startup tips Archives - Page 8 of 26

6 Great Personal Tips for Your Startup Success

As entrepreneurs, our personal happiness, the way we listen to and react to our staff, and the way we shape our own role at work all have profound effects on our companies, and ultimately, on how they grow. But lasting change is difficult. I should know – I recently achieved three major advances that I didn’t think were possible:

I pushed my wife to create more work-life balance with me.
I expressed compassion for a staff member facing personal challenges that were getting in the way of her job.
I redefined my number one priority with my team at Round Table Companies (RTC) to focus on deepening relationships with potential clients.

It wasn’t easy, but I had a solid guide. Not long ago, I was playing around on Twitter, searching for people with influential business and leadership profiles who could review and possibly share my last Forbes piece. Author Robin Sharma read and enjoyed the article, and consequently challenged me to read his new book. After looking at his site, I knew we were in alignment, so I dove into The Leader Who Had No Title.

Below are six key lessons I learned from Robin that you can apply to your own business success.

It’s Never too Early to Work on Your Dream

While he continued to practice law, Robin would get to his local 24-hour coffee shop at 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning and write until he had to go to work at 8:00. Though the first editor told him he couldn’t write, Robin printed 2,000 copies of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari at Kinko’s. He kept them in his kitchen as he sold copies. Sixteen years later, Robin’s books have sold more than six million copies. Early morning hustle pays off!

Question: Do you pop out of bed excited for the day, or are you snoozing your way out of opportunity?

Live From a Place of Gratitude

Robin’s books inspired me to wake up at 5:30 a.m. every weekday morning (for the last 65 days now!) and spend 20 minutes journaling about what I’m grateful for and what I’m dreaming of becoming. That writing sets up my day from a place of appreciation verses the fear or anxiety that can often drive entrepreneurs. Coming from a place of appreciation all the time is a dynamic shift for me. I highly recommend you try it and see how quickly it can impact your brain chemistry and your behavior.

Question: Do you engage in any kind of ritual to help set up your day?

Splash Ice Water on Your Face (Figuratively)

As the owner of a million-dollar-a-year storytelling company, when times are good, I am a blast to work with and for. But as an entrepreneur, my moods change as often as Chicago’s weather. If revenue dips, or a deadline is missed, I take my anxiety out on our executive team, who repeat the process with our support staff.

I grabbed another lesson from Robin to deal with those negative thoughts: whenever I catch myself thinking negatively, I imagine getting splashed in the face with ice water. Amazingly, that practice helps me shake off the thoughts and recognize that they are not reality.

Question: How much of your day is ruled by worry vs. reality?

Question Your Role

Through my gratitude work, I started dreaming about what was possible for my company again. That shifted me from the role of managing back into my entrepreneurial power zone. It also helped me admit that my strength is not managing. Getting out of that role was great for me, but also for the spirit of the company. And it just so happened that our COO, David Cohen, was ready to make his own shift into a stronger leadership role. People management comes easily to him, and our staff thrives under his steadfast leadership style. Win-win-win.

Question: Is your current role one of choice, or one of habit?

Take Care of Yourself

Exercise is important for entrepreneurs because we’re desperately in need of ways to manage our stress. After two years of working out twice a week, I was ready to up my game. I started a difficult conversation with my trainer about changing up my schedule so I could work out four days a week at the same budget by taking more classes and doing less personal training. I had been avoiding that conversation out of a sense of guilt. And then, bam! I came from a place of kindness, had the conversation, and got what I needed. As the owner of her gym, she was looking to train less and have more time to run her own business anyway. Another win-win.

Question: What do you schedule into your life to ensure you’re taking care of your health? Do you respect yourself by protecting that time?

Challenge Others With Vulnerable Conversations

The conversations I had with my COO, my trainer, and my wife were all uncomfortable for me because I risked the fear of rejection. As entrepreneurs, we experience plenty of rejection. But we also become masterful at setting up our worlds so rejection is limited.

To keep ourselves pushing our limits, we have to press up against our comfort zones. Coming from a place of appreciation helped me to approach these difficult conversations with kindness. None of them went perfectly, but I walked away from each of them with great results and also a feeling of pride in how I handled myself.

Question: What difficult conversations are you avoiding in your life?

Small Shifts Add Up to Big Change

The most powerful takeaway here is that people like Robin are not superhuman, and they’re not just lucky. He put one foot in front of the other, took the risk of leaving a successful law practice, and then set up his life to serve others. And he did it all from a place of gratitude — something all entrepreneurs can achieve.

Working in Los Angeles for a decade, Corey Michael Blake was the face and voice behind a dozen Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 brands as a commercial and voiceover actor (his work won Belding, Addy, Cannes, and London International Advertising awards), before working as a film producer and director, as an author and publisher, and now as the founder and President of storytelling company Round Table Companies (RTC).

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.

Startup Lessons for the Next Generation

Question: What lesson would you teach your younger self about entrepreneurship, given what you know now?

Embrace Change

“When I started out, I thought success meant everything working out the way you planned. But that’s not really how entrepreneurship works. Some things work out far better than you imagined, some things don’t happen and other things seem like epic failures, but it’s really all just a learning process. Rolling with the punches, embracing change and enjoying the adventure is a big part of the fun.”

ELIZABETH SAUNDERS Follow @RealLifeE

Understand There’s More Than One Way

“I entered the world of entrepreneurship timidly, even feeling uncomfortable to call myself a “real” entrepreneur for years. What I didn’t understand when I started out was that entrepreneurship is less about your number of investors, your job title or how many companies you’ve sold. What entrepreneurship is about is freedom and using your power of choice to do business and serve others in ways that empower you, liberate you and do good in the world. There’s not just one way to go about it; the journey is what you make of it.”

DAVE URSILLO The Literati Writers

Don’t Get Distracted

“As an entrepreneur, many new ideas and shiny new ventures will catch your eye on a day-to-day basis, but more often than not, focusing on one mission at a time will mean the difference between success and failure. As the saying goes, if you chase two rabbits, both will escape. Sometimes, focus and a relentless attitude can even trump the greatness of the idea itself.”

