyze the hiring funnel and instantly delivers dashboard, reporting, and trend analysis to help leaders to take action and define the steps that can create improvement.

IAM1205- Podcasts Host Runs a Private Home Health-care Company

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 12:46:48 -0500

Ryan is the owner of Minute Women Home Care, a private home health care company located in Lexington, MA 6 miles outside of Boston. Established in 1969, Ryan bought the company from his Aunt in 2011 and has been focused on growing his business. Ryan is also on the board of directors for the National Aging In Place Council, a non-profit which helps connect seniors to proper senior care services. Ryan host two podcasts, The Caregiver Toolbox, and Conversation with Tara and Ryan. In his free time, Ryan enjoys golf, snowboarding and spearfishing.

CEO Hack: Focusing on productivity systems and habits
CEO

Listen to the full podcast. This is Originally posted here.

The post IAM1205- Podcasts Host Runs a Private Home Health-care Company appeared first on Healthy CEO.

5 Debunked Myths and Misconceptions About Affiliate Marketing

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 09:16:42 -0500

Affiliate marketing is taking the United States by storm. Some estimates suggest that affiliate marketing spending will reach in excess of $8.2bn by 2022. That’s an increase of more than $2.5bn from only 2017.

What can you take from this information?

The prevailing opinion seems quite clear. The numbers suggest that merchants think affiliate marketing is a great way to advertise their products. They’re willing to spend big on this strategy.

From a marketing perspective, it appears that there’s a great opportunity to make some serious profits if you’re smart about things. Of course, that’s where the water begins to get a bit murky—where money is involved.

Many people unknowingly spread misconceptions about affiliate marketing, because it’s such an attractive prospect on the face of things. There’s plenty of reason to invest your time and energy into affiliate marketing, yes. But to make a success of things, either as a merchant or a marketer, you need to dispel any myths you’ve come to accept as truths.

Before you start your next affiliate program or brand ambassador search, get up to speed on the myths and misconceptions commonly attached to affiliate marketing.

But first…

What is Affiliate Marketing?

To grasp the misunderstandings attached to affiliate marketing, you need to start with the basics.

Plenty of people have heard something about affiliate marketing before, but often, it’s only a few loose details. Just enough to misconstrue what’s really going on.

Simply put, affiliate marketing is where a marketer promotes the products of a merchant in return for a small commission fee.

With affiliate marketing, you have three parties involved:

The merchant
The affiliate marketer
The consumer

The Affiliate Marketing Process

Essentially, the merchant creates a product before making an agreement with the affiliate marketer to promote that product on their blog or site. Marketers produce content related to the product and place their affiliate links in their work.

When a consumer moves through the order to cash process, purchasing the product having clicked on that link, the affiliate marketer earns a commission. Some affiliate agreements will have commission based on click-throughs, notably.

Now, if you’re wondering how to get affiliates for your product, that’s a straightforward enough query. For merchants and marketers, affiliate agreements are most easily found through affiliate networks.

Image Source

Affiliate Networks

An affiliate network is an intermediary service between marketers and merchants. Such networks make it easier for merchants and affiliate marketers to find each other.

From a marketer’s perspective, there is usually a wide array of affiliate programs to choose from that are relevant to their niche. For merchants, there are countless numbers of marketers and publishers that might be interested in promoting your product.

Generally speaking, a merchant creates an affiliate program for interested marketers. This program lays out the various terms and commission agreements related to product promotion.

The conditions of the program will often vary from one product type to the next. It makes sense that an affiliate program that seeks out software tester expertise might vary from one where children review toys, for example.

With this information, you have a basic understanding of affiliate marketing. But what about some of the misinformation you might have come across before now? It’s time to bust those myths.

Debunking 5 Damaging Myths And Misconceptions

There’s a raft of marketers and merchants out there, rubbing their hands at the prospect of using affiliate programs to make some serious money.

Yes, there’s a fabulous opportunity for a mutually beneficial relationship here. Even so, there are numerous misconceptions that you’d do well to forget about. Here are the five worst myths that need to be debunked.

1. The Market is Already Too Saturated

This is a concern that we hear all the time. It’s true that affiliate marketing has exploded in popularity over the last few years.

This means that the broader markets that you might operate in are going to be very competitive. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t valid opportunities for you to carve out a space for yourself.

Typically, affiliate marketers who are struggling to make headway are taking the wrong approach. They’re trying to grab the attention of too broad an audience. The most effective way to get attention is through aggressively targeting a niche within a wider market.

Find a topic that fits with your expertise—hopefully, something that interests you—and go with it. Market gaps exist, you simply have to find angles that other marketers haven’t thought of already.

Remember to examine the associated keywords for your niche to find out what might be most profitable.

Image Source

2. High Volume Website Traffic is All That Matters

For an affiliate website, the number of visitors received is important. That’s a truth that rings true for all affiliate sites. Yet, the volume of website traffic you receive isn’t the only factor in the success of your approach.

Far more important than the number of visitors is the quality of visitors. It’s always important to remember that a higher volume of traffic doesn’t always translate to more sales.

The effectiveness of certain affiliate marketing traffic sources is ultimately down to how well they convert. If you’re getting a good amount of traffic, but you’re not getting click-throughs leading to sales, it’s time to re-evaluate things.

You can assess the quality of the traffic that your website is receiving to determine where you might be struggling.

Learning about the keywords that you’re integrating into content—and the type of traffic they produce—can be particularly enlightening. Analyzing your site’s technical performance—think about load times, bugs, display issues, and so on—is another critical task.

Optimizing your site’s content and design to receive the right traffic is what actually matters.

3. Achieving Affiliate Marketing Success is Quick and Easy

If your position is that affiliate marketing is easy, quick, and allows you to make profits effortlessly, you’re not the only one.

But the sad fact is that this is far from the truth.

Many people agree that to reach the top of the relevant search results, you’re going to need months, and sometimes more than a year. That hardly sounds like a get-rich-quick opportunity, does it?

The most effective affiliate sites offer value for consumers through content. That isn’t possible without focus and dedication. Finding fresh content ideas that will matter to your audience requires insightful research. Something that isn’t achievable on a whim. Showing your expertise over time, through consistent content production, is your best bet.

You might also need to explore innovative strategies to set yourself apart. Some affiliate sites are using .ai domain names (Anguilla-based domains) due to artificial intelligence associations with the abbreviation. For certain software products, this can act as a decent hook to grab visitors’ attention.

The time-tested approach pays dividends in the long run, certainly, but it’s not quick and it’s not easy.

4. Consumers Are Reluctant to Buy Through Affiliates

This is a total myth, and one that scares many people away from affiliate marketing altogether.

It’s true that many consumers do not like to be sold to. Hard selling causes discomfort for many consumers and could turn them away from a product that they would otherwise have bought.

The perception that many consumers have is that, if you’re trying to sell forcefully, desperately even, then it’s all about the money. It’s not about making a good recommendation. Needless to say, this is a major turn-off for people who are seeking guidance.

Consumers need to be able to trust your expertise. If you make an earnest attempt to recommend products and services which fill a need and perform well, consumers will respond in kind.

You should always be clear about the possibility that you’ll earn a small commission, too. Dishonesty is the most effective way to undermine your affiliate business in the long run. Otherwise, however, you shouldn’t have any issues.

5. Affiliate Marketing Gets You Rich Through Passive Income

This is the primary reason that people become interested in affiliate marketing as a money-making scheme. They’ve heard about websites sprouting up and delivering passive income to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Making a fortune without having to lift a finger, sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it is too good to be true.

You often see people asking “how much do affiliate marketers make?”–and it’s a fair query. Nobody is suggesting that there isn’t an excellent opportunity to make money through affiliate programs. In fact, some affiliate businesses manage to make millions. But many affiliate marketers do not make that much, and truly passive income is rarely possible.

Only once you manage to establish real authority in your niche will the pressure begin to dissipate. At that point, you can begin to take your foot off the pedal, but the income is never going to be entirely passive.

Retaining a loyal user base that values your opinion requires you to keep creating value-packed content. If you behave too passively, you risk the success of your business.

Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash

Quashed: The Most Harmful Affiliate Marketing Myths

It’s tempting to think of affiliate marketing as a way to get rich without much effort. It’s equally tempting to throw in the towel because you feel markets are stuffed full of competitors.

Yet, both of these instincts are harmful to your future prospects. There’s a good probability that you can attain a fine income with affiliate marketing, as long as you bear in mind that:

Income is not truly passive, it requires work.
Website traffic quality matters more than quantity.
Commission transparency is essential.

With these insights, success awaits you.

Author Bio:

Sam O’Brien

Sam O’Brien is the Chief Marketing Officer for Affise—a Global SaaS Partner Marketing Solution and industry leader for AI affiliate marketing. He is a growth marketing expert with a product management and design background. Sam has a passion for innovation, growth, and marketing technology. Here is his LinkedIn.

Monday Motivation: KEEP FIGHTING – Motivational Speech

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 09:16:56 -0500

This motivational video is to help CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners start the week off inspired to become great.

Here are some takeaways from the video:

The best revenge is massive success
It's possible to live your dream
Have the vision and never give up
It's necessary to have a plan of action
It's not over until you win

The post Monday Motivation: KEEP FIGHTING – Motivational Speech appeared first on Hearpreneur.

IAM1204- Founder Provides Marketing and Public/media Exposure

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 06:16:12 -0500

Patricia is the Founder and President of Pristine Advisers, a leading investor relations/public relations/media relations and marketing firm. She has been heavily involved with working with Board Members, Hedge Funds, Corporations and Investment Advisors through her business. I has been in the IR/PR industry for over 33 years working for firms such as Handy & Harman, Citigate Dewe Rogerson and The Altman Group and has been heavily involved in IR/PR/Marketing/Media Relations/Raising Capital/Hedge Funds/BDCs/MLPs/ETFs and CEFs as well as Corporations and Individuals. She's a member of the Farmingdale Chamber of Commerce, has been featured in and on multiple magazines and newspapers and won many awards for her work. She brings a high level of professionalism and excellent interpersonal skills to her work.

CEO Hack: I talk to everybody and look forward to help and learn from them
CEO Nugget: Treat your company as a baby, be honest and do the best you can
CEO Defined: Growing up your baby

Website: https://www.pristineadvisers.com/

Wikitia – https://wikitia.com/wiki/Patricia_Baronowski-Schneider
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/user/PristineAdvisers/videos
Vimeo – https://www.youtube.com/user/PristineAdvisers/videos
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/1674911/admin/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciabaronowski/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/PristineAdvisers?sk=wal
Twitter – https://twitter.com/pristineadvise1
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/pristine_advisers/
Blogs – https://pristineadvisers.medium.com

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE

The post IAM1204- Founder Provides Marketing and Public/media Exposure appeared first on I AM CEO Podcast.

A How-to Guide On Achieving Your Team’s Goals

Sun, 28 Nov 2021 09:16:06 -0500

Achieving team goals isn’t easy. When pressure starts piling up and you’re not seeing any results, it can be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But it’s possible to take steps to ensure your team succeeds and hits their goals. Follow these five best practices to achieve your team goals time and time again.

1. Set Goals and Establish Benchmarks

It may sound obvious, but the first step in achieving your team’s goals is to set them. But that’s easier said than done. So often, teams set vague goals to “increase sales” or “bring in more leads.” These types of unfocused goals will lead to unfocused teams and disappointing results.

Many business professionals use the SMART goals framework to create effective, purpose-driven goals. SMART goals are:

Specific: Do you know exactly what steps to take?
Measurable: Will you know when you’ve accomplished the goal?
Achievable: Is this a realistic expectation?
Relevant: How does this goal contribute to your business’s wider purpose?
Time-bound: Do you have a deadline for your goal?

For example, let’s say your marketing team has a broad goal to bring in more leads. A SMART version of that goal might be:

Use PPC and LinkedIn ads to bring in 20 qualified leads in April.

