Tuesday, January 25, 2022

StartupNation

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Entrepreneurs: How to Focus Ruthlessly and Win in 2022

Posted: 24 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST

entrepreneurs

New and aspiring entrepreneurs often fall victim to impatience and imperfection.

When something's not working perfectly to their standards (or worse, fails), they take it personally and don't know how to move on to better iterations after the setback.

But that's what startup life is all about. To win, you have to learn how to rebound from failures — fast. You must remain focused on bootstrapping the business you envision. And, above all else, you can't give up.

The founders in this piece all faced these challenges before launching startups that earned them millionaire status. They stayed motivated, bootstrapped their growth and proved their critics wrong. 

8 Surprising Strategies for Unstoppable Focus

Here's what you can learn from them to focus ruthlessly on your goals:

1. Make your mission your mantra.

Jennifer Hyman, cofounder and CEO of Rent the Runway, says if your work isn't "mission-driven or emotionally resonant with you," it will be almost impossible to maintain passion and focus for the long haul.

"Too often, ambitious, type-A people stay on 'the track,' going from a great college to a competitive job to the next competitive job without stopping to think about what they are passionate about and how they want to spend their time."

When you focus on your "why" and your mission, you'll naturally prioritize all your day-to-day decisions. Tasks either work to meet that goal or detract from it. So follow through on the former and ditch the latter to drive progress this year. 

2. Ponder the question of nine.

Whitney Wolfe, founder of the female-empowered dating app Bumble, stays on track by asking herself the question of nine.

"Will this matter in nine minutes, nine hours, nine days, nine weeks, nine months or nine years? If it will truly matter for all of those, pay attention to it. If it isn’t going to matter in nine minutes, nine hours or nine days from now, you need to not pay attention to it."

Entrepreneurs often get bogged down in the details of perfectionism. But what seems mission-critical right now may not matter all that much in the grand scheme of your business. Commit to your actionable, big-picture goals this year and tackle the rest later.

3. Use your lows to inspire your highs.

Engineer and entrepreneur Hari Ravichandran has experienced his fair share of ups and downs.

He was the founder and CEO of Endurance International Group, a publicly traded company he turned into a global hosting and email marketing behemoth worth $3.5 billion.

But then Ravichandran's identity was stolen in 2015. At that time, he didn’t have an effective way to monitor the warning signs of identity theft, nor were there any solutions available to figure out how to prevent it.

Ravichandran decided to found Aura, a solution to help people find out if their identity was stolen and help prevent such breaches in the future. His platform is now trusted by millions of customers and valued at more than $1 billion.

"My three kids are growing up as digital natives. Working at Aura and developing our products makes me feel like I can provide some security to them as they navigate the digital world… and make the world a safer place."

Having your identity stolen is a universally stressful experience. What equally stressful problems do you and your potential customers wish they could solve? Focus on these, and you'll have early adopters lining up ASAP. 

4. Believe "failure's like free tuition."

Tomas Gorny, cofounder and CEO of cloud communications and voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) company Nextiva, believes your biggest lessons come from your worst failures.

Born and raised in Poland, Gorny immigrated to the United States at the age of 20, barely speaking English. Living off $3 a day, Gorny took odd jobs just to survive as he tried to break into tech. 

Gorny became an early stakeholder in a web-hosting company called Internet Communications, which was acquired just two years later. Though the deal made Gorny a millionaire by 22, it also prompted him to set his goals around his net worth. 

Though he made various investments in tech during the late ’90s, the dot-com crash and 9/11 flushed all that cash down the drain. Gorny was forced to start all over.

"Failure's like free tuition. You can reflect and analyze not to repeat mistakes. It's much harder to break down successes to learn how to improve." 

Gorny says these are the biggest lessons he learned from the experience:

  • Stop focusing on net worth. Concentrate on the value your business provides, and the money will come later.
  • Never have an exit strategy. If you're already planning for the worst, your mind won't be 100 percent focused on grinding forward when times inevitably get tough.

Gorny bootstrapped several startups, launching them all without any external investors. Warburg Pincus and Goldman Sachs acquired one for nearly $1 billion. And today, Nextiva earns more than $200 million in annual revenue.

So what have your biggest failures taught you? Try to assess what went wrong during a recent setback in the past year. Then brainstorm ways to correct or modify your game plan in 2022. The lessons you learn from your failures may define you, but they should never hold you back.

5. Trust your gut; take that chance.

Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube, always had good instincts. 

In 1998, she let Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page rent out her garage. The duo developed Google's search engine there and hired Wojcicki just one year later (she was employee #16).

Wojcicki says her friends, family and colleagues thought she was crazy to accept the position at the unknown startup — especially since she was four months pregnant at the time. But she took the job anyway and quickly rose through the ranks.

In 2006, Google had the opportunity to buy YouTube. Despite her peers and higher-ups disagreeing with the move, Wojcicki pushed for the $1.65-billion acquisition of the video platform.

"I wasn't focused on revenue. I was focused on whether this will make a difference in people's lives … This is something that's providing information for people in a better way."

Wojcicki's gut instincts paid off. YouTube is the world's second-most visited website (after Google), and people watch more than a billion hours of content on the platform daily.

Every aspiring entrepreneur knows how Wojcicki felt when faced with new, uncertain paths. But startups are all about disrupting industry standards. You can't listen to critics who say you're crazy just because they lack the imagination to believe in your vision. 

