Startup Tips: 5 Tips to Make Your Inbox More Manageable

If you’re like me (or me a month ago), your inbox seems to be like a cancer that is growing faster than you can possibly lop it off. A day out of the office, or a morning of back-to-back meetings, leaves you to return to an unread email count in the hundreds. Just keeping up with your inbox could easily be your full-time job, except for the fact that it wouldn’t cross a single thing off your to-do list.

Tired of wasting time, sacrificing productivity, and putting up with inane subject lines because of email clutter? Here are five simple ways to declutter your inbox.

Set up Priority Inbox. If you use Gmail, you may be missing out on an amazing feature called Priority Inbox. I was initially hesitant to try it because I was worried I would somehow lose emails with it, but it has actually helped my productivity more than anything else I’ve done. Priority Inbox puts new emails in two different places within your inbox — one for ones it considers important, and another for ones it considers unimportant, based on the sender and subject line. Now, even though I might have 90+ new emails when I come into the office in the morning, I can immediately see the 12 that need my immediate attention, rather than getting lost in a sea of daily deal offers and cat slideshows until lunch.
Create filters. Many email providers allow you to set up filters for certain types of emails. You can use these filters to do lots of things: apply a certain label to an email, delete it, send it immediately to a certain folder and more. For the emails that aren’t urgent, set up filters so that they to skip your inbox and go straight into a certain folder for later. Then, once a day, go into that folder and see what’s new. I use this for internship applications I receive, emails from the shopping websites I subscribe to and emails sent to a former employee who no longer works with us.
Use Boomerang. Boomerang is a free plug-in for Firefox and Chrome with Gmail that allows you to do things like schedule an email to send in the future, bring an email back to your inbox at a certain time (like your flight itinerary the day before your trip) or return an email back to your inbox if you have not received a reply to it after X days. Rather than leaving an email in your inbox just to remind yourself to follow up on it or have it to easily access for later, use Boomerang to clear it out for now and have it come back when you actually need it.
Unsubscribe from 90 percent of the lists you’re on. While you probably just delete most of these unwanted emails every day, they clog your inbox, waste your time checking them off and then pushing delete, and make it hard for you to see the emails that actually matter. For a span of about a week or so, every time you get an email you do not want to receive (the ones from your mom don’t count!), take the time to open it, scroll down, and figure out how to unsubscribe from the list. It will require a little more time upfront but it will pay off in the long run when the number of emails you receive on a daily basis goes way, way down. You can also use a service like the Swizzle to help you unsubscribe from lists all at once or opt to receive daily digests from certain lists instead of individual emails.
Use your calendar rather than your inbox. People often leave emails in their inbox to remind them to do something — to make a call, start a project, or to follow up with someone. Instead of taking up valuable inbox space with emails you have already read, schedule these to-dos in your calendar to remind yourself that way. If you’ve been meaning to call to make an appointment somewhere but the place doesn’t open until Tuesday, create an event in your calendar for Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. as a reminder, rather than leaving the related email in your inbox (which you might not even see on Tuesday anyway).

Stephanie Kaplan is the co-founder, CEO & Editor-in-Chief of Her Campus Media, the #1 online community for college women and marketing platform for companies looking to reach the college market.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

4 Reasons Choosing Startup Life Over College Is Totally Worth It

In 2011, I wrote a post called “Why I Didn’t Get A Real Job” that got a lot of attention. Admittedly, it was a childish reaction to a relative’s assertion that I needed to go get a “real job.” After a few months of full-time entrepreneurship that same summer, I thought I was finally experiencing the startup life. Twenty-four-hour hackathons, no set hours, no boss — “Oh yeah!” I’d say, “let’s disrupt stuff!”

Okay, maybe I wasn’t quite the walking stereotype of Sh*t Entrepreneurs Say, but you get the point.

In April 2012, however, I sat at a crossroads: continue to just scrape by or go all in on my startup Fetchnotes. After a lot of internal struggle, five of us decided to leave the University of Michigan, and our journey eventually led us to TechStars Boston’s Fall 2012 class. With that decision 9 months in the rear view mirror, I’ve had some time to reflect on what really happens when you leave school to start a company.

1. Most people will never quite get you or what you’re doing.

When I talk to people about what I’m doing, I usually get one of these responses:

“So, are you, like, the next Mark Zuckerberg or something?”
“So is TechStars, like, paying you to work on Fetchnotes for them?”
“How long do you plan to do this before you get a real job?”
“How long until you go back to Michigan?” (As if it’s some sort of semester abroad program.)

The fact of the matter is, no one understands until they’ve been in the trenches. And that’s okay. It’s actually part of what I like about not being in Silicon Valley. Even in Boston, with its thriving entrepreneurial communities, most people I meet think what I’m doing is interesting. Maybe it’s an ego thing, but it provides a small dose of happiness every day.

2. All time is not created equal.

As you shed your other non-entrepreneurial responsibilities (like class), each individual unit of your time becomes more valuable.

You’d think it would be the opposite — when you have less time to give each hour is more precious, and there are diminishing marginal returns on your productivity. But in practice, when you have no other distractions, you actually become more productive.

As we dedicated more time and intensity to our specialties, this could be seen across all functions of the business. I became a more effective hustler. Our engineers became more efficient coders. The chemistry that evolves from a small team marching together all day, every day, in lockstep toward the same vision holds incalculable value.

3. Emotions are magnified — both the good and the bad.

Inevitably, there will be some crisis that rocks your foundation so greatly that you don’t know how to respond — and entrepreneurs are such good salesmen that most people have no idea there’s anything wrong. With no finals or homework to distract us, we walk around with a smile masking the internal disposition of a zombie. No one likes to admit it, but we tend to be emotionally unavailable to the outside world when it comes to problems in our startups. Just like parents, we never want to hear that our baby is anything but a darling prodigy.

But then, there will be days of pure, unmitigated ecstasy. You get two large investor commits in the same day. You get introduced to people who basically invented the Internet as we know it. You have two-hour whiteboard sessions with people whose theories you’ve been studying from afar. The press raves about your new release. You scream “YES!” and high-five anyone in your vicinity without explanation. You dance in place.