RICHARD LORENZEN Fifth Avenue Brands

Surround Yourself with the Right People

“There are many important principles of good business: best practices, success strategies, etc. But none of them are universal. You can march to your own beat. You can do things your own way…and you can make it work. But the people you choose to surround yourself with will make or break you. When I have ambitious, hard-working, like-minded people around me – motivating peers and mentors I can learn from, collaborate with, test/validate ideas with and get pushed by – I make fast progress and thrive. When I don’t have those people around me, I stagnate. You need a strong support network.”

CODY MCKIBBEN Digital Nomad Academy

Don’t Get Stuck on the Hamster Wheel

“A huge lesson I learned well after starting a business was that there’s a difference between owning a company and running one. Both are great, but the latter means that you can never stop running, or the company will slow down. Over time, it’s key to learn how to build a trustworthy team and to train others in your knowledge. At first, my goal was just to have a business that worked, but now my goal is to one day have a business that could survive even if I stopped running. I want to be able to catch my breath and enjoy it!”

LEXA HILLYER Paper Lantern Lit

Master the Tension Between Focus & Flexibility

“Entrepreneurs are generally good with either being focused or being flexible, but the trick is mastering the tension between the two. It is important to be focused — on your goals, on your business plan, and on your customers. However, you also have to stay flexible to the needs of the market.”

SUZANNE SMITH Social Impact Architects

Accept That Mistakes Are Okay

“Accept that 80 percent is an A+. Being a perfectionist and an entrepreneur can often yield several problems, including micromanaging, which drives you — and those around you — crazy. Accept that mistakes will happen, and that they are, in fact, part of building a great business and team.”

ILYA POZIN Ciplex

Collaborate With Others, Compete with Yourself

“Entrepreneurship isn’t a zero-sum game. You and your competitors can all be winners and, for the most part, competing with anyone other than yourself (unless you’re a professional athlete, of course!) is counterproductive. Share ideas, help each other out and rise together. And keep your competitive edge turned inward. Not only will your sanity benefit, but so will your business.”

ALEXIS WOLFER The Beauty Bean

Ask the Questions

“A friend of mine Shervin Pishevar made a statement that has stuck with me and served as a reminder for quite some time. He said, “the answer is always no unless you ask.” A simple, yet powerful, truth. Unless you ask the questions, there’s no way of knowing what the outcome will be. And without asking the question, the answer is always no. This is something I continually try to remind myself of when stuck in a spot of uncertanity and fear. Ask the questions that need to be asked.”

JEFF SLOBOTSKI Silicon Prairie News

Avoid Analysis Paralysis

“Decision and action are always better than indecision. This is particularly important for early business success. Execution moves things forward, and you don’t have time to ponder small decisions. Sometimes, even a lot of analysis will not give you the answer, and you have to go with what you believe will work best. “

JESSE PUJJI Ampush

Manage Yourself Well

“For first-time entrepreneurs, managing yourself can be a real challenge. We don’t realize how much we sometimes need structure. Being accountable to someone (a boss) is a huge motivating factor. I’d develop better habits around managing my time in a sustainable way. With my first company, I’d work 24 hours straight (literally). Some days, I’d just take off completely. Balance is everything, and it’s the key to sustainably being an entrepreneur for the long run.”

MITCH GORDON Go Overseas

Test Before You Invest

“We entrepreneurs have ideas every day. The sooner you test these ideas against reality to see if they’re viable, the quicker you’ll get to the idea that works. For example, I once had an idea to build an iPhone app. I made the wireframes. I got with a developer. I paid the developer about 20 percent of my savings account. And I lost all my money because I had an app no one wanted. If I had tested the app idea with my potential customers without any investment, I would have quickly found out my idea wasn’t needed. Get out of the building and test before you invest.”

BRETT FARMILOE Internet Marketing Company

Start With Your Strengths

“Research shows pretty conclusively that the best leaders do one primary thing differently: They know their strengths and work in them almost all the time. This sounds simple, but what I didn’t realize was that our society isn’t set up like this. From our earliest school days, we are taught to focus on making our deficiencies better; this never leads to greatness. Instead, first discover those things that make you unique: your gifts/talents/strengths. Second, find a big, hairy problem in the world that makes you righteously indignant. Third, use your strengths to solve that problem!”

JOSH ALLAN DYKSTRA Strengths Doctors

Talk to Customers

“As a younger entrepreneur, I always wanted to build or start something that I wanted. It’s part of what makes entrepreneurs great is that they are often so passionate about a solution to a problem, because they have that problem. But the reality is, just because you have a problem isn’t enough to start a company around it. So talk to your customers… a lot. After realizing how much you learn from customers, we now have built that feedback loop so tightly into the company — from weekly in-office usability testing to all-hands customer support to monthly feedback from our employees. “

ERIC KOESTER DCI

Generate Sustainable Revenue

“Focus on generating sustainable revenue. Entrepreneurs thrive on ideas and opportunity. Some ideas take longer to materialize into a profitable business and in some cases opportunity takes longer to materialize. Regardless of the idea or the opportunity, I would focus on smaller increments that can start delivering revenue sooner than later. This is a critical success factor for technology startups given that I can easily manage to become a thinker than a revenue generator. This also helps in seeing what works and expanding on that versus going with the big bang theory.”

RAHEEL RETIWALLA Fuzed

Get Out of Your Rut

“Business plan? No problem. Road trip to raise capital? Got it. Two hours of sleep? Push through it. These are all things we did early on without blinking. We loved our small team and our mission, and we fell in love with our business. Then, our business got older and, although it aged well, it lost some of its excitement. Our passion became a job first, instead of the other way around. It took time, but we got out of the rut by changing things up: new roles, scenery, experiences, projects and team activities. It’s not about building new fires, but feeding the one you started. “

BEN WAGNER LifeKraze

The “Must-Attend Conference for Entrepreneurs” Everywhere Else Tennessee is headed back to Memphis this Spring. We’re releasing the first 50 tickets for 50% off exclusively to our newsletter subscribers on Jan 13th. Don’t miss your shot by signing up here!

