StartupNation

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• WJR Business Beat: Online Fraud Up Significantly (Episode 353)
• Mistakes This Entrepreneur Made With Her Startup’s Finances (and How to Learn From Them)
• 5 Golden Rules For More Productively Managing Your Time
• SEM vs. SEO: What’s the Difference and Why Does It Matter? 
• WJR Business Beat: Hispanic Entrepreneurs Creating Record Number of Startups (Episode 352)
• 6 Essential Web Design Elements to Boost Your Website’s Conversions
• Mentoring is at the Heart of Entrepreneurship
• Top 10 Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs
• From 0 to 60 M.P.H.: How to Launch Your Brand Quickly and Effectively

WJR Business Beat: Online Fraud Up Significantly (Episode 353) Posted: 01 Feb 2022 09:00 AM PST On today’s Business Beat, Jeff Sloan talks about the Federal Trade Commission’s report that in 2021 consumers lost $770 million to social media scams. Tune in to the Business Beat below to find out who is being scammed most and how:   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! We all know that e-commerce is seeing a huge upswing these days. We also know that doing business online requires a basic ability for consumers to feel safe and comfortable going online and making purchases by providing credit card information and entering personal data. Name, address, phone number, et cetera. And ultimately if consumers don’t feel comfortable online, billions will be lost and missed opportunities to conduct business. Well now a new report indicates that a clear need to be extra vigilant and careful about where and how we conduct business online has just been released and it’s concerning. The Federal Trade Commission reports that in 2021 consumers lost $770 million to social media scams. That’s up by 18 times versus just four years ago. It seems that the smarter we get the bad guys are always just one step ahead of us, Paul. The FTC indicates that those now being targeted are younger, with consumers between the ages of 18 and 39 reporting fraud at two and a half times higher than those above the age of 40 and social media is where those scammers are targeting this younger audience. Now most reports of fraudulent activity on social media involve people losing money to online shopping scams. That is someone who ordered a product they saw marketed on social media, and then that product never arrives, even though they paid for it. Other common scams to watch out for on social media these days? They’re highly focused on getting unsuspecting people into fake investment opportunities, particularly now that many cryptocurrency exchanges are being opened up and many are being marketed on social media. Now look, we all know the incredible momentum with e-commerce these days and how it is serving most consumers so well, but that incredible momentum can’t continue if consumers can’t feel safe. 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: Online Fraud Up Significantly (Episode 353) appeared first on StartupNation.

Mistakes This Entrepreneur Made With Her Startup’s Finances (and How to Learn From Them) Posted: 31 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST Business owners are dealing with unprecedented times right now. Many entrepreneurs are struggling to keep their businesses afloat, with financial struggles as their main priority. Prior to this crisis, I began thinking about my own company’s finances. I considered myself adequately adept at managing this aspect of my business, but after taking on a new role for a financial tech company that caters to the small business market, I realized I’d gone about everything wrong from the start. While we’re all in a state of uncertainty, I’d like to share several financial mistakes I’ve made in the past. Hopefully, you can learn from my errors and avoid making them yourself in the future. StartupNation exclusive discounts and savings on Dell products and accessories: Learn more here I blew through a $10,000 loan About five years into running my marketing firm, I was in a tight spot financially, and decided I should take out a loan. I went through a program that offered financing specifically to women entrepreneurs, and I received a $10K loan. I had no plan for what I would spend it on, and before I knew it, I was paying back that loan with no clue of what I put it toward. Hindsight being 20/20 and all, I now know that I shouldn't have taken out a loan to keep me from business failure. I should have taken out a loan with a specific plan for how that money would be implemented in order to help my company grow. The lesson for aspiring entrepreneurs: When taking out a loan, know exactly what you plan to use those funds for. The above experience made me shy away from financing in the future. Which leads me to my next mistake… Related: Dodge These 5 Common Tax Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make I used a business debit card After that experience with the loan, I thought I was better off using my business debit card. If I didn't have the money, I shouldn't spend it, right? Well… I've since learned that business debit cards are actually not as great as business credit cards for many reasons. First, should your business debit card get stolen or you become the victim of fraud, there aren't laws in place to ensure you don't go in the red covering those faulty transactions you didn't make. However, credit cards, in general, do offer some protection. There are also business credit cards that allow you to earn rewards for purchases. It would have been great to rack up airline points whenever I bought printer paper, but alas, I didn't know. The lesson for aspiring entrepreneurs: Know the differences (and benefits) to using a business debit card versus a business credit