StartupNation

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• 8 Steps for the Perfect Product Launch
• Keep Burnout at Bay With These Strategies
• How the Artificial Intelligence of Things Is Disrupting Business
• WJR Business Beat: National Inventors Day Celebrates Innovation in the U.S. (Episode 363)

8 Steps for the Perfect Product Launch Posted: 17 Feb 2022 09:00 PM PST You've created the killer product that will change the world. Now you need people to buy it. Top entrepreneurs and members of The Oracles share their tried-and-tested ways to build buzz so people buy from you and passionately spread the word for mega profits. StartupNation exclusive discounts and savings on Dell products and accessories: Learn more here Be strategic One, find your core audience. Whether you're creating the new iPhone or a cupcake stand, find and learn from your core audience. Establish your base and build their confidence in you. Two, get advice and listen. Most friends will be your biggest cheerleaders, but that doesn't mean they're helping. They need to poke holes in your ideas, which you can fix before taking a product to market. Resist the urge to be defensive. And use the opportunity to strengthen your product. Three, learn from others. There are no more original ideas, just repurposed ones. As you prepare to market your idea, examine your competitors. Take from their good, learn from their bad, and enhance what needs to be improved. Then put your spin on it. Four, be smart about publicity. You no longer need traditional media to drive ideas, products or messages. Don't get caught up in creating a PR budget if it won't drive core business. Instead, spend your time creating messages to buyers. Five, conditioning your social media audience is critical. Always pushing them to "buy" creates fatigue, making them feel like a number. Build a relationship with your audience at least three months in advance so they can learn your tone and rhythms. Then seek ways for them to interact with your product. Six, for all your analysis, don't forget to rely on "feel." Entrepreneurs are risk takers with unwavering belief. Don't abandon that now that you're moments away from the launch. Finally, use the power of broke. I wrote a book about this. My biggest business mistakes came when I tried to buy success. My most successful business experiences came from using limited resources, supported by innovation. Resist the urge to spend, spend, spend. —Daymond John, Shark on "Shark Tank," NYT-bestselling author of "Rise And Grind," creator of Daymond On Demand and founder of FUBU, which has generated $6 billion in sales Go overboard with outreach Obscurity kills businesses. If you don't go overboard, you won't get the attention needed to be successful. Before launching a new product, ask yourself: One, How far will I go to get attention? Two, How frequent will I be in my attempts? For my 10X Growth Con 2 in Las Vegas, I created 1,023 tweets, 26 YouTube videos, 198 emails and countless Instagram posts. Some think that's excessive, but 9,000 people showed up. I called one guy back after he told me to never call again. He was outraged and hung up. The next day, I called again and he bought a $10,000 ticket. —Grant Cardone, sales expert who has built a $750-million real estate empire, and NYT-bestselling author; follow Grant on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube Related: 7 Accomplished Entrepreneurs Share How to Start a Business with $100 Use common sense Know your audience. If someone asks you, "Who's your target audience?" have a concise answer. Otherwise, there's a problem. Also, get to know your stakeholders. Find out where they spend their free time and join them after work. Events are great for getting your product into the community. Consider sponsoring a mixer at a local restaurant, brewery or wine bar to draw interest. Know your product's value. Interview a client who found success using your product. Ask them why it was successful. With branding and promotion, have a multimedia approach that includes print, photography and video. Don't treat hashtags as an afterthought; they're a powerful tool to grab eyeballs. Use them intentionally. Follow and engage with reporters on social media who can direct attention to your product. Ask a local celebrity, like the mayor, to do an on-camera interview. Worst case, they say, "No." Best case, they authenticate your brand. —Eileen Rivera, CEO of The Rivera Group; real estate coach, speaker and licensed California Realtor with over half a billion in sales Target major media outlets Attention is the currency of the internet. The average person consumes an inordinate amount of information daily. To get attention, cut through the noise. With the right strategy, you can land a major media placement. Pitch yourself as an expert and target high-profile news outlets. Figure out what story segments producers want. They're under pressure to book the right experts, so there's a good chance your knowledge fills a gap. Your pitch should have a sensational hook with actionable advice. I secured press on CNBC by pitching how to make millions in e-commerce. The article and video were viewed millions of times, giving me the springboard to launch a product that made almost a million dollars in 48 hours. The best part? Zero ad-spend. —Trevor Chapman, proven entrepreneur and digital strategist who has generated over $100 million in sales for his businesses and partnerships; follow Trevor on Facebook Build your super fans Don't jump into launching a product without first building a community of super fans who'll vouch for it. Lay the foundation to build the buzz later. It may take one to two years, but it's worth it. You could start with conferences. Hunt for your target audience. Invite them to join a value-add Slack group or receive exclusive invitations to your events. After launching, if your fans don't resonate with your product, revisit square one. Don't judge your market; listen because they're telling you what they want. Fix the current product to their liking and they'll build the buzz it deserves. And you'll avoid losing a lot of money, wondering why your promotions didn't go as