Experts Archives - Page 5 of 18

10 Lies You’re Probably Telling Yourself

Oh, the lies that entrepreneurs tell themselves. Even when all signs point to the contrary, it can be very easy to make up excuses for why your business isn’t succeeding. Here are some of the worst lies that entrepreneurs tell themselves, and the (sometimes) hard truths:

The money will come eventually. You think that if your idea is top notch, if the product/service you’re offering solves a real problem, or if you have true passion and drive, that your company will succeed and eventually start making some real money. This is a fallacy. It’s easy when you’re busy growing your company to buy into this lie, but incredibly dangerous. It may be true that there is a pot of gold further down the road, but you can’t just count on it being there. You must plan for it.
If I price low enough, I can attract more business. This may be true in some sense. You may bring in more business if your prices are lower than your competition’s. But if your pricing isn’t covering your costs and allowing for the kind of margin you need to make a profit to at least live on, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. You need to figure out your gross profit (how much you need to cover fixed costs — from salary to materials to marketing). Based on this figure, you can calculate your gross profit margin and figure out how much you need to make in sales.
If something isn’t working, I can always change direction. Pivoting is an essential startup business practice. Knowing when to change direction, tweaking your offerings, and repositioning yourself in the marketplace are all good things. But this isn’t a magic bullet. You can’t just shift with the wind and expect things to work out. You need to base a direction change on number-driven data that guides and supports your plan. Before you change direction, you need to map out what steps you will take.
All I need to succeed is more volume. Quantity is a good marker for business success, but it’s not the only one. Increasing volume can lead to scaling issues. Instead of pursuing more customers, think about what other tactics you could take. How could you increase your dollar per customer? How can you save on costs per product? How can you increase customer satisfaction to ensure customer loyalty and increase the customer value over time? These metrics are just as important as volume.
I will only hire the best. Of course you want top-notch employees, but you may need to redefine who that is. Find out what positions can be outsourced to save on astronomical staffing costs. Top team members are expensive. Sometimes they are worth that cost, but remember that you can also hire for potential, rather than experience. Under-staffing is a good choice for many bootstrapped startups.
My time is best spent focusing on my industry. Not exactly. Of course you want to be on top of what’s going on in your industry, but if you want to see the big picture, get fresh perspectives, and make valuable connections, you need to look outside of your niche. Business partners outside of your area are sometimes the most valuable contacts you can have.
I’ve tried X and it doesn’t work so I’m done with it. Just because you’ve tried something before, doesn’t mean you can’t tweak it and try again. Sometimes small changes can have a big impact. For example, a colleague of mine who was VP of Marketing for a huge company had had little success with affiliate marketing. He was thinking of shutting down this marketing channel but, instead, decided to put some real money and time behind it. He hired someone solely responsible for managing the program. This one change made for astronomical increases in revenue for the company.
X has always worked for me in the past, so if I just keep doing it, I will be successful. Just because you’ve always done something a certain way, doesn’t mean it’s the best way, the most efficient way, or the most cost-effective way. As an entrepreneur, you need to keep an open mind and always look for better solutions. Even if your way was the best way at some point, times change, markets change, economic conditions change, and the competitive landscape changes. Business is dynamic. You need to be too.
My passion for my company won’t allow me to fail. Wrong. Without determination and persistence — and a real love for what you’re doing — you won’t be able to see this thing through to the finish line. But passion, in and of itself, isn’t enough. You need to execute. A lot of hard work goes on behind the scenes.
My product/service is so great that my business can’t fail. We’d like to believe this fallacy, but unfortunately it’s not true. A great idea is important. If there’s a real market for your idea, then you’re already a couple of steps ahead in the game. But it’s not enough.

A dash of optimism is a good entrepreneurial characteristic. You’re going to face a lot of setbacks, so the ability to put on some rose-colored glasses to improve the view is understandable. But when you begin to repeat the same lies and make them your mantra, you’re preventing clarity, masking opportunities, and getting in the way of your growth. When you stop lying to yourself, you can start anew. That’s where real change lies: that’s the future of your company.

David Ehrenberg is the founder and CEO of Early Growth Financial Services, an outsourced financial services firm that provides early-stage companies with day-to-day transactional accounting, CFO service, tax, and valuation services and support. He’s a financial expert and startup mentor whose passion is helping businesses focus on what they do best. Follow David @EarlyGrowthFS.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

How to Know Your Strengths Before You Start

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Maybe you are just thinking of starting a business. Or perhaps you have already begun, but are quickly realizing you can’t do everything yourself. If either of these scenarios sounds familiar, I’d like to share with you a great approach I’ve discovered for soliciting honest opinions without stepping on any toes — and learning which weaknesses I need to address, stat.

Only the Strong Survive

Getting to know your strengths and weaknesses is easier said than done. Many of us think we’re great at certain things, whereas others would perceive us as being “C” or “D” students at best. So how do you get an accurate picture of your strengths and weaknesses, and why does it matter?

Accuracy in perception is important. Knowing where you excel will guide you through your goal-making process, and knowing where you are weak will steer you towards the right moments to ask for help. Plus, if you know where you are weak, you can also figure out where your money will help you the most. For example, hire an accountant or bookkeeper if you’re not great with numbers. Hire a writer if the world of words doesn’t tickle your fancy. This method can even be applied to choosing a partner or team members, both which are very important aspects of the business-planning process.

How to Conduct a “No Blame” Survey

Start your self-assessment by making a simple list of every business skill you can think you have. Then, add other skills that you think make a good leader/business owner. Add any additional questions you think would be helpful.

To get you started, these are a few questions I ask my team to answer at the end of individual projects:

Did I make you feel comfortable about making your own decisions pertaining to the tasks you were responsible for throughout the project?
What could I have done on this project to be a better leader?
What did you most appreciate about me as a leader throughout this project?
What’s one thing you think we could do differently as a team on the next project?
Now ask as many people as you dare to rate you in the same way through an anonymous survey. You can do this using an online surveying tool like SurveyMonkey, or use Forms in Google Drive.

