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Coronavirus and its Impact on US Companies

by Rolando Herrera
written by Rolando Herrera

In what seems like the blink of an eye, the world has changed and will remain changed for the foreseeable future. Whole countries of citizens are being told to shelter in place and self-quarantine while a deadly virus sweeps across the globe, wreaking havoc on all aspects of our lives. People all over the United States are getting sick and dying, and the only way to stop it appears to be shutting down society and having everyone stay indoors for weeks at a time.

The coronavirus, specifically the strain COVID-19, has caused the United States and global economies to come to a halt. The country and the world are combating the deadly virus that has thrown a good deal of the population into quarantine for the foreseeable future. The developments and impacts are changing rapidly as the people all over the US come to grips with an uncertain future on all levels of their personal and professional lives. As the nation waits for updates from the scientists and doctors who have been studying how to handle this very situation all of their professional lives, businesses wonder what tomorrow holds.

In this time of uncertainty, there are two things that we know for sure. The first is that with the impact of the global pandemic on the US economy, companies of all sizes and types will be overcome with challenges the business world has never experienced before. The second thing is that this epidemic is temporary. Once the periods of self-isolation and social distancing have eased or been lifted, businesses will return and the economy will bounce back in a big way. Consumers will be itching to get out and spend the money it takes to get back to a normal life.

Some companies, possibly many companies, will not make it and will be forced to close or file for bankruptcy. Businesses that have been nearing sales, retirements, or other transitions have already begun prematurely shutting their doors to cut their losses and move on with their lives.

COVID-19 Pandemic Disrupts Global Supply Chain

The widespread disruption in the flow of the global supply chain due to the COVID-19 pandemic will have significant ripple effects on the economy and the way business is conducted for the foreseeable future. Workers around the globe are being advised not to go to work, further decimating the flow of products and services that make up the overall economic makeup of the country and the world.

Implications of COVID-19 in the Workplace

The short-term and long-term implications of the outbreak and spread of COVID-19 remain largely unknown from day to day as news breaks, and efforts continue to react to this global state of emergency. As families and businesses grapple with the consequences of stay-at-home orders and self-quarantine guidelines, the companies that are able to continue doing business have to make significant adjustments in their operations to avoid the spread of the highly infectious deadly virus and control the fatality rate throughout the country.

Employee, Public Safety

Companies throughout the country have been forced to make sweeping changes in their policies quickly in order to keep not only their employees and customers protected, but also the public at large. COVID-19 can be transmitted by people who show no symptoms at all. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as other infectious disease experts, recommend employees who experience any symptoms to stay home. Businesses are being urged to make policy decisions that will put the safety of the public health above all other considerations, even if that means gutting the business of employees and customers.

Teleworking at Home Offices

From educators to accountants, people burdened with stay-at-home orders have begun getting the job done at home. Teleworking setups have been assembled in home offices and kitchen tables throughout the country. From video conferencing to file sharing, employees, employers, and clients of all kinds are learning how to work efficiently and productively from the comforts of their own homes.

Long-Term Vision

Keeping an eye down the road when you can barely see out the front window is challenging. While the focus so far has justifiably been on short-term viability and survival, long-term effects on workstreams and industry sustainability must also be considered in these critical, gut-wrenching decisions.

Low Wage Workers

Workers in low wage and hourly jobs throughout the country are most at risk during this crisis. Many of them are already in debt and live paycheck to paycheck to pay the bills. These are the most vulnerable in the workforce who were already a couple of missed paychecks away from being in serious financial trouble.

Hardest Hit Industries by Coronavirus Pandemic

The US government continues to implement and adjust guidelines to help the process of flattening the curve. This is to keep the number of those affected at a level that will not overburden healthcare facilities throughout the country. Unemployment numbers are expected to skyrocket to record numbers as residents are ordered to self-quarantine at home and businesses close to help contain community spread of the highly contagious virus.

At this writing, Congress is in the process of passing an expansive, historic stimulus to ease the burden of families and businesses. However, in some cases, the damage has already been done, and, in others, time is of the essence. Gyms, retail and department stores, nail salons, barbershops, and many other businesses have entirely shut down during what is essentially an incubation period to get the spread of COVID-19 under control.

Some of the industries hardest hit during this difficult time include:

Manufacturing, Construction

The cost of doing business in the manufacturing and construction industries is expected to rise. Millions of Americans work in these vital industries. Companies are hesitant to lay off skilled laborers who are more difficult to replace than unskilled workers, and may ask them to continue to work instead of following preventative measures to be taken as recommended by the CDC, OSHA, and other infectious disease prevention professionals.