So give your inner voice the microphone this year. Develop those "hair-brained" ideas and prove your detractors wrong.

6. Live by the prioritized to-do list.

Daniella Yacobovsky, the founder of jewelry company BaubleBar, says she's "pretty OCD about creating to-do lists." She admits to constantly prioritizing what's at the top of her list, where your most important tasks should take center stage.

"I break things down into things that feel doable within a span of one to two hours. That helps me methodically sort through everything that's on my plate."

These easily digestible nuggets help you conquer your workload and avoid burnout. Remember, startup life isn't a sprint; it's a marathon. Pace yourself so you can push harder the next day.

7. Simplify to optimize. 

David Barnett was a college professor before becoming the founder of PopSockets. Constantly frustrated by the tangle of headphones in his pocket, Barnett glued two giant buttons to his cell phone case so he could wrap the headphones around it.

He spent the next 15 months designing prototypes for the first PopSockets. However, thanks to the ever-changing nature of cellphones, his new cases never established a foothold in the smartphone accessory market.

Until he decided to ditch the cases altogether.

Barnett simplified the design, adding an adhesive backing to the PopSockets "button." This allowed consumers to attach PopSockets to any cell phone or tablet, greatly expanding his product's reach. To date, Barnett's sold more than 35 million PopSockets, and the net worth of his brand is around $500 million.

So are you overly complicating one aspect of your business to your detriment? Think about easy ways to simplify your process or product, and see if that opens the door for better ideas this year.

8. Keep bootstrapping to test your concept. 

Oleg Shchegolev and Dmitriy Melnikov are the cofounders of SEMrush, an online visibility management and content marketing SaaS platform.  

Shchegolev and Melnikov began experimenting with different SEO strategies in 2006. They launched SEMrush at the height of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. And to make an already challenging situation even more difficult, the two chose to bootstrap the entire venture to prevent their business from "collapsing under the weight of outbound investments." 

To do this, they took on a freemium business model and then shared SEMrush with their friends and other IT professionals. This allowed them to refine their product and raise awareness of their startup without investor interference.

"The biggest challenge was to stick to bootstrapping for so long, but it was very consistent with our commitment to experimenting and to developing our product the way we wanted it to be."

Shchegolev and Melnikov said there was "no point" in sticking to bootstrapping forever. So they had to make a key decision of when to raise investments at the right time. SEMrush eventually raised $140 million at IPO based on a $1.9-billion evaluation.

The takeaway? Be patient. Don't rush to secure investors before your business is ready. Try to map out an ideal growth plan and determine where raising funds makes the most sense. 

Keep iterating your product or concept this year and get it in the hands of your target audience. Embrace your market research, and you'll have evidence of what works. 

Make 2022 the year that changed everything

There's never a perfect time to launch your business. And becoming a successful entrepreneur doesn't happen overnight. But if you follow the founders' advice in today's guide, you can drive real results for your startup in 2022.

Resist the siren song of perfection and be prepared to make mistakes. Learn from those setbacks to iterate a better product. Prioritize your to-do list and focus on the most pressing matters related to your mission and big-picture goals. 

Most importantly, make 2022 the year to just begin. Stop letting the fear of failure, criticism, lack of funding or your own impatience get in the way. 

Must-Read: 5 Leadership Traits No Entrepreneur Succeeds Without

The post Entrepreneurs: How to Focus Ruthlessly and Win in 2022 appeared first on StartupNation.

Propel Your Business Forward by Avoiding These Entrepreneurial Traps

Posted: 24 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST

This excerpt is adapted from “Yes, You Can Take a Day Off: Escape the Nine Traps of Growing Your Small Business” by David A. Hiatt and Susan Hance Sykes. Copyright 2021 Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.  Sandler and Sandler Training are registered service marks of Sandler Systems, Inc.

The nine entrepreneurial traps

Let's look at the nine common entrepreneurial traps that drive business owners to the brink of burnout, and then let's focus on the strategies that will generate the fuel needed for afterburn so you can summon the boost of energy you need to propel your business to the next level.

Trap 1: "Setting a Vision Is Just for Big Companies"

  • What is your personal vision for your life?
  • What kind of leader do you want to be?
  • What is your vision for your company?
  • What is the purpose of your organization?

These are some of the big questions, important questions that need asking and answering and they are not just for big companies. As a business owner, you have the privilege of choosing your direction. You also get to choose who, if anyone, you want to accompany you on the trip. Whether your business is just you, you and a few, or you and a huge team, your goals and dreams matter. Setting a clear vision ensures that you are moving forward with purpose.

Setting a clear vision ensures that you are moving forward with purpose.

Trap 2: "Nobody Does What I Do Better Than Me"

This is the disempowering belief that it's faster and more efficient to do something yourself than to teach someone else how to do it. This trap manifests in the business owner working too much in the business's day-to-day tasks without allowing sufficient, or any, time for strategic planning that is to say, working on the business. This burnout-inducing belief creates a decision bottleneck where everything lands on the owner's desk and a culture of learned helplessness flourishes. It's not where you want to live.

This burnout-inducing belief creates a decision bottleneck where everything lands on the owner's desk and a culture of learned helplessness flourishes.

Trap 3: "Sales and Marketing Are Basically the Same"

This is arguably one of the most dangerous traps for a business owner. As a business owner, you must understand the difference between branding and lead generation and selling. If you aren't generating leads, aren't converting your fair share of leads into clients, or are somehow confusing the two roles, you will run into trouble. Knowing where you are at any given moment along the sales/marketing spectrum is a great way to ensure you're avoiding this trap.