This goal is specific because it identifies the exact channels the marketing team will use to generate leads. It’s measurable because it gives a quantifiable number to reach. It’s achievable because it’s based on their past performance. It’s relevant because it contributes to the company’s goal of sourcing high-quality leads. And finally, it’s time-bound, because it must be achieved by the end of April. Set SMART goals to start seeing results in your business.

2. Practice Good Communication

Once you set your goals, the most important thing you’ll need to do is practice good communication. You can have the SMARTest goals and most capable team members in the world, but if you don’t communicate well, your efforts won’t succeed.

Start by clearly communicating each goal to your team. Each team member should understand the “why” behind the goal — what’s the point? How will it advance the company’s mission or vision? Team members will be much more invested in reaching a goal when they internalize its larger purpose.

Next, assign responsibilities to each team member. To avoid letting tasks fall through the cracks, make sure each team member understands their part in the larger picture. That way, if something doesn’t get done, team members can identify the gap in the process and fix it.

On the technology side, invest in communication tools like business chat, internal IMs, or virtual meeting spaces to allow team members to easily stay in touch at all times. Encourage team members to ask for help, work through problems, and get feedback from their peers.

Above all, you should strive to create an environment where employees feel comfortable bringing up concerns and identifying problems. Celebrate wins, check in regularly, and be available when your team needs you. Good communication is at the heart of team success.

3. Keep a Schedule

To keep your team on track while achieving your goals, use a schedule maker or shared calendar. If possible, choose a centralized schedule or calendar that updates across all platforms and is visible to everyone on the team.

Using a schedule will allow each individual team member to keep track of their responsibilities while also keeping tabs on the overall progress of the team. You’ll cut down on silos, increase visibility, and encourage more collaboration. Team leaders will better understand the workload on each employee’s plate and distribute or redistribute tasks accordingly.

Schedules also provide a good benchmark for quickly assessing the progress toward your goal. By glancing at the schedule or calendar, you can easily see if tasks are behind, ahead, or stalled. You can then take appropriate action to address the situation. Ensure smoother operations and level up your business with a shared schedule.

4. Discover Each Team Member’s Strengths

Teams succeed when each team member can use their unique skills and talents to shine. A long-term way to ensure you achieve your team’s goals is to foster growth and better teamwork by discovering and encouraging each team member’s strengths.

There are dozens of ways to test for your employee’s strengths. Personality assessments like the Myers-Briggs or DISC help identify working styles. You can also use coaching assessment tools to identify potential future leaders. Once you find areas of strength, you can leverage these skills to achieve team goals.

In addition to identifying strengths, these types of tests can determine weak areas for possible training, development, or improvement. When you invest in your team members, you strengthen the overall team and ultimately move closer to achieving your goals.

5. Give Your Team Grace

You won’t always hit the mark. When your team falls short, it’s important to move forward with grace and purpose. Honestly assess what went wrong and why, but don’t point fingers at individual team members or play the blame game. Try to create a positive team environment where people feel comfortable owning up to their mistakes and learning from them. This culture will be a powerful tool in helping your team achieve goals.

Dr. Angela Duckworth has done a lot of research on the growth mindset, which is a state of mind that highly resilient people possess. People with a growth mindset understand that they may not be good at a particular task to start with, but they can always learn and grow in it. This type of mindset is imperative for successful teams to recognize mistakes with grace, understand what went wrong without blame, and move forward with proactive steps about how to change in the future.

How to Achieve Your Team Goals

When you invest in your team, you’ll experience the rewards. Set SMART goals, communicate well, keep a schedule, cultivate strengths, and promote a culture of grace to help your team succeed and achieve your goals again and again.

Jordan McDowell is a writer and content strategist. He specializes in technically-oriented B2B and B2C content for a number of digital companies

IAM1203- CEO Extracts Actionable Insights from Massive Datasets

Sun, 28 Nov 2021 06:16:16 -0500

Keshav Pingali is CEO and co-founder of Katana Graph, a high-performance scale-out graph processing, AI and analytics company, which extracts actionable insights from massive unstructured datasets. Keshav holds the W.A.”Tex” Moncrief Chair of Computing at the University of Texas at Austin, and is a Fellow of the ACM, IEEE and AAAS.

CEO Hack: (i) Ability to say no (ii) Doing my duty
CEO Nugget: Running a high-tech company is more like a chain of responsibilities
CEO Defined: Duty and responsibility

Website: https://katanagraph.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KatanaGraph
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/katana-graph/

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE

The post IAM1203- CEO Extracts Actionable Insights from Massive Datasets appeared first on I AM CEO Podcast.

25 Entrepreneurs Share Their Tips and Tricks of Staying Motivated

Sat, 27 Nov 2021 12:16:58 -0500

When the going gets rough in business, you’ll need the motivation to keep moving. Motivating yourself can be hard but practicing consistent habits such as reminding yourself of why you started can be a major boost. A network of friends and partners can also serve as a great assurance and reminder that you’re not walking.

Here are the various ways entrepreneurs and business owners stay motivated in business.

#1- Having clear objectives

Photo Credit: Tanner Arnold

Most entrepreneurs start their businesses with specific aims and objectives in mind. They may even develop a set of basic ideas by which they wish to live, but they fail to develop their own specific ambitions. This is not something you can afford to disregard because you most likely have reasons for being an entrepreneur in the first place. It doesn't matter if you write these things down on paper, or on your phone; so you can refer to them when you've lost inspiration. Having goals in various areas of your life will help you live the greatest life possible.

Thanks to Tanner Arnold, Revelation Machinery!

#2- Maintaining work-life balance

Photo Credit: Dan Ni

On days when I need motivation, I try to remind myself that I am exactly where I hoped to be and running my own company. Moreover, I allot for myself some guilt-free days where I reward myself for all my hard work. One of the main things that I try to practice is always advising my employees is to strike a work-life balance. Spend time with your loved ones and maintain healthy relationships. And last but not the least, always be open to innovations and new learning experiences as they make you learn new relevant skills!

Thanks to Dan Ni, Messaged.com!

#3- Choosing my passion

Photo Credit: Nick Shackelford

Enter a field that you’re passionate about. This will ultimately provide a sense of purpose and consistently motivate you to push your company forward even on the toughest days. It will also enable you to overcome failures and be more committed to managing difficult situations. Purpose goes way beyond profit. Of course, money is a huge incentive, but it can’t be the end all be all. Having a sincere affection for your work translates to your client/consumer base and allows you the patience necessary to
problem solve, creating positive outcomes.

Thanks to Nick Shackelford, Structured Agency!

#4- Getting into action

Photo Credit: Amie Devero

I create a significant structure to make it easy to get into action and my clients and I partner to do the same for their work. There are a bunch of different approaches: Scheduling all tasks you plan actually to do; creating alerts that tell you when to stop and start; scheduling even non-professional stuff like working out or walking the dog. There's much more. But the key point is this: Motivation is a red herring. Find structures that get you into action -even grudgingly. Motivation will take care of itself.

Thanks to Amie Devero, Amie Devero Coaching and Consulting!

#5- Giving high-quality service

Photo Credit: Bernadette Gold

When you are committed to providing the highest quality of service to your customers, motivation comes naturally. Likewise, when you are committed to delivering the solutions your customers need, it energizes you to improve daily. Therefore, we prioritize our customer's needs, demanding that we continually evolve and grow. When you give your best, customers are loyal and appreciative. As humans, we thrive when we are appreciated.

Thanks to Bernadette Gold, Bernadette Gold!

#6- Customer focus

Photo Credit: Eric Rhoads

What motivates me is a well-oiled team of players, knowing that they can implement my ideas and do them well. There were many lean years when I had to do everything myself, Though I experience some limitations still, simply because I have more ideas than I could possibly accomplish in a lifetime. Another thing that changed me is having a purpose beyond the business. When I shifted away from being all about money and more towards making life better for my customers, everything changed.

Thanks to Eric Rhoads, Streamline Publishing!

#7- Doing a home project

Photo Credit: Jay Whitacre

A bit simple, but not a lot of leaders do so. Doing one home project at a time can relax my mind and keep me from overthinking messy work matters. However, what people don’t know is that because I’m calm and “in the present,” my mind gets so unknotted that in just a split moment, I can find inspiration to solve a current problem out of the blue. The resulting inspiration gives me a working idea that drives me to immediately find ways on how to effectively apply it, no matter how bizarre and crazy it is.

Thanks to Jay Whitacre, Aquion Energy!

#8- Redefining goals

Photo Credit: Yuvi Alpert

For me, staying motivated is about defining my goals regularly. Every three to four months, I sit down and write out my goals under two categories, short and long term. The short-term goals provide me with immediately actionable tasks that can be completed in a limited amount of time. By doing this, I am always moving forward, which in itself, motivates me to keep going. Each short-term goal is connected to the overall long-term goal and that success motivates me to go after the bigger ones.

Thanks to Yuvi Alpert, Noemie!

#9- By making to-do lists

Photo Credit: Hays Bailey

I have found that I stay motivated whenever I see that I am ticking off items from my to-do list regularly. It tells me that I am not stuck and that I am making progress. That being said, what I do to stay motivated is convert big goals into smaller ones and individually put each into my list. This way, my journey is clearly documented and I do not only feel, but I literally see that I am moving. Knowing that I am moving closer to my goals each time I tick off items from my list is more than enough to keep my going.

Thanks to Hays Bailey, Sheqsy!

#10- Time management

Photo Credit; Stephan Baldwin

Working remotely is not easy for everyone as it requires you to be very strong-willed and responsible about your time. However, you can make every single day more manageable by breaking it down into repeatable tasks. Humans depend on routines for productivity because giving structure to our days helps us concentrate and perform better than tackling situations as they come at random. You should plan your day according to the time you can allocate to work vs. the tasks you have to complete.

Thanks to Stephan Baldwin, Assisted Living Center!

#11- By setting goals

Photo Credit: Lattice Hudson

I chose this career path when I decided to quit my cushy corporate job and start my own business. In this journey, there have been some times when I have wanted to quit no doubt but I figured out how to not burn out under the intensity of this role and stay motivated. I set personal goals with the business goals that I have each month. This makes me feel internally satisfied while watching my business flourish. Also reading up on the entrepreneurial journey of fellow founders gives me a lot of perspective into my issues and concerns.

Thanks to Lattice Hudson, Lattice & Co.!

#12- By visualizing

Photo Credit: Ashley Lands

We all have days when everything is out of focus, and the negativity is loud. I have found that visualization is my key to staying motivated. Some people choose to journal their aspirations – I ‘pin' mine! I have a private Pinterest board where I have added little reminders of every goal that have worked towards. From the dream house to public speaking engagements, eating well, even photos of checks. I head over to that board whenever I need to stay motivated!

Thanks to Ashley Lands, Stuff Oui Love!

#13- Keeping objectives in focus

Photo Credit: Keenan Beavis

Eyes on the price, as what they always say. This phrase completely explains why my motivation never left me. I have established in my mind the things I want to achieve, may it be a short-term or long-term goal. Knowing your objective is such a powerful driver for you to keep on going and that is what I am experiencing. This is not just about personal desires but a mixture of such and a vision for my business. My motivation is basically rooted in my objectives and the prize that comes with them

Thanks to Keenan Beavis, Longhouse Media!

#14- By listening to success stories

Photo Credit: Saskia Ketz

If you thrive on success stories and love to knock the ball out of the park, finding TED talks featuring highly successful entrepreneurs is easy these days and is food for the soul. When you listen to like-minded individuals talking about their personal life and business experiences, you will undoubtedly be inspired to jump that hurdle. After 30 minutes you will have a completely different mindset and will welcome the hard work and obstacles with open arms, ready to take on the world!

Thanks to Saskia Ketz, Mojomox!

#15- Connecting with like-minded people

Listen to business leaders, and each one will have a different take on what it is you should do to grow your enterprise. This is because everyone, and every business, has a different path to take to achieve their potential. Some things link business success stories, however, and, more often than not, partnerships with other firms have been a part of this.