card. I was ignorant to business credit scores Did you know that your business has business credit scores? I didn't. Just like you have personal credit scores that rate how high of a credit risk you are to lenders, you also have one for your business. Should you want to open a business credit card or get a business loan, you want to have a business credit history that shows you've paid your bills on time and are a low risk. When I finally investigated my business credit history, it was blank; despite the fact that I'd been in business for 13 years. Up until that point, I had never opened a business credit card or even a line of credit with a supplier that reports to credit bureaus, so my business might as well not exist. The lesson for aspiring entrepreneurs: Not all business credit scores are created equal, but it’s imperative to know where you rank. I didn't set aside money for taxes Because I chose to pay my business taxes annually, I never bothered to put money in savings to lighten the burden of paying a larger bill all at once in April. So, inevitably, for many years, when my taxes were filed, I kicked myself for having to scramble to find several thousand dollars to pay the bill. Later, I started using payroll software to pay myself, and that automatically deducted my taxes out, which made it so much less stressful come tax season. The lesson for aspiring entrepreneurs: It’s essential to set aside money in advance to cover your yearly state and federal taxes. Sign Up: Receive the StartupNation newsletter! What I did right with my business finances Despite a few learning curves when it came to my finances, I can pat myself on the back for a few good habits I've always had. From the start, I had a separate business bank account. I knew that using my personal bank account for business expenses would only muddy the waters and make tax filing a pain.  I used accounting software and regularly monitored my expenses to keep from them from being a big snarled mess at year's end. I invoiced each client on time so that when I received 1099s from them, everything lined up. I hired an accountant. I've always been very DIY when it comes to my business, but paying a few hundred dollars for someone to file my corporation's taxes, as well as my personal taxes, was such a relief. I never had to wonder if I was screwing something up. Fortunately, my business (and future businesses) will benefit from my gained knowledge and experience. Hopefully yours will, too! Originally published March 26, 2020. Verizon Small Business Digital Ready: A free resource for learning business basics, the latest technology and more.   The post Mistakes This Entrepreneur Made With Her Startup’s Finances (and How to Learn From Them) appeared first on StartupNation.

5 Golden Rules For More Productively Managing Your Time Posted: 31 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST Low priority tasks and distractions hinder our efficiency. According to productivity experts, we spend 80% of our time dealing with low priority tasks and only 20% with important, vital activities. The question is, how do we change this equation to more productively manage our time? In this article, you will find tips on how to make an alignment between your vision, goals, and KPIs with your daily and weekly tasks. 5 golden rules for managing your time Golden Rule 1 It's important to set a long-term goal (one to five years) and a short-term goal (one to three months) for our area of focus. It's also important that when setting our goals, we should quantify them as much as possible. For example, in the short term: raising $ 500,000 of investment capital within a month. In some cases, we can create a flowchart to help us better understand our goal. For example, in order to raise $500,000, I must contact 50 investors, which will lead to 20 meetings, which will yield 3 investors and, based on this, I can determine the relevant tasks. Golden Rule 2 Once we determine the daily/weekly tasks, we can rank them from 1 to 5 in terms of how they connect to the short- and long-term goals we set in Section 1: 1 means there is a very weak connection, and 5 means the connection is very strong. In an ideal world, you would like only to perform tasks ranked as 5, but of course this is nearly impossible in practice. The idea is to constantly figure out how to avoid (as much as possible) performing tasks ranked as 1-4. This can be achieved by automating the tasks or by passing them on to a third party, if financially possible. To Grow Your Company, Prioritize Productivity Over Being 'Busy' Golden Rule 3 In my experience, meetings normally take 50% of one's work time – so we should set clear targets ahead of each meeting and, of course, consider whether the meetings advance our short- and long-term goals. In cases where there is very little connection to our goals, it may be better to cancel these meetings. Golden Rule 4 At the initial stage, we should multiply our assessment of how long a task will take by at least an additional 50%, until we see how long it will take in practice. Golden Rule 5 And last but not least, is the 2.3% rule. You should dedicate approximately 240 minutes per week to something you are passionate about (there are 10,080 minutes per week and 240 is 2.3 % of this). If you do not have something you are passionate about, search for it during this time by participating in new activities. This will increase your energy levels and – in turn – your productivity in all your areas of focus during the week. Click HERE to download the Guide Book to see how the model works. StartupNation exclusive discounts and savings on Dell products and accessories: Learn more here.   The post 5 Golden Rules For More Productively Managing Your Time appeared first on StartupNation.