Trap 4: "I Should Treat Others Like I Want to Be Treated"

This trap stems from a sincere intention to be a good business owner, employer, vendor partner, and customer-centric entrepreneur. All of that is good. But those good intentions can backfire when they don't take other people's predispositions and preferences into account. When business leaders assume that the way they like to receive information is how everyone likes to receive information, there's a problem. The same goes for assuming that everyone likes to deliver messages in the same way you do. You need to understand that what motivates you as a business owner is likely to be very different from what motivates your employees.

Trap 5: "Selling Is All About Relationships"

While it is true that selling does require the ability to build sincere business relationships, the purpose of a sales relationship is to conduct business. This is a professional undertaking. There is nothing wrong with being friends with your clients and prospects. People do buy from people they know, like, and trust. However, that's only part of the equation. People also want to be heard and understood. That requires great listening and questioning skills, combined with guts. It takes guts to risk asking tough questions. Posing tough questions is essential for making sure that your prospects feel heard and understood and for making sure you have the right solution in place, now and in the future.

Trap 6: "Ours Is Better, and That's All That Matters"

This trap is the belief that since you have a great idea, product, or service, everyone will see the obvious benefits to working with you and the market will seek you out. When business owners fall into the trap of believing that the only thing that matters is being "better," they often find themselves exhausted after a couple of years of trying to prove it to people. Your job as a business owner is not to convince others that your product or service is better. Your job is to help your prospects self-discover why they think what you are offering will solve their unique problems. This trap is an extremely common challenge for entrepreneurs launching startups.

Trap 7: "We Don't Have to Sell Because People Call Us"

Also known as the "referral only" trap, this trap holds that all problems can be solved with branding, inbound leads, and referrals. All of these are important for business growth. But it is likely that a person-to-person sales process needs to be part of the picture. A referral certainly helps to build the "know, like, and trust" factor, but there's more to sales than that. You may know, like, and trust your 14-year-old, but no matter how good their "sales pitch," you're not going to give them the keys to the car.

Trap 8: "I'm Not a Natural-Born Salesperson"

The "I'm Not a Natural-Born Salesperson" trap stems from a negative belief about sales and the stereotypical view that a good salesperson is always talkative and outgoing. In fact, a salesperson who talks more than they listen is a liability. Listening and building an atmosphere of trust and comfort are skills that can be learned. It is true that some behaviors are more natural to some than to others. Just as a person is not born an engineer, lawyer, or accountant, neither is anyone a "natural-born" salesperson. You can cultivate the skills needed.

Trap 9: "Sales Is Just a Numbers Game"

This is the belief that if one creates enough activity, i.e., the right number of outreaches, conversations, and proposals, eventually a sale will close. This is only partially true. The right activity executed poorly or with a "this will never work" mindset will yield poor results. The wrong mindset can generate a snowball effect that leads to crises of morale and cash flow.

(For fleshed-out descriptions of the traps, purchase the book below.)

"Yes, You Can Take a Day Off" is available now and can be purchased below via StartupNation.com.

The post Propel Your Business Forward by Avoiding These Entrepreneurial Traps appeared first on StartupNation.

5 Ways to Make Your Trade Show Event Booth Stand Out

Posted: 24 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST

trade show event booth

Creating a winning trade show stand can be the difference between a lackluster event for your business or a year full of potential leads. Before you can build a rapport with potential customers at an exhibition, you need to first attract them to your stand.

Getting your booth to pop amid the competition can feel like fighting against a crowd, however, these five fundamental ways from Gazeboshop will ignite curiosity in passersby and turn them into potential customers.

1. Reflect your brand values in every square inch of your stall.

First things first, it is crucial that your trade design and its content are cohesive to your company's overall marketing message. Put simply, your trade show stand is a living embodiment of your brand and it must reflect that. Positioning your company in a different light compared to the hundred other trade stands is difficult enough! Make it easier for prospective customers by drenching your stand in brand colors and design elements so they know exactly who you are.

2. Spoil your prospective customers in experiences.

Your brand deserves better than to be remembered by trade show visitors by free pens, travel mugs or tacky plush toys, unless those are critical to your company image. If you're interested in catching bigger fish, your trade show stand should focus on offering attendees experiences rather than free branded products.

Opt for product demos or opportunities for customers like playing with samples or handing out goody bags with products you can't shift in your stock. Likewise, think free Wi-Fi or wireless smartphone charging over USB memory sticks with your logo on them. Providing experiences that require visitors to spend longer at your stand gives you an opportunity to engage with them and turn them into customers. Sounds so much more memorable, doesn't it?

3. Use color for impact.

One guaranteed way of standing out among your competitors is to research their brand colors and choose something contrasting and brighter. As long as you follow the rule of thumb and stick to three bright colors, this is a surefire way to create a winning trade show stand.

Using bright colors will make your brand recognizable to visitors, especially when sticking to key colors with the 60-30-10 design rule. Here, you apply a primary color to 60% of the space, a secondary color to 30% of the space and your accent color to 10% of the design. This will help to unify your booth while also ensuring the important elements stand out to visitors in the accent color.

4. Use digital displays to your advantage

Did you know that the human brain responds more intensely to video and graphics than text? Playing short marketing videos on a display in your trade show stand is a great way to attract attention. If your budget doesn't allow a digital display monitor, why not combine a QR code in your print graphics for your trade gazebo and lead prospective customers to your company's socials, website, YouTube review or product demo? The possibilities are endless once you combine digital with in-the-moment opportunities.

