startup tips Archives - Page 3 of 26

3 Tips for Outsourcing Product to a Development Shop

Designer Drawing Website Development Wireframe

With a shortage of quality development talent, many founders have turned to development shops in order to start building their product.

At Terrible Labs, we have the opportunity to chat with many founders about how to get their first web or mobile product designed, built, and launched. Unfortunately, a lot of them have unrealistic budget expectations about building their product.

If you have a limited budget and need help building your product, here are three things we recommend to reduce the overall project cost:

Wireframe your product’s user flow before you talk to a development shop.

We’ve presented and written a lot about the value of wireframing and prototyping because we feel it’s the most important step when productizing an idea. However, most prospective clients come to us with an idea that exists solely in their head.

The goal of wireframing is to get the idea out of your head and onto paper. Once you put pen to paper, you’ll learn how your product actually works and not how you think it will work.

You can consider your wireframes sufficient after you have conveyed all of the possible ways a user can flow through your app. Make sure to account for everything from how the user signs up to how they ultimately achieve your product’s value proposition. In our experience, designing well-thought-out wireframes can cut 2 to 3 weeks off your project.

Be willing to cut features that aren’t necessary.

Good wireframes act as a blueprint for product development. More importantly, exhaustive wireframes will help a development shop break your product down into user stories.

User stories are descriptions of pieces of your product’s feature functionality. Ultimately they serve as the guide for development. At Terrible Labs, we take the user stories generated from wireframes and put them into a project management tool like Trello or Pivotal Tracker. Our clients then work with us to determine the priority of each story and positioning, which leads to a detailed estimate breakdown.

Once you have an estimate breakdown from your development shop, you can, based on your budget, determine which features are must-haves — and which are nice-to-haves, cutting accordingly. But you need those wireframes first.

Be a proactive project manager.

Good project management is the difference between finishing a project within the terms of the engagement and spending more money for additional, unplanned time.

At Terrible Labs, we work on a time and materials basis. This means that we work with a client on their product for a set term, regardless of what gets completed. The most important reason for this approach is that we want the client to take initiative to become a very active participant in the development process. Since we test continuously and often, we need quick feedback from customers in order to make changes sooner rather than later.

Staying active is critical. Take the time to use and adopt a project management tool so you remain an active participant. This ensures you don’t just end up under budget, but with a successful project that meets your expectations, too.

So, what are you waiting for?

Don’t let a limited budget prevent you from seeing your idea become a reality. If you are truly committed to building your product, take the initiative to extensively wireframe your idea, realistically scope your product, and then proactively run it. Follow through on these three steps, and you’ll be amazed at how far your budget will go.

Cort Johnson is a co-founder of Terrible Labs, a boutique design and development shop, and TicketZen, the easiest way to pay parking tickets with your mobile phone. He also works with Flybridge Capital Partners and its general partners as an advisor to support and broaden the firm’s investment activities.

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 Simple Ways to Use Twitter to Its Full Potential

Even the best businesses can have trouble adjusting to social media. It’s understandable that plenty of profitable and professional companies don’t use Twitter correctly, especially if they’ve been in business for many years before social media came into play. However, customers keep up with businesses online, and they will judge your ability to use Twitter and other social media sites.

If you want to attract more technology-savvy clients, then you need to make sure that you’re making the most of your Twitter account. Twitter can help bring in more potential customers and promote loyalty from your current customers, but only if you’re tweeting the right things in the right way. Take a look at these five things that even good businesses do badly on Twitter, and make note of what you could be doing differently.

They forget to create a profile. One of the worst things you can do is keep your profile picture as the little egg you first start out as. Make it personal. Upload a professional profile picture for your company. The picture should ideally be something that is recognizable even when it’s small. Don’t forget to also fill out your bio. If there is nothing there, people won’t know who you are or what your company does. This should be one of the first things that you do — there’s no excuse for you to be tweeting with an unfinished profile.
They tweet just about business. Yes, Twitter is a great way to show off your company and gain new customers. However, you shouldn’t plug your business in every tweet. Do people really want to read 140-character advertisements all day long? Tweet photos of your workplace or employees, facts about your industry, tips that you learned along the way, a funny anecdote or a question for your followers. People will be more likely to follow you and recommend you to others if they actually enjoy reading your tweets.
They don’t follow polite Twitter etiquette. Just because you’re interacting on the Internet doesn’t mean that you should let your social graces fall to the wayside. Don’t do tacky things like constantly beg for retweets or use excessive hashtags. Take the time to check your spelling and grammar. Use correct punctuation. No, you don’t need to use three exclamation points. Treat Twitter as though you were writing a company email or a friendly note to a client. You can have fun and joke around on Twitter, but make sure you do it in a suitable and easy-to-understand way.
They tweet too rarely. If you’re not tweeting regularly, then you’re not tweeting correctly. Twitter is made for frequent, daily updates. Because you’re limited to 140 characters, you should feel the need to tweet frequently anyway. If you’re having trouble remembering to tweet at least once a day, try a social media management tool that allows you to schedule tweets in advance, such as Hootsuite or TweetDeck.
They don’t interact with others. You shouldn’t just be tweeting out into the abyss and assuming that your followers are reading. Think of Twitter as sort of a meet-and-greet. Make conversation with others and share interesting news and facts. Get to know people within your industry as well. This might sound counterintuitive or like fraternizing with the enemy, but it will help expand your social network. It’s perfectly fine to talk customers and other business owners on Twitter too. Compliment others on something they’ve done that you admire. Ask them about their experiences in your industry. Thank your customers for their patronage, and make sure that you make it personal and sincerely mean it. Interacting is what Twitter is all about, so start talking to others and not just to yourself!

Did you take note of what you could change on your own Twitter account? Not making the most of Twitter doesn’t mean that you run a bad business, but it does mean that you are losing out on potential customers. Now that you’re armed with these tips, go ahead and rethink how you use Twitter. Redesign your account and start tweeting new, more interesting things. Twitter should be a enjoyable experience for both you and your followers, so go have some fun!