SEM vs. SEO: What’s the Difference and Why Does It Matter?  Posted: 31 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST This excerpt is adapted from "Product-Led SEO" by Eli Schwartz. ©2021 and is reproduced with permission from Houndstooth Press. In conversations about digital marketing, the words SEO and SEM get thrown around with reckless abandon. Some folks aren't quite sure of the difference, and when the terms are used interchangeably, it can lead to misallocation of budget and resources. In other situations, the two terms are looked at as competition, leading to counterproductive marketing strategies, often within the same marketing department.  The key to a great digital marketing effort is to create a strong, united front between SEO and SEM. This starts by establishing a solid understanding of each of their strengths and weaknesses.  In an effort to get SEO and SEM on the same (productive) page, let's take a look at the difference between the two, why it matters, and how the two can work together productively.   So, what's the difference?  Let's start with the basics. What is the difference between SEO and SEM?  Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) works with and analyzes free or "organic" search traffic.  Search Engine Marketing (or SEM) works with and analyzes paid search marketing.  Both have their strengths and weaknesses. For example, SEO is free; its barrier to entry is far lower than SEM; it is top of funnel; and the cost is (obviously) much lower. On the other hand, SEM is more controlled: the message can be targeted to the intent; results are almost instant; and it is easier overall to build.  They are not competition Some talk about paid and organic as though they are at opposite ends of the spectrum—each positioned as the other's "competition" for resources and budget. In my opinion, this attitude is limited and counterproductive. In my opinion, both SEM and SEO efforts should be working in concert to achieve the same goal: converting a search-engine user into a customer. The user who will click a paid listing and the user that will click an organic listing are essentially the same person. Both of these users signal their intent to a search engine via their search query. In both cases, the search engine will answer that intent with website listings.  Once the results are visible, the user can choose to click either a paid or organic result, and their choice will likely be dependent on which listing meets their specific need the most. For a branded query (a search that contains the name of a brand), the user might click a paid result merely because it was available.  Focus on core competencies Since paid and organic searches are both going after the same user, I recommend strategizing each channel's core competencies and having each focus on its strengths. This is not a cage match between search channels with one coming out on top to take all the marketing budget.  You need both to be successful. Therefore, you must use both strategically.  Organic can and should focus on traffic that is less competitive and a lot higher in the funnel. For example, organic search is a better fit for long-tail queries that only have a small handful of searches per month. Organic can also help in the mid-funnel for users that might not yet be ready to click the buy button. They may be willing to take an intermediary step, like joining a webinar or viewing a demo from a sales rep.  Paid should pick up the baton where organic is less targeted. Paid retargeting could follow organic users around the internet and remind them to come back and buy. Additionally, paid could dominate brand placements at a very inexpensive cost in a way that organic never could. Solving the paid vs. organic problem Part of why paid and organic search may appear to be opposed to each other is because they are generally housed in different organizational structures and rarely talk to each other. In order to work more effectively, I think paid and organic teams should meet frequently to discuss specific challenges. They should work more closely together.  Working together will get the teams to think about how they can solve joint problems. Organic can become aware of paid keywords that may not be converting well enough, and paid can learn about more keywords they should be targeting.  With cooperation, both teams will be more effective at reaching their goals. With more efficient spend, the paid team will have more budget to go after strategies and keywords that are currently unattainable. Similarly, the organic team can focus their efforts on converting more people who are just too expensive to chase with paid advertising. SEM and SEO can be friends When SEM and SEO strategies don't work together (or, even worse, work against each other), your marketing dollars are often being wasted.  However, when SEM and SEO work in tandem to attract the right clicks and conversions, they represent an unstoppable force.  When SEM and SEO strategies don't work together (or, even worse, work against each other), your marketing dollars are often being wasted.  With a united front, these two powerhouse entities can dominate search in a way no competitor with a disjointed marketing team could ever beat. Both teams are ultimately driving toward the same goal of increasing the acquisition of customers, focusing on different levels in the same customer-conversion process or funnel. In other words, it's time to forge an alliance between SEM and SEO. I promise you: you won't regret it.  "Product-Led SEO" is available now and can be purchased below via StartupNation.com.   StartupNation exclusive discounts and savings on Dell products and accessories: Learn more here.   The post SEM vs. SEO: What's the Difference and Why Does It Matter?  appeared first on StartupNation.