Tell people not to put their name on it. This way, you won’t be offended by anyone’s opinion and they will feel safe to tell the whole truth. I’ll never forget a programmer’s expression when I asked him to fill out an anonymous survey about me so I could improve on my leadership and management skills. He laughed out loud and said, “Wow, you take this personal development stuff very seriously!” I do, and you should too.

Do not open any of the surveys until you’ve collected at least 10, and only ask people that know you or have worked with you directly.

Tip: Take a deep breath before you open them and keep an open mind about why you’re doing this: to become super-honest with yourself and to find teammates who can account for your weaknesses. I’ve personally had a few responses that left me wanting to scream, but I’m better for having received the honest feedback.

Knowing what you need to put energy into and where you can relax can mean the difference between a smooth ride and one full of potholes. Why not take the smooth road?

A Note for Survey Newbies

To find your range, look at all the results (except for your own) for one skill. Now write your lowest and highest score. That is your range. Ranges can tell you how much or little people agree about your results. If most everyone agrees (meaning a short range of numbers like 4-6), I would take that as good information and use it to your advantage.

To find your mean score (or “average”) you simply take all the results from one skill and add them together. After you get the total, write that number down. Now count how many survey respondents answered the question. You then divide the total score number by the total number of surveys filled out. This means if you scored 200 and 20 people filled out the survey, you scored a perfect 10! Your mean is helpful for finding an overall number, especially if the results are all over the graph.

There are many other ways to look at the information, but calculating the mean should give you a good overview of the answers you want. You will be ready to gain helpful insight for your business.

Now get out there, and ask away!

Natalie MacNeil is an Emmy Award-winning media entrepreneur, Founder of SheTakesOnTheWorld.com, and the bestselling author of She Takes on the World: A Guide to Being Your Own Boss, Working Happy, and Living on Purpose. SheTakesOnTheWorld.com was featured by Forbes on its list of “10 Best Sites for Women Entrepreneurs.”

5 Easy Steps to Define Your Sales Funnel

salesfunnel

Most business owners want to grow as quickly as possible. While there is no one-size-fits-all acceleration model, having a clearly defined sales funnel early can help. In fact, behind every decision our company makes today is the original white-boarded funnel from our early days.

The purchase funnel is essentially what the industry commonly refers to as a ‘customer journey’ – which starts with the moment when a customer first makes contact with your brand. It includes each subsequent step and eventually leads to an end goal, purchase and monetization. In general, this journey is composed of a process around awareness, education, trial, adoption, and sharing. Putting the customer first provides the focus and prioritization needed to move every company to the next level.

Here are five tips for defining your customer funnel for success:

Determine your industry funnel. The top of the funnel is where a customer first enters into your experience. I run a web company, Porch, so most people enter from other places online. The first step in determining your industry funnel is to look across the board and outline what valuable user actions (VUA) your competitors care about. For example, on Twitter, these actions might be creating an account, uploading a profile picture, tweeting, re-tweeting, creating a group – or other measurable representations of end-user engagement. This exercise will give you a general benchmark for what the industry competition is doing, so you can start prioritizing your business growth strategy.
Choose where to focus marketing efforts. You can wrap your business and marketing around a number of places in the funnel. The most common are the top and the bottom of the funnel, but they have different problems. For example, the top of our industry funnel is all about inspiration – beautiful pictures that attract and retain customers on the website. Inspiration has a lower customer acquisition cost and better engagement. But it’s also difficult to monetize. If you start marketing at the bottom of the funnel, you monetize more easily, but it is often a challenge to acquire customers inexpensively. Assess the tradeoffs and pick a starting point to focus your business on.
Minimize your risk. When you are building a business, you are bringing financial and Excel models to life. Focus on proving out the risks in your model first. This starting point will help clarify your thinking about where the challenges lie. For example, if you start at the bottom, focus on how you acquire consumers in a cost-effective way to create an arbitrage opportunity (where you can repeatedly acquire customers for less than the revenue you produce).
Limit upward movements. Move customers down the funnel and limit moving them back up. For example, if a consumer is almost through your funnel and about to transact, limit the noise around them on the page (advertisements, pop-ups) so they finish. You will have time to cross-link them later. Retaining a paid user is much more valuable than entertaining a free user. This philosophy needs to be intentionally built into your product. Focus on user experience and prioritize building feature sets that guide customers down the funnel at a raw level. Everything else is a nice-to-have.
Build defensible differentiators. After you pick your marketing poison and define your priorities, put the pedal to the metal. Build out features or strategies to ensure your key funnel positions are completely defensible through intellectual property. Figure out what you want to be the best at and optimize and test different consumer acquisition tactics that meet your business goals. This is where the fun starts!

In the long term, you should turn your funnel into a sphere – create circular revenue streams with emphasis on retention and viral coefficients. But that is only after you have nailed your funnel fundamentals.

Matt Ehrlichman is the CEO of Porch, where you can get inspired by the best home projects your neighbors have completed, see what any home project will cost, and find the best service professional your neighbors and friends recommend. Previous to Porch, Matt was a founder and CEO of Thriva (acquired by Active Network) and Chief Strategy Officer of Active Network (2011 IPO). Matt lives in Seattle, WA.

14 Pitch Pointers for New Entrepreneurs

Question: What’s your best piece of advice for a very young entrepreneur with little to no experience about to pitch their idea for the first time?

Pitch the Problem

“The worst thing you can do is pitch a solution for something no one cares about. Instead, home in on the problem you plan to solve, and who you are solving it for. ”

Wade Foster, Zapier

Research

“Thoroughly research the organization that you’re pitching to ensure your idea is in line with the company’s needs. Throughout this research, it’s also important to make sure you’re pitching the idea to someone who can actually do something with it.”

Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

Get Ready to Be Told You’re Crazy

“The best possible response you can hope for when first pitching your idea is that people think you are crazy, that the idea won’t work and that you shouldn’t pursue it any further. That’s how all good ideas start. While there are plenty of horrible ideas that you actually SHOULD heed that advice for, the best ones tend to start that way.”

Todd Garland, BuySellAds

Believe

“If you don’t wholeheartedly believe in yourself and your idea, why would anyone else be expected to? Do your research and understand your market with confidence. Don’t let these sharks sense a taste of fear or uncertainty, otherwise they will chew you alive.”

Shahzil (Shaz) Amin, Blue Track Media

Pitch With Passion

“The absolute best piece of advice I could offer a young entrepreneur before a big pitch is to let his or her passion shine through. The excitement, drive, and motivation that drives young entrepreneurs is impossible to fake or replicate. Passion is contagious. No amount of money can buy passion. It trumps experience, and smart partners or investors will sense that excitement to succeed.”

Brittany Hodak, ZinePak

Earn Your Second Meeting With a Story

“One of the best business books I have read is “Made to Stick” by Dan and Chip Heath. They focus on the value of telling great stories — and teach readers how. Your goal in a first pitch is not to get money — it’s to earn a second meeting. The best way to gain interest is to leave your listeners with a compelling story that resonates with them long after you have left. ”

Aaron, Schwartz, Modify Watches

Go for It!

“Show your passion, detail it out as best you can — and then, listen to advice from experienced entrepreneurs. Often, eager young entrepreneurs pitch their ideas and think they’re the best things ever, so they don’t listen to any constructive criticism — and learn the hard way. That’s fine, but it’s better to listen and learn from other entrepreneurs who have already been there and done that. ”

Joe Barton, Barton Publishing

Be Receptive to Feedback

“In addition to the general nerves that accompany an idea pitch, the most frightening thought is the chance that your audience won’t like your idea. It can be tough to listen to criticism about your brainchild, but it is imperative that you filter the feedback in the most constructive way possible. If you do, the negative feedback will undoubtedly help you the most to build a stronger business.”

Charles Bogoian, Kenai Sports, LLC

Sell First, Then Pitch

“Even if you do not yet have a working product, try selling it to your target customer in person if possible. (Phone works too if you can’t in person). Sound crazy? Your potential prospect is going to give you very direct feedback on your pitch. Do they want to buy it? Why or why not? I believe the key to pitching an investor is understanding and clearly communicating your value proposition first.”

Sarah Schupp, UniversityParent

Ditch Those Slides

“TechStars taught me to start with the story. If you start with the Powerpoint, you’ll waste hours formatting slides (that you’ll likely delete later) and will box yourself into a half-baked story. Write your main value propositions on 10 notecards. Answer the standard questions about market size, revenues, and projections on another 10. Rearrange and combine the points to find your story. Voila!”

Heidi Allstop, Spill

Be Different

“Ultimately, most people won’t pay a bit of attention to the idea you are pitching. However, what they will pay very close attention to is you. The way to grab their attention and stand out from the crowd is simply to be different. Pitch in a way they’ve never seen before, even if the content is the same, and they will surely remember you.”

James Simpson, GoldFire Studios

Read Successful Blogs

“Read blogs from successful entrepreneurs who have written about raising money and pitching their ideas. I have written about raising our $2.7 million. I would not suggest reading business professors’ blogs. Instead, read about people in your business and in your space — people who go to pitches. Find someone who is recent and understands the experience and its challenges.” (Editor’s Note: Try these entrepreneur blogs.)

Jordan Fliegel, CoachUp

Relax

“Many young entrepreneurs feel very tense and second-guess themselves during pitches. You’ll be okay, even if you don’t land this investment. Relax and be confident; you will do so much better.”

Yosef Martin, Merchandize Liquidators LLC

Have the Answers

“Sit down with your team (or a friend), find any potential weak spots in your idea and figure out how to solve them. Investors always ask the “unexpected” question, so do your best to anticipate them in advance. The best feeling is walking away from your first pitch knowing that you had a good answer for everything they asked — and, as a bonus, it leaves a good impression.”

Benish Shah, Before the Label

3 Ways to “Hack” Your Product-Based Startup

How do you hack offline as rapidly and as effectively as you hack online?

Web startups can iterate a product and get it back on the market in a matter of seconds. But as product companies, we’re faced with manufacturing lead times that create a much longer development cycle. Luckily, Ministry of Supply’s co-founders also went to MIT, where we learned the importance of hacking — i.e., moving fast, iterating quickly and using customer insights to educate design.

To that end, I want to share some creative ways that MoS brought some of the best online practices offline, and applied them to our product company:

A/B testing isn’t only for web companies.

When A/B testing, companies randomly test two variants and determine which one better achieves the company’s goals (e.g., click-through rate or conversion). Web startups are notorious for doing this often and well — and then optimizing based on the results.

When we started Ministry of Supply, we wondered if we could take this same principle and apply it to the offline world. Here’s how we did it: When we created our first batch of shirts, we used a different proprietary fabric for our white, blue and black Apollo shirts. This way, we could test three variants at the same time, gather customer feedback, and understand which fabric we should move forward with.

Any product business can design a simple, offline A/B test to determine what customers really want (or want more of) and make better business decisions as a result.

Small batches and world-class partners allow for rapid iteration.

When we first started out, we were forced to manufacturer in small batches, because we had cash constraints and uncertain demand. In short order, we learned what an advantage this supposed constraint actually was. Namely, it enabled us to iterate extremely quickly, and get a new product on the market in about three weeks.

As we’ve grown, we’ve made a decision to continue to work with partners who allow us to do smaller batches so that this mindset can become a part of our manufacturing DNA. So far, it’s paid off handsomely. When we shipped 8,000 shirts as part of our Kickstarter campaign, we started to get feedback that customers thought they were running too small. So we adjusted the pattern, trained our manufacturers, and had new shirts on the market — in just three short weeks; a timeframe completely unheard of in most product companies.