Clothing, Retail

Even before the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus, online sales had become so popular and accepted that the physical brick-and-mortar store model was struggling to adapt. Many retail and clothing stores were already forced to create an online and eCommerce component, which has prepared many companies for the shift to online ordering and contactless delivery of goods of all kinds. Retail and big box stores employ a huge number of workers who are either out of work or working in risky conditions as the virus sweeps the globe.

Food, Hospitality

With the only options for restaurants now either pick up or delivery, the required changes for restaurant and foodservice industries are hitting their almost 16 million workers hard. The bad news is that the lowest end of their employee base, the hourly employees, are the first to suffer. Experts advise them to be as patient as possible. Once the bans and stay-at-home orders have lifted, consumers are likely to flood back to restaurants, and the industry should recover quickly.

Airlines, Transportation

If people are told to stay in their homes for months at a time, they will not be flying or using other modes of transportation. Airlines are losing billions, and projections for the near future are dire. Severe capacity cuts are happening industry-wide in an effort to stop the bleeding. While the government will not allow this most vital industry to fail, people are losing jobs, and investors are predicting plummeting stocks will not recover any time soon.

Entertainment, Recreation

Consumers are restricted from gathering in large groups, and discretionary income is at a premium for many people who the entertainment and recreation industries count on to survive and prosper. Summer vacation and resort season is in jeopardy across the country, movie and television shows are on hold at all levels of production, and the sports world has completely shut down. Entertainment and recreation businesses may struggle for months or longer.

Is There Any Good News?

As everyone hunkers down in their homes with loved ones and wonders if life will ever return to normal, is there any good news? With humans and Americans specifically, there is always good news to be found.

This Will Not Last Forever

Experts say the coronavirus pandemic may last for a while, but it will not last forever. There will come a day when we can all meet in groups and return to a co-existing society full of ballparks, theaters, and concert halls. It will take sacrifices today to enjoy a healthy and safe tomorrow.

Help On the Way

At this writing, Congress is hammering out a multi-trillion dollar stimulus package designed to help businesses and individuals get through the crisis. It is doubtful this will be the only such stimulus the country will need before it is over.

Coming Together

The country and world have united like never before to collectively do what is necessary to overcome this global emergency and prevent people from getting sick and dying. The key is to be smart and listen to the recommendations of those with the most experience and history dealing with these kinds of outbreaks.

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BNIBusiness

BNI: Business Network International, Is It Worth It?

by Nishad Jiwa
written by Nishad Jiwa

What is BNI Group?

Business Network International (BNI) is a business referral group that claims to be the world’s leading ‘referral organization’. With over 240,000 members in 8,500 local chapters across the globe, BNI holds regular meetings to discuss business incentives and goals. Members support each other’s brands by sharing referrals for optimal growth, visibility, and expansion.

With BNI continuing to grow, is it truly worth its annual fee and time investment? Is it a scam that promises networking opportunities without delivering measurable results? The answers to these questions seem to vary among members and former members alike. While some claim it’s a money cult with no promises of ROI, others continue to defend the group against mixed and negative online reviews.

With this in mind, let’s break down BNI and see if it’s legitimate or nothing more than your run of the mill pyramid scheme.

Business Network International – The Networking Essentials

At its core, BNI is a global networking platform for businesses of all sizes and industries. Its signature referral marketing program helps owners increase business via referral sharing. The latter is designed to develop long-term relationships – with other businesses – that increase leads, profits, and revenue.

The official BNI website states that “members of BNI passed millions of referrals that generated billions of dollars for business for each other.” They also list the following facts for those that are unsure about joining their referral network:

  • 98% of businesses rely on referrals to secure new business.
  • Only 3% of existing businesses have strategies geared towards referral generation.
  • BNI member referrals generated $13.6 billion USD in business revenue in 2017.

While these figures are directly from BNI, the fact is that many new and established brands do not have sound strategies for generation referrals. With this in mind, BNI offers a platform to build greater business through ongoing referrals. In fact, some members have groups of people that regularly send them referrals; a compelling and engaging way to foster sales teams online and remotely.

How does BNI work?