Brendon Schenecker is equal parts developer and CEO, which has led to array of tech-based startups and over 10 years of experience managing startup ventures. Brendon is currently founder and CEO of Travel Vegas, a technology-focused destination travel company.

How to Make the Best Startup Decisions

Senior businessman thinking and making choice while looking up

I have unwittingly made some bad decisions in my 28 years on this earth, but every day I make better ones. Reflecting on this, it is clear that making the right calls, large and small, requires certain prerequisites and a thoughtful decision-making process. These considerations are especially important in a startup, where you will never have perfect information when making a decision.

The success or failure of your startup results from nothing more than the series of small, medium and large decisions that you act on . Make more right decisions than wrong ones and your startup will be more likely to succeed. In my experience, the best startup decisions are the result of a carefully thought out process, as follows.

First, the Prerequisites

The conditions below must be met before you start the decision-making process. This is imperative, as most bad decisions are made inadvertently because some or all of these conditions are not met first.

Follow your passions. For most world-class entrepreneurs, passion does not come primarily from the prospect of financial gain or personal notoriety; it comes from an innate desire to change the world. To make the right decisions for your startup, you must believe that if your startup succeeds, you will change the world in the ways you desire. The more your startup aligns with your passions, the more confident you will feel that you are making the right decisions for the right reasons.
Embrace the reality. You have to be able to properly assess and accept reality. Smart entrepreneurs do not see the glass as half-full or half-empty; they see a glass with a certain amount of water. Then, they decide to drink the water, or fill up the glass with more water. To make the right decisions, you must first see things as they really are.
Practice some balance. Your mind, body, and soul must be balanced before you can make good decisions. This is perhaps the most important prerequisite, and one that most entrepreneurs brazenly ignore. Startup culture encourages over-work and over-play; to be balanced you must also be mindful of your health and spiritual life, not just stimulating your mind.

The Decision-Making Process

Only after you know that the above prerequisites hold true, you can move on to the decision-making process. Below is the step-by-step process that works for me (inspiration), but you may follow a different process.

Let’s set up a scenario and walk through it. In our sample scenario, we are trying to figure out the primary customer type to market your startup’s solution to.

Identify the decision. Clearly identify the single decision you want to make and do not let extraneous things fog it up. In the sample scenario, you might ask yourself, “Out of my entire market of potential customers, who is my startup’s one highest-revenue-generating customer?”
Identify your options. Lay out the different options you have based on your own knowledge, keeping in mind the values that are important to your startup. In our example, you will now identify the different customer types that can generate revenue for your startup. And if we’re being realistic, you might eliminate certain customer types at this step as they are not feasible to reach.
Gather information. Collect as much information as is pragmatic about your options. In our setup, you might research different customer segments to gain further insight into your startup’s market and reduce your blindness. Utilize emerging tools such asClarity.fm to talk with the right experts and Compass.co to help put market data into the right context for your startup. After conducting research, you may end up eliminating a certain revenue-generating customer type, because it doesn’t match your startup’s vision or the context you are working within.
Make and implement the decision. Finally, the fun part: You get to make a decision and act on it! The decision should incorporate the information you have gathered, your gut instinct and your startup’s vision. In our example, you would make a firm decision on which customer segment you will target and start marketing to that segment (the marketing strategies you use may be a separate decision).
Evaluate the outcomes. Evaluate objectively if you made the right decision. Some questions you can ask in our sample scenario include: Is my startup solving a real need for this customer? How much revenue has been generated? Am I convinced that this was the right customer to target or should I target another customer? If you have balance in your life when thinking through such questions (i.e. your mental well-being is not solely dependent on startup success), you can make a proper evaluation. If you conclude you made the wrong decision, assure the prerequisites are really met and start over from step one.

In a startup, as in life, you will seldom have enough information to conclusively make the right decisions. To a certain extent, you have to rely on your gut instinct, especially as most decisions are interdependent (i.e. picking the highest revenue-generating customer may not lead to the most cost-effective marketing strategy).

When decision time comes, regardless of whether it is a small or a significant decision, make sure that you are passionate for the right reasons, thinking realistically, practicing balance in your life and following a thoughtful decision-making process. If you do these things, you will you make the right calls more often than not, and your startup will be better for it.

A version of this article originally appeared on Medium.

Naveed Lalani is the Founder and CEO of Portable Boutique Inc., a company that creates Plug & Play Bitcoin Widgets. Previously, Naveed was Chief Strategy Officer at DonorNation.org, and Co-Founder at Rally.org. Naveed gives back by advising the Thiel Fellowship and leading entrepreneurship initiatives at the Ismaili Professionals Network.

Have You Joined the Content Marketing Movement?

Businesswoman Reading Latest News

In the last few years, the words “content marketing” have become buzzwords in the corporate business, marketing, digital and media space. But what is it really? Content marketing as defined by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI):

Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience — with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

Content marketing is becoming the new black from both a quantity and quality standpoint for individuals throughout the world. Some have stumbled into this world. Businesses both large and small are realizing that in order to compete, they must embrace this new era of interaction and develop true content marketing programs. Content marketing is becoming a disruptive force. In the past, marketing pros relied on production, publishing and promotional amplification tools. Content is the fuel that makes all of those platforms run. However, a few blog posts or an email campaign won’t suffice anymore.

Provide Value With Content

Relevant content coming from a business through a thought leadership perspective has a considerable effect on attracting and retaining customers. It’s not hokey, it’s not a pitch and it’s not everyday sales — it truly has become an educational and informative way to deliver knowledge and content to build brand loyalty and awareness.

A study by Roper Public Affairs shows that 80 percent of business decision makers prefer to get company information in article form rather than in an advertisement. Seventy percent say content marketing makes them feel closer to a company, while 60 percent say that company content helps them make better product decisions. “Content marketing works because it delivers relevant proof of value,” says interactive content marketing strategist Mark O’Renick. Quality content marketing engages consumers to look at a business differently.