planned. —Sweta Patel, founder of Silicon Valley Startup Marketing, who has advised over 200 early stage startups and high-growth companies; connect with Sweta on Facebook and Instagram Bring brand ambassadors into your business family It takes a village to get buzz for your business. Find ambassadors whose interests align with yours and bring them into your business family. In the poker world, we have prominent personalities in our business family, like Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari, Maria Ho and Phil Hellmuth. We choose ambassadors who are well-established professionals with impressive poker resumes and large fan bases. They're "all-in" when it comes to promoting. Ho recently traveled to China with us to meet a valued advertising client. Esfandiari showcases his magic at big client dinners. Hellmuth helped us make a TV commercial. —Joe Kakaty, co-founder and president of Poker Central Use pre-launch videos to drive leads Use a pre-launch video campaign to jump-start product sales and build brand awareness. Your price point should correlate with the length of your video content. While lower-priced items require 15 to 60 seconds of video, a more significant ask is best served by a five- to 15-minute pre-launch video campaign. Use a landing page with a sign-up form to capture email addresses. Then, create an email campaign that offers special incentives to buyers who refer family and friends. A respected influencer gives instant product credibility. Get industry influencers to put your product in front of their fans through endorsement campaigns. By using platforms such as BrandBacker, Revfluence and PitchBox, our agency quickly matches clients with influencers who represent their shared goals. —Jason Hall, founder and CEO of FiveChannels; generated over $17 million in sales revenue for his clients in 2017 Sign Up: Receive the StartupNation newsletter! Technology is your friend Webinars are perfect for spreading your message in an attractive, engaging form. Here's how to maximize your success: One, research and choose the right webinar software: easy to use, requires no IT knowledge, downloads or installations, and is ready to go — time is money. The software should give you the necessary tools for the whole process — before, during and after the webinar. Two, host webinars on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. That's when you'll get the best attendance. Three, craft a "catchy" topic name to draw the largest audience: "The Marketing Platform of Your Dreams" is more enticing than "New Marketing Automation Platform." Four, tell everyone about your launch via every means possible: email, your website and social media. Five, prepare an agenda. Tell your audience what to expect from your webinar, with the intended topics. Don't forget timing: Our research found that a webinar shouldn't exceed one hour — 30–40 minutes for your presentation and 15 to 20 minutes for Q&A. Six, focus on solving a problem your audience may face. Subtly incorporate your product into the discussion, but concentrate more on the outcome and less on the product. With a strategic approach, webinars reach, educate and engage your audience, earn their trust, improve your conversion rates and, ultimately, impact your bottom line. —Simon Grabowski, founder and CEO of ClickMeeting Published on August 7, 2018. Originally published on Entrepreneur.com. ©2018 by Entrepreneur Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Want to share your insights in a future article? Join The Oracles, a mastermind group of the world's leading entrepreneurs who share their success strategies to help others grow their businesses and build better lives. Apply here. For more free business insider advice, follow The Oracles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The post 8 Steps for the Perfect Product Launch appeared first on StartupNation.

Keep Burnout at Bay With These Strategies Posted: 17 Feb 2022 09:00 PM PST Many years ago, I was working on a big project for a global brand. It was complex and had a lot of moving parts, but it was manageable. It didn't require me to work a crazy number of hours, and I was maintaining a good work-life balance. After just a few months of starting this project, however, I hit a wall, and ultimately, I discovered I was burnt out. On a separate occasion, I was overseeing various projects at the same time for the same global brand. I was also working 60+ hours a week and was being pulled in many different directions. There was a lot of pressure as well. Stakes were high, but I was loving it and felt like I could keep going. The work came in waves. I delivered some great results, and I never even came close to burning out. What was the difference between these two scenarios? Why did I burn out in the former, and not in the latter? It's because in the former, I was finding it hard to stay committed to the journey, and in the latter, I genuinely loved what I was doing, I was part of a great team, I felt supported and I believed in the company's mission. The point? We tend to correlate burnout with working too much for long periods of time. But factors such as personal growth and fulfillment, team chemistry, support and alignment to company values also play a big role in what actually leads to burnout. Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in Their Business Journey By now we all know there is no magic bullet to avoid burnout. But here are four strategies to keep it at bay. Take care of the basics. No strategy or top 5 tips can help you avoid burnout if your people are continuing to work themselves to the ground by putting in 70 hours a week for long periods of time. It's the same if people don't like their job, if there is friction between teammates or if people are not aligned to the company's values.  