There comes a time in most businesses' lives when finding the mutual benefit in coming together with another brand makes sense. Something they’re doing would be appealing to your customer base, and something you’re doing will likely appeal to theirs, and the opportunity to level up is too good to say no to. So, why not get together and collaborate?

What Are Brand Partnerships?

The above scenario is essentially what a brand partnership is. It describes a time when two or more companies join forces to offer a product or service that will appeal to their joint customers. Famous examples include Apple and Nike coming together to work on an Apple Watch tailored to people with an interest in fitness.

This appealed not only to Nike’s customer base but provided Apple customers with the perfect opportunity to get into fitness. This is an important element of brand partnerships people don’t always pick up on. You’re not only looking to attract those customers that may already be invested in both companies – it’s about bringing some of their customers over to you for the first time and vice versa.

Why Choose Brand Partnerships?

Apart from the obvious short-term turnover opportunities partnerships like this create, there are other advantages. Brand partnerships with a good partner relationship management strategy allow a company to be seen in a different light.

For example, before they came together to create Stratos, Go-Pro and Red Bull were viewed by the casual observer as one-product companies. Go-Pro made cameras. Red Bull made energy drinks. And yet, after Stratos, both are seen as lifestyle brands with a penchant for extreme sports.

This not only brings both businesses to a wider audience but opens up further business opportunities with companies that exist in the space both Red Bull and GoPro have moved into.

All this sounds exciting, but where should you begin with your brand partnership? That’s the question this article aims to answer. Below, we share five tips that’ll set you on the path to partnership greatness.

Tip #1: Choose the Right Partner

By “the right partner”, we don’t mean the most suitable in terms of existing brand image. Nor do we advise trying to buddy up with a company that exists on the other end of that spectrum to you.

What selecting the “right” partner is about is finding the one that most suits your brand values and can maximize the potential of the product or service you create together.

Explore a few options before committing. Compare skill sets, existing audiences, and current trajectories, and build trust before plumping for the company you want to collaborate with.

Tip #2: Know Your Worth

If you’re new to this game, it can be a daunting prospect. Approaching other companies with a collaborative idea or proposition is a complex process. It can leave you and your business feeling exposed to criticism or at risk of giving away your USP.

It can also lead you – especially if you get in the room with a market leader – to sell yourself and your business short. You may think this exudes the humility people are looking for in a partner. However, there’s a fine line between that and presenting yourself as out of your depth or unappealing.

Instead, be confident, assured, and practical in how you present in meetings, and be sure to talk up what you can bring to the table. With content like video being the most desirable at present and encouraging increased engagement, use marketing examples that play to your strengths and demonstrate your value to partners.

Tip #3: Leverage Your Plan

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

It’s becoming increasingly rare to find a marketing collaboration that will be successful by targeting only one channel of communication. With so much content delivered to an increasing number of platforms daily, it’s difficult for anyone other than the most established brands to cut through by utilizing a single avenue.

So, when producing your plan, make sure it plays to the strengths of both/all brands. If you have a greater footing on a site like Instagram, tailor picture content to the style that’s made you a success. If your partner has a bigger following on YouTube, feel secure enough to move more in their direction with video content.

If you can do this while ensuring both brands are included in the posts or videos, this will do wonders for your social media reach.

Tip #4: Seek Continuous Collaboration

Don’t just look at collaborations as a one-time thing. This often gives off the idea that the collaboration has been unsuccessful, which can be a difficult hurdle to get over when you enter conversations with future prospective partners, making PRM marketing more difficult.

By ensuring you and your partner brand see this collaboration as a multi-campaign or even continuous partnership, you can think bigger with your ideas and view the benefits in both a short-term and long-term context.

Tip #5: Success Doesn’t Stop at Posting

The planning and developing of a campaign isn’t the whole thing. You don’t just hit “publish” on your content, put your feet up, and watch the money roll in – what a lovely world that would be!

The key to creating a great brand partnership is as much to do with analytics, something you can run through Google automation tools, as it is creative ideas and content development.

If you’ve been smart enough to follow tip #4, then building analysis into your subsequent collaboration with this partnership is key to understanding what to do more of and what to avoid in the future.

Conclusion

The last 18 months have been difficult for everyone. As a lot of businesses emerge battered and bruised from having their customers cut off for the best part of two years, different ways of thinking are going to be required to turn the tide.

Business partnerships may not be a new idea, but in a time when we are, collectively, looking to come together to overcome humanity’s biggest challenges, more collaboration in business seems like the best way forward.

Following our tips here should set you on the right path to becoming one of the thousands of businesses successfully exploring partnerships today.

Author Bio:

Sam O’Brien

Sam O’Brien is the Chief Marketing Officer for Affise—a Global SaaS Affiliate Marketing Program Solution. He is a growth marketing expert with a product management and design background. Sam has a passion for innovation, growth, and marketing technology. Here is his LinkedIn.

IAM1202- Founder Provides Strategic Communications Counsel

Sat, 27 Nov 2021 06:16:28 -0500

Evan Nierman is the author of the just-released book Crisis Averted: PR Strategies to Protect Your Reputation and the Bottom Line, which is available at Amazon.com and wherever books are sold.

He is also the Founder and CEO of Red Banyan, which provides strategic communications counsel, crisis management and media training to senior business leaders, government officials and private individuals.

Evan and his team advise and represent corporations and non-profit organizations across a wide range of industries, often guiding them through high-stakes, complex situations and conceptualizing and executing effective communications campaigns.

He is a regular contributor to various top publications including Entrepreneur, Fast Company and Forbes.

CEO Hack: Ask for help, get educated and join like-minded peer entrepreneurs
CEO Nugget: Everyone needs to be talking to everyone around them about the dangers of social media
CEO Defined: Deciding your vision and rallying other people to your side to accomplish it

Website: http://redbanyan.com/

https:/evannierman.com

Previous episode on IAMCEO: https://iamceo.co/2020/06/02/iam659-ceo-provides-strategic-communications-counsel/

Book on Amazon: Crisis Averted: PR Strategies to Protect Your Reputation and the Bottom Line

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redbanyanpr/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/1262164

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE

The post IAM1202- Founder Provides Strategic Communications Counsel appeared first on I AM CEO Podcast.

5 Tips Every SaaS CEO Should Implement To Increase Product Signups

Fri, 26 Nov 2021 09:16:54 -0500

Product signups are the lifeblood of any software as a service (SaaS) business. They are also the hardest aspect of running a SaaS business.

Unlike tangible products that a prospective customer can look at in myriad different ways, the only way to experience a SaaS product is to experience it oneself.

This makes it admittedly hard to market a SaaS product. If you are struggling to get target product signups for your SaaS business, this post is for you. Let us take a look at the top five tips a CEO should implement to boost their product signups organically.

Top 5 Tips every SaaS CEO should implement to increase product signups

One of the first things to consider when it comes to marketing SaaS products is the quality of your marketing efforts. You need to put your best foot forward and stay updated with the trends at all times. You can benefit tremendously by enlisting the help of Skale SEO agency for SaaS companies. With world-class B2B SaaS growth experts and a robust Search Engine Optimization (SEO) framework, they can scale up your product sign-ups. They employ every trick in the book to see your signups grow quickly and organically.

Let’s decode every aspect involved in growing SaaS signups and see how you can improve in each of them:

1. Keep it simple

Source

It seems like such a bit of overstated advice but it really is important that you make everything from your marketing messages to the process of enrolling with you as easy as possible for the customers.

On average, a person is exposed to 6,000 to 10,000 ads on a daily basis. You don’t want to complicate things further for your customer who is saturated with companies trying to sell them things by making your interactions with them a chore to get through.

Simplify your approach. Include the absolutely necessary information and make it attention-grabbing. Apply this to everything.

a. Your website

As enticing as it seems, you don’t need to cram everything on your homepage. It makes it seem packed and confuses the user. Create a homepage that is simple and effective. It tells the user why they should opt for the service coupled with a sleek signup form. This approach helped GrowthRock achieve 73% more signups.

The idea is to subtly direct the user to take the desired action. By all means, put your best content and social proof there as it inherently pushes the user towards the action you want them to take, just don’t put everything there. Let the content breathe.

b. Pricing model

Pricing is a make-or-break scenario. You want it to be flexible but you don’t want it to feel confusing as well. It is even more important to keep the pricing structure simple because convoluted pricing can seem deceptive to the customer.

After a couple of failed attempts, Groove came up with a single price for all customers that boosted their conversion rate to 4.15% with a 25% increase in revenue. Now, this doesn’t mean this kind of pricing definitely works for every product, but simplifying things certainly helps.

c. Signup form

Source

When we talk about simplifying a form, we don’t always mean eliminating columns. Sometimes, you do need some information from the customer to match them with a product that suits them right. For example, GetVoIP asks users some information regarding the number of employees and the features needed before directing them to the correct product sign-up.

The takeaway here is to make the process easy for the customer, not necessarily short. GetVoIP’s method may take a minute or two more, but the user understands it is to their benefit.

Be considerate of your user’s time. Include only the necessary steps. Run A/B split tests on the length of the form. Check that the form is mobile-friendly as well.

2. Let go of their payment information

This is a tricky one. On one hand, including credit card information in a trial leads to authentic customers. On the other hand, letting go of credit card information gets you more customers. It’s the classic quality vs quantity debate. The answer depends on your goal.

If you are focused on increasing sign-ups only, doing away with payment information helps you eliminate a barrier between you and your customer. It lets them know you are not asking for a long-term commitment.

If you are looking for customer retention post-trial and improving the quality of leads, you may want to include credit card information.

3. Irresistible offers

Source

You need to make an offer to the prospective customer they simply cannot refuse. In other words, you need to tell your customer why they should sign up with you. What are they to gain by signing up with you?

You can do this two ways: offer an incentive that pushes them down the sales funnel, or offer something over and above the service itself.

a. Special offers

Skillshare often offers discounts for the first 1000 sign-ups that come through a YouTuber influencer. It helps in creating an urgency as the user feels the need to do it in the present over the fear of missing out.

Such an offer works as an incredible motivator in pushing people down the sales funnel. It gives the user a reason to sign up now as they may not get an offer like that tomorrow or perhaps even in a few hours as the YouTuber’s audience would have grabbed up the opportunity.

b. Offer something extra

Monday, a project-management tool, gives away a free template when users sign up. These offers give users a relevant and intriguing incentive to sign up for a service.

This is something extra as a reward for signing up with you. Positive reinforcement has always been a great motivator for people. So, think of this as offering your customer a thank you for signing up.

4. Loop them in with the trial

The power of trials – free or not – is not even in question today. Around 62% of companies get more than 10% of their business through free trials.

Whether you keep your trial free or paid, know that it is one of the most powerful tools when it comes to SaaS signups. Construct everything around it carefully and with the aim to increase sales.

Test the length of the trial beforehand to know what works best for the product. A 30-day trial is usually the norm but it really depends on the nature of your service.

a. Before trial

If your trial is going to be free, make it abundantly clear. Let your customers know you mean it and there aren’t going to be any hidden costs.
Demonstrate what they are going to get in the trial. Applications like Photoshop give access to all features in their free trials while some SaaS products hold back on some features.

b. During trial

The customer should not feel as though they have been left on their own upon taking up a trial. Walk them through it if need be.

Provide constant telephonic or chat support at all times. Let the customer know they can approach you at even the slightest inconvenience. Customers tend to prefer live chat over other support methods.
Pitch the paid service at the end of the trial.

c. After trial

Don’t forget to get their feedback and let them know you appreciate them trying it out.
Pitch the paid service again, coupled with an offer if you can.

5. Social proof and killer content are the keys

All technicalities aside, people are more likely to be persuaded to try out your service when they see other people doing it. We talked earlier about keeping your website clean. The two things that will benefit by being on your homepage are social proof and content that persuades users to purchase the service.

Social proof can come in many forms, it can be testimonials and product reviews from your previous clients, or client logos, or a simple social counter that lets the user know how many visitors, likes, and comments a piece has had. They reassure your users about your legitimacy as a business.