Many C-suite, advertising and marketing executives believe their company has great content to shoot out and share in the public arena, but they don’t feel they can do this quickly enough or keep it moving through a streamlined process. Spreadsheets, emails and project management systems have all been used by marketing teams in recent times to churn out content on a routine basis. This has led to a whole new industry of technology solutions that make your typical marketing editorial calendar look like a thing of the Stone Age.

Work Smarter

A Kansas City, Missouri-based startup, DivvyHQ, realized that content marketing is the present and the future of marketing. Their founders, both from the digital agency world, developed an ideation, planning and production workflow specialty tool to help businesses and online publishers embrace content marketing and collaboration, but in a manner that allows the user or users to do so in a more efficient way without all the headaches. Simply put, DivvyHQ aims to take content marketers out of spreadsheet, email, storage and organizational hell and alleviate the challenging manual and laborious process. Corporations such as Intel, Toyota, Bed Bath & Beyond, Walmart, Sprint, H & R Block, Travelocity and Adobe have all worked with DivvyHQ. PR and media giants Ogilvy, Edelman and the National Geographic Channel have also used the product to streamline their content needs.

“Despite the traditional publishing industry taking a beating over the last decade, companies can learn a lot from the day-to-day planning methods, scheduling tools and production processes that help publishers hit deadlines and crank out great content every day,” says content marketing expert Brody Dorland.

Turn to the Cloud

Companies and enterprise level organizations who handle multiple individuals and tasks are finding out they need a way to plan, divide and conquer their content marketing and editorial needs on the cloud. They have discovered they also need ways to break down the internal silos in the workplace. Some have used the old fashioned approach and tried breaking down physical walls in their office to get their employees and content producers to talk. There is an easier way. Virtual, real-time sharing and collaboration significantly improves these situations and breaks down silo walls.

Dorland believes, “Simplifying things and leveraging the cloud to help global, decentralized content teams collaborate, share assets and increase the quantity and quality of their content output is huge right now.”

The content marketing phenomenon isn’t going away. Content collaboration and team calendaring is on the upswing. The spreadsheet free editorial calendar is the new king of the castle. Companies both large and small are yearning and will continue to yearn for high-powered, specific content marketing tools to help take their business to the next level.

Content marketing is the new black.

A version of this post originally appeared here.

@JasonGrill is the founder of JGrill Media where he consults on media relations, public affairs and strategies and government relations. Under same umbrella, he works in the media as a local and national writer/contributor, radio host and television analyst/commentator. He is the co-founder of Sock 101.

10 Best Lead Generating Tools

Question: What’s the most successful giveaway — eBooks, webinars, coupons or vouchers, etc. — you’ve used to drive lead generation, ever?

Full-Sized eBooks

“eBooks deliver a ton of value. The fact that a consumer is getting an entire book for free is perceived to have a LOT of value. For most people, it’s always worth taking the time to fill out a few lines on an opt-in form.”

Richard Lorenzen, Fifth Avenue Brands

A Customized Training Quiz

“I rolled out a fully customized training based on a quiz for my email opt-in early in 2012, and it has been really well-received. The idea is that you can get a little extra information about your prospects, even as you are delivering a ton of value to them. You can see my example at http://Websitecheckuptool.com.”

Nathalie Lussier, Nathalie Lussier Media Inc.

Gift Cards

“Webinars and eBooks are attractive, but most potential customers are more motivated by cold, hard cash. But that’s not to say that your giveaways need to be expensive. Keep it at $5 and you’ll still get solid responses.”

Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

Presentations on SlideShare

“Post a valuable presentation to SlideShare (http://www.slideshare.net). Doing so will help your SEO, establish you in the industry, tease your business, tap into the existing SlideShare network and optimize your presentation for social media. You’ll be surprised by the number of views you get soon after posting. Secret tip: Load your presentation up with an SEO-rich script and use images over the top as the slides.”

Benjamin Leis, Sweat EquiTees

An Ultimate Industry Guide

“A while back, we created an “Ultimate Guide” eBook for our industry. Coupons and vouchers are good, but if you really want people to purchase your product or service, give them your expertise. eBooks offer great value to the clients and, in turn, make them more likely to view you as the authority in your industry.”

Nick Friedman, College Hunks Hauling Junk

One Product Each Day

“In March 2013, we created the “Mod-a-Day Giveaway.” The idea was to give away a different product each day for a month. By committing to doing this daily, we created a reason for people to continue to engage. Of course, we’re having other conversations on social media, too, which allows these prospects to learn more about what we stand for. Stand by your own product and offer that for leads!”

Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

The Right eBook

“I have four eBooks that I wrote as a set several years ago that are still driving traffic to my website on a regular basis, as well as converting traffic to leads — despite having no gateway (such as a requirement to subscribe to a newsletter for access). These aren’t any old eBooks, though: They were written to specifically address the four questions I get most often from prospects.”

Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting

Discount Coupons

“Discount coupons are the clear winner for our e-commerce business to drive leads/sales. Once we added a coupon sign-up icon on our website, sales revenue increased by 30 percent. When the online shopper perceives he is getting a good deal in the form of a discount, he is far more likely to convert to a sale. Make sure you set an expiration date to create a sense of urgency to purchase. “

Anthony Saladino, Kitchen Cabinet Kings

A Hardbound Book

“I wrote a book, and we offer delivery to your door for free! It really helps us stand out and has done a great job with lead gen. “60 Seconds: How to Tell Your Company’s Story and the Brain Science to Make It Stick” has useful info for people to make their own videos, hire and work with our competitors or work with us to produce a great video. “

Andrew Angus, Switch Video

6 Ways Startups Can Beat the Tax Man

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When you’re first starting a company, there are a lot of overhead costs. You have to pick up furniture, electronics, and a whole host of other things. You’ve also got to worry about employees, whether you’re going to provide benefits, and more. Fortunately, there are a few ways that your startup can beat the tax man.