When customer relationships come offline, real relationships can develop.

Most web companies are obsessive about understanding their customers’ online behavior (what they’ve bought before, other websites they’ve visited, etc.). At MoS, we’re obsessive about understanding customers’ offline behavior. This includes who they are, what makes them tick, what they love and what they hate.

By getting to know our customers’ values and personalities (not just their online behavior) we’re able to form deep and meaningful relationships with them. We communicate with our customers in every way that we would communicate with friends: we’ve gone running with our customers, we Snapchat with them, we go out drinking with them, and we invite them into our office and homes. In short, we get to know who they are, not just what they do.

And, because our customers are some of the most badass people in the country, these relationships are, simply, what makes us tick.

Kit Hickey is the co-founder of Ministry of Supply, a brand which is inventing the future of men’s professional wear. The company has been featured in NYT, TechCrunch, Inc., Forbes and Elle Magazine. In addition, Kit is a lover of mountain sports and has half an MBA from MIT. Follow her: @kit_hickey

14 Tips for Recruiting the Best Employees for Your Startup

Question: What’s your best tip for attracting top talent to a new startup?

Cultivate Future Leaders

“Highlight the experience your company can offer. Don’t focus on recruiting top talent by offering all the perks in the world; instead, make cultivating talent, who will eventually become leaders, a priority. It should be about the prospect’s passion for what your company is doing, not the daily catered meals (though I’m sure that’s nice, too).”

DAVID POLITIS BetterCloud

Understand What Makes Them Tick

“Everyone wants to be heard, and certainly understood. We’re a very strengths-based organization and we start from the day we begin recruiting or courting new talent. If you take the time to get to know what someone is looking for and what drives them, you not only can qualify if they’re the right fit for your team, but customize their role and your offer to what’s most important to them. Win-win!” Follow @laurenperkins

LAUREN PERKINS Perks Consulting

Sell the Vision

“We pay less. We work harder. We work longer hours. The only reason to join our team is because you want to be a part of what we are building. The best people want to be a part of big visions, so sell the vision. “

ADAM LIEB Duxter

Be Aggressive and Relentless

“Anybody that’s any good, especially in a city like San Francisco or NYC, is going to be looking at a dozen or more offers. In order to close him, besides being generous with compensation, you have to be aggressive, getting your investors to call him on your behalf. Relentlessly follow up. Even more important, be organized with your interview process and move quickly without delay. Follow @sitepointmatt

MATT MICKIEWICZ Flippa and 99designs

Get Great Press

“Aside from selling the mission and vision of your startup, a great tip for reeling in awesome talent for your firm is to attract great media attention. Press is a wonderful conduit for getting more exposure to your business. Being able to share your mission with a broader audience means that your startup will get more eyeballs, and that extra reader may be your next best team member.”

DOREEN BLOCH Poshly Inc.

Empower Them With Ownership

“Empower them with ownership and the opportunity to make decisions. People drawn to startups are disillusioned by big corporate structures and weary of working in an environment where they have no voice. If you tie the talent to the success of the company, everybody wins. Moreover, allow them to exercise the skills they enjoy employing. Retention skyrockets when talent is empowered and impassioned.”

SHARAM FOULADGAR-MERCER AirPR

Discover a Shared Passion

“Share your vision for your startup and what you hope to accomplish. Trying to lure top talent with perks, pay or other options may get their attention, but the people you should really be seeking are the ones interested in finding a role where they can have a meaningful contribution to something exciting. Plus, someone who isn’t passionate about what you are doing won’t be a great fit.”

BRANT BUKOWSKY Veterans United Home Loans

Network at Conferences

“We have found it helpful to attend industry-related conferences and casually chat with people who are attending or speaking to spread the word regarding available opportunities. If the person likes us, they will like working with or for us and/or recommend us to others who they think would be a good culture fit. Finding the right culture fit is more important to us than the depth of their skills.”

SHRADHA AGARWAL ContextMedia

Take Your Time

“If you’ve set your company culture the way you want it, take your time during the hiring process. The culture will attract better people instantly. I’ve been known to conduct as many as five one-on-one interviews before hiring new personnel. That’s on top of several phone interviews with the prospect and other staff. I need to be absolutely sure the talent is where I want it. “

BRIAN MORAN Get 10,000 Fans

Be Transparent

“I’m always transparent with potential new hires. I show them our progress, but I also want them to see the warts. This is important for two reasons: 1) They’ll know exactly where the company stands. 2) It builds trust. Sharing the bad with the good shows employees that they can trust you to tell it like it is. Transparency sets an important standard for any company.”

MITCH GORDON Go Overseas

Don’t Sell

“Conventional wisdom is to sell potential recruits on the company, vision, perks, etc. Don’t. Just tell them what you are and, more importantly, what you aren’t. You may lose some “rock stars” along the way, but you’ll build a loyal group of employees who know exactly what they signed up for.”

BHAVIN PARIKH Magoosh Inc

Show Off Company Talent

“A-players want to work with other A-players. So, it’s critical to showcase just how talented your current team is to a prospective employee. Besides making the recruit feel special, it also makes your team feel special to know that you value and respect their talents and abilities.” Follow @4collegeparents

SARAH SCHUPP UniversityParent

Hire Non-Local Talent

“Recruit people to your company and to your city. Santa Monica sells itself. When people relocate for a job, their commitment level is high, and their external social distractions are low. It’s an ideal circumstance for a startup where hours are often unreasonable.”

WADE EYERLY Surf Air

Emphasize Culture Fit

“Our company doesn’t necessarily look for “top talent” so much as it looks for high-character people with a good work ethic and technical aptitude. We look for people who are a fit for our culture, which is more important on a long-term basis for the good of the team.”

