I always go by the three Ayn Rand basic values to in order to live a full and productive life: reason, purpose and self-esteem.
And yes, over the years countless institutes and individuals have asked the trillion dollar question: What makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur? What traits or characteristics are inherent to a successful entrepreneur and is one born with those traits? Well, at the very least successful entrepreneurs are born every day!

Some people believe an entrepreneur is born while others believe an entrepreneur can be taught. Some believe an entrepreneur is like an artist – either you have it or do you don’t. Some see entrepreneurs as leaders that are focused, disciplined, competitive, and charismatic, while others see them as huge risk takers. And all of these analogies are right to some degree.

It’s true all successful entrepreneurs share a few qualities and skills that allow them to be successful. These inherent qualities can be taught; but they often seem to be an inherent driving force that sends individuals down the path of being in business or formally training to for a career in business.

Entrepreneurs see the world differently. They have the ability to see the world as a system. They have the ability to see something in its entirety and as an integrated unit, and they seem to possess the ability to see opportunity within the global picture. They are what is called a system thinker.

There are other characteristics they possess. Entrepreneurs possess an overpowering need to achieve and tend to be very competitive against themselves. They are continuously trying to outthink themselves and others and they are constantly looking for the edge. This is a process that occurs as naturally as breathing and is a driving force behind most entrepreneurs.

They have the determination and dedication to follow through with commitments and they always appear confident and in control. You’ll notice they also possess a positive atmosphere. They are of the mindset “I can,” and “I will.” They are not afraid of failure because failure is not in their vocabulary nor is it an option.

They are objective and have the ability to weigh risks realistically within the big picture. They have an uncanny ability to anticipate developments which gives them the edge in many competitive situations. Entrepreneurs seem to feel right from their gut, call it instinct. They are a resourceful group that possess excellent problem solving skills and are able to diligently work through obstacles or hurdles, treating obstacles as stepping stones.

Entrepreneurs are excellent communicators and recognize how important clear and concise communication is to their success. They also possess a sound working knowledge of the business they are involved in.

Man is born tabula rasa, a blank slate, develops perceptual and conceptual abilities as he grows; withholding any genetic disorder or brain damage, basically all cognitive faculties would be the same. The need for reason as a tool for thinking, gaining knowledge and learning; purpose as an acceptance of the law of causality and a necessity for his survival and productivity as a means to it; eventually creating the value that will serve him most: self-esteem – these are the things that make a successful person, and these are the values that make the best entrepreneurs amongst us.

~ Speech to Entrepreneur Forum, 1995

What Does It Take to Be an Entrepreneur?

Those who know how I work and have worked closely with me have seen me do several things at the same time, keeping it whole and trying to do justice to every single thing that I am doing/handling at that time. It wasn’t always this easy, and it took a couple decades to get here, with a lot of practice. I enjoy multitasking and at times see the ability to multi-task take care of ten days of work in one.
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, companies have been consolidating multiple positions to reduce employment costs and increase productivity. This may have an apparent benefit for the companies, but it may have been a detriment to employees. More and more observations are coming out and revealing that young adults are more burnt out than ever. With ever increasing demands placed on productive people comes an increased need to multitask.
While multitasking can be great in certain situations, it must be done effectively to produce the best results possible. The common perception of multitasking is that the brain is firing off and concentrating on multiple things at once. While this is how it feels, this may not be the reality of the situation. Multitasking is simply the brain concentrating on one thing at a time and refocusing itself as it switches back and forth. Of course, every time the brain switches between tasks it can lose some focus, memory, and momentum. Quite simply, at current evolutionary states, our brains aren’t built to multitask. Even though we aren’t built to multitask, there are several ways and methods by which one can learn to do it pretty effectively without losing out on the integrity of any particular task.

Related Tasks

As was mentioned before, the brain can only truly handle one task at a time. The switch between tasks can cost a lot of time and energy. Fortunately, this can be alleviated by working on similar tasks together. Working on multiple reports on disparate topics is one of the worst things you can do for your understanding of any of them individually, but picking a few similar projects to work on may increase your understanding of the others. This is especially true if it is multiple projects relating to the same subject.

Starting Slow

When you’re a beginning multitasker, it isn’t recommended to do multiple difficult tasks at the same time. Start small. Do two tasks you do frequently and know very well at the same time. This is akin to a guitar player who decides to combine singing for the first time. It’s necessary for them to pick a song they can play and sing separately in their sleep before they combine them. After a while of multitasking on easy projects, you’ll be able to effectively multitask during novel and one-off projects.

Avoid Multitasking

In the initial stages when a person multitasks, they inherently lose their ability to be detail oriented. Multitasking is better suited for projects that require a “big picture” approach rather than focus on the details. Engineers and builders who are working on parts for a space shuttle certainly aren’t interrupting their work to write out next month’s schedule for their employees or outline next Tuesday’s meeting. While the latter two projects are certainly multitaskable, detail-oriented projects are not good candidates.

Breaks

When a person works out or does another physical activity for a long period of time, their muscles begin to get sore, fatigued and eventually give out. The brain is no different than any other part of the body in that respect. A person’s brain simply needs a break after a highly productive work session or it begins to wear down and become less reliable. Anyone that wants to multitask should know when to throw in the towel for a few minutes or even a few hours. It allows time for gathering thoughts, getting a game plan together, and having some well-deserved rest.

Reviewing

Multitasking, even the most effective multitasking, results in more mistakes along the way than would have happened if each project could have been done with undivided attention. That’s why reviewing should be a priority for a multitasker. Looking over work and checking it for quality and accuracy prior to submitting it will keep quality at the forefront, where it should be.

To-Do Lists

Even when someone’s not multitasking, they should keep a to-do list to keep their day-to-day work in order. A good to-do list not only has a list of what needs to be done and when, but it also has indications of the priority of the project. A good to-do list for the effective multitasker should also indicate what projects would be beneficial to do together, which projects should be done alone, and should leave time for reviewing projects.

Cheat Sheets

There will be some repetition at nearly every job. Almost everyone has something they reference time and time again. A doctor may utilize certain codes when inputting medical records into the files while a call center representative may have specific documents they need time and time again to answer common customer questions. Many of the most productive workers will have those things easily accessible and available at a moment’s notice.

Limit Tasks to Manageable Chunks

One of the best things that a person can learn is when to say no. When a person is bogged down with too many projects, their results are bound to suffer. Limiting tasks to manageable chunks is the best way for a person to keep their quality at high levels while maintaining a good pace.

Planning Ahead

This may seem similar to keeping a to-do list, but it’s slightly different. Effective multitasking means breaking down the to-do list to a plan of action, which can be thought of as an outline. When someone is getting ready to make Thanksgiving dinner for the whole family, they’ll make a to-do list of the dishes to make. They’ll then plan ahead, figuring out what needs to be bought for each dish, how much time each dish will take, and laying out the recipe for each dish. The to-do list is what to do while the planning ahead is how to do it.

So, here’s the real deal: me and some other people too may make multitasking look easy, but it’s simply because we’ve found effective ways to multitask, rather than having some special ability that other people don’t have. Multitasking and maintaining quality isn’t about swinging wildly and hoping to hit a home run; it’s the result of a lot of practice, a great many mistakes, and the recognition of what went right when it all came together. Effective multitasking isn’t a talent some people have, and some people don’t; it’s a skill that needs to be honed and cultivated.

Nine Ways for Effective Multitasking

Online stock market trading, Blue-Chip style. I began this journey at a pretty early age. Somewhere along the way the allure waned off due to my time and investments taken up by my own start-ups et al, but the interest remains to date. For those that are in a booming economy, this is a fun business and quite a lucrative enterprise. You do require that passion for the math and the ability for risk-taking; more importantly, the ruthlessness for letting a loss go. I do advise from time to time anyone who comes asking where to put in that extra moolah, and it usually is bang on.

For instance, investing in conservative blue chip stocks may not have the allure of a hot Unicorn high-tech investment, but it can be highly rewarding nonetheless, as good quality stocks have consistently outperformed other investment classes over the long term. This is where the current eyewash “mutual funds” seem to be thriving. There is an entire gamut of analyses on a client’s “risk ability” and banks have primed the game to near perfection.

Historically, investing in stocks has generated a return, over time, of between 11 and 15 percent annually depending how aggressive you are. Stocks outperform other investments since they incur more risk. Stock investors are at the bottom of the corporate “food chain.” First, companies have to pay their employees and suppliers. Then they pay their bondholders. After this come the preferred shareholders. Companies have an obligation to pay all these stakeholders first, and if there is money leftover it is paid to the stockholders through dividends or retained earnings. Sometimes there is a lot of money left over for stockholders, and in other cases there isn’t. Thus, investing in stocks is obviously risky because investors never know exactly what they are going to receive for their investment; and when.

What are the attractions of blue chip stocks?

1. Great long-term rates of return.

2.Unlike mutual funds, another relatively safe, long term investment category, there are no ongoing fees.

3. You become the owner of a company.

So much for the benefits – what about the risks?

1. Some investors can’t tolerate both the risk associated with investing in the stock market and the risk associated with investing in one company. Not all blue chips are created equal.

2. If you don’t have the time and skill to identify a good quality company at a fair price don’t invest directly. Rather, you should consider a good mutual fund, anyways, they are quite smartly “tailor-made” read: designed for your long-term benefit.

Selecting a blue chip company is only part of the battle – determining the appropriate price is the other. Theoretically, the value of a stock is the present value of all future cash flows discounted at the appropriate discount rate. However, like most theoretical answers, this doesn’t fully explain reality. In reality supply and demand for a stock sets the stock’s daily price, and demand for a stock will increase or decrease depending of the outlook for a company. Thus, stock prices are driven by investor expectations for a company, the more favorable the expectations the better the stock price. In short, the stock market is a voting machine and much of the time it is voting based on investors’ fear or greed, not on their rational assessments of value. Stock prices can swing widely in the short-term but they eventually converge to their intrinsic value over the long-term. And then there is the infamous PESTLE analysis, that invariably sets shit back for the shittiest of reasons on the other side of the globe. Read: anything from a military coup and war to a terrorist attack to oil price rise and the dollar drop or a sub-prime crisis in the United States. Markets crash, today, for the flimsiest reasons that baffle you and me and your friendly neighborhood stock broker.

So, yes, it is a great thing when your invested stock prices rise, and when you get regular good dividends. And yes, this being 2016, so for those that want to live on the edge of sanity and insanity, this is a fun, great journey. Once you’re in it, with a little bit of savvy and the street smarts, you would know when to dip in and when to cash out. And then, there’s always the roulette table!
Amen.

Online Stock Market Trading – How Does it Work in 2016?

Many companies are modifying long-standing management protocols involving talent acquisition, engagement, and workforce development. Throughout corporations worldwide, leadership teams are creating working environments that are more inclusive, with higher levels of employee input and management exercising less control.

Interdependency among workers and heavy reliance on outsourcing has risen to provide crucial products and services to customers and stakeholders. Increasingly, managers wield less authority over a sizable portion of their workforce because they operate outside traditional boundaries and hierarchical and cultural structures.

Due to the evolving nature of workforce management, forward-thinking leaders picture their human resources as part of a larger ecosystem and adjust their leadership style to suit the new paradigm. Consequently, those leaders are identifying new and innovative ways for each workforce component to cooperate for the good of the organization.

Traditional management theory fails to consider the intricate nature of workforce ecosystems. Companies are discovering that orchestrating a workforce ecosystem is far from trivial and demands creative thinking on changing processes and behavior modification of existing organization members.

### Orchestrating Workforce Ecosystems Strategies

Workforce ecosystems require a combination of full-time employees and contract laborers. Acquiring the necessary talent to fulfill company needs are often pursued in an uncoordinated and sometimes conflicting manner, with overlapping time and resources that impede operational efficiency.

When resources are deployed haphazardly, full-time employees can become demotivated, further eroding efficiencies. Some companies are addressing the problems of loosely connected talent acquisition efforts by leveraging sophisticated software systems to centralize, coordinate and integrate staffing processes between department leaders to capture the maximum value of resources expended to manage a diverse workforce. But technology alone will not solve the problem. Leadership must identify and address the organization’s cultural, political, and structural paradigms to design an effective ecosystem aligned with company goals and objectives.

Implementing the design will require the involvement of all levels of management and the support of internal and external workforce participants. Only through the joint efforts of all stakeholders will such a radical shift in corporate operational processes and procedures succeed.

### Encouraging Risk-taking Activities

The workforce ecosystem integration team must establish new protocols that standardize results on an enterprise-wide level. Lower-level teams should receive instructions from the integration team explaining the critical nature of the newly formulated workforce ecosystem that clearly delineates the benefits of the shift to department managers and strengthens the organization’s mission.

Experimenting with wide-scale change in any large organization comes with many structural challenges that can be taxing for any workforce. Individual projects should be broken down into manageable tasks to ease the transition as much as possible, matching personnel skills to the appropriate undertaking for efficient implementation.

However, this effort may present unique challenges of its own since determining the competency levels of external teams may prove difficult. Therefore, procedures must be enacted to quickly assess and adjust the support of external entities that hamper progress. In addition, the physical locality of the teams involved can pose geographic and cultural barriers that must be overcome. Communicating with a team based in Eastern Europe differs from a South American team, and language is only one of the cultural hurdles to conquer.

Social and behavioral nuances can be a frustrating source of conflict and division if not skillfully managed. Consistent messaging can suffer from communication misunderstandings, especially if the external team experiences elevated levels of staff turnover. Localized management must risk-taking new approaches to deal with such fluid environments amid ongoing cultural and internal political change.

For instance, existing employees may feel threatened by contract workers external to the company and resist cooperating with the perceived invasion force. Much of the fear can be avoided by educating employees on how outsourcing less desirable tasks to the external workforce can enhance their job satisfaction and productivity. They can also increase their skillset through knowledge transfer from outsourced personnel.

But frontline workers are not the only ones who may feel anxiety about rapid change to a workforce ecosystem. Departmental managers may also experience increased stress levels as more autonomous groupthink takes hold, allowing individuals to navigate between different groups and perhaps entire teams to shift between departments in pursuit of special projects and enterprise-wide objectives. Such a fluid environment can make managers uneasy about a seeming loss of control instead of celebrating the flexibility and nimbleness the new order brings to the company.

Furthermore, the culture shock to an organization can be just as unsettling as the previously discussed political turmoil. With decreased authority over workforce personnel, performance review benchmarks and metrics may have to be adjusted to adapt to the new paradigm shift. The integration of internal and external workers into an effective team dynamic must be fostered in a manner that ensures external members of the organization are not alienated and are included in major events, meetings, and team-building activities.

### Orchestrated Resource Allocation and Knowledge Sharing

Inclusionary policies, processes, and procedures must be developed to provide unfettered feedback to the integration team on obstacles to the progress of workforce orchestration efforts. Feedback metrics should include worker performance, implemented best practices, and requests for resources, direction, and strategic guidance from the integration team.

Relying on external workers often conflicts with interests in protecting organizations’ intellectual property rights. Companies are reluctant to share proprietary information for fear of compromising their value proposition and eroding a distinct competitive advantage. The integration team can resolve conflicts with external entities by establishing risk-adjusted guidelines for information sharing that reduce concerns over losing control of company secrets. Bringing contractors into the organization with clearly delineated areas of responsibility, lines of authority, and strict compliance with signing all non-disclosure agreements can alleviate worries that trade secrets will be inappropriately shared with unauthorized individuals.

When orchestrating workforce ecosystems by introducing or expanding contract labor into an organization, offsetting internal human resources should be freed up to be redeployed to perform more important, mission-critical tasks. However, too often, department managers fail to release the personnel used to justify the acquisition of outside talent, and organizational metrics suffer. The integration team must monitor departmental and division progress to ensure that all resources are properly allocated to achieve agreed-upon goals and objectives.

Internal frontline workers should be solicited for feedback on the progress of their respective teams and workgroups, so they do not have to feel like complainers when voicing concerns. Regular feedback solicitations will give the integration team timely and unfiltered data and information on otherwise hidden discrepancies in operational efficiency.

### Enterprise-wide Ecosystem Adoption

Rolling out a workforce ecosystem across an organization requires careful planning and execution. Best practices, benchmarks, metrics, and goals must be revised and updated regularly to adapt to challenges encountered with the adoption process.

The moderate to heavy utilization of an external workforce will require standardized categorization of workers integrated into company software platforms making workforce resources conducive to extensive analysis and evaluation of effectiveness and efficiency on an enterprise scale.

Workforce integration does not stop at the frontline level either. Talent exchanges at senior levels for companies and their external workforce partners benefit both entities. Commercial organizations benefit from infusing fresh new talent at the company’s upper echelons. In contrast, workforce partners benefit from high-level exposure to the inner workings of industries where they may not currently possess expertise. Internally, companies also benefit from increased cross-training among their workers and executives to strengthen and broaden the skills and expertise of their human resources.

Systemic cultural changes are imperative to successfully orchestrating workforce ecosystems. All individuals, teams, departments, divisions, and corporate-wide energies will need to align on the organization’s political, cultural, and structural infrastructure to exercise maximum utility from new constructs and thinking to encapsulate the multiple source points of human and material resources integral to workforce ecosystems necessary to achieve organizational objectives.

### External Stakeholder Administration

Worker scheduling, reporting hierarchies, and lines of authority are far more fluid in the larger context of orchestrating a workforce ecosystem. That is because the workforce comprises internal and external stakeholders and contributors. External influences injected into the organization include contractors, location-independent digital labor, and service companies providing continuity and predictability in workforce capabilities.

External workforce dependencies are necessary to achieve mission-critical objectives and require expert leadership and management agility to attain successful outcomes of strategic plans. This agility is most easily performed when those external dependencies focus on narrowly defined high-skilled talent, like Information Technology professionals, which is difficult to attract and retain internally. Fully embracing the integration of disparate entities into the ecosystem encourages cohesion and ignites otherwise unattainable synergies.

However, to meet the challenge of internal and external workforce interactivities, leadership must successfully balance the navigational challenges in resolving each entity’s cultural, political, and behavioral differences. Accordingly, companies can achieve greater levels of alignment with corporate objectives.

It is indisputable that orchestrating workforce ecosystems require a complete paradigm shift in thinking about management practices and technology integration. Human Resources plays a vital role in the development and expansion of the ecosystem enterprise-wide, and specialized teams capable of affecting change cross-functionally are needed for the successful implantation of the concept.

### In Conclusion

Making the effort to align company personnel with the overall business strategy should be a primary objective for Human Resources. The HR leadership team must develop a comprehensive talent acquisition and organizational integration plan. Implementing such a plan will facilitate transitioning from the old workplace system to the new one. In addition, it will aid in identifying process workflow changes and technology available that determines maximum productivity from employees.

Orchestrating an effective workforce ecosystem is a formidable undertaking. It will have a much higher chance for success if Human Resources is empowered with the authority and solutions to effect change. Given the proper tools, they can pinpoint organizational trends senior management may not know to exist.



Orchestrating Workforce Ecosystems in 2022-2023

The blockchain industry is still quite in its early days, but it’s already a multi-trillion-dollar global market that’s widely recognized as the greatest technological breakthrough of our generation. From cryptocurrencies and smart contracts to blockchain-based games and NFTs, the potential of blockchain technology seems almost unlimited. So what can we expect from the blockchain industry in 2023? Here are some of the predictions most commonly made by the experts:

### Blockchain Adoption Will Continue to Advance
In 2023, blockchain adoption will continue to advance as the technology becomes more widely understood and accepted. More businesses and organizations will begin to use blockchain to streamline operations and create new opportunities.

Blockchain technology will become increasingly integrated into our everyday lives, changing the way we interact with the world around us. From simplifying financial transactions to improving supply chain management, blockchain will revolutionize many industries. It’s very likely that the switch to full adoption of blockchain will take place in 2023, because rising inflation has made millions of people deeply disappointed in traditional solutions.

The cryptocurrency market will also continue to grow, with more people investing in digital assets. Bitcoin will remain the dominant cryptocurrency, but other coins and tokens will gain popularity as well. However, it’s very likely that other blockchain-based solutions such as NFTs might become as popular as digital currencies.

### Blockchain Gaming With Crypto Will Become More Popular In 2023
The rise of blockchain gaming has been one of the most exciting developments in the crypto space over the past couple of years. Games utilizing blockchain-based solutions are getting more and more popular, but they are far from being mainstream.

With Ethereum’s recent switch from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake, developers are now able to create games that use crypto assets as in-game items in a much more efficient way than ever before. This will likely lead to a huge eruption in the popularity of crypto games that are more engaging and rewarding for players.

It’s very likely that blockchain gaming will become even more popular in 2023, as more developers will be able to create blockchain-based games. In addition, the use of crypto assets like NFTs in games not originally designed with blockchain in mind might also become more widespread as players demand to be rewarded for their time and effort.

### NFTs Will Become More Mainstream
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are definitely the most groundbreaking crypto trend of the past few years. NFTs have been gaining popularity at an incredible pace, with numerous multibillion-dollar global brands launching their NFT collections. However, most people still don’t own any NFTs, so there’s a lot of room for expansion in 2023.

There are a number of reasons why NFTs will become more popular in the next few years. First, they offer a way for people to own digital assets that can be used in games, online platforms, and other applications. This is unlike traditional cryptocurrencies, which are often only used for financial transactions or speculation.

NFTs are becoming more accessible as the technology behind them improves. In the past, NFTs were difficult to create and use. However, new platforms and protocols are making it easier for people to create and use NFTs.

The value of NFTs is expected to increase as more people use them. This is because the supply of NFTs is limited while the demand is increasing. As more people use NFTs, the price floor will continue to rise.

### Web3 Will Be the Most Important Blockchain Trend Of 2023
Web3 will be the most important blockchain trend in 2023 because it will allow for the development of more sophisticated and secure applications. In simple words, Web3 is a concept based on utilizing a vast suite of decentralized solutions to provide users with a better experience. It also allows developers to build applications that are more secure and efficient.

### Proof-of-Stake Will Surpass Proof-of-Work
There are a few key reasons why Proof-of-Stake (PoS) will eventually surpass Proof-of-Work (PoW) as the primary consensus algorithm for blockchain networks. Most importantly, PoS is more energy efficient than PoW. Since PoS doesn’t require miners to constantly expend energy to power their rigs, it leads to a reduction in overall electricity consumption.

What’s also important is that PoS is faster than PoW. Since there are no miners who need to be compensated for their work, block times can be much shorter with PoS. This results in a faster and more responsive network.

These advantages make PoS clearly a more attractive option for both developers and users alike. Ethereum switching to Proof-of-Stake with the Merge upgrade was a groundbreaking event, and it’s very likely that more cryptocurrencies will follow in ETH’s way.

### The Bitcoin Price Will Reach a New All-Time High In 2023
In 2023, the BTC price will likely reach a new all-time high. This will be caused by a combination of factors, including an increase in demand for Bitcoin, but most importantly by the lowering of trust in traditional fiat currencies.

According to economic experts, inflation is already very high and will continue to be elevated throughout 2023. For blockchain and cryptocurrencies, that’s actually good news. Digital currencies with fixed total supply are entirely immune to inflation, and people purchasing cryptocurrencies like BTC to protect their life savings from inflation will be the most important force behind the rising cryptocurrency prices.

### Conclusion
There are many exciting predictions for the blockchain industry in 2023. It’s very likely the industry will continue to grow at an exponential rate, and the trends that originated in the past couple of years, like NFTs and blockchain games, will become even more popular. However, the full potential of blockchain technology is yet to be discovered. Since Web3 is only beginning to get widespread recognition, it’s probable that we will witness completely new blockchain trends be born in the upcoming year.

Predictions For The Blockchain Industry In 2023

There’s a lot to think about when you’re on the road to build your own successful ecommerce business. It’s fast becoming one of the most popular routes for start-ups to take, so I’ve come up with a rough guide for new founders, featuring five key areas to focus on.

**Your Product**

First things first, you need to pick your product carefully. Many independent online retailers start off as [Amazon sellers](https://services.amazon.co.uk/services/sell-online/how-it-works.html) (or similar). If this is the route you’re taking, you need to ensure you find a manufacturer that’s a good match for your identity, your price point and your customers. Order a small amount to test quality and reliability before committing to larger orders or outsourcing to a third party warehouse.

If you’re choosing the product in person, you’ll need to consider things like delivery costs and the likelihood of damage in transit. You should also think about whether it’s a product that people might prefer to buy on the high street; for example, consumers will often want to see high-cost goods in person, and many customers would rather speak to an expert when purchasing tech goods. It’s also worth factoring in returns. If something has an unusual fit or is difficult to properly convey over the web, you’ll have to bear the burden of more returns and in turn, more costs and manpower.

Once you’ve chosen your item, think about the necessary [patents and copyrights](https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/intellectual_property). When an idea launches online it’s open to the world, and if it’s low-cost and easily replicable, you might well find yourself undercut. Of course, one important way to tackle this is to ensure you’re offering the best deal and/or service to your customers, but you should also think about your legal rights.

It’s worth remembering that e-commerce doesn’t exclusively refer to business-to-customer product transactions. You could also be selling a service, either to other businesses or to customers. Don’t feel like you have to limit your options simply because you’ve gone online-only.

**Your Website**

 When you’re an e-commerce business, your website is your storefront. You’re dressing your shop window when you pick out your design, so it’s important to take many of the same things into consideration. What products or offers do you want to display front and centre? What kind of mood do you want to invoke in your customers, or what kind of tone do you want to set for your store? How are you going to entice your customers to explore more of your offerings?

Once they’re past your home page, customers will be looking for accurate and appealing information about your products. This is where your [product copy](https://www.shopify.co.uk/blog/8211159-9-simple-ways-to-write-product-descriptions-that-sell) comes into play. It’s important to make sure that your product descriptions not only aptly describe the items at hand, but also capture the tone of your business. If items arrive not as described you’ll soon see a high number of returns, so it’s important that you don’t twist the truth even while you’re trying to market your products. Find a way to highlight the best features, but don’t try and disguise something they’ll find out after they order. It’s also important to remember that if your customer has to look elsewhere for information, they’re more likely to buy elsewhere too. You want to avoid taking your customer off your page – so any extra information should be summarised rather than linked to.

Of course, alongside top-quality copy, you need high-resolution images. The quality of your images will give your customers an idea of your professionalism. Low-res shots that are clearly taken in a family home won’t encourage the same trust as a high-res, clean shot on a classic white background. Make sure to include any necessary angles in order to give your customer a fuller idea of the product, and think about including a video if it fits your product. As well as making your website more engaging, this can really help bring your items to life.

The most important factor to take into consideration when building your website is the [user experience](http://uxmag.com/articles/explaining-ux-design-to-your-team). Make sure your navigation is simple and your links are obvious; the easier it is for customers to get around your site, the more likely they are to stay a while.

This is true whichever platform your consumers are viewing your website on. Nowadays, more people shop with their mobile phone than their desktop computer, so it’s important that your website looks as good on a mobile as it does on a desktop, a laptop and a tablet.

**Your Marketing** 

If your business is online, it naturally follows that your potential customers will be too. For marketers, this is great news. Not only is online advertising far cheaper than traditional methods such as print and television, it opens up a number of exciting new possibilities.

There are a few go-to websites that are utilised by almost all businesses when it comes to online marketing. Google banner ads are one of the most popular paid-for options, as are promoted Facebook posts. Then there are a myriad of options for more company-specific advertising. For example, a company like GoPro is the perfect fit for video advertising on YouTube because of the nature of the product. A make-up retailer would likely see the best results from pairing up with popular beauty bloggers like Zoella. Explore the options available to you and find the best fit for your brand. And don’t be afraid to think outside the box – that is, after all, what the Internet is all about.

As well as paying for advertising, you should make the most of the free marketing available to you online. One of the most obvious channels is social media. As well as posting on your own pages – and you should try and cover as many platforms as possible – you can encourage customers and family and friends to post on their accounts too. Competitions are a great way to encourage interaction, as are questions posted on your pages. Make sure the product pages on your website have shareable icons so your visitors can easily post them to their social channels.

Another important element of online advertising is Search Engine Optimisation. As well as paying to appear on Google, you can try and boost your pages up the search results by using relevant keywords and creating strong inbound and outbound links.

**Your Delivery (and Returns)** 

Everything’s up and running, you’ve put the word out and now you’ve got your first orders. What next? Deliveries.

It’s vital that you are able to deliver products reliably, on-time and in good condition, because otherwise you risk not only losing your earliest customers but also your reputation. If you fail to deliver as expected, you’ll soon find that bad word-of-mouth weighs down your business before you’ve even got it off the ground.

You need to consider a number of factors when arranging your delivery process. First of all, there are different expectations in different countries. If you have an international customer base (as is one of the great advantages of the internet) you’ll have to consider that customers in European countries expect much faster delivery times than those in Australia. It’s worth scoping out what other companies are offering. If there’s a high number of same-day delivery services on offer, you might find that customers will soon become impatient with week-long delivery times.

You should also think about [choosing a courier service](http://smallbusiness.co.uk/the-everincreasing-necessity-to-choose-the-correct-courier-2466362/) you want to work with. Be sure to check out feedback and reviews to see what experience other companies have had with them in the past. As well as asking for testimonials, it’s worth having a look online at customer reviews to see if they’ve received their products on time and in good condition.

As well as sending your products out, you have to be prepared to receive them back. It is to be expected that e-commerce businesses see a higher rate of return than storefronts, since customers can’t see the product in person prior to purchasing. It’s important to make sure you have a smooth-running returns procedure in place, and to make sure information about this is clearly available to your customers. In fact, a company’s return policy can be an influencing factor in a consumer’s decision to purchase. ASOS is a good example of a company whose generous returns policy – they are known for offering free returns – has gained them a loyal following.

**Your Future **

When launching your business, it’s important to take into consideration both your circumstances now and your circumstances as they could be in a few weeks, months, and even years. This, of course, means making contingency plans, but it also means planning for success.

Work out [what level of growth your company](http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sustainablegrowthrate.asp) is able to sustain. Figure out what your budget is for bringing on new staff, and work out which new avenues you want to explore if the current ones work well. It’s also worth thinking about which direction you hope to grow in. Are you looking to offer more products or services in your current area, or do you want to expand your customer base – perhaps even internationally?

If you hope to take your business across seas, it’s important to look into the different business laws and taxes that apply in different countries. It’s also important to think about the different markets you’ll be appealing to. This could be anything from changing the language your products are marketed in to developing an alternative tone of voice that will better suit your new customers. It could even mean offering slightly different services in different places.

What are your top tips for starting an e-commerce business? And where do you see e-commerce going in the future? Let me know in the comments.

Starting a Successful Ecommerce Business

For all of 2022 thus far, stocks have been in a bear market that has seen many of the high-flying tech stocks crash back down from their pandemic-related highs of 2020 and 2021.

          The market has been brought down by fears of inflation, high-interest rates, a war in Europe, and even supply chain glitches still related to the shutdowns. In addition, though the pandemic is all but over in most places around the world, many cities in China are still facing lockdowns due to Covid outbreaks which are having a detrimental effect on Chinese manufacturing.

          As we head into the fourth quarter, there is reason to be optimistic that the worst is over and we could be on the cusp of another bull run. Though some sectors, most notably tech, will continue to face challenges for the foreseeable future, there are opportunities in this market.

### Some Headwinds Will Continue

          The equity market will continue to face certain headwinds at least through the end of the year. Most notably, _inflation_ is still quite high and has yet to show any real signs of abating. Inflation fears will continue to hamper the tech sector, where profits are expected to grow far out into the future.

          While many of the tech companies still are showing signs of growth and profitability, as long as inflation is high, investors will be hesitant to pay up for those future earnings.

          The Federal Reserve is still _raising interest rates_ in an attempt to slow down an overheated economy. While rates are higher than they have been, it must be noted that rates are not high by historical standards. Rates are simply rising toward the historical average after years of being kept artificially low in an attempt to keep the economy afloat during the pandemic.

          The higher rates will hamper some industries, most notably the home builders, as both businesses and consumers will be hesitant to take on excessive debt.

          Finally, the _war in Ukraine_ will also be a drag on certain parts of the stock market, world energy markets will remain volatile and the European consumer will remain cautious.

### Has Big Tech Bottomed?

          The four Big Tech behemoths, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Google parent Alphabet all reported disappointing third-quarter numbers and light guidance for the fourth quarter.

          Google has seen consistently diminishing growth for several quarters in a row. Microsoft reiterated weaker-than-expected growth in their cloud service Azure. Amazon reported very low fourth-quarter guidance and finally, Apple was initially brought down by lower-than-expected iPhone sales and service revenue.

          Since reporting, it does seem that the bottom may be in for Big Tech. All four of those names have drastically fallen from their all-time highs and now their P/E ratios may start to look attractive to new investors. Time will tell but the fourth quarter could well be a nice buying opportunity for these stocks.

### Sectors Presenting Opportunities

          While tech may still be too volatile for many investors, four sectors could be exceptional buys in the fourth quarter. Industrials, Energy, Healthcare, and Financials.

          The big banks such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo have a very good outlook and could go much higher in the fourth quarter and into 2023.

          The higher interest rates will allow banks with retail customers to still pay next to nothing on deposits but collect a nice risk-free return by purchasing treasuries. Banks with trading operations, such as Goldman and Morgan Stanley, will have a nice quarter as well as investors bring in cash from the sidelines. Both of these factors should combine to make for a potentially nice quarter for the financials.

          Healthcare stocks will do well also. With limited opportunities elsewhere, stalwarts such as UnitedHealthcare and other insurers will see multiple expansion as investors will be more willing to pay up for their modest but reliable profits.

          In addition to the insurers, several drug makers have exciting drugs in their pipelines that could spell enormous profits going forwards. Most notably, Eli Lilly has an Alzheimer’s drug-seeking FDA approval that, along with improving the quality of life for millions of people, many analysts think could be the most profitable drug of all time.

          Also on the healthcare front, by now we all know that the Chinese vaccines are not effective. There is always that possibility that the CCP will swallow their pride and order a billion or so doses of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine, but betting on that would be speculation.

          The energy sector will also do well in the fourth quarter. High oil prices mean big profits for the oil field services companies such as Halliburton and Schlumberger. There will likely be several big winners in the energy sector during Q4.

          Finally, the industries are poised for a great quarter. We saw during earnings season that conglomerates, such as Honeywell, are seeing increased demand and holding their margins better than had been expected.

### Tech’s Diamond in the Rough

          Tech will for the most part remain challenged. Chip stocks such as Nvidia, AMD, Skyworks Solutions, Marvell, and others that worked so well in 2020 will stay down due to demand issues as well as inflation fears. 

          Cybersecurity stocks may be the exception to the headwinds faced by the rest of the sector. Demand for cybersecurity is sky-high, as well as margins. There has been an uptick in cyber-attacks coming out of Russia and elsewhere, and several high-profile data losses in the last few years have cybersecurity at the forefront of everyone’s mind.

### Recession Questions
         
Finally, we get to the proverbial elephant in the room. Questions remain unanswered about whether we are headed toward or even currently in the midst of a recession. Objectively speaking, a recession as has traditionally been defined is almost a certainty. For years the generally accepted definition of a recession has been two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.

          That will undoubtedly happen, the murkiness comes from the fact that elected officials, their would-be opponents, and others in the media have been slowly changing the accepted definition of a recession for political purposes.

          The definition of a recession has no impact on the equities market, and those evaluating stocks can disregard the political discourse and focus on the facts and the data.

          In eleven of the past twelve recessions, the market bottomed out before the recession ended. Based on that history, it is plausible that the bottom of this bear market has in fact already occurred.

### Speaking of Politics

          Along the lines of political questions, there are important midterm elections coming up very shortly. Historically stocks tend to rally following elections, regardless of the outcome. The market loathes uncertainty and time and time again we have seen short-term rallies following elections when we get some clarity on what direction the government may take.

### On the Global Front

          Rising interest rates in the United States, as well as global unrest and uncertainty, have incentivized investors around the world to seek refuge in the U.S. Dollar, sending the exchange rate to unprecedented levels. While a strong dollar may be nice for those planning an overseas vacation, it is not always ideal for U.S. corporations doing business overseas.

          With the Dollar trading so high against the Euro, Pound, Yen, and others, companies with sales overseas have seen their profits dwindle as they exchange their profits for Dollars back home.

          With interest rates likely peaking in early 2023, or perhaps even sooner, this quarter may be a great time to choose stocks with large overseas operations. On their latest quarterly conference call, Apple noted that iPhone sales in Europe were down, and many other companies have said similar things as well.

          On the other side of the globe, China’s economy is still facing headwinds due to Covid related lockdowns. Many of their manufacturing centers have been hit especially hard, causing a ripple effect throughout stock markets around the world.

          One wildcard in the equities market may be when will China either shift from its Zero Covid policy or acquire an effective vaccine, either from a Western pharmaceutical company or developing it on its own.

          As we head into the final quarter of the year, there are reasons to be optimistic even though there are major challenges to overcome. The bottom line is that the worst of the bear market is likely behind us and there will be some tremendous opportunities in certain sectors. The high-flying tech stocks that worked during the past two and a half years are out, and industrial, financial, healthcare, and some energy stocks may be in.

My own tryst with the stock market began a bit late in my life, beginning around the age of 35, and chiefly in the Indian stock market. It was a time when you had one site called sherkhan.com and another one I cannot recollect. Stocks were purchased and sold via brokers and your own CPA. I had very good ones.

In a span of 3 months, I purchased a few cars – 4 of them – with the money I made through stocks and put them out on hire to a travel co. Thereafter, dabbling in stocks was quite erratic and periodic, though I always made a healthy number of profits, never lost. Lucky? Nope. I read the effing fine print. THAT helped, and a sort of gut feeling about the highs and the lows. Came from poker, I guess.

After a few years of sparse online trading, I put it on the back burner. Some attention went to crypto.

Today, I am back with stocks, though I have my own consultant for the same, who gives me a steady and fixed profit of about 5% each month on my investments. In-house trading helps – as in I have one of my own associates invest healthily as well.

The winning streak continues!

Taking Stock: The Q4 2022 Equity Market Outlook

When you reach your first business failure, it is easy to feel like a failure yourself. But, most entrepreneurs would be lying if they said they never failed at a business venture after starting up their businesses. Most business owners, at one time or another, will fail at a business-related task or venture. And guess what? They live to tell about it.

A business failure does not make you a personal failure. And bouncing back from a business failure is absolutely possible, should you choose to continue your business and move it in the direction of success.

Of course, everyone will react differently to a business failure. However, there are a few steps you can follow to bring your business back to life, no matter how it affects you, your business and your personal life.

**1. Draw the Line Between Business and Personal**

The most important thing you can do when bouncing back from a business failure is to quickly draw the line between your personal life and business life. This includes not seeing yourself as a failure because your business failed. Remind yourself that this is a business and mistakes happen, just as they do in your personal life.

Once you have that in mind, continue to separate your business and personal lives financially. If your business is struggling to make money, be careful to fund the business with your own money, as this can cause a slippery slope of trying to dig yourself out of a hole you may never be able to get out of.

Make sure you keep your business and personal accounts separate. Try to raise money by starting an online fund where investors can find you and invest in your company. Or consider a small business loan for the lowest amount you need to get yourself at least breaking even for a while. But hold back on the temptation to use your own money or credit lines to fund your business failure.

**2. Consider Downsizing**

After a business failure, you may need to cut costs wherever possible to get your business back up, running and making money again. Unfortunately, this could include downsizing inventory, office space and even employees.

As difficult as it may be to let some employees go, you have to think about the long-term effects hanging on to them could have on your business. The larger your payroll, the less money your business has to sustain itself after a failure. Remind your employees that the decision to let them go has nothing to do with their performances, but rather, the good of the company. Let them know they will be considered for re-hire should the business bounce back in the future.

Consider quickly selling off some inventory to make extra money, do more work yourself, or even temporarily move the business to a home office to save money on overhead. Downsizing may not be ideal, but it could be a short-term solution toward investing in your long-term business goals.

**3. Find Some New Ideas for Your Business**

It is possible that your business failure had something to do with too many ideas, not enough ideas or ideas that just did not take off like you thought they would. So, consider some alternative ideas for your business. This could be anything from a new marketing strategy to a small re-branding – something to make your business new and fresh.

If you need to, take a short break while you re-strategize your business. Define new goals, detail what you want your business to be and figure out new ways to get your business there. You may find that stepping back for a short time will allow your brain to re-think your current strategy and help you come up with alternatives.

You do not have to create a new business altogether. Instead, consider making a name change, finding ways to get your business name out in your community and learn to network with those in your business field. This way, you can build a support system that could potentially lead to new ideas and strategies that work for your business.

**4. Set Smaller, Short-Term Goals**

One of the reasons you had a business failure could be because your business goals were too difficult to reach within the time you wanted them to. Bouncing back from a business failure related to unattainable goals is possible, though, by creating some new, smaller goals.

Instead of setting a goal for annual revenue, for example, set a weekly goal. How much do you actually have to sell to break even or to make a profit? Figure that out and then focus on how much you want to sell each week as a goal. It may seem counter-intuitive, but focusing on the smaller picture can actually get you reaching the bigger picture faster.

Additionally, creating and reaching smaller goals will make you feel successful each time they are completed. A consistent completion of goals will help you stay motivated to create and reach new goals rather than struggling to reach goals that are months or years away.