Work Opportunity Tax Credit

If you hire employees from a certain group, you can get a tax credit. This group includes individuals that receive food stamps, certain qualified veterans, and certain residents in the community. On average, about 25 percent of all new hires are eligible for one of the targeted work opportunity tax credit groups. The credit is up to $2,400 per qualified employee in the first year of employment. However, the qualified veterans program offers up to a $9,600 tax credit in the first year.

Deduct Your Furniture

Consult with your tax preparer and see if they think you should expense or depreciate your furniture. This is an important decision, since you’re going to end up getting a ton of furniture.

You shouldn’t buy furniture just to get the tax deduction, though. Only get what you need now or furniture that you’ll anticipate needing in the very new future.

Travel Costs

Did you know that you can deduct any expenses related to traveling in your car? You can deduct all parking fees, tolls that you encounter while on a business trip, and mileage. You’ll need to keep track of the mileage, as well as the start and finish mark of the odometer. Also note the business purpose for each trip. You’ll also be able to deduct repairs, insurance, and maintenance costs.

Home Office Expenses

Sometimes you don’t need an office to run a business. If you’re using a dedicated space in your home as your home office, you can deduct it. The only catch is that the room must be used to conduct business. If you conduct business on the same couch that you lie on when you’re taking online courses for your Masters of Laws degree, you’re out of luck. You can also deduct a portion of utilities, rent, insurance, and taxes.

Loans

Did you know that you can deduct any loans you get when you’re starting your business? They can be fully deducted! If you borrow money from a relative, make sure that it conforms to IRS rules before attempting to deduct it. This certainly provides a much-needed break and should put your mind a bit more at ease when starting your business.

Advertising

Without advertising, no one will know your business exists. You can deduct the costs of advertising that cover multiple-year contracts, and the deductions must be spread out over all the contract years. This covers advertising on any form of medium, whether it be a billboard sign or a newspaper ad.

Startups take on a lot of costs, but these tax deductions can provide a bit of relief. Can you think of anything else that your startup can deduct? Leave a comment below and let us know!

Emily Green is a freelance writer with more than six years’ experience in blogging, copywriting, content, SEO, and dissertation, technical and thesis writing. She loves all things tech and and going on a jog with her dog.

5 Ways to Grow Your Business (Without Venture Capital)

Growth Hacking: Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

Not long ago, I sat patiently in my CEO’s spare bedroom while his mother removed her belongings from the family desk so I could work there for the day. We had no corporate office, no employees and no paychecks. Luckily for us, what we did have was product/market fit and a couple hundred paying customers. We did everything — literally — in order to grow the business.

At Mhelpdesk, we made a conscious decision not to raise venture capital. Because of this, being small and lean was our only path to success. Despite our lean approach, we built a product that people wanted and grew at an unusual rate for bootstrapped companies. For startups looking to keep their equity in their own pockets, here are some tips for continuing to grow while staying lean:

Join an incubator. Mhelpdesk was growing. We knew that we needed to hire and that working out of our CEO’s home was no longer an option. Our team lives in northern Virginia, where we decided to join our local incubator, Fishbowl Labs. There, we received free office space and got to be around other smart, interesting entrepreneurs carving out their own startup paths. At Fishbowl, we made great friendships and business relationships with other resident companies and had access to a variety of seasoned mentors. Our presence at the office allowed us to gain exposure in the startup world. Finally, access to affordable office space was a great move to decrease our overhead.
Listen to customer feedback. At Mhelpdesk, we take customer feedback very seriously. Requests are submitted to our forum and subscribers can vote them up or down based on popularity. Through this interactive process, we are able to prioritize our product roadmap based on the highest ranked features. We also respond to tickets within a couple of minutes. In the beginning stages of our company, us founders personally dealt with requests. Doing this kept costs down and fostered loyal and repeat customers based on personalized experience.
Have hustle. A necessary trait of any bootstrapped or funded startup — hustle. This may be even more important for startups who haven’t taken on any funding. Our founders make 200 cold calls per day, cold email CEOs to explore partnership opportunities, and reach out to bloggers to see if they’d be interested in picking up a news piece on our company. We are available to our customers around the clock, which gives them confidence in our ability to take care of potential issues immediately. We even caught the eye of famed hustler Gary Vaynerchuk, who mentioned in this video that the hustle coming out of our team “is intense and huge.”
Solicit word-of-mouth recommendations. Multiple online reviews have helped quickly accelerate our growth. Many of our reviews came in voluntarily. We prompted others to leave feedback based on their experience with the software at sites such as Capterra, GetApp and Software Advice. Prior to purchasing, customers shop around for a solution to their problem. If a well-known company in their industry is using our software successfully, that is a huge incentive to do business with us.
Create a community. Building champions around our brand is a great way to create meaningful relationships with the Mhelpdesk community. Call us crazy, but we give customers our personal cell phone numbers so they can reach us around the clock. We build deep relationships with each of them. Because we care about our customers, they care about us. They are loyal and willing to work through minor hiccups. Through this strong community, we receive many referrals. I believe this sets us apart from larger companies who can’t be lean. We are able to leverage our customer relationships to acquire more customers.

The traditional path to rapid startup growth and expansion is through the influx of outside investment. We decided to grow our business on revenue generated by offering a solid, needed platform. Without bringing in cash, growth does happen a little slower. But it can be worth it. By staying lean and customer-focused, we were able to reach profitability and keep growing Mhelpdesk the way we always intended.

Ryan Shank is the COO of Mhelpdesk, a field service software company that helps small businesses manage their jobs, scheduling and invoices.

The 3 Most Important Lessons I’ve Learned from Starting Up

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I’ve been an entrepreneur for more than half my life. At 16, I founded Buzz Marketing Group, the youth marketing and influencer agency I still run today. It’s been a long road to get to where I am today, but I’ve loved every minute of this journey. Back in 1996, it was rare to be a teen entrepreneur. Now, I feel old!