How Zaarly’s Eric Koester CoFounded One of the Most Innovative Companies

Eric Strait, Tech Hustlers

Eric Koester spent much of his earlier career assisting startups. Now he is the co-founder & CMO of one of the most innovative companies in the world according to Fast Company. Zaarly is literally changing the economy. They are disrupting how people purchase services and opening the door for people to create profitable businesses they never thought possible!

Zaarly raised $14 million in 2012, and in October 2012 former CEO of Ebay & current Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman, joined the company’s board. If that is not enough star power, mega celebrity & actor Ashton Kutcher was Zaarly’s very first investor!

“Eric most recently served as VP Operations & General Counsel at Appature Inc., a cloud-based relationship marketing software company. Prior to joining Appature in 2010, Eric was a corporate and securities attorney for Cooley LLP where he represented public and private technology, energy and life sciences companies, venture capital firms and investment banks in a wide range of transactions, including public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, securities issuances, technology licensing transactions, corporate partnerships, commercial agreements and venture capital financings.

Before joining Cooley, Eric was the Financial Reporting Manager at Ventana Medical Systems, a leading diagnostics company acquired by Roche in 2008. Eric began his career in Morgan Stanley’s financial advisory services group. He holds a JD from The George Washington University School of Law, BA in Business Administration from Marquette University and is a certified public accountant in the State of Washington.”

Watch Eric talk about his life journey and how Zaarly almost didn’t happen!

Preview

*Quick Eric Koester Background Bio

*Eric’s history of the entrepreneur spirit

*Being a startup lawyer

*Entrepreneur itch

*One of the “Most Innovative Companies in the World” that almost was not!

*Karma & Fate

*The disruptive path of Zaarly

*This post originally appeared on Tech Hustlers.

Starting Up in 2013: The Good Stuff

Editor’s note: This is part 2 of a lessons learned series from entrepreneur Matt Goldman. You can read part 1 here.

Although we’ve had our share of screw-ups, we’ve also managed to do a few things right. Maybe you can learn from them:

We Took Two Products to Market

Building two products took its toll on our runway by slowing us down, but it also has granted us access to a wider audience and opened many promotional opportunities.

We had no intention of launching HookFeed before Minimalytics, but figured adding a cross-promotion in the “Thanks for signing up for the beta list” email would start building the list. It did.

We also have been able to reference both products whenever writing a post, and an amazing number of people click through to check them out.

Minimalytics has always been more popular, but we were able to grow an audience for HookFeed on the coattails of Minimalytics, and that would not have been possible had we not marketed them at the same time.

And the cost? Throwing up a simple animated landing page explaining what the product would do (which has since changed).

Our beta lists for the products are currently at 2,893 for Minimalytics and 1,322 for HookFeed.

We also announced the book we’re writing with Michael Sacca far before we had time to start working on it. By mentioning it here and there on the internet, the list has grown steadily to over 300 people without a dedicated marketing push.

We Didn’t Wait to Talk to People Until We Had a Success

From the very beginning, we began reaching out to successful entrepreneurs for help. Since we had some attractive landing pages up, and reached out to them in non-sleazy ways, we had a 100% response rate. We’ve learned so much from our product chats with people, and made some amazing friends online.

Along the way, we constantly felt like impostors. Like we weren’t ready to talk to these people since we hadn’t even launched a product yet. But I’m so glad we did.

The only thing holding you back from talking to your heroes is yourself.

We Trusted Our Gut

Everything about our early-beginnings would have been advised against by most people.

Joelle was my co-worker (ok, kind of my boss) when we used to work at an agency. That’s when we started dating.
I left my steady job last December to start Small HQ (and start burning through savings trying to finally launch a profitable product)
Joelle joined me in March and we began working together
We started living together shortly after this
We chose to work on 2 products instead of focusing on 1
We turned down client work and burned through savings

I’ve lost count of how many people have scoffed at the fact that we work together.

“You work with your girlfriend?! I don’t know if I could do that…”

Joelle likes to say, “If you can’t stand to be around your partner most of the day, why the hell are you even dating?”

Advice, at the end of the day, is just someone else’s opinion. And sometimes needs to be ignored.

The nature of it is that the most popular advice floats to the top, and when you’re dealing with something risky like entrepreneurship, you’re going to hear advice from many who have failed.

With all these lessons in my back pocket I’m more eager than ever moving into 2014 — though I have no doubt a whole new set of failures and lessons are just around the next bend.

Where will we be next December? No idea… but I do know it’ll be one hell of a ride!

I’m Matt Goldman. I’m building HookFeed and Minimalytics. Also writing a book about how to build a SaaS rocketship with my partner Joelle and Michael Sacca.

Starting Up in 2013: Lessons Learned

Editor’s Note: This is part 1 of 2 part series from entrepreneur Matt Goldman. Read part on the great lessons from 2013 tomorrow.

This year has been a whirlwind.

Diving headfirst into the SaaS world is a roller coaster ride like no other, a constant fluctuation of peaks and valleys, mini successes and epic failures. And, when all is said and done, an invaluable string of lessons to carry on to the next ride.

This year Joelle (my girlfriend/business partner) and I have made the life-changing leap from 9-to-5ers to full-time entrepreneurs.

We’ve grown a little audience of our own, talked to our heroes, learned from our peers, launched a product…and then another one, met some amazing people, and perhaps most important of all, discovered a new lifestyle we didn’t think was possible before.And in doing so we’ve naturally made a ton of mistakes along the way.

While we’ve written plenty about micro-lessons we’ve learned throughout the year, here are some of the bigger ones we’ve learned. My hope is that there are a few nuggets in here you can take with you on your next trip around the track.