JOE BARTON Barton Publishing

5 Tips for Negotiating Like Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is renowned for his first-class Apple products. But did you also know that he was a great negotiator? Five of his best negotiating secrets were recently revealed in these court-filed emails between Jobs and James R. Murdoch over an e-book distribution deal between HarperCollins and Apple.

In short, HarperCollins wanted Apple to offer payment terms similar to what Amazon was offering, or about $12-$13 on new e-book releases. Apple wanted to offer $9 (about 75 percent of that). HarperCollins didn’t want to accept the terms.

Here are five tactics Jobs used to negotiate throughout the exchange — without once being pushy or rude:

Be Willing to Walk Away

First, Jobs makes it clear that HarperCollins needs Apple more than Apple needs HarperCollins. They already have other publishers on board. While he makes it clear that they would like to work with HarperCollins, they will let the deal fall through before giving in to their demands. Let the other person know you’re ready to move on if terms aren’t met.

Sell Others on the Big Picture

Jobs says that he believes an e-book revolution is coming and that Apple will be at the center of it. And he uses numbers to back up his claims: Apple sells more iPads than any other company, Apple has 120 million customers with credit cards already in their system, and Apple led this same revolution in the music industry with its iTunes store. Back up your demands with evidence.

Make the Other Person Try to Compromise First

Silence is a common tactic used in face-to-face negotiation because it makes the other person uncomfortable. When someone feels uncomfortable, they start to fill dead air by revealing their bottom line or willingness to compromise. The next time you are in a negotiation, practice silence. You’ll notice that the other person immediately begins to negotiate against him or herself (unless he or she knows this negotiation secret, of course).

Jobs did not engage in any negotiation; he essentially re-explained Apple’s terms and let Murdoch negotiate with himself. In his next email, Murdoch pushes for compromise, hoping that Jobs would give a little as well. That’s when Jobs went in for the kill with his final email.

Lay Out the Other Person’s Options as You See Them

This is a common tactic used in negotiation; you lay out the other person’s options as you see them to make sure that what you want looks like the most attractive option. Jobs did this by declaring to Murdoch that he only had three options:

Accept Apple’s terms
Distribute only through Amazon and see his product devalued, which meant decreased margins in the medium-term
Pull e-books completely from both stores (and face rampant piracy)

In reality, Murdoch probably had plenty of other options, but this simple list instills fear. In contrast with the second and third options, Apple’s terms don’t seem so bad.

Use Social Proof

In his emails, Jobs shares social proof such as:

“All the major publishers tell us that Amazon’s $9.99 price for new releases is eroding the value perception of their products in customer’s minds.”

Of course, not “all” major publishers believe this; HarperCollins, the publisher he’s trying to get on board, obviously does not agree!

Also:

“Apple is the only other company [besides Amazon] currently capable of making a serious impact [with e-books], and we have 4 of the 6 big publishers signed up already.”

It’s hard to argue with the fact that four out of the Big 6 publishers had already agreed to Apple’s terms. People prefer to do the less risky thing, so if you can convince a few, you can use their initial endorsement to convince the rest.

Can you apply these negotiation tactics while still being likable?

Yes, if you follow Jobs’ lead. Jobs was never rude or pushy; all he did was share his dead-on insights, back up his ideas with logic and reasoning, and put himself in the other person’s shoes to seal the deal.

At the core of his negotiation style was the confidence that he was right about where the e-book industry was going. He had a strong track record of predicting and creating the future he envisioned, which bolstered his claims as well.

And who could say no to that?

Jay Wu leads Innovation at A Forever Recovery. In his startup experience, he has built a digital marketing agency, a content network, and an e-commerce store. Jay speaks in the Bay area about social media marketing, SEO, and current trends in the internet-startup industry.

4 Tips to Improve Your App’s SEO

At my company, we are often asked for ways to improve an app’s ranking in the app store in order increase downloads. The truth is that there are two ways to gain a user base: a strong marketing strategy, and optimizing your app for search (i.e., App Store SEO). The first includes paying for PR, using third-party marketing platforms, and showcasing at local events, launch parties, etc. Unfortunately, this all comes at a cost. If you are one of the lucky ones who have the cash, then keep at it!

The second, for those who aren’t as fortunate, consists of guerrilla marketing efforts — one of which is improving the SEO of your app so it’s easier for customers to find in the Apple App Store. This article will cover ways to improve your app store SEO. Before we begin, let’s look briefly at the advantages of this method.

Why Consider App Store SEO?

The most logical answer is “Why not?” App Store SEO can play an important part in your guerrilla marketing strategy and costs you next to nothing. A basic overhaul only takes a few minutes of your time, and leads to immediate results. Before we share four key things to know, let’s summarize the advantages:

Great for those who don’t have a marketing budget
Easy to do and takes only a few minutes
Increases your app’s exposure within the store

4 Quick and Simple Things to Do to Improve Your App’s Ranking

1. Identify your keywords.

Do keyword research. Spend some time thinking about keywords that best categorize and describe your app.
Try using the singular version of a keyword, e.g. school not schools.
Use all the available characters if possible. Last we checked, you were given up to 100 characters. Use them all.
Localize your keywords for each given language.
Do not repeat the app name in your keywords.

2. Take advantage of ratings.

Make sure to include randomized prompts asking your customers to rate your app within the App Store. It takes little coding time to add but it is a great way for your happy users to show some love for all the hard work you’ve put in (and that’s the least they can do, especially if you have no pricing model).

3. Improve your ranking by converting more downloads.

The more downloads you are able to convert, the higher up the rankings you will appear for your chosen keywords.

4. Keep the description short and sweet.

There’s a misconception that a long descriptive app summary helps with rankings. We have yet to find any metrics to support this, but we do recommend the following:

Keep it simple and short.
Include quotes from popular press or reviews that talked about your mobile app.
Use bullet points that best describe the key features of the app and its overall purpose.
Convince your potential new users that your app is worth the download.