But wisdom certainly comes with age and experience, and I’m happy to share with you some tips that have helped me throughout my career:

1. Always remember that everyone is important. There are no little people.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people ignore my assistant or employees, thinking they can directly connect with me. I surround myself with people much smarter and better than me in all areas, and those people deserve respect.

Today’s assistant is tomorrow’s Vice President. How you treat people matters. In today’s world, your main contact could change positions overnight. It’s important to treat everyone with equal importance. And make sure this is authentic. I genuinely care about the people I work with, their families, their lives. It’s important to be totally vested.

2. You can always make more money, but you can never make more time. Use your time wisely.

I’m more likely to be upset by a 30-minute delay in a meeting than a 10 percent reduction to an invoice! I always tell my team we can make more money, but we can never make more time. Repeat this to yourself all day long. Focus on ways to be more efficient, delegate projects to someone who can do it quicker and better, and do not waste time. And please, please, please don’t waste time in meetings that don’t yield results.

I’m a big fan of Action Method and their process for making ideas happen. Always make sure meetings include action steps so it’s easier to pass along info to the right person to yield the right results. Make sure that everyone understands next steps and owns their next step. This saves time that can ultimately be put to use doing something else. Miscommunication and lack of clarity are big time suckers, and getting a handle on these issues will save you time and increase your bottom line.

3. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

This doesn’t mean that you need to script every detail of your life, but you need to have a roadmap. Even though I use the word plan, I really mean you need to have a vision. Where do you see yourself? Do you meditate on this vision? Can you see what it takes to get to that vision? Too often we get caught up in the minute details of things, and we lose focus on the big picture.

You have to give yourself time to do a daily check-in. For me, this happens first thing in the morning. I spend 15 to 30 minutes in a quiet mental space. This helps me go into my day fully focused. I also spend at least 15 minutes “free writing,” hoping to open up my creative space. I always get new ideas or think of solutions to existing problems. As entrepreneurs, if we can’t get ourselves into a place where we can innovate or problem solve, this is a problem. So always make sure you have a notebook (or smartphone) with you to take quick notes when an idea or solution comes to you. And focus on your vision.

Tina Wells, founder and CEO of Buzz Marketing Group earned her B.A. in Communication Arts graduating with honors from Hood College in 2002. She is the author of the tween series Mackenzie Blue, published by HarperCollins Childrens Books.

9 Simple–But Hard–Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

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The first step in starting up is recognizing the right opportunity. Most opportunities are easy to spot: Just look at the problems you are already facing. For instance, my first startup (founded in ’08) was a banner network for social media networks called AdParlor, which a work colleague and I started in order to solve a problem we were facing ourselves: The need to invest in advertising to gain users on Facebook apps.

The idea for my second, BookMyCity, was hatched in 2012, when my girlfriend and I went for a mini-getaway to South Beach during “spa month.” We quickly discovered that there was no central location to book appointments for a service like spa treatments online (as you could for a restaurant table). A year later, BookMyCity was born to easily connect businesses and local customers online, managing availability and offering one-stop booking.

Throughout both experiences, however, I learned that the only way to really seize opportunities like these is to go all in and really get to know the audience you’re serving. It’s not easy, but here are a few of my personal lessons on success as an entrepreneur:

Get comfortable being uncomfortable. I like to call entrepreneurship a roller coaster. There are massive highs and massive lows. This is what drives me; the lows are inevitable, but the high coming from a massive low is exhilarating.
Commit yourself. You can have results or excuses; not both. Set your personal bar and own it – your center of influence is you. Don’t do things halfway and don’t procrastinate. If you are committing to become an entrepreneur, then put yourself 100 percent in it. Forget week-long vacations.
Really understand your clients/customers/target audience. Do your homework on who your clients are. Make sure that whatever you are creating, you have family members or friends who would actually use it. Find out all you can for free from them. After that, take your idea of the product or service, put it in a presentable format, and take it to a friend of a friend of a friend who won’t be afraid to tell you what they really think.
Get connected. Every interaction is a potential opportunity! Networking is the best way to get ahead in the world. In the online world, use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter to get connected with potential customers, investors, advisors. In the offline world, go to conferences and after-parties in your field and connect with entrepreneurs. You never know where or how your paths will cross.
Prioritize. Whatever you are producing, aim to be the best and don’t settle for mediocre. That being said, make sure to have priorities on which components should be done first and will have the most impact. Iterate countless times at the design phase until that component is simple to use/understand.
Team up. And if you want a partner, find a good one and be a good one. A good partner can make or break your company, especially if you are not used to the highs and lows of entrepreneurship. Having a partner to bounce ideas off of is much different than bouncing those ideas off of friends and family. You need someone who will be immersed in the business just as deeply as you are for an effective partnership.
Find your balance. Remember to take short day-long breaks here and there. Burning out is very inefficient and can happen quickly if you go too hard for too long. Take a weekend off and recharge once in a while.
Say what you mean and mean what you say. Keep promises. Don’t change meeting times. Be reliable.
Make it fun! Starting up is hard work, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. If you’re doing something you love, this part is easy.

My advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is simple: Start by doing something you love. If you currently work full time, pursue your idea after your official work hours. Join groups, go to conferences, ask questions and always keep your eyes and ears open. With enough dedication, you will surely find something that can be created, done better or done more efficiently. When you do, jump in — that’s when the hard work (and roller-coaster life) really begins.

In June 2013, Kristaps founded BookMyCity.com. BookMyCity (https://www.bookmycity.com) is an online promotion, booking and scheduling platform for service-oriented businesses. It lets customers find all sorts of services in their area and book appointments right on the spot.

10 Simple Tips to Get Better at Multitasking

Question: Everyone’s favorite productivity tip is to simply focus. But when you have no choice, what is your best tip for multitasking smarter?