These are the moments that turn the Startup Bug into Serial Entrepreneur’s Disease.

4. The journey will be worth it in more ways than you can imagine.

Many more qualified people than I have espoused the virtues of starting a company over pursuing a traditional university education. But what makes it worthwhile are all the little things that mean so much more because you’re experiencing a level of career satisfaction most people must wait years for, if they ever achieve it at all.

It’s John-the-building-security-guard finally remembering your name and no longer making you sign in after three months of seeing you every single day. It’s finding out how many other people in your network have started using your product without you saying a word. It’s regularly enjoying team dinners and signing the check.

And then, one day, you look around at that very table of team members and notice that, for once, no one is talking about work. We’re reminiscing about a crazy adventure from the night before, or planning a concert for next weekend, or poking fun at each other’s dating lives. For the first time, you grasp the fact that the bonds you’ve forged would not have been so tight had you not convinced your team to take a bet on you, and more importantly, on themselves.

It’s the moment you realize that what makes you unique isn’t the pursuit of success, wealth or power. It’s that your mission in life is about the pursuit itself, rather than what you’re pursuing.

Alex Schiff is the founder and chief executive officer of Fetchnotes, which makes productivity as simple as a tweet. Prior to Fetchnotes, Alex was the vice president of Benzinga and a student at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

13 Pieces of Startup Advice You Never Thought Of

Question: What’s your most unorthodox/funny/strange-but-good advice to other startup founders?

Get a Vacuuming Robot

“When you’re in startup mode, you’re not thinking about cleaning. The downside is that your environment really affects your productivity, so having a clean home office is crucial. Consider hiring a cleaning service or getting a vacuuming robot to make sure that you’re working in the best conditions so you can produce your best work!”

– Nathalie Lussier | Creator, The Website Checkup To

Working Out Will Save You Time

“I’ve found I’m so much more efficient after I work out that I always gain productive time, not lose it. Seems counter-productive for many, but my startup founder friends who don’t exercise regularly find it harder to stay focused, tougher to be creative, difficult to maintain a good diet, and are just less happy in general.”

– Derek Flanzraich | CEO and Founder, Greatist

Clean Your Employees’ Mugs

“As a founder and leader of your startup, you want to demonstrate to your team that everyone has to play multiple roles within the company — and some roles will be cool, others not so much. On Monday mornings, I like to go around and ask team members whether they need their mugs cleaned. Sure, I like to clean, but also I like to demonstrate that I am not above playing the role of a dishwasher.”

– Eric Bahn | Co-Founder, Hustle Con Media

Make a Championship Belt

“Create fun ways to reward employees. I give my employees a championship belt to place on their desks when they do something exceptional for the company. You will be able to get top performance from your employees by showcasing unique rewards.”

– John Hall | CEO, Influence & Co.

Decorate Your Work Space

“Boring work spaces make boring and less productive employees. Finding decor that you can afford and will motivate your staff might be tricky, but it is a proven fact that work performance is enhanced when employees are inspired and energized by their surroundings. Inspiration comes in many forms, so make sure your decor is consistent with your business goals.”

– Erika London | Co-Founder, iAdventure.com

Get Barefoot in the Park

“Think about it: a person takes off his shoes when he gets home and gets comfortable, which is the exact atmosphere that helps early-stage startups succeed. Early employees need to feel at home at the office, and they need to bond with their teammates like family. Don’t allow shoes at the office, and employees will stay later in the night and build a closer bond with their teammates.”

– Jun Loayza | President, Ecommerce Rules

Work in Corporate America

“This may sound weird, but it’s true. It’s wise to learn and make your mistakes on somebody else’s watch before risking everything on your own. And if you don’t have the right business skill set to start, launching your own company is going to be an uphill battle.”

– Alexandra Levit | President and Founder, Inspiration at Work

Encourage Daily Siestas

“Approximately seven hours after waking in the morning, we experience an energy drop that prevents us from working effectively. This is the perfect time to have a post-lunch, 20-minute catnap; studies have shown that midday napping can significantly improve performance. Some employees might feel uncomfortable napping during the work day, so lead by example and take a nap every day.”

– Emerson Spartz | CEO and Founder, Spartz

Get Over Yourself!

“Get over the fact that you are going to turn off a lot of people while running your startup. That includes your family, friends, prospective investors, prospective customers, media, etc. Once you do that, a great majority of the weight you carry while trying to run your startup dissipates.”

– Carmen Benitez | Co-Founder and Managing Director, Fetch Plus

Don’t Try to Boil The Ocean

” It’s a great visual analogy, and it perfectly encapsulates a major challenge for any startup founder. You’ve got to take the challenge on, one gulp at a time.”

– Brent Beshore | Owner/CEO, adventur.es

Give Time to Other Startups

“I’ve spent 10 hours a week over the past two years “advising” startups — formally or simply as a sounding board or beta tester. It’s great to have tunnel vision with your product, but supporting others has a few incredibly positive effects. You’ll meet very interesting and skilled people who can help you, and you’ll uncover clever ways to solve your own challenges.”

– Aaron Schwartz | Founder and CEO, Modify Watches

Take a Vacation

“Really, take one. When you leave your team to execute on their own, you’ll see where all the holes in your company are, and then you can work on patching them. You should be able to leave your company for a few weeks without them needing you.”

– Bhavin Parikh | CEO, Magoosh Test Prep

Don’t Live With Co-Founders

“Don’t live with your co-founders. When you’re part of a startup, you’re likely spending 15-20 hours a day with your co-founders. It’s inevitable that they will start to irritate you. If you have to spend your precious four hours of free time with them too, you can add their snoring problems to the mix!”

– Patrick Ambron | CEO, BrandYourself.com

At this national startup conference (that even you can afford) You’ll get great startup advice too!

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Is Your Unpaid Internship Program a Good Idea? 6 Legal Considerations

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate is especially high among college students and recent graduates. For those unable to find paid work, an unpaid internship might seem like a useful way to gain valuable experience, recommendations and even future job placement. Likewise, for cash-strapped startups, the idea of getting labor without having to trade liquidity or valuable equity can be too appealing to ignore.