BNI takes a user-friendly approach for joining their global business marketing and referral network. However, existing members send invites to guests or stand-ins to experience a day of business referral networking. This is done in what is called the Breakfast Club: weekly breakfast meetings with local BNI chapters (groups) to understand how they operate and whether they appeal to you or not.

Invited members get access to the following:

  • Learn how to pitch your business and gain referrals from other members.
  • Schedule 1-on-1 meetings with members within your local chapter for the following week.
  • Review educational workshops from an existing member and report any new referrals you have generate for others in your group. This includes referrals that have come in from other members.

With these particulars, you may be asking yourself is BNI worth it? Well, generating business leads via referrals may seem promising on paper. However, there is an annual membership fee of at least $690 US (A$1,000) plus $20 per breakfast as part of your membership cost. You will be required to attend breakfast referral meetings weekly while generating referrals for your fellow BNI members. It all starts by finding your local chapter and checking to see if you know members within that chapter/group.

BNI – The Downside

As with any global referral network, there are downsides to investing in these ventures. For one, nothing is ever guaranteed and you get out what you put in. BNI may seem profitable to many but it’s not exempt from complaints and horror stories. In fact, here are some mixed reviews/concerns from former members and folks (unnamed) that attended a breakfast meeting or two:

  • While BNI may pique your interest, the time commitment is something to weigh. Again, weekly meetings are required for all local chapter members. One interested member in Sydney felt the weekly meetings were very difficult to commit to. There is travel involved and it may place an obstacle for members building lifestyle businesses.
  • New brand owners are finding upfront investments too high for their self-funded and bootstrapped businesses. There are also different classifications for those that allocate their time entirely to the business referral process – and those that do not. In essence, the more you commit, the more you may see results.
  • As part of your application and review, you must commit to finding referrals for other members within your BNI local network. This may be a hurdle too since there are members involved in different businesses and industries. Unless you are super confident that you can cater to their needs and vice-versa, BNI membership may create more problems than solutions.

Will BNI work for your business?

There is no clear cut answer to this question that continues to be asked by many interested individuals. According to Amanda Griscti of the FlyingSolo online community, BNI is only worthwhile if you know what you want and need from the group. You also have to ask yourself if the local BNI group can meet your referral needs within time and budget. The last thing you want is to be out-of-pocket due to the failure of your teammates to deliver on referral promises.

Still, Griscti recommends attending one breakfast meeting to make an informed decision. Again, you will need to be invited by an existing member of your local chapter. You may be just a guest or an official stand-in for someone in the group that cannot make the meeting. Also, you must review the BNI FAQ to get or stay informed about the Group’s updates and policies. It is important to look into other network groups too if this industry piques your interest.

BNI – Final Thoughts

BNI may not be for everyone but does seem to offer potentially lucrative opportunities for its members. However, there are so many things to keep in mind about this multi-faceted organization. This includes the ongoing debate between BNI members about ethics and choice. For example, should you refer a friend who has the same specialty as someone else already in the group? If so, does BNI allow members with similar business specialties to join the same local BNI chapter?

According to the Group’s rules, they only accept one person per business specialty in a BNI Chapter. So if you are an SEO expert wishing to join a group that already has an SEO expert, you will be referred to another chapter. BNI may also work with you to open a new Chapter geared towards your specialties. Just remember that the decisions of the Membership Committees per Chapters are final in all cases.  BNI claims its only agenda is to substantially increase your business through its proven referral program. Yet, the terms of membership agreements may not be as clear as one would assume. Therefore, it is crucial to go over their policies with a fine-tooth comb before making an investment that may or may not improve your business.

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BusinessEntrepreneur

How to Foster the Natural Entrepreneur in Every Child 

by Rolando Herrera
written by Rolando Herrera

Innately inquisitive and creative, children are natural risk-takers with an insatiable appetite for learning why, all of which are all positive entrepreneurial qualities. While it is up for debate whether an entrepreneurial mindset is a product of nature or nurture, encouraging entrepreneurial qualities such as tenacity, perseverance, and the importance of planning and goal setting will benefit your child at every stage of life.

Instill Work Ethic

Impressing a sense of drive in your child teaches them that determination leads to results. By doing your best to instill a strong work ethic at an early age, you will encourage your child to recognize the value of hard work.

  • Encourage goal setting – helping your children establish short and long term goals and help them devise a plan to achieve them. Let your children take the lead to instill a sense of initiative. 
  • Teach cause and effect – celebrate small milestones of success and show your children exactly what created that success, teaching them the power of persistence.
  • Find teaching moments in failure – as parents, it’s natural to want to protect your child from pain. However, children who are allowed to experience the disappointment of failures are allowed to learn from their mistakes, which affects how they respond to their own failures in the future. Successful entrepreneurs view failures as learning experiences. 