Source

Put simply, they establish you as someone worthy of their time and money. For example, Shopify makes sure to showcase how many businesses it has helped using absolute numeric terms to establish its prowess in its field.

The same goes for the content you create and especially showcase on the homepage. It should be about educating the user how your service will help them, why you are the ones they need, and what they can expect once they sign up.

Most businesses often forget that last point. Letting the users know what’s on the other side of signing up is just as important. Just like social proof, it helps establish your legitimacy and gain the prospective customer’s trust.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, it’s about setting your goals right and working towards achieving them. You may simply want to increase signups, or you may want to increase the quality of the leads you are getting. The above tips are sure to help you with all that and more.

Let us know in the comments section below what tips you found useful and what you do differently to increase your SaaS signups.

Guest post courtesy of Zoran Naumoski

5 Things About Surety Bonds that Every Entrepreneur Should Know

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 09:16:27 -0500

Entrepreneurs nowadays have quite a lot on their hands. Even though today’s business environment has a lot of opportunities and potential, there are many factors to consider when it comes to starting a new company. Depending on the industry you want to engage in, there are many moving pieces and legal considerations you must be aware of in order to be successful. It is no wonder that many important details can go under your radar, given the dynamic world we are living in.

When it comes to establishing a new company and getting it off the ground, a surety bond is sometimes the thing that makes a difference. Every entrepreneur out there must know what surety bonds are, when they are needed, and how to get one. In fact, many industries require your business to be bonded — not to mention the benefits a surety bond offers in terms of credibility and brand reputation.

In this article, we will explain what surety bonds are and why they are important. We will also list the most important things entrepreneurs need to know on the topic, including how to get one and what costs are involved.

What Is a Surety Bond?

Surety bonds are often mistaken for insurance — even though both terms have a lot in common, they are actually quite different. Surety bonds are three-party contracts that ensure your business will fulfill all requirements and obligations to both regulatory organizations and customers alike. It is essentially a tool that provides financial protection in case something goes wrong.

The three entities that are involved in a surety bond are as follows:

The principal is the entity that needs to get bonded — in this case, your new business venture
The surety company — usually a division of an insurance company that acts as a neutral guarantor
The obligee is the agency that requires the principal to get a surety bond

If for some reason your business fails to deliver on per-contract obligations or governmental regulations, the obligee (or the customers themselves) can file against your bond. The surety company will then reimburse them, making sure the obligee receives what was contracted.

What Entrepreneurs Should Know About Surety Bonds

Surety bonds are one of those things that you will likely never use — however, simply having them comes with a lot of benefits for you as an entrepreneur. A starting business that is bonded is more credible and trustworthy. Even though your company does not have a history it can rely on, demonstrating a commitment to customer safety is sometimes enough to acquire new clients. Essentially, it shows that you operate with integrity and professionalism.

Besides that, certain industries require surety bonds. Without one, you will have no chance to participate in public bids and win government contracts, for example.

Let’s take a look at the main things you as an entrepreneur should know about surety bonds.

1. The Main Types of Surety Bonds

While there are many types of surety bonds out there, there are three main ones that you should know about.

License and permit bonds – businesses operating in certain industries are required to get these types of bonds in order to operate legally. Auto dealers, general contractors, and freight brokers are just a few examples.

Contractor bonds – businesses wishing to participate in public construction projects are most likely required to get a contractor bond in order to enter the bidding process.

Court bonds – individuals or businesses that are involved in a civil proceeding through a court of law can be required to get a court bond.

2. Which Industries Require Surety Bonds

As we already mentioned, you need to get a surety bond for your business if it operates in certain industries. Here is a list of the most popular industries that require one:

Construction
Auto dealerships
Collection agencies
Health clubs
Mortgage brokers
Travel agencies
Auctioneers
Medical equipment suppliers
Notaries public

3. Where to Acquire a Surety Bond

If you want to get a surety bond for your business, you need to find a surety bond company licensed in the state you need to become bonded in. For example, if your business is based in Florida, you need to get in touch with a Florida surety bond company. You need to submit an application and wait for it to be reviewed before getting a surety bond.

4. How Much Does a Surety Bond Cost?

The premium you have to pay for a surety bond depends on several factors. Upon review of your application, the surety company will look into things like your credit rating, business history, overall financial situation, etc. Based on how risky a client you are, the company might offer you a surety bond at a higher price. It is best to be prepared to make the investment, as surety bonds are definitely worth it.

If you are getting a surety bond for a new business, you could also experience higher premiums. After all, you have no business history and can be considered a risky client.

5. What If You Have a Bad Credit Rating?

The good news is that surety bond companies rarely deny applications. Even if your credit rating is bad, it is highly unlikely that your request will be turned down. However, keep in mind that a bad credit rating will definitely result in much higher premiums than the average.

In Conclusion

As an entrepreneur, you should keep surety bonds in mind for your current and future business ventures. Even if the industries you are operating do not require them, we advise you to get a surety bond.

Guest post courtesy of Matthew Falloretta

21 Entrepreneurs Explain The Role A Coach Plays in Their Business

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 12:16:37 -0500

Business coaches are instrumental people in the start and growth of one’s business. Right from writing your story, attracting/retaining clients and the survival of your business. They can help sharpen your skills and take up a lot more roles. Many entrepreneurs attribute their success to the mere factor that they had a business coach guide them through the process.

Here’s what entrepreneurs had to say about the role a coach plays in their business.

#1- Unlocks self-imposed limitations

Photo Credit: Sarah Jameson

As a seasoned marketer, I am confident that business coaches can help you overcome your self-imposed limitations. Over the course of my career, I've had two business coaches who have been invaluable in assisting me in overcoming my self-imposed barriers. The largest benefit is having someone to talk to and someone who can help you handle a situation or feel thoughtful. As entrepreneurs, we spend so much time creating a cage around ourselves that is entirely self-imposed. It's the prison of being correct. Saying yes when we should say no is a prison. The prison of lowering our standards and then blaming others for it. The prison of being a victim of our own making. Having a coach has helped me see this and given me the skills and tools I need to better manage my time.

Thanks to Sarah Jameson, Green Building Elements!

#2- A neutral third-party analysis

Photo Credit: Matt Weidle

As a seasoned person, I believe that one advantage of hiring a business coach for yourself is that it allows you to receive constructive criticism from someone who does not know you. If you ask your coworkers, colleagues, friends, or family members what you need to improve, they may have biased perspectives and may not understand your organization's strengths and weaknesses, where your company fits in the sector, your management and leadership style, or how you conduct your business. If you employ a business coach, on the other hand, they will be able to comprehend your wants, needs, and desires. They'll understand why you behave in certain situations the way you do. And, if they have industry experience, they will be able to provide you with information that others in your network may not be able to provide.

Thanks to Matt Weidle, Buyer's Guide!

#3- Holds someone accountable

Photo Credit: Michael Robinson

A business coach is more of a person to whom you must answer. My coach pushes me to do something I'm afraid of at times. Having a business coach has forced me to have difficult and difficult talks with some of the team members that I had been avoiding for a long time. He holds me accountable, and because I pay to speak with him, I feel bad if I don't do what I say I'm going to do. I now have more time to devote to mind-sharing and self-improvement in order to continue to evolve. Now that I have an executive business coach who assists me in overcoming any obstacles, I no longer feel isolated or lonely.

Thanks to Michael Robinson, Cheap SSL Security!

#4- Helps to better achieve goals

Photo Credit: Hassan Usmani

Humans, in the end, do what they genuinely want to do. And your first work together will be to figure out exactly what you want for yourself and your business. A business coach will assist you in distinguishing between what you could, should, and must want and what you truly desire for yourself. You'll be far more likely to naturally and consistently take measures to achieve your ideal goal once you've created it.

Thanks to Hassan Usmani, YEELIGHT!

#5- Achieves a well-balanced life

Photo Credit: Darsh Ray

It all necessitates the establishment of a balanced lifestyle. And you already know what that means: it's time to be extremely self-centered. Selfish with a capital S, not egotistical. A business coach can teach you how to be selfish while yet being responsible. Plus, how to get your demands satisfied while still being liked! You'll enjoy laying your foundation since you'll know you're deserving of it. If you want to be yourself, you'll need this foundation.

Thanks to Darsh Ray, Job Alert!

#6- Several roles

Photo Credit: Paula Glynn

Coaches play a critical role in helping business leaders manage their business and lead teams. They can often provide a fresh perspective, invaluable advice, and practical strategies to make the most of every opportunity. Coaching is beneficial for those who are transitioning from one phase or season of their business to another. We all know that communication and relationships are key for any business to succeed. While we can't always control what happens around us, we can certainly influence how we respond to the changes and challenges that present themselves. Coaching provides an opportunity to take a step back from the day-to-day tasks and responsibilities and look at where we are and where we want to be. It enables us to reflect on our progress, celebrates our achievements, and brainstorm ways to move forward.

Thanks to Paula Glynn, Pixelstorm!

#7- Help employees improve their skills

Photo Credit: Daivat Dholakia

Our company prefers to promote internally, so we have a career coach who helps our employees improve their skills and take the right steps to get to the places they want to be. People often don’t know what steps to take or knowledge to learn in order to advance, so having someone guide them through it is really helpful.

Thanks to Daivat Dholakia, Essenvia!

#8- Helps improve our organizational focus

Photo Credit: Michelle Ebbin

As an executive himself, he provides an outside perspective of our business and gives feedback on whether initiatives align with our purpose, vision, mission, and core values. We meet our business coach once a month. Discussions range from clarifying where we would like to take the business and are on track to the commitments made during the previous coaching sessions. Furthermore, our business coach helps us plan and prioritize our strategies to ensure that we are progressing based on our business goals.

Thanks to Michelle Ebbin, JettProof!

#9- Fills knowledge gaps

Photo Credit: Eric Thomas

A great business coach will help fill whatever knowledge gaps you have in relation to your business. In order to make this type of coaching work, you need to make sure your ego is out of the equation, so you can receive this knowledge gratefully, and have a clear head with which to implement it.

Thanks to Eric Thomas, Simple Solar Living!

#10- Teaches on setting boundaries

Photo Credit: Bryan Philips

One of the most important things my coach has taught me is to separate my work and personal life with strong boundaries. This has become an essential skill while working at a remote company, where working from home is the norm, so separating work from home can be difficult. My coach, however, taught me to set hard limits on times to send emails, clock out times, and not work on weekends as much as possible, and these skills have not only improved my work ethic, but my home life as well.

Thanks to Bryan Philips, In Motion Marketing!

#11- Several roles

Photo Credit: Arthur Iinuma

Coaches support and empower diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in my workplace. They are effective in animating these programs among individuals who have exhibited inappropriate behavior in the past. They help these people see what it means to be inclusive, the purpose of equal opportunities, and the merits of diversity in the workplace. They also fill the gaps of differences in points of view to foster a healthier, genuinely non-toxic workplace culture.

Thanks to Arthur Iinuma, ISBX!

#12- Finds the best solutions

Photo Credit: Max Benz

A coach is someone who helps you find the best solutions to work-related challenges. Sometimes, they can even make your company more profitable. Coaches are helpful in a company because they provide both knowledge and insights that may not be provided by other team members. They don't just sit back and watch but also have their own share of input in improving the overall performance of your company. There are many benefits that come with having a coach in your company, especially if you are new or not experienced enough to take care of all the tasks. A good coach will be able to help set clear goals for your business while also teaching you how to achieve them

Thanks to Max Benz, remote-job.net!

#13- Keeps me business-minded

Photo Credit: Michael Dean

As a business leader, you should always have a passion and enthusiasm for the industry and niche you are entering, but sometimes business might not come as naturally to you as the initial passions that inspired the business. A business coach helps you look at your business objectively, and can help fill in any blanks that might arise from a lack of experience. I have a passion for pools and home improvement, but that is simply not
enough to run a business. My business coach helps me put that entrepreneurial hat on, and feel confident doing it.