5. Respect empty space.

That empty space on your trade booth can say a lot more about your brand than your catchy slogan. You want to maximize the space you have but avoid cluttering every inch of your exhibit since this can often leave visitors feeling overwhelmed. You only have one opportunity to be memorable at a trade show and those limited all-important spaces in customers’ minds are reserved for the brands who know exactly who they are, so keep text concise and punchy.

To reiterate, do not give your prospective customers information overload by shoving in as many statistics about your company's success as you can. As a rule of thumb, try to keep about 40% of your booth empty and remember, you can always email more information to prospective clients the next day.

Choose a Profitable Niche for Your Business in 3 Simple Steps

The post 5 Ways to Make Your Trade Show Event Booth Stand Out appeared first on StartupNation.

WJR Business Beat: Customer Service is King (Episode 350)

Posted: 24 Jan 2022 08:40 AM PST

wjr business beat

On today’s Business Beat, Jeff discusses survey results on how underwhelmed people are by customer service these days despite it being the greatest opportunity for small businesses to rise to the top.

Tune in to the Business Beat, below, to learn more about the survey:

  Tune in to News/Talk 760 AM WJR weekday mornings at 7:11 a.m. for the WJR Business Beat. Listeners outside of the Detroit area can listen live HERE. Are you an entrepreneur with a great story to share? If so, contact us at editor@startupnation.com and we'll feature you on an upcoming segment of the WJR Business Beat!  

WJR Business Beat Transcript

Good morning, Paul! This morning on the Business Beat, listen, we’ve heard it a million times before. What is the greatest opportunity for small businesses to set them apart from their competitors? It’s supreme customer service. Customer service, Paul, we all know that right. Well, someone didn’t get the memo put into a new study, just released by Zendesk.

They report that a majority of consumers feel quote unquote underwhelmed by the level of customer service they’re getting from businesses these days. To start with, 68% say that businesses need to improve the training of their customer service agents. That is those very people who are in position to represent your business and in whose hands it’s in to provide that differentiating level of supreme customer service that you need to compete and win. And 54% say that customer service feels like it’s an afterthought for most businesses they buy from.

Now, how can this be Paul, especially in light of the fact that 70% of consumers make purchase decisions strictly based on the quality of service they get from a given business. Now, Adrian McDermott, chief technology officer at Zendesk, puts it this way: "Customer service is now a key differentiator, but this year’s report reveals gaps that still exist between customers and the expectations they have with the businesses where they shop."

So here we go. One more time. Underscoring, the importance of customer service to help you compete and win in business today. A couple of tips? Provide personalized service if you can. Ninety percent of consumers indicate that they’re willing to spend more with businesses that personalize the customer’s journey and two, 89% indicate that they will purchase more from businesses that enable them to find answers easily and readily relating to the products and services they want to buy. Now, regardless of which way you provide it, just make sure you’re highly focused in your business operations on providing a supreme level of customer service and the market will reward you.

I’m Jeff Sloan, founder and CEO of startupnation.com, and that’s today’s Business Beat on the Great Voice of the Great Lakes, WJR.

The post WJR Business Beat: Customer Service is King (Episode 350) appeared first on StartupNation.

WJR Business Beat: Industry Sectors Facing Major Change In 2022 (Episode 348)

Posted: 24 Jan 2022 08:13 AM PST

wjr business beat

On today’s Business Beat, Jeff talks about sectors undergoing sustained disruption and what it means for entrepreneurs.

Tune in to the Business Beat, below, to learn more:

  Tune in to News/Talk 760 AM WJR weekday mornings at 7:11 a.m. for the WJR Business Beat. Listeners outside of the Detroit area can listen live HERE. Are you an entrepreneur with a great story to share? If so, contact us at editor@startupnation.com and we'll feature you on an upcoming segment of the WJR Business Beat!  
WJR Business Beat Transcript
Good morning, Paul! This morning on the Business Beat, we’re focused on an industry sector predicted to see continuing disruption well after the pandemic is finally behind us. Rob Enderle, an ECT News Network columnist since 2003, writes on various matters relating to technology and business, and he’s published a list of the four industry sectors that he believes will see the most significant disruption in the year 2022. The sector we’re focused on today, travel and transportation, is certainly relevant to our interests here in our region. So why has Rob singled out this industry sector and how does he believe it will continue to undergo disruption? Well, Rob predicts that much of the change driven by the pandemic and personal travel and transportation is here to stay. Rob says that’s just not going to be the same ever again. As he puts it ,with the increased use familiarity in general acceptance now with video conferencing and collaboration tools and products like Zoom, Teams and WebEx, the need for business travel has taken a significant hit because people have awakened to the reality that sometimes traveling to a business meeting just doesn’t make any sense. He even predicts that hologram technology known as holopresence will facilitate an ability to be a keynote speaker on stage, all from the comfort of your home. He goes on to explain the pandemic is forcing us to reconsider our safety and therefore consider alternatives in our everyday lives like visits to the doctor now conducted routinely remotely. And with respect to shopping, we’ve been able to use e-commerce options so efficiently and conveniently that who needs to go to the mall or the department store or even our local stores anymore. As far as dining out goes, with Door Dash now really perfecting their service and others like them, the ability to have our dining delivered right to our front doors is now embedded in our lifestyles. So there you have it, Paul, an industry sector likely never again to be the same. Now, if you’re an entrepreneur out there, whether interested in the travel and transportation sector specifically or frankly any other industry sector experiencing great disruption, remember change creates opportunity. Think of ways you can start a business relating to the myriad opportunities created by disruption. I’m Jeff Sloan, founder and CEO of startupnation.com, and that’s today’s Business Beat on the Great Voice of the Great Lakes, WJR.
 