Product Takes a Long-Ass Time. Plan Accordingly.

We started in March, whipped up two landing pages, and got to work building out some ideas. Surely, we’d launch the products within a few months, and then make a ton of money, right?

Wrong. This was what actually happened:

April 8: Minimalytics Teaser Page
April 29: HookFeed Teaser Page
August 21: First Minimalytics Beta Tester
**HookFeed pivoted to focus entirely on Stripe Notifications in a Live Stream
October 24: First HookFeed Beta Tester
**HookFeed pivoted to focus on Stripe Email Alerts and Daily/Weekly Summaries
December 17: HookFeed Launched

So it’s been just over 9 months and we’ve only “launched” one of our products. Minimalytics is still in beta and needs significant development before it’s ready for prime-time. We overcomplicated things and are working on returning to our Minimal promise

Even though we’ve launched HookFeed to the public now, it will take several months before it is generating anywhere near enough revenue to cover two salaries entirely.

Luckily, we started with a longer runway than we thought we needed. You should set aside cash to fund at least 1 year to become profitable.

If you’re one of the folks who thinks you’ll have a profitable product in a few months (I sure did), then this bit is important. Listen up:

Your product will not make as much as you think, as soon as you think. Be ready for that.

We Spread Ourselves Thin

Nearly every experienced entrepreneur we’ve Skyped with has ended our conversation with, “Why the hell are you building two products? Focus on one.”

Every time we heard this advice, we said, “Yeah, Yeah…I guess it’s just a lesson we need to learn on our own. We want both products for ourselves, so we’re going to build both.”

Many great things have come of building two products at once (which I’ll touch on in a bit), but it has also increased our time to market on both products, increased our cash-burned, and slowed our learnings/pivots.

That being said, if I could press rewind and go back to March, I’d do it all the same. However, I would have paid more attention to the feedback we were getting from people smarter than us.

Juggling two products is really hard. Marketing two products and building one-at-a-time is much more attainable.

We Let Client Work Steal Our Focus

Although we started with the dream of never working for anyone again, whether they were a boss or a number of clients…I was approached by a retail chain seeking an overhaul of their various websites.

When Joelle came to work with me, we realized we could use an extension to our runway, and we signed a 4-month contract to rebuild their entire web presence. Luckily, I had just read Brennan’s book and ventured out of my comfort zone to charge about 5x what I would have normally charged. They accepted, and ended up being a great client. Our contract ended in July, but we made the decision to stay onboard for monthly work.

Up until July, we were spending about half of our time on client work, and that was enough to nearly derail our product efforts. Since then, we’ve been able to balance the two much better.

Our advice for product people taking client work:

Don’t turn it away if it’s a good deal. Run if it’s a bad deal.
Charge 3-5x what you normally do. Read Brennan’s book.
Don’t bill hourly. Bill daily, weekly, monthly, or preferably per project.
Group client hours together so you can spend chunks of time building and marketing your product(s).

We Had No Sense of Urgency

When you have a long runway, and don’t fully understand how much time/effort it takes to get a successful software product off the ground, it’s easy to squander valuable time.

That’s not to say that you should be spending every waking hour on your work, but rather that the hours you dedicate to work (which can be reasonable) need to be fully devoted to work.

We’re making changes starting this week, and actually setting working hours (gasp!). When you leave a full-time job and discover the freedom of working solo, you tend to resist any process that you dealt with at your prior job. One of those is set working hours.

In the past, I would wake up around 5-6am and “work” until about midnight. But throughout the day, I would go out for food, go visit Tiny Factory and chat it up, play the occasional video game, or go on cleaning sprees to avoid exerting any effort on the not-so-fun bits of work.

In the future, I’ll still be waking around 5am, but focusing harder and actually working during my brightest time of the day. Then working out, then eating lunch, then back to work, stopping no later than 6pm.

More of an effort will go towards writing and coding the tough stuff in the early morning, and handling the lighter tasks in the afternoon. Possibly over a beer.

I wasn’t sure how this would feel, but I tried it yesterday and it was amazing. Having no burden at 6pm sent a few questions through my head, “What books could I read?” “What should I cook for Joelle?” “Who should we hang out with this week?”

All good things that got neglected over the past year.

We Spent too Much Time Together

When you live and work with your girlfriend, you see a lot of one another. We’re pretty used to this since we actually met at work at our last job. But it still takes its toll.

We’ve found that we are each most productive when we’re alone, and even better, out of the house.

My most productive time is:

At my desk writing/coding between 5am and 8am
At a coffee/beer shop in the afternoon

I’ve also noticed a 10x increase in Joelle’s output when she gets out of the house.

We’re making an effort daily to get out and away from each other now. Not just for productivity reasons, but also so that our time spent together is more valuable/appreciated.

It’s easy to fizzle the sparks that flew when you were first dating someone. Especially when most of the day you treat each other like business partners. It takes only a little extra effort to avoid this default, and return to the days of snuggles and sunset cuddles.

We Let Our Health Suffer

We’re both in relatively good shape, but during busy times this year, we let workouts take a back seat to work — and our health surely suffered.

I’m much worse than Joelle in this regard. She has run triathlons and been competitive her whole life. I have always avoided competitive sports and although I love the feeling after working out, I avoid it like the plague.

If you have a partner/team, encourage each other to workout and stay healthy year-round. The impact is incredible.

I’m Matt Goldman. I’m building HookFeed and Minimalytics. Also writing a book about how to build a SaaS rocketship with my partner Joelle and Michael Sacca.

*A version of this post was originally posted on Medium.

4 Principles of High Productivity

productivity In a time of constant movement, constant communication, continual achievement and an ongoing list of to-dos, at the end of the day we feel we’ll never get ahead. It seems like our days are controlling us, rather than us controlling them. This constant busyness can actually take you off course from your high-value goals; hurt your physical, psychological and emotional system; and even damage or destroy relationships. I have been studying some of the top executives, CEOs, authors, and millionaires in the past couple of years and wanted to share a couple thoughts that might help you work at your productive best.