However, there are some very serious legal considerations every for-profit company — including startups — must be aware of before attempting to hire unpaid interns.

Under federal law, every employee in America is entitled to a minimum wage, additional compensation for overtime and certain other benefits. The employer must also consider worker’s compensation, discrimination laws, employee benefits, state labor laws and unemployment insurance coverage. In order for these requirements to not apply, the employment relationship must fall under applicable legal exemptions.

In the case of Walling v. Portland Terminal Co., the United States Supreme Court held that one such exemption to the federal requirements exists for people who work for their personal advantage rather than that of their employer. Such a person may be considered a trainee instead of an employee for purposes of federal law. In this seminal court case, the Supreme Court looked to six factors in deciding whether a work program was for the intern’s own educational benefit or the advantage of their employer.

Here are the six factors considered by the Court:

The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment.
The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern.
The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff.
The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded.
The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship.
The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.

The DOL has taken the position that for the exemption to apply, all of the factors listed above must be met. While some of the above requirements may be covered by an effective agreement, those that are subjective create a substantial burden on a company looking to hire interns to create a substantive program that meets these criteria.

The key takeaways for anyone looking to hire unpaid interns is that you need an appreciation for the nebulous area of the law you are entering, understand the difficulty of complying with the Department of Labor’s specifications, and finally, ensure you do all you can to be in compliance with the law.

Peter I. Minton is the founder and President of Minton Law Group, P.C. His practice focuses on the representation of startups and emerging businesses in business transactions, capital raising, corporate governance and general corporate matters. Prior to founding the Minton Law Group, P.C., Peter attended the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University Law Center. Upon graduation, he began his practice in the mergers & acquisitions department of a large New York City law firm where he represented private equity and hedge fund clients in a diverse range of transactions. He is a admitted to the New York bar.

5 Ways Your Startup Should Be Using Video

I started “producing” my own videos when I was 8 years old. From the time my sister and I were deemed old enough to hold the family camera without breaking it, we were hooked on the wonders of video. Back then, polished videos were still a luxury. I never would have guessed that consumer-level cameras would soon fit in my pocket, or that video would become such a powerful piece of my own business.

I recently got together with my friend and fellow entrepreneur, Ariane Fisher, co-founder of the crowdsourced, cloud-based Storymix Media, to brainstorm a few of our favorite ways to use video to save time, pump up marketing and improve business practices:

Use video to train new staff. Most of our staff works remotely, so we don’t always have the luxury of sitting down with new team members to walk them through training. Instead, we use Camtasia, a screen recording software, to record ourselves walking through our processes step-by-step. When new team members start, we have a dozen videos that they can watch. These videos don’t have to be perfect and polished, as long as you can get your point across.
Use quick video tutorials to help clients understand complex topics. Most of our clients have hectic schedules, so we often use Camtasia to record short screen recordings in place of web conferencing. We simply send them links to private videos that walk them through specific concepts, and they can watch the videos on their own schedules. “Video tutorials are a great way to provide value to your existing clients,” says Fisher. “At Storymix, we use video tutorials to help clients get creative with our product and use it in ways they hadn’t considered.”
Use video to bring testimonials to life. A written testimonial is a powerful marketing tool, but a video testimonial is even more credible. “Testimonial videos seem more authentic to prospective clients than written reviews,” says Fisher. “They don’t have to be daunting or intrusive; they can be filmed in the comfort of your client’s home using their webcam. You can schedule a phone call with them after delivering your product or completing your service. Talk with them for a few minutes about what they enjoyed most. Then ask them to hit record on their webcam and keep speaking with them in an interview style.”
Create a short value proposition video for your website. Your value proposition is your promise to potential customers. Use a video on your website to quickly and clearly explain the benefits of what you’re offering. As Fisher puts it, “Explainer videos are super hot and a quick way to explain your value props to prospective clients. You can hire high-end professional services, or even go the DIY route and create your own explainer video using your existing footage and a voiceover with a USB mic.” Check out an example from her company on YouTube.
Use video to make yourself more visible in search engines. YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world. “Google owns YouTube and places higher value on inbound links from their own platform,” says Fisher.

Whether you’re using video to communicate among your own team members or to complement your marketing, the most important thing is that you set aside time to jump in and start experimenting with it. Video is becoming a powerful part of modern business—if you’re not using it, you’re missing out on endless opportunities.

Allie Siarto is the co-founder of Loudpixel, a social analytics company focused on social media monitoring, insights, measurement and infographics. She also runs a project called Entretrip, a co-traveling experience for location independent entrepreneurs, and a digital marketing innovation podcast called The Apt Marketer.

3 Startup Lessons From an NFL Coach

With the 2013-14 NFL season kicking into full gear, and as I settle into my Sunday ritual, I’m reminded of why my hero, head coach Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks, is just that — a hero.

Since he took the reins in Seattle in 2010, Pete’s taken a below-average team and turned out a Superbowl contender. His leadership style can be applied to a startup and to leading a company. There is a lot to like:

“Do it better than it has ever been done before”: Pete inspires his team and his program to “do it better” than ever before. He believes this mantra at his core. I know I can certainly do a better job of evaluating, optimizing, and maximizing every area of production in my business.

So can you. Once a year, make sure to break down every aspect of operations — from your cleaning service to board meetings. Evaluate how you can do better than anyone has before.

“Be different”: The Seahawks leadership has specifically looked for players with unique skills and traits. They then put them in a position where they can take full advantage of their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Through this process, the Seahawks have acquired a collection of players that others didn’t value as highly. These players were able to fit together to perform at a very high level.

With the market for technical talent as competitive as it is, part of the challenge for a successful startup and technology company is to think outside of the box. Who are the right types of people and what skills should you look to hire for? With a specific salary amount available, it is critical to use dollars to achieve maximum output. What are the people and skills that are undervalued but can add tremendous value when put together?

“Compete”: Competition is about setting up an environment where people are driven to perform to their maximum ability. Doing this while retaining team camaraderie and spirit is difficult. I believe Pete has done an excellent job of communicating the purpose of internal competition – to make each player better. Grading games and practice tape, comparing players, and completing detailed evaluations naturally creates a meritocracy. Pete believes that if there is an available player who will improve the team, it is his responsibility to make a change in order to make the team as competitive as possible.

