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How to Know Your Strengths Before You Start

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

Only the Strong Survive

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

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

How to Conduct a “No Blame” Survey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Note for Survey Newbies

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

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

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

Now get out there, and ask away!

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

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.

14 Tips for Recruiting the Best Employees for Your Startup

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

Cultivate Future Leaders

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

DAVID POLITIS BetterCloud

Understand What Makes Them Tick

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

LAUREN PERKINS Perks Consulting

Sell the Vision

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

ADAM LIEB Duxter

Be Aggressive and Relentless

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

MATT MICKIEWICZ Flippa and 99designs

Get Great Press

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

DOREEN BLOCH Poshly Inc.

Empower Them With Ownership

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

SHARAM FOULADGAR-MERCER AirPR

Discover a Shared Passion

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

BRANT BUKOWSKY Veterans United Home Loans

Network at Conferences

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

SHRADHA AGARWAL ContextMedia

Take Your Time

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

BRIAN MORAN Get 10,000 Fans

Be Transparent

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

MITCH GORDON Go Overseas

Don’t Sell

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

BHAVIN PARIKH Magoosh Inc

Show Off Company Talent

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

SARAH SCHUPP UniversityParent

Hire Non-Local Talent

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

WADE EYERLY Surf Air

Emphasize Culture Fit

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

JOE BARTON Barton Publishing

5 Tips for Negotiating Like Steve Jobs

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

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

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

Be Willing to Walk Away

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

Sell Others on the Big Picture

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

Make the Other Person Try to Compromise First

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

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

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

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

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

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

Use Social Proof

In his emails, Jobs shares social proof such as:

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

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

Also:

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

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

Can you apply these negotiation tactics while still being likable?

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

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

And who could say no to that?

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

4 Startup Lessons From LSTN Headphones

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

Pick a Project You’re Passionate About

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

Set Yourself Apart From the Pack With a Clear Vision

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

Consider Your Social Values

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

Remember That Success Comes in Two Forms

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

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

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

This post was originally featured on GOOD.is.

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

5 Easy Steps to a Perfect Product Launch

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

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

Schedule Success

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

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

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

Make Customers Love You

In our space, a minimum 30-day refund perio

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

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

Avoid Pitfalls

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

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

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

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

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

How to Easily Make the Best Startup Connections

Over the years of my deep study and fascination with people and social dynamics, I’ve noticed that the world’s best connectors do things in a pretty similar way.

We all know the people who meet people with ease, seem to always have the influencers in their corner and are constantly surrounded by passionate and inspiring people.

Whether they know it or not, they all follow a set of habits. Let these habits serve as guidance for how to approach the people around you. For me, they are a way of life.

Without them, you’re nowhere. With them, anything’s possible.

10 Habits of People Who Connect With Anyone

Smile. This is by far the fastest way in the world to create a connection. It’s also a powerful show of confidence, which people respect and are drawn to. Smiles are contagious and the simple act makes people feel better. Whether it’s you’re approaching a close friend, a bus driver, someone you’re dying to meet or just walking into a room of strangers, there is no stronger opener.
See friends, not strangers. When you walk into a room, see the new faces not as strangers but as friends you have yet to meet. You see the world in a more similar way to others than you probably realize — especially if you’re at the same event or a part of the same communities. Approach accordingly.
Make friends. This is the foundation. Making genuine connections is nothing more than making friends. When you’re about to approach someone, ask, “How would I treat this person if they were my close friend or someone I’d want to be a close friend?” You put friends first. You listen to them. You hear their problems so you can help in any way you can. Act accordingly.
Be genuine. If you’re connecting just because you want to get yourself further up the ladder, then you’ve already lost. There is only one type of connection — one you genuinely care about. Find someone you actually do care to meet and get to know. Anything else is a waste of time.
Contribute. Meeting people is about making their lives better. Whether that’s by giving them a smile, a new job or anything in between — there is a way to help everyone. Give like crazy, embrace generosity and make others more successful.
Pay attention. The easiest way to be interesting is to be interested. Find excitement in what you can learn from others. Hear what they say. Listen and learn about what matters to them — not so you can say something back as soon as possible, but so you can get a window into their world. People want to tell their story. Be the person excited to hear it.
Make people a priority. There is no more important task for anyone than surrounding yourself with the right people. It’s part of every day, not something we do for an hour every week or two. It’s a way of being and a way of life.
Be open to conversation. Embrace conversation with those around you. Everyone has something to offer — your server or the guy next to you on a park bench or plane flight. Even if you came to read a book, realize the best part of your day might be learning about the world of the person next to you.
Know who you are and who you want in your life. Know your passions, goals, talents, interests and the impact you want to have on the world. These will serve as your guiding light for how you can help and who you actually want to write into your story. Act with intention.
Be uniquely YOU. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. Don’t try to look and sound like someone else, and don’t hold back! Be vulnerable and open. Share your real story and goals. Tell others about your wife, kids and parenting struggles. Talking about the weather does not build connection. Being real does.