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Wear a Watch With a Timer

“I recommend deciding which tasks you’re going to complete each day and then wearing a watch that beeps every hour to help you keep track of passing time. It’s easy for us to get caught up in the details of a task and spend too much time on it, so staying conscious of how much time you’re spending on each task is the key to working faster and being more productive.”

Ziver Birg ZIVELO

Write It Down, and Take Three at a Time

“Only have three priorities at once. I am a sophomore in college, so I always write out what I need to do to complete my week. However, I star one thing in each category (work, school, other) that I need to complete first. When I cross that off, I star something else and if I finish a category, I am able to use that star in another category. Write it down!”

Bryan Silverman Star Toilet Paper

Only Multitask When You Don’t Need to Devote Your Full Attention

“All — and I do mean all — of the research currently available shows that multitasking is a productivity killer. Don’t do it. The only acceptable time to purposefully multitask is when you’re performing activities that don’t require your full attention. For example, you can respond to emails while listening to music or take a non-critical call while walking or driving. “

Emerson Spartz Spartz

Don’t Multitask

“I’m often amazed at how much more I can get done when I don’t multitask. If I’m going to go on social media, then I will just go and enjoy myself and not pretend that I’m doing other work. If I’m writing, I shut down all other distractions. The same goes for checking email, phone calls — you name it. Keep your focus lasered, and see how much faster you close the loop.”

Nathalie Lussier Nathalie Lussier Media Inc.

Use Offline Email

“One of the main ways that folks multitask is by balancing email responses with other projects, but the biggest distractions are new incoming emails. Work in an “offline” state so you can multitask across known projects and avoid any new surprises that will just create more work.”

Aaron Schwartz Modify Watches

Know Your Limits

“Don’t try to handle too much at once. This is when mistakes are made. Instead, prioritize your tasks and make sure you are dedicating enough attention to the most important.”

Nicholas Gremion Free-eBooks.net

Get an Extra Set of Hands

“Everyone sings the praises of multitasking. It’s a simple math equation: More tasks can be completed with four hands than with two! To multitask smarter, hire someone to help. This isn’t just about delegating one-off tasks. With my executive assistant on my team, I am consistently able to be much more productive and effective. “

David Ehrenberg Early Growth Financial Services

Keep a List of Short Tasks Handy

“Multitasking is only effective if you’re just looking for ways to fill time when you are waiting for something else to finish. Keep a list of short tasks that you can work on while you’re waiting, like updating a contact in your address book or sending out a reminder email. Try to avoid anything that you can get sucked into (like social media) during these short bits of time.”

Thursday Bram Hyper Modern Consulting

Remember: Two Is Better Than One

“While it’s ideal to focus on one task at a time, it’s simply not realistic for the busy life of an entrepreneur. At my office, my dual-monitor setup allows me to fly through multiple tasks with countless tabs open. My productivity improved exponentially using dual monitors, and now I couldn’t imagine working any other way. “

Anthony Saladino Kitchen Cabinet Kings

Plan to Avoid It

“Take the time to build a schedule that avoids the need (as much as possible) to multitask. Generally with multitasking, you end up being less efficient. I diligently keep a running to-do list and a running follow-up list, and then I prioritize my time based on those lists. It is also important to give yourself a small break between tasks to keep your focus and energy level high all day long.”

Anderson Shoenrock ScanDigital

What Can You Learn from The New Kind of Workspaces?

The video game company Valve has some interesting ideas on how to arrange a workspace. The CEO, Gabe Newell, has been in tech since Windows competed with Doom for the program with most installs. Every employee at Valve has a desk that has wheels on it. There are no workgroups, per say, there are projects. You find a project you are interested in working on, or propose a new one, then move your desk accordingly.

In this way, everyone shares a work space and develops projects together. This commitment to team work has helped Valve produce some smash hits over the years, creating a loyal community/fanbase and developing a talented team with extremely high productivity. Newer CEOs are catching on to this trend of a different kind of take on the corner office, adapting a less-structured office to support a work day that is increasingly mobile and less-structured.

New evidence also suggests that employees like using their own technology, and prefer to stand and stretch their legs. That new data informs decisions when choosing furniture for the conference room or building the desks for the main floor. Read on for how the younger generation has decided to tackle the challenge of designing the modern office.

CoWorking

A new idea amongst young entrepreneurs is to break out of the confining and lonely space of one’s home, by renting a small space in a shared office. Coworking spaces are like big floors of free-floating desks. In Hong Kong, spaces can go for as little as $100 per month. The environment is very laid back, you won’t find a dress code here, but it also encourages professionalism. Entrepreneurs also have the advantage of a literal office space they can bring clients to, rather than scheduling a lunch meeting at a café with questionable Wi-fi. The print-infrastructure management software project Ezeep got its start in a German coworking space called Betahaus.

Social Cam/Justin.tv

Social Cam is a part of Justin.tv, a video and photo sharing application. The office is based in San Francisco, and the space is tight quarters to say the least. People are not crammed into cubicles, they are seated four to a table, with space to lean back and catch one’s breath. The office is separated by department, with mobile handling the bottom floor. One of the more unique concepts in the office is the shower. This isn’t entirely uncommon in bigger companies, but Social Cam executives would often shower and shave for meetings in the early days of the company, faking their intentions on return.

Overall the space encourages close collaboration amongst employees. There is a stocked kitchen so people are well fed, and as a result, productivity is up and Justin.tv (which recently changed itself to Twitch.tv) is one of the most-used streaming services for video on the Web.

Meebo

Meebo has a Meebochinko machine, which is based on a concept from the Price is Right. It’s part of a larger suite of gaming related rooms and meeting spaces. Meebo also uses the four to a table seating method, and it has a built in bar that is staffed on Fridays. There is a timeline on the wall that illustrates when someone joined the company, and the company builds an emoticon for each employee that has been there for over two years.

Meebo is very employee centric. It puts a lot of emphasis on encouraging collaboration and an overall jovial spirit. The offices are wide open, with plenty of room for people to lounge or catch a break from all the coding.