Thanks to Michael Dean, Pool Research!

#14- Saves on time

Photo Credit: Gary Mitchell

Starting a business is hard — but by hiring the right coach, you can save yourself a lot of time, stress and even thousands of dollars! Coaches started their own businesses and have helped others with theirs, giving them the insight to steer you clear of making the common mistakes that are typical of those just starting out on the entrepreneurial journey. On average, it takes about 2 years before a business turns a profit. In my experience, a coach can cut that time in half.

Thanks to Gary Mitchell, OnTrac Coach!

#15- Helps build an effective team

As the CEO of a company, you know the importance of keeping your workplace happy, innovative, and comfortable for your employees. One way to do this is to create diversity in the workplace so no employee ever feels singled out and new ideas are constantly being brought to the table. There are many advantages of having a diverse workforce for your team and your business itself. Here are some tips on how to diversify the workforce at your company.

Remove Bias from Hiring

Bias is often presented in the hiring process without the hiring team even noticing. Practicing blind hiring is a great way to remove this bias. Blind hiring involves the removal of names and demographics of applicants from resumes, focusing solely on their experience and skills. Other practices for blind hiring include doing initial interviews through email or chat.

Write a Mission Statement

76% of job seekers factor a company’s stance on diversity into their decision-making process. Establishing via a mission statement that your company puts an emphasis on diversity in the workplace can encourage people from all backgrounds, races, genders, and physical ability levels to apply.

Change Company Practices

Small changes to your companies typical practices are a great way to provide inclusivity. Look at your company’s day-to-day operations and policies and see if there are ways you can change these to make them more inclusive. For example, changing your yearly Christmas party to a holiday party to be inclusive of your employees who don’t celebrate Christmas. Being accommodating will make a huge difference in the happiness levels of employees at your company.

Overall, a diverse workforce is a great way to improve the workplace and your company as a whole.

IAM1197- Clinical Director Runs a Group Mental Health Practice

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 11:27:49 -0500

console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘Skip player from rendering', ‘is single: , is main loop: 1, is main query: 1');console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘trinity_content_filter');Myrja Paul is the owner and Clinical Director of Sol Counseling & Consulting. Myrja received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Penn State University and her Master of Science degree in Clinical Community Counseling from Johns Hopkins University. Myrja is a licensed therapist and approved clinical supervisor in Maryland. In April 2020, Myrja opened Sol Counseling & Consulting, a group mental health practice that provides individual and family services to adults as well as children. Myrja’s mission is to decrease the stigma

Listen to the full podcast. This is Originally posted here.

The post IAM1197- Clinical Director Runs a Group Mental Health Practice appeared first on Healthy CEO.

IAM1195- Author Teaches on Diversity and Inclusion

Sat, 20 Nov 2021 06:49:04 -0500

console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘Skip player from rendering', ‘is single: , is main loop: 1, is main query: 1');console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘trinity_content_filter');Jesmane is the author of a book on racial reconciliation, healing and inclusion My Blood Divides and Unites (www.myblooddividesandunites). She has created a new diversity and inclusion course with her book as a teaching aid.
Jesmane is also a founder and Principal of AIH Capital, a private equity fund. She has over 16 years’ experience in private equity, investments and as an entrepreneur. She is also the former Head of Business Engagement Africa at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. She currently serves on the

Listen to the full podcast. This is Originally posted here.

The post IAM1195- Author Teaches on Diversity and Inclusion appeared first on Black Disruptor.

IAM1194- Owner Provides Training and Coaching Services

Sat, 20 Nov 2021 06:23:00 -0500

console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘Skip player from rendering', ‘is single: , is main loop: 1, is main query: 1');console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘trinity_content_filter');Tim Sun is the founder and owner of Sun Fitness. Sun Fitness is a concierge based in-home personal training company that provides training, online coaching and nutrition coaching services. They also train clients District Barbell, a private studio in Merrifield, VA. Working in tandem with medical professionals, Sun Fitness strives to better the quality of life and support the communities of the DMV.

CEO Hack: My business coach
CEO Nugget: Find ways to channel your energy and push through it
CEO Defined: Being the captain of the ship

Website: https://www.sunfitnessllc.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sunfitnessllc
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunfitnessllc/

Check

Listen to the full podcast. This is Originally posted here.

27 Entrepreneurs Explain Why They Started Their Businesses

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 12:16:47 -0500

Each business has a story. No matter if the business is a Goliath like Wal-Mart, or a local business owned by a couple or family, the business has roots in an idea. For each business owner, the story of their journey can range from monetary needs or the passion for a unique project. Each story is different though the reasons may be the same. No matter the tale, the background behind each and every business is what fuels each and brand.

#1- Get in control and break the norm

Photo Credit: Andrea Heuston

At 24 I was putting myself through college and running the creative services department at an energy systems engineering firm in Seattle when the company was purchased by a French firm. They had me lay off the entire team of seven designers and then laid me off. However, two days later they called me back and said we made a mistake – we need to do some rebranding and we need you to come back. I decided I didn’t want to put my fate in somebody else’s hands anymore, so I jumped in my car, drove 60 minutes to Olympia, the state capitol, got a business license, and the energy systems firm became my first client. I also grew up with a father who had traditional values around gender roles, favoring female domesticity over entrepreneurship and leadership. He didn’t believe that women should be in business. The realization that I could run a company and I could do it well was also the attraction, motivation, and inspiration for founding Artitudes Design.

Thanks to Andrea Heuston, Artitudes Design!

#2- To improve the world in three ways

Photo Credit: Alice Maples

Why I started my company, the short answer: the world is not happy, not well, and quite lonely. The mission of Recess Everyday LLC is to make the world a happier, healthier and more connected place. The world is hurting and my idea is to try and make a difference any way I can, one of which was to start my own business! Since I have formed my LLC, I have designed a stretch certification program for a major chiropractic company, lead dozens of wellness presentations and programs for numerous companies, and I have a book of business of wellness coaching clients. The future: to expand and train other leaders to continue to lead the way in a Wellness Revolution. For those that cannot afford the services of my company, I make sure to volunteer in leadership positions with the Junior League of San Diego.

Thanks to Alice Maples, Recess Everyday LLC!

#3- Based on my background

Photo Credit: Danavir Sarria

For 10 years, I was a freelance copywriter helping online course businesses grow with copywriting. However, my real dream was to build an athletic apparel brand like Rhone. Unfortunately, after 18 months of trying to build a new brand from scratch, it failed. I was now in a position where I needed positive cashflow quick, while staying in ecommerce, which was an industry I fell in love with. Because of my background as a service provider, I realized that the fastest, simplest, and easiest way to hit my financial goals was to offer services to ecommerce brands.

Thanks to Danavir Sarria, SupplyDrop!

#4- Get away from personal problems

Photo Credit: Susan Smith

Countless enterprises have sprouted as a way to get away from the daily grind of the office. My finance career began with a long commute and a cramped cubicle. I despised every minute of it, which is why I decided to establish an internet business. However, simply wanting to get out of cubicle land isn't a strong enough motivator in and of itself. As with any other firm, this one is destined for success. I was having trouble managing remote teams and keeping track of their billable hours after working with them for a long, therefore Hubstaff was born. Every business I've founded has stemmed from a personal problem, I m convinced.

Thanks to Susan Smith, Velden Engineering!

#5- Pursue a mission

Photo Credit: John Joy

I wanted to be a lawyer as far back as I can remember. I started my career working at a large law firm in New York. It was everything I could want as a twenty-something cutting their teeth in a new profession. But after a few years, I wondered what had drawn me to the law in the first place, and the truth was that I wanted to leave the world a little fairer, and perhaps a little more just, than I had found it. I realized that working for large companies who were fighting each other, or fighting the government, was never going to scratch that itch. So, I left the firm and started my own one that focuses on helping whistleblowers report corporate crime. Every day I speak to people who are finding the courage to speak out about injustice, corruption and fraud, and I'm proud to be the one who tells them they are doing the right thing, and that I'll do everything I can to help them. Starting a business is difficult, and while I don't get more sleep than I used to, I definitely sleep better.

Thanks to John Joy, FTI Law!

#6- I looked at the industry as a whole

Photo Credit: Gabriel Dungan

When I began ViscoSoft, I was inspired by the actual mattress topper industry, which I felt lacked serious brand identity. I wanted to become the preeminent brand for mattress toppers, while also staying affordable. Sometimes it can be so hard to truly optimize your sleep because of how inaccessible and expensive certain sleep products can be, so I wanted to work against that. I believe businesses across all industries can still provide top-notch, quality products to consumers, without forcing them to break the bank. When starting my business, it was all about the audience and the accessibility. Put your consumers first!

Thanks to Gabriel Dungan, ViscoSoft!

#7- I could push myself

Photo Credit: Hassan Usmani

Some people thrive on their job's monotony, completing the same chores day after day. But, you can be sure that as an entrepreneur, each day will be loaded with new possibilities to challenge yourself, be innovative, and learn something new. The beautiful thing about having a small business is that no two days are ever the same. Because I learn something new about running a business every day, whether it's about taxes, accounting, or the variety of other things that go into running a business, I'm always interested in the bits and pieces of information that I acquire every day just to keep the business going well.

Thanks to Hassan Usmani, YEELIGHT!

#8- Help people reclaim their confidence

Photo Credit: Alex Dask

I was living in New York for a few years and saw the rise of clear aligner businesses. These businesses were helping people straighten their teeth at a much lower cost and with less pain than traditional alternatives such as braces. They were helping people reclaim their confidence. When I moved back to Australia I identified a gap in the market as these clear aligner businesses were not mainstream here. Our mission is to make dental care more affordable for all Australians and that’s why I launched Beam.

Thanks to Alex Dask, Beam!

#9- To improve American manufacturing

Photo Credit: Dr Lisa Lang

I want to help make American Manufactures more competitive so that reshoring makes economic sense. If manufacturers can increase productivity, they can produce more without increasing costs, then they are more globally competitive. There are several nice side effects from increased productivity. Increased productivity means increased profits allowing manufacturers to pay higher wages and attract the best employees. Increased productivity also leads to reduced lead-time and improved due date performance, both of which reduce chaos and foster a great work culture. I'm totally addicted to helping manufacturers improve!

Thanks to Dr Lisa Lang, Velocity Scheduling System!

#10- Take the risk and reap the benefits

Photo Credit: Tanner Arnold

There is no doubt that starting your own business is a dangerous venture. However, with risk comes gain. To put it another way, the better you are at risk management, the more profits you will be able to gain. What I like best about the company is playing the game of business. It's like mixing high-stakes poker with the best strategy game ever. There is an infinite number of variables in practically every facet of the business, and just when you think you've got something under control in one area, everything changes. I particularly enjoy putting my own money at risk and then having to live with the consequences of my decisions (good or bad). As with any excellent game, the more you play, the better you get. You learn to distinguish between excellent and terrible opportunities. You learn how to appear to be devoted to new products without actually committing financially until you receive feedback and orders from your customers. You will also learn how to establish exit strategies for unfavorable situations as well as how to maximize excellent ones. Working on a project for several years with your team, overcoming all of the challenges, and then having millions of people enjoy it throughout the world is the most enjoyable.

Thanks to Tanner Arnold, Revelation Machinery!

#11- Out of necessity

Photo Credit: Christopher Binns

Before starting Bizstim Software Solutions I was a college professor and I had a tutoring company as a side hustle. I was doing well for myself. Don't get me wrong there weren't private jets in my future but money wasn't a concern. Then there was concern. My oldest son, who was 3.5 at the time was diagnosed with Autism and my life took an abrupt turn. My wife and I are both professionals but with the diagnosis of Autism came a lot of responsibility. Someone had to take our son to speech therapists, occupational therapists, behavior therapists and a myriad of other medical appointments. Since I was a the better orienteer, I got the call. First I quit my professing position and within six months I had to close down the tutoring business. Time was at a premium. My little guy had to come first and I needed to focus on him. It's was a huge shock going from making a good
living to being dependent on another person. I didn't like it much. My sons were in bed by 9 pm and I usually stayed up for a few more hours. Instead of watching TV or trolling the internet I thought I'd try my hands at coding. While operating a tutoring business I was able to identify a demand for niche business software. From 9 pm to 1 am I banged away on a keyboard. 18 months and 2000 hours later I finished coding the software and released it. The time I spent doing this kept me sane. It gave me purpose and it helped me deal with the obstacles my son and family faced. That was 6 years ago. My son is doing well. When I think about the software I made and the people that rely upon it I find myself stunned. I built that? What else can I do? The business was about keeping my mind engaged but now it's about uncovering what lies in my future.