Remember that every maverick has a home team offering advice and encouragement. Every game-changer has an inner circle of support.

Yours is waiting.

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

Scott Dinsmore is an entrepreneur, career change strategist, travel photographer, ultra-runner and founder of Live Your Legend, a business and international community dedicated to helping you build a career around work that genuinely excites you – and surround yourself with the people who make it possible. The Live Your Legend Community’s LOCAL event sites are non-commercial gatherings happening on January 7 in 140 cities in 44 countries around the U.S. and the world. Locations are available here.

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).

Build a Successful Sales Process in 7 Steps

At ElasticSales, we’ve had the privilege of working with dozens of early-stage startups, helping them establish their sales processes. Some ask us to build their process from the ground up. Many come to us solely looking for guidance as they develop their own sales processes and teams. In both cases, the best campaigns are those in which the founders are actively involved with developing the process, or have conducted their startup’s early sales themselves.

For tech entrepreneurs without sales experience, here’s how you build a sales process for your startup from the ground up.

Begin Customer Outreach as Early as Possible

The best thing you can do to develop your sales process is to get out there as early as possible. That Lean Startup mentality works just as well in sales as it is for development. Spend a week, even a few days, picking up the phone and cold-calling your customers. During these early calls you’ll get a sense of their challenges, objections you might face, and direct customer feedback about your product. You might even realize a key aspect of your product that needs to be tweaked before you push hard into the market.

As a founder, YOU absolutely need to do this before handing it off to someone else. Conducting preliminary outreach to your customers will help you better understand them, their needs and your market place. You can then refine your product as you develop your sales process.

Do a Full Walk-Through

Walk through simulated conversations. Begin by finding the lead and travel through the complete sales process. End by handing the customer off to your support team. Do this with colleagues who understand your space, then try your pitch out on someone who doesn’t. (Outsiders quickly notice problems and inefficiencies.) These scenarios not only give you great practice before implementing your process, they’ll help you identify gaps in it. Say on your first call you get a customer’s credit card — then what? How do you process the payment? Who do they speak to next? Mock calls are a great way to practice your pitch and refine the logistics of a sale.

Establish Qualifying Criteria

Qualifying criteria are a list of traits that make someone a good fit (qualified) to buy your product. It sounds easy enough, but lots of young companies have no idea what they need to know about a customer to make a sale.

So how do you develop qualifying criteria and track them?

Common criteria for leads are:

Does your product solve their pain point?
Does your product save them money/cost?
Does your product save them time?
Is your product in their budget?
Are they using a competitor’s product and paying for it?
How fast can they make a buying decision?

It’s best to develop just five criteria based on what you THINK you need to know about a buyer, and then reach out to a subset of customers. Identify those five criteria in the customers, and then see if the criteria need to be expanded, or even cut down, to identify whether they would be a good fit.

DO NOT get into the habit of marking every lead qualified because “you had a nice conversation.” Remember, a qualified deal is very different than an active opportunity. An active opportunity is a qualified lead with a value attached to it. This means that you have communicated the cost of the product/service to the prospect, they understand it, and have expressed that it is in within their budget.

Establish a Sales Script

A good call script is a method for you to guide a customer through your sales process from start to finish, while showing them the value of your product/service.

A call script typically has the following sections:

• Introduction
• Qualifying Questions
• Q&A About Features, Pricing and Next Steps
• Asking for the Close
• Managing Customer Objections
• Establishing Next Steps

Developing a script is an iterative process, but it begins with research. Know your product and how it fits into the market, and convey that as simply as possible to the customer. Your script needs to incorporate your qualifying questions (so you know they’re a good fit), common pain points, and benefits around which to position your solution.

Establish a Conversion Funnel

A conversion funnel should be built with a “reverse” approach. Establish a range of deals you’d like closed over the course of a week or even a month. Then ask yourself how many active opportunities/deals you need to qualify in order to achieve that goal. This is called a conversion rate.

But how many scheduled calls or demos do you need to perform each week to in order achieve the desired amount of qualified opportunities? Using the conversion rates you’ve estimated (be conservative), determine how many calls/emails, or leads generated, you need each week in order to schedule that target amount of calls.