**5. Enlist the Help of Friends and Family**

When you and your business are in a bind and you are forced to scale back on employees, consider asking [close friends and family to help you](http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/17/africa/5-ways-to-overcome-business-failure/). Those closest to you will be happy to provide you extra support – and extra sets of hands – to get your business back on track.

Financially, you might consider borrowing money from a close friend or relative to get your business moving again. Remember to outline specific details regarding interest and length of the loan and promise to stick to them. Or, ask a friend to co-sign on a business loan for you if you need some help with credit.

If you decide to change your business plan, lean on those closest to you who might have been in a similar position with their own businesses, or can connect you to others they know. Sometimes, a network exists where you did not know there was one. Do not be afraid to ask for help when it is needed, and you will be surprised by who is readily in your corner.

**6. Use Your Past Failure to Motivate Your Future**

Things that happen can seem to try to break you, but sometimes, these things are the best motivators in life. After you work on getting your business back to where you want it to be, reminisce on the events that led up to your business failure. Do not use them to beat yourself up, but rather, as motivators to push your business past where you ever dreamed possible.

Keep a list of every single goal you had for your business that you have met along the way. Make sure you date each goal so you can go back and see how far you have come since you struggled with your business. Make a plan to make each goal bigger and better than the last so, when you reach each one, you will truly feel like a success.

Continue to keep the enthusiasm you had about your business when you started it even after you have had a major setback. This is still the business you fought to make into what it is today, and you should never lose sight of that dream. Constantly thinking about what went wrong and worrying about it happening again will surely damage your perception of yourself and your business.

Bouncing back from a business failure will take time, but taking these steps is worth it if you truly care about your business and want to see it succeed. Enlist the help of others, make realistic goals and never let the past of your business be an indicator of its future. What other ideas do you have to bounce back from a business failure? Feel free to share your comments and questions with me.

Related: [Common mistakes Startup Companies Make](https://www.aniketwarty.com/common-mistakes-startup-companies-make/)

The 6-Step Process for Bouncing Back from a Business Failure

When you’re planning for the future, you have to think outside the box. After all, yours won’t be the only company to expand over the coming years; there are technology companies around the world coming up with new, exciting ways to bring the internet to life and for businesses to reach their customers.

Ecommerce may still represent a considerable area of the market, and it’s growing rapidly. According to a 2016 Census Bureau report, e-commerce’s share of retail sales has doubled in the past five years. Of course, there’s a classic chicken-egg debate to be had about whether that growth has prompted the innovation that’s arisen in the market, or whether innovation is the reason behind the growth. Either way, there have been a number of interesting new ideas in user experience, product and logistics that are well worth checking out. I’ve compiled a list of some of the developments I think all founders should be thinking about: The Future of Ecommerce!

**Virtual Reality**

The growing interest in [virtual reality](http://www.forbes.com/sites/michellegreenwald/2016/06/15/6-of-the-best-marketing-uses-of-virtual-reality/?refURL=https:%2Fwww.google.co.uk%2F#31d8a13a38f4) suggests that we can expect to see much more experiential options appearing in e-commerce in the future. So far it’s something we’ve mostly seen in the marketing arena, but there’s definite potential for it to become a part of the products and services offered online.

In 2014, Ikea used virtual reality as part of their app to help customers envision Ikea products in their own homes. This enhanced user experience adds a whole new level of meaning to the idea of selling a lifestyle. Not only does it push customers to buy products, shopping becomes an experience in and of itself, and more consumers are likely to try out the app and perhaps find something they like along the way.

**Drones**

With the introduction of next-day, then same-day, and now even within-the-hour delivery, more and more consumers expect their products to arrive as quickly as they can click the “buy” button. Meeting the demand for instant gratification is one of the biggest challenges facing e-commerce retailers, and it’s one that’s being met with a wave of inventive ideas.

One of the most high-tech techniques being trialled is the use of delivery drones. It might sound like something out of a sci-fi film, but we could be seeing them flying the streets in the not-so-distant future. Amazon has been making headlines for its testing of delivery drones which the company plans to implement as part of a new delivery service called [Amazon Prime Air](https://www.amazon.com/b?node=8037720011).

As well as improving on current services, drones offer the opportunity to markets that were previously unreachable. A technology company, Zipline, are utilising drones to bring medical supplies to areas with poor infrastructure. You can read about Zipline in my earlier article about the year’s most exciting start-ups.

**3D Printing**

The introduction of 3D printing opens up exciting possibilities. While it’s yet to reach mainstream audiences, it’s a goal that’s being worked towards companies such as crowd-funded [Robo 3D](https://robo3d.com/). If and when we do start to see 3D printers in homes, it raises the question of whether or not products will need to be delivered at all.

3D printers manufacture items layer-by-layer, according to a digital design. At present, there is a market for 3D printed products, but more as a novelty than a convenience. Customers can ask for custom pieces or choose from items labelled as having been made by a printer. In the future, future e-commerce retailers could theoretically be selling digital designs to be downloaded rather than the objects themselves, so that consumers can print their items at home.

**Social Media**

It’s a term that keeps reappearing and one that doesn’t look likely to go away any time soon. Social media is only growing its influence in the business world, with more and more platforms opening up. As well as establishing an online identity, brands are finding ways to engage potential customers and to encourage word-of-mouth on a much larger scale than ever before.

Apps like Snapchat have proved popular with marketers looking to appeal to a younger demographic. Last year, [McDonald’s started the trend with a branded geo-filter](http://shortyawards.com/8th/mcdonalds-geofilters) and since then all kinds of companies and events have partnered with the app to create their own customer overlay. Often these filters are “earned” through purchasing particular products or signing up to a company newsletter, making them a cost-efficient incentive idea.

Other creative campaigns have included using interactive apps like Pokemon GO, which allows companies to add Pokéstops as well as traditional advertising banners. This new take on product placement is a great way to get people talking and makes consumers feel more immersed in a brand.

**Blogging**

A close cousin of social media, blogging has taken off as a way to bring in new customers and keep old ones engaged. Creating fresh, interesting content helps brands position themselves as experts in their field, and so gain consumer trust. Companies are also able to strengthen their identities and relate to their customers through their blogs by creating a persona of sorts.

Blogging is also a good way to draw in organic customers by creating SEO-friendly content and appearing in search results. By answering commonly asked questions or providing sought-after information, brands are able to capture the attention of customers before they’ve even begun selling.

**Subscription Services**

In the past, when you heard the word “subscription”, you would typically think of magazines and newspapers. Today it encompasses a much wider market; everything from food to fashion can now be signed up to for months or even years – a design which allows customers convenience and businesses reliability.

Some of the earliest examples included gift box [subscriptions](https://econsultancy.com/blog/66034-the-pros-and-cons-of-subscription-ecommerce-models/), in which the recipient receives a themed package every month. It’s the gift that keeps on giving in its truest sense. This has extended into the idea of gifting oneself, as consumers sign up for deliveries of products they love such as tea or chocolate that arrive at their doorstep without the guilt of ordering each month.

This is a service that adapts easily with the times. Along with the healthy eating trend, we’ve seen the emergence of companies that delivery perfectly proportioned ingredients and recipes to your door. As craft beers gained popularity, so too did the sites that offered a monthly selection of specially chosen brews.

**Company Ethos and Corporate Responsibility**

As well as providing easier access to products, the internet also makes it easier for consumers to find out exactly where they came from. Awareness of global issues are on the rise, and customers are increasingly making it a priority to shop with businesses that do their bit to pay back to the community. As well as looking for the tell-tale stamp of approval from respected organisations such as the [Fairtrade Foundation](http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/) and the [Forest Stewardship Council](http://www.fsc-uk.org/en-uk/about-fsc/what-is-fsc), customers are looking for companies with an interesting backstory or a strong ethos.

Big name brands like Virgin are investing serious time and money into establishing a well-recognised company ethos. The company is well known for its interest in sustainability, from Virgin Green Fund to founder Richard Branson raising awareness about environmental issues.

**Wearable Technology**

E-commerce retailers are well aware that they need to be able to cater to customers on a number of different platforms, and we’ve already seen a significant rise in attention paid to mobile devices. In the future, however, the amount of different user platforms will only keep increasing, and focus will continue to shift away from desktop.

[Wearable technology](http://www.wareable.com/wareable50/best-wearable-tech) is on the rise, with new devices being invented every day. From smart watches to Google glasses, there will soon be a whole new way to shop and that opens up the opportunity for a number of creative ideas such as virtual reality and interactive marketing.

It also means that users are likely to spend more and more time shopping on the move, and e-retailers will have to accommodate that. Processes should be quick, navigation should be easy and pages may well need to be simplified so they can fit cleanly on smaller screens.

**Freelancers and Contractors**

Traditional company employee structures are quickly giving way to more flexible options. Not only are companies looking for more efficient ways to utilise their workforce, employees have come to expect greater freedom and autonomy. The rise of the freelancer economy is indicative of this shift in paradigm; as of 2015, there were around [15.5 million self-employed workers living in the United States.](http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t09.htm)

One of the more innovative ways in which companies have used this new resource is demonstrated by the likes of Uber – a hugely successful technology company that relies on contractors in order to function. Uber drivers are self-employed and use their own cars to work – the app merely provides a connection between drivers and passengers. A similar model has been utilised by Deliveroo – and its closely related competitor Postmates – in which self-employed couriers act as go-betweens for restaurants and customers.

What do you think the future of e-commerce looks like? Tell me about which developments you’re most excited about and which ones you want to hear more about in the comments below.

Related: [A Technology E-commerce Marketplace – New Frontiers](https://www.aniketwarty.com/a-technology-ecommerce-marketplace-new-frontiers/)

The Future of Ecommerce

With inbound marketing fast taking favor over traditional outbound marketing, it’s important to understand the tools available to you to make your strategy as effective as possible. Before you start strategizing, you need to have a clear picture of who you’re selling to, what will make them buy and what they want from you. To do this, you should invest time in creating a detailed and well-researched buyer persona.

**What is a Buyer Persona?**

A buyer persona allows you to put a human face to your customer base. By building up a picture of your average consumer’s likes, dislikes, interests, spending habits and needs, you can more accurately tailor your marketing strategy to them. While a traditional profile might give you a useful jumping off point, it’s important to remember that the focus is on their behavior as a customer, rather than their personal details.

A good buyer persona should go beyond a typical profile and look at buyer behaviour on a more in-depth level. As well as monitoring activity on your site, you should speak to real customers and take on board their feedback. Including genuine quotes about your customers’ interests, concerns and opinions will give your whole team a better idea of who they’re selling to and what their key priorities should be.

You should consider the most important factors you need to figure into your persona to suit your company and your marketing strategy. To figure out what will bring customers to your site, you need to understand what they’re looking for and how they feel your product can best suit their needs. In order to tailor your navigation to suit them, you’ll need to understand their journey and what leads them to click versus ignore. If you’re experiencing a high rate of returns or abandoned shopping carts, you’ll need to find out what concerns your customers have and what boxes they want to see ticked. 

**Where to Start**

One of the best ways to gain insight into your customers’ thought processes is to set up a focus group. This is particularly effective for smaller businesses, as you can get a more comprehensive representation of your customer base. Invite loyal customers to join you for a question and answer session, or simply send out online surveys. The latter, while allowing less flexibility, allows your customers to participate as is convenient to them, and so may see a better response rate.

You may want to consider hiring an external agency to complete your focus group. While you may feel best placed to find out the information you need, customers may be reluctant to give negative feedback to members or indeed the CEO of a company – and it’s the negative feedback that will give you the most scope to grow. It also helps take some of the potential bias out of the equation, as an agency is less likely to ask leading questions or to interpret answers in a manner that best suits your existing products or ideas.

It’s also important to use the resources you have readily to hand. Make sure that you properly capture and analyse user data in order to understand typical buyer behavior. Look for common trends as a way of ascertaining what works and what doesn’t – but be sure to back-up any speculation with more thorough research. It can be easy to draw favorable rather than logical conclusions when data is left up to interpretation, so the more questions you can ask directly of your customer the better.

If you run a website with a membership database, this is an excellent opportunity to find out more about what your customer is looking for. For example, if you’re operating a B2B business, you might find it helpful to include questions about company size and industry in the sign up form. You can also ask customers how they found you, as a way of comparing the success of your different marketing strategies. For further feedback down the line, consider adding an optional feedback form to your website, or sending short surveys to your email database. Ensure these are not so frequent as to become annoying, and always include a clear and easy opt-out option.

**What to Do With Your Results**

Once you’ve gathered your data, it’s time to apply it to your marketing strategy. Inbound marketing is all about bringing customers to you, whether that’s via your social media channels, your blog or your SEO practices. Once you have a better idea of who you’re trying to attract, you can put in place a more effective inbound marketing strategy.

One of the most important things to consider is keyword planning. Unless you’re operating a large, well-known business or a common brandnomer, the chances are that your audience won’t be searching for your specific business or product name. Your buyer persona should include into search terms and keywords that your consumers are typing into Google, so that you can incorporate them into your copy and boost your search engine rankings. It also helps to understand things like common locations, as regional differences will likely affect search terms, and age groups, which may influence slang or informal terms.

As well as telling you what your customer is looking for, a detailed buyer persona should tell you where they’re likely to be and who they’re likely to trust. If, for example, you’re partnering with bloggers, you should find out what kind of blogs your consumer base reads and whether they’re likely to take advice or recommendations from their favorite pages. By finding out who the key voices of authority are in your industry, you can find more successful affiliate sites and partners to work with. You should also apply this strategy to social media. While many platforms enjoy a wide audience base nowadays, the location, age, gender and interests of your customer may influence the network which they lean on more heavily. While a younger audience might be best targeted on Instagram or Snapchat, you might find that older customers are more likely to find you through Facebook. If you’re targeting a business audience, consider writing regular posts on LinkedIn. If you’re in a fast-paced flash-sales environment, you might find that Twitter is best able to keep up with your business. Again, it’s important to look to buyer behavior rather than statistics for a more accurate result, but both should be taken into consideration in order to create a complete picture.

**Stay Up-to-Date**

Creating an initial buyer persona is a great way to get your business off the ground, but it’s important to remember that as your business grows and changes so too might your customer base. It’s important to regularly review your buyer persona, particularly when you’re making big changes in your company’s offerings or direction.

It’s worth reviewing your buyer persona shortly after making significant changes, but it can also be beneficial to use it before and during the process. By looking at your current customer base, you’ll be able to decide whether your new ideas are likely to be popular or whether you risk losing some of your current consumers. It can also provide inspiration when brainstorming, as you may identify gaps in the market or potential improvements through the concerns and unmet needs your customers tell you they have.

Not only will applying your buyer persona to your decision making help your product and sales teams make better informed decisions, they’ll also make the jobs of your marketing team much more straightforward. After all, a good marketer might be able to pitch any product, but they’ll also tell you that the stronger the product, the easier their job. By referencing a comprehensive buyer persona, you can tailor your new products to their intended audience, and you can also clearly highlight how and why these developments will benefit them.

Too often entrepreneurs are so eager to get to work on selling that they forget to take time to create valuable tools such as buyer personas. While it might seem slow-paced and theoretical in the beginning, these resources are a great way to set a solid foundation for your business and to give your whole team a clearer idea of what they’re working for.

Has having a buyer persona benefitted your business? Or have you had difficult experiences in a company that didn’t have a clear persona in place? Share your experiences, and your top tips for creating a useful buyer persona, in the comments below.

The Role of Buyer Personas in Inbound Marketing Methodology

The past few years were marked by a world pandemic, inflation, political turmoil, and several changes and even so, we’ve witnessed continuous rapid digitalization, innovation, and increased investment in technology.

Technology breakthroughs allowed companies to adapt to these difficult circumstances, turning them into competitive advantages that ultimately resulted in increased productivity and better services.

Staying on top of tech trends helps business leaders plan ahead. By watching the development of new technologies organizations can anticipate how to use them and how they’d impact the company’s growth.

In this article, I’ll be sharing the top 10 anticipated tech trends in 2023. Discover all of the significant tech trends for this year and figure out exactly what new developments you should be prepared for.

### The Top 10 Anticipated Tech Trends In 2023
The top 10 anticipated tech trends in 2023 revolve around artificial intelligence and machine learning, quantum computing, and blockchain. This will also be a strong year for tech development regarding the metaverse, IoT, super apps, and many other areas.

### Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Even though artificial intelligence has been around for a while, it continues to be an emerging technology with the ability to improve the yield of other technologies like robotics, quantum computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Artificial intelligence and machine learning and widely appreciated for their capabilities in image and speech recognition, navigation assistance, ride-sharing applications, and carrying out both creative and mundane tasks. Further AI developments will allow this tech to:
- 
- Analyze different interactions to determine basic connections and insights
- Predict demand for services to determine better resource use
- Detect patterns in customer behavior to help companies provide custom experiences
Popular variations in the AI field continue to attract more business leaders. No-code AI is based on drag-and-drop interfaces that make it more accessible to developers. Companies are likely to capitalize on this to create more AI-based products and services while still reducing time to market.

Another exciting AI field includes synthetic content. Artificial intelligence can harness its creative power to create new images, sounds, or data, that never existed before. This will likely lead to new forms of AI-based entertainment.

Companies will also take advantage of adaptive AI systems to increase efficiency, maximize resources, and reduce delivery times. This AI technology adjusts to changing circumstances in the real world by interpreting behavioral patterns in datasets, while in production.

### Quantum Computing
[Quantum computing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computing) is a tech trend that uses subatomic particles, superposition, quantum entanglement, and other quantum phenomena to create new ways to process and store data. Using this technology, developers will be able to create new devices that are a trillion times faster than the best regular processors available today.

This form of computing has already shown proof of its great advantages. It was involved in preventing COVID-19 spread and developing potential vaccines. It’s also a great bet in the banking and finance space for credit risk management, high-frequency trading, and fraud detection.

Quantum computing can assess, monitor, analyze, and act on data regardless of its source. So, it isn’t a surprise that there’s currently a global race to create quantum computing at a large scale. However, quantum computing might pose a significant risk.

This technology is so powerful that it might render current encryption techniques ineffective. Any nation that heavily advances in the quantum computing field will be able to easily break encryption employed by other nations, businesses, and organizations.

### Blockchain
Over the years, blockchain’s popularity has risen and this technology is in high demand. While many associate blockchain with Bitcoin, its applications go well beyond the realm of cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain works as collections of data to which developers can only add to, creating a chain of data. Not being able to modify previous blocks makes this technology very secure. Another great feature of blockchain is that it is consensus-driven, meaning that no entity has control over the data.

This decentralization creates new ways of transacting, communicating, and doing business. There’s no longer a need for an intermediary that verifies the data through a centralized system. The data is not stored in an encrypted and more secure way.

Blockchain is an anticipated tech trend that allows companies to create new ideas. It accelerates the process of verifying transactions, preventing fraud and cyberattacks, while remaining efficient, reliable, and secure.

### Sustainable Technologies
In recent years business leaders became much more conscious of their carbon footprints and began making numerous changes to their organizations to minimize their waste or transform it by using sustainable technologies.

Companies are turning to AI, blockchain, cloud computing, extended reality, robotics, and many other forms of technology to help them create a greener, more sustainable future without sacrificing efficiency, productivity, and growth.

### Metaverse
The metaverse is an immersive 3D virtual world experience that profoundly enhances the experience of the Internet. We’re still far from seeing its completion but we’ve begun to understand its many capabilities.

This virtual world is great for people looking for new gaming experiences or other ways to socially interact. However, the metaverse is also a great opportunity for companies in terms of increased social presence, remote working, payments, healthcare, product trading, and more.

Many organizations are already capitalizing on this immersive environment to improve their services and connect with their consumers. Companies of all sizes, from all industries, are creating interactive metaverse-like experiences.

Future metaverse features will include advanced avatar systems, with the creation of full-body haptic suits and headsets that allow the metaverse to better simulate reality. GPS-like applications will allow metaverse users to quickly travel between different metaverse worlds.

### Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things refers to the growing number of devices connected between themselves due to Wi-Fi. There’s already a long list of IoT devices that include smartwatches, smartphones, fitness trackers, smart door locks, home voice controllers, and even coffee makers.

We can lock our doors remotely, schedule a fresh morning coffee, and monitor our overall fitness using IoT. However, as long as it is possible to connect our smartphones to everything surrounding us, this industry will continue to grow.

The IoT helps companies make better decisions by allowing them to collect and analyze real-time data. This feature could prove useful in a wide variety of industries by enabling predictive maintenance, accelerating medical care, improving customer service, and more.

A new area of IoT is also rising. It is called the AI of Things (AIoT) and refers to using artificial intelligence technologies in IoT devices to improve functionality and performance. It allows devices to autonomously collect and analyze data, make decisions, and take actions without human intervention.

### New Energy Solutions
Because sustainability is such a big goal across all industries, a great way to take advantage of current advancements in technology is to employ it in developing new energy solutions. This might lead to creating new types of sustainable energy models or improving already existing ones.

For instance, applying artificial intelligence to renewable energy models like wind and solar power could help increase their benefits. AI could detect any anomalies, predict failures, and allow workers to take timely action.

Innovation in the energy section appears in many different forms. These include smart grids that forecast peak energy demand and predict equipment failure, self-piloted drones that keep track of power lines and facilities, and even digital twins that simulate grid upgrades and show potential outcomes.

### Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Closely related to artificial intelligence and machine learning, RPA automates a wide variety of business processes and repetitive tasks. Some of them include interpreting applications, managing data, processing transactions, and responding to emails.

Not dealing with time-consuming, run-of-the-mill business tasks give employees the freedom of focusing on more creative and productive tasks, increasing profitability, saving costs, and reducing the chances of errors.

### Super Apps
Super apps are the apps of the future and therefore one of the most anticipated tech trends in 2023. They work as a digital ecosystem, a platform consisting of many different mini-apps that can be added or removed according to the user’s will.

The main goal of super apps is to replace the wide variety of available apps with a compact app that provides users with the features they need the most. Super apps combine utility with the creation of personalized user experiences.

An example of a successful super app is called PayPay. This is a Japanese payment provider that also offers mini-apps for purchasing movie tickets, ordering food, financial management, bicycle sharing, and more.

Future super app developments will likely include features that support chatbots, Internet of Things (IoT) tech, and the metaverse.

### Extended Reality
Extended reality encompasses all types of technology that simulate reality including Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, and everything in between. Extended reality tech continues to help us break away from the real boundaries of the world with its features.

This technology is popular among many industries from gaming and medical specialists to retail and even modeling. It can also be useful in training, entertainment, education, marketing, and injury rehabilitation.

Recruiters can take advantage of ER to conduct onboarding processes. The military might adapt simulation software to their VR or AR equipment to have their personnel train and safely improve their abilities. And even therapists can use this tech to employ exposure therapy treatments without directly exposing their patients to their stressors.

### The Top 10 Anticipated Tech Trends In 2023 – Final Considerations
Staying on top of technology development allows companies to quickly adapt and keep up with their competitors. To help keep you up to date I created this curated list for the top 10 anticipated tech trends in 2023.

Among the most popular technology trends, artificial intelligence and machine learning, quantum computing, and blockchain seem to stand out. However, the metaverse, IoT, and super apps will also have a great presence in the tech development field.

Technology will continue to aim for automation, independent decision-making, and improving internet experience. Sustainability, extended reality, and interconnectivity between many more devices will also play a big role in the development of new tech.

The Top 10 Anticipated Tech Trends In 2023

Pitching to high-level (C-Level) Executives is a pretty daunting task to say the least. Many a great business development exec or even the best sales folks around have proverbially bitten the dust when it comes to selling/pitching to a C-Level Exec, yes.

C-level decision makers are paid to improve their business results. Regardless of how the media portrays these executives, their primary concern is to improve their business. This includes increasing sales, market share, customer loyalty; reducing costs, errors, or employee turnover; improving productivity, employee engagement, customer service, etc.

How does your product, service or solution address one of these issues?

C-level decision makers deal with changing priorities. Improving customer engagement may be a top priority today but tomorrow that executive may be faced with cutting $250,000 in expenses. That means they sometimes go cold after expressing initial interest in your solution.

Do you have a strategy in place to keep your solution current?

C-level decision makersare extremely busy. The average executive arrives early in the morning and stays late into the evening. They get dozens of calls every day, receive too many emails, and attend too many meetings. This means that you need to maximize every minute you have when you connect with them. This applies to telephone conversations and face-to-face meetings.

Do you know EXACTLY what to say when you connect with these individuals?

C-level decision makersrely on others. Contrary to popular belief, these high-ranking big-wigs seldom make decisions on their own. They often defer to other people on their team and ask for feedback from peers and/or subordinates. This means you need to involve these people in your conversations and include them in the decision making process.

Do you have the ability to finesse this?

C-level decision makers don’t like to make mistakes. A major mistake can affect an executive’s reputation in their company. This affects the decision-making process which means you need to uncover their risk factor during your conversations.

How will you reduce your prospect’s risk factor?

C-level decision makers have big egos. Most executives have a healthy ego which is one of the things that helped them achieve their status in the company. This means that you need to be very confident in your own abilities when selling to these individuals. Don’t back down when you’re challenged. In fact, doing so could cost you the business because C-level execs want to deal with people who believe in what they do.

Are you confident enough to deal directly with C-level executives?

C-level decision makers spend the bulk of their day in meetings.The next time you’re in the office, watch an executive. Chances are you will see them dashing from meeting to meeting. Your prospects are in the same position. They aren’t sitting at their desk waiting for you to call them.

Are you persistent in your efforts to connect with these individuals?

C-level decision makers have at least 40 hours of work on their desk at any given time. Several executives I know have expressed these sentiment, “I will never get caught up” or “Just when I think I can’t get busier, I do” or “I never call a sales person back because I already have too much on my plate.” you need to give these individual’s an extremely good reason to meet with you or take your call.

Is your approach effective?

C-level decision makers receive upwards of 150 emails every day. Many sales people use email as their major form of correspondence and it can be ineffective because most C-level decision makers simply don’t have time to respond to every email. A Managing Director once told me that he prefers telephone correspondence because he simply can’t get to every email, even when he wants to.

Do you use a variety of strategies to connect with C-level decision makers?

C-level decision makers think big picture.Stop focusing on your product or your company and start looking at the big picture of your prospect’s business. Most C-level execs don’t get bogged down in the little details of their business—they pay others to take care of the details. I once met with the President of a $125 million company and made the mistake of asking her questions about front-line execution instead of top-level strategic issues.

Can you see and discuss the big picture?

Think about your responses to each question and adapt your approach accordingly.

Tips for Pitching to C-Level Executives

### Introduction
Cybersecurity has always been a hot topic, and as technology advances, the risks associated with cybersecurity will continue to grow. As a result, businesses and organizations are increasingly taking cybersecurity seriously as an investment.

[Cybersecurity](https://securityintelligence.com/articles/7-reasons-global-attacks-will-soar-2023/) is a fast-moving industry, with new developments, risks, and regulations constantly being introduced. It protects an organization’s data, reputation, and employees. With increased cyber risks and cyber threats emerging regularly, it has become essential to prepare ahead to tackle them effectively.

To manage day-to-day operations productively, businesses of any shape and size must be up-to-date with the latest technology trends. They must constantly innovate and look for ways to improve their measures against cyber threats and incidents. The increasing risks of cyber-attacks make it imperative to take necessary proactive measures and ensure that they are executed effectively.

### What is Cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity is designing and implementing mechanisms, technologies, and processes that protect an organization’s data, transactions, information, systems, networks, and assets against cybersecurity threats. Cybersecurity is a review of all the elements that are likely to be attacked and a plan for all possible approaches in response to attacks. Cybersecurity is also a broad term that can be broken down into various sub-categories, such as cyber security management, cyber threat management, information assurance, and many more.

The increasing number of vulnerable networks and unattended mobile devices makes it imperative for organizations to take proactive approaches to safeguard their systems against attacks. However, cybersecurity is more than just protecting the systems. It involves protecting the users and their data from malicious attacks.
### What are the Top 8 Cybersecurity Trends to Watch Out For in 2023?
With the increasing number of cyber-attacks, organizations must take note of cybersecurity trends likely to emerge in 2023. The following are some of the top 8 cybersecurity trends that you should keep an eye out for in 2023:

### Artificial Intelligence’s Possibilities (AI)
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a major concern for cybersecurity professionals, as it is expected to significantly change how organizations conduct their business. This involves using AI tools to manage cybersecurity risks and threats, automate cybersecurity processes, and enhance the information-gathering capabilities of security solutions.

AI-enabled security solutions will continue to develop in sophistication as organizations begin to consider how they can use AI technology for cybersecurity purposes. These AI-based security systems will be able to learn from cyberattacks and respond accordingly to protect themselves from future attacks. Fraud will also be a major concern in the coming years as AI-based security solutions can be technically manipulated to carry out cyber-attacks.

### The Growth of Automotive Hacking
With the increasing number of connected vehicles on the roads, there has also been an increasing threat of cyberattacks on these vehicles. As a result, governments are now creating laws and policies to mitigate this growing risk.

Automotive hacking has become a significant concern in cybersecurity, particularly as more cars are being produced with built-in connectivity. These connected devices could be vulnerable to privacy breaches and safety issues if hacked. With the increasing use of in-car connectivity, there could be a need to install more advanced cybersecurity measures. Such measures will include tamper-proof models and real-time monitoring of cars while they are being driven.

### Possible Vulnerability of Cloud
Cloud computing is also a major concern from a cybersecurity perspective, as it raises questions about the security of data stored on cloud-based servers. This has been a major challenge for many businesses in the aftermath of data breaches.

Cloud security vulnerabilities will continue to be an issue, as there is still confusion surrounding the risk of being hacked. Some businesses and organizations are reluctant to store data on cloud-based servers because they may be vulnerable to cyberattacks. Despite the risks, cloud-based servers will continue to be used by organizations for storing data in the future. As a result, organizations will need to take all necessary steps to secure their data, particularly as more cloud-based applications are being developed.

### The Rise in Ransomware Attacks
Malicious software attacks are another concern for cybersecurity professionals. As cybercrimes, such as ransomware, become more prevalent and costly, the need for proper digital defense will increase.

With the increased ransomware attacks, security professionals must develop adequate defense and detection methods to mitigate these growing threats. The increasing ransomware attacks have given rise to the need for organizations to invest in stronger security measures for protecting their data. These security measures could include backup systems, data encryption measures, and the strengthening of network security.

### Hacking IoT Devices
The Internet of Things (IoT) has become a popular way of integrating technology into existing systems and creating new devices. This is especially true when cities upgrade their infrastructure with IoT-based solutions.

As cities expand the use of IoT solutions, there will be an increase in the likelihood that IoT devices will be vulnerable to cyberattacks. As a result, city governments will have to adopt policies and procedures to ensure the security of these devices. This could include defining a cybersecurity strategy for all cities and municipalities and creating security protocols for managing IoT devices. Cities will also have to take steps to ensure that device manufacturers are held accountable for any cyberattacks on the IoT devices they develop.

### Data Breaches of Organizations
Data breaches are also a massive concern for organizations, as data theft and security breaches continue to be growing issues. These attacks are especially costly for businesses after a data breach.

Cyber breaches can also have devastating effects on an organization’s reputation. This is why it is increasingly crucial for organizations to develop proper digital defense policies to protect themselves from these costly attacks. With the growing data breaches, organizations must invest in proper IT infrastructure and implement a sound cybersecurity strategy to protect their data and networks.

### Risks from Insiders
The risks posed by insiders, such as former employees and disgruntled current employees, are also a growing concern for businesses. One of the main reasons for this is that with the increased amount of data available to these insiders, there are more opportunities for them to be exploited by malicious actors.

The threats from insider trading will become more significant over time as more organizations recognize these risks and establish policies addressing them. As a result, organizations must ensure that their business partners comply with the data protection legislation.

### Great Awareness of Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important for businesses and organizations, which is why there will be a rise in cybersecurity awareness programs designed to educate employees.

Crisis simulations are another tool that businesses can use to train their employees about the risk of cyberattacks. It is also possible that more businesses will hire dedicated personnel to ensure they have someone to turn to in the aftermath of a cyberattack.

With the increase in the likelihood of cyberattacks, there will continue to be a rise in the number of businesses aware of cybersecurity.

### Benefits of Watching Out For Cybersecurity Trends
Businesses or organizations must take proactive measures to keep data safe and secure. There are many ways an organization can implement a solid cybersecurity framework. The following are some of the important benefits of watching out for cybersecurity trends:

### Improve Security Posture
With the growing number of cyber threats and incidents, it is essential to have a robust security framework in place to counter the attacks and protect data. Watching for cybersecurity trends can help you assess your security at critical levels. It helps you improve your security posture by identifying loopholes and shortfalls. With a solid cyber strategy, it becomes easier to stay ahead of cyber criminals and hackers.

### Get the Latest Updates
With numerous cyber-attacks and incidents emerging regularly, it is essential to stay updated with the latest trends. Getting regular updates from cybersecurity blogs and newsletters is a good idea. In addition, there are a large number of online security training schools that also provide periodic updates about new threats that are identified.

### Find the Best Security Solutions
If you are looking for an effective, efficient, and affordable solution, it is best to look for the best security solutions. It becomes easier to find the best fit for your organization by keeping a tab on advanced security tools and technologies. Organizations can leverage the potential benefits of cyber threats by looking for highly reliable enhanced security products and services.

### Protect your Business Reputation
Cyber threats and incidents have become major concerns for businesses and organizations. While monitoring the internet, it is imperative to take strict measures to protect their reputation. It is essential to educate employees on what they are doing on the internet and ensure they know how to handle sensitive data securely. They need to know about cyber security trends likely to be prevalent in the upcoming years. This will help them understand how current technologies can secure data more efficiently.

### To Stay Ahead of the Competition
Businesses and organizations are constantly vying for market share in the current market scenario. A strong cyber security strategy is essential for companies to stay ahead of the competition. The emerging cyber trends will continue to be a major concern for companies looking to stake their claim. It becomes more important for them to adopt a strong cyber security strategy to keep pace with the competition by staying ahead of the game.

### Protect your Employees
As cyber threats become more prevalent, ensuring employees have a strong cyber security framework is imperative. It is also essential for them to understand the new cyber threats identified and take appropriate measures to ensure their security. The best way to do this is by educating employees about cyber-attack risks and then training them on how to handle sensitive data securely.

### Resilience to Cyber Threats
With the increasing number of cyber-attacks and incidents, businesses and organizations must remain resilient. They need to ensure that their critical data is protected at all times. The best way to do this is by taking appropriate measures, such as;

• Investing in the latest security solutions.

• Enhancing awareness levels among employees.

• Forming problem-solving mechanisms for dealing with cyber threats effectively.

• Setting up a Virtual CERT or Disaster Recovery Center to handle security alerts effectively.

• Creating and implementing an effective cybersecurity strategy.

• Training on cybersecurity trends and keeping employees updated on the latest threats.

### Conclusion
In conclusion, cybersecurity is a growing concern for most businesses and organizations, as there is a rising demand for security. This will continue to drive companies to seek more sophisticated and advanced ways to protect themselves from cyberattacks. As these cybersecurity trends increase in popularity, it will become increasingly important for businesses to safeguard their data and their organization’s reputation by implementing proper digital defense strategies.

Companies like mine are prone to attacks and we have to take extreme measures at times to ward them off. I hope this article helps.

Top 8 Cybersecurity Trends to Watch Out For in 2023

While none of us can predict the future, one thing is for sure – the FinTech industry will continue to grow throughout 2023. Keep reading for some FinTech predictions in the new year!

### Digital-Only Banking
Throughout 2023, digital-only banking will become the norm, and many banks have already started to pivot to digital-only services. Traditional banking services such as checks and cash deposits will become less popular as customers will turn to digital banking solutions instead.

Banks will offer various digital banking services, including online and mobile banking, bill payments, money transfers, and even cryptocurrency trading. Customers will be able to access these services through a variety of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers.

### Financial institutions will pivot to using AI more
In 2023, financial institutions will rely heavily on artificial intelligence (AI) to provide a more reliable and secure customer experience. Banks will use AI technology to automate specific processes and provide more accurate and efficient customer support.

Financial institutions will implement AI algorithms to detect fraud and other suspicious activities and provide personalized recommendations for products and services.

Banks and other financial institutions will also use AI to analyze customer data and provide more accurate predictions about customer needs and behaviors. This will help them make better decisions and tailor their services to meet the needs of their customers.

This technology will also enable financial institutions to offer more targeted marketing campaigns, increasing their success rate and maximizing their return on investment.

### Alternative Financing
In the new year, alternative financing options are expected to be widely available and more common than ever. With the continued development of financial technology, businesses and individuals alike will have access to several innovative and convenient ways to obtain the funds they need.

Some of the most popular alternative financing options in 2023 will include peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, crowdfunding, merchant cash advances, and invoice financing. Other alternative financing options expected to be popular in 2023 include Robo-advisors, cryptocurrency-based loans, and venture capital.

The increased availability of these alternative financing options will mean businesses and individuals will have access to a range of convenient and cost-effective ways to access the funding they need.
### Blockchain will transform financial transactions
In 2023, blockchain technology will revolutionize the way financial transactions are conducted. Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that can securely store, manage, and track digital transactions without needing a third-party intermediary. This will allow users to make and receive payments faster, securely, and with greater transparency.

The implementation of blockchain technology in financial transactions will provide numerous benefits, such as reducing the amount of time spent on administrative processes, increasing the speed and accuracy of payments, and reducing the risk of fraud.

Additionally, blockchain technology allows for an immutable record of all financial transactions, meaning that all data associated with a transaction will be securely stored and can easily be verified. This will help reduce financial crime risk, eliminating the need for intermediaries and making it much harder to manipulate data.

Furthermore, this technology will give users more control over their finances, allowing them to securely store, transfer and manage their assets without relying on a third-party intermediary. It will also enable users to conduct cross-border payments more quickly and efficiently, eliminating the need for currency conversion and the associated fees.

### Fintech regulations will be intensified
Governments worldwide are expected to look closely at the regulations surrounding the fintech industry this coming year. This heightened scrutiny will be driven by the rapid growth of the sector and a need to ensure that the technologies being used comply with existing regulations.

As a result, governments may impose new requirements on fintech companies, such as registration, licensing, and compliance with anti-money laundering and consumer protection laws. Additionally, regulators may require companies to provide greater transparency in their operations and data security practices.

The fintech industry will need to adjust to these new regulations or face hefty fines and other sanctions. To stay ahead of the curve, fintech companies should begin preparing for the increased regulations by ensuring that their products and services comply with existing rules and regulations. This may include developing a comprehensive compliance program and regularly updating their data security practices.

Companies should also look into obtaining the appropriate licenses and registrations required by their respective jurisdictions. By preparing early, fintech companies will be better equipped to handle the intensified regulations expected to come in 2023.

### Making payments will get even easier
In 2023, making payments will become even more convenient and accessible than ever before. With the advancement of technology and the increased use of digital payments, consumers will be able to pay for goods and services easily and quickly.

Companies will be able to offer a variety of payment options, such as contactless payments, mobile payments, and online payments, to make it easier for customers to complete transactions. Businesses will be able to take advantage of the latest security protocols to ensure that customers’ financial information is kept safe and secure.

Stores will be able to provide customized payment solutions tailored to their customer’s needs, such as installment payments and loyalty rewards. Through these technologies, companies will be able to offer customers a more seamless and secure payment experience.

### API Ecosystems
In 2023, API, or Application Programming Interface, ecosystems will be even more prevalent than they are today. As technology evolves, APIs are becoming increasingly important for businesses of all sizes. Companies realize that APIs are not only a way to access their own data, but also a way to access data from other companies and build an interconnected system. This interconnected system allows for increased efficiency and better collaboration between companies.

As businesses continue to embrace APIs and their benefits, the need for a more secure, reliable, and accessible infrastructure will increase. Companies will invest heavily in developing and managing their API ecosystems to meet this need. These ecosystems will be comprised of multiple APIs, each with its own distinct purpose, that are connected and managed together.

API ecosystems will also be more reliable and secure, as companies will be able to control and monitor their APIs more closely. This will be enabled by using security protocols, such as OAuth and OpenID Connect, as well as other tools like tokens and encryption. Companies will also be able to track and monitor their APIs more closely, allowing them to identify and address any issues that might arise.

Tthe use of cloud-based services will also become more prevalent. Companies will be able to develop and manage their APIs in the cloud, allowing them to take advantage of the scalability, reliability, and cost-effectiveness offered by cloud-based services. This will enable companies to develop and manage their APIs more quickly, with fewer resources and lower costs.

### Buy Now, Pay Later
In 2023, buy now, pay later services will provide consumers with unprecedented convenience and flexibility. Consumers will be able to purchase goods and services without having to provide immediate payment, allowing them to spread the cost of their purchase over time. This will make it easier for consumers to purchase higher-priced items, such as electronics, that they may not have been able to afford otherwise. Furthermore, many buy now, pay later services will offer additional benefits such as 0% interest and no fees, making them even more attractive.

The growing popularity of buy now, pay later services will also lead to an increased focus on financial literacy. Consumers will be encouraged to understand the implications of using such services, such as ensuring they have enough funds to pay the balance in full each month. Companies offering these services will likely be required to abide by stricter regulations to protect consumers from irresponsible borrowing.

### Open Banking
Open banking in 2023 will be a reality, and the implications for consumers, banks, and the broader financial system will be far-reaching. Consumers will have unprecedented control over their financial data, allowing them to securely and conveniently share it with third parties. Banks must adapt to the new landscape by offering open APIs, allowing third parties to access their data.