Thanks to Christopher Binns, Bizstim Software Solutions!

#12- Promote brands in the new normal

Photo Credit: James Parsons

With the strike of the pandemic, our leads and sales accelerate ten times fold the pre-COVID. Hence, digital marketing sets the top rank in the minds of business owners, which is the best way to promote their brand in the new normal. I was so amazed at how the internet works. In 2018, I decided to put up my remote digital agency. Now, I just realized that I was right following my instinct.

Thanks to James Parsons, Content Powered!

#13- Showcase different communities

Photo Credit: Marc Tonkin

The reason I started my travel blog was initially to talk about my travels and share my experiences with the world kind of like a digital scrapbook, but it was more of a selfish endeavor in the beginning, and I was hurtling towards an epic burnou

4 Things Every Future CEO Should Know about Hiring an Operations Accountant

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 11:02:20 -0500

Every organization needs to manage its finances well and accurately to avoid making losses and closing shop. This explains the reason why CEOs should conduct enough research when hiring personnel to manage their finances. Accountants are responsible for managing and providing advice on the finances of a business. They are important and contribute a lot …

Welcome to November: How Has Technology Changed the World of Business?

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 21:12:55 -0500

Technology is advancing at an unprecedented rate and tech-based innovations are becoming a necessity to run a successful business in this highly competitive world. It doesn't matter the size of a business technology is influencing business activities at all levels, from manufacturing and logistics to purchase, sales, and delivery. Let’s look at a few ways in which technology has impacted businesses.

Impact of Technology in Business Operations

Tools and avenues such as mobile phones, e-mails, apps, social media, cloud services, and many more innovations have changed the way businesses work. These tools help ease business operations.

For example, the availability of software programs has made administrative tasks much easier by taking the load off of people (finance, accounting, email distribution, data processing, recording data, data analytics and more).

Similarly, technology has transformed communication within businesses with the help of tools like web-conferencing apps that allow for face-to-face communication digitally (Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet and more.). Business owners can also communicate easily with customers via websites and digital media to market and promote or advertise products and services, address complaints, and more.

Technology helps improve recruitment. For example, job advertisements can be posted online and on job boards with very little human involvement. Employers can also use online testing methods and video interviews for screening and hiring candidates.

Yet another business area where technology has made an impact is through inventory management and stock control. This is especially helpful for e-commerce. Software and programs help with the management of orders, monitoring of stock levels, and make it easy for the business owner and customers to know what is available when.

Technology can also enable businesses to be more sustainable, safe, and efficient. Examples of such technological innovations are the use of electric vehicles to transport goods, use of renewable resources in manufacturing units, use of high-tech options for recycling and reuse, zero-waste technology, biometric security systems, etc.

Technology has advantages in terms of increased productivity and efficiency; however, there are also some disadvantages if not used judiciously.

Possible Drawbacks of Technology in Business

The use, overuse, or misuse of technology in business can have certain drawbacks. Some such examples are mentioned below:

Increased dependence on technology which if a system-wide shut down happened everything would come to a screeching halt;
The latest technology often comes with huge costs that many small businesses or start-ups cannot afford, and could create something similar to a digital divide;
Excessive use of technology by businesses can also result in employees losing their jobs;
Lastly, data breaches and data security are very real concerns facing businesses that make use of high-tech solutions for their needs.

It would be safe to say that the use of technology and innovation in business has its pros and cons. However, it is also true that technology has become imperative to businesses today. One just needs to keep in mind what’s best for their business and use technology wisely.

The post Welcome to November: How Has Technology Changed the World of Business? appeared first on CBNation.

Monday Motivation: YOU ARE DANGEROUS WHEN YOU ARE DISCIPLINED

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 09:16:23 -0500

This motivational video is to help CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners start the week off inspired to become great.

Here are some takeaways from the video:

You can coat your mind from negativity
You were made to do something great in your life
There's a purpose greater than your pain
Take the first step, everything else is just persistence

The post Monday Motivation: YOU ARE DANGEROUS WHEN YOU ARE DISCIPLINED appeared first on Hearpreneur.

IAM1188- President Advises Start-ups on Strategic Marketing Options

Sat, 13 Nov 2021 09:41:59 -0500

console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘Skip player from rendering', ‘is single: , is main loop: 1, is main query: 1');console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘trinity_content_filter');Health Karma President Michael Swartz has 10+ years of experience advising startups on strategic options as relates to market opportunities, competitive positioning, and allocation of resources. Prior to joining MediXall, he was Co-founder and served as a Senior Analyst of Viridian Capital Advisor, a financial and strategic advisory firm dedicated to the cannabis industry, where he led all modeling and valuation work for the firm’s M&A and fundraising assignments.

CEO Hack: (i) Communication (ii) A team around me that is not afraid to take the

Listen to the full podcast. This is Originally posted here.

The post IAM1188- President Advises Start-ups on Strategic Marketing Options appeared first on Healthy CEO.

Google’s Core Web Vital Update: What to Know for Optimization- [Infographic]

Sat, 13 Nov 2021 09:16:18 -0500

We all know how important it is to rank well on Google search results pages. It’s why SEO has become such a hot area for businesses – appearing at the number 1 rank for a relevant search query can result in a huge increase of traffic and revenue.

Sadly, it’s not always easy to do so, particularly as many online markets these days are saturated with competition. That’s why it’s vital to stay on top of and understand Google’s algorithm updates, and appropriately test and optimize your website for them.

The latest Google update comes in the form of Core Web Vitals – three new measures for website functionality and usability. These are:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures how long it takes for a page’s main content to load. This could be a large image, video, or text. Your main content should load in 5 seconds or less.
First Input Delay (FID): This measures how long it takes for your page to become interactive. It should take less than 100 milliseconds.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Is there any unexpected movement in page content? For example, a large image loading above a paragraph can push the text further down the page. You should aim for a score of less than 0.1.

Testing for these is relatively straightforward, as Google provides the tools and platforms to do so. On Google Search Console, there’s a Core Web Vitals report that you can run your website through. It’ll analyze the performance across your website and tell you where areas for optimization are. Another Google tool is PageSpeed insights – as load speed is a vital matter for CWV, this will tell you which pages on your website are loading slowly and in need of optimization.

For more information on Google’s Core Web Vitals and how to optimize for them, Website Builder Expert have put together a new infographic detailing how to do so.

24 Entrepreneur Explain How They Come Up With Their Business Name

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 12:16:52 -0500

The idea of exactly what your business is going to do usually comes first. Secondly, most often, is giving a title to your idea. What exactly is going to be the name of your business? Some people turn to their childhood for inspiration or a beloved family pet. It could be a made-up word you dream of one night and feel it has the right ring to it. Even still some people study foreign words for the perfect meaning behind their chosen business. Whatever the inspiration or relation may be, the naming of your business is one of the most important parts of becoming a CEO. Having a brand behind a strong title can make all the difference in the world.

#1- Was inspired by the community

Photo Credit: Monica Fullerton

Living the military life is both rewarding and challenging for military spouses. We are faced with the unknown frequently, our spouses deploying and usually moving around every 2-3 years. I was so inspired by the amount of talent within our community. I knew I had to do something to bring everyone together at an easy place. I used to always say that's so spouse of you to my friends meaning wow that you are so creative and talented. Here we are today, Spouse-ly is an online marketplace to shop a wide variety of handmade products and services created by military & first responder families.

Thanks to Monica Fullerton, Spouse-ly!

#2- Based on our purpose

Photo Credit: Eric Kaye

Our name derives from the word Kaizen, After I suffered a back injury I followed a physical therapy treatment. During these sessions, which included exercises using standard resistance bands and tubes I found many ways these tools could be beneficial. When we officially launched our brand, it was with a simple goal: to help people continuously improve and it is our team's guiding principle. Having this shared purpose helps to get everyone a deeper connection to the work we're doing.

Thanks to Eric Kaye, Kayezen!

#3- Created ideas on a mood board

Photo Credit: Will Cannon

If you've tried any or all of the name generation methods listed above and still can't come up with a name for your company, this might be just what you need to get your creative juices flowing. A mood board is a more visual representation of your ideas that is intended to appeal to your creative right-brain. Simply gather a stack of old magazines and catalogs to create a mood board. Cut out images, slogans, and colors that represent you, your company, and your product, and put them on the ship.

Thanks to Will Cannon, Signaturely!

#4- Brainstorming

Photo Credit: Marina Vaamonde

We came up with our business name via good old-fashioned brainstorming. We had some ideas right off the bat, but it's always good practice to have a dedicated brainstorming session. We gathered all of the keywords we could find, threw them all together, and teased out some ideas. We were looking for a name for our business that was neat, concise, and most importantly, accurate. We help people cash in on their property!

Thanks to Marina Vaamonde, Property Cashin!

#5- Helped by a friend

Photo Credit: Lana Khabarova

My goal is to create a platform to connect investors who want to make an impact with their money with the right investments. So I was looking for a name that would include sustainability, impact, or social responsibility as well as investing and personal finance. I probably looked at 100 different options, and most of them were taken. In the end, it was a friend who was helping me brainstorm who came up with SustainFi (sustainable + finance.)

Thanks to Lana Khabarova, Sustain Fi!

#6- Based on my passion

Photo Credit: Denny Daniel

I founded and curated The Museum of Interesting Things. It travels to schools and teaches the history of invention. Before it, I was a struggling filmmaker and wanted to change careers. I turned my passion for history, storytelling & collecting into a career. But what would I call this new unique enterprise? I had just completed a music video for an underground rockabilly band and I had the client who took one and a half steps into my apartment and said, Oh my! You have a lot of interesting things. So I told him he will soon find out and that day I secured the website for The Museum of Interesting Things.

Thanks to Denny Daniel, The Museum of Interesting Things!

#7- From a Cantonese name

Photo Credit: Angus chang

We are an eCommerce platform and dedicated to providing quality home products and information. Our business name is Iupilon, and it’s a Cantonese (the official language of Hong Kong) word that means “quality as better as a dragon that is rare.” We offer only the best in terms of information and product and never compromise on the quality. As we began our business, we decided we would maintain its quality in every aspect. It
is the reason we chose Iupilon as the name of our company.

Thanks to Angus chang, Iupilon!

#8- Represents company's theme

Photo Credit: Danavir Sarria

Originally, Supply Drop was supposed to be an ad creative agency. This is a service where I would supply eCommerce brands with new Facebook ads every month. So to make that idea stick, I looked for military-themed names that implied my agency's job is to support and reinforce your brand's marketing efforts. I found airdrop, but it was already popularized by Apple. So I went with the word supply drop. Even though we focus on email marketing now, the name still makes sense, so we kept it.

Thanks to Danavir Sarria, Supply Drop!

#9- A reflection of my journey

Photo Credit: Clayton Hasbrook

I have always been that kid whose “head was in the clouds.” I have been through a lot of struggles to be in the position where I am today. Deciding a business name was tricky because I always wanted a name that reflected my journey and occupation. I took recommendations from friends and family and finally came up with the name “Oklahomalawyer.” This name represents my business idea and the only thing I am interested in. My mantra in life during this journey was to “Learn, Unlearn & Relearn”.

Thanks to Clayton Hasbrook, OklahomaLawyer!