Each of these offices is different, but they all have something in common. The workspace encourages collaboration and togetherness. How you structure your office will be an important consideration when you want to promote company culture.

Kevin is an account director at Online Rep Management and has been working within internet marketing and public relations for over 8 years. Kevin got his start working online in SEO, link building, and some affiliate marketing. Kevin is most passionate about helping good brands become online entities. Read more on Google+ follow Kevin on twitter!

How Much Should You Spend On Marketing?

If you’re wondering what your marketing budget should be, you’re not alone. This is the million-dollar question: How can you be sure you’re spending the right amount of money on the right types of marketing? Many say it’s an art, not a science. Others argue that there is a clear equation that can help you to calculate exactly how much of your marketing dollars to place where. Simply figure out the equation, enter your variables, and voila.

In truth, it’s a little bit of both. With a little thought, a little math, a little data, and a little creativity, it is possible to have a good idea of how much to invest in marketing for the highest possible return. In terms of “return,” I have a strong finance view. Simply put, the role of marketing is to create leads and business opportunities. You should always return to this metric.

The key to ROI marketing is to not only determine your marketing budget, but to consistently building your company revenue. Your ROI always needs to link back to actual sales.

Return on Investment Marketing

ROI marketing is a measurement tool. It measures how much profit you make on a given marketing investment. To figure out the return on your investment, you need to identify a few figures to plug into your ROI formulas (as long as you are consistent, you can define your terms however you choose):

Cost of goods sold (COGS): The actual cost to produce your product (or provide your service)
Marketing investment: Media cost or production cost
Revenue: Your total revenue or your gross or net profit

The Components of ROI Marketing

There are six key components of ROI marketing:

Understanding lifetime customer value. Once you know this, you can begin to figure out how much you should expect to spend on new customer acquisition. To calculate the lifetime value of a customer, you need to identify the following variables: average annual revenue per customer, average gross profit margin (before any marketing expense), cost of capital, and average number of years per customer.
Estimating target acquisition cost per customer cost. Look at your company data. Take the total cost of your marketing budget and divide by the number of customers you won with this investment. This is your historic acquisition price.
Determining your marketing budget. Divide your target revenue by the average customer revenue. Then multiply this number by the target acquisition price. Once you have your ROI goal and overall annual revenue goal, calculate your targeted marketing spend.
Predicting which tactic will help you to realize your customer acquisition goals. Use the by-product of your calculations to make some informed decisions as to which marketing strategy will be most successful in helping you to achieve your goals.
Setting your marketing ROI goal. Once you have established your ROI threshold, stick to it. If a marketing initiative isn’t hitting the threshold, cut it. Put your marketing dollars where you know they will have a greater impact.
Monitoring your ROI. Measure, measure, and measure again. Use your results to continuously improve your campaigns and maximize your marketing dollars.

ROI Marketing: More Than a Measurement

How you choose to track your marketing spend and calculate your ROI marketing can differ from company to company. It’s important that you make the effort to add some rigor to your marketing activities. Even if your calculations aren’t exact, they can still show you clear trends of which marketing activities are getting real results and which aren’t. And again, results means actual sales.

With a small business, you can’t afford to waste your funds on marketing with low ROI. But calculating the best marketing spend isn’t just about managing your costs; it’s also about making sure that you are using your limited money to get the best ROI. You don’t want to miss any opportunities to help your business to acquire customers and earn revenue.

Ultimately, ROI marketing is more than a measure, it’s also a philosophy. But you can’t implement ROI marketing without making a larger organizational change. This is no small task.

Some early-stage startups with limited funding might view marketing as a low priority; an unnecessary cost. In fact, marketing is not just an outlay of capital. It’s an investment back into your company — not a drain on it. ROI marketing helps you to justify your investments, supporting the old adage that you need money to make money.

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

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.

4 Tips For Going Into Business With Your Significant Other

In our network of friends and family, my husband and I are unique: We’re location independent, we home-school our two young children and we run a number of business ventures, both individually and together.

I’m the strategic, organized half; he’s the creative, disorganized half. A match made in heaven (or hell…you decide)!

Most of the time things run smoothly in our household and “office.” But every now and then, I’m reminded that living, working, sleeping and parenting with your other half 24 hours a day, seven days a week isn’t always as easy as it might seem.

If you’re considering going into business with your spouse or significant other – either working on a joint project, or making the leap to do your own thing together — here are a few insights I wish someone had shared with us.

Play to Your Respective Strengths

For a long while, I wished Jonathan would get better at the strategizing and planning of his business ventures. I’d force him to have a go at doing it, watching the hours go by as he struggled to knock out even the most basic of plans.

In the end, we realized and accepted that it’s a much better approach to play to our strengths, and divide and conquer the rest. That way, we can stick to the tasks we’re best at. This doesn’t apply only to business; it works in life too. Jonathan’s the cook/cleaner of our household and I’m the organizer.

Identify and stick to your respective strengths, and you’ll find that instead of fighting against each other, you can pull together and leverage them to your advantage.

Commit and Stick to Agreed-Upon Boundaries

As with most households, agreeing on and maintaining certain boundaries helps keep the peace. When you live, sleep, parent and work with your other half, there are even more potential boundaries to be crossed.

Any entrepreneur knows how easy it is to let your business take over your life. Setting boundaries that separate your work and family life is vital when you’re both in the business. Work-talk over dinner, work-talk in bed, work-talk when you go out for coffee… if you’re not careful, work becomes all you ever talk about.

Agree on certain boundaries, like specific periods of time out during the week and dedicated family time, in order to keep the different areas of your relationship distinct. Doing so can really help maintain the more personal and intimate aspects of your relationship, which can ultimately suffer when you’re in business (and life) together.

Pick Your Battles

As an entrepreneurial couple, not only do you experience each other’s performance as partners, you experience each other’s performance as entrepreneurs. You are bound to find fault with how your spouse does something in business.