This will enable the development of innovative financial services, such as personalized financial advice and automated budgeting. Fintech startups will benefit from the shift to open banking and be able to compete with traditional banks on a level playing field. Regulators will have to ensure that consumers’ data remains secure and that they are protected from fraud and other risks.

### Contactless Wearables
While contactless wearables are already popular, they will become even more widespread in 2023. In the workplace, businesses will use contactless wearables to secure access to buildings and rooms, eliminating the need for physical keys or badges. In the financial industry, consumers will use contactless wearables to make payments, reducing the need for cash or cards. Contactless wearables will even be used for monitoring health, such as heart rate, temperature, and blood pressure.

As contactless wearables become more commonplace, and consumers begin using them for everyday purchases, manufacturers will focus on making them more secure, comfortable, and aesthetically pleasing. For example, they may have fingerprint scanners and other biometric authentication systems to ensure that only the intended user can access the device. They will also be made of softer, lightweight materials such as silicone or fabric to reduce discomfort when worn. Aesthetically, contactless wearables will come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors to appeal to different tastes and styles.

### Final thoughts
The fintech industry has been booming over the last several years, and 2023 will be no exception. These developments in financial technology will ultimately give us more convenience and ease in the new year!

There’s much more to write on this, I will try to cover it in subsequent, related topics.

Top FinTech Predictions & Trends of 2023

Let’s face it- you all want to be your own boss. I mean, we all want to invest our time and energies working towards ‘our’ ideal dreams of making a gazillion dollars, living the high life and not having to report to work on time, or salivate like Pavlov’s dogs at the mere mention of the month end salary.

Good, but how? Owning a business seems like the ideal thing to do- but, it’s not for everybody. If you ain’t as disciplined as a trapist monk, as frugal as your grandma, as calculative as a calculator, innovative as a Leonardo Da Vinci clone, or are still fixated on the ‘not having to report to work on time’ comment from before, stick to your day job.

If however, you do qualify to go after your dreams without seriously pissing off the angels of luck and prosperity sitting on your shoulders- Read on for the 8 steps that will help you get started:

Have a Plan?
What would be your business? Without this, you are goofing around man. You intend to manufacture a product, or run a service that you feel people need. Better if it’s something that’s unique and totally your own- ‘Carpool- When Carrom meets Pool’, see what we mean?

Put your Plan on Paper
Even Moses needed two stone tablets to convince the Israelites about God’s Ten Commandments. To convince people around you, and keep yourself on track, you must put your big plan on paper. A business plan helps to define what you think you need to launch your business and explains its essence in a single document.

What’s in a Name? Everything!!
A good, catchy name is essentially your small business’ calling card- the tip of the iceberg, if you will. Take your time to unearth a good title as people are going to soon associate this name to everything your business stands for. Meanwhile, check out if .com domains are available for this name in a legible combination. If yes, register it before someone else snaps it!!

Recruit the team
Ok, this is the tricky part. Aside from your own expertise, you might want to bring in some of your trusted friends and contacts to join in your mission. This helps build a positive synergy in the team wherein people bounce ideas off each other and generally add to the overall cause. Remember however, this isn’t Oceans 11 or any one of its sequels.

Get the Law on your Side
While building your plans, you might have unintentionally trampled on regulations or sought out patented or soon to be patented ideas as your own. Plus, there are tons of Government rules in place for owing a proprietorship. Hire a good Attorney to help you make sense of all this.

Pump in some Cash
How are you gonna fund your business? Your savings, bank loans, funding from friends, the treasure chest buried in your garden- anything that can help your business get off the ground. With a website and online marketing, you can also seek crowd-funding from the general online masses. Always remember the four F for investment- founders, family, friends and fools.

Create a Brand Entity
Unless you are running a secret project for the CIA, you want people and businesses to know about you. Get a website, corporate branding including letterheads and business cards, and that shiny metallic plaque for your front door.

Online Marketing to round up the Cows
Website for your business isn’t gonna source in your target business overnight. Invest in some Online Marketing to truly spice up your website and business image across the World Wide Web. With powerful Online Marketing you can compete with established names in your sphere of operation from Day 1 itself. Bless the Digital Age!!

There, from an idea to actual business in 8 Simple Steps. Now get off that couch and get moving!

~ Lina Wang

Want to Be Your Own Boss?

Growing a business can actually be a fairly simple process when you make use of the thousands of helpful growth hacking tools on the web. Best of all, some of them are completely free. Why pay to grow your business when you don’t have to?

Still, even the ones you pay for are well worth it if you want to see your numbers grow exponentially with little effort. They key to expanding your business in today’s world is to create a strong digital brand that helps promote your business. This means you have to venture into the world of websites, blogs, and social media.

Luckily, these five growth hacking tools are excellent helpers in this area. They are all online essential growth hacking tools that can help you analyze what you are doing great, fix what is not working so well, and provide you with insight about your competitors and your audience. In turn, you will get a bigger audience and more traffic to your website to help you grow your business.

**Google Analytics**

[Google Analytics](http://analytics.google.com/) is a completely free tool provided by Google. Even though it’s free, it is one of the most important and helpful tools you can possibly use to grow your business and digital brand.

Google Analytics focuses on your website, the trends and behaviors of your audience, and the growth of your traffic. Your website is one of the single, most important things you should focus on to grow your business because it is often the first thing potential consumers see when they want to learn about your company.

To grow your website, you have to [learn about your audience](https://www.koozai.com/blog/analytics/google-analytics-business-benefits/). Who is visiting your website? Where are they coming from? What do they look for when they visit? These are all questions that Google Analytics answers. When you learn more about your audience, you can further target your website to meet their needs, which will grow customer engagement and share-ability on social media.

Furthermore, Google Analytics can also provide you with insight about your social media campaigns, advertising campaigns, content performance, conversion for purchases, and more. Once you find out what is working well for you, you can target your budget to enhance performance from successful marketing areas. Google Analytics is one of the most versatile, all-around helpful, tools you can use to grow your business.

**Outbrain**

[Outbrain](http://www.outbrain.com/) is a tool that amplifies your content on some of the biggest websites, like CNN, Mashable, and Time Etc. Outbrain adds your content to relevant websites and content areas so that the people who are most likely to engage with your content see it and want to click over. In turn, you receive more engaged, targeted traffic that can generate more leads or sales for your business.

Additionally, when your content is added to top websites, you gain more recognition for your business. The content you add can be videos, blog posts, articles, press coverage, and reviews – all of which will be added to other sites professionally and seamlessly to enhance your brand recognition.

With Outbrain, you can choose to target audiences geographically to further pinpoint your perfect audience for your business. Are you a local business who wants to make more people in your immediate area aware of what you have to offer? Geo-targeting through Outbrain is perfect for you. Or, if you are looking to expand your business to other locations, you can engage possible interest in those locations before ever opening your doors.

Outbrain also allows you to set your budget for each of your campaigns so you can ensure that you don’t spend more than you can afford on advertising. Start a campaign with a low budget to gauge its interest and success. If it goes well, considering adding more to your budget to expand your campaign. You can budget as low as $10 a day, which is great for startups.

**SumoMe ListBuilder**

If you are looking for growth hacking tools, surely you have heard of the benefits of growing your e-mail list, a surefire way to generate more traffic to your website and leads or sales for your business.

ListBuilder by SumoMe is one of the most popular tools to build your e-mail list. ListBuilder advertises that it can [increase your daily e-mail subscriber](https://sumome.com/app/list-builder) sign-ups by 20%, which is a significant amount, so you can turn one-time visitors into daily, engaged, followers or customers.

ListBuilder provides options for pop-ups to entice your visitors to subscribe to your e-mail list without being annoying. You can opt to have the pop-up show when someone arrives at your site, or once they decide to leave your site so you can have a chance to entice them to stay. If you have something you can offer them, like a free eBook with helpful tips related to your niche, this is the perfect time to offer it in exchange for an e-mail list sign-up!

Your digital brand is important, and ListBuilder understands that. So, it offers a lot of customization to make your pop-ups match your brand or website colors, so your brand flows throughout. All of this is free, but you can choose to upgrade to ListBuilder Pro for tools that can help you grow your e-mail list by another 20-50%.

After you grow your list, ListBuilder [provides integration](https://sumome.com/app/list-builder) with the most popular newsletter-creation services, like MailChimp and Hubspot, so you can effortlessly send your newsletter to your new subscribers.

**Sigstr**

Now that you have your e-mail list built and are ready to start sending out some awesome newsletters, let [Sigstr](http://www.sigstr.com/) help you even more. Sigstr gets all of your e-mails, no matter who in your company sends them, looking cohesive and professional so your brand messaging remains consistent with every e-mail.

This is one of the best growth hacking tools to easily enhance your business by personalizing branded e-mail signatures for each of your employees while also staying consistent with your branding on each signature. Add your company logo, slogan, address, or whatever else you want to each e-mail while also customizing the sender’s name for more personalization.

You can also use Sigstr to promote content across your e-mails. Highlight your most recent promotion or campaign in all of your outgoing or scheduled e-mails by customizing just one template. Any changes you make to a campaign or signature is [updated in real-time](http://www.sigstr.com/product/) so all members of your team will have immediate access to the changes.

Sigstr also provides [detailed analytics](http://www.sigstr.com/product/) so you can track your employee’s displays and clicks and know how well each is performing with their e-mails. After all, effective e-mail campaigns are only as effective as the employees who create and send them, right?

**BuzzSumo**

So far, we have covered some excellent growth hacking tools to help you grow your business. Now, how can you work on continuously creating viral content that grows your traffic fast? One of the most talked about tools for online growth is [BuzzSumo](http://buzzsumo.com/).

BuzzSumo provides extensive research and insights so you can understand what type of content is working the best on your website – and create more of it! You can also take a peek at some of your competitors’ most successful content and take some pointers.

This sounds sneaky, but it’s actually a very solid strategy to understand what works in your niche and personalize that type of content to your brand. Or, you can find out what content does well for your competitors and offer them a spot to guest-post on your website to help bring in traffic.

Once you have a few ideas in mind for successful content, BuzzSumo helps you optimize your headlines and your content structure to make the most eye-catching content to drive potential consumers to your site.

Growth hacking tools are so widely available that it can be difficult to narrow down the most effective ones. These five essential growth hacking tools are some of the most popular for bloggers and businesses all over the world who want to grow their business presence easily and fast. The more time you save by letting online tools do most of the legwork, the more time you’ll have to focus on your business.

5 Essential Growth Hacking Tools to Build Your Business

Throughout my tryst with e-commerce, I’ve been frequently asked regarding what would be the best retail pricing strategy or strategies to adopt. Now, I know that the Flipkarts and the Snapdeals are worth billions of dollars, but do they pull any profits in yet? Not at the last count, despite being there for several years now. I feel one of the flaws they have is an improper comprehensive retail pricing strategy.

There are a lot of factors that can influence the profitability and a retailer’s bottom line. Setting right pricing is a crucial step towards achieving that wanted profit. One of the main objectives of retailers is to make a profit, but figuring out what and how to price products is actually not as easy as it seems.

Before you can determine which retail pricing strategy to use in setting the right price for your retail products, you must first know the costs associated with the products. Two key elements in factoring product cost is the cost of goods and the amount of operating expense.

The cost of goods includes the amount paid for the product, plus any shipping or handling expenses. The cost of operating the business, or operating expense, includes overhead, payroll, marketing and office supplies.

Regardless of the pricing strategy used, the retail price of the products should more than cover the cost of obtaining the goods plus the expenses related to operating the business. A retailer simply cannot succeed in business if they continue to sell their products below cost. At Ebay, we used to have sellers’ meetings to stress vehemently what we called “the ideal sourcing of products”.

Now that you understand what your products actually cost, you should look at how your competition is pricing their products. Retailers will also need to examine their channels of distribution and research what the market is willing to pay.

Many pricing strategies exist and each is used based on particular sets of circumstances. Here are a few of the more popular pricing strategies to consider:

Mark-up Pricing

Markup on cost can be calculated by adding a pre-set (often industry standard) profit margin, or percentage, to the cost of the merchandise. Markup on retail is determined by dividing the dollar markup by retail. Be sure to keep the initial mark-up high enough to cover price reductions, discounts, shrinkage and other anticipated expenses, and still achieve a satisfactory profit. Retailers with a varied product selection can use different mark-ups on each product line.

Vendor Pricing

Manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) is a common strategy used by the smaller live and online retail shops to avoid price wars and still maintain a decent profit. Some suppliers have minimum advertised prices but also suggest the retail pricing. By pricing products with the suggested retail prices supplied by the vendor, the retailer is out of the decision-making process. Another issue with using pre-set prices is that it doesn’t allow a retailer to have an advantage over the competition.

Competitive Pricing

Consumers have many choices and are generally willing to shop around to receive the best price. Retailers considering a competitive pricing strategy will need to provide outstanding customer service to stand above the competition.

Pricing below competition simply means pricing products lower than the competitor’s price. This strategy works well if the retailer negotiates the best prices, reduces costs and develops a marketing strategy to focus on price specials.

Prestige pricing, or pricing above competition, may be considered when location, exclusivity or unique customer service can justify higher prices. Retailers that stock high-quality merchandise that isn’t available at any other location may be quite successful in pricing their products above competitors.

Psychological Pricing

Psychological pricing is used when prices are set to a certain level where the consumer perceives the price to be fair. The most common method is odd-pricing using figures that end in 5, 7 or 9. It is believed that consumers tend to round down a price of $9.95 to $9, rather than $10. At Ebay, we initially encouraged for example, auctions beginning at $0.01; bulk items put up for sale for $9.99, instead of $10.

Other Pricing Strategies

Keystone pricing is not used as often as it once was. Doubling the cost paid for merchandise was once the rule of pricing products, but very few products these days allow a retailer to keystone the product price.

Multiple pricing is a method which involves selling more than one product for one price, such as three items for $1.00. Not only is this strategy great for markdowns or sales events, but retailers have noticed consumers tend to purchase in larger amounts where the multiple pricing strategy is used.

Discount pricing and price reductions are a natural part of retailing. Discounting can include coupons, rebates, seasonal prices and other promotional markdowns.

Merchandise priced below cost is referred to as loss leaders – a good example is the Xiaomi mobile phone mega sale on Flipkart last year. Although retailers make no profit on these discounted items, the hope is consumers will purchase other products at higher margins during their visit to the store or marketplace.

As you develop the best pricing model for your offline or online retail business, understand that the ideal pricing strategy will depend on more than costs. It also depends on good pricing practices.

It is difficult to say which component of pricing is more important than another. Just keep in mind, the right product price is the price the consumer is willing to pay, while providing a profit to the retailer.

What is The Best Retail Pricing Strategy?

Each day, you'll see a new startup entering the market. However, most of them meet the same fate of getting acquired instead of launching an IPO (Initial Public Offering). So, why don't founders think or talk about three exit strategies?

As more startups meet the same fate, it begs the question, what are the things stopping the founders from talking about the future of their startups? In this article, we'll discuss some of the common myths and biases that come the way of founders that stops them from thinking ahead.  

***Why Having an Exit Strategy Is Vital?***

While most entrepreneurs know that the ultimate fate of a startup is acquisitions, they don't seriously think about the exit plan. They will only focus on it when there is no other option left on the table except for selling the startup or if the acquirer has a lot of interest in their startup.

Consequently, they cannot leverage the vital strategic opportunities to help them get a better result out of the deal. The ideal way out for entrepreneurs in this situation is to plan an exit strategy years before the acquisition takes place. This way, they will have a clear idea about where they plan to stand when it is time to sell the business. 

But if it is so important for startups to devise an exit strategy, why are they neglecting it? The simple answer is that many myths circulating in the startup community make it difficult to discuss exit planning. 

***Reasons That Prevent Founders from Talking About Exit Strategies***

Creating and implementing an exit plan requires a collective effort from all the stakeholders. However, a few myths and reasons make it impossible for founders to discuss exit planning. Understanding them will allow entrepreneurs to make the most out of the final sale for their startup.

**Focusing on Current Rather Than the Future**

Generally, entrepreneurs have a lot on their plate to deal with, making it impossible for them to focus on the future. So, most entrepreneurs don't consider strategic planning necessary for their startup. Moreover, they tend to look at the near, short-term gains instead of focusing on the bigger picture. Therefore, they continue to ignore future risks and rewards. 

It explains why most entrepreneurs don't spend too much time building an exit strategy. The current bias prevents entrepreneurs from focusing on long-term planning. As a result, it leads to a strategic failure that can cost entrepreneurs their startups. 

If you don't talk about a particular thing, we cannot figure out ways to improve. The same is the case with strategic planning, as entrepreneurs fail to discuss an exit plan for their startups.

**Too Much Optimism**

While optimism is critical in helping entrepreneurs achieve their goals, it can soon raise a false sense of self-confidence. Even though most entrepreneurs know how difficult it is for new businesses to sustain, they don't apply the same risk in their situation. 

Most people show too much optimism regarding the probability of success. Consequently, they don't consider that the most likely outcome would be to go toward an acquisition. They're likely going to consider focusing more on taking the company public. 

That is where the problem starts since no entrepreneur would think or talk about building a strategic exit plan since they don't have a realistic idea of their startup's prospects. The ideal thing that entrepreneurs can do to deal with these issues is to develop a long-term strategy about the possibilities of a strategic sale as the final fate of their startup. 

Not just that, but they also need to continue making necessary changes to their plan by understanding the new data about their growth, evolving market conditions, and the changes in their industry.

**The Myth of Acquisition Failures**

As we read and hear about failed acquisitions, it casts a bad light on this choice and spreads a misleading and false narrative. Entrepreneurs have a common misconception that acquisitions can negatively impact shareholder value and won't help them accomplish their goals. 

Therefore, this misconception makes it difficult for startups and entrepreneurs to focus on selling their businesses. They won't consider the acquisition a viable option to achieve their company's goals and fulfill their aspirations. However, that is different from the result of most of the acquisitions. 

Entrepreneurs should research the actual data to understand the chances of acquisition failure. It will allow them to discuss an exit strategy with their shareholders since they can respond to the entrepreneurs' queries.

**Having a Strategic Plan Hampers Innovation**

Since innovation is a key factor behind a business's growth, many entrepreneurs believe that having an exit strategy will take away the motivation to bring something new to the table. Entrepreneurs fear that having an exit strategy would make it a favorable option to get out by selling their business and not having to deal with the difficulties. 

However, that is not the case since there is no research or evidence to back the claim that strategic planning to reduce the risk can impact innovation. However, there is growing evidence that excessive stress and pressure can hamper entrepreneurs' ability to think innovatively. Not just that, but it can also negatively impact their mental health and lead to burnout and other issues. 

An important thing to note is that entrepreneurs with excessive stress and pressure can find it hard to develop innovative ideas. The stress of risk and failure hampers the ability to think outside of the path. 

With a viable exit plan in position, the startups have a much better regarding what to do if things start to go south. It has a "panic button" effect, meaning they have a backup option to control or avoid a stressful situation. Since the entrepreneurs and their teams will have less stress, they can put forth the most creative ideas on the table. 

While there is always risk involved in entrepreneurship, it is not necessary to stay under excessive pressure of risk and failure to drive entrepreneurial passion and commitment. Instead, being passionate and stress-free allows them to work on something that can yield fruitful results.  

**Dealing with Investors**

Venture investors are more likely to invest in businesses that desire to take risks and create something. They like to engage with entrepreneurs that have a mission of building a business at scale. Also, they want entrepreneurs to have a persistent dedication to their startups, so they stick with them in times of difficulty and hardships. 

Since businesses have to deal with hardships, there needs to be a clear and concise accord between the investors and entrepreneurs to take relevant actions and survive through thought times. Investors don't prefer to work with entrepreneurs with a built-to-flip since they fear individuals won't have the drive and perseverance to develop innovative ideas.

They believe entrepreneurs won't come up with different ideas to deal with the inevitable obstacles. Therefore, investors don't prefer to talk about having a serious plan with the entrepreneurs about a strategic exit plan. Nevertheless, entrepreneurs must carefully understand and develop the right strategy to deal with this issue. 

It is best to create a proper context by understanding the investors' concerns and addressing them before discussing exit plans. The optimal approach is to discuss the benefits both parties can get working on a solution that is in the best interest of the entrepreneurs and the investors. 
An important thing for entrepreneurs to note is that they need to collect relevant data, test their theories, and collect relevant data to make clear long-term strategic options. Even if the investors and entrepreneurs have the ultimate goal of launching an IPO for the business, it would be best to have a strategic acquirer as a standby option. It will improve the overall valuation of the IPO. 

***The Bottom Line — Talking About Exit Strategies***

As an entrepreneur, you want your business to reach the pinnacle of success. However, this doesn't mean you ignore the ground facts and turn a blind spot to the realistic view of your business. Therefore, it is vital to have a proper exit strategy to ensure that you can leverage the opportunity when selling your business. 

Designing and implementing an exit strategy beforehand will increase your chances of success and survival in the long run. The first thing that you need to do is discuss with your stakeholders so they are open to discussing creating an exit strategy. 

Understand their concerns and address their issues before you decide on moving to the next step. An effective approach to creating strategic planning with all the stakeholders on board will help steer your business out of tough times.


Why Are Founders Afraid to Talk About Exit Strategies?

Atlas Rail: A Merchant-Grade Stablecoin Payment Rail

Owning the Rails: Why I’m Building Atlas Rail (ZenXRail) for a Permissionless Payments Future

Monetize the Float: How a Stablecoin Actually Makes Money

Monetize the Float, Not the Hype: My Blueprint for Stablecoins

Atlas Rail and Zen: Building the Rails of Global Finance

Atlas Rail & Zen: How I Intend to Build the Rails of Global Finance

In the borderless world of crypto, there’s still one invisible wall: the U.S. Dollar!
<div style="font-family: 'Aptos', Calibri; color:#000000;">
Whether you’re buying Bitcoin in Paris, trading Ethereum in São Paulo, or cashing out stablecoins in Lagos, the unit of account is almost always USD. Your stablecoins are USD-backed, major exchanges settle in USD pairs, and global NAV reporting defaults to American terms. For most non-U.S. users, this means crossing the same bridge twice — local fiat to USD, then USD to crypto — paying hidden FX costs of 1.5-4% each way.
ZenX, as a U.S.-registered Money Services Business (MSB) with full crypto permissions and a complete ecosystem to support it (backed by JP Morgan), stands on the inside of this monetary core. This isn’t just compliance, it’s a structural advantage. It means we can remove one leg of FX conversion entirely, deliver USD liquidity directly, and undercut offshore competitors who rely on synthetic USD channels. Our USD Advantage Playbook turns this position into a product suite: direct OTC settlement, deep stablecoin liquidity, currency-hedged NAV solutions, and advisory for eliminating phantom tax events.
Here’s the ZenX USD Advantage Playbook: a strategic, product, and marketing framework to capitalize on USD’s dominance in crypto, fully aligned with our US MSB status and our group of companies’ value-for-value mindset.
<h1 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:28px; margin:12px 0 12px 0;">The ZenX USD Advantage Playbook</h1>
<h2 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:24px; margin:10px 0 6px 0;">1. Strategic Foundation</h2> Core Premise: Crypto is priced, settled, and reported in USD (or USD-pegged stablecoins). Non-US users face extra costs (1.5-4% FX markups per roundtrip) and delays because they must bridge into USD to trade crypto. As a US-registered MSB, ZenX is inside the system’s base currency—positioning us to:
<ul style="color:#000000; font-size:18px; margin:0 0 20px 20px;">
 <li>Remove friction for foreign clients.</li>
 <li>Capture FX spread they would otherwise pay to banks and brokers.</li>
 <li>Offer faster settlement and deeper liquidity in the industry’s primary unit of account.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:24px; margin:20px 0 12px 0;">2. Product Strategy</h2>
A. Direct USD Access for Non-US Clients
<ul style="color:#000000; font-size:18px; margin:0 0 20px 20px;">
 <li>Product: USD-denominated OTC trades and custody for global clients.</li>
 <li>How it Works: Client sends local fiat to ZenX’s network of correspondent banks or FX partners. We convert once, in bulk, at interbank rates — passing savings compared to retail FX spreads. Settlement directly in USD or USD stablecoins.</li>
 <li>Value Proposition: Cut FX costs by up to 60% vs. Coinbase/Binance on large tickets.</li>
</ul>
B. Stablecoin Liquidity Provision
<ul style="color:#000000; font-size:18px; margin:0 0 20px 20px;">
 <li>Product: Deep liquidity pools in USDT/USDC for offshore exchanges, brokers, and market makers.</li>
 <li>How it Works: Provide guaranteed fills for large stablecoin orders. Price tightly vs. mid-market to undercut peer-to-peer venues. Include optional hedging for clients exposed to USD volatility.</li>
 <li>Value Proposition: Offshore desks get reliable USD-pegged liquidity without touching US banking risk directly.</li>
</ul>
C. NAV Hedging Services
<ul style="color:#000000; font-size:18px; margin:0 0 20px 20px;">
 <li>Product: Currency-hedged crypto exposure for foreign funds, ETFs, and high-net-worth clients.</li>
 <li>How it Works: Client invests in BTC/ETH via ZenX. ZenX runs a rolling FX hedge (e.g., EUR/USD, JPY/USD) to neutralize currency impact on NAV.</li>
 <li>Value Proposition: Protects clients from the “phantom loss” effect when USD moves against their home currency.</li>
</ul>
D. Phantom Tax Event Advisory
<ul style="color:#000000; font-size:18px; margin:0 0 20px 20px;">
 <li>Product: Compliance and structuring advisory for foreign clients taxed in their local currency on USD-based gains.</li>
 <li>How it Works: Partner with cross-border tax specialists. Offer tokenized products and structured notes that minimize phantom tax triggers.</li>
 <li>Value Proposition: Protects net returns, builds stickiness with sophisticated clients.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:24px; margin:20px 0 20px 0;">3. Pricing &amp; Margin Strategy</h2>
<div style="overflow-x:auto; margin:20px 0 20px 0;">
 <table style="color:#000000; border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; min-width:600px; font-size:16px;">
 <thead>
 <tr>
 <th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">Service</th>
 <th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">Cost to ZenX</th>
 <th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">Market Rate</th>
 <th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">ZenX Pricing</th>
 <th style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">Target Margin</th>
 </tr>
 </thead>
 <tbody>
 <tr>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">Direct USD OTC (FX)</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">0.10–0.20% (interbank)</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">1.5–4% (retail FX)</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">0.75–1.25%</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">300–500 bps</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">Stablecoin Liquidity</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">Minimal (on-hand treasury)</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">0.25–0.50%</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">0.35–0.45%</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">100–200 bps</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">NAV Hedging</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">~0.05–0.15% p.m.</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">0.20–0.40% p.m.</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">0.25–0.30% p.m.</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">100–150 bps</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">Tax Structuring Advisory</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">Partnership-based</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">$5k–$25k flat</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">$10k–$50k</td>
 <td style="border: 1px solid #000; padding: 8px;">50–100%</td>
 </tr>
 </tbody>
 </table>
</div>
<h2 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:24px; margin:20px 0 12px 0;">4. Marketing Positioning</h2>
Tagline: “ZenX – The World’s Crypto Exchange in the World’s Currency.”
Core Messaging:
<ul style="color:#000000; font-size:18px; margin:0 0 20px 20px;">
 <li>“Trade globally. Settle in the currency that moves the markets.”</li>
 <li>“Cut out hidden FX costs. Keep more of what you earn.”</li>
 <li>“Your bridge to USD-based crypto liquidity — direct, fast, and compliant.”</li>
</ul>
Target Segments:
<ul style="color:#000000; font-size:18px; margin:0 0 20px 20px;">
 <li>High-Net-Worth Individuals – cross-border traders and crypto whales in Europe, Asia, Africa.</li>
 <li>Funds &amp; ETFs – need NAV stability and efficient USD access.</li>
 <li>OTC Desks &amp; Brokers – require deep USDT/USDC liquidity offshore.</li>
 <li>Family Offices &amp; Corporates – need FX risk management for crypto holdings.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:24px; margin:20px 0 12px 0;">5. Distribution &amp; Acquisition</h2>
A. Direct Institutional Outreach
<ul style="color:#000000; font-size:18px; margin:0 0 20px 20px;">
 <li>Sales teams targeting offshore OTC desks, funds, and family offices.</li>
 <li>Leverage US MSB license in pitch decks as trust anchor.</li>
</ul>
B. Co-Branding with FX Providers
<ul style="color:#000000; font-size:18px; margin:0 0 20px 20px;">
 <li>Partner with specialist FX firms in Europe, Asia, and Africa.</li>
 <li>Offer ZenX as the crypto execution arm for their clients.</li>
</ul>
C. Content Marketing
<ul style="color:#000000; font-size:18px; margin:0 0 20px 20px;">
 <li>Publish USD Advantage Reports quarterly: FX trends, crypto pricing implications, hedging strategies.</li>
 <li>Position ZenX as the thought leader in USD-based crypto efficiency.</li>
</ul>
D. Performance PR
<ul style="color:#000000; font-size:18px; margin:0 0 0 20px;">
 <li>Sponsor reports on “Hidden Costs of Crypto FX” showing how ZenX reduces them.</li>
 <li>Use client case studies with % savings.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:24px; margin:20px 0 12px 0;">6. Operational Edge</h2>
Why This is Difficult for Competitors:
<ul style="color:#000000; font-size:18px; margin:0 0 20px 20px;">
 <li>Offshore exchanges can’t hold USD directly; must use stablecoins or shadow banking.</li>
 <li>Non-US MSBs face stricter correspondent banking relationships for USD clearing.</li>
 <li>Many OTC desks operate in a single currency; ZenX operates in the base currency for both legs.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:24px; margin:20px 0 12px 0;">7. The Rational Strategic Lens</h2>
<ul style="color:#000000; font-size:18px; margin:0 0 20px 20px;">
 <li>Rational Self-Interest: We exploit a market reality: USD is the lingua franca of crypto — rather than fight it.</li>
 <li>Value-for-Value: Clients save on FX costs; we capture a fair profit for delivering that efficiency.</li>
 <li>Independence: We operate from the system’s monetary core, controlling settlement speed, pricing, and risk.</li>
 <li>Long-Range Thinking: This position holds until USD’s role changes; if it does, the same model can pivot to the next base currency.</li>
</ul>At ZenX, we do not view USD dominance as a geopolitical accident — we see it as a market reality to be understood, mastered, and used to mutual advantage. The world’s crypto economy already speaks the language of the dollar; our position inside that system allows us to translate it into faster settlement, lower friction, and tighter spreads for our clients.
We do not promise charity. We do not sell illusions. We offer what the market truly values: direct access to the base currency of global crypto, with the efficiency and certainty that others cannot match. In return, we charge a fair price for delivering measurable savings, deeper liquidity, and structural advantages you cannot replicate offshore.
This is value for value; nothing more, nothing less. In a world where hidden costs and artificial barriers drain wealth, we stand for transparent trade, rational profit, and the right to keep what you earn.
</div>

How ZenX Turns America’s Currency into a Global Crypto Edge

Although blockchain technology is already over 12 years old, it is still most often described in terms of a promising innovation, and not as an element thoroughly integrated into the technological status quo. While blockchain-based digital currencies and other decentralized fintech solutions utilizing blockchain technology have gained significant popularity, blockchain is still only beginning to be adopted in other sectors.

Technological adoption can be analyzed as a process in which a technology proceeds from being a promising but optional innovation to becoming an invaluable, highly flexible tool that must be included by organizations in order to allow them to stay competitive. In this article, I will list some of the most common blockchain technology adoption Frameworks and models, which can provide an overview of the growing blockchain acceptance.

### Current State of Blockchain Adoption
According to the World Economic Forum, blockchain is one of the most important new technologies that will greatly transform the global economy within this decade. Blockchain enables secure and efficient storing of all types of data in a distributed ledger of chronological blocks. This type of decentralized architecture enables organizations to increase their transparency and solve trust issues by investing in accountability, traceability and compliance.

Blockchain is an emerging technology that is likely to become pivotal in the current transformation of global supply chains, as it allows building a digital system distributing the control over the supply chains from a single, centralized company to a network of partners. The fact that blockchain technology is predominately considered a supply chain innovation greatly influences blockchain adoption models, as they have to take into consideration factors such as transparency, traceability, compliance and trust.

### Problems Faced by Blockchain Technology Adoption
Although blockchain technology and decentralized solutions based on the blockchain such as smart contracts are universally considered to be highly promising, blockchain adoption nevertheless faces many issues which make its smooth implementation problematic. Even though blockchain is primarily a technological phenomenon, its successful adoption depends on many non-technological factors, such as regulatory framework, consumer behavior and public trust. The situation becomes even more complicated because blockchain is not a technology limited to a single industry or sector, but a technological phenomenon spinning across numerous different industries and sectors.

Sociological models of technology adoption that take into consideration psychological, demographic and behavioral factors have been known for decades. However, unique characteristics of blockchain technology related to issues like data security, privacy and transparency result in the fact that the most important aspect influencing blockchain adoption is trust, and theoretical frameworks of blockchain technology acceptance must consider the trust factor as a top priority in blockchain adoption.

### Structural Equation Modeling
The most basic framework for blockchain adoption is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). This analytical approach is based on theoretical models such as Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Technology Organisation Environment (TOE) model, as well as the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) models. These frameworks aim to take into consideration many behavioral traits such as industry pressure, competitor influence, partner readiness, potential usefulness, and relative ease of use.

Models such as Structural Equation Modeling aim to help organizations understand how various factors influence individual behavior in relation to innovative technologies like blockchain. Unfortunately, despite high complexity, frameworks like SAM lack empirical evidence, and are highly theoretical and conceptual. As such, models like Structural Equation Modeling and other frameworks based on Technology Acceptance Model or the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology are on their own not enough to provide an extensive and functional framework for multi-sector blockchain technology adoption.

### Bayesian Network Analysis
At first sight, Bayesian network analysis is quite similar to Structural Equation Modeling. It focuses on analyzing the cause-and-effect relationship between various factors and their behavioral results, which enables building relationship-oriented models. Unlike Structural Equation Modeling, Bayesian network analysis is generally considered to be more useful in modeling causal connections and conditional potentialities.

Compared to Structural Equation Modeling, Bayesian network analysis can be more useful by using predefined models in combination with new data, which allows for effectively predicting non-linear causal relationships. However, Bayesian network analysis still has some limitations, which make it insufficient as a tool for analyzing blockchain acceptance models. Most importantly, conditional probabilities and causal relationships analyzed in Bayesian network analysis are exclusively dependent on historical data. This makes using Bayesian analysis to predict the adoption of a unique, unprecedented technology like blockchain highly problematic.

Furthermore, despite the fact that Bayesian network analysis can be used to create a structurally coherent theoretical model of blockchain technology adoption, the results will likely prove impractical in providing any explanations of casual relationships and behavioral adoption factors. The lack of distinction between variables means that Bayesian network analysis on its own is not enough to create useful blockchain technology adoption frameworks.

### Integrated Two-Stage Analysis
A two-stage model combining the advantages of SEM and Bayesian network analysis has been suggested as a theoretical approach that can enhance Structural Equation Modeling with empirically validated Bayesian data in order to create a much more accurate predictive framework. A methodology utilizing both Structural Equation Modeling and Bayesian network analysis can help overcome limitations that both of these methods have on their own.

The integrated methodology, which extracts psychological constructs from the literature on technology adoption and builds a predictive model based on the extension of the TAM framework, is an effective predictive strategy. Two-stage approach enables analyzing blockchain adoption data collected from online user activities, which allows for building an empirically verified neural network-based predictive model for estimating the probability of blockchain adoption.

Combining Structural Equation Modeling and Bayesian methodology is currently the most promising theoretical framework for modeling blockchain adoption. It provides a structurally coherent model that can be enriched with empirical data to give practical insight into the future of blockchain acceptance.

Blockchain Adoption Models: A Critical Review

A Critical Review of Blockchain Acceptance Models – Blockchain Technology Adoption Frameworks and Applications

All my life as an entrepreneur has been spent in breaking down old hat norms and methodologies and rebuilding new processes and systems. The idea of Business Process Management (BPM) has long been debated and misunderstood. While some practitioners believe it to be any action or set of actions that contributes to a company objective, most experts on the topic have come to realize that BPM is actually a discipline comprised of a much bigger picture. In short, only those employees who actually oversee the entire process flow of a major company project, from inception to follow up, are actually the ones doing BPM. Various departments play a distinctive role in carrying out BPM, but they are only part of the total end-to-end process which constitutes the activities of true BPM. The important distinction to bear in mind is that BPM is not about how machines can automate production, or how one manager’s performance meets the objectives of his department. It is a series of actions performed by the humans who are the planners and decision makers of the company. They have a direct interest in improving the processes with which their company is run. The machinery and department managers are only performing in a way that has been dictated by these planners and decision makers.

While every company from the sole proprietor to the international corporation seeks to earn and retain market share, the activities they plan and carry out are not necessarily Business Process Management. It boils down to whether the top management team who designs and oversees process improvement is being responsive to customer and employee feedback. This begs the question: if BPM is a whole end-to-end process, will revamping isolated parts of it such as employee training and inventory management count as improving on BPM? Many BPM consultants would answer ‘yes.’ The good news is that these isolated parts of the whole process can be restructured in order to improve the workflow and maximize their efficiency without disrupting the integrity of the other parts. If done well, these actions can place a business on solid ground and facilitate growth. If not done well, they can destroy a small business who is struggling to survive and often hurt public opinion of a well-known industry giant.

![bpm.gif](/uploads/bpm_4e7fa400e0.gif)

**Where Does BPM Begin?**

Every company I have been a part of, the teams in those companies and me have been actively creating long-term processes to make sure each part of and the entire company itself does run smoother and better. There are many defining components to good BPM. Of perhaps the greatest importance is starting with great strategies that follow a timeline. They must include plans to measure progress against the timeline and the impact they have on other aspects of the business operations that contribute to the actual wholeness of the BPM model. A common way of testing these strategies before investing the expense of time and materials is “what-if” analyses. However, not every phase of the BPM needs to be established before work can begin. For example, expanding a business to open new facilities does not require having every phase of that time consuming plan in place before it begins. A lot of factors can impact this phase of a company’s growth due to changes in the industry or economy, such as customer demand or fluctuations in materials costs. An effective BPM practitioner does not write his plans firmly in stone. Flexibility is a critical component to improving the process because the mechanisms used to achieve desired outcomes in the BPM model should be constantly monitored and frequently reevaluated. Even the model itself may need revision on occasion depending on the volatility of the industry.

**What Are Some Methods of Monitoring The BPM Process?**

The methods a company chooses in which to oversee and monitor the daily activities that follow its BPM model depend largely on the size of the organization. The resources available usually involve some sort of personalized software or outsourced tracking service. However, whatever tracking methodology is chosen, its cost should be looked at as an investment. The reason behind this is that tracking progress in every phase of the overall business process keeps it on track to meeting goals and objectives and can send alerts when there is a stumbling block or unusual circumstance along the way. Every step of the process impacts an organization’s budget, and if it doesn’t invest in a good monitoring system, it may find itself faced with costly setbacks in a time sensitive process. Some of the best known methodologies for process management used today are Six Sigma, Hammer, Lean, etc. which were developed by some of the world’s most successful corporations such as Toyota. On a smaller scale are software programs designed to turn data into Key Performance Indicators (KPI). The KPI programs come with templates so that the BPM practitioners can select which model best meets their organization’s needs.

**Where Does BPM End?**

I’ve mentored scores, perhaps hundreds of employees, associates and well-wishers in the finesse of BPM.
Right up front, I mentioned that Business Process Management is an end-to-end process. On the front end, the BPM practitioners must perform a great deal of analysis in order to devise a strategic model of the work flow processes that their company will adopt for their overall operations. But where does the process end? The answer is certainly not at the point of implementation. It follows through to the end user of the company’s products or services, which are the customers. BPM is ongoing and ensures that its customers’ goals and objectives are met as a result of using their products.

Business Process Management: Facts That Matter

Little Known Facts About Business Process Management – And Why They Matter

In a recent post, I shared some tips for making a business acquisition work successfully and therefore to realize its full value. Of course before you can do that, you have to make the acquisition, which involves an estimation of the target company’s value. In this post, I share some knowledge that will help you to successfully conduct a company valuation and ensure your bid represents an accurate estimate of the target’s worth. But first, you should know some of the most important tenets of valuation when making a business acquisition.

**There Is No Right Way to Conduct a Company Valuation**
While there are a number of important principles in assessing the value of a business acquisition, the whole business is far from being an exact science. A company that is for sale or even one that is not will be worth more to one potential acquirer than to another. A lot may depend for example, upon the expected value of synergies achieved through the acquisition.
However, there are some general aspects of company valuation which should always play a part in the process. These are the important things which I can help you to understand and which will go a long way towards making a realistic evaluation of a target company’s worth.

**If You Want to Keep it Simple, Use EBITDA**
EBITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization. In other words, it’s the amount of income that a business generates annually. The closest thing to a de facto standard for a company valuation is to multiply the EBITDA figure by five (5 x EBITDA).
Therefore if the target of your business acquisition plans has an annual EBITDA of $1 million, you might consider its acquisition value to be $5 million. Depending on the state of the economy at the time you consider your acquisition, you may decide to amend the multiplication factor to 6X in good times or down to 4X if the fiscal climate is not so favorable.
Again though, even if you follow this format, your company valuation will depend partly on your reason for acquisition. If you are expecting to secure strong, rapid growth for your target company, you might be prepared to offer a considerably higher multiple of EBITDA. This method of company valuation is based on the earnings of the concern you plan to acquire, but you can also calculate a valuation based on assets.