The post WJR Business Beat: Industry Sectors Facing Major Change In 2022 (Episode 348) appeared first on StartupNation.

Content Marketing in the Metaverse: Grow Your Audience With 3D, VR, and More

Posted: 23 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST

content marketing in the metaverse

As a startup founder or small business owner, you likely wear many hats and have a lot on your plate. Between managing finances, operations, and marketing, it can be hard to find time for everything. But one of the best things you can do for your business, especially early on, is work on your digital marketing by creating content.

But how do you reach the growing part of your potential audience that is moving from the real world and Web 2.0 into the immersive experiences offered by the metaverse? Content marketing in this new realm can seem daunting, but luckily, there are plenty of effective strategies that promise to work well. In this blog post, we’ll outline five of the most important tips and actionable advice to get your content marketing game on in the metaverse. So if you’re looking to generate more leads and conversions through content marketing, read on!

5 Content Marketing Myths Limiting Your Startup's Growth

What is the metaverse?

The metaverse is a virtual world that exists outside the constraints of the Internet as we know it today. It’s a place where individuals may live, interact with each other, work, and play in new and exciting ways. The term means, literally, beyond the universe, and it was coined by science fiction writer Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel “Snow Crash”.

These worlds are only made possible thanks to technologies such as virtual reality headsets that are transforming our relationship with gaming, television, film, events, education, business meetings and so on. Even though we talk about “the” metaverse, there is more than one. Online gaming platforms like Fortnite, Second Life and World of Warcraft are all examples of metaverses that focus on gaming and entertainment, but other platforms like Decentraland have emerged that focus on user-generated content.

Metaverses are also virtual economies that transcend into and impact the real economy. This economy is powered by cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin, which are stored and transacted via major crypto wallets like Ledger and Trezor, and then used to purchase items within the metaverse.

Key perks of the metaverse for content marketing

If you’ve been doing digital marketing for any amount of time, you probably know that content is king when it comes to drawing in potential leads and converting them into customers. Metaverses can be natural places to market your products for several reasons. You’ll be able to reach potential leads more easily than on the open web. There is far less competition for attention at the moment since most content posted in these worlds is user-generated rather than commercial.

Whether you’re selling goods or services, you can find an audience on the metaverse eager to engage with your brand in new ways. People come to the metaverse to talk and interact with each other in more powerful ways than even social media can manage. It’s not for nothing that Facebook rebranded to Meta and is focusing so much effort on the deployment of the metaverse. This makes the metaverse an ideal playground to promote your content and spread the word much faster than before.

Finally, since the metaverse is an immersive, virtual 3D world, posting content there will connect your brand with your audience on a deeper level than by publishing a boring 2D blog post. This makes your content marketing more effective and drives conversions through the roof.

If you want to take advantage of these perks but don’t know how to get started, keep reading to learn five key tips on content marketing in the metaverse.

Tip #1: Learn about cryptos and NFTs.

Much of the power of the metaverse will come from blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens or NFTs, so being savvy in all of those fields is a must. This isn’t just because those topics are and will continue to be popular, but also because they are the foundation upon which the metaverse economy is being built.

Although you can use your normal fiat money to purchase skins and outfits for your avatars in most online games today, some metaverses are putting a stronger focus on crypto. This means that knowing where and how to buy Ethereum, Bitcoin and other cryptos and how to use them intelligently will be essential to establishing successful partnerships with other brands, sponsoring content, and implementing other content marketing strategies in the metaverse.

On the other hand, non-fungible tokens or NFTs are also key when it comes to the metaverse. These are unique digital tokens based on smart contracts that can’t be copied or reproduced and that are recorded and verified on an Ethereum blockchain. NFTs can be used to assign and track ownership of digital assets, and they’re what makes it possible for you to buy and own a custom avatar skin, for example.

NFTs also enable users to create their own content and be rewarded as its rightful owners, which opens up the possibility of new business models for sponsored content and influencer marketing.

Tip #2: Experiment with new types of content.

The metaverse will open up new methods for individuals to learn how to produce content in various ways. Blog postings, videos, and photographs will continue to be useful, but there will also be a plethora of new formats previously limited to experts. 3D virtual tours and dynamic 3D settings will become the type of content and experiences that people will be searching for and that you should be creating.

There are many different ways to leverage VR and AR to produce new types of content. This could be something as simple as transforming a flat, 2D chart into an interactive 3D plot that users can move, tilt, scale, recolor, etc., to something as complex as an entire interactive 3D virtual world where your content is in the 3D assets themselves or is somehow integrated into the experience.

Let’s say you’re running a travel and tourism business and want to promote trips to Malaga, Spain, through content marketing. In traditional Web 2.0, you would probably write a blog post with beautiful photos and relevant information about the city or shoot a video depicting some of the key spots to visit, landmarks, etc. In the metaverse, you can take things further by actually walking your audience through a virtual guided tour of the city, taking them to the different available hotels so they can choose the one they like best, and more.

Why VR Technology is 2022's Must-Have Business Tool

Tip #3: Experiment with new content creation tools.