If one of you is the nagging type, your business becomes yet another area to find fault in. It can cause friction and arguments that didn’t exist before. Once again, common relationship advice becomes invaluable: Pick your battles.

Know when to let things go or you’ll find that your business becomes one more battleground – which is something you can’t afford to let happen if your livelihood depends on it.

Agree on Your Business Values

You likely already share many common core and life values with your partner, but how about your business values? Are you on the same page when it comes to how to run a business, how to service customers and clients, and how to market and sell what you do?

When you’re building a business together, it’s vital the business is built on shared, common values – if it’s not, you’ll constantly be at loggerheads.

We consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to be able to do what we do: spend all day every day together and with our children. But does it come easily? Not at all. Like all the best things in life, it often takes a lot of hard work, ongoing communication and plenty of give and take.

Lea Woodward is a Business strategist for micro-businesses and first time entrepreneurs. She is location independent and the creator of the original Location Independent website, having coined the term in 2007. She is the founder of Startup Training School, an online school dedicated to empowering women with the skills they need to get their business online. Find out more about Lea at http://www.LeaWoodward.com

Should You Do A Crowdfunding Campaign?

Running a crowdfunding campaign is like living one year of a startup on steroids. You need to create a concise story for why folks should support you. Your team must execute a video (not an easy task). And most importantly, you have to hustle every day to get in front of new audiences; unfortunately, people won’t just show up, no matter how amazing your product is.

After going through the experience myself, I am starting to believe that all entrepreneurs should do a campaign as well. Whether you use a major site like Indiegogo or Kickstarter, or even some of the awesome up-and-comers like Teespring and Crowdtilt, executing a crowdfunding campaign will put your team and business through the fire and back.

Here’s why we decided to bite the bullet — and some advice for other entrepreneurs who might be considering a campaign of their own.

Our Story

Modify Watches just launched our first-ever Kickstarter campaign in February to produce something we have titled “Mod-to-Order.” At 4-year-old Modify, we design interchangeable wristwatches, and our vision has always been to allow people to wear their passion on their wrist. If you want a photo of your kid or an image that represents your wedding or a gift for your employees, we want to provide it to you. But to date, it’s been too costly to offer.

After a few years of crowdsourcing products from our fans — “Which of these 10 designs should we produce?” — we’re now using crowdfunding to validate that fans actually want to produce genuine, one-off custom products. We’ve been ignoring Steve Blank’s mantra to get outside of the building, so we figured we would go all-in and choose a make-or-break path; we’ll only be able to offer this IF our Kickstarter campaign is successful.

Why Crowdfunding?

I truly believe that there is no better way to validate that you have a market than by releasing your product and saying “buy now.”

In crowdfunding, you are telling folks, “We want this thing to exist, but it can only happen if you fund our vision.” If early adopters won’t fund you, either your idea isn’t all the way there, or you’re not ready to execute.

One week into our own campaign, and we’re 30 percent of the way to our goal. Our team is staying up late every night to do all of the “real” work we have after spending the 9-to-5 emailing everyone we know asking them to share our campaign.

Kickstarter or Indiegogo?

If you’re going to use one of the big-name crowdfunding sites, there are some definite pros and cons to consider.

Kickstarter has an incredibly strong brand name; even folks who don’t know what crowd-funding is have heard of Kickstarter. Oh, and they just funded their one billionth dollar. We chose the platform because of its historical strength in consumer goods.

In retrospect, Indiegogo would have been an amazing choice too. That platform has an incredibly strong name for artists, is growing in product and has a strong customer service bent. Most relevant, they have many fewer restrictions, which means that you can tailor your campaign more to your company’s specific needs. Indiegogo also has a new tool called Outpost, which allows you to embed your campaign on your site.

The Video

The most important part of your campaign is your video. It’s also one of the more time-consuming aspects of running a campaign like this.

To produce our video, we worked with the awesome team from Six Finger Films. We story-boarded, collected assets, engaged our fans to help tell our story, and shot the film over two days.

If you can’t do the video in-house, I strongly recommend that you find a partner that believes in you and cares about your vision and story.

What We Would Change Next Time

We’ve already learned a few lessons that could benefit other entrepreneurs. Next time, we’d do these things differently:

Contact press a few weeks in advance of launch, instead of on the day. It takes a while to explain your value, and reporters and bloggers are busy! Invest in them like you would in any partner.
Shorten our video. Our video is about 4 minutes long. It’s an incredible marketing tool — but we don’t get to the point of the campaign until 90 seconds in. By that point, you want to have already inspired the viewer to take action.
Simplify our reward tiers. Backers need to take time to understand what they get. That’s a major no-no. If they’re ready to give you support, make it easy with a clear value proposition.

Is It Really All-Consuming?

Yes. The key to crowdfunding success is that you engage your own network. That means personal emails appealing to all of your friends (and even acquaintances).

What I conveniently forgot was that we still had plenty of work to do for the ongoing Modify business – launching our new website, getting ready for Opening Day with our Major League Baseball watches and delivering great service to all of our current customers.

My adviser Bhavin from the Magoosh team always says that fundraising is a full-time job, so a co-founder should “quit” other parts of the business during the funding cycle. Personally, I have found this campaign to require even more work than raising our first round.

Nevertheless, while crowdfunding may seem daunting — it certainly does to me, only halfway through our campaign! – it’s still been an amazing experience. You get to interact with folks on a daily basis and your team has to come together for a very distinct shared goal. Most importantly, if you’re successful, you get to see your vision come to life with the support of fans who care.

Editor’s note: The author is pictured on the far right in the photo above, along with some other members of the Modify team. Check out their Kickstarter campaign here.

Aaron Schwartz is Founder and CEO at Modify Industries, Inc., which designs interchangeable custom watches known as Modify Watches. He loves working on startup ideas and has spent innumerable (happy) hours advising friends and former students on how to grow their ideas.