![Due-Diligence-for-Business-Acquisition-300x250.jpg](/uploads/Due_Diligence_for_Business_Acquisition_300x250_911d39bc68.jpg)

**Asset-Based Valuation**
If you were starting a whole new company from scratch, you would have to purchase all the inventory and equipment needed to run it. Therefore, you can evaluate an acquisition by calculating the value of all the inventory and equipment that it owns, which will of course become yours after the business acquisition is completed.
The target company’s balance sheet should provide all the information you need for this type of valuation and if it doesn’t, you should probably not make the acquisition—bad bookkeeping is a definite red flag when it comes to any business acquisition.
In some companies, the value of their non-tangible assets can be pretty steeply valued. For instance, a path-breaking algorithm or a state-of-the-art code or software may tilt the value to millions. This is where you may need a good Intellectual Property advisor and valuator, who will break down the asset valuation for you and you can make an educated decision.
Another form of asset-based company valuation is the “liquidation value”. This is the calculated value of the target company after all assets have been sold and taxes and debts have been paid up. The liquidation value of a company will typically be a lot less than the value that would be placed on the company if it was put up for sale in the commercial property market.

**Further Considerations for a Company Valuation**
In an article like this one, it’s not possible to delve deeply into all the complexities of conducting a company valuation. Hence necessity dictates that the methodologies discussed so far comprise crude examples to give you an idea of what’s involved.
Unless you are skilled in the art of valuation – in which case you won’t profit from reading this blog post – the best advice of all is to enlist the help of a professional business valuator, who can investigate your target company and provide you with an unbiased, comprehensive valuation. Whether you take this advice or not, it’s still worth gaining an awareness of some of the other factors and considerations to be taken into account when evaluating a business acquisition.

![Company-Valuation-300x300.jpg](/uploads/Company_Valuation_300x300_51cb63ea82.jpg)

**Projected revenue growth: ** While EBITDA multiplication can give you a valuation based on your target business’ earnings today, it’s more realistic to consider whether these are likely to remain the same in the future. Generally it’s a good idea to perform your valuation with some expectation of revenue growth—but don’t overegg it.
Risk associated with the business: You should certainly factor risk into your company valuation. For example, does the target company have a problem with high employee turnover or does it have a solid and loyal workforce? Is it a company known for the quality of its products or services, or has it been subject to complaints of falling standards? Questions like these are highly important and will certainly be covered by a professional business valuator.

**And Finally:** The Non-financial Elements of Company Valuation
Ultimately, there may be many, many factors involved in your calculation of what a business acquisition is worth. It would be unwise for me to pretend that company valuation is in any way a subjective exercise. What it boils down to, is “what is the target worth to you and your existing business?”
Engaging professional help is a good way to make the process more objective, but a valuator will not be able to tell you if absorbing or merging with a target company will add that “special something”, making the union more valuable than the sum of its parts—that part is up to you to assess. Hopefully though, some of the tips here will demystify the valuation process and help you to prioritize the way in which you base your bid-price calculation.

Company Valuation: Pricing a Business Acquisition

How to Price Your Business Acquisition Right: The Art of Company Valuation

In the [Global Entrepreneurship Monitor](http://www.gemconsortium.org/report/49812) survey, 42% of respondents considered business skills such as marketing one of their most important tools when it comes to entrepreneurship. In today’s competitive market, this means not only being familiar with traditional techniques but being able to think more abstractly and come up with new, exciting and innovative ways to market your company to an audience that is increasingly overwhelmed by choice. From digital events to customized communications, I’ve put together some innovative marketing ideas for small businesses to help you get started and inspire you to modernize your marketing for 2018.

### The Personal Touch

Once upon a time, cold calling and leaflets through the door were the accepted means of interacting with your audience, but these traditional methods just don’t cut it in the digital age. With so much competition on the market, it’s important to make sure your name is one that your customer remembers – by remembering theirs.

![Content-Personalization.png](/uploads/Content_Personalization_0f423050ac.png)

Personalisation is becoming ever-more important in the way that brands interact with their audience. Email marketing services such as [MailChimp](https://mailchimp.com/) give you the opportunity to customise individual emails so that you’re addressing your customers by name – which is a small but effective way to add a more personal touch to your communications. If you run a recommend-a-friend scheme, you could use this to create an air of familiarity by including not only your new customer’s name but the friend’s as well.

2018 is a great time to increase your innovation further and find new ways to make customers feel noticed and valued. Small businesses with more manageable customer bases have opportunities available to them that wouldn’t be feasible for larger organisations, and you can use this to your advantage. Customised printed cards that are delivered with your orders, added details that appear in forms of communication and more tailored suggestions that don’t just rely on keywords and automation are just a few examples of the ways that you can connect with consumers on a more personal level.

Certain services have even more scope for this style of marketing. Subscription services, for example, have the opportunity to amend their deliveries according to preferences, feedback and any information you may receive upon sign-up. Similarly, apps or digital products can use their capacity for quick changes and regular updates to keep in touch with customers’ evolving interests.

### Hosting Corporate Events

Sending your customers marketing material might be an essential when it comes to increasing your revenue, but it’s not always the most effective tool for improving engagement. When you’re deciding what to send your customers, think about the kinds of things you’d like to receive in the mail – such as a party invitation.

![Corporate-Events.jpg](/uploads/Corporate_Events_355ab7cc27.jpg)

Hosting events for your customers offers a great opportunity to connect with them at three different stages: before, during and afterwards. In the build-up to the event, you need to get your customers excited and incentivise them to come along. This could be through rewards and giveaways, or it could be through other means. Special guests are a great way to generate interest, as are non-monetary rewards such as access to as-yet-unseen products or a chance to influence future creations. If your invitation is done well, it should make your invitee feel special and so further invested in your organisation.

During the event, you need to ensure that your brand is properly represented from all angles. Use your company USP to plan an event that only you could host. From the theme of your event to the venue, the staff and the activities planned, this is the interactive face of your business and it’s vital to leave your customers with a positive impression.

Think outside the box and explore all your possibilities. For example, in the digital age there’s no reason that you couldn’t host an online event. As well as keeping your costs low and allowing you to expand your guest-list, an online event or conference is a great way to utilise today’s technology. In fact, even if you decide to host a physical event, make sure that you’re able to share it across the online world for those who aren’t able to attend through video and photography from both you and your guests. [Diesel’s recent PR campaign ](http://www.vogue.co.uk/article/diesel-fake-store-new-york-february-2018) in which a hidden camera captured shoppers in their pop-up “knock-off” shop is a great example of this.

However you choose to do your hosting, the follow-up is every bit as important as the event itself. Make sure your customers feel like their presence was valued, and encourage them to share their experiences with their friends – and your potential new customers.

If you’re not able to host your own event, consider sponsoring one instead. Find an event that will likely attract many members that are within your target audience range and make sure to use that opportunity to raise brand awareness as much as possible.

### Social Media Influencers

Marketers realized a long time ago that social media was an important tool for reaching audiences both local and international, but the ways it can be used is always evolving. While paid and organic advertising and regular posting remain essential techniques that can help to boost your visibility, there are also other avenues that are worth considering – particularly for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

![Social-Media-Influencers-2018.jpg](/uploads/Social_Media_Influencers_2018_b3459f10e3.jpg)

In 2017, Gucci made waves with its innovative ad campaign that commissioned popular meme accounts on Instagram to create custom memes for their products. It marked one of the most significant uses of social media influencers in online advertising, and serves as a great example for any marketing teams that are looking for inspiration. Tapping into meme culture helped bring the brand to a new generation, and also represents the kind of indirect advertising that may help to bring about long-term brand loyalty rather than simply one-time purchasing.

There are many ways to engage influencers with your brand. As well as using their online presence through posting, you can invite them to attend your events. Not only does this give them something more personal to post about your brand, it can draw extra attendees and elevate the status of your event to something more high-profile and exclusive.

You could also work with them on various forms of collaboration. These range from the traditional product-for-review partnership that works well with bloggers and vloggers to more creative ideas such as having them collaborate with you on a limited-edition line, or asking them to curate your website or social media pages for a day. Similarly, you could organise a social media takeover or a q-and-a which will help drive their traffic towards your accounts so that you can reach a larger audience.

### Networking

Interest in small businesses and entrepreneurship continues to be on the rise, and this is your opportunity to turn your story into an asset that you can use for your marketing strategy. Make sure that you take every opportunity to network both within your industry and beyond, and then use your circle of contacts to boost your business – whether you’re running a B2B or a B2C operation.

![Business-Networking-2018.png](/uploads/Business_Networking_2018_fafd6ae5a3.png)

Find out about the events that are organised within your industry and decide which ones will be worth attending for your company. Looking up the biggest industry bodies and awards is a good place to start, as well as finding out where your competitors have been or will be in attendance. You can advertise your participation as a way to build authority and trust among customers, as well as a way of attracting the attention of those interested in your sector.

It’s good to know which events have the highest attendee rates but that doesn’t always mean they’ll be of the most value to you. Balance quality and quantity when it comes to contacts, and make sure you choose events where you’re likely to make valuable connections that can help you progress and grow your business through collaborations or perhaps even co-operative advertising.

Conferences are a great choice because you can learn and train while you network, and you’ll be able to get an idea of who will be attracted to the event by looking at the key speakers that have been booked. Trade fairs are also a good place to meet a mix of potential clients as well as collaborators, colleagues and even competitors.

Don’t be afraid to think outside the box when it comes to networking. For example, if you or your employees work in co-working spaces rather than a central office, you may find that it helps to spread the word about your small business as well as opening up opportunities to meet future customers or stakeholders.

How are you going to be adapting your marketing strategy in 2018? Do you own a small business, and do you think that that requires a more innovative approach to marketing / advertising for small businesses and Entrepreneurs? Share your thoughts, ideas and questions in the comments below.

Innovative Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

Innovative Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs for 2018

The word “metaverse” first [entered our reality in the early nineties](https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2022/03/21/a-short-history-of-the-metaverse/?sh=5d941d955968), but according to recent data, only 40% of consumers actually know and understand what it is. About one-third think it is the future of tech and feel more brands should leverage it.

As a growing trend in digital marketing strategy, the metaverse is still fairly nascent. In other words, it’s evolving quickly, still being built, and some might say it’s too early in the game to define what it is with absolute accuracy. Take the internet, for example. It’s been around since the 1970s, but people at the time couldn’t possibly conceive of what it became.

### What Exactly is the Metaverse?


Ultimately, the term “metaverse” doesn’t refer to any specific technology. More to the point, it describes how we interact with technology online.

The metaverse includes virtual reality and the worlds it contains, augmented reality, and online platforms we access through our computers, mobile devices, and gaming consoles. Virtual experiences, digital goods, social happenings, learning, gaming, concerts, and even crypto trading on the blockchain; it’s all there.

Before we dive into the rest, I think it’s critical—especially today—to make the point that the metaverse is not all about [Meta (Facebook)](https://about.fb.com/news/2021/10/facebook-company-is-now-meta/). Meta is not the only company building out worlds and marketing in the metaverse, any more than Google is the internet. So, while some might equate Meta with the metaverse (and for sure, it’s a significant player), it’s not the only game in play.

As for how the metaverse plays into consumers’ lives, you may have already been there. Attending virtual concerts, shopping at digital stores, and playing online games are three top ways people interact with the metaverse.

Clearly, there is a lot of opportunity for brands in this space. Still, it’s essential to understand how customers interact with the metaverse and know what’s working for others before you invest.

### Who Uses the Metaverse?


[Current data from HubSpot reveals](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/metaverse-consumer-data) that metaverse users are primarily Gen Z (16%) and Millennials (15%).

Of those demographics, 40% engage in online gaming, 28% have a VR headset, and 22% have purchased digital assets besides cryptocurrency. 18% have attended a virtual concert, or an event hosted in VR. 23% have purchased cryptocurrency.

In other scenarios, users may visit a metaverse to hang out with online friends, meet with coworkers, or attend a virtual industry trade event. A surprising number even work at virtual jobs and earn money in the metaverse. As brands continue to build out their virtual presences and consumers gravitate to the best of them, we will undoubtedly see more ideas and use cases emerge.


### Is the Metaverse a Passing Phase?


Despite the growing popularity of the metaverse, we are still many years away from realizing its full potential. But we spend so much time on our devices, and the idea of virtual worlds is becoming quite mainstream. Like the universe itself, the metaverse is expanding exponentially, has its own economy, and is already bridging digital and physical worlds.

[~~A recent JP Morgan Chase (JPM) study~~](https://www.thestreet.com/investing/the-metaverse-is-a-1-trillion-annual-revenue-gold-mine) averred that the metaverse represents a market opportunity that exceeds $1 trillion in annual revenue and will almost certainly infiltrate every industry sector in the coming years. In their opinion, the success of the metaverse will hinge on having a robust and secure financial ecosystem that bridges physical and virtual worlds. JPM recently launched its own virtual world; an [Onyx Lounge called Metajuku in Decentraland](https://hypebeast.com/2022/2/jp-morgan-virtual-lounge-decentraland-first-bank-enter-metaverse), a virtual version of Tokyo’s Harajuku shopping district.[ JPM, in particular, has positioned itself as a digital currency champion](https://www.ledgerinsights.com/jp-morgan-blockchain-lead-crypto-junk/), helping to bring crypto markets into the mainstream and develop more robust and secure trading platforms.

All that is to say, the robust growth and innovation happening in the metaverse speaks to both its popularity and potential. Marketers tend to use every available tool to penetrate the noise and get their message across. But it would not be a thing if people were not buying it. And clearly, it is. Done right, you have an eager audience that’s willing to spend top dollar for a quality experience. From where I sit, we’re only just in the foothills of the metaverse range. As the potential grows, the summit might be even higher than we think.


### What About Data Privacy?


Data privacy is top-of-mind with consumers today. Governments and brands alike are actively developing protections to ensure consumers have more control over what information they share and who they share it with.

Of course, in marketing, data is the currency that fuels the digital economy. Encouraging people to share their data and spend more time on your platform is the key to the success of future initiatives. However, consumers who say they “trust” how their data is used in the metaverse still don’t understand exactly what that means.

The overwhelming majority (80%) feel that data privacy is a human right. About the same number have some concerns about how companies use their data, and 51% distrust how they use it. Many think brands should pay for the privilege, which is an interesting statistic. How many brands would pay? How can you place a dollar value on one’s personal data? These are questions yet to be answered, but they are worth considering.

Since the metaverse spans the globe and beyond, it doesn’t limit itself to a single privacy policy or regime.[ It needs to protect users wherever they are located](https://iapp.org/news/a/metaverse-and-privacy-2/). In many cases, multiple privacy laws will apply to a single user, depending on where they reside, where the business is headquartered, and where the servers are located. Suffice it to say; active brands in the metaverse need to consider the global consumer.

The GDPR, for example, [applies to any person of European citizenship](https://edps.europa.eu/press-publications/publications/techsonar/metaverse_en). That person can be at a virtual event with a user from Africa and another from the United States, each accessing the platform from their homes in their respective countries. Each region’s data privacy laws must be upheld. Therefore, it is on the onus of the brand to consider those needs.

No standard regulation exists yet, and we are likely many years away from that day. In the meantime, brands must have good counsel when building out their metaverse presence to avoid non-compliance. [The penalties are steep and can be catastrophic to business continuity](https://www.ibm.com/reports/data-breach).

I’m not at all a supporter or subscriber to these laws – a lot of them are idiotic and irrational. A portent of more such inane regulations to come…

### What Does the Future Hold for the Metaverse?


Nobody’s wildest imaginings conceived of the internet’s potential back in the 1970s. In the same spirit, the future of the metaverse is unknown. If we lost access to the internet and the world became an anarchistic landscape, a la Mad Max, it would be a moot point. But hey, if you ever wanted to experience that, you could probably do so in the metaverse right now. All things considered, it might be a good training ground should the grid go down. Just keep in mind that the weapons and armor you purchase now won’t be available IRL. At least, not yet.

As consumers embrace the possibilities of virtual worlds, brands have an opportunity to meet them where they congregate. From virtual nightclubs to places of worship, virtual travel, wealth building, one-of-a-kind music, art, and experiential events, the potential is (virtually) limitless.

Still wondering about the metaverse and how it can benefit your brand? Let’s talk about it! Post your comments below, and do feel free to subscribe and share.

What Consumers Think About the Metaverse

What Consumers Think About the Metaverse and What Brands Need to Know

Enterprise Resource Planning systems can be an invaluable resource for your business, but only if they’re chosen and used to maximum effect. I’ve put together a quick guide to optimize your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to make sure it works for you and your organization.

![System-Architecture-Enterprise-Resource-Planning.png](/uploads/System_Architecture_Enterprise_Resource_Planning_aa7ceb3afd.png)

### Quantitative Analysis

When choosing and evaluating your [ERP system](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/erp.asp), it’s important to think about the money you’re willing to invest and the budget that you’re able to set aside in order to maintain your enterprise resource planning system. Performing a quantitative analysis of your chosen system will allow you to get a clear picture of what it’ll cost you in real terms both upfront and over time. While there are multiple numerical factors you can choose to measure, one of the best is a monetary valuation that gives you a realistic idea of costs and return.

You can expect to see a shortfall here because many of the benefits of an ERP system are non-monetary, but it’s up to you to decide what the acceptable ratio is. Some of the more straightforward monetary benefits that you can expect to see include being able to minimize or even discontinue other software because your ERP incorporates the functions they perform, so that you no longer need to pay for those licensing fees. Similarly, you may find that you need fewer man hours or a smaller staff because operations can be automated, and data is easily available at a button click without needing hours of extraction, collation and analysis.

Depending on your business, you may even see smaller but still significant costs that you can save, such as being able to save on paper and printing costs because your data is easily available and can be shared on your system.

You can also save money through the results that your ERP gives you, as you’ll be able to see where your money is being spent and to optimize your business strategy accordingly. By having a clear view of which areas and departments are profitable and which aren’t, you’ll be able to make more informed decisions about where you should continue to invest your money and what you should change or scale back. You can then shift your focus on the things that you need to prioritize and so will be able to play to your strengths and address your weaknesses.

This clear quantitative analysis will also help you to utilize your key resources properly – whether that’s your employees or the machinery that you use. By seeing where your money is being spent and where you’re making a return, you’ll be able to spend more effectively and put your strongest assets in the area that provides you the greatest benefits.

### Qualitative Analysis

A qualitative analysis is more open to your interpretation than a quantitative one because it doesn’t deal in numbers and it’s up to you to decide the value of the benefits that you receive from your system – as well as the non-monetary costs to your business. When you set about this analysis, one of the most important things to consider is the type of system that you want and the features that will be of most use to you. There are many different types of ERP system to choose from with a wide range of capabilities and scope, so it’s vital that you find a system that provides everything you need but which doesn’t incorporate unnecessary extras which may prove to be more of a burden than a benefit.

In contrary to your [quantitative analysis](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/q/qualitativeanalysis.asp), you should find that your benefits will outweigh your costs in your qualitative analysis. Remember to take into account the operation costs and benefits over time rather than just the initial switch, which will likely require a great deal of time and manpower. Even though you’re not dealing with numbers, make sure that any predictions you make are realistic and are based on existing data so that you go into your strategy with a clear idea of what you can achieve.

Examples of qualitative benefits include the effect on your organization and communication within the business. For example, the information that you generate can be easily accessed by managers, which means that they’ll save time on waiting for it to be passed along by other departments. Minimizing the middle-man effect means that you can both simplify your process and that you can avoid viewer bias on the data that may influence the way that information is presented. It also means that the information is quickly placed into the hands of those most able to act on it and to make decisions, increasing your company’s responsiveness and the overall productivity within the business.

It’s important that once you’ve completed your initial qualitative analysis and your system is underway, you regularly review your progress and make sure that your costs and benefits are as you expected them to be. If you find that you’re not reaping the rewards that you anticipated or that you’re expending more resources that you expected, you may want to reassess whether your ERP system is really working for you. Similarly, if you have exceeded your expectations, you may want to extend your ERP system to other areas of the business to see if you can further your progress.

![FUNCTIONS-OF-ERP-SYSTEMS.png](/uploads/FUNCTIONS_OF_ERP_SYSTEMS_e531b28d84.png)
Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS) Systems. 

### Weighing of Costs and Benefits

Once you’ve completed your analyses and assessed the costs and benefits that you can expect to see from various ERP systems, it’s time to weigh up your pros and cons and to decide whether it falls in your favor. Because you can expect higher costs in the quantitative measure and higher returns in the qualitative measure, you’ll need to compare these two categories to decide whether it’s going to be beneficial overall for your organisation. It’s worth considering whether the money you’re going to spend on both your initial and ongoing system is both affordable and justifiable.

You may find that some of the benefits are less direct but can still be invaluable for your organization. Factors such as being able to respond and react to data quickly, being able to process new requests and being able to link with your suppliers and customers can contribute to the overall productivity of your organisation which can result in better profits and more effective spending long-term. You may also find that features such as cross-functional access to data helps to [streamline your company](https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/improving-business-processes.htm) and can provide benefits in areas such as management, staff requirements and data usage.

You should also consider the benefits to your company culture and your employees that aren’t directly related to profit but can improve the life of your business. A good ERP system can facilitate communication both inside departments and between them and can make it easier for your team to work together. You can eliminate unnecessary bottlenecks by putting the data exactly where you need it and giving the right people access to it, which helps to reduce frustration and to increase job satisfaction.

The sharing of common data also makes it quicker to process and can help you to put the focus on the areas that are most valuable to your organisation. It also means that you can keep closer control on your inventory and automate jobs that might otherwise be time-consuming or even missed altogether due to staffing or cost restraints.

### Defining the Project Objectives

The most important point of introducing an Enterprise Resource Planning system to your organization is to make sure that it will help you to work towards your business objectives. These could be financial objectives, or they could be related to the way your organisation runs, to employee satisfaction or any other number of factors. It’s entirely up to you to [set your own goals](https://www.business.gov.au/news/how-to-set-goals-and-objectives-for-your-business), but there are a number of things to consider.

When defining your objectives, you need to make sure that you are setting realistic and achievable goals. Use your existing data to analyse your progress and to see how you can expect to expand on that in the future. Whether your goals are quantitative than qualitative, ensure that you have evidence and data that can back them up and that can help you work towards them.

It’s also key to define success within your objectives. Often, your objectives will be ongoing, and so you will want key milestones that you can use along the way as markers of success and indicators of progress. These will help you establish whether your strategies are working and whether you want to change your approach at more manageable intervals.

Do you use an Enterprise Resource Planning system and how do you make sure it’s optimized for your business? Let me know in the comments below.

4 Steps to Optimize Your ERP System

4 Steps to Optimize Your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System

In these quickly changing markets, how can you be sure that your business has adequate risk management strategies? With so many mid-size businesses failing, both before and after the pandemic, you might be wondering how their risk management strategies didn’t seem to work at all.

I’ll let you in on a little secret when calculating business risks – the key is to calculate your risk based on where your profits come from. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about risk management while keeping your profits in mind.

### What is calculated risk in business?
In business, calculated risk is known as “a carefully considered decision that exposes a person to a degree of personal and financial risk that is counterbalanced by a reasonable possibility of benefit.”

On the way to building a business, every business owner has assumed some sort of risk, whether it’s taking out a loan or hiring a new employee. As your business grows, you’ll constantly have to assess risk, even as your business gets off the ground. So, how can you tell if a risk will be worth it?

Many factors go into risk management, including your business finances, profits, specific calculations, and your industry expertise and skills. When you take all of these factors into consideration, you can make good decisions about business risks.

### What are the different types of business risk?
As I mentioned previously, owning and operating a business always requires some level of risk – it doesn’t matter if you are just starting out or have been in business for several years. Different kinds of business risks include financial risks, reputation risks, operational risks, compliance risks, and fraud risks. Risk management takes all of these factors into consideration.

### How can I measure risk?
There are several ways to measure risk. One of the most common risk management measurement methods is standard deviation, which calculates the dispersion of results from the expected value. Another standard measuring tool is the Sharpe ratio, measuring the return on an investment in relation to its risk. While there are many options for measuring risk, let’s dive deeper into how to calculate risk with profits in mind.

### The importance of putting profits first
Many companies use a risk heat map to assess their level of risk. These maps examine massive risks like natural disasters or smaller ones like sales force effectiveness. Unfortunately, risk heat maps don’t consider all of the granular factors, especially risks that threaten profitability in today’s fast-changing markets.

Simply put, a risk heat map is a mapping of the risk magnitude of various business elements. The likelihood of problems is on one axis, and the element’s importance is on the other. These maps don’t consider details like where the majority of profits come from, which customers are spending the most money, and which products are the most lucrative.

Instead of using a risk heat map to assess risk, businesses need to integrate their key, profit-generating customers, products, and operations into their risk management process. But how exactly should entrepreneurs and business owners start doing this?

Transaction-based profit metrics are a great place to start. When business owners begin to use transaction-based profit metrics and analytics, it’s easy for them to see that their customers generally fall into one of three categories:

- Profit peaks: these are high-revenue, high-profit clients. Usually, these are the 20% of customers that generate 150% of the profits.
- Profit drains: these are high-revenue, low-profit customers. Typically, these are the 30% of your clients that can erode 50% of your earnings.
- Profit deserts: these are low-revenue, low-profit clients that consume 50% of the company’s resources.
Once you realize that 20% of your customers generate 150% of your profits, the most critical risk management factor is to protect and grow these profit peaks. Then, you can examine your profit drains to determine if their losses are growing or diminishing. If the losses are growing, it’s important to implement risk mitigation measures to reverse the growth or potentially reprice these relationships. You’ll also realize that risk factors affecting your profit deserts are insignificant to your overall profit unless they impact large numbers of customers.

Analyzing your risk based on these three factors is a better way of determining the right decisions for your company. Calculating your risk with these factors in mind makes risk assessment more manageable, actionable, and comprehensive.

### Using a profit contour
Rather than using a risk heat map, it’s better to use a profit heat map. The best way to configure this image is through a “profit contour.” This matrix includes the customer profit segments on the vertical axis and the product profit segments on the horizontal axis.

It’s simple to create similar profit contours for important combinations, like products and stores, or sales representatives and customers. Through a profit contour, you can identify risk factors that endanger the protection and growth of profit peaks, which can then immediately be mitigated.

### Different ways to calculate risk management
In addition to using a profit contour, there are three other common ways to measure business risk with profit in mind. Each of these methods is used to track potential value changes within a period of time.

### Earnings at Risk (EAR)
Earnings at risk is the change in net income resulting from interest rate changes over a specific time period. EAR can help risk professionals and investors understand how changing interest rates can impact a company’s finances and cash flow.

This calculation involves balance sheet items known to be sensitive to changes in interest rates and generate income or cash flow. Here’s an example: a bank may have 90% confidence that the gap in expected earnings due to interest rate changes will not exceed a certain amount of money through a given period. This example is known as its earnings of risk.

### Value at Risk (VAR)
Value at risk deals with a company’s total value. This measures the overall change in value over a specific amount of time with a certain degree of confidence. VAR calculates the financial risk correlated with the total value of the business. This calculation is much broader and more generalized than figuring out how interest rates impact cash flow. VAR measures the maximum potential loss over a specified time period.

Here’s an example of VAR: a company has a 5% one-year value at a risk of $10 million. In other words, there is a 5% chance that the business could lose over $10 million in a year. You could also look at it like this: there is 95% confidence that the firm will not lose $10 million in a year.

### Economic Value of Equity (EVE)
The economic value of equity is mostly used in the banking world. This model measures the amount that a bank’s total capital could change due to interest rate fluctuations. EVE differs from VAR and EAR in that a bank uses the value of equity measure to manage its liabilities and assets. This cash flow calculation subtracts the present value of expected cash flows on liabilities from the current value of expected cash flows.

### Other Common Formulas for Risk Calculation
### Contribution Margin Ratio
This ratio is the contribution margin as a percentage of total sales. The contribution margin ratio is calculated as sales minus variable costs. Here’s how you can calculate the contribution margin ratio:

- (Net Sales Revenue – Variable Costs) / (Sales Revenue)
### Degree of Operating Leverage
Also known as the DOL, the degree of operating leverage is a financial efficiency ratio measuring if a company’s variable or fixed costs are higher. A low DOL implies that a business’s variable costs are larger than its fixed costs, and a high DOL means that fixed costs are higher than variable costs. With high variable costs, a significant increase in sales will not lead to much of an increase in operating income.

Here’s the formula for the degree of operating leverage:

- DOL = [Quantity x (Price – Variable Cost per Unit)] / Quantity x (Price – Variable Cost per Unit) – Fixed Operating Costs
- DOL = % Change in Operating Income / % Change in Sales
- Contribution Margin / Operating Income
### Degree of Financial Leverage
Simply put, the degree of financial leverage measures the amount of debt a business holds. A business’s debt creates additional risk to the company if income varies since debt must be serviced. No matter the revenue, a business must pay interest on the debt. You can calculate this formula in the equations below:

- DFL = % Change in Net Income / % Change in Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT)
- DFL = % Change in Earnings per Share (EPS) / % Change in EBIT
- DFL = EBIT / (EBIT – Interest)
If the ratio equals 1, then the business has no debt.

### Degree of Total Leverage
The degree of total leverage, or DTL, calculates the number of unit sales that will affect the business’s net income or the net earnings per share. Here’s the formula:

DTL = DOL x DFL
With this formula, you can also determine how much an increase in revenue can increase the earnings per share.

To Summarize:

Among most of the businesses that I have conceived, partnered, or been in as purely an investor, most of those that raised OPM (Other People’s Money) crashed. You can easily see why when you fund any company, and just see where the money actually goes.

True, but not that funny, is an example of a company in Costa Rica – where I’d invested – which had weekly expenses $2000 for “Coke” which is too high for the said soda, and too low for the Pablo Escobar thing. As it turned out, it was a combo of both. Too many investors have had their money down the drain because of such wayward incidents and erratic founders.

Eventually, I came to the conclusion, that whatever new venture I put my time/resources into, would not have any outside funding or outside partners. It would be a one-man show – my mistakes would go in the wastepaper bin, and I would be responsible for the accolades and the brickbats. Even from me to me…

As it turns out, the reasoning was as good as gold, and I never look back. 5 people are enough to be that Unicorn that others shout from the damn rooftops about after garnering hundreds of millions in funding! Yes, I enter the riskiest businesses on the planet after months of research and planning and create that elusive Unicorn from scratch.
It’ll stay this way. For me.

Calculating Business Risk From Your Profit Mix

Calculating Business Risk Based on Where Your Profits Come From

Introduction
One of the most hotly discussed topics in technology today is cloud computing. Its cloud-based services have been widely implemented across industries today, providing a cost-effective, scalable solution and delivering modern business capabilities to firms of all sizes.

Cloud-based technology continues to be at the forefront of unparalleled technological innovation and is redefining modern-day business. In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies worldwide adopted remote-working methods for their workforce and continued administering a wide array of digital technologies throughout their operations.

[ Cloud computing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing) became a market-leading technological paradigm for delivering IT and business solutions to firms of all sizes. The rise of the cloud computing era is a clear indicator of technological progress, but what exactly is cloud computing? This blog article dives into cloud computing and explains the leading cloud technologies in 2023.

### What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is the delivery of hosted software, storage and computing services over the Internet in a way that makes them accessible and manageable by remote clients. It provides scalability, portability, on-demand availability, low cost, and all these benefits through a software as a service (SaaS) model.

Cloud computing is a set of industry-specific technologies that deploy and manage applications. Cloud computing models are based on the ability to share resources among entities, such as companies and consumers.

Cloud computing encompasses dedicated hardware components, software, and services accessible through the Internet. There are different types of clouds:

### Private Cloud
A private cloud is a cloud infrastructure owned and operated solely by the organization it serves. It contains resources, such as computing, storage or network capacity, dedicated to said organization.

### Public cloud
A public cloud is a type of cloud infrastructure over which the user has no control of access to the infrastructure or underlying hardware. Users can access from various locations but cannot control their network security and data privacy requirements.

### Hybrid cloud
A hybrid cloud is a mixture of the two architectures. It offers a blend of public and private cloud computing resources to create an environment that delivers elasticity and scalability.

### What are the Top Cloud Technologies in 2023?
Cloud technologies have proven highly beneficial to businesses as they deliver cost-effectiveness, flexibility, scale and mobility. Below are some of the top cloud technologies

### Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The combination of processor speeds and fixed memory can burden the performance of hardware-based AI systems. However, using cloud computing to deliver AI capabilities has proven efficient, appealing and extremely valuable to many businesses. Cloud-based intelligent cognitive computing is an effective environment where machines are making an increasing number of business decisions rather than people.

### Big Data and Analytics
In business intelligence, companies must rely on predictive tools to generate actionable solutions. Big data and analytics are responsible for processing large volumes of data to gain insight and make predictions to make decisions that can be mapped, visualized and monetized.

### Secure Access Service Edge
A smart-access service edge provides a uniform architecture that can be used by all cloud technologies, regardless of whether they use private or public clouds. It centralizes access to cloud-based resources and provides the control points for the services, which are used for the process of creating access to systems and services.

### Software as a Service (SaaS)
SaaS is one of the core models for delivering cloud computing solutions that allow users to receive software applications on-demand via internet protocols rather than on physical media. SaaS provides the flexibility to utilize software applications at the individual user level with a single interface.
### Data Centre Tiers
In the cloud computing environment, data centers are separate from the end-user business solution being executed. They are responsible for delivering ultra-fast and reliable connectivity between cloud facilities and user systems that use services such as wireless networks, virtualization and storage technologies.

### Platform as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS is a cloud computing environment that provides virtual environments for the execution of third-party applications. In PaaS, the underlying hardware and software are abstracted from users to provide an optimized environment for application deployment.

### Network Function Virtualization (NFV)
Network function virtualization (NFV) is one of the top cloud technologies that has gained much popularity as it delivers an automated network infrastructure with modular building blocks. NFV is designed to improve business agility and service quality of new network functions.

### Software Defined Networking (SDN)
SDN is a software architecture that allows businesses to create a flexible, manageable and scalable networking system. SDN can be used as a stand-alone technology or in conjunction with cloud computing to optimize the use of resources. SDNs are independent of hardware and employ software for their operation.
### Internet of Things (IoT)
IoT is a concept that provides an environment where users can connect and use various wireless devices through the Internet to monitor, collect and process data such as temperature, humidity, light intensity and other environmental parameters to ensure the optimal functioning of the device. The IoT ecosystem allows businesses to integrate cloud technology on any access layer.

### Machine Learning
Machine learning is a set of algorithms that are responsible for the process of improving a solution based on past decisions that have been taken. A business can use machine learning to help deliver services with predictive capabilities.

### Cloud Security and Privacy
The main drivers for cloud security and privacy revolve around the level of control, accountability and liability placed on cloud providers. Examples include scaling infrastructure capacity, moving resources among locations, deploying software patches and updates promptly, and minimizing costs.

### Cloud as a Service (CaaS)
A CaaS environment provides all the functions related to cloud infrastructure, software and platforms. Users can access all these resources via one interface, accessible from various locations and instances.

### Edge Computing
Edge computing provides a distributed system of multiple cloud resources that can deliver trusted analytics using real-time data processing and advanced analytics techniques. Edge computing divides workloads into two categories: cloud-based and on-premises processing. Edge computing reduces latency and increases the overall performance of business applications by performing parallel processing from hard-to-reach locations.

### Benefits of Cloud computing
Cloud computing’s main benefits are:

High Availability: The cloud-based architecture ensures that services are available whenever needed, even if a component fails.

Centralized Management: Cloud providers are responsible for all infrastructure maintenance and management aspects. This allows users with limited IT department resources to focus on core business objectives.

Cost Reduction: The cloud-based computing model provides cost savings on computing power, storage capacity, and software upgrades and updates, as well as eliminating the need for hardware acquisition and maintenance costs.

Scalability: The cloud-based architecture allows users to add and remove resources on demand, thus eliminating the need for long-term commitments.

Data Portability: Cloud vendors usually provide their services through a web-based interface, allowing users to access their data anytime from any location. Users can also download their data in a standard or proprietary format for further analysis using third-party tools and applications.

Disaster Recovery: Cloud computing allows users to back up data in multiple locations and regions, thus ensuring that business continuity is not compromised even if there is a degradation in service performance in one place.

Infrastructure Automation: Using cloud-based solutions, users can implement facilities and processes without worrying about hardware maintenance, storage, or network connectivity.

Faster Time to Value: Cloud vendors typically provide the software applications in the required format, thus allowing businesses to invest in desired solutions that are more efficient and scalable with greater efficiency.

Strong Security: A key benefit of cloud computing is the protection it provides against malware attacks due to encryption technology and policies enforced by cloud providers on all services at all times.

Low Latency: Cloud computing allows users to access data, applications, and other resources from anywhere in the world by connecting their business network with a cloud provider’s network. This significantly reduces the need for on-site storage, increases overall performance, and ensures that business applications process data faster.

Mobile resources: The cloud-based model allows users to access their applications and data via standard browsers on various devices such as notebooks, tablets or smartphones.

### Security Issues with Cloud Computing
Data Security: Cloud vendors must be able to guarantee the security of the data stored in the cloud and prevent unauthorized access.

Data Reliability: Cloud users must be able to trust the data they share with providers. The biggest concern related to data reliability is information leaks, which might expose sensitive information or the contents of a data set.

Availability: Users need to ensure that their data is available and accessible when required, which can be especially important for businesses that rely on real-time data for critical decision-making.

Monitoring: The security of a cloud environment depends on a robust monitoring system that can identify any illegal access attempts or breaches in security and take appropriate action.

Privacy: Cloud users need to trust their cloud vendor and be assured that the provider protects the privacy of data being uploaded and that users cannot be identified or tracked as a result of their cloud usage.

Compliance: Cloud computing systems must comply with industry regulations, especially when dealing with sensitive information such as financial data, personally identifiable information, and intellectual property.

Technology: Cloud vendors must ensure that their network security is up-to-date with the latest technologies to prevent any potential threats from emerging.

Vendor trust: A cloud provider’s reputation is essential in providing secure and reliable services. This is why it is necessary to involve the cloud provider in security assessments before deployment.

Risk assessment: Cloud vendors must perform a risk assessment and ensure that all security measures are applied as required. This will ensure all data is protected, users are identified, and there are no unauthorized access attempts to the network hosted in the cloud environment.

Testing: Cloud vendors need to test their systems and networks to identify vulnerabilities, prevent breaches and ensure that the security of the data being shared is not compromised.

### Conclusion
In conclusion, cloud computing is the most prominent and integral development in information technology. This technology is projected to transform IT infrastructures and drive business performance. It has become a primary source of business applications, data storage and processing, and an efficient platform for developing new solutions, products, and services.

Cloud computing generates significant benefits for businesses, public sector organizations, and governments. However, it also creates challenges for businesses due to the complexities associated with cloud services and the potential security risks associated with such environments. More on this in another post.

Cloud Computing and the Top Cloud Technologies

What is Cloud Computing and the Top Cloud Technologies in 2023

It is predicted that, by the year 2020, about 78% of small businesses will be using cloud-based apps to help perform a variety of business functions. Why? It’s proven, in most cases, to make tasks easier and business operations cheaper.

Cloud-based technology is a type of technology that relies on the internet, rather than devices or local servers, to move information. Small and large businesses are moving their information and services to cloud computing technology to decrease technology risk and maximize team efficiency.

Perhaps one of the largest benefits of cloud-based apps for businesses is the ability for a business to maximize profits through lowered expenses, efficiency, better collaboration, and more. Here are a few of the ways you can utilize cloud-based apps to maximize Your business profits.

 **1. Less Up-Front Costs**
 
Technology is expensive, especially the high-end technology that businesses rely on to transfer information allowing their teams to complete necessary tasks. Think of the total cost to purchase all your business’ computers, printers, servers, and any other devices needed for your business to run? Depending on the size of your business, this could be thousands to hundreds of thousands and more.

Now, consider cloud-based technology. Cloud-based applications usually charge a yearly subscription fee or one-time fee. For businesses, the fees are generally more expensive than for personal use, but this increased price tag comes with more functionality that businesses need.

The up-front costs of paying for cloud-based apps compared to technology devices to store and transfer information are significantly lower. In fact, the cost of ownership to a business for cloud-based technology can be as much as [46% lower than physical technology.](http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/03/cloud-computing-it-technology-virtualization10-software.html)

And as a bonus, think of your energy savings with cloud-based apps. Moving your business from energy-guzzling technology to cloud-based technology can significantly cut your business’ energy use.

**2. Less Risk of Technology Malfunction**

The more physical devices your business owns, the higher chances of failure. When one device malfunctions, it could affect your whole business structure, especially a server failure. Move your servers to the cloud and you can save a lot of money and headaches.

Cloud-based technology can save your information through backup and recovery applications for decreased chance of failure. Set your cloud apps to backup all system information as often as you’d like and safely recover it again in case of lost information. You can also allow your cloud-based apps to perform automatic updates for better safety, security, performance, and maintenance.