While building immersive VR experiences for your audience sounds great on paper, one key question comes up: How do you create this type of content? Writing blog posts and shooting videos is one thing, but building a 3D world is another entirely.

The good news is that new tools are being created all the time for just these purposes. A few examples of 3D creation software that you could use include SketchUp, Revit, Unreal Engine, Unity, Maya and Blender, to name a few.

In the past, creating this type of content and using these tools was reserved for expert 3D modelers, renderers and animators who worked tirelessly on a high budget for hours on end. This probably sounds like more than you can chew. However, luckily, AI-powered 3D design software is now easier than ever to use, and some tools are even free.

The best example is Unreal Engine 5, which makes creating entire virtual 3D worlds that render photorealistic environments in real-time a breeze thanks to a huge library of free 3D scans of real objects that you can simply drag and drop.

Mastering tools like these will take your content marketing in the metaverse to another level.

Tip #4: Embrace live streams.

We’ve already witnessed the emergence of a new form of entertainment content in the metaverse called massive interactive live events (MILEs). This term refers to sporting events, big concerts, comedy shows, or any other type of spectator show streamed live within the metaverse.

One example of this was an Ariana Grande concert that streamed on Fortnite last August 2021 as a part of her Rift Tour. The event brought in millions of spectators before, during, and after the show. The success of this concert and other live-streamed events suggests that entertainment content will likely be an important part of the future of content marketing in the metaverse.

Tip #5: Create virtual and immersive sponsorships.

Sponsoring content is another example of a textbook content marketing strategy that can be adapted and optimized for the metaverse, offering unique opportunities. Brands are already taking full advantage of sponsorships in gaming metaverses, creating branded digital assets like sneakers and jackets influencers wear on their avatars, showing them off as they walk around in the metaverse.

Content sponsorships are also possible in the metaverse, although they’ll likely be somewhat different than in the current Web 2.0 because there are more ways to publish content and to create unique, immersive experiences for different audiences. Successful NFT artists are some of the most influential people in the metaverse today, so reaching out to and partnering with them early on is sure to bring you benefits down the road, especially as new business models for influencers, virtual goods and e-commerce emerge and scale.

The bottom line

The metaverse offers new ways to engage your audience and provide a richer, fuller and more immersive content experience. If you want to stay ahead of the curve in this fast-changing landscape, start creating content for the metaverse today. We’ve outlined five tips and content marketing strategies that will help you do just that—become a crypto and NFT expert, stream live events, work on your sponsorships and experiment with new types of content and tools for a fresh take on storytelling in VR/AR environments. Each strategy has its benefits but all boil down to one basic principle: Creating compelling stories worth sharing through any medium possible, including the metaverse.

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4 Tips on How to Identify and Attract Your Ideal Customer

Posted: 23 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST

ideal customer

One of the keys to successfully scaling a business is being able to find and identify your ideal customer. You might already have some insight into who this customer is through your business plan. A traditional business plan will outline its target audience through a market analysis. Using Census data, a small business can learn more about its audience demographics. The business may then start putting together a strategic plan that outlines how it will attract, capture and retain this audience. This strategy tends to be used to initially grow a business and its customer base. And when you’ve reached the point in which your business is successfully scaling, it's time to revisit your ideal customer.

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How can you identify prospective customers for your business and continue finding more ideal customers?

Know your product and/or offerings

One of the simplest ways to identify your ideal customer is staring you in the face: it's your products, services or offerings. In your business plan, you likely detailed your product or service, detailing a basic description, concept and strategy. Your advantage as the business owner is that you know what the product or offering does, how it works and what makes it unique and distinctive.

Now, it's time to shift gears into the customer perspective. Look at your products, services and/or offerings from the perspective of a prospective customer.

Answer the following questions to better figure out who makes up your ideal customer base:

  • Can your product and/or offering help solve a problem the customer faces?
  • How does your product and/or offering enhance a customer's life or make it more satisfactory?
  • What are the immediate benefits a customer receives from purchasing your product or offering? These benefits should be communicated clearly. For example, a shampoo that promises shiny hair after use may be advertised and packaged using adjectives like "nourish" and "rejuvenate." This strategy helps entice customers, especially ideal customers seeking shiny hair, into purchasing your product over a competitor’s offering.

Create an ideal customer persona

An ideal customer persona (ICP) is also sometimes referred to as a customer persona. This is a fictitious description of your ideal customer. Because this persona is fictitious, you can create a highly detailed ICP. The more details you include, the better chance your business has for its products and services to help solve real customer problems.

These details break down by demographics, geographical information, psychographics and socio-economic classification.

Some of the details that may go into your ideal customer persona include the following:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Ethnicity
  • Occupation
  • Household income
  • Marital status
  • Parental status
  • Education
  • Location (including city, state and country)
  • Home environment
  • Spending habits
  • Interests
  • Habits
  • Values and/or beliefs
  • Pain points

Please note that you do not need just one ideal customer persona! Your business may create several personas to identify its (many) ideal customers.

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Identify buyer personas

The ideal customer persona is sometimes considered to be the same concept as a buyer persona. But is an ICP the same as a buyer persona? This is not quite the case.

A buyer persona is less fictitious. This persona explores market research and data behind ideal customer spending habits. A buyer persona digs into what the customer buys, how they buy it (whether through shopping online, in store or using another purchasing method) and why they buy it.