I hope this was informative and that it can be applied to your app. And I look forward to seeing you at the top of the charts!

For those of you with successful apps, what else would you add to this list?

A version of this post originally appeared here.

Andrew Sosa is co-founder of SquareBall Studios (SBS), a leading development company of mobile applications and software systems. Andrew has helped develop solutions for Fortune 500 companies but his real passion is working with startups on their initial ideas and seeing them succeed.

4 Startup Lessons From LSTN Headphones

A year ago, LSTN Headphones was still just a concept. All we had was a website with pictures of prototypes of our headphones up for pre-sale, and an idea that we could change lives through the power of music — with our business. Since then, we’ve learned some valuable lessons about starting a business and what it takes to succeed.

Pick a Project You’re Passionate About

Can you imagine a world without sound? As a music lover, I couldn’t imagine never discovering a new artist, never hearing my favorite album, or never going to my first concert. Music is the soundtrack to my life and it’s shaped who I am today. I went from being a kid growing up in Flint, Mich. learning how to play guitar to working with some of the biggest artists in the world at major labels in Los Angeles.

Set Yourself Apart From the Pack With a Clear Vision

When we were first starting out, everyone thought we were crazy to enter a market that seemingly every rapper and electronics company in the world had already set foot in. The problem was that although the headphone market is massive, none of the existing brands were making headphones we wanted to buy. In addition to great sound quality, we set out to create headphones that were beautifully designed and environmentally friendly.

Consider Your Social Values

When we looked at that massive market, we didn’t see another company making headphones that sounded good, looked good—and were doing good. So we set forth on a mission that would set us apart: we’d produce great headphones made from reclaimed wood and, for every pair sold, LSTN would help restore hearing to a person in need through the Starkey Hearing Foundation. We make direct contributions to Starkey with each purchase of our headphones.

Remember That Success Comes in Two Forms

Running a startup is not for the faint of heart — very little sleep, a lot of travel, no money, constant roller coaster emotions. I recently returned from a trip to Peru, where I got to experience the joy of seeing people receive the gift of hearing — and being exposed to music — for the first time. When I saw the faces that lit up when children connected and communicated with their families, I lost it. It was truly life changing. It trumped being able to quit my corporate job to do LSTN full time. It trumped the feeling of getting our product into Whole Foods.

In fact, it trumped everything we had accomplished up to that point, because to even change one person’s life through our business proved that our plan was working. On that trip, we helped fit 10,000 people in various cities and villages throughout Peru with hearing aids. (We made a short video about our journey that you can see here.)

Is your business changing lives? Do you want it to?

This post was originally featured on GOOD.is.

Bridget Hilton is founder of LSTN Headphones, a music start-up based in Hollywood, CA that makes high quality wooden headphones and funds hearing restoration programs globally. To learn more, watch here.

5 Easy Steps to a Perfect Product Launch

If someone asked you to cram a year’s worth of work into one week, could you do it? Would you?

Any sane person would refuse the request, but hundreds of companies take on the challenge each year when launching new products. That means issues that would normally be mere annoyances — down servers, hour-long interruptions on a payment processor — become catastrophic money losses that might never be recovered. But they can be avoided. Here’s how:

Schedule Success

Every successful launch starts with a launch calendar. Start with the projected launch date and work backward to capture every step needed to meet your deadline. Your timeline should include: releasing promotional information, recruiting and updating affiliates and partners, initiating the pre-launch start (the day the main promotion begins), promoting launch day (the day the product goes on sale), closing carts (the day the product or promotion ends), and fulfilling orders and customer service requests.

Companies must also build in time for new ideas. Leaders are often shocked by the amount of money left on the table because they failed to account for non-essential strategic activities during the launch.

The most vital part — fulfilling orders and customer service requests — is what makes a launch successful. It allows a business to create a fan base whose loyalty will last for years.

Make Customers Love You

In our space, a minimum 30-day refund perio

d is a must, and there’s a high return rate in the online training market. Our first online training course launch a few years ago had a 50 percent return rate — not what we had hoped for. Sometime it came from scammers wanting free information request returns, while others requests come in from clients disappointed by the delivery.

After implementing a better launch strategy, we got refunds down to a highly respectable 15 percent. How? By providing exceptional customer service and delivering on our promises. We worked long hours in advance to ensure customers got results from our training.

Avoid Pitfalls

Even long-time launchers make mistakes — but you don’t need to. Here are five effective ways to prepare for a product launch:

Expect bad things to happen. No matter how unsexy they are, every business needs contingency plans. Don’t think that what happened to others won’t happen to you. For example, will you be cycling millions through a payment processor over a seven-day period? Put multiple processors in place and rotate them to avoid slowdowns.
Bring on extra staff. A big product launch is no time to run lean and mean. Let full-time andtemp staff know they’ll be working around the clock, and compensate them well. The large influx of business will create customer service and technical issues you don’t normally experience, and you’ll need people to handle them. A new customer’s first impression is usually a permanent one.
Improve your reputation.When buzz is generated, people will research your product and business. Make sure what they see is very good. Have existing customers or staff write blog posts and create videos to enhance your search results. Promote these on your website to generate more revenue during your launch.
Set expectations. Launches are hectic; let the people in your life know you’ll be largely unavailable. Eliminate other major obligations during this time.
Schedule weekly check-in meetings. About three months pre-launch, my team meets every single week for up to two hours to stay on schedule. This discipline reduces procrastination and the need to urgently handle miscommunicated responsibilities.

When you’re stressed, you tend to make poor decisions, whether that means declining an opportunity because you don’t have time or failing to provide good service because you’re stretched too thin.

A launch is a great time to attract loyal customers who can change your life — and the future of your company. Make sure your launch is a rewarding experience for everyone involved. It will make the hectic work absolutely worth it.