Small businesses are actually twice as likely to invest in cloud-based backup and recovery apps than larger businesses, usually because of the lack of funds to invest in more advanced methods. However, small businesses might be on to something smarter by doing so. They are, in fact, investing in a wise business decision that can save them a lot of money in the future.

**3. Easier Team Collaboration**

If your business shells out extra money to pay employees for business meetings, travel expenses and collaboration time, you could be wasting money. Consider all the collaboration efforts made possible through cloud-based apps.

The cloud has made it possible for teams to come together to share, work on, and revise information without ever needing to meet in person. In addition to allowing your team to work more efficiently, cloud-based collaboration apps can save you money on payroll and conference expenses.

Have your team meet through video conferences instead of flying team members to another location to meet in other offices. Share files through [Dropbox](http://www.dropbox.com/) so a team member can pick up where someone left off on a document, rather than spending money for them to work together on overtime hours.

And, lessen your number of company meetings per month by using an app like [Accelo](https://www.accelo.com/) to manage your business clients and projects with your team. Accelo acts as a one-stop shop for you and your team to stay abreast of your client information.

**4. Flexible and Efficient Solutions**

Cloud-based apps offer an unparalleled flexibility for your team. Unlike the traditional workplace, one connected to the cloud is optimized for mobility. Your team can experience a location-independent workplace not possible with a company that has not yet embraced cloud technology.

How does this translate to a decrease in expense and increase in business profits? Basically, your team is more efficient when it is connected to the cloud.

Think of your productivity without cloud-based apps. You can send your team an updated document to work on. A team member misses the e-mail with the most recent revision and begins working on an outdated version. Your other team members work on the most recent version, so now the document is in two different places. Nightmarish, at times.

Using cloud-based technology, you can upload the most recent version of a file and everyone with access to that file will have the updated version. This decreases your margin of error (and your expenses for said error) and increases productivity.

**5. Above and Beyond the Competition**

If you’ve made the switch to mostly cloud-based technology, you have an edge over your competition that may still be using traditional technology for operations.

In the case of an emergency, like a power failure or security breach, that would affect not only your business but some of your competitors, who would have the advantage? Your business that utilizes cloud-based technology.

Why? Because you still have access to all your important data and files from anywhere. You’re not dependent on your local servers or your workplace computer system to continue to run your business smoothly. Cloud-based technology allows you to run your business with the least possibility for disruptions.

Additionally, your customers and collaborators may see you as a mover and shaker of the industry: a business that isn’t afraid to embrace modern technology. One that thinks ahead to keep moving forward. And, since cloud-based technology allows your team to complete tasks more efficiently, your business can become more efficient at meeting your customers’ needs.

**6. Easier Integration with Other Devices and Data**

Not only does the cloud lend a hand to your business’ efficiency, but it also helps to streamline your data between devices and apps. The cloud is basically a vast infrastructure of numerous apps and devices through which data is interconnected. When you place data in one cloud-based application, the number of ways you can access that data is virtually endless.

What does this mean for your business? The more connected your data is to each other through the most helpful cloud-based applications, the better your data analysis can be. Even if you hire a business analyst, you can save them a lot of time through access to the data on your cloud applications.

Furthermore, having your data available to a variety of devices and integrated with other data sources can aid in more innovative practices for your business. Your team can, essentially, have its hands on all business data from one device, leading to more efficient innovation and analysis processes for new products or services. In turn, you can see more profits in a shorter timeframe, thanks to the cloud.

Cloud-based apps are taking over traditional technology for businesses, and with good reason. They are cost-effective both for both short-term and long-term business needs, allow a team more flexibility and efficiency, provide an edge against competition, and provide easy integration with data and devices for increased productivity and innovation.

Cloud-based applications are moving businesses into the future at rapid speed. The cost-effectiveness of embracing cloud technology is something small and large businesses cannot afford to ignore. Amen.

Maximizing Business Profits with Cloud-Based Apps

Marketing a business is not for the faint of heart. It requires time, patience and tons of money, right? Wrong! The internet has made it easy to get your business noticed online with little to no money. If you do it right, you can potentially use just the power of the internet to advertise your business – and all you have to pay for is a website.

Small and large businesses alike turn to the internet for marketing through their websites, social media accounts, e-mail newsletters and more. The best part is, they spend very little money to do it. Aside from the expense of running a website – which, if you find a reasonable host, is not expensive – you can get your business noticed online for free.

Here are the best 4 affordable ways to market your business online with little time, effort and money.

**1. Build a Business Website and Social Media Empire**

One of the first things you will want to do to market your business online is [set up a website](https://www.fundivo.com/tips/small-business-tips/marketing/5-affordable-ways-to-get-your-business-noticed-online/). The website should have your company’s mission statement and some background information, contact information, products or services offered and a blog.

Why a blog? A blog is the source of content creation surrounding your business and area of expertise. If you have a drywall business, for example, you can create consistent content that centers on drywall practices and products. You can use the content to link back to your website and draw in visitors. Make your content useful and share it with those it interests, like those building a home or construction companies.

Depending on the website host and package you choose, your website can cost anywhere from $50 to a few thousand dollars per year, but the higher end is usually for larger businesses with a lot of traffic coming to their website. Most hosting packages offer discounts for the first year or more if you choose to purchase a year or more at a time rather than month-to-month. So, if your business can afford to buy a year of web hosting right off the bat, you should use this option.

Once you have your website built, create social media accounts for your business. Include Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest. Try to make your username or handle the same for each social media network so it is easier for potential customers to find you online.

Share your blog content on your social media networks consistently and share the content of others in your niche daily. Sharing relatable, useful content to your followers will help you gain exposure from others in your niche and will also help grow your own brand and bring in new followers.

**2. Collect E-Mail Addresses and Send Out Newsletters**

Once your website and social media networks are set up, find a [free tool to capture e-mail addresses](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2015/05/capture-email-address-website/) from your website visitors. There are several free tools that will do this for you up to a certain amount of e-mail addresses. Once you reach that limit, you may have to pay for a business account, which are usually very affordable, especially for what you receive in return: E-mail addresses from visitors to help you market your business through e-mail.

Why do you need your visitors’ e-mail addresses? A list of e-mail addresses from those who visit your website and are interested in your business can be turned into a growing list of people to send out business newsletters to. These newsletters can advertise your services, products, promotions and your website content to bring more traffic to your website and possibly create more sales for your business.

To make people want to join your newsletter list, make sure they know you will never spam them. Who wants to open five e-mails per day from just your business? Also, offer them something in return, like a discount to your online store or a free eBook of useful resources related to your niche. Simply begging, “Please join my e-mail list!” will not compel most customers to join.

Once you have a good number of subscribers, start working on your newsletter with a [newsletter building tool](http://writtent.com/blog/7-best-newsletter-builders-for-creating-great-newsletters/). These online tools offer templates and guide you through the process of creating an engaging newsletter step-by-step. You can even save your template to use again for easier creation of subsequent newsletters. See how easy (and affordable!) it can be to streamline your online marketing?

**3. Turn to Bloggers for Reviews**
Blogging might seem like a leisurely activity people do as a hobby to pass the time and have their small, online presence. But did you know that blogging is bigger than ever and has the potential to reach people all over the world? Do not think of bloggers as hobbyists, but instead, as online marketers who can do wonders for your business.

If you are in a business that sells a product, offer a blogger with an extensive online presence through her blog and social media a [free product in exchange for an honest review](http://www.cio.com/article/2475404/internet/9-inexpensive-ways-to-get-your-new-business-noticed-online.html) on her website. You will only be out the cost of the product and you are, in exchange, getting free exposure about your product and your company.

Similarly, if you offer services, such as graphic design, ask a popular blogger to review your service. Have them cover every aspect of the design process, such as the ease-of-use of your website, to planning the design with you to their thoughts about the final product. If they love your service and your work, most bloggers will be happy to spread their love throughout their social media channels and in a review.

You can also search other blogs that might have mentioned your product, service or business. If they have positive things to say, ask them if they would mind mentioning their thoughts on a quick social media post. If a blogger has a negative view of your business, do not be afraid to contact him and see if there is anything you can do to correct the situation and make him a happy customer. If you are successful, he may be inclined to mention your excellent customer satisfaction skills on his blog or social media.

**4. Offer Referral Discounts**

After you have a loyal online fan base started, you should begin rewarding those who actively share your content, products and services with their networks, as well as those who found your business through that shared content.

If you offered a blogger a free product or service in exchange for a review, you can also offer a [special discount code](http://www.cio.com/article/2475404/internet/9-inexpensive-ways-to-get-your-new-business-noticed-online.html) for that blogger and one for the blogger to share on her website. This gives the blogger something extra and enticing to share with his/her followers, ultimately leading to more exposure and purchases for your business.

Another strategy to get your business noticed online and grow your fan base is to set up a referral program where those who refer you can receive money or points per referral. They can then trade in what they have earned for cash or credit toward a purchase from your company. This encourages people to get their friends and family to sign up, giving you more potential customers, while rewarding your current customers for sharing your company. It is a win-win for both of you.

To get your business noticed online actually takes little effort and money, yet can grow your potential customer base exponentially in a short amount of time. Begin with your website and social media accounts. Make sure these are strong and have plenty of shareable content. Then, begin working on growing your e-mail list. Finally, spread the word of your business through blogger reviews and a referral program. What other ways have you grown your business online? I’d love to hear your thoughts or questions!

4 Affordable Ways to Get Your Business Noticed Online

The lead up to your company IPO is an exciting time – but it’s also a busy one. There’s a lot to be considered when taking your company public, and your preparations should begin well in advance. Planning is key, and adjustments will need to be made across your entire organization to ensure that you’re ready for your public offering. While every company has different needs and requirements, there are some top tips that apply to everybody. These five essential steps should be deployed by any business about to hit the public market.

**Upgrade Your Technology**

As your business grows, you can expect your accounting to become both more complex and subject to greater scrutiny. It’s important that you set in place systems that are able to keep up with your growth, even before you feel like you really need them. While Excel spreadsheets may work well for a small business, you’ll find it difficult to scale them to suit a medium to large corporation, and it will be much harder to shift everything over once your company has already grown. By upgrading your technology in advance, you’ll save yourself a lot of hassle down the line, and you’ll also be better prepared to present a professional and efficient face to any potential investors.

Now that others are also invested in the future of your company, it’s more important than ever to keep on top of your metrics. Make sure your information is consistently up to date and accurate, and identify your key metrics for analysis and forecasting. As well as benefitting you and your investors, you will be under greater legal obligation to ensure that the information you present is properly reported.

For convenience, peace of mind and security for your investors, you may want to look into advanced financial reporting technology and find a system that best suits your business. Remember to take into account customer management, budgeting and forecasting, and make sure all relevant team members are properly prepped and trained on your new systems. While this may seem like a lot of hassle in the short-term, it could be crucial to your business’ success in the future.

**Audit Your Own Taxes**

Tax considerations have always been a major concern for private companies looking to go public, but in today’s climate with much mistrust surrounding company taxes, it’s more important than ever to make sure you address it properly. If you or your CFO don’t specialize in corporate tax, consider bringing on a consultant with IPO experience to ensure that all the necessary steps are taken.

It’s important to understand how your IPO will affect your business’ taxes – particularly if you’ve been operating on income tax basis accounting up until this point. The earlier you can address tax considerations the better; many experts recommend strategizing at least 12 months in advance of your IPO. Make sure exactly what is required of you in order to ensure that your company is compliant with current regulation, and set into place the relevant controls to protect your company going forward.

It’s also worth preparing for future tax regulations, such as filing financial statements for the quarterly close. This may mean expanding your team or investing in high performance software, or you may find that outsourcing works better for your company. Either way, it’s important to consider the new demands that your IPO will place on your tax department and set up a workable system in plenty of time. Remember that you will be required to disclose your effective tax rate reconciliations once your company is made public, so you may find it beneficial to introduce new systems in advance so that they’re more stable by the time they’re made public.

**Have Your Strongest Team in Place**

If you’ve reached the stage of going public, the chances are that you run a successful business and have already handed off a number of day-to-day responsibilities to other members of your team. Going forward, further success means that delegation will only increase, so it’s vital that you have a team in place that are properly prepared and who you trust to manage large aspects of your business in your absence. This applies to not only senior members of staff but also to employees at all levels, as everyone will have a role to play in ensuring a successful IPO.

Becoming a public business means that your accounts will be much more complex, so you need a team with broad knowledge and experience and who you feel confident trusting with financial reporting, monitoring and analysis. I’ve already discussed the importance of bringing on board qualified and experienced tax consultants, but you should also look at other key roles in your team such as underwriters and bankers. With all roles, it’s beneficial to have employees who have previous experience in taking a company public – both because of the expertise they can bring to the business and because they’ll have some experience of what to expect during this busy but exciting period for the company.

Consider your existing team’s skills and try to find new team members who can balance and complement these. Identify any gaps in specialism or experience which additional employees may be able to fill, and consider which teams may need extra manpower in light of the growth of your company.

**Brief Your Staff on Insider Trading**

For the team already employed at your company, the shift from private to public can seem like a substantial one. The business – and by extension, its employees – will be subject to a number of new regulations and so the nature of the company can often suddenly seem more formal. It’s important that as the leader you make your team aware of what to expect and coach them on new laws and policies that they need to be aware of.

This is especially true if you’re offering staff stock options or shares in the company as part of your incentive package. Consider that many of them may not have dealt with shares before or may not have experienced an IPO as part of a company, so ensure that all essential information is properly and clearly communicated. Put into place a comprehensive insider trading policy, and make sure that this is shared with staff and investors, and that the proper training is offered and undertaken by anyone who might need it.

In preparation for your IPO, identify information that needs to be kept confidential and share policies and potential risks with all your employees. Again, this may represent a surprising culture shift for those who have been with your company from its beginnings, so it’s important that the message is clear and understood by all. You should also highlight other need-to-know information that may affect your employees and shareholders, such as blackout periods.

**Prepare Your IPO Prospectus**

Once you’re confident that your company is well prepared to go public, it’s time to convince everyone else. Your prospectus should be a comprehensive document that displays your offerings to potential investors. It’s also important to remember that this is a legal document, and you will be responsible for any inaccurate or misleading information contained within the prospectus, so it’s essential that this is prepared by a qualified and experienced team and that all figures and forecasts have been properly reviewed.

Your team should comprise underwriters to ensure proper legal coverage, as well as members of your senior management team who can help create the direction of the document. While your information needs to be accurate, it also needs to entice directors and paint a clear picture of your company and your (informed) predictions for its future.

If you’re based in the United States, your prospectus will need to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and will undergo rigorous review. Expect this to be a lengthy process and prepare in advance for any flags that can be anticipated.

Your initial IPO prospectus will also be taken by your client-facing team on your IPO roadshow ahead of the launch – although a more comprehensive final version should be created once your roadshow is complete. Here it will serve as a form of company look book for your potential investors, so it’s important to consider who you’re pitching to and what their primary concerns are likely to be.

Have you ever taken a company public? Do you think there are any vital tips that I missed? Let me know what your experiences were and share your most important advice in the comment section below.

Related: [5 Tips to Successfully Market Your Crowdfunding Campaign](https://www.aniketwarty.com/market-your-crowdfunding-campaign/)

5 Essential Steps to Prepare for a Successful IPO

My business life can be divided in two parts: one, is startups that work and are within industries that are in high demand at that moment, possibly to emerge as potential biggies; another is boosting revenues and valuation as we go along the journey with high valued, well-planned mergers and acquisitions that speed up that process.

Whether you see an opportunity to merge your company with another or to acquire a smaller player in your commercial niche, or you decide that you need to find such an opportunity to improve the value of your own organization, getting into the world of mergers and acquisitions can be a lengthy, fulfilling and sometimes risky business.

In his article, Six Tips for Avoiding M&A Failure, Vincent Ryan from CFO claims that around 70% of mergers and acquisitions fall short of the goals and expectations of the participating parties. However, as Ryan also points out, most of these failures result from some common errors which, with sufficient planning and diligence, can be completely avoided.

With the right approach, your company can utilize mergers and acquisitions to strengthen its position, penetrate new markets, increase revenue, reduce costs, or achieve growth which might otherwise require a great deal of time, effort and in all honesty, let’s say: luck.

#### Try These Tips to Ensure a Successful Union

![Mergers-and-Acquisitions2-300x284.jpg](/uploads/Mergers_and_Acquisitions2_300x284_6f04509f4b.jpg)

Getting mergers and acquisitions right is no black art, but, of course, there are some key principles and tactics which contribute largely to the difference between success and failure. Hopefully, the following five tips will give you a little insight and enlightenment, as well as helping you in practical terms when you decide to buy, enter a partnership, or merge with another enterprise.

#### #1: Don’t Lose Sight of the Goals
First of all, it’s vitally important to know what your company needs to gain from a planned merger or acquisition. That should be fairly obvious. Perhaps less obvious is the possibility that before, during or even after the union has taken place, your team loses sight of those goals or gets caught up in the excitement of possibilities that weren’t in the original plan. This is something to guard against. Know exactly what you plan to achieve from day one and ensure that remains the key focus throughout the merger or acquisition and beyond.

#### #2: Remember There Are Customers Involved
Whatever commercial segment your company operates in, your customers are at the very heart of what you do—so don’t neglect to think about them as part of your merger or acquisition considerations. Darren Dahl, a freelance contributor for the New York Times, asked Paul Burmeister, a professional services specialist, for some acquisition hints in his OPEN Forum article 7 Steps to a Successful Company Merger or Acquisition. Burmeister says it’s especially important to perform due diligence on the relationships between your target company and its customers. Once they become your customers, you’ll need to ensure you can maintain those relationships and hopefully even improve them.

#### #3: Don’t Call it Something it’s Not
Nothing will create a breakdown of relationships between merged companies faster than a lack of honesty and subsequently, trust. One aspect of a merger in which trust is a major factor is the degree of equality expected by both parties to the agreement. Plenty of mergers, even those between large corporations, have foundered on the rocks because the more powerful partner treated the situation more like an acquisition. Business authors Rodd Wagner and Gale Muller stated in a piece for Gallup’s business journal, that an up-front and honest discussion and agreement about the division of power, labor, and responsibilities should be conducted prior to a merger. Even more importantly, the agreement should be adhered to going forward. This is Key!

#### #4: Focus Strongly on Talent Retention
Here’s a major irony of mergers and acquisitions: It’s the people who provide the potential to make a merged enterprise more valuable than the sum of its parts. All too often, though, a merger heralds the departure of the most valuable talent in one or both organizations. If you want a merger or acquisition to work, you need to consider employees early on and decide how you will prevent an exodus of key talent.
Three key factors that can contribute greatly to talent retention, as identified by HR professional Kazim Ladimeji in his Recruiter article, 5 Strategies for Retaining Key Staff During a Merger or Acquisition, are:
• Identification of the employers from which your new company will benefit most
• Early communication with employees to curb apprehension and allay concerns
• Retention agreements and bonuses to demonstrate that you value what together each company’s employees can bring to the party.

#### #5: Make Sure IT Can Play Nicely
While it’s critical to get the HR formula right for successful staff integration, the success of today’s mergers and acquisitions also depend heavily on systems of intelligence. From the moment your company sets eyes on the prize, technological, as well as cultural compatibility, should be firmly in the sites of your project team. Ask yourself:
• Will you be able to integrate the business information systems of both companies?
• Will one party have to completely migrate onto the other’s platform?
• Will an entirely new solution be required?
Answering these questions will save major headaches and perhaps major cost concerns for those with IT responsibilities in both organizations.

#### Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained
Most commercial ventures are replete with a degree of risk, mergers and acquisitions being no exception. However, there’s no reason why your future merger and acquisition plans should be among the 70% that don’t pan out as intended. The tips above will help ensure success, whether yours is the acquiring company, the target enterprise or an equal partner in a merger.
For more practical guidance and advice on business development, leadership and entrepreneurship, remember to stop by regularly at my personal website, www.aniketwarty.com.


5 Tips for Making Mergers and Acquisitions Work

With trust in banks falling and interest in social entrepreneurship rising, crowdfunding has fast become a popular way of gaining financial backing without turning to traditional institutions. But with its rising popularity, there’s an increasing amount of competition on the platform. Getting noticed (and getting funded) can be tough, though these five tips will help you to market your crowd funding campaign more successfully.

**Make Your Product or Idea Clear**

If you’re asking people to part with their money, it’s important that they understand why. While funny, clever or emotive descriptions can be a great way to catch people’s attention and stick in their memory, the most important element is the idea or product itself, so you need to make sure your description is clear about exactly what you’re building and how any investments or donations will be spent.

Think back to your school days and apply the four Ws to your description (for anyone who’s forgotten, that’s: what, who, why and when).

First and foremost, what is it? Lay out exactly what it is you’re trying to build. Try not to get bogged down too much in speculation and potential future developments; focus on this particular project and the ultimate end result.

As well as knowing what they’re investing in, the investors/funders would want to know who. Tell them who’s behind the business. Is it a solo venture? Do you have collaborators? Are you partnering with a bigger firm or company? Make sure they understand who will be in charge of handling their investments/donations so that they know that it’s a trustworthy recipient.

Next up, think about why you’re developing your idea. What gap in the market are you aiming to fill, or what need are you trying to meet? Put forward clear, concise reasons why your product is different to what is currently on the market, and more importantly, why your investors should care about it and want to see it come to life.

Finally, tell them when you can expect to see it launch. While your idea might be theoretical at the moment, your potential investors will need more solid promises in order to be convinced. Set yourself clear deadlines and make sure that you stick to them, so that your donors will know that their money is indeed being put to its intended use.

![Pebble-Epaper-Watch-300x169.png](/uploads/Pebble_Epaper_Watch_300x169_0612313903.png)

A great product example would be Kickstarter’s Pebble Epaper Watch – with the runaway success product, Pebble Technology sought a targeted funding of $100,000. Imagine, when it rolled over to collections of $10,266,845! Truly a breakthrough product, very well-defined, presented with crystal clear, targeted marketing. As Pebble Technology proudly displays: 68,929 backers pledged $10,266,845 to help bring this project to life. Love it!

**Engage Your Audience**

Of course, while the essentials must come first, there’s still plenty of room for creative license in your pitch. After all, if you want people to invest financially, you have to get them invested emotionally. Once you’ve made sure that all the key information is included in your description, think about ways to further engage your audience by bringing some personality to your product.

How you go about this will largely depend on the audience you’re trying to reach, the type of idea or product you’re trying to launch and your personal brand. If you’re looking to engage business investors, you want to make clear the benefits to them as well as inspiring them to get involved in what could potentially be the next big thing. Think about your motivations for starting your business and channel that sense of excitement into a compelling, comprehensive and engaging pitch. It’s important to show that you’ve put serious thought into your idea, so make sure you cover areas of concern as well as development timelines.

If you’re looking for support from smaller companies, individuals or family and friends, you may want to take a more emotive approach – particularly if your idea falls into the social entrepreneurship category. Again, consider your own motivations behind founding your business, but give more personal insight into your thought process and your hopes for your company. Tell the story of how you came up with the idea, or talk about the people that inspired you to create it. As well as helping bring people onto your wave length, it will give your investors a sense of being more personally included and may just match up with interests of their own.

Getting people invested also extends to getting them excited about your product. Give them an idea of how it could be used. Real life scenarios make it easier to imagine your business in action, and make your venture seem much more realistic than a simple idea put down on paper.

I really like how Ponomusic went about it. Video marketing-wise, they broke all the rules of short and sweet, did not even display the product properly, and got THE Neil Young – the Creator of Pono – as the celeb-owner protagonist doing sincere interviews with a bunch of high-profile musicians like Pearl Jam, Norah Jones and others. Social proof with influencers, sort-of was the idea behind it, and it worked. Pono went on to raise $10,266,845 (10,266 percent of their goal)

**Introduce a Sense of Urgency**

Once your audience is engaged and invested in your idea, the next step is to encourage them to actually donate. Crowdfunders often struggle to persuade their supporters to go beyond liking or sharing a post to add their own funding/donation, even with the most compelling pitch or innovative idea. This, most of the times, sucks.

One way to encourage donations is to introduce a sense of urgency with a clear deadline. Having an end date helps overcome that “I’ll remember to do it later” sensation that can be so frustrating with campaigns, and make visitors to your page more likely to sign up there and then. Set a reasonable end date and give reasons for starting and finishing your launch at particular times. Of course, for this to be effective, you need to make sure your investors feel compelled to be involved and give them a reason to not miss out on being a part of your company.

This also helps investors feel more assured that your idea will in fact come to fruition. An open-ended campaign has the potential to run indefinitely without ever producing concrete results. By setting fixed dates, you show that you’re serious about following through on your idea and product.

When setting your deadlines, be realistic about what you can achieve and when. Don’t give yourself too short a time to raise funds in the name of creating urgency, but don’t leave your deadline so far away that it seems like it can be easily put off. Similarly, think about your timeline for creating and launching your business. How much time do you realistically need? Have you left yourself enough leeway for potential problem? Is there an upcoming holiday or occasion that would best suit the launch of your business, such as Christmas or school holidays?

[The Nikola Tesla Science Centre](http://www.teslasciencecenter.org/wardenclyffe/) at Wardenclyffe was taken to Indiegogo for pledge funding to restore Tesla’s forgotten lab at Wardenclyffe and raised $1,000,000 in nine days. What earlier was meant to be a mere restoration is now about to be a science center and museum honoring Nikola Tesla!

**Offer Incentives and Rewards**

While a creative and compelling pitch may help get others invested in your business, you have to allow for the fact that they won’t be as invested as you are – so you need further incentives to encourage them to get involved. After all, an idea is much more exciting when you’re a part of it than when you’re watching it from a distance.

With this in mind, consider incentives that allow your investors/donors to become a part of your business. For example, crowdfunded film projects often offer to include generous donors’ names in the credits. New products might offer early prototypes to their investors. Not only does this make your investors/donors feel more involved in your business, you might be surprised at the additional benefits to you, such as feedback or suggestions that you can incorporate into your finished design.

Incentives usually include the product or business being pitched in some way – such as free or discounted memberships or samples. However, other small gifts can also be a great option, particularly for smaller, more personal businesses. Thank-you cards and chocolates are old classics that are often well received, particularly by friends and family. Other ideas include regular updates, so that your investors can see how your project is developing, or gifts from a partner company.

The above example of the Pebble Epaper Watch on Kickstarter is a good rewards-based crowdfunding campaign. A donation of $100 for that crowdfunding campaign earned you a promise that you’d receive the watch when they were done. Different donation amounts had different rewards attached. You could even donate – and some folks did – $10,000 for 100 watches! Had the $100,000 goal not been met, the donors would get their money back, of course, and the campaign would have fizzled out.

**Cast a Wide Net**

Once you’ve written your pitch and set your incentives, it’s time to get the word out there. While many marketing campaigns focus on quality rather than customers, with crowdfunding one of the most important aspects is to have your campaign seen by as many people as possible.

The easiest place to start is your personal network. Make the most of your social media as well as your offline contacts – and don’t be afraid to ask them to share it with their own network. Share your campaign, and remember to tailor your message for each platform. As well as reaching your personal friends and family, make the most of tools such as hashtags to reach a wider audience. Think about the kind of people that might be interested in their idea, and look at their typical social media activity. For example, if you’re targeting travellers, you might do well with inspirational pictures on Instagram. If you’re launching a parenting product, you might gain traction using the “mblogger” hashtag.

If your idea is particularly innovative or it’s a social or charitable venture, you might find it’s of interest to news outlets and interest sites. Featuring on a popular platform can be a great way to boost your campaign’s profile and get new investors interested. Often, city news outlets will be interested in local interest stories, so this could be a great place to start.

The Veronica Mars Movie Project crowdfunding was a classy social media blitz in quite a few ways. To quote Hootesuite: The campaign’s social media efforts were key in not only meeting, but substantially exceeding their goal of $200,000. Although working with a very limited marketing budget, the Veronica Mars Movie Project became the fastest on Kickstarter to raise $1,000,000 and $2,000,000, respectively. The latter goal of $2,000,000 was the highest goal ever set on Kickstarter and was surpassed in just one day, becoming a single day record for the site.

To make this happen, marketing company Big Fuel led social media efforts including:

A Twitter Q&A Party attended by writer Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell using the hashtag #VeronicaMarsMovie (which earned 2,400 mentions in just 20 minutes, and saw over 850 mentions per day for the remainder of the campaign)

A Facebook page was created to accompany the Kickstarter campaign, which achieved 24,000 fans in one week

An Instagram account was created which had over 11,000 followers in less than a month

No paid advertising or media

With this monumental success, the Veronica Mars Movie Kickstarter became one of the most discussed and publicized social media crowdfunded campaign in history (eventually, “91,585 backers pledged $5,702,153 to help bring this project to life”)

[See the vid here:](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DTZ-fXU4iE)

The global crowdfunding market potential is estimated to be between $90 and $96 billion by 2025.  That’s no small number – especially considering that it was just $2.7 billion in 2012. Have you launched a successful crowdfunding campaign? What are your top tips for spreading the word and gaining investors? Share your ideas in the comments below.

5 Tips to Successfully Market Your Crowdfunding Campaign

Are you an entrepreneur who is struggling to startup a business with little to no extra funds? You are not alone. Many startup business owners find it difficult create a flourishing business without taking out loans or spending all of their personal money to make it happen. Instead of spiraling into debt and stressing over finances, you should learn how to bootstrap your business.

What does it mean to “bootstrap your business”? It is the process of funding your business from your own expenses without completely drying up your own personal cash flow. It is learning to balance your business income with expenses wisely and cutting costs where you can to create a greater business cash flow. Most importantly, it allows your business to grow without being burdened by the debt of your business startup in the future.

Sure, this sounds easier said than done. And, honestly, it does take time, effort and patience to successfully bootstrap your business. But the end result is well worth your efforts and can put you on the fast track to developing serious business financial sense over your potential competitors who used the traditional route of financing their startup with loans.

**1. Do Not Outsource Jobs You Can Do**

With a startup, you are obviously going to be busy. It can be easy to throw in the towel, take an extra day or two off each week and pay someone else to do some work. But if you are able to do the work, do the work. Every little bit you can save from paying someone else to do something you can do with a little extra time adds up to more money for your business – and in your pocket.
Are you creating a blog for your business? Instead of outsourcing other bloggers to create your blog posts, set aside just a couple of hours each week to write 2-3 blog posts. Schedule them the same day for them to post on different dates of the following week and you saved yourself some money hiring a weekly blogger for your company’s blog content.
Even if you feel that you are over your head with a particular task, chances are you can find several free online resources to help you at least get started and learn at your own pace. However, if you are feeling completely overwhelmed by a task, consider outsourcing an independent contractor with reasonable rates for the bare minimum number of hours per week that you feel you might need to get the job done.

**2. Cut Personal Expenses as Much as Possible**

Since you are funding your business from your own pocket, you are going to have to be extremely careful about your personal expenses. Your social life may get moved to the back-burner for a few months, but think about all of the money you will save for your business over time.
You will probably be too busy for extra entertainment anyway, so consider downsizing your huge cable package by cutting out extra movie or sport channels you do not watch regularly. If your phone data eats up a large part of your bill, cut down your data plan and use free Wi-Fi when available.
You might even consider renting out a room in your home to a trusted friend or relative or even moving into a smaller space until business picks up. Be diligent about meal planning so you can go to the grocery store and spend only what you need for each week. Most importantly, do not be tempted to buy anything extravagant for your business just yet. Stick to the necessities and worry about other things as you can afford them.

**3. Keep Your Team Small**

If you can stick to just yourself as an employee for a while, that would be your best-case scenario to help cut costs. Or, consider adding on a close friend or relative who is willing to help you out with small tasks for little or no pay.
Unfortunately, sometimes it is not always that easy. You may need a few sets of extra hands and their paychecks will have to come out of your pocket. Rather than immediately hiring someone, though, consider hiring interns as an option. Interns are typically college students who can work for your business for little to no pay in exchange for experience within your business field. This will help cut costs and you can decide to hire them full-time later when business picks up if you like their work.
However, if your business is becoming too much to handle on your own or you cannot find great interns, consider keeping your team as small as possible. One awesome employee can take the place of several mediocre employees and will keep more money in your pocket.

**4. Use Social Networks for Marketing**

You will want to market your business to bring in more customers, but how do you do that on a tight budget? Use the power of free social networks to get the word out about your business.
Facebook and Twitter are easy to use and free. You can set up accounts in a matter of minutes and begin setting up a potential customer base by adding your friends and family. They spread the word to their followers and, soon, you can have a wide fan base from all over the world.
Schedule posts on each network daily and frequently. You can use a free tool like Buffer to schedule a bulk of posts to be spread throughout the week, and it only takes a few minutes of your day to schedule.

**5. Be Diligent About Keeping Up with Income and Expenses**

For both your personal and your business revenue, get in the habit of keeping track of your income and expenses. Make a super-organized file space to store all receipts and other income or expense-related paperwork. Keep a detailed checkbook that lists your income and expenses with notes for each and make it a point to balance it daily.
Consider keeping a spreadsheet on your computer to track total revenue. Not only will an organized and detailed list of your income and expenses help you see where your money is going – and what you can potentially cut back on – but it will also come in handy for tax season to maximize your business expense deductions.

**6. Consider Creating a Home Office**

A physical home for your business may be necessary depending on what type of business you run, like a retail shop. However, if your business is a type that can be run from home, like a graphic design business, consider utilizing a space in your home as your home office to save money on rent.
A home office is not always the most ideal space for a business, especially if you have children in the home with you, but it can be a temporary solution to save a significant amount of money until your business starts taking off and generating its own revenue. You might even enjoy working from your home so much that you continue to create a completely virtual business even after you bootstrap your business to success.

Some of the fiercest and most successful entrepreneurs choose to finance their own businesses to give them a jump ahead on financial freedom once their businesses begin to make their own money. Though it takes time, you can bootstrap your business for success by cutting back on unnecessary spending, doing as much work by yourself as you can and utilizing the space you have for your business instead of renting more. Feel free to leave a comment with your ideas or questions.

As appeared in Huffington Post: [Bootstrapping to Success](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/6-ways-to-bootstrap-your-business-to-success_us_57f379e3e4b0667653926857)!

6 Ways to Bootstrap Your Business to Success

It’s a brave new world this year, in more ways than one. As well as obvious shifts in social and political paradigms, there’s been constant evolution within the technology sector that could mean an entirely new way of doing business for small start-ups and corporate giants alike. While a number of trends have emerged over the course of recent years, I’ve highlighted four technology trends that look set to make headlines in 2017 as the changing face of technology in business.

**Environmentalism & Renewable Energy**

Environmentalism has hit the spotlight of late, and it seems that big businesses are catching on to the trend. Even Pantone’s color of the year – traditionally a big indicator of the colors and styles that can be expected to be seen in the upcoming season – was Greenery, a choice influenced by nature and the natural world.

It’s a trend that’s taken a foothold in a number of different industries and locations, and it has manifested itself in a variety of ways. Amsterdam recently announced its plans to become a zero emissions city, while big airlines such as Jet Blue have shifted towards integrating renewable jet fuel in their flights. Meanwhile, in Africa, the introduction of pay-as-you-go solar energy has revolutionized areas that before lacked access to reliable means of electricity and power.

Retailers today are more frequently turning to solar power as a means of not just contributing to reducing their carbon footprint but also as an efficient and economical alternative to fossil fuels. Internet giant Google announced their plans to operate on 100% renewable energy from 2017 – an indicator that modern markets are likely to be taking steps towards making their businesses more eco-friendly. One of the biggest surprises of 2016 was India’s national action on implementing solar power, with the government issuing its first ever call for solar panel projects and setting aside $3 billion in funding to support the cause.

Of course, the biggest obstacle blocking the development of environmental policy in 2017 seems to be the change in US government, with the official party line shifting to climate change denial. While that may slow progress in some areas, it’s also triggered a backlash that may in fact have a reverse effect, with many consumers actively seeking out businesses that are continuing ahead with green policies.

**Drone Delivery**

Drones have been hovering on the cusp of the public spotlight for some time now, but 2017 may just be the year that we see all the long-awaited plans come to fruition. We’ve already seen some successful ventures deploying drones, such as the Rwandan charity Zipline which uses drones to deliver medical supplies to otherwise inaccessible areas, but this novel new delivery method now seems set to hit the mainstream, employed by e-commerce retailers around the world as a means of making their deliveries faster and more efficient.

One of the most talked about drone delivery services has been Amazon Prime Air, which was first reported to be testing out drones in February 2016. Because the retail giant initially struggled to get approval in the US, the first testing sites were Canada, the Netherlands and the UK. The company’s vision involves a 30-minutes-or-less delivery service that will utilize unmanned vehicles. While the service has yet to go live, excitement was reignited when an advertisement appeared during the widely-watched Super Bowl, so it seems developments can be expected to be announced in the near future.

Yet it seems, for all the hype, Amazon may have been pipped to the post by an unexpected competitor – 7-Eleven! In 2016, the company reported that 77 of its customers received deliveries by drone in Reno, Nevada – although all the customers lived within a one-mile radius of the store from which they ordered.

The use of drones for more efficient delivery may be indicative of the growing demand for immediate gratification amongst shoppers. With same-day delivery now so common as to seem passé, businesses are on the lookout for the next big hook. Even amongst high-end retailers, the demand for fast fashion has hit an all-time high, with Fashion Week designers even introducing a “See Now, Buy Now” option at the catwalks that used to be exclusively reserved for previews. It seems that drones may be able to deliver not just a most cost-effective service, but one that’s best suited to meet the expectations of today’s internet customer.

**Augmented Reality**

Perhaps one of the happier news crazes of 2016 was the emergence of Pokemon Go – an app that played on the nostalgia of millennials to take the world by storm. The game employed novel augmented reality technology to place pokemon characters in the room with players using their smartphone cameras. The craze marked the start of a new top trend in technology: augmented reality.

Virtual reality has often been the focus of both the technology world and science fiction writers, and this sometimes causes confusion between the terms virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). While the former replaces the world around us, usually with the use of headsets and sensors, the latter uses the existing world and adds an extra element, as seen in Pokemon Go. And if recent developments are anything to go by, it seems that AR might be overtaking the formerly dominant VR in favor both amongst customers and retailers.

There was some skepticism about the future of AR following the failed launch of Google Glass, which met a frosty reception despite a much anticipated build up. But since then, augmented reality has demonstrated that it’s a popular lure in today’s tech-based games, and it’s also carved out a place in the business world. In the past, one of the most notable uses of augmented reality by a business was when IKEA allowed customers to see what furniture would look like in their homes through the “virtual preview” feature on its catalogue app.

Facebook’s recent acquisition of Oculus implies big things to come in AR technology for the social media site. The company has already announced its intentions to begin creating interactive experiences for its users starting in 2017, and with the site influencing so many other similar social media platforms, we can expect to see the trend trialled in a number of different places.

And it seems the technology may be set to connect offline and physical stores soon, with a rise in the use of augmented reality maps in both retail locations and attractions such as art galleries and museums. Bringing maps, features or interactive tools to life helps businesses create a more immersive customer experience.

**Artificial Intelligence**

In the past, any mention of artificial intelligence seemed like the stuff of science fiction novels. Today, it’s becoming an increasingly valuable tool for businesses, with available technology improving every day. I’ve previously explored [Artificial Narrow Intelligence](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/creating-your-seo-strategy-around-google-rankbrain_us_5804cf3be4b0985f6d15746b) (or ANI) and its use in developing more sophisticated search engines, and it seems that the trend is also advancing far beyond Google.

New industries are introducing AI in increasingly novel ways. In 2016, reports circulated about an advanced cruise missile system in China that employed high levels of artificial intelligence. In Canada, start-up company Infra.AI is developing intelligent sensors that can provide real-time information about Montreal’s street conditions. Even in our pockets, we find increasingly sophisticated AI systems. Virtual assistants such as iPhone’s Siri have seen regular updates, each bringing it closer to human-like intelligence, and developments show no sign of slowing down. And those virtual assistants are widening their net – 2016 saw more companies than ever using virtual sales assistants as a way of making their process more efficient.

The fascination with artificial intelligence and its potential for the future has seeped into not just boardroom meeting but pop culture. The hit UK television show Humans takes a futuristic look at AI technology taken to the extremes, and the vision it conjures up seems not far outside the realms of reality – possibly in the very near future. The show centres around so-called synths, human-like robots that have been incorporated into everyday life, from the home to the office. The show became such a success amongst the audience that a spin-off documentary was produced to see how close we really are to bringing these fictional robots to life. While experiments proved that we still have a way to go, it also demonstrated that we might be far closer than many believe.

Have any of the above trends already affected your business? Or do you think there’s a trend I’ve missed that’s going to be big news this year? Share your ideas and experiences in the comments section below.

Related Read: [Best IT Trends 2016](https://www.aniketwarty.com/best-it-trends-in-20152016-you-will-read-this-year/)

4 Technology Trends That Will Change The World In 2017

The final quarter of the past year has not been good for crypto investors. The market has been bearish, and the prices of almost all coins and tokens stayed at relatively low levels. However, many experts predict that 2023 will be different. According to crypto analysts, the market might turn bullish again in the new year. If that happens, these 8 coins will be the best cryptocurrencies to buy in 2023.

### 1. Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin is the oldest, largest, most popular, and most valuable cryptocurrency. Despite the fact that thousands of competitors to Bitcoin were created over the years, BTC still remains the undisputed number one of the blockchain ecosystem. There are no reasons to believe that this situation will change in 2023.