WJR Business Beat: Hispanic Entrepreneurs Creating Record Number of Startups (Episode 352) Posted: 31 Jan 2022 06:33 AM PST On today's Business Beat, Jeff Sloan talks about how Hispanic-owned businesses are the fastest-growing segment in the U.S., but there is an obstacle holding Latino entrepreneurs back from being even more impactful. Tune in to the Business Beat, below, to learn more about the study results:   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! As we know, businesses are being started at a record pace here in the U.S. in this post-pandemic period and we’ve got news. Insight into the data shows that Hispanic-owned businesses are the fastest-growing segment in the U.S. over the last 10 years with their numbers increasing by 34% since 2010. That’s according to the State of Latino Entrepreneurship 2020 study from the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative. Now Marlene Orozco, lead research analyst for the study, indicates that not only are we seeing this torrid pace of growth in Latino startups, it’s broad based across industry sectors in geography. As she puts it, "We are seeing multifaceted growth across states and industries, including construction, finance, and insurance transportation and real estate. And beyond industry expansion, the report showed that over the past two years, Latino-owned firms grew revenue at an average of 25% per year, while white-owned businesses grew at a rate of 19%. Yet, in spite of all this positive news, the study reveals that there’s still opportunity for this population segment to do even better and contribute more significantly to the startup ecosystem and to our national economy through new business formation if they had better access to funds. Orozco says despite being the fastest-growing segment in the U.S. small business ecosystem, Latinos continue to struggle because they have trouble securing capital from the national banks. In fact, only 20% of Latino-owned businesses that applied for national bank loans over $100,000 obtained such funding compared to 50% of white-owned business. Now, Paul, this is really an area that deserves focus, given that Hispanics overall account for over $2 trillion in economic development and employee over 3 million Americans. Just imagine what the impact could be if we level the playing field to ensure that funding is readily available to all entrepreneurs seeking to secure it. I’m Jeff Sloan, founder and CEO of startupnation.com, and that’s today’s Business Beat brought to you by Dell Technologies on the Great Voice of the Great Lakes, WJR. The post WJR Business Beat: Hispanic Entrepreneurs Creating Record Number of Startups (Episode 352) appeared first on StartupNation.

6 Essential Web Design Elements to Boost Your Website’s Conversions Posted: 31 Jan 2022 06:30 AM PST As a business owner, the primary goal of your website is to convert visitors — whether the conversion is an email subscription, a lead for email newsletter subscription or a purchase. After all, what's the point of driving traffic to your website if users don't really engage with your content and convert? Yet so many marketers focus their attention on SEO, ads, lead magnets and social media that they tend to overlook the power of web design elements. There's no denying that the aforementioned components play a critical role, but your web design is equally important, as it can actually turn your potential clients into customers! In fact, a study from Stanford University found that 46.1% of those surveyed agree that a website's design is the top factor when evaluating a company's credibility.  The right design can smoothly guide consumers through your sales funnel while the wrong design can leave them confused and uncertain of what to do, eventually leaving your site and thus hurting your conversions and sales.  In fact, 38% of users will leave a website if they find it unattractive, according to Inc. Additionally, given 15 minutes, 66% of users would rather look at a beautifully designed website than a simple or plain one, according to Adobe. In this article, we'll tackle the essential web design elements you need to include for a high-converting website. Learn and apply the basic principles, or hire a designer or freelancer — whatever it takes to optimize your site for conversions.  