Matt Clark is a serial entrepreneur, author, speaker, and health and fitness enthusiast. He is an entrepreneurial thought leader, and he founded a multimillion-dollar product distribution business enterprise. He welcomes anyone to reach out to him on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Google+.

3 Myths About Successful Startup Cultures

We’ve all read the stories about the hot new startups making waves in their industry – and how they’re doing it from colorful beanbag chairs in a once-destitute warehouse on the south side of town. We’re prone to conclude that these startups are sustaining high-level performance because they’ve broken down the (cubicle) walls binding our ability to collaborate, innovate, and achieve full potential.

Unfortunately, myths about high performing culture develop from these stories. Now, to dispel a few “must-have” myths:

A ‘Cool’ Vibe

While it may seem that a waterslide snaking through your office will promote innovation, it usually just leaves you all wet. Many high performing companies do have “cool” vibe cultures, but their sustained performance is attributed to much more than the free mocha coolatas. These cultures tend to be manifestations of their founders and leaders – entrepreneurial, risk-taking, intentionally provocative. These outward characteristics predicate high performance when they are founded in certain values: determination to succeed against all odds, an underdog mentality, and a youthful exuberance that imitators just can’t match.

Don’t try to be something you’re not. Seek to understand what is truly valued in your organization. Then, ask yourself how those values manifest themselves daily. Are these manifestations going to help you or derail you from achieving your goals? “Cool” doesn’t necessarily mean high performing. And trying to be “cool” when you’re not certainly isn’t going to end well.

A Charismatic Leader

The second common myth is that organizations need a charismatic leader at the helm in order to inspire greatness in others. In fact, recent thinking is quite the opposite. Highly successful CEOs tend to be those who shy away from the spotlight – those who are maniacally focused on the success of the business and who are never satisfied. If your charismatic CEO spends more time on the speaking circuit than in the office contributing to your organization’s success, you may be in trouble.

A Startup Mentality

While all organizations must be adaptive in order to meet the changing needs of the market (an attribute often associated with quick and nimble startups), this is not a prerequisite for success. Although it may be more challenging to turn the rudder on an ocean liner than a dingy, mature organizations are absolutely able to foster innovative thinking that keeps them competitive. It’s less about a startup mentality and more about understanding your objectives and how your organization’s culture is going to help get you there.

Myth-buster bottom line: A culture of performance is not necessarily a culture that seems catchy. The key is to clarify what you stand for and who you need to be and to execute on that vision authentically.

A version of this post originally appeared on the author’s blog.

Chris Cancialosi, Ph.D., is Managing Partner and Founder of gothamCulture, is a recognized expert in the field of leader and organizational development with particular focus on the leader’s role in shaping high-performing culture.

5 Tips for Startup Life Survival

The startup lifestyle can be grueling. If you’re not careful, it can take a serious toll on your physical and mental health. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a CTO, a programmer, or work in a nontechnical capacity; everyone needs a startup survival strategy to help them maintain their work-life balance as they learn to juggle an ever-growing workload, excessively long days and a personal life. It can be a pretty daunting task. Those who aren’t careful may find themselves suffering from burnout.

Anyone working at the forefront of technology and innovation is no stranger to the demands of startup life. In an industry where leaving the office before 8 p.m. is often frowned upon, it’s no surprise that industry leaders like Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer brag about working 130-hour weeks from time to time. Then there’s the famous Apple slogan, which has also helped set an industry precedent: “90 hours a week and loving it.” These increasing demands, coupled with the do-more-with-less mentality of such work environments, are having a detrimental effect on employees.

There’s a good chance that everyone who works at a startup has or will experience bouts of stress and burnout from time to time. What’s important is that one knows how to deal with the demands of the startup workplace.

Below are five tips for surviving the startup lifestyle.

Get a life. Your work, while demanding, shouldn’t be performed at the expense of your life. It’s important to spend time with loved ones and make time to do the things you enjoy. Don’t neglect your relationships. But more importantly, don’t neglect yourself. While this may feel like a waste of time, it will leave you feeling refreshed, energized and ready to tackle your to-do list head on.
Accept your limitations. Working at a startup doesn’t have to mean overtime and impending burnout. If you’re an efficient multitasker, you’ll be able to cram a decent amount of tasks into a full day of work. It’s essential that you understand your own needs. For some, perhaps an extended lunch break increases concentration and productivity overall, whereas some may benefit from short, frequent breaks throughout the day. Determine your needs and limitations to ensure you’re as efficient as you can be.
Get moving. Exercise and maintaining a healthy lifestyle often fall by the wayside as workload increases. Being active will not only help you keep in shape but will increase your productivity in addition to making you happier and more energetic. So get moving and while you’re at it, pay attention to the food you are consuming. Certain foods are linked to increased brain stimulation, while others cause steep energy declines. These are simple lifestyle changes that may greatly improve your quality of life and will make you a more productive member of your startup team.
Disconnect after hours. Just because you have a smartphone doesn’t mean you shouldn’t disengage from the office. Unless it’s something pressing, there’s no need to respond to emails outside office hours. And if you’re someone who has a tendency to obsessively check email, removing work email from your phone may be a good option. It’s important to take a break and make some time for yourself at the end of a long day.
Write your manifesto. It’s important to be aware of what you stand for and what you want out of life. Do you know what your main life goals are? Is your current job getting you any closer to reaching them? Constantly evaluating your goals will help you see your job in a different light. For example, it may help you realize it’s time to find something that more closely matches your manifesto. Whatever it is that you discover, having a personal manifesto written out will help you see the big picture.

A version of this post originally appeared on the author’s blog.

Zach Cutler is a dynamic entrepreneur and marketing professional who formed Cutler Group, a Tech PR agency, in 2009. He specializes in crafting innovative communication campaigns to help emerging and established tech companies thrive.