Taking care of and focusing on the fundamentals, such as work-life balance, an inclusive environment and cultural fit, give you a better chance at fighting burnout. Celebrate the small wins. Implementing long-term plans, systems, technologies and products takes months, if not years. Results take time. If we keep working hard, but don't reflect on the progress we've made, eventually, motivation starts to fade. When we don't celebrate our efforts, the mistakes and failures start to carry more weight. This makes it a lot harder to stay positive and push through tough times. Make time to take a step back every so often and celebrate the small accomplishments. Celebrate the small milestones or deliverables of your projects. And as long as you made progress or learned something new, celebrate the failures as well. Separate yourself from the results. When we’re really vested in our work, it gets hard to take a step back and view things objectively.  When we're in weeds, we start to associate our personal happiness and, at times, our self-worth with the results of a certain project. This puts us under immense pressure, which affects not only our performance, but also our overall well-being. All you can control is effort. Therefore, it's important to work hard, but then take a step back once you and your team have given it all you've got. Instead of checking the scoreboard every second, focus on staying consistent and working on the right things. The score will take care of itself. Show the promised lands. Sometimes, uncertainty and turbulent times call for long hours and hard work. Sometimes we have to push through. During these times, show your team that whatever is waiting on the other side of this hard, challenging time is worth a lot more than the pain everyone is going through today. Make sure to showcase the light at the end of the tunnel. Remind your team the "why" behind your mission. Sign Up: Receive the StartupNation newsletter! The post Keep Burnout at Bay With These Strategies appeared first on StartupNation.

How the Artificial Intelligence of Things Is Disrupting Business Posted: 17 Feb 2022 09:00 PM PST The world has steadily started adapting to the useful implications of AI and IoT impacting several industry verticals. However, constant innovation has brought a new emerging branch — Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) — into existence that combines both technologies. AIoT combines artificial intelligence technology and the infrastructure of the Internet of Things to make IoT operations more efficient. IoT is a system of interconnected sensor devices that collects and processes data. AI, on the other hand, completes certain tasks and improves overall outcome if used in the right context. The harmonious amalgamation of both technologies is set to disrupt many industries. Before we discuss the effects of AIoT, let's understand its significance and what the AIoT-powered future would look like. 5 Ways E-Commerce Entrepreneurs Can Make More Data-Driven Decisions The significance of AIoT in the future Many of us know the roles artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things play in helping businesses succeed. Devices with the capabilities of both technologies are proactive and smart enough to analyze data and make decisions without the involvement of humans. Typical IoT devices are connected to cloud computing platforms to process data and provide meaningful insights. However, due to the limited computing power of the cloud platforms, IoT devices passively collect data for processing. But when AI and machine learning capabilities are blended with IoT, these devices become not only active but more robust, secure and scalable. They can collect an infinite amount of data and process it at lightning speed to make predictions and respond in real time. Since AI models and algorithms need enough data to perform inference and make predictions, which is not possible on an individual level, IoT devices can meet such these requirements of AI. This will enable the AIoT-powered devices to run effectively in the local environment. Moreover, it'll have a lasting impact on business sectors. It's likely that we will see more advanced AIoT devices being deployed to disrupt and improve the operations of many industries.  Let's learn how AIoT will impact the operations of the following industries: 1. Retail operations We have already seen organizations using AI to successfully build a retail business. What an AIoT-enabled setup will do is transform such retail operations into smart environments. An embedded camera system with capabilities to constantly identify customers through facial recognition allows the retail store to accumulate customer info. These customer intels such as their gender, product preference and others factors can be utilized to accurately predict customer behavior. Such predictions provide retail operations with enough insights to make marketing and product placement decisions to drive up sales. For instance, if the majority of customers walking into your store belong to Gen Z or millennial demographics, you could come up with personalized ads and in-store specials for them. Similar to the Amazon Go Store, cameras in a smart retail environment could easily identify shoppers and eliminate the hassle of standing at the checkout queue. 2. Health care Another important sector AIoT devices have boundless possibilities in is health care. This sector is geared up to collect accurate patient information and process them to gain higher efficiency and reinforce quality care for patients. From image processing and analysis to early disease detection, accurate cancer diagnosis, new medicine drug discovery and production, all this could be possible through AIoT. Businesses and innovators in the health care industry can streamline the patient experience by leveraging this revolutionary tech.  Health care innovators can develop AIoT-powered platforms and digital nurse avatars to recommend possible treatments. They can even interact with patients, voice transcribe medical information, support medical staff and increase revenue cycle through smart billing. Moreover, the predictive analysis of AIoT may help doctors make proactive decisions and monitor patient health remotely. Also, AI-enabled IoT devices can alert the right people in cases where urgent attention is needed. In a nutshell, AIoT will play a crucial part for health care innovators to streamline and improve the critical care systems. 