The takeaway: Set up an environment that requires everyone to up their game each day. Use data and transparency to show your employees how they are performing, and be very clear that it is your responsibility to use the limited number of positions and expenses to make the best company it can be.

And with that … Go Seahawks!

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.

YEC founder Scott Gerber keynoting at this huge startup conference for startups “everywhere else”

Startup Tips: How Your Wardrobe Impacts Your Work

For women leaders, business can be a minefield of personal image challenges. Experts estimate that up to 95 percent of our communication is nonverbal, so even as women achieve more prominent platforms, the majority of what we communicate is still through external visual clues. This creates the very real challenge of authentically aligning the messages we speak to our outer appearance.

The appearance of a job or political candidate, business partner or clients impacts our opinions, whether we acknowledge it or not. While we still have strides to make in gender equality, many women are discovering that their outward appearance may have unintended consequences.

Appearance Still Impacts Influence

In an ideal world, all leaders would be evaluated by their effectiveness and character. However, seemingly innocent choices impact the influence of powerful women leaders across many fields. For the female executive, it’s an added layer to be considered in developing an authentic leadership style — the fact is, as a professional woman, wearing inappropriate attire can undermine your authority.

Just look at the political field, where the power and perception of women is still heavily influenced by their outward appearance. Margaret Stuntz-Tresky’s thesis “Clothing Makes the Candidate?” posits that “media coverage that underscores traditional sex roles or highlights women’s gender or appearance may well contribute to and exacerbate these inherent hurdles to power.”

Stuntz-Tresky compiled decades of research to exhibit that “studies in a variety of fields and settings have demonstrated that clothing has a significant influence on perceptions of trustworthiness, expertise, knowledge, intelligence, success and more — all the makings of source credibility.”

Dressing to Impress — and Establish Credibility

The way we dress goes beyond fashion to what The Style Concierge Sybil Henry calls “personal style” — i.e., the way we dress to represent our authentic selves, so we can attract those who appreciate who we are internally.

The challenge is to be taken seriously so that your message is heard and you don’t lose that sense of personal authenticity.

As Henry notes, when you work with a business, “you sign on the dotted line to represent their brand and need to find a way to be authentic within those constraints. Choosing a company is no different than choosing a mate — you have to find a match in values and culture so you can authentically align yourself with the company values.”

Whether we like it or not, every career and industry has a uniform that signals credibility. That uniform varies widely for doctors, artists, bankers, and fashion models, of course — what signals credibility for a runway model would undermine the credibility of a brain surgeon.

How to Balance Authenticity and Personal Style

When working with women executive or entrepreneurs, Henry helps identify her client’s authentic self — and find a credible way to express that, comfortably and confidently.

Corporate Image Coach Sarah Hathorn advises women to allow their professional images to speak on their behalf — and beware of wardrobe choices that undermine her brand. A few key pointers:

Choose clothes that reflect leadership traits — e.g. don’t wear a 10-year-old suit if you’re a young, forward-thinking leader.
Being comfortable in your position doesn’t mean yoga pants and tank tops. Women can be most comfortable by choosing professional clothes in the right fit for their body. For an executive, a well-tailored jacket allows for individualization and comfort — without completely ignoring the industry uniform.
Details matter. If you’re a leader who encourages and embraces creativity, pay special attention to the details of your personal style — wearing the same “uniform” of black pants and blouse every day doesn’t communicate adventure, risk or creative style.

The image we chose can either support or negate our carefully crafted brand, along with the messages and the content we’re striving to bring to the forefront of the conversation.

Embodying your authentic brand is a process, but it sends a powerful statement and commands respect. In the end, it’s not about conformity or mimicry, but identifying your authentic self and wearing it, inside and out, with confidence.

Kelly Azevedo is the founder of She’s Got Systems, a custom coaching program that leads clients to get support, documenting and dominating in their fields. She has worked in startup, successful six-figure and million-dollar online businesses, helping owners create the systems to serve their needs.

You can see YEC founder Scott Gerber speak at this huge national startup conference.

Startup Tips: 13 Money Saving Tricks Nobody Ever Talks About

Question: What’s ONE thing I can do to save my business money right now that nobody ever talks about?

Forget Information Products

“This is an area not many people talk about because a lot of businesses make their money by selling these items. The problem is that too many entrepreneurs buy into eBooks, courses, group coaching programs, etc., but they don’t spend any time implementing. Stop spending your money on information and instead, save it, or spend it on talent that will help catapult your business forward.”

– Erin Blaskie | CEO, Erin Blaskie, Digital Strategist

Shared Gym Memberships

“I’m a huge believer that splurging on gym memberships saves on employee productivity big time. But don’t buy individual memberships; instead, negotiate with a nearby gym to buy just a few memberships you can share with people on the team (as long as only one person per membership goes at once). They”ll typically be cool with that, and you’ll potentially save a ton.”

– Derek Flanzraich | CEO and Founder, Greatist

Audit Your Subscriptions

“Look through your credit card statements for automatic rebills, and make sure all the services you’re paying for are actually being used. In the past we’ve uncovered a mobile phone account that no one had used for six months, a website optimization service that was overbilling us, and a CRM that we had switched away from months prior. For services that you do use, contact and ask for discounts.”

– Matt Mickiewicz | Co-Founder, Flippa and 99designs

Fit It in the Right Box!

“Many product companies I have talked to always tell me some added costs come from having to buy a shipping box on-top of their retail box. A little tip we learned was make it fit inside a USPS flat rate box or UPS box. These materials are free from both suppliers, and if you manage your relationship with the driver, they even drop them off to you, saving your company a ton on packaging costs.”

– Jerry Piscitelli | Owner / Inventor, Portopong LLC

Look at Legal Expenses

“Businesses often have legal needs that can cause large, unexpected legal bills. Ask your attorney for flat project rates to allow you to better budget your legal expenses. If an attorney will not provide a flat rate, they might be willing to agree to a cap on the project, which also can help you prevent surprise legal bills.”