Contact the experts at Digital Resource! Six essential web design elements your website needs When building your startup's website and landing pages, make sure you have the following web design elements in place for an immediate and lasting boost in conversions:  Negative space Also known as white space, negative space refers to all of the empty space on a web page. It's a necessary feature in web design because without it, your website can be unreadable. Negative space is the space between the larger and smaller elements of your page, like the space between your header and content, the space between lines of text, paragraphs and even between letters and numbers. All forms of negative space keep your content scannable, legible and easy on the eyes. Here are some tips you can use to make the most of negative space: Space out elements without using visible dividers Improve readability Clarify relationships between objects Emphasize particular elements on page Contrasting colors Contrast is critical in web design since it helps your readers’ eyes distinguish between any two elements on your page. Use contrast to keep your headlines, text and call to action (CTA) buttons readable and noticeable.  Your font and CTA button colors should be in high contrast with the background of your webpage. Make sure the elements you want to highlight stand out in color from the rest of your website. Make sure the colors are strategically chosen to convey your company's brand message, too. Choosing the right color palette plays an essential role in boosting conversions. For example, research shows the best colors you can use for a CTA button are red, green and orange or yellow. On the flip side, the worst colors for conversions include black, white and brown. Related: 5 Ways Programmatic Advertising Can Benefit Your Brand in 2021 High-quality images Did you know the brain processes visual content 60,000 times faster than text?  That said, it's important to use high-quality, relevant visuals throughout your website. Stay away from stock photos, rushed photoshopped jobs and images that simply don't fit your brand image. If you plan to publish content on your website, make sure you're using high-quality images throughout your blog, too. Research shows articles with images get 94% more total views.  So, how can you leverage high-quality images in your web design?  Here are a few tips: Appeal to the emotions of your audience through imagery Use images that are relevant to your brand Avoid stock imagery Showcase your startup's products or services visually Intuitive navigation Your visitors should be able to find the information they're looking for quickly and easily when they land on your website. Key information should be easily discoverable within one or two clicks. Potential customers will be more likely to convert if they can quickly find the information they're searching for on your website. That's why your website's navigation should be logical, well-organized and easy to follow. Follow these steps to streamline your navigation: Add a search feature Limit the number of links in your main navigation bar Use your website traffic data to inform your layouts The eight-second rule Humans reportedly have a shorter attention span than a goldfish. That means you have a mere eight seconds to capture a user’s attention when they land on your website.  With an extremely small window of opportunity to engage a visitor when they land on your site, you must do everything you can to make those seconds count.  Implement the following design best practices to capture your audience's attention: Use eye-catching imagery Use power words  Use hover effects on your buttons (i.e., buttons that change color when moused over) Incorporate multimedia like audio, video or interactive content Make sign-up buttons large and clear Use animated exit pop-ups Contact the experts at Digital Resource! Simple layout Simple does not have to be boring. A simple design concept ensures your audience understands your brand message instantly at a glance. Clean, functional layouts not only make your website easier to load and navigate, but they also make your website easier to use on different devices and platforms.  In fact, 57% of internet users will not recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile.  Opt for a simple layout that functions properly on both desktop and mobile. Do not commit these layout design mistakes: Confusing colors and themes A misleading CTA Poor use of white space Irrelevant images Hidden navigation Ads in all the wrong places (or simply too many ads) Key takeaways on high-converting website design elements Every startup brand wants a highly converting website. Incorporating the above web design elements will help you achieve that goal and convert website visitors into sales. Remember, negative space and contrasting colors will keep your visitors focused on your content, and a simple layout with streamlined navigation makes it more convenient for users to find whatever it is they're looking for.  Whether you're building a website from scratch or auditing your existing site, the above insights will help boost your conversion rates in no time. Originally published Aug. 11, 2021. The post 6 Essential Web Design Elements to Boost Your Website’s Conversions appeared first on StartupNation.