The price of Bitcoin was quite low for the last few months of the past year, which means that BTC is currently very undervalued. In the near future, many investors are expected to decide that the price is low enough to start accumulating Bitcoin again, which can likely trigger another huge bull rally. When we take all of these factors into consideration, 2023 will likely be a good time to buy Bitcoin, as BTC will continue to gain mainstream acceptance and institutional adoption.

### 2. Ethereum (ETH)
Just as Bitcoin is still the largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum is still the largest altcoin. While some people were predicting that Ethereum will eventually be surpassed by other coins, Ethereum still seems to be a much better investment than most of its competitors. In fact, ETH has never been stronger than it is now.

In the past year, Ethereum has launched the Merge update – according to many experts, the most important upgrade in the history of crypto. After the Merge release, ETH now runs on the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) algorithm, which means that it is now 100% eco-friendly and won’t be affected by any potential environmental regulations aimed at Proof-of-Work blockchains.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s main competitors such as Solana (SOL) or Cardano (ADA) have been troubled by continuous technical problems, which helped to strengthen Ethereum’s position as a technological leader. In 2023, Ethereum is still a great cryptocurrency to buy.
### 3. BNB (BNB)
BNB is the native token of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange – the largest crypto marketplace in the world. It has many important use cases, such as paying fees on the Binance platform. BNB has a strong track record of price appreciation, is not very volatile, and had no technical problems in the past. All these factors point to the fact that in 2023, BNB could be a very good investment to make.

### 4. XRP (XRP)
When the SEC charged Ripple Labs with the unlawful sale of securities, some people predicted that the end of the XRP cryptocurrency was right around the corner. However, it turns out that the critics were wrong – while the SEC lawsuit is still ongoing, courtroom news suggests that everything is going in favor of Ripple, and that the lawsuit might be nearing a conclusion.

The XRP coin has many use cases such as cross-border payments, and Ripple Labs is partnered with major financial institutions. If the SEC lawsuit finally ends in 2023, the XRP price will be ready to erupt due to its growing use in the traditional financial sector and the huge potential for increased adoption.

### 5. Monero (XMR)
Monero is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency that uses advanced cryptography to obscure the identities of users and the details of transactions. It has a strong privacy-conscious community and is often used as a means of anonymous online payments. As privacy concerns among crypto enthusiasts grow higher, Monero could be a good investment to make in 2023.
### 6. ApeCoin (APE)
Although it’s true that Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) still have larger market caps, another meme cryptocurrency might be a better investment in 2023. While DOGE and SHIB have been gradually decreasing in price, the APE price was growing even during the bear market. It’s possible that in 2023, ApeCoin will be the best meme coin to buy.

### 7. Polygon (MATIC)
The same reasons which make Ethereum a good cryptocurrency to buy in 2023 also affect Ethereum-based (ERC-20) tokens. Out of all ETH-related projects, MATIC might be the one to pay close attention to. MATIC is technologically advanced and has already achieved significant popularity, which makes it a safe investment to make in 2023.

### 8. Uniswap (UNI)
The end of the past year was marked by the FTX scandal. The collapse of one of the largest exchanges in the world will definitely leave a mark on the crypto ecosystem. Most importantly, it will likely cause more people to switch to using decentralized exchanges. Since Uniswap is the largest DEX on the market, the UNI token is a good cryptocurrency to buy in 2023.

8 Crypto Coins Experts Are Expected To Buy In 2023

In my productive work, I enforce one tenet over all others: communication. Communication layers have to be established in a workplace and within an organization and zealously implemented. I do. Miscommunication, improper feedback/follow-up can throw a spanner in the works or have disastrous consequences. My brief in this context is clear, concise and dictatorial: you MUST communicate, respond, participate, listen, speak. And what about me, the guy who leads from the front? Do I have to do this myself as well, or am I exempt from this? Businesspeople come a dime a dozen, but what is the key ingredient that separates businesspeople from leaders? If you answered that they should be excellent communicators, then you hit the nail on the head!

Here is a list of several key communication secrets of leaders:

**1. They Are Active Listeners**
Those who are great communicators know that the first step in communicating is being an active listener. Leaders do not just talk “at” somebody. They allow their audience time to ask questions and contribute input to the discussion. On both ends of the conversation, they face the other parties and maintain eye contact. They do not interrupt another speaker, and they demonstrate attentive listening in their body language. They offer feedback when requested or welcomed.

**2. They Know Their Target Audience**
Great leaders know that the secret to connecting with their audience is to engage them. Just like teachers engage their students’ interest, so does a leader with great communication skills. They know their audience’s general concerns, values, and lifestyles. They connect their examples to these points to keep their communication relevant.

**3. They Share Their Expertise**
In order for leaders to communicate effectively and to be taken seriously by their audience, they need to have expertise on the subject matter they present. Audiences can easily detect whether the speaker is strong and confident in their knowledge of the content they discuss. Excellent communicators validate facts or opinions with solid support to back up their claims. This earns the respect of their audience who will perceive them as a credible and expert source.

**4. They Are Genuine**
The best leaders talk to their audience in the relaxed manner they would with a good friend. They do not sound as if they are negotiating a stiff business matter. They know that sounding more natural sets a warm and positive tone with their audience. They present themselves as down-to-earth in their speech and in their mannerisms.

**5. They Are Truthful**
Every great leader communicates with honesty and integrity, and they actually have it! They know that audiences can see right through a façade. They know that the way to earn trust with their audience is to speak truthfully. When a member of their audience asks an awkward question, they answer tactfully. They are direct in stating if the answer contains information; they are not at liberty to disclose.

**6. They Tell Stories That Connect**
When successful leaders have a point to communicate, they often use short stories that connect to the listeners’ lives, feelings, and needs. These are mostly based on their own experiences and reality. This will usually conjure up images in the minds of their audience that evoke emotion and really resonate with them.

**7. They Make It Personal**
One of the major communication secrets of leaders is to make it personal for each individual. When they direct whole groups as individuals, they can make a deeper connection with their audience. More personal and direct communication develops a stronger rapport with each person and, therefore, gives speakers greater credibility.

**8. They Entertain**
Great leaders know that one of the best traits of a great communicator is being able to inform and entertain at the same time. When the speaker makes his audience laugh, he knows it is more engaging for his audience. A more engaged audience is a more attentive audience.

**9. They Communicate Strategically**
Leaders strategically develop the content of their communication. They use outlines when delivering speeches and focus on making a valid point in their written correspondence. Regardless of the communication method, the one function it should always possess is delivering information with an objective. The objective should fill some kind of need in the audience, or inspire and motivate them to take action towards a goal.

#### How To Culminate All 9 Of The Communication Secrets Of Leaders
On an individual basis, the communication secrets of leaders outlined above are pretty straight forward and fairly easy to accomplish. However, culminating these communication skills is not so easy. If it was easy, there would be a great deal more leaders and a lot fewer arguments among people! So, how do some great leaders manage to accomplish that?
Keep the list above handy and keep returning to it to reread it. Think about the purpose and audience of your communication. Carefully review each secret to see how they can apply to the format of your communication. For example, how would they be applied to different settings?

Just as there are no cookie cutter solutions to every problem, so do different modes of communication command different approaches for different settings. A business meeting in a conference room would be enlightened with an entertaining quip, but it might not be appropriate in a letter or email. With this in mind, perhaps one more communication secret of leaders would be that they have discernment for knowing what to say and when to say it.

9 Outstanding Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

A Run-Down on Payment Orchestration Platforms

**A Startup CEO Secrets Revealed:**

From the start of everyone’s career, one dreams of owning and running one’s own business someday. It takes a while to discover what industry and type of company you would invest your life’s work in. Usually you work the corporate ladder on somebody else’s payroll for years and hate it! In my case, for instance, I envisioned and planned for the right moment to take my skills and passion into the world with my own capital, and to strike out on my own as a startup CEO at a pretty young age.
I imagined then that after the initial work of rolling up my sleeves to get my company up and running, my CEO life would assure me plenty of time kicked back in an executive chair with my feet up and my years of brunt work behind me.
Most of us whose imaginations wander into the world of self-employment probably have only a faint notion of the work and commitment it requires to become a successful startup CEO. Some of us may not know how big we want to expand our businesses, while others know exactly what we want to achieve. Whether we want to keep our business small or shoot for the moon to grow a large corporation, we realize that the main ingredients to success are passion and hard work. When we feel the timing is right, we strike out on our own with fervor, persistence and patience. We know that if we want our venture to be a success, we must psych ourselves up with confidence and resilience to mentally prepare ourselves for the toughest and most progressive phase of our lives.

**A Startup CEO’s Checklist**

![what-does-a-startup-ceo-do-291x300.jpg](/uploads/what_does_a_startup_ceo_do_291x300_67ad8cdb92.jpg)

The first step in any venture is devising a plan, so I had a lot of research to do and many decisions to make. The to-do list of a startup CEO is indeed long, but it can be managed well if you have the confidence and determination that it will all get done in due time.
Here is a list of some major ingredients I would need to be an effective startup CEO:
1. Knowledge and skills about my products, services and the industry in which they fall;
2. A corporate attorney or business consultant to devise a flexible business plan for me and assist me in writing contracts;
3. Proposal of how much venture capital I need and the sources from where I would get the funds;
4. Strong verbal and written communication skills to convey my ideas clearly;
5. Bookkeeping skills or a trusted accountant; and
6. Help during the startup phase from people I know well and who share my excitement.

There were many more projects I completed and skills I had to possess as a startup CEO that I consider tools to that would transfer over to other careers, should my venture not work out. According to Wade Fulton of Forbes.com, contracts are highly regarded as a means to confirm business agreements and services. I learned this lesson the hard way when I bypassed the contract with a client who was a friend of a friend. The client insisted we bartered services, so I took him to court to sue for my fees. I had proof of the quotes I drew up for him and easily won my case. Protect yourself legally by documenting everything!

**Ride Out A Recession In The Startup Phase**

As a startup CEO, I had to learn not only how to grow my business but also how to save it from the trenches of a tough economy when initial expenses were draining my operating budget. I discovered that starting up a new business as its CEO requires the ability to work long hours for little or no pay. I learned that new startups often take three to five years to show their first profit, so I adjusted to living on a very conservative budget. I knew that if I made some temporary sacrifices, I had a better chance of being rewarded with long-term prosperity. Unless I was lucky enough to have access to a bottomless trust fund, I would have to keep my expenditures down to only necessities for a while.

**Keep Your Eyes On The Prize**

In the beginning, it was easy to become overwhelmed with all the industry data and project details coming at me. To keep my sanity in check, I kept friends and consultants nearby with whom I could discuss my ideas. That is just good sound advice for us all to follow when our careers get stressful and our company goals and objectives are on shaky ground. I kept a positive outlook and stayed focused on my goals, faithful that months and even years of hard work would turn my scarcity into prosperity.
No matter how tough entrepreneurship has been at times, it has shown me the rewards of having relentless belief in myself that I could follow my life’s purpose. It has given this startup CEO a sense of validity and purpose.

A Startup CEO Secrets Revealed

The internet is an endless system of products waiting to be bought. More and more shoppers are searching online for the things they need and want, and it’s quickly becoming the popular way to browse and shop.

[According to Internet Retailer](https://www.internetretailer.com/2016/01/29/online-sales-will-reach-523-billion-2020-us), by the year 2020, online sales are expected to reach $532 billion and there will be about 270 million active online shoppers. Most of this shopping is expected to take place on mobile devices, like tablets and smartphones.

What does this mean for online retailers? A simplified, convenient, ecommerce marketplace could be the future of the retail store. With 80% of the current population already having made an online purchase, the popularity of online shopping is steadily on the rise.

Online retailers who haven’t yet embraced the ecommerce marketplace are missing out on an opportunity for a very powerful business model.

**What is a Technology Ecommerce Marketplace?**

If you’ve ever been to a website like eBay, Amazon, or Overstock, then you’ve entered the world of an ecommerce marketplace. An ecommerce marketplace is a website that customers can use to browse and purchase items from a variety of vendors.

The ecommerce marketplace runs similarly to what an in-person marketplace would. Sellers sign up to sell their goods and set up a section within the marketplace location to sell. Then, customers visit and purchase items from one or more sellers. The ecommerce marketplace is an online version of this concept.

One area that is still somewhat new is the technology ecommerce marketplace. This, as you can guess, is an online marketplace that focuses on selling only technology products and services from third party vendors. Although there are a few available, most ecommerce marketplaces focus on a wide variety of products to sell, possibly because this can attract a wider variety of sellers and buyers. None of them are doing so great, as the global biggies have a major technology/technical category already, and they are quite ahead of the curve in many ways.

This is not to say that a technology ecommerce marketplace is doomed for failure. In fact, just the opposite is true. Our world is becoming more technologically advanced than we’ve ever seen in the past, and online shopping statistics prove it.

Just as online shopping is rapidly gaining popularity, so is online shopping specifically for technology products. [Books, clothes, and electronics](https://www.internetretailer.com/2012/01/24/books-clothes-and-electronics-are-most-shopped-categories) are the top three items online shoppers search for and purchase.

So, a technology marketplace platform, with a different concept and theme is what I have decided to build next in my array of start-ups.

**A Powerful Business Model**

A technology ecommerce marketplace is different than other popular marketplaces. Although it might seem more difficult to come out ahead of ecommerce marketplaces that sell just about everything (really, is there anything you can’t find on Amazon or Overstock?), it actually is a very powerful business model to have in this technology-driven era.

A sole-technology ecommerce marketplace business model is fairly new territory to the ecommerce world. Most marketplaces focus on more than one category of products. In doing so they reach more buyers and sellers, typically, than a single product category can. Even Newegg, which used to sell only electronics at low prices, has now expanded to clothing, health, toys, and other products.

Competition isn’t much in the way of a technology ecommerce marketplace. However, in 2016, [every generation is using technology](http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/consumer-electronics-account-for-40-of-b2b-e-commerce-marketplace-dhgatecoms-sales-300243280.html) and the online sales of electronics is gaining popularity as customers prefer to compare prices and features on the internet as a way of convenience. And, yes, a good part of technical and tech products are already sold on the other global marketplaces already.

More importantly, online technology sales are on the rise. DHgate, an online marketplace for goods made in China, sees [40% of its total sales](http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/consumer-electronics-account-for-40-of-b2b-e-commerce-marketplace-dhgatecoms-sales-300243280.html) from technology products alone. For example, [eMarketer](https://www.demoup.com/blog/six-new-ecommerce-trends-shaping-the-future-online-retail/) says that computer and consumer electronics products is the product category with the most online sales and it will be the category to have the most increased number of sales by 2018.

**A Successful Technology Ecommerce Marketplace** 

In the internet world of already-successful ecommerce marketplaces, what will make a technology ecommerce marketplace stand on its own to become successful?

- An ecommerce marketplace can be one of the slowest-growing online business models because it takes time to build a strong seller and buyer relationship. In fact, this type of business can take as long as [three years to grow](http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2013/02/07/5-tips-for-building-a-two-sided-online-marketplace/#2dafea3c4bc8) and become successful. If there’s particularly slow growth within the first few months, it isn’t necessarily cause for alarm. However, you can consider tweaking your business model to try out new forms of advertising and promotions to attract more buyers and sellers.
- **Smart spending habits focused on the long-term.** As with almost any business, spending too much in the beginning to try to propel your business forward at warp speed will do nothing but leave you broke more quickly without enough revenue coming in. Budgeting for a technology ecommerce marketplace should involve as little money up front as possible and more money later as the business grows with more sellers and buyers.
- **Keep it focused**. Since a technology ecommerce marketplace is focused on one product category, it’s important to keep technology the focus. To start out, it might be wise to focus on one or two types of technology, like smartphones or cameras, rather than trying to bring in sellers from every category. This will allow the marketplace to start off small and focused, with more room to grow later.
- **Make it mobile**. [51% of mobile app users](http://www.businessinsider.com/why-consumers-use-apps-while-shopping-2015-8) use apps while shopping in stores. Why? It helps them price-compare and check out details and reviews of the products they’re interested in. The technology category is one of the most popular to price-check through mobile technology because of the large price tags electronics can have. Creating a simplified mobile app for a technology ecommerce marketplace can provide valuable help to potential customers and drive sales if it has fairly unique products and unbeatable prices.

**The Future of the Retail Store**

Ecommerce marketplaces are being pegged as the retail stores of tomorrow because of the rapid rise in online shopping for almost every product category. Even the [risk of shopping for clothing online ](http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2016/01/12/how-virtual-technology-is-disrupting-the-e-commerce-marketplace/#3f01761472e7)doesn’t deter a lot of shoppers who like to browse and purchase online, as clothing is one of the top three online purchases.

A technology ecommerce marketplace can provide value to a customer that a brick-and-mortar store cannot compete with, especially if it goes mobile. Customers can read reviews of products they’re interested in right at their fingertips, view detailed descriptions, and even watch videos of the working product. And, buyers can view products from a variety of retailers and sellers for a vast selection. Retail stores simply cannot compete with the convenience of a technology ecommerce marketplace which has all the latest bells and whistles.

The technology ecommerce marketplace also has less cost to an owner. There is no inventory to maintain, no retail employees to pay, and the marketplace profits from advertising and fees for products sold. Much of the overhead costs are the [responsibility of the seller](https://www.thebalance.com/virtual-marketplace-model-successful-1141741) rather than the marketplace owner.

The growing number of customers who prefer an online shopping experience for convenience and price will surely continue to utilize the power of the technology ecommerce marketplace far into the future.

A technology focus on the ecommerce marketplace can pave the way for a new frontier in online shopping. As shoppers continue to find convenience and value in online shopping over in-store shopping, the ecommerce marketplace is bound to grow exponentially in the next few years.

Consumer electronics, one of the most popular product categories for in-store and online shoppers alike, and other technology products should be the focus of a strong ecommerce marketplace that, so far, has been somewhat of a missed opportunity. A technology ecommerce marketplace business model has a lot of benefits to both its owner and its customers and is sure to become the future of the brick-and-mortar technology store.

Also read: [Starting a Successful Ecommerce Business](https://www.aniketwarty.com/starting-a-successful-ecommerce-business/)

A Technology Ecommerce Marketplace – New Frontiers

**Best Advice From Successful StartUp Founders:**

If given the chance to sit down with some of the world’s best business minds, there are a lot of things we’d all like to ask, but there’s one key question on everyone’s lips: how do you do it? And more importantly, how can I replicate it? I’ve rounded up some of the best advice for entrepreneurs offered by some of today’s most successful moguls.

**Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook**

Start with the problem that you’re trying to solve – not with deciding that you want to build a company.

Of course, I couldn’t write an article on entrepreneurs without including one of the world’s most famous tech company founders. While Zuckerberg’s advice might seem counter-intuitive to ambitious entrepreneurs, he went on to explain:

“For anyone that’s had the experience of [building a company](http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2013/07/10/building-company-ground-up-look-like/#47ae200627d0), you know that you go through a lot of hard things along the way, and I think that part of what gets you through that is believing in what you’re doing and knowing that what you’re doing is really delivering a lot of value to people.”

**Michelle Mone, Ultimo**

Write a business plan and include absolutely everything.

Organisation is key, according to Ultimo founder Michelle Mone. While she highlights the importance of starting with a great idea, she’s quick to add that the real challenge is in the details. In an interview with Jack Wong, she said:

“When you’ve got your idea…you’ve got to write your business plan, and you’ve got to think about everything in that business plan: how you’re going to do it, if you’re going to manufacture it, if it’s a service industry, who your customers are going to be, who your competitors are…You name it, everything has to be in that business plan. And then – how are you going to fund it?”

**Jonah Peretti, Buzzfeed**

_Build a great team._

Buzzfeed founder and Huffington Post co-founder Jonah Peretti puts his successes down to being surrounded by the right people. During a speech at a [Commonwealth Club](https://www.commonwealthclub.org/) event, Peretti shared:

“One of the hardest and most important things is to build a great team. Startups need people with shared values and who also want to go after something big.”

So how do you go about attracting talented employees? Peretti’s advice is to “let people do their best work and be more productive than they would be somewhere else.”

**Nick Woodman, GoPro**

_Create an imaginary [business mentor.](https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220694)_

It might seem like odd advice from Nick Woodman, but the GoPro creator insists that creating an imaginary mentor relationship with one of his idols – Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz – helped him get where he his today. Elaborating on his idea, he said:

“Imitation of other successful people is a very good way to be successful yourself, and so in lieu of knowing anybody, imagine you know them and then in your own way you can convince yourself you do and you can have your dream mentor. It worked for me.”

**Richard Reed, Innocent Drinks**

_Find the people that can help you._

Richard Reed famously founded Innocent Drinks company after sending an email to everyone he knew that simply read, “Does anyone know anyone rich?”. It should come as no surprise, then, that his main advice is to find the right people to bring on board. On [approaching investors](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/start-up-advice-dont-make-these-common-mistakes-when-approaching-investors/2014/05/20/2d32619e-e026-11e3-8dcc-d6b7fede081a_story.html), Reed’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is not to give up.

“Behind that final no there will always be a yes. You just need to keep on asking.”

He also followed it up by encouraging entrepreneurs to build partnerships:

“My best bit of advice is: get a teammate. Or get two. I think we wouldn’t have had as much trouble as we did if we’d paired up with a mentor and had a more experienced person around the table.”

**Brian Chesky, Airbnb**

_Be able to tell your story well._

When Brian Chesky first founded Airbnb, he went door-to-door to meet his users – a strategy which likely helped him develop his sales pitch for when he met with potential investors and partners. Chesky states that one of the most important lessons he’s learned is to tell his story well – and frequently.

“It’s remarkable how much time you spend telling your story, whether to potential investors, employees, partners or the media. You need to seek out people with leverage and ask for their help in telling your story, as well.”

What do you think of these entrepreneurs’ advice? Do you agree with it? And what’s the best business advice you’ve ever received? Let me know in the comments.

Best Advice From Successful StartUp Founders

It’s often been said, and will continue to be said, that technology is changing at a more rapid pace than ever. Things that couldn’t have been dreamt of just 30 years ago are here today. Consider your smartphone. Even Captain Kirk’s communicator from the ‘60s Star Trek looks like garbage next to the low-end smartphones on the market today. The upcoming IT trends are indicative of how the world, and the gaming world, is changing and will continue to change for the next several years.

#### 1 – Virtual and Augmented Reality

Google Glass caught on to virtual and augmented reality in the business sector, even though it was also marketed toward a wider audience. It provides a quick and easy on-the-go augmented reality solution for any user. Further developments of products like this, and for products like this, will be absolutely necessary to watch out for in 2015.

Even the consumer market is getting a piece of virtual and augmented reality with products like the Occulus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, and the Microsoft HoloLens that was announced at E3 this year. While these systems are mostly for gaming, utility programs can also be developed for them and with potential Internet capabilities, there could be even further developments in the market.

#### 2 – Wearables

Many companies have had a wearable in some form or another. Even going back as far as the 90s with calculator watches, the consumer market has always had a desire for something to make their lives quicker and easier. With wearables like the aforementioned Google Glass, the Samsung Gear line of watches, the new LG Urbane, Apple Watch, and Moto 360, we’ll be seeing a lot of consumer and business sales of this new trend, and development directed at wearables is becoming almost as important as developing for standard mobile devices.

#### 3 – Analytics and Metadata

There’s a fine line between gathering useful data and a customer considering that a company has reached too much an invasion of privacy. Customers will understand if an automatically updating cloud app needs to access their contacts and pictures but will not understand why a news app would need to, even if there is some customization that may allow the developers to create a better experience for the consumers. Being able to gain as much information as possible about customers while keeping their perceptions of privacy in mind is going to be an absolute necessity in 2015.

#### 4 – Global Market

More and more countries are gaining access to high-speed Internet and, to keep up, companies need to develop practical applications that will enhance the life of users in newly online nations. This means a trans-cultural understanding, a creation of needs and wants, and finding niches that no one else is filling in that region.

Android, Apple, and Windows are somewhat ubiquitous, so continuing to develop for those platforms seems to not be a problem; it’s a question of what kinds of apps to create for a market that is up in the air. Beyond that, if there is an application that has a global appeal, such as a word processing application, it’s a matter of making it stand out to a certain region in a market that may be saturated with westernized versions of a similar product.

#### 5 – Subscription-Based Software and Microtransactions

Think of all of the subscription-based services that are available and popular right now. Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go/Now, Spotify, Pandora, Playstation Network, Xbox Live, and even Microsoft Office are all subscription based. This trend doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon and customers seem to be willing to pay for convenient access to quality products.

Another related trend is the quickly growing usage of microtransactions. Although this is used more frequently in mobile games like Clash of Clans or Candy Crush, it has been utilized in almost every sector to great effect. Of course, not everyone will pay for a freemium mobile app, but the ones that will end up helping the developer turn a profit. While many users notice and are generally fine with smaller microtransactions for extra features, there is a fine line between utility or fun and exploitation. A great example of microtransactions gone wrong is EA’s foray into the market with the game Dungeon Keeper. Being able to turn a profit without turning your customer base off will be absolutely imperative in the future.

#### 6 – Social Site Integration

Developing apps and websites that can be quickly shared on social media is another trend that seems to be in for the long haul. Everything from CNN to video game consoles are connected directly to social media sites for easy sharing and updates, and almost every entity that’s on the Internet has some kind of social media page.

It’s not enough to simply be able to link your applications and websites to Facebook. Now, since almost everything is social media, many developers will need to find a way to quickly and easily link to more professional sites, such as Linkedin, for networking and business purposes.

The Internet of Things is becoming more and more prevalent for businesses and consumers alike by integrating it with virtual/augmented reality, wearables, analytics, subscription services, and social sites, your business will stay relevant. Bringing your business and applications to a global market by reaching across cultural boundaries will ensure that what you’re developing will have staying power for the future.

Best IT Trends In 2015/2016 You Will Read This Year

The supply chain represents all associations creating and distributing goods, from raw materials to finished products. The supply chain ends when the product is in the consumer’s possession.

Currently, supply chains contain hundreds of phases and dozens of geographic locations. Therefore, it makes it very challenging to track events or investigate incidents. 

Customers and buyers cannot reliably confirm and validate the origin of products and services purchased. So, the price paid for such derivatives and services does not mirror the actual cost of production. 

Moreover, the lack of transparency in the supply chain makes it extremely difficult to investigate. Therefore, holding people accountable for any illegal activities along the chain is challenging, which explains multiple cases of fraud, forced labor, and scandals in supply chains.

 Thus, the issues stain the reputations of these businesses and cost millions to the companies involved.

In short, the sophistication and non-integration of supply chains have significantly hindered wide-ranging end-to-end traceability and assessment throughout the chain.

In this article, I aim to explain what bargain blockchain and IoT technology can fetch and how they can assist with providing answers to the challenges of traceability and supply chain sources.

### Current Challenges and Risks in Supply Chains
Businesses have difficulty handling sudden changes in demand and face embarrassment in mastering acquisition and information flows in their suppliers’ operations. Therefore, companies fail to seek transparency throughout their supply chain while outsourcing for business leverage.

Numerous examples of fraud in the food, pharmaceutical, or automobile industries result in increased financial losses due to recalls and a decline in sales.

In this logic, Deloitte’s current [Global Supply Chain Risk survey](https://www2.deloitte.com/ie/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/risks-in-extended-value-chain-greatest-concern-in-supply-chain-management.html) determined the following influences, challenges, and risks:

- Erosion of profit margin and sudden changes in market — unstable conditions require quick reactions to sudden changes in direction because, with globalization, stronger competition has squeezed profit margins.
- Alterability effects due to the comprehensive value chain — today’s extensive supply chains, pushed up of multiple layers of stakeholders, significantly increase fluctuation risks in the supply chain.
- Supply chain inefficient risk management — elaborating supply chain risk management schedules is critical to observe, provide decisive predictability of hazards and acquire a proper reaction.
- Lack of end-to-end visibility — the absence of transparent visibility in the supply chain, both interior, and exterior, uncovers companies to additional hazards.
- Technology obsolescence — advanced supply chain administration tools are a considerable challenge for most businesses. They require elevated investments continuingly, which also involves intrinsic performance risks.
### The Implications of Reliability and Framework for an Optimal Supply Chain
As details flow in a supply chain, trust in the information is virtually collected and made known through the information networks of several stakeholders. It is evident that the entire system leans on trustworthiness.

Reliability, in turn, can be determined in the four aspects described below:

- Trust – stakeholders should entrust each other concerning their readiness to share accurate information.
- The significance of the lowest common denominator, the most vulnerable link in the supply chain, determines its effectiveness.
- Since there is no continuity in providing data, each participant must intervene in the lack of data to ensure accuracy and efficacy.
- Information flow limited presentation, the power of collected data to actually and accurately illustrate real-life entities or circumstances, is specified by procedures placed in supply chains to observe and track reserves.
Thus, by assessing influences, challenges, and risks in the supply chain, except the significance of reliability, it is achievable to determine which conditions are for excellent supply chain fulfillment.

### Framework for an optimal supply chain:

- Trust
- Flexibility
- Transparency
- Control
How the integration of IoT into Blockchain can Help?

Blockchain and IoT capabilities can increase the traceability and reliability of Information in the supply chain.

As the purpose here is to provide you with a brief analysis of how technologies could add value to the supply chain, I will stick to some possible functions only. However, I will discuss the qualities without delving into the difference between Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers that deserve their own article due to their expanse and breadth. 

Observing blockchain technology is the distributed open-source architecture that allows digital and permanent commerce records in a P2P network.

Qualities of blockchain technology, which are accountable for improving the creation possibility of all major initiatives, can be rephrased as low cost, transparency, auditing, and trustworthiness (resilience). In the supply chain, such components help decrease the number of arbitrators (trusted validators), resulting in improved efficiency and reduced expenses.

The Internet of Things (IoT), in turn, connects the physical world to the digital world. As such, it allows safe decision-making behaviors to be effectively adjusted through real-world data collection, communication, a collection of said data into knowledge, and, finally, the presentation of assertive results.

 IoT acts complementarily to blockchain technology, allowing systems and users to aggregate data, analyze trends, and perform preventive monitoring. It should be noted that IoT covers not only devices (things, sensors) but a whole system (architecture, infrastructure) that should be practically implemented with sensors and things, networks, integration layers, etc.

Blockchain and IoT solutions can provide the following:

- Continuity in information sharing.
- Helping companies reduce operational risk and ensuring continuous reliability.
- Invulnerable global flows.
They add value to the supply chain because they increase the capacity to control and verify flows from suppliers. They also enable reliable and shared tracking systems to distribute and certify with significant benefits to the consumer. For example, they can ensure that the transportation of their goods is done in proper conditions and time, verify the origin of goods and trace the whole manufacturing process in blockchain, verify and prove the authenticity and origin of goods through IoT devices, etc.

### Blockchain and IoT Use Cases for Supply Chain Management
There are already numerous possible cases of blockchain and IoT application use in supply chain management. In this topic, I bring some of them, seen through the lenses of different industries.

In the agricultural food supply chain, production is fragmented (due to planting mainly occurring in remote and developing areas), with volatile prices, under constant threat of climatic variations. Both blockchain technology and the Internet of Things may not solve all these problems, but they can contribute to transparency and increased efficiency in the coffee supply chain, for example.

 In this context, [Bext360](https://www.bext360.com/#/home), a software platform (SaaS), focuses on critical supply chains, such as coffee, cocoa, seafood, palm oil, minerals (coltan, cobalt), wood, and cotton. After data collection across all stages of the supply chain puts them in the blockchain, creating a permanent record to better track the entire chain, from producer to consumer, thereby increasing supply chain productivity and efficiency.

Similarly, there is [Pacific Tuna](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl6GxBSrZMs), a Pacific Island tuna supply chain traceability project that seeks to eradicate illegal fishing and human rights abuses. Soon, through Blockchain technology, simple scanning of tuna packaging utilizing a smartphone app will tell the history of that tuna. It allows you to know where and when the fish was sourced, by which vessel, and the fishing method. Assuring consumers will be secure buying legally captured and sustainable tuna without using slave labor or oppressive conditions.

In the pharmaceutical industry, issues related to drug safety in the supply chain are incredibly relevant. Tracing “active” pharmaceutical ingredients during manufacturing is a complicated process. Failure to identify drugs that do not contain active ingredients can ultimately cause harm to patients or even the death of the final patient. Hence, the importance of Blockchain application development, which can provide the basis for the complete traceability of drugs, from manufacturer to final consumer, and the power to identify precisely where the supply chain fails during a situation.

[Blockverify](http://www.blockverify.io/) emerges within this context. It is a solution that proposes using blockchain traceability and transparency to detect and effectively combat fraud in the pharmaceutical industry through IoT resources, “widely discouraging” the distribution of counterfeit drugs.

Finally, Riddle & Code develops security for IoT features using distributed accounting technologies to keep data and communications confidential.

### Final considerations

Blockchain technology, coupled with IoT (Internet of Things), is a great promise to improve Supply Chain efficiency and reliability across industries drastically. [International Data Corporation](https://t0n0v6z0c6ex1u38-38139658377.shopifypreview.com/products_preview?preview_key=24843a6755d2794f33e503acba2b1cea) (IDC) suggests spending on blockchain solutions worldwide will reach US$ 2.2 billion by 2023, more than double the US$ 945 million spent in 2022. By 2023, the expectations of annual spending should reach US$ 9.7 billion.

The potential for applying said technologies to the supply chain is significant. Leaving the concept and pilot tests to implement feasible solutions effectively will require blockchain technology to be developed more deeply, in addition to the need for organizational transformation and the desire for collaboration among all those involved.

For now, IoT and blockchain technologies are evolving and need to mature to ensure effective traceability throughout the supply chain and reduce risks via increased efficiency.

However, this evolution will not occur without the joint efforts of all the various actors in the supply chain and an open
environment leading to the implementation of said technology.

Bringing Blockchain, IoT, and Analytics to Supply Chains

### Common Mistakes StartUp Companies Make:

Starting a business from scratch can be daunting even for the most ambitious entrepreneur. There are a lot of conflicting opinions on what you should be doing, but there are a few things that many founders agree you definitely should not. I’ve put together here a quick list of mistakes to avoid when you’re setting up a start-up.

**Picking the Wrong Employees**

When founding a start-up company, your employees will be your greatest assets. It’s important to weigh up salary expectations against the skills you require. Often companies will turn to interns as a way of keeping costs low, but if you don’t have the resources to train up junior staff members you could end up costing yourself in the long run. Instead, invest in talent in the areas that will be most important during your early years, such as tech, marketing and customer service.

Not only do you need people with the right skills and experience, it’s important to find people who share your company ethos. Your first staff members will often end up being your core team, and will have major input in the way the company is run, so it’s important that you [hire employees ](http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilpatel/2016/09/19/5-key-traits-to-look-for-when-hiring-employees-for-your-startup/)that share your vision and ideals. You also need to ensure you find people who understand the nature of start-up businesses: there will often be long hours and unexpected problems to tackle, and you need a team behind you who are willing to put in the hard work it takes to develop your business.

**Setting High Expectations**

Unfortunately, there are no fairy-tales in the start-up world. Even the most successful start-ups have taken a long time to establish themselves. Many companies make the mistake of setting themselves high targets during their first year and suffer a drop in morale when they fail to reach them.

While it’s good to look at the rest of the market to get an idea of what you should be aiming for, don’t expect to be hitting the same heights as well-established organisations.

It can also be tempting to present ambitious projections to potential investors, but it’s important to stay realistic. It’s far better to exceed a reasonable target than it is to miss an excessive one.

**Being Afraid of Change**

Most start-ups are set up because the founders are passionate about their idea and their business, so it can be tough to let go of that original plan. But what looks good in theory sometimes doesn’t work in practice, so one of the most important attributes in a start-up business is flexibility.

Trial and error might not be the fastest way to learn, but it’s often the most efficient. If you realise that your processes aren’t as efficient as they could be, get inspired by a competitor company or site or notice you’re attracting a different market than you originally thought, don’t be afraid to change course – even if it means putting aside work that’s already been done. It’ll be well worth it in the long run. A starup company CEO and the founders always have to be on the proverbial ball, practically 24/7!

#### Related: A Startup CEO Secrets Revealed

**Ignoring the Budget**

When you’re working on a project you love, it can be all too easy to get swept up in the idea and forget about the practicalities. It might be frustrating to be held back by the budget, but it’s far better than overreaching and running your business into the ground.

Entrepreneurs tend to be natural gamblers – after all, it’s a big risk to set up your own company – and that can be a habit that’s hard to break. It’s often tempting to pour money into an idea that you’re sure will make you big returns, but there are never any guarantees. You have to be prepared for your ideas to fail – no matter how sure you are they won’t – and think about what that will mean for your company financially. Is it a risk you can afford to take? And, importantly, is it worth it?

**Not Creating an Identity**

There’s nothing wrong with taking inspiration from market leaders, but often small companies will try and replicate the tone of voice or trademark style of popular brands. If you’re not offering anything new or unique, your audience will have no reason to stray from the brands they’ve already tried and tested.

Figure out what makes your company unique and capitalize on it. That might be your product, or it could be your ethos, your business model or even the audience you’re catering for. Make sure your USP is clearly highlighted – preferably in your name or tagline, so that it’s easily associated with your brand.

You can also use your advertising and your web presence to give your brand a clear identity. Try and convey a consistent personality through your copy and imagery; ideally, your brand’s style should be instantly recognizable.

Have you started your own company? Tell us about the mistakes you’ve learned the most from in the comments below. Or, if you’re still in the early stages, what’s the best advice you’ve received so far?

Common Mistakes StartUp Companies Make

### This Year’s Most Exciting Start-Up Companies (As seen on Huffingtonpost):

Recent years have seen a significant rise in technology – and along with that has come a rise in aspiring entrepreneurs. Start-ups are the new beating heart of the business world and investors are constantly on the lookout for promising new business ideas to get behind and looking out for those most exciting start-up companies. I’ve selected here some of the most exciting start-up companies to launch in the past year, from tech companies to social enterprises.

**Zipline**

Zipline is a tech company that’s restoring faith that technology isn’t just for selfies and witty tweets. Created to tackle the problems associated with delivering quality medical care in areas with poor infrastructure, Zipline’s first product is a small robot airplane or drone called Zip, which can deliver essential supplies to previously unreachable areas.

The technology might not be simple, but the process is: healthcare workers order vaccines, medicine or blood via text. Zip can be loaded up and launched in minutes, and it travels towards its destination at 100km per hour. Supplies are dropped off and the drone returns.

Zip’s first mission is in Rwanda, where it’s set to start making deliveries this summer. A partnership with the national government should see twenty hospitals and health centres receive vital blood supplies and improve healthcare for millions of citizens.

**Winnow**

[Winnow](http://www.winnowsolutions.com/) is a UK start-up co-founded by Marc Zornes, author of the Global Institute report “Resource Revolution”, and Kevin Duffy, a former Peace Corps volunteer and a commodities investment banker.

While working on his paper, Zornes discovered that approximately one-third of all food grown ends up not being eaten – and there were very few measures in place to address the issue. That’s when he and Duffy came together to create Winnow – a system that helps kitchens cut food waste.

The Winnow System measures how much food is being wasted, creates a tailored report and helps companies estimate how much they actually need to be buying, and how much money is being wasted.

**Too Good To Go**

[Too Good To Go](http://toogoodtogo.co.uk/) is another company that’s tackling food waste – but they’ve taken rather a different tack. This tech start-up has come out with an app that allows economical diners to buy leftover meals from restaurants that would otherwise be thrown away.

Development on Too Good To Go started in Denmark in mid-2015, and was ready to take to the UK earlier this year. Unsurprisingly, it’s been a huge success. Diners get their favourite meals at bargain prices (they come at a maximum of £3.80) and restaurants are able to collect on food that would otherwise have been written off.

As well as helping tackle the food crisis, Too Good To Go have added an extra environmental aspect by packaging leftovers in an eco-friendly sugarcane box. That’s what you call comprehensive branding!

**TipGenie**

In the age that has seen almost all forms of payment possible at the touch of a button (or the tap of a phone), tipping is one area that’s been left behind. Consumers are often reluctant to tip electronically; it feels impersonal and many worry that the server won’t ever see the money.

[TipGenie](http://www.tipgenie.io/) has come up with a solution. Using this app, you can send money directly from your phone, accompanied by a personalised thank-you note. You can choose any amount you like, and you can even send an instant message to the management team if you’d like to leave extra feedback.

Right now it’s still in the development stages, but with optimistic investors and a head office in [Silicon Valley](http://www.siliconvalley.com/), this start-up is expected to see great success.

**The Bolt**

In a world that’s constantly on the go, car phone chargers are considered an essential accessory to most mobile phone owners. But what does that mean for countries that have different styles of transport?

According to [research undertaken by Pew Research,](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/16/car-bike-or-motorcycle-depends-on-where-you-live/) just 6% of India’s residents own a car, whereas 47% own motorbikes. It seems only natural, then, that it was an Indian start-up company that came up with [The Bolt](http://thebolt.club/) – a mobile phone charger for your motorbike.

Capable of charging any phone, weather resistant and easily portable, The Bolt is fast becoming a must-have for bikers across the country. As an added bonus, it not only charges your phone but also automatically tracks your route including your total distance and average speed.

Share your thoughts on my pick of start-ups. Which idea are you most excited about? Are there any companies you think I should have included?