3. IT service management As we move forward with AI and automation, IT service management is another sector moving in the same direction. Similar to how AI has paved its way into the corporate world, AI-enabled IoT devices will become dominant solutions for IT providers. This could provide help for IT support teams from web and mobile development companies that don't have enough resources to personally get involved with each request. Thus, they utilize AI-enabled IoT devices to handle their IT service needs in a better way. Even web development today is greatly focused on utilizing AI capabilities. This has made it effortless for web development teams to come up with impeccable AIoT solutions for IT service management. By adopting and implementing such evolving technologies, IT service providers will experience a disruptive change. 4. Delivery and logistics Since AI is capable of being utilized to plan and predict the demand of logistics and delivery needs, AIoT will enable logistic providers to become more competitive and proactive in their field. AIoT devices such as autonomous delivery robots can be used for transiting goods from one place to the other. They can effectively deliver orders to customers’ doorsteps in an expected timeline by eliminating the on-road traffic movements. Delivery robots will have sensors and cameras embedded with them to gather information about their route. They can predict the environment of their traverse area and process many other data in real-time to make moment-to-moment decisions. This helps them to respond and make deliveries to the right customers through AI capabilities. 5. Fleet and vehicle management AIoT is going to be inevitable for use cases such as self-driving vehicles and fleet management. Through AI-enabled IoT tools, fleet operators and managers can monitor their fleet vehicles, track maintenance reports, reduce fuel costs, and detect any unsafe conditions or driver behavior. Moreover, fleet management companies can integrate AIoT tools that often increase fleet efficiency and reduce operational costs. Not only that but the IoT sensors can help fleet businesses to improve the safety and the quality of their service. The self-driving car is another marvel of AIoT technology business can tap into. As seen in Tesla's autopilot systems, self-driving cars use radars, sonars, cameras, GPS, and other IoT sensors to collect information about roads and driving conditions. The AI system will then make decisions based on all the data IoT sensors have gathered for it. Since the future of self-driving vehicles looks bright enough, many other small to large manufacturers pledge to join the bandwagon. All this could only be possible with Artificial Intelligence of Things. In a succinct, the right implementation of AIoT will ensure businesses can efficiently manage their fleets and vehicles. Why VR Technology is 2022's Must-Have Business Tool Final words After AI and IoT, AIoT-powered devices will see a massive surge in the near future when it goes mainstream. Such advanced technology can be applied to multiple sectors and subsectors to improve their efficiency and achieve automation. It's going to be imperative for large-scale enterprises to utilize this next evolution of AI and IoT. But it's best that this tech is used alongside humans to increase its efficacy without being overwhelmed. Overall, this next-gen tech will surely have a tremendous impact to disrupt the above-mentioned and other sectors in the future. StartupNation exclusive discounts and savings on Dell products and accessories: Learn more here. The post How the Artificial Intelligence of Things Is Disrupting Business appeared first on StartupNation.

WJR Business Beat: National Inventors Day Celebrates Innovation in the U.S. (Episode 363) Posted: 17 Feb 2022 11:08 AM PST On today’s Business Beat, Jeff heralds inventors as being crucial to the entrepreneurial community and a bedrock of American ingenuity. Turn in to the Business Beat, below, to learn more about the role of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office: 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 a segment of the entrepreneurial community driven by inventors. You know, much of our innovation in the U.S. is driven by big corporations. However, there’s a huge segment of the population made up of independent inventors or small businesses innovating and creating business opportunities based on their innovations. Now, most of us know when that eureka moment hits, it’s important to protect your intellectual property, your idea, your invention. And one way to do this is through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by filing a patent application. One of the most powerful and effective patent offices in the world, the U.S. PTO as it’s known is something of a true beacon of democracy and fairness, a real hallmark of why the United States is still considered the land of innovation. Now last year, the U.S. PTO issued 374,066 patents. Is this whole notion of innovating and protecting people’s inventions important to our culture here in the U.S.? Well, you bet it is. And in 1983, Ronald Reagan had this to say: "Almost 200 years ago, President George Washington recognized that invention and innovation were fundamental to the welfare and strength of the United States. He successfully urged the first Congress to enact a patent statute as expressly authorized by the U.S. Constitution and wisely advised that there is nothing which can better deserve your patronage than the promotion of science. And in 1790, the first patent statute initiated the transformation of the United States from an importer of technology to a world leader in technological innovation." Reagan goes on to say, "Inventors are the keystone of the technological process that is so vital to the economic, environmental, and social well-being of this country." Last week, we celebrated National Inventors Day on Thomas Alva Edison’s birthday, a day to recognize the great innovators among us here in the United States. 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: National Inventors Day Celebrates Innovation in the U.S. (Episode 363) appeared first on StartupNation.

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