Since it is less fictitious, the best place to start gathering information for a buyer persona is to tap into relevant data surrounding your existing customers. For example, if your customers have signed up for your company newsletter, consider sending them a survey. You can ask questions about what they like about your products and/or services and changes they’d like to see in the future to better accommodate their pain points.

Let's use the shampoo example again. Some customers may identify the price as a pain point, stating that it is too expensive. Take note of common themes or issues customers bring up. Beyond email surveys, you may conduct polls on social media platforms and hold small focus groups to collect customer feedback.

Use data to attract more ideal customers

You understand what your products and/or services can do to help better a customer's life, as seen from the viewpoint of a customer. You have created an ICP to better identify your ideal customer, and you have started reaching out to existing customers to create a buyer persona.

These actions can help you determine your ideal customer and sell to them. But what can you do to keep finding more ideal customers?

Creating ideal customer personas and buyer personas allows you to gather relevant data about your ideal customer. You have a good idea of what interests them and where they spend their time, so use these platforms and mediums to reach them. Create content for social media platforms that will engage your customer base, and allow followers to share this content with their own personal networks. Advertise in spaces where you know your customers are, such as playing an ad in a podcast your audience listens to. Make sure you are reaching your ideal customer and prospective customers through content in the proper format. If you know your audience responds well to short videos or enjoys long-form blog posts, focus on doing more of what works and what reaches them.

Finally, remember to keep reviewing data over time and stay up to date with trends. Are there new social media platforms your audience loves? Your business might decide to create a presence on these sites. Do they respond well to strong copy in email newsletter subject headers — or are they more likely to click to open if there's an emoji?

Keep up with your data and emerging trends to continue reaching out to and retaining your customer base.

Originally published July 26, 2021. 

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How Barcodes Show Your Product is Retail Ready

Posted: 22 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST

barcodes

In the age of the smartphone, consumers carry a computer and virtual shopping cart in their pockets at all times. Never before has there been such an opportunity for retailers to connect artisans, specialty foods purveyors, niche clothing boutiques and other startup brands with specific shoppers around the world.

While retailers can carry a wide product selection, they are also under pressure to earn the trust of empowered consumers. Every retailer, especially those with an e-commerce component, is increasingly responsible for making sure the products they offer are credible. This means adhering closely to product setup requirements, or risking having their product listings hidden, delisted, or mistaken for counterfeit goods.

One of the most critical steps to prove your product is credible is to obtain authentic UPC barcodes that link your product with your company. Some barcode sellers may promise cheap and quick access to UPCs, but many startups have found those barcodes may have been used before, or they may identify the product as coming from another company.

To help entrepreneurs navigate the product identification process, four small brands offered advice for barcoding, and shared how the system behind the barcode has benefits beyond just checking off an item on a retailer to-do list.

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The first step toward credibility  

One of the keys to making sure you are using authentic UPC barcodes is to first gain a basic understanding of the system behind them.

You'll often see the acronym "GTIN" cited on retailer guidelines. GTIN stands for Global Trade Item Number® which is the unique product number encoded into a UPC barcode that also appears below the symbol's black lines and spaces.

Getting a GTIN starts with obtaining a license from GS1 US. GTINs are universally accepted by many retailers, distributors and other supply chain participants. They help them understand what your product is and identifies you as the brand owner in various types of inventory management systems. They identify your product at each stop it makes from the manufacturing site to point of sale to the customer's doorstep.

"When applying to Walmart for consideration as a supplier, one of the requirements was that my product UPCs were registered under my own company name, and not from a third party," Jim Richards, CEO of mediadogg Software LLC, said."This helped me realize that my product needed this type of proof that it was a credible product."

Preparing for future growth

During the excitement of a product launch, it's easy for entrepreneurs to get overwhelmed by short-term tasks and opt for the easy route. However, it's important educate yourself on how the seemingly simple act of barcoding and compiling product information can contribute to your company's growth.

Bear's Breath, a burgeoning spicy ketchup brand, discovered the potential for expansion when products were identified properly and their barcodes were set up the way retailers want.

"Once we started working with a major regional grocer, I realized we needed to get our barcodes set up so that we could take our products to another level. We could create a six-pack or gallon sizes, and they could all have their own barcodes," Taylor Rausch, Bear's Breath's founder, said.

"I had thought to myself, 'Am I going to have to revisit this process every single time that I work with a new retailer?' Using these universally-accepted barcodes and identification numbers means I don't have to—which is great news, (and) has allowed me time to do other things that are more beneficial to the business," he continued.

Shenice Gross, CEO and founder of Alkali60, also began to see how UPC barcodes could help her prepare for future expansion:

"In the next few years, we have plans to offer different flavors and sizes to the market, so our license covers 10 UPC codes in preparation for that expansion." 

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Giving the consumer the full picture of your product

In order to make your mark and compete alongside major brands, many startups have found that the more information they can provide to retailers, the better their chances are of standing out.

For the B2B digital signage company, XOGO, having authentic barcodes are just one of the ways they prove they are credible with retailers.

"Unless you're one of those enormous, household names in technology, you really need to give customers as much information as possible in order to let them know that your product is real and viable," Chad Brown, founder of XOGO, said. "Having UPC codes for our hardware helps customers discover our products online, protects us against fraud, and streamlines the selling process through online channels like Amazon."