5 Tips For Getting Started In A New Industry

dreamjob Five years ago, my first tech company was acquired. Two years ago, the acquirer IPO’d. As the Chief Strategy Officer, I ended my time at the company with a signatory bell ringing at the NASDAQ. Until that point, my life had moved quite swiftly without much vacation, only letting up to marry my high school sweetheart and raise my son.

After a failed attempt at a vacation, I dove right back into the startup world. I love the energy of startup life. But more importantly, I love the promise of solving a real problem and improving the world in some way. So this time around, I want to build something truly great and enduring – not just a billion-dollar business, but a household brand that delights customers, creates beautiful experiences, and employs an inspired, world-class team who’s in it for the long haul.

When building a company, you want to work for long term, the first decision to make is what market to attack. Opportunity cost is incredibly high, so it’s important — no, critical — to select an industry ripe to support what you want to build. Here are five tips for selecting a market for your startup:

Pick the pursuit of happiness. Attack a problem that you are passionate about solving. When you make the decision to move forward, building a company is a massive commitment and something you live and breathe. Without passion to carry you through the long, lonely nights, you don’t stand a chance.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. There’s no need to focus on inventing a new market. Instead, try looking for an environment where established competitors have shown the space can be monetized and operate in a model that allows new entrants to do things differently, if not better.
Consider social, local and mobile. There are many reasons why a startup should fail. I want the wind at my back, and finding an opportunity where the trends support your efforts helps. Look for macro trends – for us, it was clear that the housing market would rebound, providing more “free” growth as we scaled.
Look for inorganic growth. Organic growth is imperative for almost every startup these days. As a company matures, though, it is important to look at inorganic ways to accelerate growth. A good indication of this is when a market has both fragmented competitors and a fragmented customer base. Consolidation is a great platform to have as an asset.
Maximize your superpowers. Focus on what you are uniquely great at so you can sustain a competitive advantage. For me, I knew I could deploy a business model in topics I know well: providing value to businesses, gaining deep insights through these relationships, and providing an exclusive solution to consumers that solves a big problem. I knew I liked business models that include both businesses and consumers, and models where an opportunity to build a virtuous circle exists (where more businesses provides us with consumers and consumers attract more business customers).

These five steps led us to create Porch, a social home improvement marketplace. It’s a space I’m incredibly passionate about, since it affects every household in the United States and touches the home, where life’s great memories happen. With a few competitors at scale, we are taking an extremely personal, relevant and trusted approach to disrupt the industry. It’s a massive market ($500B in spend) where consolidation opportunities are endless, and has a virtuous cycle of value by nature.

Where will they lead you?

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

5 Commitments To Make In 2014 Instead Of Resolutions

For business owners, every new year is an opportunity to change. But how many of us actually keep our resolutions when the daily grind catches up to us? This year, I suggest you dump those resolutions — and make commitments to yourself instead.

I read a great article about commitments by Chris Freyteg. My favorite line was, “A resolution may be the act of resolving or deciding on a course of action, but a commitment can be far stronger, because it’s a specific pledge, promise or obligation.” The bottom line: Keep it simple and you’ll actually be able to add it your busy daily life.

Below are my top 5 commitments to myself and my business this year. What will yours be?

Be and stay healthy. Let’s face it — there is only one you and you are needed. Eat clean, exercise often and get plenty of rest. Try to pack healthy snacks and lunches for your busy day. I bring a protein shake along with bananas and carrots to munch on throughout the work day. Make time in your schedule to get out on a run or even a walk during a break from work. Just a 30-minute walk can help relieve stress and tension. After all, a one-hour workout is only 4 percent of our day. In business, we are walking billboards for our company. It’s important that we look and feel good.
Put it on the calendar. Start using a calendar to pencil in your daily, weekly and monthly schedule. Make sure to add personal time as well, including exercise (see: number 1), to your daily regimen. By putting it on the calendar, it is more likely to get done. And prioritize your work day the night before.
Stop worrying. You can only control you — the way you think and act. Be the best person you can be, and forget about what others think and do. Don’t sweat the small stuff. We spend too much time worrying over small issues or other’s people issues that it takes away from time we could have spent on ourselves and on our companies. So your business partner took credit for your idea. Is it really the end of the world? No, it’s not. In the full picture, it matters that the work was accomplished, not whose idea it was. I always ask myself, “In a month, will I remember this? In a year, will I be thinking about this very moment?” It’s fascinating how many times the answer is no.
Connect. Connect. Connect. Make time to network — and I don’t mean social-on-the-computer networking. Nothing beats live face-to-face interaction. It’s important to build long lasting relationships; relationships are the bread and butter of success. The more people you connect with, the more opportunities you have. Start by attending chamber mixers and events — there is an event for everything. You can find events through Meetup.com or through your local chamber of commerce. Ask local business professionals where they go to network and join them.
Continue to grow. Why not stay away from the TV this year and substitute it with a book? We are fortunate to have the luxury of reading books from self-made millionaires and entrepreneurs we admire. They are giving us their tools and resources so we can accomplish what we want. Get started by working on yourself — only YOU can make yourself successful. By learning more about your industry and business skills, you become an expert and continue to grow with new ideas and solutions. You also have more knowledge to use for conversation between clients and diverse people you meet. Growth and development are instrumental to one’s success.

Put in the work — make the commitment — and it will pay, trust me. Don’t be afraid to start with baby steps, either. I have found that true excellence is achieved by doing many, many small things extremely well (and I’m not the first to observe that!). Be a person who does what you say you are going to do. Make a year-round commitment to your health, your relationships, your growth and being a better you — and business success will follow.

Nicole Smartt is the Vice President and co-owner of Star Staffing. She was awarded the Forty Under 40 award, recognizing business leaders under the age of 40. In addition, Nicole co-founded the Petaluma Young Professionals Network, an organization dedicated to helping young professionals strive in the business world. Nicole can be found on twitter; @StaffingqueenN.