The amount of calls or emails you need to send each week is pretty large – this is the top of the funnel. In turn, this might mean that your “closed deals” goal might be too large. Start with a number you believe to be attainable but aggressive. Work through the entire process and reach the goals you set out at the beginning of the week.

Once you’ve done that, start increasing your goal by 10 percent each month. You need to have 10 percent month-over-month growth to really have a healthy funnel as a startup.

Optimize Implementation

Sales doesn’t end with the close. As a sales person, you need to make sure that the customer is successfully integrated. This means a clean handoff to your support team. As a founder, you’ll quickly find out ways to improve your process and ensure that your customers stick around. This is also crucial in order to secure customer references — integral in bringing in new business down the road!

Iterate, Iterate, Iterate

Just because something works, doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it. Make sure you are constantly stress testing your process to figure out what’s broken. Maybe your script is still a bit clunky, emails don’t generate the response rates you’d like, or your conversion rates too low. Don’t get stuck doing something because it works well enough. Lack of iteration is what prevents companies from making a good sales process great!

It’s crucial that you, as the founder, conduct some of this early outreach and help develop your company’s sales process. Early customer engagement can provide some of the best insights as you look to improve your product or service. Only once you’ve developed this repeatable process, and know it works, can you confidently hand off sales to a director that can refine the process even more.

Steli Efti is the Co-Founder / CEO of Close.io and ElasticSales and an advisor to several startups and entrepreneurs.

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.

Your Year-End Startup Accounting Checklist

accounting-checklist

As we find ourselves hurtling towards the end of the year, there are a number of things you should be staying on top of in order to best manage your company finances and position your startup for greater success in the new year.

Your year-end thought process should take into consideration the following:

Payroll. Make sure that you’re filing all of your forms and making payments. It’s important to make sure you’re in good shape to get your employees their W2 forms on time. Also take into account accrued bonuses or special gifts on the books that may not be paid until next year.
AR collections. You want to be able to close out all outstanding receivables before year-end so do what you can to collect on unpaid bills. Improving your collection process and expediting payments will help you to maintain better control over your cash flow.
GAAP compliance. If your financials are not already GAAP compliant — that is, in line with generally accepted accounting principles — then now is the time to move in that direction. If seeking a funding round or selling your business is on the horizon, you’ll need clean books to satisfy investors and/or acquiring companies.
1099s. It’s best to stay on top of the 1099 process throughout the year. After all, employees are going to claim income whether you get them a 1099 or not, so you might as well save yourself the hassle and get it to them. You should collect W9s along the way, as you go. It’s easier that way rather than waiting until the end of the year to figure out who you need to file for and trying to chase them down before the year’s end. If you find yourself behind the eight ball in terms of 1099s, keep in mind the due dates for filing: 1099s to recipients on or before 1/31/2014 and to IRS on or before 2/28 (or 3/31 if you’re filing electronically).
Reconcile transactions and cash checks. Reissue checks as needed and void as needed. You want to make sure that all of the transactions in your register are reconciled so that you have a clean tax return.
Income tax planning. Now’s the time to start identifying your tax needs, thinking about potential tax savings, and engaging with your tax professional who will help identify ways to minimize your taxes.Starting your estimates now will save you from unwelcome surprises come tax time.
Valuations. End-of-the-year isn’t necessarily the best time for you to get a valuation. If it’s been less than 12 months since your last one and you haven’t had any events to trigger needing a new one, then you can take this off of your to do list. But keep in mind that a 409a valuation refresh is required annually. You’ll also need a valuation if you are trying to value the common stock of your company, planning to issue stock options, have raised a new round of funding, had a material event, or are looking to sell IP from your company to another.
Assess internal controls. Check to see that you have internal controls in place, and that they are working properly. Keep your eyes peeled for weak spots where the potential for fraud or errors runs high.
Cut expenses. Examine your business processes to see if and where you can find any opportunities to cut expenses for savings in the new year.
Big picture thinking. As you reflect back over the past year, it’s nice to take a moment to dig yourself out from under the minutiae of running a business and think big picture. Refine your vision. Map out your next milestones. What have you been doing well? Where does your company need work? Is it time to pivot?

The end of the year is a great time to reflect, to informally audit your startup, and to make plans for next year, which include financial forecasts and budgets. Checking off all of the items on this list will help you to start the new year with clean financials and a good reading on where your company is currently and where it’s heading.

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 three platforms of financial support: day-to-day transactional accounting, CFO service, and tax and valuation compliance. He’s a financial expert and startup mentor whose passion is helping businesses focus on what they do best. Follow David @EarlyGrowthFS.

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.

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.

13 Pieces Of Startup Advice You’ll Never Forget

QUESTION: WHAT IS THE ONE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU HAVE EVER BEEN GIVEN?