Mentoring is at the Heart of Entrepreneurship Posted: 30 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST Teaching and mentoring is at the heart of entrepreneurship. As business owners, we’re teaching our prospects how our company can help solve their problem. With our team, we’re teaching and communicating our vision and how we’re to take care of our customers. With our company leadership, we’re teaching how to guide their respective functions of the business. The capacity of our company is based on our team’s collective capacity to lead. The best way to increase this capacity is to teach our leaders. So how do we best go about this? Let’s start by understanding the four levels of teaching, how it applies to business and then a framework for how we can take action. The four stages of teaching The first of the four stages is when we are the student. We are taught by the teacher. We listen, and we ask questions. Once we’ve gained an understanding, we become a practitioner. We practice what we’ve learned and realize the nuance of what we’ve been taught. Real world challenges force us to adapt our perspective and a deeper understanding of the underlying principles emerge. We’ll eventually gain experience, leading to a deeper wisdom as to how it all fits together. Our third stage is teaching students and practitioners. This is our opportunity to fill the gaps of what we know, and more importantly, to understand how we know what we know. Our students reflect our strengths and weaknesses and they act as a real-time mirror. Practitioners challenge us with how the principles and fundamentals actually help them in the real-world. The fourth and final stage in mastering our craft is teaching teachers. It’s the step that ensures the insights we leave behind will live on beyond us. It becomes a legacy for generations to follow. In this stage of teaching, we are two steps removed from the student and our diluted level of control illuminates additional challenges and growth opportunities as we learn the final gaps in our own understanding of what we teach. This is both the most challenging and rewarding stage to operate within. Related: Serial Entrepreneur Ryan Blair on Investing in and Mentoring Aspiring Startups The stages applied to our business In many ways, these stages reflect the progress of a small business. When I first wanted to launch my company, I acted like I knew what I was doing, but deep inside I was scared and unsure of how to make it happen. I was the student and I tapped into teachers around me, both good and terrible ones. I learned from these teachers, but I was always delaying the actual jump into full-time entrepreneurship. It wasn’t until I got a push from my wife to either launch the business or get a job that I made the leap from student entrepreneur to a practitioner. I quickly realized the limitations of my head knowledge as real business challenges came at me from multiple directions. How do I find new clients? How do deliver on the work I’ve sold? How do I hire people to support me? How do I manage all of these dynamics all at once? Chaos descended upon me, and the business and the stress and anxiety soon followed. My lack of maturity as a business owner hindered my ability to effectively address these questions and I struggled through the process. But, I learned and I grew as I cultivated a team around me. As I got a handle (after many years) on what I was doing and was able to make progress, I shifted into teaching my leadership team. How could I empower them to lead the company without my constant hands-on involvement? This is when I taught what I knew to my team while simultaneously tapping into resources and programs for effectively handling their respective functions of the company. As they got a healthy handle on their respective role in the business, the challenge shifted to them teaching those that followed their lead within their respective functions of the business. This also changed how my leadership team needed me. How could I teach my leadership team to teach and guide those within their area of responsibility? As a small business owner, it’s much easier to go past my leadership team and deal directly with those people to make things happen, but doing so can be short-sighted. These downsides can make it challenging to build a scalable business. The key is to embrace these challenges and changes to grow our companies. If we do, we can set a plan for anticipating and moving to and through these stages. I’ve established four checkpoints below to help us navigate this path. Take action on mentoring others Flourishing as a small business owner requires we share what we’ve mastered. Sharing what we master is about teaching what we know and sharing stories of failure and success. In our journey toward success, we’ll pass four mile markers that let us know we’re moving in the right direction. These four checkpoints will help us take actionable steps through the four stages of teaching in our life and business. The first checkpoint is when we are seeking others out to share our insights and stories. Others share of their current business challenges and we feel an immediate connection. Impulsively, we share how we overcame in similar situations. After sharing with multiple people, we’ll realize how much our insight helps, but we’ll also face the challenge of our own limitations. We only have so much time to share one-on-one what we know. Out of this limitation, we’ll pass our second mile marker where we decide to broadcast what we know. Through short form writing or public speaking, we’ll begin communicating our insights publicly with others so more people can benefit than those we have time to meet with individually. As we continue to share with others in this capacity, we’ll realize the limitation of our broadcasted insights. While it will help many, it fails to address the intricacies of each individual’s circumstances. It’s at this point where we’ll need to dive deep into the lives of others in ongoing mentorship. At the same time, we still have the limitation of time, so we’ll leverage group mentoring so we can go deep and wide. This place of actively mentoring others is our third milestone in our journey to share what we’ve mastered. Related: Sign up to receive the StartupNation newsletter! As we progress down this road of teaching, we’ll soon realize that we won’t always be available or even alive to help others. So, how do we help people beyond our capacity or lifetime? How do we leave a legacy that will impact generations to come? It’s at this point where we seriously explore a permanent beyond-us system that can help many more when we’re unable, unwilling or not around. Here we write a book, create video courses, record audio podcasts and tap into multiple mediums to capture what we know in a way others can tap into when it’s more appropriate and relevant to them. With a mindset of creating a beyond-me system, we capture the mindset of creating a scalable and profitable business model. The scary challenge is recognizing the lifetime of our involvement in the business and being ready and willing to let our company go. It’s not until we learn to actively release that we’ll consistently experience growth. Proactively letting go allows us to embrace the journey of progress. Originally published May 2, 2017. The post Mentoring is at the Heart of Entrepreneurship appeared first on StartupNation.