Going beyond barcodes, Bear's Breath uses its full product details and clean ingredient listing to challenge the way consumers typically think about condiments:

"In general, more grocery stores are noticing that customers are shifting their preferences and that there's a nutritional awakening happening," Rausch said. "Being uniquely identified in the marketplace is the baseline entry for us–we're looking to disrupt what consumers have always seen as normal."

Ultimately, it's a competitive marketplace where shoppers expect retailers to provide the best brands to suit their needs.

New, startup brands looking to take advantage of this opportunity must meet retailer requirements in the short-term, while keeping an eye on long-term growth. And that all starts with properly identifying your retail product with a UPC barcode.

Originally published Feb. 17, 2020.

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4 Ways Business Owners Unknowingly Drain Their Monthly Budget

Posted: 19 Jan 2022 02:01 PM PST

budget

As an entrepreneur, you likely have a set monthly budget that consists of all of the overhead costs needed to keep your enterprise running smoothly. For example, your budget may include payroll for employees and freelancers, payments for Internet service and cloud-based project management software, rent for an office space, etc. It is paramount that you stick to this monthly budget in order to maximize your business's financial health — if you spend way too much money in a month, it can really hurt your company's overall profits.

Have you lately been going over your business's monthly budget and you're not sure why? Do you want to prevent possible future financial struggles? In my experience as the CEO and founder of CMA Exam Academy, a certified management accountant exam review program, I've discovered a number of common ways that business owners unknowingly drain their enterprises' monthly budgets. Here are just a few of these mistakes to avoid to optimize your company's financial standing and boost your overall business success.

Not regularly comparing the budget to actual expenses and revenue

Often, business owners don't maintain steadfast discipline when it comes to comparing their company's budget to actual overhead costs and revenue made each month. Whether they're scrambling to meet project deadlines or rushing to answer urgent emails from clients and employees, their focus is always pulled in so many directions, causing this necessary accounting task to constantly be pushed to the back burner. Don't make this mistake! It is vital that you take the time to regularly compare your budget to your actual expenses and revenue.

It is vital that you take the time to regularly compare your budget to your actual expenses and revenue.

Why is this? Well, it's because it is easy to completely forget about recurring expenses (like subscriptions to software you stopped using months ago), which will really eat away at the budget. You may also be unaware that the monthly fees for Internet, utilities, manufacturing, and other operational costs may have increased, which could hurt your bottom line. Therefore, stay disciplined by scheduling a day every month to review your financial statements. Then you can compare budget versus actual expenses, cut unnecessary costs, and make operational changes to ensure you don't overspend.

Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in Their Business Journey

Not pushing big, nonessential expenditures to new budget cycles

This is a major mistake that so many business owners commit. Excited to upgrade their computer, they’ll spend thousands of dollars on a new software platform, pay a developer a ton of money to revamp their business website, and make other large-but-nonessential expenditures right away. Don't also commit this big blunder — it would be in your business's best interest to always check if a large expenditure is within the current month's budget, or if it should be pushed to a later month with a new budget cycle.

You can check with your accountant on this, or simply do the aforementioned step and compare your actual expenses to your budget to see if there is enough budget to make the big expenditure during the current month. However, if the expense is essential to keep your business running — for example, if the equipment you use to manufacture products stopped working and must be replaced — then you can make the big purchase right away and adjust the next month's budget to make up for overspending during the current month.

Pursuing new projects not in the budget

How many times have you discovered exciting new marketing strategies, expansion opportunities, sales tactics, and customer service initiatives that you immediately wanted to implement into your own company? A lot of business owners will get amped up about a new project and then make the mistake of pursuing it without considering how it affects other elements of their monthly budget. Even though the project wasn't budgeted for, they will spend cash in capital expenditures to get it moving forward. This is not a smart move to make in your own enterprise.

If you make the hasty decision to pursue the brand-new project or capital expenditure, you will be taking cash away from other items in your budget that were already accounted for. For example, the money you spend on a new customer service initiative can lower the amount of capital that you can put towards your monthly digital marketing strategy or print advertising campaign. This can then mean a possible drop in sales for that month. That said, always think about how one purchase would affect another one in your budget.

Confusing net profit with available cash

As a certified management accountant, I've seen many business owners make the mistake of considering the profit in their Profit & Loss Statement as the basis for how much available "cash" they had in their bank. They would then erroneously make major business decisions based on this figure alone. However, it is so important that all business owners know that net profit does not equal the amount of cash in the bank that is available to spend.

Since cash is typically an organization's most critical and liquid resource, it has a tremendous effect on liquidity, financial flexibility, and operating capacity. FASB ASC Topic 230, Statement of Cash Flows (formerly SFAS No. 95), states that a statement of cash flows "must report on a company's cash inflows, cash outflows, and net change in cash from its operating, financing, and investing activities during the accounting period, in a manner that reconciles the beginning and ending cash balances."

So readers of the cash flow statement can ascertain if the company has generated enough cash (not just net income) to meet all of its obligations. The Statement of Cash Flows (SCF) is the report that contains the inflows and outflows of cash during a specified period of time.

To wrap it all up

In order to keep your business running smoothly, it is crucial to set and abide by a monthly budget. Avoid unknowingly draining your monthly budget by comparing it to your actual expenses and revenue. Also, if the current month's budget doesn't allow for it, push a big, nonessential expenditure to a later month with a new budget cycle. You can also ensure you don't unknowingly drain your budget by researching how pursuing a brand new project would affect other initiatives that were already budgeted for. Finally, put together a thorough cash flow statement to always stay on top of how much cash is actually available to make purchases.

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