80/20 EVERYTHING

This is called Pareto’s law. It can be summarized as follows: 80 percent of the outputs result from 20 percent of the inputs. Out of 10 tasks and activities you want to accomplish, two of them will produce more results than the other eight combined. This is a proven fact. Sometimes when we get busy we feel we must get more done rather than focusing on the tasks that create bigger results. I’m often challenged to really think intelligently about what 20 percent of my work I can do with absolute focus that will yield huge results.

MOST THINGS DON’T MATTER

I remember Tim Ferriss stating that “most things make no difference.” Being busy is a form of laziness, lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being overwhelmed is often as unproductive as doing nothing, and is far more unpleasant. Being selective and taking more intelligent action is really the path to high productivity. Focus on the important few and ignore or delegate the rest.

DOING SOMETHING UNIMPORTANT WELL DOESN’T MAKE IT ANY MORE IMPORTANT

Activities that are not connected to an outcome or purpose are the drain of all fortune. Understand that what you do is a lot more important than how you do it. Effectiveness is still important, but it is useless unless applied to the right things. There are a handful of things you could be focusing on that will create exceptional outcomes for your goals. It’s easy to get caught in a flood of trivial matters.

The key to not feeling rushed is remembering that lack of time actually means lack of priorities. Take time to stop and re-focus your priorities as often as needed. Intelligent thinking, combined with the right action will get your productivity to a level few attain. Remember what Jim Collins stated in his best seller Good To Great: “If you have more than three priorities, you don’t have any.”

OBEY PARKINSON’S LAW

Parkinson’s Law dictates that a task will become of larger importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. I have personally found high value in deadlines. If I give you 12 hours to complete a project, the time pressure forces you to focus on execution, and you have no choice but to do only the essentials. If I give you a week to complete the same task, it will most likely be six days of validation, excuses, and procrastination and one day of rushed work. If I give you a month, it usually becomes a mental monster. The results of deadlines are always of equal or higher quality due to greater focus.

Identify the few critical tasks that contribute most to income and schedule them with very short and clear deadlines. If you haven’t identified your critical tasks and set aggressive start and end times for their completion, the unimportant becomes important. Even if you know what’s critical, without deadlines that create focus, the minor tasks forced upon you will raise to consume time until another minuscule task jumps in to replace it, leaving you at the end of the day with nothing accomplished.

I spent months jumping from one interruption to the next, feeling run by my business instead of the other way around. Don’t make the same mistake — instead, adopt these four strategies in your life and business today.

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

Peter Voogd (of RealVipSuccess) is an entrepreneur dedicating himself to excellence in every area of life so he can better serve others. He strongly believes the more people you help to succeed, the most successful you become. His mission is to inspire 1,000,000 people through his movement, and has a deep understanding of what it takes to inspire, motivate, and train at the highest level.

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.

5 Tips For Getting Started In A New Industry

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

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

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

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

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

Where will they lead you?

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.

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

5 Commitments To Make In 2014 Instead Of Resolutions

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

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

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

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

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

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

5 Ways To Develop A Strong CEO Brand

CEOs with strong reputations and the know-how to promote their accomplishments (that is, CEOs with strong brands) have a significant advantage over their competitors. Having a powerful CEO brand can put your company in front of its target audience in a way that the corporation alone cannot.

Why? Simple: Businesses don’t do speaking engagements, businesses rarely “emotionally connect” with audiences, and outside of CNBC/Fox Business News, they are rarely profiled on TV. And when media is looking for a great business-related story, they often focus on how the CEO/founder built the business or how a new CEO reshaped it — because people love human interest stories. They want to emotionally connect with your company. Hearing your vision gives them an affinity for your product.

As a result, brand loyalty to a product can be trumped by brand loyalty to a CEO. For example, I’m a U.S. Airways frequent flyer. I get upgrades almost every time I fly. But because I’m such a huge fan of Richard Branson, and Virgin now has flights available out of Philadelphia, I’m planning to use them next time I fly cross-country. Remove Branson from the equation, I’d have no interest in Virgin.

Similarly, I recently had a client who had developed a business service focused specifically on assessing new product development at corporations. As a result of the traction he got with his book and his reputation as a speaker, he gave a paid keynote to one of the largest corporations in the world. Executives listened to him intently, and the next day several met with him to learn more. He also won the Governor’s award in his state for best small business.

But none of that would be possible without a strong CEO brand. So how do you do it?

Develop a CEO brand strategy. This includes analyzing your brand strengths and aligning them with the corporation’s. In other words, emphasize the portions of the CEO brand that also ring true for the company.
Determine which audiences you want to go after and what message will connect with them the most. This differs from a corporate strategy because you are looking at a more indirect message to get people to resonate with the CEO. The CEO serves as the bridge so that the customer will gain interest in the business.
Determine the tools you will use to get the message out. Will it be speaking? PR? Social media? A book? Strategic advertising with the CEO message?
Determine how to measure your results. What benchmarks are you looking for? Increased leads? More website traffic? Determine the metrics that make the most sense for you.
Assess the results. Analyze your results utilizing the metrics you’ve developed plus some bottom-line items such as revenue growth, close rates, and increased pricing. Adjust your strategy from there.

Start utilizing these techniques now, and soon you’ll have a CEO advantage that will last the rest of your career. The best thing about a CEO brand is that, when done well, it is portable — as you think about starting future ventures, your CEO brand will follow you.

As the greatest success expert of the past 100 years, Napoleon Hill, said in his famous book The Laws of Success, “People buy personalities as much as merchandise, and it is a question if they are not influenced more by the personalities with which they come in contact than they are by the merchandise.”

Seventy-five years later, these words have never rung more true.

Raoul Davis specializes in helping CEOs increase their visibility, revenues, and industry leadership status through a proprietary CEO branding model. He is a partner at Ascendant Group (www.ascendantstrategy.net) a proven top line revenue growth strategy firm through utilizing the power of CEO branding. Ascendant integrates brand strategy, PR, speaking engagements, book deals, social media and strategic networking to accelerate visibility.