#10- While driving

Photo Credit: Victoria Cornell

Motherhood Life Balance is all about helping women balance motherhood and their personal goals and dreams. I came up with my current business name Motherhood Life Balance while driving. I was thinking about all the things I wanted to teach other women about mindset and productivity. I wanted to share that there is a way to go after your dreams while being a mother. I think a name should be able to explain what your business is about in seconds. There should be no guessing. It helps people know right away if you're offering something they need.

Thanks to Victoria Cornell, Motherhood Life Balance!

#11- Chose it from a list of 20 or 30 names

Photo Credit: Gerrid Smith

It took me more than two weeks to complete the process. I was having trouble coming up with a name. I came up with a list of 20 or 30 names that also had the domain available (I needed a.com), and in the end, I chose five that sounded decent. I went with the ones that were brief and had two letters in them. I created a Google Drive pool and invited friends and acquaintances to vote on the names that sounded good, were easy to remember, and were professional. In the end, I came up with Joy Organics.

Thanks to Gerrid Smith, Joy Organics!

#12- Shared ideas with people

Photo Credit: Dalia Katan

The name for Presently actually came from a friend’s coworker! I was visiting a coworking space in San Francisco and chatting with a few of his coworkers about some of the ideas I was thinking of pursuing. It quickly became a fun brainstorm session and within less than 30 minutes we had GoDaddy pulled up and found the perfect name! One of the many reasons it’s important to talk about startup ideas with others rather than keeping it secret: it can help you validate whether or not it’s an idea worth pursuing.

Thanks to Dalia Katan, Presently!

#13- Passion as a creative performer

Photo Credit: Kaare Long

My business name, ‘Cue Creative' was solely inspired by a career as a professional performer. I was a singer, dance, and actor. Later, my a

IAM1184- Founder Leads a Holistic Mental Health Practice Group

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 09:10:22 -0500

console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘Skip player from rendering', ‘is single: , is main loop: 1, is main query: 1');console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘trinity_content_filter');LuAnn Oliver is a Psychotherapist and founder of Heartswell, a holistic mental health practice group in Arlington, VA. She believes in a balanced approach to overcoming addiction, depression and anxiety that integrate mind and body. In addition to leading the practice group LuAnn raises her 3 young boys with her husband, Jeff. They enjoy camping, biking, skiing among other outdoor activities.

CEO Hack: Outsourcing to another company- Level Up Strategies
CEO Nugget: Just get started
CEO Defined: Being a team-player and a leader at times

Website: http://liveheartswell.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/liveheartswell/
Facebook: @liveheartswell
LinkedIn – Heartswell

Check out

Listen to the full podcast. This is Originally posted here.

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Monday Motivation: Your Mindset Is Everything

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 09:16:56 -0500

This motivational video is to help CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners start the week off inspired to become great.

Here are some takeaways from the video:

Dreams don't come true without action
You build your resilience in the low moments
You have the power within you to deal with whatever you face
Business is competitive, get focused.

The post Monday Motivation: Your Mindset Is Everything appeared first on Hearpreneur.

IAM1182- CEO Helps Companies Enter the Medical Cannabis Market

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 08:39:55 -0500

console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘Skip player from rendering', ‘is single: , is main loop: 1, is main query: 1');console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘trinity_content_filter');Dr. Jon Thompson, Founder and CEO of extraktLAB, is a separation scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur. He received his Doctor of Chemistry degree in 2001 from the University of Minnesota and has since has worked on everything from secret projects with NASA to helping companies enter the medical cannabis market. His company helps people find success in the business of pharmaceutical grade botanical extraction and refinement. Dr. Jon guides his businesses through ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) policies and believes we all deserve a sustainable future.

CEO

Listen to the full podcast. This is Originally posted here.

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Why does retail need store automation?

Sat, 06 Nov 2021 13:39:27 -0400

To decide to automate processes, the owners must analyze their activities. Are there long queues in the store that sellers do not have time to quickly serve and because of this, sales are falling? Are there any problems with the inventory, is it difficult to put into action various promotional offers and a loyalty system? …

IAM1179- Psychologist Helps People Handle High-stress Occupations

Fri, 05 Nov 2021 05:13:04 -0400

console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘Skip player from rendering', ‘is single: , is main loop: 1, is main query: 1');console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘trinity_content_filter');Registered Psychologist, Dr. Ganz Ferrance, is a Speaker, Author, and Coach. Since the early ‘90’s Dr. Ganz has been helping individuals, couples, families, and corporations beat BURNOUT, reduce their levels of stress, improve their relationships, and enjoy more success.
Known for working with the toughest of the tough including fourth-generation gang members, hardened oil and gas workers, battle-tested CEOs and entrepreneurs, and stressed out law enforcement officers, Dr. Ganz is truly a master at showing people in high-stress occupations no-nonsense, practical strategies to stay focused,

Listen to the full podcast. This is Originally posted here.

The post IAM1179- Psychologist Helps People Handle High-stress Occupations appeared first on Black Disruptor.

Monday Motivation: A Morning Routine That Will Change Everything For You

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 09:16:42 -0400

This motivational video is to help CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners start the week off inspired to become great.

Here are some takeaways from the video:

Prioritize who you are and who you want to be
Do not fall into the trap of feeling like you are a victim in life
Figure out where your power base is
Do not let people place their impossibilities on your life
Define your life by who you are

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IAM1176- Artistic Director Brings People and Cultures Together

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 08:41:49 -0400

console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘Skip player from rendering', ‘is single: , is main loop: 1, is main query: 1');console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘trinity_content_filter');Armineh Keshishian is the President and Artistic Director of Evolution Dance Theatre which has created and produced a number of multidisciplinary dance theatre productions. Armineh has incorporated her creative skills with her financial knowledge and entrepreneurial discipline and committed herself as the visionary behind these productions since 2006. She says “I strive to create cultural fusion through art. I am inspired by concepts of women’s empowerment, diversity, multiculturalism and breaking down archetypal traditions. My aim is to bring people and cultures together by focusing

Listen to the full podcast. This is Originally posted here.

The post IAM1176- Artistic Director Brings People and Cultures Together appeared first on Healthy CEO.

IAM1175- Naturalista Fills the Void of All-natural Pomade Products

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 04:36:22 -0400

console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘Skip player from rendering', ‘is single: , is main loop: 1, is main query: 1');console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘trinity_content_filter');Erma is a lifelong Brooklynite, nearly lifelong naturalista, and owner of The Pomade Shop. She created The Pomade Shop to help fill the void all-natural pomade products. When she isn’t creating her healthy hair pomades, Erma writes about health and wellness.

CEO Hack: Bublup- an all in one system
CEO Nugget: Know how to motivate yourself, excavate yourself to find your greatenss
CEO Defined: Extention of faith, believing in yourself and being courageous to show up yourself

Website: https://www.thepomadeshop.com/
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/thepomadeshop

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Listen to the full podcast. This is Originally posted here.

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21 Entrepreneurs Reveal Their Favorite Business or Entrepreneur Turnaround Story

Sun, 31 Oct 2021 12:16:25 -0400

Poor performance in business doesn’t always imply the failure of a business. It can be an improving point for a business or mark its upward trajectory. Hiring an expert or a coach to walk you through this stage can help you minimize the chances of failure although identifying the problem first can be a great way to create a long-lasting strategy. Whichever path works best for you, improvement should be the ultimate goal.

We asked entrepreneurs and business owners on their best business or entrepreneur turnaround story and here are the responses.

#1- General Motors

Photo Credit: Ryan Jeffords

One of my favorite success stories is from GM Motors. General Motors comeback is by far the most striking success story in business turnarounds. It was originally a holding company founded by William C. Durant in 1908. Durant lost control of GM to a bankers' trust just two years later, in 1910, due to enormous debt and a crumble in automobile sales. A dramatic proxy war in 1915 helped him retake control, but the new vehicle market crashed in 1918, and he lost it forever. Eventually, the company was led to global dominance by Alfred P. Sloan, who would remain in charge well into the '80s. Saturn, Pontiac, and Hummer were all shuttered due to GM's bankruptcy, which occurred on June 1, 2009. According to too Bloomberg, the U.S. Treasury invested $50 billion in General Motors a month later and made $39 billion from the sale of its shares later that
year.

Thanks to Ryan Jeffords, BHPH!

#2- Henry Sy

Photo Credit: Nick Edwards

Henry Sy, the guy behind the world-famous SM Malls, is a household name in the Philippines. He has dreamed of becoming a successful entrepreneur since he was a child, and with that aim in mind, he has dedicated himself to hard work that has led him to where he is now. From carrying the items sold at her father's little store till WW2 arrived with a burned and plundered store. It didn't stop him from sticking to his aim of success, which included buying a lot of bizarre objects and starting a business. One of the values that can help you achieve your objective is commitment. Even if you start at the back of the pack, if you commit to finishing the race, you will succeed, I believe.

Thanks to Nick Edwards, Snow Finders!

#3- Mate Rimac

Photo Credit: Johnny Hartin

For me, a specially inspiring story is one related to the Croatian innovator Mate Rimac. He started his business journey in his family garage, and in just a few years, he accomplished to produce the fastest electric car in the world. Also, he is now one of the owners of Buggati, which is a huge success for an entrepreneur from such a small country as Croatia.

Thanks to Johnny Hartin, EffectsBusiness.com!

#4- FUBU's Daymond John

Photo Credit: Tyler Martin

Daymond John is a well-known “Shark Tank” alumnus. What began as a $40 budget in his mother's basement has grown into a multimillion-dollar fashion empire: FUBU. John has invested in various small businesses and served as a mentor and branding authority since his beginnings in 1992. He has also been named CEO of the Shark Group, a brand consultancy firm. Forbes, Shopify, and Gillette are among the clients who have learned how FUBU developed a successful global brand. Expert guidance is given on social media, marketing, influencer integration, licensing, and other topics. Daymond John is also a best-selling author and motivational speaker..

Thanks to Tyler Martin, ThinkTyler!

#5- WhatsApp founders

Photo Credit: Ella Hao

One of my favorite business turnarounds is the story of the founders of WhatsApp. In 2009, they were almost out of cash and building a prototype for a service that would send text messages to any mobile device. At that time, SMS was still costly. They had a chance to meet with an acquaintance working at Facebook (where they tried to apply for jobs unsuccessfully) and saw potential in his idea for a messaging service. That meeting helped him raise money from Sequoia Capital to help continue building the app. Eventually, they sold WhatsApp to Facebook for $22 billion, making them some of the youngest billionaires ever.

Thanks to Ella Hao, WellPCB!

#6- Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield

Photo Credit: John Marsano

The foundations of a worldwide ice cream empire were laid by a $5 correspondence course from Penn State University, a shared love of a traditional frozen delicacy, and a childhood relationship. Cohen and Greenfield borrowed $4,000 to build their first ice cream business in Vermont in 1978, with a total investment of $12,000. Things started to move quickly. Ben & Jerry's is currently known for its commitment to fair trade and nongenetically modified ingredients that are truly sourced. They're also dedicated to giving back to the community and their employees, who each receive three pints of ice cream per day. According to Statista, the company generated more than $863.1 million in the United States in 2020.

Thanks to John Marsano, Inheritance Advanced!

#7- Airbnb

Photo Credit: Jason Feldman

Airbnb struggled to attract investors when it first began in 2008, requiring founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia to manufacture bespoke cereal boxes to earn money. They made Obama-Os and Cap'n McCains as a tribute to Barack Obama and John McCain. They gathered almost $30,000 in two months and were invited to a training session for a startup incubator, where they received training and $20,000 in cash. The business grew rapidly, and by the next year, the Airbnb website had 10,000 users and 2,500 listings. The company now offers over 4 million listings worldwide and generates over $2.5 billion in revenue annually.

Thanks to Jason Feldman, Immigrate Me!