Most Exciting Start-Up Companies of this Year

Entrepreneurs have many financial options for their businesses, including funds from venture capital firms. A company can take two main paths in the venture capital world: an initial public offering (IPO) or a merger and acquisition (M&A).

Both approaches have their own unique pros and cons, and it’s essential to know which path is best for your business. Let’s explore the differences between IPO and M&A and how venture capital helps shape a startup’s future.

### How does venture capital work?
Venture capital is a type of funding provided to startup companies and small businesses, usually by wealthy investors, that are deemed to have long-term growth potential. Venture capital aims to help the business grow and eventually go public or be acquired by a larger company. Venture capital is often the only way a startup company can get the funding it needs to get off the ground.

When a company needs financing, a venture capitalist (VC) will consider investing in the business. The VC will thoroughly review the company’s business plan and financials, as well as the founders’ backgrounds and qualifications. A deal will be negotiated if the VC believes the company has a good chance of achieving its goals. This deal may involve the VC providing the startup with capital in exchange for equity in the startup or some other form of compensation.

Once the VC has invested in the company, they will work with the founders and management to help it grow and achieve its goals. This may include providing strategic advice, introducing the company to potential partners, and helping to secure additional funding. The VC may also be involved in the company’s day-to-day operations, such as helping to hire key personnel and providing financial guidance.

Once the company has achieved its goals, the VC will receive a return on its investment. This can be in the form of a capital gain if the company goes public or is acquired, or through dividends or other forms of compensation. The return on the VC’s investment will depend on the terms of the agreement between the VC and the company.

### What is an IPO?
An IPO marks the first time a private company offers shares of its stock to the public, allowing anyone to buy those shares on the open market. A company going through an IPO must register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which means that potential investors will have access to information about its operations, finances, and management team—all of which must meet specific criteria. This makes it easier for investors to determine whether they want to invest in a particular company.

### The Steps Involved in Going Public
Going through an IPO requires several steps, which may take some time depending on the size of your company and the complexity of your operations. The process usually begins months before trading begins on a stock exchange, with registration documents filed with the SEC and marketing materials prepared for potential investors. After that comes pricing negotiations between investment banks, who may offer assistance with underwriting (buying) portions of shares from newly issued stocks from companies going public, followed by finally trading those shares on the stock exchange where they are available for purchase by individual investors.

### The Benefits of an Initial Public Offering
Going public has advantages, such as increased visibility, access to more capital, and greater liquidity. An IPO will also give existing shareholders an exit opportunity if they choose to cash out their investment. It provides more options for employees who may be able to purchase stock at a discounted rate through an employee stock option plan (ESOP). Plus, it allows the company founders to remain in control of the company while still being able to raise funds from outside investors.

### What is an M&A?
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) involve combining two organizations or businesses. The two companies can merge together to become one entity, or one company can acquire another by buying its assets or stock. In general, M&As occur when a larger company looks to expand into new markets or gain access to further resources.

### How Do M&As Work?
The process of an M&A involves many steps a business must take before completion. First, there will be negotiations between the two companies involved to determine the terms of the deal—including price, structure, and other details. Once these negotiations have been finalized, a due diligence process will begin in which all aspects of the deal are thoroughly examined for accuracy and compliance with applicable laws. During this period, contracts will also be drawn up that outline all terms related to the merger or acquisition. Both parties will sign off on the agreement and complete the transaction if everything is satisfactory.

### The Benefits of Merger & Acquisition (M&A)
Merging with or getting acquired by another company can be beneficial for startups. Combining with another business gives companies access to new markets and customers they wouldn’t have had before. It also increases efficiency by eliminating redundant processes and departments that help cut costs in the long run.

Another perk is that it gives companies access to new technology or intellectual property rights that can help them gain a competitive advantage in their industry. It also provides founders with an exit strategy if they want to sell their shares after the merger or acquisition is completed.

### Thinking long-term
If you just started your business, cash from an investor can make or break your company. In fact, it could be the difference between launching a product or going out of business. However, if you don’t scrutinize investors’ relationships, you may have to relinquish control later down the line. It’s not uncommon for founders to hand over their business to a larger acquirer or be subject to a certain level of profit expectations as a publicly traded company.

In a recent article, [Harvard Business Review](https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/ipo-or-ma-how-venture-capital-shapes-a-startups-future) published the results of a study conducted by researchers at Harvard, Columbia University, and the University of Washington. This study examined about 71,000 funding rounds for approximately 42,000 new ventures and 20,142 investors between 1982 and 2014. It aimed to identify relationships among venture capitalists in a startup’s first round of funding. The research found that about 16% of the startups were acquired. It also found that, on average, venture capitalist firms usually sold their holdings after about 3.4 years.

While these low-profile exits may have some benefits, like recouping backers’ investments, they also come with complications. The company founder may feel pressure to succumb to the plans of an investor group, or even give up control of the startup’s vision. After a larger company takes possession, many founders are forced to step back while a larger company takes over.

Out of the companies in this study, about 2.9% went public through “broadcast successes.” On average, venture capitalists who haven’t worked closely together tend to stay on board longer, about four and a half years, before moving on to a high-profile exit. According to the study, becoming a public company can give a business more attention while retaining the original team. Still, the risk of failure is higher for these types of ventures.

### What does this mean for your business?
Simply put, this study found that startups funded by a VC who usually works with the same group of partners typically exit faster by selling the company to a larger business. In contrast, if a startup is funded by a VC syndicate with less familiar co-investors, the VCs are more likely to exit through an IPO, allowing founders to retain more control (although these founders may be under the pressure of high expectations).

The research on the degree of collaboration of a business’s investors offers several pros and cons. On the one hand, a diverse investor group could give founders more control over decision-making. On the other hand, investors working together could potentially pool resources, have more industry connections, or understand how to find the right opportunity for the business. Either way, being informed about each scenario is a must before committing to venture capital funds. While most business owners hardly ever consider the structure of the relationships of investors, the research shows that this is clearly an important factor.

It’s critical to remember that for everyone involved, both founders and funders, the best-case scenario is to make money. Many venture capitalist investments yield no return of any kind.

Although venture capital provides many opportunities and benefits, you should also remember that in this day and age, there are several other ways to raise funds for your venture, especially if the cons of VC aren’t so appealing to your business structure. Different forms of acquiring funds include getting capital from private equity firms, angel investors, or crowdfunding.
### Final thoughts
Venture capital is integral to the success of many businesses, but entrepreneurs must carefully determine which path is best for their startup.

Ultimately, each path has its merits, but only you know what’s best for your business! With careful consideration of both options, you can make an educated decision regarding your company’s future success.

IPO or M&A? How Venture Capital Shapes a Startup’s Future

Everytime he paused, he thought. Evertime he thought, he paused. He checked the circumstances and situation in which he had put himself and then the people around him with his whole, his cumulative, his sum total, and checked for explanations and checked for contradictions. He checked it with his moral compass. For him, it was as simple and as natural as breathing, everything had an explanation, everything. It was also a pause to connect at times with his inner creature, his joy. It beckoned to him amidst the corruption, the evil, the drudgery and the lifelessness he saw and faced everyday around him. He had to see it, to acknowledge to himself that it existed. For exist it did. And its target was HIM.

And every time, the inner creature guided him through the process with the ease and the simplicity of clean thought and rationally consistent ideas – like his Occam’s razor, slicing out, chopping off the inessentials that threatened to bog down his very existence. The pause was the brief instant when he savoured himself – and himself alone – and a nod to what it was all about – his very integrity challenged every second, his honesty held to ransom, his ethics questioned and his existence threatened to be wiped out by the single word of an undeserved, a blot, a parasite, a nothing.

The nature of the beast WAS a rat in a sewer, he reckoned and laughed at it. He rarely allowed himself that laugh – it was a full-throated sound that came from within – with his head thrown back and the joy of existence – HIS, above all else.

He raised an eyebrow and said out loud to no one in particular, though it was addressed to the creature within him: “Hell, yeah!” And he laughed.

He now knew what he had to do.

INTEGRITY

Starting up a company can sometimes feel overwhelming, not least because it means reading up on a host of new information. Becoming a founder means taking an interest in every aspect of your business, including those outside your comfort zone and indeed your previous experience.

From buzzwords to classic accounting terms, there’s always something new to learn, so I’ve put together this (by no means exhaustive) list of common business terms that start-up founders should know that you may or may not have come across before, with a brief explanation of their meanings.

 **Accruals  / Deferrals**

In a business sense, accruals refers to money that’s either been earned or spent but has not yet been recorded in the accounts. This can be applied to revenues (i.e. money that’s been earned) or expenses (i.e. money that’s been spent).

A deferral is the opposite of an accrual. The term refers to income or expenses that have been recorded but have not yet been received. Again, this can be applied to either revenue or expenses.

**Affiliate Marketing **

Affiliate marketing is becoming increasingly common with the rise of bloggers as influencers. Partner advertisers are paid based on performance; for example, for a blogger might receive a set amount for every customer that clicks on a link in one of their posts.

**AOV**

AOV is the abbreviated form of Average Order Value. It tells you how much your customers are spending, and is often used by merchandisers to see how effective your upselling strategies are. You can work out your AOV for a set period by simply dividing your total revenue by the number of orders placed.

**B2B / B2C / C2B**

B2B stands for Business-to-Business, while B2C stands for Business-to-Consumer. They refer to your target audience. C2B – or Consumer-to-Business – is often used in place of organic marketing as it refers to consumers that come to you rather than those you’ve reached out to.

**Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery**

Essentially, this means your Plan B. Business continuity management involves identifying potential risks and coming up with a contingency plan that so that you’re still able to operate should the worst happen.

While often confused with business continuity, disaster recovery refers specifically to technology. A disaster recovery plan should detail your strategy for protecting and retrieving vital information and systems if your IT infrastructure is hit.

**Conversion Rate**

Conversion rate refers to the number of customers who visit your business versus the number who actually sign up or make a purchase. It’s most often heard in Internet marketing, but it can also be applied to retail outlets.

**CTA**

CTA stands for Call to Action – a fairly self-explanatory term. It’s used in marketing to refer to copy that instructs or encourages a customer to take action through words such as “buy”, “visit”, “shop” etc.

**CTR**

CTR stands for Click-Through Rate – a term used in online advertising. When you put a clickable link in an advert, your CTR is the percentage of people who view the ad that actually follow the link.

**FMCG** 

FMCG stands for Fast-Moving Consumer Goods â€“ also referred to as Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG). These terms refer to low-cost goods such as toiletries and perishables that sell quickly and frequently.

**Growth Hacking**

A fairly new term, growth hacking is all about speed. The aim is to find the most efficient way to grow your business, and the process involves testing out a series of methods in a short space of time.

**Guerrilla Marketing**

Guerrilla marketing is particularly important to small businesses as it refers to advertising strategies on small budgets. It’s usually high-energy and unusual, and is designed to turn heads and leave an impression.

**KPIs**

KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator; these are the factors used to measure your company’s success. KPIs will vary from business to business, but usually include stats such as revenue and customer acquisition.

**Liquidity**

Liquidity refers to how easily a company’s assets can be converted into cash. It can be broken down into two similar but separate categories: market liquidity, which assesses easily an asset can be sold without losing its value, and accounting liquidity, which assesses how easily a company can cover its financial obligations.

**Operative Profit**

We frequently hear talk about the differences between net profit and gross profit, but the term operative profit is a little less clear. It refers to the income that remains after taxes and interest have been deducted from the gross profit.

**Organic Marketing**

We all know what this means in the GOOP sense, but it takes on a different meaning in a business context. Organic customers are, in short, customers that aren’t paid for through ads. It’s a term often used in conversations about SEO and social media marketing.

**PPM**

PPM stands for Point Product Margin – which is also referred to as simply point margin or gross margin. It’s sometimes expressed in percentage form, but more frequently as a decimal. To work out your point margin, you simply subtract your costs from your selling price, and then divide the result by your selling price.

**Risks / Issues**

There’s often confusion amongst project managers about the difference between risks and issues. Put simply, risks are problems that might arise and issues are problems that have already happened.

**ROE or RONW**

ROE, meaning Return on Equity, and RONW, or Return on Net Worth, are synonymous. They measure profitability by calculating the amount that shareholders have made on their initial investment. It can be worked out by dividing your company’s net income by the shareholder’s equity stake. This can then be used to work out a percentage increase that the shareholder has gained on their investment.

**ROI**

ROI stands for Return on Investment, and is used to calculate the benefits of different investments. You can calculate your ROI by dividing the gain received from your investment (minus the initial cost) by the cost of the investment. Remember to account for employee time as well as money spent.

**RPV**

RPV stands for Revenue Per Visit, which is a combination of your AOV and your conversion rate. You can work out your RPV for a particular time period by dividing your revenue by your number of visitors.

**SGR**

SGR, or Sustainable Growth Rate refers to the amount of expansion that an organisation can self-fund. It’s an important factor for start-ups to consider when making projections for the future.

**Sole Trader / Limited Company**

These two terms are important not only because many start-ups begin as one-man bands, but also because new businesses will often hire freelancers or contractors for the sake of flexibility. Sole traders are registered self-employed and are personally liable for their business operations, while a contractor registered as a Limited Company is separated legally from the business.

**Stakeholders / Shareholders**

The term “stakeholders” is often used as a synonym for shareholders, but they do have separate meanings. While a shareholder owns part of a company, typically having made a financial investment, a stakeholder is anyone who has an interest in the company doing well. That could mean employees, customers, suppliers etc. In other words: all shareholders are stakeholders, but not all stakeholders are shareholders.

**Stock Options**

While start-up businesses are often unable to match the salaries of bigger companies, they will sometimes attract employees by including stock options in their compensation packages. A stock option gives the holder the right to buy a set number of shares at a set price within a fixed time period â€“ even if the shares increase in value.

**Synergy**

Synergy is a word that’s often taken for business jargon, partly because it’s frequently misused by middle managers. It actually means that two companies – or two departments – would be more successful if combined. The phrase “the whole is greater than the sum of parts” springs to mind.

**UX / UI**

UX is shorthand for User Experience, while UI means User Interface. The two terms are fairly self-explanatory, and are often used in reference to job descriptions. For example, a UX Designer would be focused on ensuring customer satisfaction, while a UI Designer would probably be a graphic designer or a website builder who creates the webpages that greet your customer.

**Valuation**

Valuations can sound intimidating to start-up companies, but it’s important when you’re looking to bring investors on board. Valuation involves assessing the financial worth of a company, usually through projected earnings and market value.

Important Terms All Start-Up Founders Should Know

Starting a new business venture can feel exciting, yet risky. It’s challenging to know if your venture plans will accurately reflect reality, so how can you create a plan that will take unknown factors into consideration? Keep reading to learn about important milestones for successful venture planning.

### What is Venture Planning?
Venture planning helps entrepreneurs and business owners identify new business opportunities, develop a business concept, research their ideas, and analyze the resources and strategies needed to bring them to fruition.

Planning for a new venture is important because having a clear plan can help ensure that resources are used efficiently and that you can reach your goals effectively. It also allows for a better understanding of the resources needed to achieve the goals and helps identify potential risks and opportunities that could affect the venture’s success. Preparing will ensure that the venture is organized and structured properly, which can help maximize the chances of success.

### Defining goals
The success of your venture will be defined by the goals you set at the beginning. These goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Once the goals have been established, it is important to set milestones to measure progress and ensure that they are being met.

Milestones should be set for both short and long-term goals and should be achievable but challenging. It is crucial to set deadlines for each milestone, so you can complete the venture in a timely manner. Milestones should also be measurable so that it is easy to track progress and identify any areas that need to be addressed.

You’ll want to write down these milestones as a sequence of events and reflect on each one upon completion. Compare your results to your original specifications to see if you met the milestone effectively. If not, you can determine how to make adjustments with the next steps.

### Milestones for Venture Planning
While every venture is unique, you can create milestones based on the steps listed below. These steps can help you refine your venture plan to be as effective as possible.

### Concept and Product Testing
Before considering product development, you must determine whether your venture is worth pursuing. According to the [Harvard Business Review](https://hbr.org/1985/09/milestones-for-successful-venture-planning), testing your product is the best place to start. During this stage, you will find out if a real need exists for this product. You may discover a different opportunity than your initial idea by testing your original concept and changing it if need be.

In this step, you will challenge your assumptions about target markets, product characteristics, pricing, and perception of need. As you test your concept and product, you can ask yourself these questions:

- Does an opportunity exist with enough of an upside to take on the necessary costs and risks?
- How has this test changed our assumptions about the venture, and in turn, changed our target market and product development objectives?
This stage offers a cost-effective way to avoid an expensive failure in the future. While it is a bit of a time and money investment, it could save you a massive amount of money in the future if you discover that there is no need in the market for your product.

### Prototype Completion
When you complete the prototype, you can glean tons of information by analyzing the prototype development. If there were any roadblocks along the way, you can carefully examine the causes and the solutions. You may find many hidden opportunities by reflecting on the solutions to these problems.

During this step, ask yourself the following questions:

- What assumptions were made about development costs and time? How have they changed?
- How did those changes impact our timing and plans regarding new hires, marketing, plant construction, and other categories?
- How do the changes affect financial needs and timing?
- What have we discovered about materials, equipment availability, costs, and labor, and how does it affect our pricing?
- Have our beliefs about our target market stayed the same? How has it changed and affected our plans?
- Are our assumptions about competitors and competing products still valid?
- Should we revise our investment requirements?
- Are our projections about suppliers and service distributors still accurate?
### Financing
One of the first steps in getting the necessary funds for a venture is to create a detailed budget outlining the expenses associated with the venture. This will help determine the amount of funds needed to cover the venture’s costs. Once the budget is created, it’s essential to identify the various financing options available. These options may include traditional loans from a bank, venture capital investments, crowdfunding, grants, and angel investors.

Traditional loans from a bank involve taking out a loan and paying interest on the loan. This can be a good option if the venture is expected to generate a steady income. Venture capital investments involve a venture capital firm investing in the project in exchange for equity. This option is best for companies with high growth potential. Grants are funds available from governments or other organizations that are given to a venture with no expectation of repayment. Another option is angel investors, which are individuals who invest in a venture in exchange for equity, and usually provide mentorship and guidance.

You can view this step as a way to learn about the venture’s financial expense and structure from the view of a competitive market. If you are having trouble getting the financing, you can see it as an opportunity to ask and reflect on why the plan was rejected.

### Initial plant tests
You can use plant tests or pilot operations (for a service venture) to challenge your assumptions and gather information. From this testing period, you can learn more about:

- Material costs
- Processing costs
- Investment prerequisites
- Training and skills needed for production personnel
- Processing specifications
You can improve performance and cost estimates from this data, which will be beneficial when you begin full-scale operations.

### Market Testing
This stage may be the most challenging, but also the most informative. During this step, you should reflect on the following:

- Have customers shown that they would buy this product? Why or why not?
- Is it different and better than the competition?
- Are the pricing estimates still accurate?
- Should we modify estimates of achievable market share or target markets?
- What impact does this data have on planning and pricing?
### Starting Production
After you’ve made several adjustments and changes based on your extensive previous testing, it’s time to start production. When this begins, you will learn the actual costs of producing your product consistently and what it takes to meet the quality requirements. Avoid making delivery commitments to customers during this stage. Many entrepreneurs miscalculate production timing, making delivery promises, leading to extreme pressure to produce the product and poor quality and dissatisfied customers.
### Bellwether Sale
In this stage, you want to achieve your first big sale to a significant account or distributor, which will likely give the venture some momentum. From this milestone, you can learn:

- How your product compares with the real-world competition.
- If your product is functional.
- If you need to alter the original selling method.
- Information on service requirements.
- Data on quality controls and specifications.
In an ideal situation, this sale will be to a prospect that you’ve been in contact with during the entire development of this venture. You also might run into some new opportunities.

### Start getting competitive
While you won’t know in advance how competitors will react to your venture, you can plan alternative responses to potential moves and learn more about your competition. You can be prepared for your competitor to create a rival product or service, planning out if you’ll need to expand your product offerings or alter your prices.

### Reflection and Redirection
As you progress through these milestones, you may discover that you need to make changes and alterations – whether it’s to the product itself or with factors like your target market, pricing, or budget. This process requires constant reflection and fine-tuning, allowing you to understand the difference between what you are offering and what people truly need.

When you decide to redesign or redirect, you need to reexamine your original assumptions, including market size, segments, investment requirements, financing, and pricing.

### Price Adjustments
Until you launch your product into a competitive market, it’s challenging to know your product’s or service’s real value. You may need to revise your price based on factors such as technology, competition, and costs once you are consistently selling and producing your product. You can ask yourself the following questions during this stage:

- Should this price change be permanent or temporary?
- If this change is permanent, is the business viable?
- What can we do to restructure costs so that the business stays viable?
- Can the price change be isolated to a specific market segment?
While you progress through each of the milestones listed above, it’s crucial to use them for thinking, reflecting, and making decisions. This process is all about learning and growing. Although many folks want to stay true to their original plan, changing it as you go has proven to be the most successful journey.

I do invest from $100k to $5m in various ventures from time to time. At this point, almost all of them are doing exceedingly well and fetching solid returns. The whole above gamut is a great plus for me to internally evaluate how a particular venture would prove to be fruitful for the future, and which one would be more likely to go bust. I personally diligently write what I folloe, and like everything else in my life, it is perfect, yet changing.

Important Milestones for Successful Venture Planning

Marketing is one of the most common challenges that start-ups face. Once you’ve set up your company and you’re ready to enter the market, you have to figure out how to spread the word. After all, the best idea in the world is no good if nobody else knows about it. [Traditional methods of advertising ](http://www.forbes.com/sites/davelavinsky/2013/03/08/is-traditional-marketing-still-alive/#69e2b4612f38)through television, billboards and even listings in the newspaper are not only too expensive to be realistic options for most small businesses – they’re also becoming considered out-dated ways of attracting customers. To help you explore other options, I’ve put together some ideas for alternative ways to market your start-up company.

**Social Media**

Television adverts and street posters are fast being overtaken by the new mainstream means of marketing – social media. Between Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn and Snapchat – to name but a few – there’s a platform for every business. And it’s a particularly useful tool for technology or online businesses, because your target audience is already on the web.

When deciding how to manage your social media pages, think about the best channels to reach your target audience; if you’re aimed at teens, you’ll get further with Twitter than with LinkedIn. And don’t be afraid to try out new channels – Snapchat is just emerging as a major tool for businesses and getting your company’s account set up is a great way to stay ahead of the curve and get creative with your advertising.

**Grassroots Marketing**

It’s an oldie but a goodie: [word of mouth](http://www.seoreviewtools.com/website-authority-checker/). Get your friends and family talking and ask them to spread the word. Put your message out in your local community, and find ways to generate organic interest. You could host events in your nearby hangouts, put up posters and put out newspaper ads or hand out flyers somewhere you’re likely to find potential customers. This method allows you to add the personal touch to your advertising, as you can meet your customers and explain your brand directly. It also gives you the opportunity to gain real-time feedback from your new and potential clients.

Pick your places and your spokespeople based on your target audience. If you’re starting a child-orientated company, find out if you can leave some cards at your local preschool. If you’re creating a window cleaning business, you might find that your best option is simply to go door to door. Remember to be prepared and have professional-looking business cards or posters, as well as a rehearsed speech.

**Host a Launch Event**

Nothing gets people talking quite like a well-planned (and well-executed) party. Start your business off with a bang by hosting your very own [launch event](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pr+agency+launch+event&oq=pr+agency+launch+event&aqs=chrome..69i57.2767j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8). Make sure to invite members of your target audience – preferably people with a wide network who will be able to spread the word – as well as members of the press. Bloggers are a great group to target, as they often have a dedicated following with a shared interest and are keen to know about the next big thing on the block.

You can choose to organise and plan your event yourself, or you can enlist the help of a public relations agency or an experienced contractor. Whichever option you go for, you’ll need to make sure your event is one to remember. Think about all the details – from the invites to the food to the theme – and make sure the party is well suited to your target audience and your brand personality. Remember to take plenty of pictures that can be shared on social media (and encourage your guests to do the same).

**Immersive Advertising**

One big advantage of operating a small business is that you have a lot of creative freedom – and marketing is a great place to put that to good use. While immersive advertising was a term traditionally used to describe a well-rounded campaign, today’s approaches have become increasingly innovative. Ideas like 3D [billboards](http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/brilliant-creative-billboard-advertisements/) to virtual reality apps have emerged as ways to excite and engage new customers. As well as being a great way to inject personality into your advertising, it’s a sure-fire way to create a memorable campaign.

One great example of this recently has been the UK television show Humans, which is being advertised by Channel 4. The show centres around human-like robots known as Synths. Instead of opting for a traditional advert, the show has created a hyper-realistic product recall for said Synths, complete with a complementary website and social media channels. This unique marketing method encourages viewers to share in the world of the show and has certainly gotten people talking. 

**Build Partnerships**

They do say two heads are better than one – and the same is true of marketing departments. A great way to broaden your consumer horizons is to team up with complementary companies. By partnering up with other companies with a similar customer base, you can not only reach a new audience but also pool together ideas to come up with a compelling campaign.

There are many different ways to create partnerships. You can agree on a traditional paid-for service, or you can work out a mutually beneficial deal – such as swapping email databases or each featuring on one another’s blog. You might opt to work with a company in a similar market to you, or you could go to a popular news outlet, or you might want to find a business that offers a service or product that well complements yours. The world is your oyster!

**Press Releases**

While there are many new and exciting ways to spread word about your business, there is still plenty to be said for some of the more traditional methods. The basic principles of press releases have stood the test of time, but the platforms for sharing them have changed over the years; there are far more digital outlets available today in comparison to yesterday’s print publications.

Creating a press release is a great way to get your message out and draw your customers in. It allows you greater space to explain your ethos and your story than a poster or business card, although your USP should still come through clearly. Many companies choose to work directly with journalists who have links with news outlets, although there are also [online services that will help you with press release distribution.
](http://mashable.com/2007/10/19/press-releases/)
 
**Search Engine Optimisation**

Search engines are fast becoming the most popular way for consumers to discover new brands. By boosting your brand up the search rankings for relevant terms, you’re much more likely to be spotted by new customers. Many people never get past the first page of their Google results, so the higher up you can feature the better. Of course, it’s important to make sure your website comes up on the right searches, so you need to think about what your [focus keywords](https://yoast.com/focus-multiple-keywords/) are.

Search engine optimisation is a wide-reaching topic with many avenues to explore, but one of the most important distinctions is between paid and organic customers. While the former come from paid-for ads listed on websites like Google, the latter are attracted through the content on your website which naturally appears in the rankings. While organic customers are harder to attract, they’re typically more loyal and higher spending customers, so it’s well worth putting in the time to figure out how to draw them in.

**Positive Reviews**

Word-of-mouth might not be the most efficient way to mass market, but it is still one of the most reliable (and, of course, cost efficient) methods for building up your brand’s reputation. If your customers are pleased with the service they receive, they’re much more likely to pass your company name along to their friends – and there’s a good chance they have friends with similar needs and interests.

Personal recommendations and unbiased reviews help new customers trust your business and make them more likely to buy your product or service. As well as spoken endorsements, it’s worth asking customers to leave positive [reviews on popular websites](http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33741/12-Places-Businesses-Should-Be-Collecting-Online-Reviews.aspx) and your business’ social media pages – although it’s important that they know it’s not obligatory and that they’re free to be completely honest. If you work with businesses and clients, you can ask for testimonials that you can share with potential customers.

So what do you think? Are the tried-and-tested methods the best, or should new companies be looking for new ways to market themselves? Let me know what’s worked for you in the comments below – and tell me if there are any adverts that have really caught your eye recently.

Related: [Common Mistakes Start-up Companies Make](https://www.aniketwarty.com/common-mistakes-startup-companies-make/)

How to Spread the Word About Your Start-Up

Between smartphone data to security cameras, the Internet of Things is rapidly changing our society. Keep reading to learn how the IoT will impact finance in 2023.

### What is the Internet of Things?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a term used to describe a rapidly growing network of physical objects connected to the internet that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies which enable them to collect and exchange data with each other. The data they collect is used to inform and automate decisions, actions, and services to improve efficiency, safety, and convenience.

These “things” can be everyday items such as home appliances, industrial machines, vehicles, or even wearable devices. These objects can then collect and exchange data with each other and other connected devices. This data informs and automates decisions, actions, and services to improve efficiency, safety, and convenience.

IoT is revolutionizing how we interact with the world around us and opening up a new era of interconnectedness. For example, a smart home equipped with IoT devices could allow homeowners to control their lights and thermostats from their mobile devices, or a connected car could alert a driver about traffic and dangerous driving conditions. Additionally, you can use IoT devices to track inventory, monitor energy usage, and predict maintenance needs in industrial settings.

### How IoT will impact the finance world
### Automation of financial services
The Internet of Things is revolutionizing how financial transactions are carried out. In fact, automation of these transactions is becoming more and more commonplace as devices become more interconnected.

With the IoT, businesses can monitor and manage their finances remotely and securely. Automated financial transactions allow for better organization of economic data, faster processing of payments, and improved security. Moreover, the automation of financial transactions through the IoT allows for the integration of various systems, such as accounting, banking, and billing, into a single platform. This makes it easier for businesses to track, analyze, and report financial data.

Automation reduces the risk associated with manual transactions, as data can be stored and accessed securely, eliminating the need for manual intervention. It can help businesses save time and money, as they no longer have to process and record transactions manually.

Furthermore, the IoT enables financial institutions to provide real-time payment notifications and updates. This allows customers to stay informed on their financial activities and quickly respond to any changes in their accounts. Financial automation has also opened the door for developing new technologies, such as blockchain, which can further enhance the security and reliability of transactions.

### Better financial decision-making
The Internet of Things has revolutionized financial decision-making by providing valuable insights into consumer behavior. IoT technology enables businesses to gather data from various connected devices and analyze it in order to make better financial decisions.

Through this data, companies can identify trends and patterns in consumer spending, which can help them to better understand their customer base and create more effective marketing and sales strategies. Businesses can also use IoT technology to track customer loyalty, develop customer segmentation strategies, and make personalized offers tailored to each customer.

In addition to helping companies make better financial decisions, this technology can help to improve operational efficiency by providing real-time insights into how processes work. For example, IoT data allows companies to optimize their supply chain processes, identify areas of waste, and analyze resource utilization. In turn, businesses can adjust their operations in order to maximize efficiency and reduce costs.

IoT technology can be used to create more secure financial systems. IoT-enabled devices can create secure payment systems that are more difficult for hackers to penetrate. In addition, IoT data can detect fraudulent activity and alert companies of any suspicious behavior. This helps protect businesses from financial losses and improve the security of their financial systems.

### Better financial security
IoT has already had a tremendous impact on our financial security by allowing us to keep better track of our finances, manage our investments, and protect our assets. The IoT has opened up new avenues of financial security by allowing us to make more informed decisions.

We now have access to real-time data that can help us make more informed financial decisions. This includes access to market trends, news, and even real-time stock prices. We can use this data to make wiser investments and to stay up to date with the ever-changing markets.

The IoT also allows us to better manage our assets and investments. You can now keep track of your investments from your smartphones and tablets and make informed decisions on when to buy and sell. This can help you make better investment decisions and minimize your losses.

This technology has also enabled us to better protect our assets. We can now use security systems that are connected to the internet and use data to detect and alert us of any potential threats. This can help us prevent theft, fraud, and other security issues and keep our assets safe.

### Integration of digital currencies
The increased use of digital currencies is a direct result of the rise of the Internet of Things. With the increased automation and data exchange that IoT enables, more people are using digital currencies to make payments, investments, and transfers. Digital currencies provide users with a secure, fast, and cost-effective way to make payments without having to worry about the traditional financial system. This is especially beneficial for those living in countries with unstable economies, where the conventional banking system is unreliable.

Using digital currencies also gives users more control over their finances. By using digital currencies, users can keep track of their spending, investments, and transfers, giving them more control and flexibility in managing their finances. Additionally, digital currencies can be used to make purchases from merchants and vendors around the world, making it easier for consumers to access goods and services from anywhere.

The combination of the Internet of Things and digital currencies is creating a more interconnected world and opening up new opportunities for businesses and individuals alike. As our lives become increasingly connected to the internet and technology, digital currencies will play an essential role in the global economy.

### Challenges of the Internet of Things
### Security
As the number of connected devices increases, so does the risk of data breaches, malicious attacks, and financial fraud. To protect against these risks, finance companies must implement robust security protocols and safeguards to protect confidential data and assets. This may involve using encryption, authentication, and other security measures.

### Current financial systems
Another challenge is the integration of IoT with existing financial systems. Many finance companies rely on legacy systems not designed to communicate with IoT devices. As a result, companies must invest in new technologies to enable their systems to interact with IoT devices. This could include the development of APIs, the integration of cloud computing solutions, and the implementation of digital transformation solutions.

### Massive amounts of data
Managing the massive amounts of data generated by IoT devices creates a big challenge. As more connected devices come online, the amount of data generated will increase exponentially. This data must be managed effectively, requiring the development of advanced data analytics solutions. Companies must also ensure that they are compliant with data privacy regulations, such as GDPR.

### The future of IoT relies on edge computing
Edge computing is a type of computing architecture that uses distributed computing resources, such as servers, storage, and applications, located close to the edge of the network where the data is being generated.

Edge computing is a key part of the IoT infrastructure, as it allows for data processing to occur closer to the source of the data, thereby reducing latency, energy consumption, and bandwidth usage. Edge computing is also beneficial for applications that require low latency, such as autonomous vehicles or internet-connected medical devices.

Because the IoT relies heavily on gateway hubs to process massive amounts of data from sensors and devices, edge computing is essential to its growth. With public cloud access and low-latency network connectivity, edge infrastructure can help the IoT to expand.

### Enterprise structures and the IoT
According to finance-monthly.com, enterprise architectures must be designed to accommodate the increasingly complex demands of the Internet of Things. This includes ensuring that the architecture and staff members are able to support the scale, diversity, and speed of data that the IoT produces. The structures must also be flexible enough to support the rapid technological changes and the growth of connected devices.

Security must also be considered when designing an enterprise architecture for the IoT, as the data must be protected from unauthorized access and malicious attacks. In addition, the architecture should be designed to provide real-time analysis of the data collected from IoT devices to enable businesses to make more informed decisions.

Finally, the architecture should provide the necessary data storage, communication, and processing infrastructure. All of these components must work together to ensure that the enterprise architecture can effectively support the needs of the IoT.

By addressing these challenges, finance companies will be able to take full advantage of the potential of IoT to improve their operations and provide better services to their customers.

How the Internet of Things Will Impact Finance in 2023

**How do You Know you’ve got a Good Business Startup Idea?**
It seems like the business world is heavily saturated with start-ups right now. The [Small Business Agency](https://www.sba.gov/) estimates that around 543,000 new businesses get started each month – and every founder thinks they’re on to the next big thing.
So the big question is this: how do you know if your business or startup idea is any good? I’ve put together a quick guide to assessing your startup or business idea.

**Identify Your Market**

[In the words of Mark Zuckerberg](https://www.aniketwarty.com/best-advice-successful-startup-founders/), “start with the problem you’re trying to solve in the world.” Figure out why your product is important, and to whom.

Not only will this help you see where your business would fit in in the real world, it will help you develop your idea into the most efficient solution possible.

In order to narrow down your potential customers, think about who your key target audience will be. Create a [customer](http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/how-to-create-customer-profiles-to-reach-your-target-audience/) profile to help you better understand your average consumer, and then make your decisions with that persona in mind.

You can use this information also to help you decide which advertisers you should be approaching, what your image should look like and who your potential investors might be.

You also have to think about the type of market you want to enter into. While niche markets will likely mean less competition, they also mean less potential customers.

On the other hand, by targeting a broader market you lose some of the authority that you could gain by positioning yourself as an expert in one area.

It’s up to you to figure out which model will be best suited to your particular business – and your skills and expertise.

**Check Out Your Competitors**

After you’ve identified your market, it’s time to dive right in and see what else is out there. Find out who the industry leaders are and figure out what makes your product different to theirs.

By looking at what your competitors have to offer, you’ll be able to better identify your unique selling point, or [USP](http://www.economist.com/node/14301696).

This could be a more advanced product, it could be a lower price tag or it could simply be a unique company ethos.
It’s important to remember to look at not just the most widely known or the most profitable companies, but also the companies with a memorable brand and a loyal following.

When setting your expectations, you should also try and seek out companies of a similar size and standing to yours; there’s no point pitting your start-up drinks company against a corporation like Coca-Cola.

Scoping out the competition is also a great way to gain valuable insight second-hand. See what you can learn from them: what have they done right and what could you do differently – and more importantly, better?

Have a look at their social channels, their marketing campaigns, their websites and their storefronts. Public corporations will also have quarterly or annual reports available as public information, which can be useful when doing research.

**Market Research**

Once you’ve got your idea, found your USP and figured out who your audience are, it’s time to see what they think.

Getting feedback from the right people early on will be instrumental in developing and improving your business.

You can choose to outsource this research to a dedicated [market research agency](https://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/market-research/choosing-a-market-research-agency), or you can conduct it yourself.

Agencies will save you a lot of time and they can be an invaluable resource – particularly when you’re looking for large quantities of information – but market research doesn’t always have to be grand scale – especially in the early stages.
Get opinions from family and friends who you trust to be brutally honest with you, and preferably who fit into your target market.

Once you’ve got your feedback, your next challenge is to listen to it. When you’re passionate about an idea, it can be tempting to block your ears when someone points out problems with it, but your market research will be your best indicator of how your product or idea will be received by the public.
It doesn’t matter how much you like it if your consumers disagree. Take feedback on board and don’t be afraid to make big changes according to what you hear.

**Crunch the Numbers**

While you might start out with the idea, you want to end with a profit, which means that you need to ensure your business idea is going to make you money. Sit down and [write out a detailed business plan](https://www.gov.uk/write-business-plan). Work out your overheads and weigh them against your projected takings and then ask yourself the tough question – is it worth it?
If it looks like your business might cost you more than it’ll make you, there’s no need to give up straight away. Instead, think about what you can change. Which costs can you cut out?

What can you put off until later, when your business will hopefully be in a more comfortable position? Could you increase your prices to account for your costs?

You also shouldn’t be disheartened if you’re not seeing results straight away; very few businesses make a profit in their first year.

You do, however, need to think about the future and when you do expect to be turning over a profit – both for your own benefit and to present to potential investors.

Of course, markets (and a number of other variables) change, so you’ll have to continually re-evaluate your projections as you go. 

**Seek Advice, Mentors and Partnerships**

When trying to figure out if your business idea is any good, some of the best feedback you can get is from other business people who are invested – or considering becoming invested – in it.

Many successful entrepreneurs maintain that having the right people surrounding you is the most important key to starting a business.

Approach people who you trust and respect to become involved in your company – either as [business mentors](http://startups.co.uk/finding-a-mentor/) or as partners. Pitch them your idea and take their advice on board, even if – or should I say especially if – it’s negative.

Listening to constructive criticism is essential to developing your business, particularly when it comes from people who really know what they’re talking about.

You can also gauge the popularity of your idea by the response you get from potential investors.

If you have a lot of interest from serious investors, you can be confident that you’re onto a good thing. If you’re struggling to find investors willing to come on board, don’t be afraid to ask why.

You might be surprised by their answer, and their feedback could help you improve on your original idea.

**Test the Waters**

You’ve got your idea; you’ve found your market; you’ve got your business plan; you’ve got your team – now’s the time to put it all into action. Ultimately, there’s no substitute for real world experience.

Start with a small launch or a trial run in order to gain real customer feedback. For example, [soft openings](http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-soft-opening.htm) are a great way for restaurants and other hospitality businesses to introduce their brand to new customers while still leaving room to make last-minute changes or improvements.

It’s also an opportunity for new staff to practice their roles and get familiar with processes and procedures.

Similarly, app companies or other businesses in the tech sector might have a trial evening, where a select group of customers are invited to try out a new game or product.

As well as giving developers a chance to gain valuable feedback and make any edits before the product goes live, these events can be a great way to generate publicity and get your audience talking.

**Trial & Error**

Of course, even once you’ve entered the market, there’s still plenty of work to be done in order to maintain your business’ quality.

And the old adage “don’t fix what isn’t broken” doesn’t apply here; sustainable businesses are ones that continually come up with new ideas and improve on old ones.

With technology constantly changing and new start-ups always entering the market, it’s important to stay agile and to be able to keep up with the times.

Don’t be afraid to test out new ideas, because even if they aren’t successful, you can learn from them and use that information to come up with your next idea.

And if an idea is successful, don’t be afraid to develop it further. Remember, just because your original idea is good, it doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be better.

 

So, what do you think? Do you believe in the light-bulb moment, or do good ideas take a lot of pruning? Share your thoughts in the comments.

How do You Know you’ve got a Good Business Startup Idea?

Over the past few years, a new approach to launching companies has emerged. Known as the “lean startup methodology,” it’s helping founders apply Agile philosophies in the earliest stages of a company or product launch to minimize waste, optimize investment, and generally ensure shorter development cycles.

But what’s the alternative?

In the past, if you were getting ready to launch a business, you would get busy and write a business plan. You’d research the competition, forecast, and hypothetically plan the next five to ten years of your company’s life. You’d then use your completed business plan to go out and raise the investment you need to build the product and launch the business. For the most part, you’d be doing all this behind the scenes; meaning you’re not yet at the stage where you’re speaking to customers or soliciting feedback from them.