5 Obvious (But Overlooked) Ways To Deliver Great Customer Service

Craig Baldwin, Sqrl

Just Doing Your Job

Glad that’s out of the way.

Good, great, even amazing client service is not black and white. Above average client service results from a willingness and interest that each accountant or professional has in their client’s well-being, experience, and results. According to the American Express 2012 Customer Service Barometer 66% of clients are willing to spend more with a business they believe is delivering excellent client service. The same report indicates 48% of people tell others about good client service all the time. 57% always tell their friends about poor service. If you mess up, word will travel fast. Just thank the world of social media for that one.

Professionals who deliver client service make their living on that one thing. And just like customer service, brands and businesses thrive when service of all kinds is more connected and personal. Delivering good client service is all about going beyond, adding just a little bit extra each and every time. Here’s 5 tips on delivering good client service from our team:

1. Send a surprise to each new client

First impressions are huge. At our accounting firm, we used to send cupcakes to every new client. But choose anything that’d be a nice surprise to your client. Last week we received bow-ties from a new contact. Bow-ties!

2. Be proactive on potential issues

It’s one of the most painful things to do when serving clients, but letting them be aware of issues or potential issues as soon as possible is always the way to go. It shows integrity, honesty, and how much you care about the success of their company or project. Just like ripping off band-aids, count to 3 and rip off at 2!

3. When problems arise, make it an opportunity

The first action at any restaurant when you have an underwhelming experience is to have an item removed from the bill. Perfect! But it’s almost commonplace these days, so in order to really get your attention the server would have to one-up a free appetizer. While breakdowns can be scary, and sometime results in a loss of client, they can also be a total game-changer for the relationship if you give it your best shot.

4. Be personal

Handwritten notes, family conversations, and beers with clients is always an impactful experience. Take away the work at-hand and you have two people who have to deal with each other socially. You can’t make friends with every client, and some won’t want to, but it always makes the relationship that much better.

5. Set expectations upfront

So many issues begin with miscommunication, which can typically be avoided by setting engagement or project expectations upfront. Because life is always easier when everyone is on the same page.

Craig Baldwin loves delicious BBQ and cool tech.

A version of this post was originally posted on the Sqrl blog.

8 Simple Things Your Joint Venture Agreement Should Include

Combining forces to create a joint venture (JV) is nothing new, but the real trick is to do so in such a way that protects each venturer so that both parties are free to put their best creative foot forward. I’m talking “Captain Planet” levels of teamwork that can only come when all parties feel that they’re in a safe space to build an empire.

Just three little words are required to make your wildest joint venture dreams come true: joint venture agreement. Sounds dry. Sounds complicated. But they are absolutely necessary. By outlining each partner’s expectations, not only are both of your businesses protected, but the relationship between the people teaming up is protected, too. No passive aggressive emails or fighting over customer lists and trademarks — or worse.

Every agreement varies depending on the specifics, but when I joined forces with Ashley Ambirge of The TMFProjectto create a comprehensive legal resource for entrepreneurs called Small Business Bodyguard, we made sure to cover the absolute must-haves. Here are some of the key items we included that you can use as a jumping-off point to craft your own agreement:

Simply stated, what will each party be contributing to the joint venture? It’s vital to know if the work will be split 50/50, who’s bringing what to the table, and what you can expect from the other person or company. Laying this out in your joint venture agreement in detail will ensure that you and your partner’s expectations are aligned.
Who is responsible for the operations of the venture? The day-to-day stuff like managing the mailing list, handling customer service, doling out affiliate payments and keeping track of the overall finances of the project are essential to the project’s success. These duties can pile up, and if you don’t know who’s going to be taking care of them, they can either fall by the wayside or one party can end up resenting the other for the amount of work involved. So figure out how operations will be handled and compensated ahead of time and build it into the agreement.
What is the term of the arrangement? Is there an end date? Deadlines are always important, but especially in joint ventures. Each party is likely running an entirely other business, so it’s important to have milestones specified throughout the project to keep everyone on track. Deadlines and end dates not only keep the project on track, but also allow each party to plan their other endeavors accordingly.
Who owns what? Does each party own equal shares of the resulting products, or will the percentages vary? This ties in to the work contribution bit but another consideration is which party has access to a big audience of potential customers. If one person does 80 percent of the work, you need to decide if they’re going to own 80 percent of the product, or if some other measurement is appropriate.
How can branding, intellectual property, and the products/services created in the joint venture be used by each party outside of the joint venture? (As in, can one of you take the product you both helped to create and sell it in a new market by yourself?) Knowing how the intellectual property and other assets created in the JV will be used ahead of time will cut down on post-project stresses tenfold and make sure everyone is clear on if, how and when they can use the project assets.
How will finances be handled? That is, when will you guys receive revenue from the venture? What sorts of things are authorized to be deducted from expenses? Will both parties split the initial startup costs 50/50? Money is one of the main stressors in joint ventures, and setting these percentages in stone will eliminate arguments later on.
What happens if one person can’t perform their duties? Maybe they sign on to another project and aren’t contributing their previously-stated share to the product, or have gotten sick or had a family emergency. In any case, it’s good to know in advance what the consequences will be for backing out or slacking off and whether or not the project will go in and in what capacity.
What’s the plan if you guys disagree, and the conflict can’t be resolved between you? Even with the joint venture agreement in place, there’s still a chance you’ll have disagreements, but the real problem comes about when you can’t come to an agreeable resolution. Will you consult a neutral third party, such as a mediator, to help you resolve the issue? Or have the option to go straight to court? The plan of action is up to you, but you need to have one.

The list seems long, but for the right partner, it’s worth it. It’s all about preparing to work together; preparing for the investment of both time and money, and most of all; preparing to unleash a product for your clients that is so much better than you could ever create on your own.