ALWAYS TRY AGAIN

“Seven years ago, I was at a barbecue talking to a family friend –and I was in a funk. The startup I had co-founded just 9 months earlier had gone belly up. The family friend (a successful entrepreneur) gave me priceless advice that day: keep your head up and move on to the next one. He told me his first two companies had failed. He said the biggest regret you’ll have is if you don’t keep trying.”

– Pete Kennedy | Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Main Street ROI

JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN…

“…doesn’t mean you should! As entrepreneurs, we’re often drawn to the new, the exciting, the latest and the greatest. And we see opportunity in almost everything, which means we have a wealth of options that we can choose to pursue. Often though, what we say “no” to defines whether we’ll succeed, much more clearly than what we say “yes” to.”

– Lea Woodward | Founder, Inspiring Ventures

SPEAK WELL, LISTEN OFTEN

“Use your ears and mouth in the correct proportion!”

– Eric Corl | President + Co-Founder, Fundable.com

FOCUS ON TRAFFIC

“In regards to online businesses, once you have incoming traffic on a consistent basis, then you can figure out the rest of the business because it gives you the ability to test new features and revenue streams out.”

– Rishi Shah | CEO, Flying Cart LLC
WHERE’S THE MONEY?

“My dad once told me: “Money is littered on the street, you just need to know how to pick it up.” For a long time, my startups focused on getting users and funding, as oppose to earning revenue. When I finally focused on using my skills to create revenue, I realized just how easy it was. People are always willing to pay for something that they want or need, no matter the state of the economy.”

– Jun Loayza | President, Ecommerce Rules

KNOW, OR LISTEN TO THOSE WHO KNOW

“We are where we are today because I’ve surrounded myself with generous teachers and mentors who are willing to share their knowledge and experience with me. By listening to the teachings of those who’ve done what you are trying to do, you’ll save you a ton of time and the pain of going through some obvious mistakes. Leverage other people’s knowledge wisely.”

– W. Michael Hsu | Founder & CEO, DeepSky

TRY TO TAKE ACTION

“Before I was old enough to remember, my father posted a handwritten sign in our basement that read, “You won’t get stronger by just thinking about it.” I read it so many times that it eventually became my motto in life and in business. Everyone aspires to be great, but you must take action to make your dreams a reality.”

– Phil Frost | Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Main Street ROI

LEAVE EVERYTHING BETTER THAN YOU FOUND IT

“Growing up in the Scouts, my dad would always tell our troop that every campsite had to be left better than we found it. Now I apply that to everything in my life. When I travel, I try to find a way to make impact on the local community; when I meet a person, I try to somehow make a positive impact on them. In business, I want everything I touch to turn out better than when I found it.”

– Matt Wilson | Adventurer in Residence , Under30Experiences

YOU NEVER FAIL UNTIL YOU GIVE UP

“Many people don’t try something because they are afraid of failing. Other try something and want to succeed, but give up after they don’t get the result they are looking for. What you must understand is that there is no failure — only feedback. You don’t really fail until you give up. If you are still moving toward your goal, you are succeeding, even if you don’t think you are. Never give up.”

– Louis Lautman | Founder, Supreme Outsourcing
IT’S OKAY TO MAKE MISTAKES

“As an entrepreneur, you’re venturing into uncharted territory. That means you don’t have a map, let alone directions on how to do everything right the first time. Realizing that it’s okay to make mistakes as an entrepreneur was very freeing for me. It allowed me to try new things and grow in new directions, and see every experience as a learning opportunity.”

– Elizabeth Saunders | Founder & CEO, Real Life E®
NEVER SETTLE

“I don’t remember who told me it, but it’s stuck with me. The mindset can be summarized in the following quote: “Everything always ends well. So if it’s not well, it’s not the end.” I always remember this quote whenever I have a bad day or start doubting a project I am working on. With this in mind, I know that more hard work will get me to the destination I am seeking.”

– Logan Lenz | Founder / President, Endagon
NEVER STOP ASKING FOR ADVICE

“Always keep asking people for guidance. More likely than not, people are happily willing to give you their input. Some may be good and most bad, but you always walk away with some new knowledge or insight to a particular view you didn’t have before.”

– Raul Pla | CEO and Founder, SimpleWifi and UseABoat

ALWAYS VERIFY EVERYTHING

“Trust, but verify. You may think you know something, but you need proof before you act like it’s fact. Assuming things without verifying them is a good way for an entrepreneur to be taken advantage of. Treat your investments — of money and time — wisely.”

– Jordan Guernsey | Founder, Molding Box