Teach Financial Responsibility

Encourage an entrepreneurial spirit by teaching your child the importance of financial responsibility. You can help your child learn the value of money by helping them budget a small allowance in exchange for age-appropriate household chores. Increasing their allowance when they complete extra work and creating an easy to follow a timeline of how long it will take them to save up for something they want is a great way to tangibly explain fiscal responsibility.

Inspire Initiative

Encouraging responsibility and initiative in your child can help foster an entrepreneurial mindset. Studies have shown that, more so than IQ, personality traits such as self-discipline and perseverance directly affect personal success. Inspire initiative in your child by providing guidance but encouraging creative problem-solving.   

  • Ask open-ended questions – asking your child ways they could achieve their dreams and goals will not only inspire them to be forward-thinking but plays an important role in cognitive development.
  • Ask for help – asking your child to help you figure out even the smallest tasks can encourage creative problem solving as well as encourages leadership, teamwork, and self-esteem.
  • Embrace frustrations – your child’s frustration is an ample opportunity to foster initiative. When your child hits a roadblock, simply ask your child “Can this be solved?” and “How can we solve this?” Soon, your child will learn to view obstacles as challenges.

Encourage Innovation

One of the best ways you can nurture an entrepreneurial spirit is to encourage your child to be creative. Children are naturally inventive; encourage conversations about a problem or need in the world and have your child lead the discussion on how that need could be addressed.

Entrepreneurial thinking encourages your child to be driven, focused, and solve problems creatively, which are skills that are imperative to a successful entrepreneur, as well as a skill set that will benefit your child in every aspect of life.

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BusinessCustomer ServiceSales

Closing the Sale: The Secret to Understanding Your Customers

by Rolando Herrera
written by Rolando Herrera

Consider the moment your business was conceptualized, turning you from consumer to entrepreneur; you recognized a need for a product or service and took the steps to fulfill it in ways that haven’t been done before. After your business is formed, more than ever, it is important to remain immersed in your customer’s experience firsthand, in order to continue to grow and maintain your business. To better understand customer behavior, you must become your customer.

Immerse Yourself in Customer Experience

Get a more thorough understanding of your own business by becoming your own customer. Immersing yourself in the experience of utilizing your own business’ products and services allows you to better understand your potential customers’ mindset.

  • Utilize your own services – from end to end, walk through your customer’s experience. From the functionality of your website, to ease of parking at your location, to wait times for customer service via phone, go through each step from the perspective of your customers.
  • Discover where your customers are – Consider precisely where and when you, as a consumer, would need your product or service. No matter how innovative your product or service, if your customers can’t find your business, it doesn’t exist. 
  • Thoroughly analyze your experience – When you immerse yourself in customer experience, you have the opportunity to strengthen your product or service through self-auditing. Don’t become blind to your own shortcomings; now is the time to be your own biggest critic. Through a consumer perspective, recognize flaws in your business model and use this knowledge to your advantage. 

Patronize the Competition

Maintaining the mindset of a consumer, becoming a patron of your competition is a great way to analyze your own business’ shortcomings and find room for improvement. Consider the following when patronizing your competition:

  • What might drive potential customers to choose this business over your own?
  • How easily was your competition found?
  • What was the quality of the product or service provided in comparison to your own?
  • What was the customer service superior to what you provide?
  • What did your competition do to earn your business?

While it may be difficult as a business owner to recognize why potential customers opt to do business elsewhere, it is important to remain as objective as possible when analyzing your experience.

Maintain Customer Outreach

While becoming your own customer is the ultimate market research, it is important to recognize that you will have biases when it comes to analyzing your own business, no matter how objective you try to be. Regularly engaging in customer outreach is key to growing and improving your business. Comparing customer feedback to your own experiences paints a clearer picture of what it’s like to do business with your company, allowing you to grow your business more strategically, rather than simply relying on your own opinions. 

Knowing your customer is the key to acquisition; the key to knowing your customer is to become one. Your success is based on growth, and growth relies on your ability to take on an analytical approach to how you do business.