– Doug Bend | Founder/Small Business & Startup Attorney, Bend Law Group, PC

Ask for Tax Guidance

“The earlier in the year that you can sit down with your CPA and look for opportunities to better manage what you’re going to owe the IRS, the more likely that your CPA will be able to help you find some strategies to minimize your tax bill. From retirement accounts to going green, there are a lot of tax strategies out there and it’s worth going over all of them with a tax professional.”

– Thursday Bram | Consultant, Hyper Modern Consulting

Negotiate Absolutely Everything

“Prices for B2B products and services are almost always negotiable. Aggregated savings over time can amount to a real enduring competitive advantage if competitive negotiation becomes part your company culture. Make it a policy never to sign off on anything until you and your team have hustled out every last penny.”

– Christopher Kelly | Co-Founder, Principal, Convene

Try Out Outsourcing

“Outsourcing oversees things such as web design, SEO, and in some cases, content writing can greatly reduce your overhead. Firms such as Supreme Outsourcing http://www.supremeoutsourcing.com, Guru and oDesk help you find work from around the globe. If you reduce cost in these areas, you can then hire more full-time people in your own country so there is nothing unpatriotic about it.”

– Raoul Davis | CEO, Ascendant Group

Use Communal Space

“Take advantage of communal office space where the rent is subsidized and the culture is lively. Shared space is a great way to immediately reduce your cash burn, and interact with many other entrepreneurs in a fun and creative setting.”

– Michael Tolkin | CEO, Merchant Exchange

Utilize Interns Wisely

“There are millions of college students and recent grads willing to work for little or no money in return for experience. Never underestimate the value of the experience you can offer. Compared to working at a large, boring corporation, many students will opt for the fun, small business. Once you have an intern (or four), you’ll start realizing how much of what you do can be delegated.”

– Emerson Spartz | CEO and Founder, Spartz

Outsource Key Infrastructure

“Many small businesses see the value of outsourcing for specific tasks (such as web design or content). But outsourcing key infrastructure positions is an even more effective way to save money. Starting out, it’s almost inevitable that you’ll face an internal skills gap. Outsourcing key functions such as finance, legal, and HR can help you keep your internal resources focused on your business.”

– David Ehrenberg | Chief Financial Officer, Early Growth Financial Services

Refuse Some Business

“”Are you mad?” Nope. Simply stated: you need the focus. Stop looking for that quick fix and start connecting to your ideal client! You need to think long and hard about who that is. They are the ones that can extract the most value by using your service or product and will come back to you time and time again. All others are a waste of effort, as you bend over backwards for them just that once.”

– Carissa Reiniger | Founder and CEO, Silver Lining Ltd.

Review and Analyze

“Review invoices and statements from the past three months. As you go through them, ask yourself the following questions: Do we really need this? Are we paying too much? Can we get a better deal? How can I avoid these costs in the future? By analyzing every dollar, you’ll find areas where you are wasting money by overpaying or using services you don’t need.”

– Christian Springub | CEO and co-founder, Jimdo

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

How to Start Your Own Business While on the Job

Becoming an intrapreneur isn’t something people typically fall into. If you want it to happen, you’re going to have to get out there and make it happen. And to do that, you’ll need a plan.

Item number one on your list is to master your job. This is actually a two-parter. First, become an expert in your current role. Second, you’ll need to hit certain milestones if you want to pull this off. The first one is being at your job long enough for you to learn your role and feel that you could teach everything you do to another person. You need to prove your worth and demonstrate that you can handle the responsibilities you were hired to do. You’ll also want to build in enough time on the job to make your boss look like a rock star and gain his trust before you venture outside your role. Otherwise, you’re going to have a really tough time getting him to buy into and support your ideas (and to support you in your desire to expand your role in the company). In my experience, it usually takes six months to get to this point. Of course, if you can do it in less time, great! But don’t rush things. It’s better to take a little more time than to try to make a move when you’re really not ready.

Throughout this process — and throughout your entire career — it’s important to think in terms of how you can best leverage your strengths and weaknesses to help your company succeed. What are some things your company does really well? What does it do less well? What should it be doing to improve? How can your strengths and intrapreneurship goals get your company where it needs to go? With that in the back of your mind, you’ll be better able to articulate to your manager how your intrapreneurial idea will benefit the company.

You’ll also need to be able to clearly define your objectives and metrics.

In other words, what does success look like and how can you measure it? Be absolutely sure that your project aligns with the corporation’s mission and values.

If you want your company to support your idea, you’ll need heavy hitters behind you. Start with your manager. Sit down with them and talk about the potential opportunity you see. They’ve worked at the company longer than you have and they know the path to making a project successful, including how to assemble a team and how to get decision makers to buy in. Have a presentation that describes the opportunity, how it benefits your company, and what resources you’ll need to execute (people, materials, funding). Once your manager is solidly backing you, ask for their help in lining up a senior executive or major decision-maker inside your company to put his or her name on the project. That will help you get the resources you’ll need to give you the greatest chance of succeeding.

Remember, this is your project, and you want to be the center of attention, right? But don’t try to do everything — you’re going to need help. In addition, trying to do it all makes you seem either like you can’t get others to work with you, you can’t delegate, or you’re trying to hog all the glory. Instead, surround yourself with people who have skills you don’t but who can make your idea even better. Look for people who are passionate about the idea you want to develop. Some will come from inside your organization, but others may come from outside.

Optimism and self-confidence are great qualities for intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs alike. But they can easily turn into naïveté if you don’t have a backup plan. Having a great idea, a great team, strong backing, and deep resources significantly increase your chances of success. But even with all that, sometimes things don’t work out the way you’d hoped. Life can be awfully unpredictable, and it doesn’t pay to be overconfident. There are too many factors beyond your control, such as your company’s health, management changes, and corporate mergers. So you’ll want to have a backup plan — at the very least so you can salvage the work you’ve done and have something to show for it. Not having a contingency plan is just plain foolish (and it’ll be interpreted by people you’re trying to turn into allies as amateurish and immature).

You also want to have a contingency plan because intrapreneurship, just like entrepreneurship (and everything else in life, for that matter) is risky. You could get laid off tomorrow. You could get hit by a bus on the way into the office. Likewise, there’s no guarantee of success in business — most ideas fail.