The alliance between Ash and I was vital to our joint venture’s success. Without Ash, the content wouldn’t have had that little somethin’ somethin’ that readers of her blog have come to know and lust after. Without me, the legal bones wouldn’t be sturdy or complete. But together? We’re unstoppable. Working together has been an absolute pleasure, in part, because we hammered out all of the details ahead of time and both knew what our responsibilities are and what to expect from each other.

Disclaimer: This article is a resource guide for educational and informational purposes only and should not take the place of hiring an attorney. No information in this article creates an attorney-client relationship between the reader and the author.

Rachel Rodgers is the business lawyer for young entrepreneurs with online-based businesses. Her practice, Rachel Rodgers Law Office, is run entirely online. Rachel and Ash teamed up to create a comprehensive legal resource for entrepreneurs that pulls off teaching business law with personality. Check out their project, Small Business Bodyguard: Cover Your Bases, Cover Your Assets, Cover Your Ass, here.

6 Free Ways To Drive YouTube Fans To Your Crowdfunding Page

Modern society is inherently visual. Multimedia content creation and digital innovation go hand in hand as entrepreneurs search for alternative storytelling methods that will distinguish them among the increasingly competitive and cluttered landscape of startups and ventures. Consumers are no longer making purchasing decisions simply by product. Rather, consumers are searching for brands with an appealing and vivid narrative. The easiest method for organizations and brands to illustrate their story is through video. Moreover, succinct and well-executed videos have the potential to go viral and simultaneously elevate brand awareness and online interaction.

YouTube, one of the premiere sources for online video sharing, accounts for 25 percent of Internet search traffic. As a result, YouTube videos, along with other online video tools and platforms, are not only being used to drive successful marketing campaigns, but also to drive successful fundraising campaigns as well.

Social Media marketers and entrepreneurs understand that multimedia campaigns with compelling video are more likely to attract more customers and investors to raise capital through crowdfunding.

In order to translate YouTube viewers into active campaign donors, however, it is essential that content creators utilize YouTube’s full capabilities and networks to achieve greater success.

Below are six tips to drive YouTube traffic directly to your organization’s crowdfunding campaign:

Tip 1: Export Your YouTube Subscribers to a Google+ Circle

For a crowdfunder, this is one of the most exciting YouTube features that you can use. You can easily export your YouTube subscribers to a Google+ page circle and then contact or share updates with them on Google+. ReelSEO has a great step-by-step guide on how to connect your G+ page with your YouTube channel. Once your YouTube account is connected to your Google+ page, go here to get started: https://www.youtube.com/audience_management

Tip 2: Leverage the Annotations Function

Annotations on YouTube are simply text layers that can be placed anywhere in a video and be linked to an external page such as your crowdfunding campaign. You can add direct links to specific video times and grab your viewer’s attention as they pop up on the side.

Tip 3: Add Links to Video Descriptions

This tip seems so simple, yet it’s easily forgotten. Link to your campaign page through all available video descriptions, particularly your pitch videos. If your campaign links are lengthy, use a URL shortener (like Google’s at http://goo.gl/). Make sure you link to the campaign right at the beginning of the descriptions, so it appears above the fold. Link format: http://www.mycampaignurl.com.

Tip 4: Engage Your YouTube Subscribers Through Feed Updates

Consistency is one of the most essential factors of a successful campaign. Keep your YouTube subscribers engaged through your channel feed by posting ongoing updates about your campaign’s process. Make sure to time your posts appropriately and maintain consistent messaging in order to avoid flooding your subscriber’s feed with superfluous content.

Tip 5: Optimize Your Pitch Video and Make It Your Channel Trailer

In order to maximize exposure, every aspect of your crowdfunding campaign must incorporate strong and branded visual content. This includes placing a creative pitch video as your YouTube channel’s trailer. Placing your campaign’s trailer at the very top of your channel will generate more traffic and participation in your crowdfunding efforts. Be sure to add annotations to your video that link directly to your campaign page.

Tip 6: Ask Fellow YouTubers for a Shout out

The best way to land online mentions and publicity is simply by asking. Does your network include individuals with prominent YouTube channels or influencers with common values? Ask them for a shout out, link or annotation on your campaign and video.

Josef Holm is the founder and CEO of TubeStart, a crowdfunding platform designed specifically for YouTube content creators. TubeStart provides creators with three funding models, including subscription-based crowdfunding. In addition to being a successful internet entrepreneur and investor, Josef serves on the board of the industry’s leading crowdfunding association, the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CFPA) and speaks at leading technology conferences around the country.

3 Training Must-Haves For Starting Up

For any entrepreneur, starting up a new business can be a tedious and stressful process. From getting startup financing in place to establishing relationships with vendors, suppliers and customers, there are a number of things that you need to be proficient in if you want your vision to succeed.

With so many various facets of a newly formed company to focus on, many business owners run into difficultly when facing normal the components of being the boss. Luckily, there are a few core proficiencies that any entrepreneur should have when starting a business in order to help guarantee the greatest chances of success.

Establish An Understanding Of Business Fundamentals

For most types of new ventures, a formal education in business administration or a similar focus is not needed to be successful. That being said, it is crucial that anyone who is even thinking about starting their own company be well versed in the basics of business. Understanding business fundamentals will make a myriad of different aspects of your startup easier; everything from obtaining initial funding to reading and comprehending your company’s financial statements can be done more effectively and efficiently.

If you have a creative idea for a startup but have little general business knowledge, consider enrolling in an entrepreneur course at a local institution or looking at the weekend or online training seminars designed specifically for new startups.

Explore Any Business-Specific Knowledge You Will Need

Every single company is going to be different and have varying needs as far as training and knowledge is concerned. A marketing firm will need a different specific skillset and background knowledge than a pest control company will. Identify exactly what type of industry-specific knowledge your company will need and strive to become an expert in the field. One of the best ways to establish yourself in an industry is to provide a higher-quality product or service than your competitors, and being more knowledgeable than they are will draw loyal customers faster than fancy marketing gimmicks.