Lean startups, in contrast, start with a problem to solve. They build, test, measure feedback, revise the design and rethink previous assumptions, gathering customer feedback at every stage. Products undergo constant iteration cycles to make them better. This strategy dramatically reduces waste because you won’t be throwing away time or money launching products that no one wants.

In the end, if you want your company to succeed, [you need to know that it’s got an audience](https://www.aniketwarty.com/b2b-market-segmentation/). Lean startup is a way to gain confidence in that area. It gives you a leg to stand on when you go to market, proving the concept before you waste a lot of time and effort on it. So, all in all, pretty easy to understand why it’s the better way.

### What is a Lean Startup?
The term lean startup was coined by an [entrepreneur named Eric Ries](https://theleanstartup.com/). He published a book (by the same name) back in 2008 that centered around methods that could be applied to new companies to minimize risk and improve the chances of success without excessive waste of resources.

The basic idea is that startups should focus on creating a minimum viable product (MVP) and then iterate based on customer feedback. That’s a lean startup in a nutshell. Instead of spending months hammering out a detailed business plan that maps out the next five to ten years of your life, you solicit direct input from the people you intend to sell the product or service to, and those insights inform how you proceed.

After all, no matter how convinced you are that your idea will fly, it will fail its worth.

Data and information gained during these critical early stages help you make the product better. It will also help you achieve a minimum viable product (MVP or prototype) faster than you would under normal circumstances.

The ultimate goal of lean startup methodology is to eliminate waste in the earliest stages of development. Done right, it will underscore your development cycles and help you reach your goals with a lot less effort, guesswork, and funding. You build, measure, learn, and then apply those lessons to the new and improved iteration. Then you repeat the process and continue to do so until you achieve your goals.

Need more data? Let’s deconstruct.

### Why a Lean Startup is Better
Launching a business isn’t easy. In fact, according to the [Bureau of Labor Statistics](https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1010/top-6-reasons-new-businesses-fail.aspx), 20% of new companies in the US fail in their first year. 45% fail within five years, and 65% in just ten years.

The odds are not with you! That being said, you can do many things to improve your chances of success. Lean startups go against the traditional mindset, but they make so much more sense in the current competitive business environment. Getting to market fast is critical if you want to dominate your niche, and the time and resources required in a traditional workflow might put you on the wrong side of the eight-ball as your competitor’s race on past.

To summarize the benefits of lean startups, here are a few things to consider:

- Accelerates time-to-market. The faster you get to market, the more likely your product will be viable for the market at the time.
- Reduces waste and costs. You won’t waste a lot of time and money on activities that don’t matter.
- Reduces risk of failure. The faster you can produce an MVP, the lower your risk.
- Progressive and measurable improvement. You learn and measure as you go. Each iteration improves on the last, and changes are implemented based on actual data.
- Establishes a sustainable business model. The iterative process is Agile and sustainable, meaning you will continue to learn, grow, and evolve because it’s built into your company’s DNA.
### Key Principles of Lean Startups
Understanding the core principles of lean startups is critical to success. The framework can be adapted to any type of business in any industry, but it is especially relevant for startups because it helps reduce risk and increases the potential for a positive outcome.

### 1.      Customer Development
Customer development requires open dialog with key stakeholders. These people should, ideally, represent your ideal buyer (or what you think is your ideal buyer—your research might prove otherwise, but let’s start there). You’ll need to be constantly speaking to these prospective customers to validate your assumptions about the problem you’re solving and the solution you’re offering. This feedback is essential to help you determine whether you are on the right track.

### 2.      Build
Can your product be built? Should it be built? Can you create a sustainable business based on this product?

Think of the initial build stage as research. You’re creating an MVP. The product won’t be ready for the market but will represent a basic example. Keep the “minimum” aspect in focus. Don’t overcomplicate the thing. Make something that contains the basic framework.

### 3.      Measure
Now that you have your MVP, you’ll need to take it to your prospective customers, get them to test it, and find out what they think. Most founders have a good idea of what their customers want and feel that their product solves a problem for them. The feedback you receive in this stage might confirm or tell you otherwise. Once you have that input, you’ll measure it against the initial idea and make changes, so it better aligns with what your customers tell you. In the software world, this is called agile development.

### 4.      Learn
At the learning stage, you’ll have your MVP and should have a pretty good idea of whether you should move forward and create a business around your product. Is there enough interest to indicate that the product will be well-received in the market? Or are there concerns pointing you back to square one? Generally, at this stage, you’ll be deciding whether it’s a “go” or a “no.” Sometimes the “no” is still a positive – anything that contributes to improvement is good.

### 5.      Iterate
If you need to change your idea, you’ll repeat the build-measure-learn loop. You’ve validated assumptions about the product and may be able to leave others behind; either way, the result is always an improvement over the previous version. Since you are getting your data directly from your target customers, you’ll be able to focus on details that really matter instead of relying on intuition alone.

### Final Thoughts
Launching a new business is exciting, but like anything else in life, it’s critical to give it a good environment to grow. Lean startups achieve their goals faster, meet customer needs, and succeed more reliably than those that apply a traditional approach.

How a Lean Startup Approach Changes Everything

In the competitive digital landscape today, several considerations are required in order to break through the noise of mass media. Whether your goal is to build brand awareness, increase traffic, translate leads into loyal ambassadors, and/or boost conversions, creativity is an all but necessary ingredient to success.

With that said, in what follows, we’ll be exploring the definition of creativity and creative advertising. Further, we’ll discuss the importance of creative advertising in the context of today’s competitive digital ecosystem. Finally, we’ll share the five components of creativity, ultimately reaching a conclusion about creativity’s effectiveness in the marketplace.

What you’ll learn is that while creativity is essential to any advertising campaign, the level of creativity required depends greatly on several factors not limited to product category, industry, and campaign goals & objectives.

Without further ado, let’s get right into it, shall we?!

### Defining Creative Advertising

Before diving into the world of advertising and defining creative advertising, it’s important to first explore the word creativity… At its most basic, creativity is the employment of the imagination; to use original ideas to solve a problem or produce a piece of work.

Often defined as divergent thinking, creativity is a unique ability that many lack, advertisers included. Contrastingly, creativity has proven to be an extremely effective and all-but-essential tool to employ, particularly in the advertising industry.

Now that a basic understanding of creativity has been defined, let’s now explore the world of creative advertising… Put simply, creative advertising is the act of producing campaigns that both tell a story and engage an audience in unique and captivating ways; to provoke emotion through the creation of a clear and memorable message.

Creativity in advertising, when implemented appropriately, is necessary for those who are seeking to break through the noise and capture the attention of sizeable target audiences in hopes of lasting conversions.

With that said, before diving into the five components of creativity and exploring when creativity is appropriate and when it might not be, let’s first discover its importance, generally speaking…

### The Importance of Creativity in Advertising

While the research to date doesn’t conclusively suggest the effectiveness of creativity in advertising in the context of influencing purchasing behaviors, there’s no denying its effectiveness in garnering targeted attention and increasing engagement.

In short, creativity matters. Here’s why…

### Engagement

No matter your campaign goal or objective, engagement tends to remain atop the list of any key metric. In order to optimize engagement, creativity must be prioritized…

By prioritizing creativity in your advertising campaign, more viewers will be captivated, thus increasing the likelihood of engagement and influence. The end result? Increased interest and thus conversion.

### Brand Development

By providing your audience with meaning and value through creativity, you inevitably improve your brand’s reputation, thus garnering more recognition than otherwise possible.

Because of the values of today’s consumers, creativity allows brands and businesses alike to resonate with their audience by providing meaningful value through relevant content and creative messaging & storytelling.

### Memorability

Much like the rest of the digital ecosystem, the advertising space is highly saturated across media platforms. The result is a bombardment of ads, good and bad, in front of the eyes of the consumer.

In order to break through this noise and stand out amongst the rest, you must produce creative ads that uniquely capture the attention of the said consumer. In other words, the most compelling of ads are those which are creative, creating a lasting memory for those who are lucky enough to see it.

### Personalization

Today’s consumers value personalization more than ever. Whether through developing a meaningful relationship or creating a personal experience exclusive to the individual consumer, businesses and brands alike can develop a loyal following that will ultimately allow them to garner more success.

How do you implement personalization in your ad campaigns, you ask? Through creativity, of course!

### The Five Components of Creativity

While we’ve already discussed and defined creativity, both in a broad sense and in the context of creative advertising, we’ve yet to explore the five components of creativity that which was brought about by a trailblazing communications researcher out of Indiana University.

These five components of creativity about to be discussed are extremely relevant in the context of advertising because it provides both campaign direction and creative measurement of a given ad.

In other words, rather than an abstract definition of creativity, following the five components of creativity allow for a clearer depiction of how creative and effective your ad might be…

So, without further ado, below are the five components of creativity:

### Elaboration

Defined broadly as the process of developing an idea in more detail, elaboration in the context of creative advertising is the act of extending a message so as to make it more intricate or complex, thus more interesting and captivating to the viewer.

In a visual ad, for example, elaboration can be brought about by fantasy or over-exaggeration… Take a sports car advertisement, for example. Promoting its sheer speed, a commercial may illustrate a jaguar running side-by-side with the vehicle, only for the vehicle to drive off into the sunset, leaving the jaguar in the dust.

Not only does this visual capture the attention of the viewer but it elaborates on the flagship feature of the vehicle in that of its speed. And a purpose. Motion, and destination.

### Originality

Defined broadly as the quality of being unique, novel, and even unusual, originality in the context of creative advertising is launching an advertisement that’s both rare and surprising; one that captures the attention of an audience via the uniqueness of ideas, diverging from the norm and instead portraying a message that gets the consumer thinking.

Whether through text or visuals, ads that are original tend to be the most viral, thus the most successful in both building brand awareness, increasing traffic, and boosting conversions.

### Artistic Value

Whether aesthetically appealing, design-centric, sound-satisfying, or visually daunting, artistic value comprises elements that create the high production value of an ad. The result of an artistic, high-production ad? More engagement, more memorability, more value, and higher conversions.

Artistic value is likely the most relatable of all five components of creativity because, well, artistry is associated with creativity!

### Flexibility

When creating an ad campaign with the intent of capturing attention and increasing conversions, you must aim for that campaign to score high on flexibility. But what is flexibility?

In short, flexibility is the ability of a given ad creative to touch upon several areas, problems, or challenges that the product or service in promotion solves. Flexibility may also be defined as the sheer visual of the ad itself presenting various scenarios. Form, and function.

### Synthesis

Synthesizing a message promotes the idea in creative advertising of divergent thinking… At its most basic, synthesis involves combining two otherwise unrelated ideas and making them cohesively one.

One example of this would be a commercial where dogs can talk; two separate, unrealistic ideas, that when synthesized as one, make for a comprehendible and engaging advertising message.

Because of this synthesis of ideas, creative ads are far more likely to capture the attention of its viewers, thus increasing engagement, interest, and hopefully, conversion… The power of divergent creativity.

### It Depends on the Industry…

While creativity is effective across the board with regard to advertising and promotion, the effectiveness of creativity largely depends on the industry and product category with which you’re advertising.

For example, products that are highly purchased based on their functional purpose tend to experience weaker results when creativity is the sole focus of the ad. In such a case, an ad should instead focus on the realistic function and feature of said product…

Contrastingly, a consumer commodity that has the potential of improving an environment or experience such as a coffee or candy bar can benefit greatly from creativity, for without it, it’s a boring commodity with little to no selling feature.

In short, understanding the industry you’re in, the product category with which you’re promoting, and the buying behaviors that your business or brand tends to experience will help you tremendously when determining your creative approach to advertising.

Nevertheless, creativity is an effective implementation across the board, proving its worth for advertising professionals and consumers alike. The best part? When implemented appropriately and effectively, creativity can save a substantial amount on your marketing budget at large.



Creativity in Advertising: When it Works and When it Doesn’t

How do you manage Corporate reputation? With an emerging breed of consumers demanding dialogue from businesses and insisting on greater organizational transparency and accountability, image and reputation management for organizations has become harder than ever. It is like having millions of eyes watching over your business and a thousand mouths asserting involvement in the communication process. The challenge now is how organizations establish and sustain a positive and strong brand and corporate reputation in the Internet Age.

Five Meta-Trends in Managing Reputation Online

John Bell, managing director of 360o Digital Influence of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, talks about five meta-trends that affect how corporations manage reputation in the presence of the social media and brand communities.

1. Hyper transparency

“Having 150 million bloggers means having thousands of potential forensic accountants, social watchdogs and activists watching your company.”

It is high time that businesses not only open their windows and doors but make their walls transparent as well. Consumers are out to hear and see what’s going on with their brands especially now that various social media tools allow them to do so. Organizations must then operate with honesty and clarity. Secretive companies never win. Openness is the new rule of the game.

2. Viral Crises

“Crisis spreads through networks – formal and informal with lightning speed and full motion pictures. When bad things happen, they spread extremely fast, often with the accompaniment of YouTube videos.”

Primed crisis management plan is a must for today’s businesses. Be wary of bad things blogged, twitted, and posted about your company. Crisis spread is multi-directional and 10x faster. Meet and converse with the fire starters in the right platforms. Above all, your company has to respond fast.

3. Demand for Dialogue

“One way messaging is not acceptable to those who crave dialogue. Consumers crave conversation, not messaging, from the brands they love.”

Let humans converse with humans. Consumers don’t need dreary press releases or deceitful ads. They desire and demand dialogue, genuine dialogue at that. Nothing else gains their trust and loyalty than companies that sincerely listen to and talk with them.

4. Louder brand detractors and employees

“Smart, nimble detractors leverage social media everyday. The Social Web has built new brands from the small guy who knows how to leverage blogs, search, Web 2.0 innovations like tagging, social networks and more.”

Organizations need to be good at the same weapon their critics use. Today, it’s the Internet. Know where the brand detractors are and in what ways they talk. Your company would not want to be fighting in the woods when the enemies are out in the plains. Likewise, you would not use spears when they are already using guns.

5. Uncontrollable brand fans

“Brand fans have a louder voice than ever (and you cannot control them). Corporations either embrace them, ignore them or fall into the danger of trying to control them, or worse, shut them down.”

Powerful allies your company would not dare lose are brand fans talking online. Seek ways to reach and engage them. Know and speak their language. Most importantly, converse with them as human and natural as possible.

Rules for Online Reputation Management

Bell’s five meta-trends define the new game of reputation management. It introduces businesses to the emerging game field, players, allies and opponents and game tools establishing and maintaining their corporate and brand reputation. Nevertheless, no matter how much the game, its players, and tools have changed, the fundamentals remain the same. Here are the game rules which I believe rightly apply to corporate reputation management across all media.

1.Know your brand.

2.Share your story.

3.Listen and respond to your enemies.

4.Engage and reinforce your allies.

5.Always adhere to the core of PR: truth.

Always, the BUILDER is your productivity. And there will be zillions of naysayers. DEAL with them. With your reason and self-esteem.


Corporate Reputation Management

Every business, product, or service needs a reliable source of fresh leads in order to avoid getting stuck in the mud with inconsistent customer growth. Sound familiar? Well, say hello to my full-proof guide full of actionable content marketing lead generation ideas you can begin executing today.

If your funnel is trickling with leads rather than overflowing, the lead generation ideas you choose to pursue today will play an incredibly important role in your company’s future.

Sales and marketing teams spend a boatload of time and money on lead generation. From launching ad campaigns to creating high-quality blog content, hosting webinars, producing videos, and more, they’re always doing something to gain an edge. You should be too.

However, if you’re like most marketers, business owners, or product developers, you don’t have an endless supply of money and time to pursue one lead generation idea after another. You need results, and you need them now. Lucky for you, I’ve got you covered.

Lead generation is a noisy topic full of opinions and ideas, but we’re cutting straight through all of the white noise by digging deep into some of today’s most effective lead generation strategies – the same ones I use to amass thousands upon thousands of leads year after year.

Let’s dive right in and find out how you can do the same. But, before we do, let’s cover our bases first.

### What is Lead Generation?
Lead generation is just as it sounds – it’s the process of generating leads. The real question is: what are leads?

Leads are businesses or individuals who like your brand and show an interest in what it sells. In other words, people who may turn into paying customers. Lead generation refers to the process of finding these people.

In one way or another, lead generation helps you find those with an interest in your niche, or help them find you, get their attention, and take them through your sales funnel to eventually become future customers.

Lead generation can encompass several things and take many forms. Some people are PPC experts and strictly do that. It’s their thing. Others consider themselves email marketers and focus their attention there.

In my humble opinion, however, content marketing is king, and it should play a vital role in your overall lead generation strategy.

### Content Marketing Lead Generation Ideas That Work
The lead generation ideas below are some of my go-to favorites for generating an endless avalanche of evergreen leads eager to discover your brand and the content you’re creating. Whether it’s written or recorded, there are plenty of content marketing lead generation ideas to explore.

### Quality Blog Content
The content you’re reading right now is the bread and butter of my lead generation strategy, and it’s been consistently filling my conversion pipeline full of high-quality leads for years. Just browse my blog, and you’ll find everything from in-depth guides to infographics, case study breakdowns, and more.

Depending on the nature of your business, your content can also include whitepapers, eBooks, and so on. Just keep in mind, however, that regardless of how many hours you spend creating this level of content quantity, and quality, it doesn’t guarantee your success.

To be successful, your content marketing strategy should be built on building strong relationships with your target audience – those who are likely to flow through your pipeline and eventually become customers for your business and loyal ambassadors of your brand.

So, before you begin blogging away, take a minute, or two, or three to decide on the type of content you’re going to post. Think about your audience and your motivations by answering some important questions, such as:

• Who is my target audience and what problems can I help them solve?

• Where do my target customers spend their time online? Which medium do they prefer to consume content in?

• What are they searching for on Google? Which keywords should I target?

• Who are my competitors and how can I stand out from them?

• Would I rather have 10,000 less targeted readers or 1,000 highly targeted leads salivating to convert?

Ultimately, the quality of your content will deeply rely on your motivations and willingness to really delve into the minds of your target customers and help solve whatever pain points they may be experiencing. If your goal is to simply sell as many subscriptions as you can to anyone willing to hand over their credit card, your content is pretty much going to suck.

Rather than trying to sell, sell, sell, you need to teach, and most importantly, inspire. You also need to think long-term. These days, evergreen content is just about all I create. Not only is it designed to connect with my audience, but it’s also designed to rank well in Google’s organic search results for targeted keywords they’re searching for.

Whether you’re selling wholesale merchandise, software, or consulting services, content marketing targeting organic search can provide you with a powerful source of leads.

All that said, publishing great content and getting it ranked at the top of the search results is no easy feat. It’s an arduous journey requiring plenty of time, quality backlinks, social shares, and several other factors in order to pull off successfully. However, if you’ve got the hustle, the rewards can pay off huge.

### Books and eBooks
Books and eBooks can be hugely successful lead generation tools. In fact, the ones I’ve written have garnered tens of thousands of fresh leads in just the past few years alone.

I mean, if you think about it, it’s a win-win. Rather than paying $1.41 a click or something like that for a Facebook PPC ad, you can turn the tables and have people pay you instead. The best part is, you get their contact information too. Plus, you already know they’re interested in what you’re selling because they’ve already bought something from you.

Honestly, the people who buy your books or eBooks are some of the best leads you could get. No cold calling here. Not for me. No siree! Keeping existing readers loaded up on fresh new content has been one of my best lead generation strategies. My last launch alone brought in nearly 4,000 new leads. Pretty cool indeed.

You can launch and sell eBooks in any online community where your audience spends their time. After launching in a handful of online communities, which is important for new lead generation, you can then promote the book or eBook via your blog using banner ads and calls to action throughout highly-trafficked posts.

You can keep following my lead by harnessing the power of social media to do what it does best – share. That’s right; ask those who buy your eBook to make sure and share it with others. It’s free publicity at its finest.

### Podcasts and Audiobooks
According to recent studies, 104 million Americans tune into podcasts regularly. So, if you’re like me or millions of others, chances are you listen to podcasts too. If that’s the case, it’s not too far-fetched an idea to begin producing your own.

Even if you’re pretty happy with your current audience size, which clearly isn’t the case or you wouldn’t be here, allowing your readers to connect and engage with you through the speakers in their cars, earbuds, and even their TVs can further deepen your relationship.

While I’m no Joe Rogan, I’ve managed to amass a fair share of downloads from podcasts. Beyond that, however, they’ve helped me develop more dynamic relationships with my audience and expand the consciousness of my brand.

Not sure how to create a blog post or what to include? An easy solution I’ve found to work quite well is to simply record an audio version of your best-performing blog posts. I’ve even done the exact opposite by creating a written blog post based on a popular podcast.

The key is getting your name and brand out there, and podcasts have proven a relatively easy way to provide engaging content and do just that.

### Video Content
Much of the written blog content I create actually begins with a video I upload to YouTube. I’ve experienced some terrific results by uploading a new video to my YouTube channel twice a week. Over the years, I’ve uploaded hundreds of videos garnering over a million views. Talk about lead generation!

Some videos, however, gain more traction than others. I’ve had some with only a thousand views and some with tens of thousands. Therefore, when it comes to videos, consistency is the name of the game. You never know which one will catch fire and strike gold.

Nonetheless, to strike YouTube gold and tap into its lead pipeline, you need to bring something to the table. You need to entertain and/or educate. Ideally, both. Once you get this down and prove your worth, or at least your viewability, your exposure, leads, and conversions will jump through the roof.

### Grow Your Leads and Your Business Today
We’ve gone over a number of different lead generation methods and strategies in this post today. While there are even more great lead generation ideas out there proven to pull in results, these strategies serve as foundational pieces to the lead generation puzzle.

That said, you likely won’t follow all of my lead gen advice. After all, how boring would that be? The key is to experiment, track the right metrics, and see what works for you. Once you zero in on your lead generation plan, you’ll have a steady flow of people coming to you wanting to hear what you have to say – about anything.

~ First published Huffington Post Feb 2015



Content Marketing Lead Generation Ideas For Dummies…

Companies embark on projects every year in every department, most typically in sales and marketing. These projects can range drastically in scope and scale, from launching a new product line to improving existing operational procedures for greater cost-efficiency.

The problem that many companies face when implementing new projects and deriving benefits from them is the lack of an effective strategy that aligns all their projects under a single banner.

As a result, they spend millions or even billions of dollars on projects that don’t actually fit the vision of the company or fulfill its goals. All this money, time, and energy is completely wasted. Countless projects are shut down without warning or are otherwise forced to limp on in a kind of limbo, never brought to the finish line as they bleed company resources dry.

Companies that don’t have an effective business strategy and don’t prioritize project management lose out big in the end. A survey in 2018 by the Project Management Institute (PMI) [~~revealed~~](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005610/en/1-Million-Wasted-Every-20-Seconds-by-Organizations-around-the-World) that on a global scale, these organizations waste around $1 million every 20 seconds. That adds up to about $2 trillion per year.

Think about that number for a second. Two trillion dollars, completely down the drain. All because companies aren’t aligning their projects with an overarching business strategy.

In this article, I’ll discuss the importance of having a business strategy, the various purposes of projects, and how to close the gap between the two.

### What Is a Business Strategy?
As a company, you have certain goals. These can be large-scale or small-scale, but in the context of business strategy, we’re referring to the goals you have for your company as a whole, not department by department.

To reach your large-scale, company-wide goals, you must have a business strategy. This is your roadmap or guidebook that you will always refer back to stay on track.

For example, if your current goal for your company is to expand your target demographic from adults in their 30s and 40s to young adults in their teens and 20s, your strategy will always be centered around that. It will involve all your different departments, from R&D to sales to marketing, working together to achieve this one thing: expand the target demographic to teens and 20-somethings.

Having a business strategy is absolutely critical. Not only does it keep your company united on all fronts and help you reach your goals faster, but it can help you in one other critical area. It can help you decide which projects to invest in, and which ones to send back to the drawing board before they take a single cent out of your bottom line.

I explain how later in the article, but first, it’s important that I lay out a clear definition for “projects” and show you how they differ from your business strategy.

### What Is a Project?
A lot of people confuse project management with strategy.

While projects do help a company achieve the overarching purpose of the business strategy – in fact, that should always be one of the primary objectives of the project – they do so on a micro scale, not company-wide.

Projects also come with stricter timelines than a business strategy. Obviously, it can take a long time to implement a strategy, and depending on how lofty the goals are, the end date is not always clearly defined.

That’s why you need projects, as these are small, actionable goals that will make achieving the large-scale ones much more realistic.

To illustrate what a project is and what it entails, let’s say that in your efforts to gain a new audience of teens and twenty-year-old’s, you decide that your digital marketing department needs to expand its current efforts onto new social media platforms. You decide that your marketing team needs to develop, present, and embark on a plan for establishing a TikTok account and a certain number of views or followers by the end of the 2nd quarter.

What you’ve just created is a project. It has a start date, a deadline, and a result.

You’ll have dozens if not hundreds of projects like this throughout the year. Most companies have a budget that they dedicate to just these sorts of expenditures. Chances are, you’ll have a few that will fail through no fault of your own or your team’s. But the chances will be greater if you don’t have a business strategy.

Why is that? Allow me to explain.

### The Gap Between Projects And Strategy
Without an effective, well-thought-out business strategy that informs all your company’s projects, your project budget is at high risk of running you out of thousands of dollars (or millions of dollars, if you own a large enterprise or corporation). Either you’re going to exceed your limits due to lack of oversight, or your resources are going to be so inefficiently used that you receive no ROI by the project’s end.

All of this will happen because there is a gap between your projects and your business strategy.

Why does this gap exist? Here are a few common reasons.

- A lack of communication between departments, between project managers and CEOs, and between employees and their supervisors.
- A lack of vision across the entire company. No one in the lower levels of the company hierarchy knows what the company’s goals are, what their strategy is, or what the projects they’ve been told to work on are for.
- A lack of business strategy. The company is just floundering around without a roadmap or a guidebook. Confused and unable to identify what projects will provide the ROI they seek; they instead pour money into whatever ideas seem good at the time.
- A lack of clearly defined goals. Without goals for the future, a company is truly and totally lost.
Do any of these reasons sound familiar? If so, then you know you must address them before you can close the gap between projects and strategy. We’ll show you how to accomplish that feat below.

### How To Close The Projects And Strategy Gap
When you’re ready to align your projects with your business strategy, here are some tactics to follow.

### 1.   Keeping The Projects that Will Advance Your Business Strategy
This tactic may sound obvious when you say it out loud, but sometimes it’s the obvious answers that are the most overlooked.

Keep the projects that will advance your business strategy and shut down the ones that won’t.

To decide which projects fall into the “keep” category and which ones go in the “throw-away” category, assemble a team and look over your current slate of projects. (Yes, this counts as starting a new project, but it’s okay because the purpose of it is to align all the others with your business strategy.)

Next, ask yourself and your team: which projects directly advance your overall business strategy? Which ones are primed to provide an ROI that will help you meet your company’s goals? Write all of them down on a list.

Now, take all the other projects and go through them one by one. Are they adding anything to your company? Are they aligning with your strategy? If the answer is, “No” on any of them, consider shutting them down completely so you can redirect those resources to more profitable outlets.

Streamline your projects down to the point where you only keep the ones that are helping you open. The others are time wasters and money sinkers. They need to go in the trash bin.

### 2.   Analyze Each New Project Through A Strategy Lens
Whenever someone in your company or you yourself proposes a new project, huddle up with your team and analyze the project through a strategy lens. See how the budget, the start date, the resources, the deadline, and the result line up with your business strategy. If it doesn’t contribute to the cause, that’s a sign that it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

### 3.   Keep Everyone In Your Company Informed And Aware Of Your Goals
Projects often bottleneck midway because the staff members who are carrying them out are unaware of what their ultimate goal is.

If employees who are working on a project are not putting their best foot forward or directing their time and energy to the right places, it could simply be because they don’t know what they’re doing or why. They’re just blindly following the orders of their project manager, who in turn may be blindly following the orders of their department head, and so on.

It’s wise to keep all your staff members, from the lowest-paid intern to the CFO, informed about and aware of your business’s goals. Whether you share the details of those goals and how you plan to reach them company-wide with everyone is up to you. But for the sake of morale, as well as guiding your staff members’ focus, give your employees an outline of what your company is trying to achieve and remind them that they’re making it happen through their efforts, however big or small they may appear.

### 4.   Use AI To Predict Future Projects’ Performance
Artificial intelligence technology has progressed to the point that it is now helping companies predict the solvency of certain aspects of their business strategy. This includes predicting the future performance of certain projects.

With enough data, AI prediction software will enable you to determine the feasibility and profitability of a project before you even put wheels to the ground.

### Conclusion
The gap between projects and strategy is costing organizations around a total of $2 trillion per year, as of 2020. This is emblematic of just how much money can be lost to pointless projects that don’t align with your business strategy or meet your company goals.

By closing that gap, you’ll save thousands if not millions of dollars a year and be able to redirect those resources to projects that will actually produce a tangible ROI.

I entered the online gaming space in 2006-2007, another high-risk enterprise, as an investor. It began with a promise of a top-end poker site with our own software, poised to be the next partypoker.com – the world’s number one poker site at that time with an $8B market cap on the LSE. Our poker site was to be an apt mimic for a reprisal of that same business model.

When things did not materialize for over a year, I had to step in to interfere in that enterprise; to move from an investor to an active CEO. That was the first strategy.

I also realized strategy-wise, that the B2C offering that was taking too long to be built (3 years before us pumping in funds and one year after) – had lost the plot and the initiative. Too late to launch is a thing, too. Kinda lost in translation and efficacy. I closed down most of the underperforming units spread across the globe and eating my money. Firing spree. Strategy two.

I pivoted the company from a b2c poker website to a b2b gaming software enterprise, turning a commission-based price model to a royalty and revshare-based one. That initiated a whole new set of projects to kickstart and align with this core strategy that I ushered in.

There were loads of other projects that had to simultaneously be launched, that involved merging, buying of companies, revamping the product, viable, path-breaking marketing, and loads of others; they were all aligned with the core strategy of the master pivot.

And it worked. From the world’s foremost wannabe poker site, we seamlessly – albeit with a lot of effort and juggling – switched to a pretty successful “gaming software provider”.

Closing The Gap Between Projects and Strategy

Bitcoin Is Backed by Rules, Energy and Reason

“Backed by Nothing”? Bitcoin Is Backed by Rules, Energy, and Reason

Liquidity First: Building Zen and Atlas Rails

Liquidity First: How I’m Building Zen and Atlas Rails for a Permissionless, Value-for-Value Financial Future

The Zen Entertainment Playbook: Own Your Audience

The Zen Entertainment Playbook: The Fan Engine That Hollywood Forgot

If your competitor can buy the same machinery, what exactly are you building that they cannot buy?
<div style="font-family: 'Aptos', Calibri; color:#000000;">
On 3 August 2026, BVNK officially became part of Mastercard. Its announcement described bringing stablecoin infrastructure together with Mastercard&rsquo;s reach, with broader capabilities to follow. Existing customers were told nothing changed for them that day. Fair enough. Acquisitions take longer to digest than press releases. <a href="https://www.bvnk.com/blog/bvnk-joins-mastercard" style="color:#0f4761; text-decoration:underline;">BVNK&rsquo;s announcement</a>.

For anyone building a fintech, however, the question deserves immediate attention: if your competitors can buy access to the same machinery, what exactly are you building that they cannot buy?

I am asking that of Zen as seriously as I am asking it of anyone else.

A logo on someone else&rsquo;s product is a thin business model. It can be a perfectly sensible place to start. It becomes an expensive misunderstanding when the founder mistakes it for the destination.

Stripe had already completed its acquisition of Bridge on 4 February 2025. These are businesses assembling the infrastructure through which other businesses will move money. I see considerable opportunity in that consolidation, provided we are honest about where our own contribution begins. <a href="https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/stripe-completes-bridge-acquisition" style="color:#0f4761; text-decoration:underline;">Stripe&rsquo;s announcement</a>.

<h2 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:24px; margin:20px 0 12px 0;">Everyone Does Not Have Identical Rails</h2>

The title needs one qualification. Everyone does not have identical rails. Geography, permissions, underwriting, capital requirements and commercial terms still determine access. A supported country on a website does not mean your particular customer, entity or transaction will be accepted. Anyone who has confused a coverage map with an executable business plan should revisit the contract.

Nevertheless, access to capable infrastructure is something a growing range of providers sell. Once I can purchase a capability, I should expect a sufficiently competent competitor to purchase it too. My business must survive that fact.

I have no philosophical objection to buying the machinery. Quite the reverse. The division of labour is one of civilisation&rsquo;s great achievements. A surgeon need not manufacture his scalpel to deserve his fee. He does, however, need to know where to cut.

The entrepreneurial task is to decide which work creates an advantage worth owning and which work another specialist can perform better. Building everything internally can be vanity with a payroll attached. Buying everything without retaining judgment leaves the company equally exposed.

<h2 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:24px; margin:20px 0 12px 0;">The Merchant&rsquo;s Actual Problem</h2>

Consider a merchant receiving payments from customers abroad. He has suppliers to pay, a payroll approaching and an accountant trying to reconcile the previous week. Give him a wallet, a card and an exchange screen, and you have given him three more things to manage unless they work together around his actual business.

He needs to know how much money is available, what it will cost to convert, when a supplier will receive it, and which transaction belongs against which invoice. If something fails, he needs a person who can explain what happened and get it resolved. Preferably before Friday becomes Monday.

Solving that sequence has value. Providing five disconnected features and calling them an ecosystem does not establish that you have solved it.

That is the standard I want applied to Zen. Across ZenPays, ZenWallet and Zen Card, the commercial purpose must remain visible: help a particular customer receive, manage and use money with less expense, uncertainty and wasted effort. Each product has to justify its place in that experience. I am interested in what the customer can accomplish when the pieces work together.

The same discipline governs how I think about Atlas. My intention is to build a routing and settlement layer that can choose appropriate funding, conversion and payment paths around the customer&rsquo;s intended outcome. Atlas is work ahead of us. I will judge it by the transactions it completes and the problems it removes.

<h2 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:24px; margin:20px 0 12px 0;">You Do Not Own the Customer</h2>

There is an awkward phrase in this industry: owning the customer.

You do not own him. He is an individual with his own purposes, his own money and the right to leave. His data is not abandoned property because he completed your onboarding form. I cannot defend my freedom to build while treating somebody else&rsquo;s freedom to choose as an inconvenience.

What a business can earn is the relationship. It can become the place he trusts to solve a recurring problem. That means understanding his circumstances, communicating honestly, handling failures competently and remembering enough about his authorised preferences to spare him unnecessary repetition. It also means being clear about which company provides which service and who holds his funds.

The distinction has commercial consequences. If the provider controls the account, the customer communication, the pricing, the records and every meaningful decision, I want to understand precisely what our company contributes and retains. Perhaps it is distribution. Distribution can be extremely valuable. Then let us price it honestly and build a good distribution business.

Pretending to own a financial platform because we chose the colour of its buttons will not improve the economics.

Nor does a long customer list settle the matter. How many customers return without another subsidy? What useful service makes them stay? Can we resolve their problems ourselves, or do we forward emails to a supplier and hope? Those questions tell me more than the number of registrations on a presentation slide.

There is also the work of finding customers economically. A specialist who understands a merchant community, speaks its language and reaches it through trusted channels may build a profitable business on infrastructure available to everyone. I would take that advantage seriously. But customer acquisition has to be paid for, and the relationship has to survive the introductory offer. If the only reason people arrive is a subsidy and the only reason they stay is another subsidy, somebody is financing a queue.

<h2 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:24px; margin:20px 0 12px 0;">Some Money Against the Argument</h2>

Now let us put some money against the argument.

Take a hypothetical payments business processing $10 million a month and collecting an average fee of 1%. Revenue is $100,000. Suppose its infrastructure costs are $60,000, conversion and payout costs another $15,000, and fraud losses and direct support costs $10,000. That leaves $15,000 before marketing, engineering, management and other fixed costs.

The business has moved ten million dollars. It has fifteen thousand dollars left to help pay for being a business. These are invented figures, but the arithmetic is real.

Now the provider increases its charge by 0.10 percentage points on that volume. Another $10,000 disappears. Contribution falls to $5,000, unless the company can change its pricing, costs or route. A founder celebrating payment volume while ignoring this sensitivity is applauding a packed restaurant without checking whether dinner costs more to serve than the customer pays.

<h2 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:24px; margin:20px 0 12px 0;">I Want Profit, and I Will Not Apologise for It</h2>

I want profit. I have no intention of apologising for that.

I reject the suggestion that an entrepreneur must justify his earned prosperity as an accidental byproduct of serving everyone else. My life and purposes have value in their own right. I build because I choose to, and I expect to benefit. The moral condition is honest, voluntary dealing: respect the other person&rsquo;s rights, deliver what you promised, and accept his right to decline. No apology for succeeding.

Profit earned through voluntary exchange pays for the people, capital and continuing improvement that make a service worth using. It also gives the enterprise room to survive an unpleasant month. A business permanently dependent on fresh funding to subsidise ordinary transactions has a question to answer, however attractive its growth chart looks.

That does not prohibit deliberate investment or early losses. I will spend money to build something valuable. I want a credible explanation of how the investment changes future economics, who benefits, and what evidence will tell us whether the explanation was wrong. Calling every loss strategic is a remarkably convenient accounting policy.

The trade should improve both parties&rsquo; position. If we remove meaningful cost or effort for a merchant, we can charge for doing so. The merchant retains part of the benefit; we earn part. That is value for value in practice. Hiding an unnecessary fee in a confusing conversion rate does not become productive achievement because the customer failed to notice.

<h2 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:24px; margin:20px 0 12px 0;">Provider Dependence, Examined Without Sentiment</h2>

Provider dependence requires the same unsentimental examination.

A strong supplier has its own interests, customers and priorities. I respect that. Its duty is not to preserve my preferred margin forever. When it broadens its offering, changes its commercial policy or serves a customer directly, indignation is a poor substitute for a business that can adapt.

I want to know what happens if a corridor closes, a service is interrupted or a contract ends. Can we retrieve the records we are entitled to retain? Can eligible customers move to another arrangement? How long would that take, what approvals would it require, and who would explain the disruption? Those answers belong in the design and negotiation, while everyone is still pleased to be working together.

Signing two providers is insufficient if both ultimately depend on the same bank or processor. Two doors into the same locked room provide limited comfort. Genuine alternatives require understanding the dependencies underneath them, testing the route and accepting that some customer relationships or balances cannot simply be moved at will.

There is a cost to this resilience. Additional integrations need maintenance; additional partners need oversight. I do not want an engineering team collecting providers as a hobby. Start with the failure that could seriously damage the business, then buy or build a proportionate answer. Sometimes that means a second route. Sometimes it means a narrower promise to the customer.

And outsourcing a function cannot relieve management of understanding the responsibilities it retains. A partner may perform checks or execute transfers; we still need clarity about our own obligations and what happens when the arrangement fails. The customer who trusted our product deserves more than a screenshot of somebody else&rsquo;s status page.

<h2 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:24px; margin:20px 0 12px 0;">The Knowledge You Cannot Buy</h2>

For me, the interesting opportunity lies in the knowledge a business accumulates by serving a specific market well. Which documents cause avoidable onboarding delays? Which payment paths work for this customer&rsquo;s actual circumstances? Where do reconciliation errors begin? What information would have prevented yesterday&rsquo;s support call?

Answer those questions repeatedly and the company can improve its product in ways a generic infrastructure supplier may have little reason to prioritise. The knowledge must become better decisions, useful software and reliable operating habits. Otherwise it remains a collection of anecdotes in employees&rsquo; heads, vulnerable to the next resignation.

Even here, honesty matters. Data needs to be relevant, accurate and legitimately usable before it can improve a decision. And an integration nobody has tested under realistic operating conditions belongs on a development list. I want evidence that it works before anyone sells its supposed benefits to a customer.

I would rather make one commercially important task work exceptionally well for a defined group of customers, learn what they will pay for, and expand from that foundation. The alternative is to launch broadly and discover, at considerable expense, that everyone liked the announcement more than the product.

<h2 style="color:#0f4761; font-size:24px; margin:20px 0 12px 0;">Where a Founder Earns His Position</h2>

This is where a founder earns his position. He chooses. He commits capital, sets standards, rejects attractive distractions and accepts responsibility for the consequences. Technology gives him more ways to act; it cannot supply the purpose of his enterprise. Borrowed infrastructure makes independent judgment more valuable because so much of the underlying machinery is available to others.

At Zen, I want that judgment expressed in the product itself: clear prices, sensible choices, reliable records, effective support and services people deliberately return to. Those are obligations we have to fulfil. Our ambition gives us the reason to attempt them, and our execution will determine what the business is worth.

The established networks are entitled to earn from what they built. Specialist providers are entitled to charge for their competence. Customers are entitled to compare us with alternatives and keep their money when our offer fails to persuade them. I welcome that test. It is the commercial expression of a principle I take seriously: nobody owes us a living.

Give me capable partners, customers with a real problem and the freedom to build. Then judge the result. If Zen saves those customers time, reduces their costs, earns their continued trust and retains a worthwhile profit, we have created something that deserves to exist.

That is what I intend to build. The logo can go on afterwards.
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Same Payment Rails: What Makes a Fintech Worth Anything?

If Everyone Has the Same Payment Rails, What Makes a Fintech Worth Anything?

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