Taking risks is what builds successful careers. Those who don’t, get stuck (in fact, I’d argue that not taking risks at work will be more harmful to your career than failure, because your company needs new ideas in order to grow. So if you’re holding back on proposing a new internal business opportunity, don’t. And keep in mind that you could benefit even if your project doesn’t get funded.

Two final things and then we’ll move on. First: As you go through the process, check in with your team to learn what’s working and what isn’t, what you’d need to do to improve. How could you prevent mistakes in the future and repeat your success? Intrapreneurship is all about experimenting/testing ideas, measuring the results, and improving on them. It can sometimes take a few tries to figure out whether or not something is right for your company. Finally, as soon as your project is up and running, start thinking about your next one and what kinds of people, backing, and resources you’ll need to build it out.

This post is an excerpt adapted from the author’s book, Promote Yourself: The New Rules for Career Success.

Dan Schawbel is a Gen Y career and workplace expert, the Founder of Millennial Branding and the author of the new book, Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success (St. Martin’s Press). He made the Inc. Magazine 30 Under 30 in 2010 and the Forbes Magazine 30 Under 30 in 2012.

4 Tech Investments Your Startup Should Splurge On Early

No matter how you slice it, launching a startup is a major expense. It can be tempting to cut corners by paying less for certain business necessities. But don’t go too crazy with the budget blade, especially when it comes to technology and your website’s infrastructure. Experience shows that companies that invest in good technology from the outset find a bigger payoff.

The challenge, then, becomes knowing exactly where to invest. Here are some basics:

A Great Website

Your website conveys who you are, what you do, and what makes your company different from the rest. It doesn’t need to be overly flashy — some of the most effective messaging is simple and streamlined.

Your website should have an attractive job application page that outlines your company’s mission. Great employees want to be part of something bigger — a company with a vision — so this page will be one of your greatest assets in attracting A-level talent.

A Reliable Hosting Provider

Choose a larger service provider early on when deciding on a site host. I recommend skipping a VPS (virtual private server) altogether and going straight to cloud hosting, like Amazon’s EC2 CloudStack. On a VPS, if one of the other sites on that server is experiencing a lot of traffic, your site becomes slow or unresponsive. Cloud server hosting is incredibly scalable and can save you headaches down the road.

Email Deliverability

Larger companies pay for email deliverability. An ordinary email system will often send relevant messages to the spam filter. It simply can’t distinguish what should and shouldn’t be tossed out. If you pay for a deliverability service, you are effectively paying a small amount per email (around a cent) to ensure you don’t miss out on important communication.

An Efficient, Scalable CRM

Finally, if you foresee your business having a large number of clients, then you need a powerful CRM (customer relationship manager) from the get-go. Staying on top of your business relationships quickly becomes a challenge with the addition of just a few clients. A basic CRM keeps track of your relationships with clients, prospects and anyone else with whom you do business.

Excel and QuickBooks are too simplistic, too quickly overwhelmed and they don’t scale easily. Google Drive might seem like another option, but it can soon become chaotic and time-consuming. Sometimes, the best option is a custom CRM tailored it to fit your needs, both present and future. If you decide to go with a commercially available CRM program, make sure it is designed to be scalable so it can accommodate your company’s needs as it grows.

The Benefits

Investing early on in great technology can improve your company’s growth in two ways:

It ensures that you can handle increases in demand. Investing in reliable technology, capable of handling spikes, means significant growth won’t stretch your organization.
It will allow you to entertain the idea of large partnerships that can grow your company by multiples. If you’ve got a reliable tech base, then you’ll be in good shape to handle considerable expansion.

Scout Out Technology

A commitment to investing in great technology is one step — then, you have to actually find the best technology for your needs. Here are a few ways to get started:

Do your research. An item’s cost does not guarantee its efficiency. Sometimes, market leaders really do have the best offerings at the lowest cost, but it’s also worthwhile to check out smaller tech companies. What the smaller outfits lack in bells and whistles, they often make up for with a higher level of service, which can prove invaluable.
Ask around. To find the right tech fit, talk to fast-growing tech companies to see what they use. These companies have higher standards than Fortune 500 companies, which tend to be out of touch and use highly complex programs supported by a huge, in-house technology workforce.
Compare offers. Before committing to a technology, obtain multiple bids and demos to ensure you’ve found the right fit at a reasonable price.

Invest in the proper technology infrastructure now to avoid wasting large amounts of time and money later on. You will be set for rapid future growth — and very few headaches.

Chuck Cohn is the Founder and CEO of Varsity Tutors, a leading national tutoring and test prep company with operations in 25 cities, 2,000 tutors and 80 employees. Prior to Varsity Tutors, Chuck was a venture capitalist with Ascension Health Ventures, a $550 million venture capital firm. Prior to that role, Chuck worked as an investment banker in the Energy & Power Investment Banking Group of Wachovia/Wells Fargo.

The Pros and Cons of Starting A Startup With A Buddy

I’ve built five companies in my startup career, four of which I started with close friends. It’s quite common to build a company with a close friend: you get together, think of a cool idea, and decide to get started. Why not, right? While it can be extremely fun to start up with someone you’re close to, it’s not without disadvantages.

So before you and your friend get started, take the time to analyze the good, the bad, and the ugly side of starting a company with a friend.

The Good

You have a friend in the trenches. Entrepreneurship can be lonely. My friends who work 9-5 during the day tend to party hard at night. I can’t keep up with that lifestyle as a 24/7 entrepreneur. When we do hang out, I just want to talk about ways to improve my startup — whereas they want to talk about anything but work. That’s why it’s so fun to start up with a friend. You have someone you can confide in and relate to, at times when not everyone understands.
Your friendship sets the tone for culture. Good company culture keeps morale high, attracts top talent, and keeps employees loyal. My co-founder and I often conduct interviews together so that the prospect sees our dynamic interactions and feels how fun it is to work on our team. Because we’re friends, we don’t hesitate to throw a get-together at my place or a poker night at my co-founder’s place.
You understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It was easy for my friend and I to assign roles and responsibilities, because we knew each other so well. He was emotionally stable, organized, and focused on the big picture, so it made sense for him to be CEO. I was the hustler with the do-whatever-it-takes attitude, so it made sense for me to lead the CMO position.