#8- Eric Yuan, Zoom

Photo Credit: Sarah Jameson

My favorite entrepreneur turn-around story has been of Eric Yuan, founder of Zoom. He envisioned a means for long-distance partners and team members to stay in touch when he founded the audio-visual cloud conferencing platform Zoom in 2011. Yuan came to the United States on his eighth attempt to migrate from China. Yuan kept applying for additional work permits to keep the idea alive when less committed entrepreneurs might have given up. He was ultimately approved after several years of application and soon progressed to the position of vice president of engineering at Cisco. Soon after, he started Zoom, which today employs over 2,500 people and has a market capitalization of more than $16 billion at the start of 2021. Knowing how to manage a successful business is one thing; knowing how to but knowing how to rise above seemingly impossible odds is a whole other skill.

Thanks to Sarah Jameson, GreenBuildingElements.com!

#9- Mike Evans and Matt Maloney

The most inspiring and my favorite story is about Matt Maloney and Mike Evans as businessperson. When a couple of Chicago software developers working on Apartments.com's lookup searches got tired of phoning restaurants to order takeout, it dawned on them: Why isn't there a one-stop shop for food delivery? That's when the two came up with the idea for GrubHub, which went public in April and is now worth more than $3 billion.

Thanks to Ethan Howell, Florida Environmental!

#10- Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak

Photo Credit: Tanner Arnold

As a businessperson, the most motivating and favourite story about Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs is the one about Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. While the two college dropouts had been friends since high school, they acquired significant exposure to the computer business while working on game software on the night shift at Atari. Ron Wayne, the third Apple founder, was also an Atari alumni. As I usually say, the world is filled with endless options and innumerable opportunities, but your life and career are finite, which means you only have so much time to find what you're looking for and leave your mark. This is your chance to shine. It's a scarce resource, so don't squander it. Find something you enjoy doing and go for it. That is how all true entrepreneurs
begin.

Thanks to Tanner Arnold, RevelationMachinery.com!

#11- Reddit

Photo Credit: Jeremy Yamaguchi

Reddit is a great example of a successful turnaround. Obviously we all know how popular and successful it is today, but when it was first founded 15 or so years ago, it was not popular or successful at all. It was so unpopular that the founders themselves actually created fake accounts and fake discussions in order to attempt to encourage real people to join. While this may not have been the most ethical move, they were able to bring people to their site and now have millions and millions of active users every day, and that achievement is quite impressive.

Thanks to Jeremy Yamaguchi, Lawn Love!

#12-Tesla

Photo Credit: Will Henry

Elon Musk had a plan to start this electric car company and saved what he could to fund the project. He invested his last $35M in the company and got another $7M loan from friends, family, and what Tesla employees could spare. It cost him $4.8B more than he had to build out all of these factories to produce electric cars. The company faced bankruptcy over 10 times but Elon came up with some genius ideas the next day to save it each time. I love how Tesla's sales are skyrocketing now, though, after seeing it go bankrupt 10 times!

Thanks to Will Henry, Bike Smarts!

#13- IBM

Photo Credit: Alex Williams

IBM had its fair share of success in the 80s and early 90s before it started losing its shares. The company then risked becoming utterly irrelevant in the market. In 1993, the company reported losses of around $8 billion, one of the most enormous company losses until that time. It seemed inevitable to come back from this situation and be competitive in the market once again. At this point, the company made some drastic decisions to change th

Mapping Your Customer Experience Strategy- [Infographic]

Sun, 31 Oct 2021 09:16:25 -0400

Happy customers are crucial for the success of any business. Therefore, it makes sense to have a specified customer experience strategy to give your customers the best service when they interact with your brand.

An outstanding customer experience requires planning and deliberate action to provide an entirely seamless, extraordinary pre and post-sales experience. It may seem like a lot of work, but in today’s competitive and thriving global market, the way you treat your customers can make or break your brand.

Giving the best service to your customers is crucial because 43% of buyers ditch a brand for poor customer experience. Customers today expect super personalized service, and your customer experience strategy equips you with the knowledge and methods to achieve that goal.

You can easily create your customer experience strategy in four steps, as described in the GetVoip infographic below.

When customers are happy with you, they keep buying from you and can become your loyal advocates. Even as low as a 5% increase in customer retention can increase your profits by 25% to 95%.

Once you’ve matched your customers’ goals to the touchpoints in the buyer’s journey, it’s easy to move along the sales funnel. However, for the ultimate success of your strategy, you need to adopt a customer-centric company culture.

28 Entrepreneurs Explain What Success Means in Entrepreneurship

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 12:16:02 -0400

When defining success as an entrepreneur, it’s a fact that there are no shortcuts to how it can be achieved. It differs with the phase you are in and the goals you’ve set to achieve. Some will say the number of employees in a company is the real measure of success while others will say it’s the impact you achieve. It’s clear the definition of success varies and is determined by various factors.

We asked entrepreneurs and business owners their definition of success and below are the responses they had.

#1-Creating an encouraging environment

Photo Credit: Elley Hudson

Most business owners will tell you that success is achieved when you've filled your pockets. I disagree. To me, success is achieved when you create an encouraging environment where people can grow and thrive professionally. Before founding Excellence Property, I co-owned an agency where I was a minority shareholder. I was making money, yes, but I had minimal control over how things were done and I was upset by how many shareholders agendas seemed to trump the wellbeing of employees. It wasn't until I spearheaded my own agency that I felt successful, as people such as myself could finally learn property management in a safe environment that provided them with the support and systems they needed. One of the best pieces of professional advice ever shared with me was “do what you love, the money will follow”, which couldn't be more true. I love helping honest, accountable and hard-working people, and it's brought me more success than I ever could have imagined.

Thanks to Elley Hudson, Excellence Property!

#2- Sense of fulfillment

Photo Credit: Jessica Osborn

In my experience, success is multi-dimensional and we each have our own unique formula. It's not solely about the achievement of a goal, while this aspect is important, true success also includes the feeling of fulfillment and a lifestyle with the ideal balance between work, social, and personal time. Think about how often you may have achieved a goal, yet still felt unsatisfied. We all see many people who are successful on paper, yet they themselves do not feel successful. Why? Because they lack fulfillment and are not living their ideal lifestyle. For myself, and the female CEOs I work with, balance is the most important determining factor of success and this is why we start their business strategy by defining their ideal lifestyle: a unique balance of what's important in their life. Freedom to live our lives how we most desire is the reason we're in business, it's the motivation behind our strategy and choices we make in how we offer our services. When you've achieved business and revenue goals, resulting in the balanced lifestyle you most desire, you gain a deep sense of fulfillment. Which is the ultimate definition of success!

Thanks to Jessica Osborn, Jessica Osborn Coaching!

#3- Being the best I can be

Photo Credit: Moira Vella Photography

Success is being able to live a life where I am able to do what I want, when I want to do it, & how I want to do it. It is not just about money or status, it's being able to feel like I have achieved my goals, both professionally and personally. Being able to help people, giving back to my community, learning new things, getting back up when I fall down (which I have done many times), spending quality time with family & friends, being able to reward myself when I achieve a goal (no matter how small). Success to me may be different to others, but that's totally fine, after all we are all uniquely different, but I'll be happy being the ‘best person' I can be.. for ME!

Thanks to Debbie Roberts, Debbie Roberts Consulting!

#4- A few definitions

Photo Credit: Anesley Clarke

Success is achieved when you have a business that is predictable and scalable. This can only be done with a clear vision that defines who and what you represent in the marketplace. In addition, you need to build a strong internal culture based on values of respect, kindness & fairness. Financial success will follow….

Thanks to Anesley Clarke, B2C Furniture!

#5- Alignment to personal values

Photo Credit: Sonia Gibson

Living a life that is aligned to your personal values is the ultimate definition of success. For me this is: Financial independence – being in a financial position to support the lifestyle of my choosing. Wellbeing – having time to pursue a healthy lifestyle (eat well, exercise and find enjoyment outside of my business). Congruence – being surrounded by people who do what they say and say what they mean. I don't have time for people who aren't authentic. Seeing the big picture – I take a holistic approach, understanding how things are interconnected.

Thanks to Sonia Gibson, Accounting Heart!

#6- Making a difference

Photo Credit: Jessie Parker

Success to me is knowing you have made a difference in the lives of those around you- your children, your partner, family, friends, clients and wider community. Often the definition of success can focus on money or wealth, whereas I believe money is just a wonderful byproduct of giving from the heart.

Thanks to Jessie Parker

#7- Finding time to enjoy the fruits of my labor

Photo Credit: Elle Wilson

If you’re a business owner, you’ll probably have broken away from your role as a cog in a big company, or chosen to begin your career as your own boss, for one or all of several reasons: the independence, the flexibility, the job satisfaction, and the freedom to dictate your own career path and income. But many of us find that once we’ve launched our business, we become slaves to its every need and whim: the HR, the marketing, the tiny jobs that consume all of our productive work time and stop us from reaping the benefits that first attracted us to the idea. The flexibility to take holidays with the family, pick the kids up from school, and push forward purposefully in individual personal and professional development seem to fall prey to the appetites of the time-consuming process of actually running an enterprise. So success for me has been finding time to enjoy the fruits of my labor by readjusting the balance in favor of rewarding myself for all my hard work and prudent decisions.

Thanks to Elle Wilson, TrueBrow!

#8- The journey

Photo Credit: Nicole Saccaro

Success is such a relative and subjective term that can mean so many things to different people. In terms of a business being successful, I believe if you have the right people working in the right environment on the right product with smart processes and an aligned, motivating vision, you will have success. Importantly, it’s not just about the destination, the journey itself can feel successful too.

Thanks to Nicole Saccaro, Formitize!

#9- Balance of several things

Photo Credit: Jennifer Sergeant

My definition of success doesn't necessarily lie within revenue earnings but lies within a balance that takes into consideration mental health, happiness, and continuing education not just for myself but for everyone on my team. When we are able to place our mental health and happiness above everything then we are truly striving. Continuing education is key because when we learn something new we're also learning how to be better problem solvers, better communicators, and better professionals. Success to me is balancing and managing all of these elements because this is what affects the growth, or lack thereof, of a company.

Thanks to Jennifer Sergeant, Digital Sargeant!

#10- Being able to ‘come home'

Photo Credit: Scott Mason

As entrepreneurs and business owners, we are uniquely positioned to throw out the myths others tell us about what success can be, and write new stories, defining success on our own terms. In the world's most enduring myths, the gods give the hero or heroine a mission — a goal to achieve — and a team of supporters and mentors, as well as special gifts, to achieve it. But the specific goal is usually just a MacGuffin — a plot device to trigger the journey. The successful hero has to leave the old world behind, overcome terrible obstacles (sometimes even death) as she enters new realms to reach the goal, and then grows, shifts, and completely re-emerges inside. That is when the goal is reached. And that is when they can come home, a true leader, and enjoy earned prosperity, abundance, and wisdom. For a truly great entrepreneur and businessperson, a successful business is similarly just a MacGuffin. Leaving comfort behind, navigating constantly changing terrains, and then shifting inside and growing — being able to “come home” to an inner space of psychological abundance, wisdom, and prosperity on terms that WE dictate: that is the real definition of entrepreneurial success.

Thanks to Scott Mason, Purpose Highway!

#11- Having a large deal of pride

Photo Credit: Jason Feldman

When you look back on your life in your final moments, success means having a large deal of pride in your creations, accomplishments, and legacy, but having little to no regret about what you didn't do or missed opportunities i.e. your family still loves you. I consider myself successful if I can die feeling this way.

Thanks to Jason Feldman, Immigrate Me!

#12- A few definitions

IAM1168- President Translates Organizational Needs into Successful Strategies

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 03:31:19 -0400

console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘Skip player from rendering', ‘is single: , is main loop: 1, is main query: 1');console.debug(‘TRINITY_WP', ‘trinity_content_filter');Donald L. Bedney, III, president of PSP Metrics, firmly believes that well-directed human capital should be harnessed to achieve extraordinary performance. With a mission of driving change through people, he aims to help 1,000,000,000 companies worldwide develop and engage their employees to resist mediocrity and aim instead at institutional excellence. He brings this commitment to superior performance to each of his clients and more than fifteen years of experience translating organizational needs into successful business strategies.

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