Top 10 Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs Posted: 30 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST Decades of research have shown that the super-rich have a lot in common. They share the same mentality, for example, as well as a number of the habits they follow in their personal lives. To begin thinking like a millionaire, you'll first need to shift your mentality and your habits. The more habits you practice, the faster your mentality will improve, and vice versa. Once I learned these success habits, they became rituals that will never be eliminated from my routine. Here's my top 10: 1. Millionaires are always learning and they READ constantly. Warren Buffett, one of the world's only centi-billionaires (that's a net worth of more than $100 billion!) spends eight hours a day just reading. Enough said! 2. INVEST, INVEST, INVEST. Most of us spend but millionaires invest. Once you start making some money, immediately start thinking about how to put it to work to make more, not about what to buy next. Must-Read: 5 Leadership Traits No Entrepreneur Succeeds Without 3. Millionaires have passive income or multiple streams of income. Buffett says that he has made most of his money in his sleep. Most of us only make money when we're actually working, but the super-rich build wealth all the time, even when they're not awake. They do this by creating multiple streams of passive income, usually by investing in assets that produce cash year after year. 4. They utilize tax deductions. Millionaires are experts in saving money, and saving on taxes is one of the biggest wealth generators ever. As Benjamin Franklin once said, a penny saved is a penny earned. Considering that most of us give away 20-36% of our pay to the government, using tax deductions adds up to a lot more than pennies. 5. They believe in mentoring. Talk to any millionaire, and they'll probably tell you that they've mentored others. Why? Because they themselves had a mentor. A lot of success is about the company you keep, so surround yourself with people who have made it or want to make it. 6. They exercise. Most of us think that going to the gym is all about physical fitness or looking better. But millionaires understand the real benefit of exercise–it sharpens our mental faculties, leaving us smarter and more focused. 7. They PLAN ahead.  Bill Gates always maps his life out five years in advance. Like most super-rich people, he knows that if you don't know where you're going, you'll never get there. Yes, there will be detours and roadblocks and hiccups on the road to success, but you need a plan to get rich. 8. They EMBRACE FAILURE and exercise resilience. Sumner Redstone, the billionaire who built ViacomCBS and was the richest man in Hollywood until his death a few years ago, once said that success is not built on small successes but on large failures. Amazon's Alexa, one of the e-commerce giant's biggest success stories, rose from the ashes of its Fire Phone, one of its biggest failures. If you don't know how to bounce back and turn your lemons into lemonade, you're not going to be successful. Period. 9. They wake up EARLY.  Tim Cook, who built Apple Inc. into the world's first $3-trillion company, wakes up at 3 a.m. every day to meditate. Maybe this is a little extreme for you, but the early bird still gets the worm! 10. They surround themselves with smart people and seek feedback  Only insecure people surround themselves with sycophants and "yes men." Successful people want to be surrounded by intelligence and ambition. Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, recently wrote a memo to all of his employees encouraging them to send him feedback. Why? Because, as he freely admitted, he's often wrong. Even the smartest people in the world need a positive feedback loop in order to be successful. StartupNation exclusive discounts and savings on Dell products and accessories: Learn more here.   The post Top 10 Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs appeared first on StartupNation.