The Bad

You have similar networks. Friends usually hang out with the same people and will thus have the same network. This is bad because startups can succeed or fail based on who you know and what introductions you can get. My co-founder and I make a strong effort to go to events (he goes to investor-related events while I go to client-related events) in order to expand our networks.
It’s difficult to take orders from a friend. People are accustomed to taking orders from their boss — not their friends. This can become very unpleasant, especially if you’re not communicating tasks in the way that your co-founder likes to receive them. To keep my co-founder and I accountable, every week we get together with the whole team and report our accomplishments and issues. This eliminates the need to give orders throughout the week.
It’s easy to take advantage of the friendship. Because my co-founder is my friend, he feels shy about pressuring me to work harder, which can become a vicious cycle: I slack because I feel comfortable around my friend and my friend doesn’t pressure me to work harder because he doesn’t want to mess up the friendship.
You don’t want to hurt each other’s feelings. There’s no easy way to do it, but if your co-founder is slacking or missing milestones, then you have to call him out. A founding team that is brutally honest with each other and that can respect feedback has a much greater chance at success.

The Ugly

The stress of failure is compounded by your friendship. Startups are full of stress, failures, and demoralizing moments. In a previous company, my co-founder failed to raise funding within the given timeframe. It was a very tense time because cash was extremely low and the company would fail if we didn’t raise capital immediately. Similarly, I’ve had moments when I’ve gone through a dry spell closing deals. It’s hard to console a friend when your business’ future is at risk.
Failed businesses can lead to broken friendships, and vice-versa. I have seen several failed startups lead to broken friendships. Many times, the founders blame each other for the failure. In other cases, problems that start as personal can end up affecting — or even destroying — the business side. My failed startups with friends have actually led to stronger friendships; it’s all about the level of respect you have for each other. But if you don’t communicate this from the start, it can easily go the other way.

5 Questions to Ask Before Starting Up With a Friend

Would I do this again? Absolutely — though I always proceed with caution. Here’s what I look for in a friend before I ask him to join my team:

Do we have complementary skills?
Do we have different networks?
Do I trust and respect his work ethic?
Do I trust and respect his decision-making abilities?
Does he have previous startup experience?

Don’t start a company with a friend just because you think it’ll be fun to work together. Start a company because you believe in what you’re doing — and because you each bring a unique skill set and network to the table, improving your chance of success.

Jun Loayza is the Chief Marketing Officer of VoiceBunny and Voice123. He is also an accomplished lifestyle entrepreneur and the creator of the Drop Ship Domination System. In his entrepreneurial experience, Jun has sold 2 internet companies, raised over $1 Million in Angel funding, and lead social media technology campaigns for Sephora, Whole Foods Market, Levi’s, LG, and Activision.

8 Simple Split-Testing Tools For Your Startup To Try

Question: What’s your favorite split-testing tool and why?

Visual Website Optimizer

“I’ve used Visual Website Optimizer for many clients and it works really well. They have a fantastic and easy-to-use interface and it does the job. It’s not the cheapest solution, but it’s worth it when a small increase in conversion equals a significant amount of revenue for your company.”

– AJ Kumar | Co-Founder, Single Grain

Google Analytics Content Experiments

“The new Google Analytics comes with Content Experiments built in, and this feature allows you to split test different pages on your site. You can split test headlines and bits of code, and it shows you the clear winner over time. It’s free, and integrated with Google Analytics — what’s not to love?”

– Nathalie Lussier | Creator, The Website Checkup Tool

On to Optimizely

“Optimizely is one of the most intuitive and easy-to-use tools on the market, allowing even non-technical folks in your company to easily create and run experiments using a WYSIWYG interface. Best of all, you can test-drive the tool free of charge from their website without even creating an account.”

– Matt Mickiewicz | Co-Founder, Flippa and 99designs

Settle Into Unbounce

“I love Unbounce because it makes it dead simple to create quality landing pages and to easily test variations. Unbounce’s drag-and-drop setup makes it to where I can create a quality landing page in under an hour. It also provides solid analytics about which version of my page converts the best. One of the best things is they have an awesome blog and support center that answers my questions.”

– Lawrence Watkins | Founder & CEO, Great Black Speakers

Test Out Convert

“Convert has really enhanced its product offering recently. I’m enjoying their new user experience very much. Their reporting is very easy-to-use as well. As someone that has tried out many split-testing tools, I suggest everyone gives Convert a test drive to see what they think of it.”

– Logan Lenz | Founder / President, Endagon

KISSmetrics All the Way!

“KISSmetrics doesn’t just provide simple A/B testing. They also provide you with insights on which you can take action. Everything is real time, so you can do an A/B test in short-order without having to wait for a massive report.”

– Aaron Schwartz | Founder and CEO, Modify Watches

Install Hello Bar

“This isn’t a fancy tool and it can really only be used to split test on a small scale and works for specific applications but I’ve loved using Hello Bar to split test two offers on our website to see which gets the most clicks and conversions. For us, it’s a simple way to tell if people like one eBook over another or one webinar over another. They have a free account option as well!”

– Erin Blaskie | CEO, Erin Blaskie, Digital Strategist

HiConversion Works

“HiConversion is dead simple to use and offers real-time ROI, which makes it stand out from the other offerings we researched.”

– Josh Weiss | Founder and President, Bluegala

Juggling Motherhood And Entrepreneurship

As a young entrepreneur, your business is likely to take over your life. Never mind the 9-to-5, being captain of your own ship can be more like 9-to-9. But then you didn’t start your own business because you were afraid of hard work, did you?

As a business owner who always has a multitude of projects going, is location independent (i.e.: a lifestyle of almost permanent travel) and as the mother of a toddler, I know what it’s like to be juggling too many balls. If I’ve learned anything about how to get things done and be happy with what you’ve achieved, it’s this:

Learn to leverage time zone differences
As a location independent entrepreneur – or if you work with clients, customers and partners in different parts of the world – time zones can leave you scrambling to catch up with clients and customers at odd times of the day and night but they can also be used to your advantage:

Set project deadlines to take advantage of the fact that your clients may well be sleeping, leaving you to get ahead with your work.
Process emails at a time when you know your clients have finished for the day so you won’t get an influx of new ones as soon as you clear your inbox.
Send work that needs feedback when your clients are starting the day so they can have it ready for when you start yours.