You Need To Have A Solid Understanding Of Technology

Not every business is focused around technology, but given the state of today’s marketplace, having a detailed knowledge of information technology is crucial to growth and long-term success. In almost all companies, technology is utilized for everything from billing customers to reaching out and acquiringnew clients. You may not be able to configure routers or complex networks, but being familiar with the terms and technologies which guide businesses in the digital age is important. As our society progresses more and more in our reliance on technological advancements, the need for business owners to be proficient in this subject will continue to grow well into the future.

Having a great idea for a new company and taking action to set your plans into motion is the most important step of becoming an entrepreneur, but even the best plans are at risk of failure without the proper background knowledge and training. Without business training, handling the behind-the-scenes operations and finances of your company can prove difficult.

If you aren’t an expert in your field, you will face difficult in drawing satisfied, return customers. Finally, if you don’t understanding how IT plays a significant role in today’s marketplace, you’re going to be a step behind your competitors when trying to grow your business. Overall, focusing on the right type of training for your new startup is one of the best ways to help ensure long-term success for your business.

Mark Arnold writes on various careers blogs and likes to share his years of experience with others. Check K Alliance for more details about training programs and certifications.

How To Turn Ordinary People Into Angel Investors

Think of America’s most entrepreneurial city. Chances are Kansas City didn’t come to mind,but that’s exactly what the city began calling itself to communicate the importance of building a startup community.

Kansas City, Iowa City, and Boulder, Colo., are just a few examples of organic startup communities that have all the ingredients of big tech hubs like Silicon Valley: a tight network of entrepreneurs and experienced mentors and the support of government, universities, service providers, and investors.

When a startup community forms, ordinary people begin to take an interest in entrepreneurship.

They see how startups create jobs, build culture, and generate wealth by bringing revenue in from outside the community. When community members feel invested in local startups’ success, they become entrepreneurs’ strongest advocates — and potential angel investors.

The Evolution of an Organic Startup Community

When I started a co-working meetup in Iowa City back in 2009, a strong startup community did not exist. I believed there must be other people like me in my community, and I was inspired by the co-working events that were happening in other U.S. cities. These meetups were the first time many people came out of their basements and began working alongside others, revealing the cool, creative things they were working on, and encouraging one another.

It turned out I wasn’t the only one who believed we could form a startup community in Iowa City. In the following years, others emerged who wanted to help. We held events, started a newsletter, and made a micro social network for people in the Iowa City area.

These years were a turning point for the community. Economic development groups stepped up, the city contributed, and three permanent co-working facilities eventually opened. Because of the support of the University of Iowa, we have a strong educational environment with connections to the business community. This environment supports numerous meetups, including Iowa City Open Coffee, IowaJS, Iowa Tech Chicks, 1 Million Cups, and a growing number of others.

Scott Heiferman, co-founder of Meetup.com, recently spoke in Iowa City and defined community as “just a bunch of people talking to each other.” This is fundamentally what the community-building efforts consisted of.

Our efforts over the first few years were focused solely on helping entrepreneurs. In the initial stages of community building, we knew a group of angel investors would eventually be part of the equation. Without a strong pipeline of startups, however, it didn’t make sense to focus on engaging investors.

Instead, according to the vision of mastermind community builder Andy Stoll, we performed what he called “Community Alchemy,” which consisted of identifying, promoting, and connecting current and potential entrepreneurs. During this time, entrepreneurs would occasionally complain about a lack of available capital, and investors would complain about a lack of good deal flow.

Our belief that startup communities must be led by entrepreneurs — and not investors or other organizations — was similar to Brad Feld’s. Because of this, we kept the focus on helping entrepreneurs become successful through mentorship, promotion, and encouragement. We did this for three solid years and saw a number of promising young startups emerge. They obtained funding and, after some time, we found ourselves in a position to form an open forum-style angel investment group.

How to Turn Ordinary People into Investors

In a community like ours, ordinary people were the key to getting companies off the ground with the funding they needed, but it couldn’t have happened without first helping entrepreneurs to build strong startups. The support of regular people is critical because community members who have money have the potential to become angel investors. Potential investors exist in any community, but to activate their full potential, you must inspire them to support startups.

Potential investors will be inspired by:

• The opportunity to help others in their community.

• The chance to diversify their portfolios through alternative investments.

• The opportunity to get involved with the process of starting a new company alongside eager, energetic entrepreneurs.

There are a few ways to foster the kind of environment necessary to inspire ordinary folks to become investors. Here are four steps to get you started:

1. Help entrepreneurs. Creating strong startups is the best way to inspire potential investors to become active investors. Focusing on helping entrepreneurs by mentoring, supporting, encouraging, introducing, and connecting will help turn mediocre startups into stronger ones.

2. Introduce entrepreneurs to mentors. Mentors can provide valuable advice that helps entrepreneurs build better companies, but there’s another benefit. When people start helping entrepreneurs in any way, they’re more likely to become financially invested in their success if possible.

3. Teach entrepreneurs to craft a good pitch. Many entrepreneurs don’t know how to effectively communicate the value of their opportunities to investors. Create a culture where investors are good at pitching — not just to win contests, but to effectively show the value of their startup to potential investors.

4. Educate investors. Investors need education, too. They need to know how to invest, do due diligence, and recognize a good investment opportunity. They also need to understand what expectations are realistic when making an alternative investment. Forming an inclusive angel group for accredited investors is one way to create an environment in which investors can learn from each other.

Building a community is a community effort. You need businesses, government, and universities to contribute, but no one can “own” this community. The unique thing about investing in a startup community is that it’s not a zero-sum game. As you help to build the community, the community helps to build you. Never forget that to be successful, it can’t be about any one person or organization. It must be about the opportunities created for everyone involved.

Josh Cramer is the founder and CEO of Cramer Development, a word-class Web and mobile application development company that helps clients create new businesses and products through ideation and technical services.