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BusinessEntrepreneurTexas

Starting a Business in Texas: Why is Small Business Booming in the Lone Star State?

by Rolando Herrera
written by Rolando Herrera

Texas has long been a state of pioneers; from energy industry tycoons to the recently booming tech scene, Texas seems to have an abundance of residents with a strong sense of independence and an insatiable desire to innovate. But, what is it about Texas that appeals to so many aspiring business owners?

Population Booms

Texas has been a hotspot for tech startups, Fortune 500 companies, and small businesses of all varieties for a number of years. Part of this can be credited to Texas’ population continual growth, with half of the growth credited to transplants from outside the state lines. With three of the top ten most populous cities being located in Texas (Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas) more and more people are flocking to Texas in search of opportunity, which in turn supports a local economy. 

Strong Economy

Texas has a rapidly growing economy, making the state appealing to entrepreneurs who are interested in starting their business in Texas. In addition to leading the country in the oil, gas, and wind energy industries, as well as accounting for 10% of all total manufacturing, the capital city is the fifth-largest tech hub in the United States. Texas’ economy is experiencing a boom, and the business-minded are reaping the benefits.

Benefits of Starting a Business in Texas

In addition to a robust economy and ever-increasing population, Texas provides a myriad of benefits for new business owners, and has recently first in the best places to start a business, with the categories of the business environment, access to resources, and business cost coming into play.

Another widely touted benefits of starting a business in Texas is the lack of income tax, which is not only alluring to entrepreneurs but their would-be employees. 

State Pride 

With programs such as GoTexan that promote locally based products and businesses to the abundance of proudly displayed state flags, to Texas-shaped items on the shelves of every store (even down to tortilla chips) and even a subgenre of country music classified as only Texas country, Texas is known for its state pride. It is correct to assume that Texas consumers support Texas-based businesses.

Texas’ growing population, matched with an impressive business incentives and  already tenacious and rapidly growing business environment, makes the state an ideal place for business owners to open up shop. From traditional businesses like oil and gas to the evergreen scene that is modern technology, Texas is a perfect place for those who want to innovate.

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BusinessFacebookFacebook AdvertisingFacebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger is Being Revamped, How It Can Benefit Businesses

by LeAnn Gros
written by LeAnn Gros

Facebook has recently dealt with much criticism and backlash for how they have handled user privacy and data thus far. It’s no surprise that this concern and backlash is being followed up by their desire to completely revamp applications like Facebook Messenger. 

Announced directly at the F8 conference, the overhaul of the messenger app won’t just be in the form of benefiting the individual users but also to benefit businesses who utilize the social media platform as a means for marketing and customer relations. 

Here are two key changes to Facebook Messenger that businesses could directly benefit from in the future. 

Connecting Employees

Facebook has always been geared towards engaging with the individual users themselves, but it looks as though they are wanting to step up to the plate on helping businesses communicate internally. By announcing new features that will allow group calls, project and task collaboration and the ability to place the messenger app on a desktop PC means they are now directly competing with popular business services like GoToMeeting and Skype. 

With the additional launch of their Workplace tool, this only adds more to the blow being delivered to other similar business services. While the workplace tool has a free or paid version, it works relatively fine as the free out of the box version, in fact, most comparisons to services like GoToMeeting, show Facebook’s Workplace as offering more to users in their unpaid version.

It would seem they are entering into a new market of business communications and no longer just focusing on individual private user communication. 

Connecting Businesses to Customers

Time and resources are limited to businesses and affect how they choose to communicate with their customer base. A lot of the time staff are put in charge of handling social media communications and responding to inquiries that really could be handled by a more automated process to free up wasted employee time, that could be benefited elsewhere. 

Facebook Messenger will be revamped to help free up communication time in two very direct ways through the app. 

Lead Generation Ad’s and Templates

Facebook has announced the addition of lead generation templates found within the Ads Manager. These templates will prove successful in getting customers to come from an Ad into a quick Q&A chat within the messenger app. This helps businesses get more leads from their facebook marketing tactics and drives the customer into potentially scheduling a service or converting directly to purchase right within the app. 

One way to helpfully manage this kind of service is giving businesses the ability to completely automate it with responses that make the customer feel as though they are chatting with an actual representative when really it’s a bot. Not to worry though, if a complex question comes through, the chatbot has the ability to pass on that question to a live person instead. 

Scheduling Services

This directly ties into the Lead Generation Ads. This Q&A process has the potential to send appointment booking requests directly to customers from within the messenger app. They can book their appointment through the facebook messenger service and they’ve done it with very limited influence directly from the staff themselves. This frees up a lot of business resources and allows for faster customer conversions. 