Instead of seeing it as a tricky challenge, there are plenty of ways you can turn working with global clients in different time zones to your advantage.

Perfectionism is over-rated
Motherhood has taught me that “good enough” is good enough. It can be very easy to spend (waste) time getting everything so that you’re 110 percent happy with it. Your website needs a few more tweaks. That proposal needs to be refined some more. That product needs a bit more testing.

But when you are pushed for time – which you usually are as a nomadic, entrepreneurial mother – good enough has to do. That extra five percent that you know wasn’t done? No-one else is likely to notice it’s not there, they probably won’t know it was even meant to be there. Get used to shipping things that are good enough, gather feedback and then perfect.

Follow your own path
As a young entrepreneur, you no doubt have lots of people giving you advice. You’ll read columns like this, soak in the advice of people you respect and try to emulate the success and approach of those you admire.

Don’t.

The only way you’ll find true success is to follow your own path. What worked for others might work for you or it might fail. What someone else says you should do might be a good fit or it might totally bomb. Nobody knows better or is as passionate about your business as you are. And nobody knows you, better than you do.

What you try might not always work out. But what you learn from those mistakes and failures will be key insights into what will work for you next time. If you look around at the people whose success you admire, you’ll probably notice a common trait: they did things their way, no matter what anyone else advised. Be bold and do the same.

Use your hidden strengths
You’re young, you have energy, you have time on your side. Obvious, yes? But have you realized that these are real strengths you can leverage as a young entrepreneur?

Before becoming a parent, I wish I’d known how difficult it is to juggle parenthood with being a business owner; never mind living a life of travel to boot. I often wonder what I did when I had all day to write a single blog post and didn’t manage it. I look back at what I’ve achieved since being a mother and realize how much I could have achieved before I had the parental responsibility , and didn’t.

You can work twice as hard, fail twice as fast, and learn twice as many times as entrepreneurs older (and supposedly wiser) than you can, and you’ll probably still be under 30 with all of that experience under your belt. If you’re not a parent or you have fewer responsibilities than some of your peers and competitors, use this as a competitive advantage – when the time comes, you’ll be glad you did.

As a young entrepreneur, if you can get good at getting things done early on in your business no matter what pressures or responsibilities you face, you’ll already be ahead of the game. Make it your goal to stay that way.

Online entrepreneur, community builder and digital publisher, Lea Woodward is the founder of Kinetiva – an organization dedicated to helping people with a natural talent create a sustainable business from their talent.

We’re looking for a few good female founders!

9 Ways Co-Working Can Help Your Business Grow

Question: Share your best anecdote/lesson from co-working and how it helped your business or brand grow.

New Clients All Around

“I work regularly at coworking spaces. I routinely land new clients through a quick chat, especially since in a coworking space, I can immediately show the person sitting next to me exactly what I’m working on.”

– Thursday Bram | Consultant, Hyper Modern Consulting

Word Gets Out

“I belong to a community of entrepreneurs that work together and play together, and I started serving a couple of clients. Word started getting around the community that my service was good, and more and more people started using my service. This is a great strategy for those whose clients would be in a co-working environment.”

– Louis Lautman | Founder, Supreme Outsourcing

New Talent in Your Space

“If you’re in a space with other talented individuals, it’s the perfect opportunity to scout for new talent for your own business. We’ve hired some of our most talented employees just because they were working in the same proximity to our company in a co-working environment. Without being in a co-working environment, we would have never had met those future employees.”

– Derek Johnson | CEO/Founder, Tatango

Creative Problem Solving

“Co-working spaces bring together diverse businesses. Be open about your difficulties and support other companies with theirs to uncover clever solutions to your challenges. We’re a consumer products company and struggled initially with building our subscription program. We finally talked to a co-located company with deep tech expertise and were able to crack the issue over a weekend!”

– Aaron Schwartz | Founder and CEO, Modify Watches

Support for Each Other’s Business

“At 1871, a new co-working space in Chicago, I have the opportunity to work around awesome startups everyday. In my immediate area, I work with two very different startups, but we find ways to support each other’s businesses. Whether it’s through signing up for services, going to launch parties or promotion through social media, we have worked together to expand our businesses.”

– Mike McGee | Co-Founder, The Starter League

Co-Workers as Brand Ambassadors

“One of the things we do at my co-working space is “pitch meet-ups” where everyone has a chance to give an update on what they’re working on. I always use this time to let my co-workers know what they can tell others about my business, and having so many ambassadors for my brand has helped the word spread like wildfire. I act as an ambassador to their businesses too. Give love, get love!”

– Natalie MacNeil | Emmy Award Winning Media Entrepreneur, She Takes on the World

Quick User Feedback

“Co-working can be great for quickly getting feedback on design and product plans. When co-working, I’m often asked for feedback on projects, and once you get to talking, it’s a great way to get feedback on your own activities—from design to product roadmap, co-working space can be great for fast feedback from those who are external to your project, but close by.”

– Doreen Bloch | CEO / Founder, Poshly Inc.

Spontaneous Collaboration

“The thing you really get with a co-working space is those spontaneous chats and “bump ins” you have with other entrepreneurs that lead places you’d never be able to go if you were working by yourself in isolation. When I started our entrepreneur co-workspace, The Loft, that was a big reason people joined. To be around entrepreneurs, to have random conversations and brainstorming. Awesome benefit.”

– Trevor Mauch | Founder, Carrot

Accountability Audience

“Our company was born out of co-working space and has been growing inside of one for the past 11 months. One unexpected benefit I love about co-working is the accountability. There is a communal sense of showing up from work, getting stuff done, and motivating each other to do so. It fosters the work hard, play hard attitude.”

– John Meyer | Founder/CEO, Lemon.ly

YEC founder Scott Gerber to keynote on Tuesday October 1st at this huge startup conference for startups everywhere else