From 0 to 60 M.P.H.: How to Launch Your Brand Quickly and Effectively Posted: 30 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST One of the most challenging parts of starting a new business is building a brand. With so many hurdles and a to-do list a mile long, business owners need ways to save their valuable time and money. In this article, we discuss exactly what new brands need and what they don't, how to stand out in a crowded marketplace, and how to begin building brand awareness. What your new brand needs When starting a new business, you may be familiar with the term "brand" or at least know that you need one. A brand can be defined as how your business is perceived in the minds of your customers. In other words, it's how your business is represented both visually and conceptually in the world. So, what does your new brand truly need? Your brand needs a logo.  A logo is more than just an interesting symbol or beautiful typography—it's your business' unique visual identifier. Without a logo, there is nothing to quickly and easily differentiate your business from another. An effective logo is unique, memorable and makes the right impression with your audience.  You need brand identity elements. Beyond your business logo, you also need the foundational brand elements including brand colors, typography, imagery and graphic style. Whether on your website, collateral, social media or other platforms, these elements are key to establishing visual consistency in how you present your business to the public. You need brand guidelines. Lastly, your brand needs a set of guidelines. Brand guidelines include a breakdown of how to use and not use your logo and brand identity elements. These guidelines serve as a useful reference document for you, your team and even other vendors to ensure your brand is displayed consistently at all times. How to Build a Brand for the Modern Consumer What your brand doesn’t need  As a new business, you're just starting to discover who you are as a brand and beginning to establish your voice and values. These elements help to define your company's unique perspective. While these elements are undoubtedly important, they are factors that will become apparent the longer you're in business and will continue to evolve. Once you have already established your business and brand foundation, continue to advance your brand by further developing your voice, values and more in-depth strategy. You don't need endless brand collateral items.  Instead, focus on the essentials. These include basic brand collateral such as business cards, an evergreen one-sheet or overview of your business, an email signature, and social media profile and cover graphics. These key brand collateral pieces ensure your brand is consistently represented across print and digital spaces and provide you with the tools needed to get out there and start promoting your business. How to stand out in a crowded marketplace Virtually every business has multiple competitors all vying for the same audience's attention. So, how can your brand stand out from the crowd and cut above the noise?  Look at what your competitors are doing. Take a close look at your top competitors and you might be surprised. It's very common for brands within the same industry to often look and sound very similar to one another. With so many commonalities, it's important for your business brand to maintain a visually distinct, ownable identity. For example, if the majority of the businesses within your field use blue as their primary brand color, focus on other colors to stand out.  Know your differentiators. What makes your business different from your competitors? Why should a potential customer choose your business over another? Knowing your target audience's pain points and being able to solve their problems in ways that are different from the competition are key factors to building a strong brand identity.  Use your business differentiators in your brand strategy. Highlight them on your website and in your brand's collateral. Your differentiators should be easy to spot and visible throughout all your brand platforms including your website, collateral, social media and more. Most Popular: How to Create a Successful Lifestyle Brand Building brand awareness and recognition Once you have created your brand identity and analyzed the competition to find the right opportunities to stand out, it's time to start building brand awareness and brand recognition. By doing so, you'll increase your number of potential customers and start building your brand's reputation. Show up where your audience is. As a business, it's important to be visible to your audience. You could have the best products or provide the best service in the world, but if your potential customers don't know about you, they won't be able to buy from you.  Jump-start your brand awareness by representing your brand in both online and offline avenues including social media groups, direct mail advertising, industry-specific networking events and more. At the start, showing up in more places is a great way to discover where your audience is, what works and what doesn't. Consistency is king. Without brand consistency how will your audience recognize you? If you use one set of colors and fonts on your website, and different ones within your social media, it sends a confusing message and says that you don't know who you are as a business. Use your brand guidelines to ensure that your messaging and visual identity are  consistent to start creating brand recognition in your audience. Putting it all together While creating a brand may seem overwhelming at first, focus on the essentials and find the right creative partner to help you do so. Follow the outline above to ensure your new business will be able to launch its brand quickly and effectively, without wasting unnecessary time or money.  StartupNation exclusive discounts and savings on Dell products and accessories: Learn more here.   The post From 0 to 60 M.P.H.: How to Launch Your Brand Quickly and Effectively appeared first on StartupNation.

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