The idea behind these significant revamps stems entirely from a consumer standpoint that customers want to be able to get their answers, information and booking services without leaving one platform for another. This ease of use pertains to increased popularity in increasing positive user experience. 

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BusinessInvestorsMarketing

Finding Investors for your Startup Brand

by Nishad Jiwa
written by Nishad Jiwa

Finding the right investors for your startup is a crucial step in building your business. In fact, failure to secure proper funding can make it difficult for your brand to get off the ground. Even with a sound business plan and marketing campaign, you need financial capital to cover startup and related costs.

Is it Hard to Get Funding?

Getting funding for your new business is easier said than done. Unless you are willing to dip into your savings, you will need to secure a business loan from a financial institution; banks, credit unions, lenders, etc. Another option is to seek assistance from family and friends or private investors that have enough capital for funding entrepreneurial launches.

According to Andrew Rinaldi, co-founder of Defendify – a leading cyber-security company, it was difficult to secure money from private investors for their startup funding. However, Andrew and his team were successful in securing $1.6 million in pre-seed funding to get their business afloat. This was courtesy of investors from the Maine Technology Institute and 3dot6 Ventures.

Here are some of the ways the company was able to get the right funds:

  • Effective business planning that cuts through the clutter of what you will need and not need to start and grow.
  • Identify your needs and correlate them with funding needed to turn ideas into realities.
  • If you do not have sufficient funding from bank accounts, look for alternatives. This includes traditional business or private loans, along with potential investors looking to diversify their portfolios with unique and profitable investments.
  • Create early projections and forecasting for your business leads and revenue generation. Stay abreast of all the latest developments and trends in the industry you plan to serve.
  • Paint a picture of potential profits, brand visibility, and market share for your startup. Present these materials to investors in a professional manner – so that they can make timely, informed and worthwhile decisions.

Investors vs Family & Friends

One of the biggest obstacles in starting a brand is financials. After all, you will need to cover initial startup costs, along with monies for trademarks, copyrights, materials, and social media – SEO advertising campaigns. Similarly, you will need enough capital for product launches, payroll, overhead and related costs. These are just the basic essentials of business building and do not include future brand growth and expansions.

With this in mind, how do you know if you are ready for an investor as opposed to asking a family member or friend for assistance? For one, you need to take stock of your personal investment and see if that is enough to cover startup essentials. If not, you need to extend the conversation to new resources with sound planning and timely deliverables. This, of course, should only be done if friends and loved ones can no longer fund your business startup. You also need to take into account how many investors have poured in funds and exactly what their returns or ROI will be?

Here are some benefits of seeking private investors for your new brand:

  • Access your professional network for potential investors that might be interested in your new company. This can expand your base and possibly include friends-of-friends that might want to come in as well.
  • Outreaching and sharing is the best way to generate leads, interest, and finally investments. However, the right investors are the ones that are genuinely interested in seeing your products and services off the ground.
  • Private investors may open the doors to new opportunities for your brand. This includes access to new investors across extended networks that may align with your business goals and aspirations.
  • Use all your available resources to find the right investors – phone calls, e-mails, social media, and other forms of correspondence without being overly pushy and aggressive.
  • Investors can give you the right resources to fund your new commercial startup. However, make sure they know both the short-term and long-term financial impact of their investments. This includes potential losses, along with potential gain with projections based on the current business scope and market forecast.

Finding the Right Investors for your Startup

The right investor(s) must align with your business’ core values and goals. In other words, they must share your vision and believe in meeting the needs of clients of consumers. They must also be flexible and willing to operate in ways that work for and with you. Similarly, investors should have a good grasp on business investment essentials and monitoring your industry, market, and niche.

As a business owner or co-owner, pay attention to your gut. Use your instincts to know if an investor is a good fit or not. Sometimes, you will know right away but consider all aspects before you withdraw your business proposal. Remember, the last thing you need is to start off on the wrong foot with someone who can possibly be a vital resource down the line.

What Should Investor Proposals Include?

Investor proposals should be easy to scan and digest. Be precise, concise, and list the benefits of investing in your startup. While going through the economics and investment particulars is essential, do not limit your proposal to rigid projections and numbers. Instead, entice and engage your investor(s) with practical ways your products and services can achieve desired results. This includes how they will help buyers and industries while churning out profits and optimal ROI for investors.

The key aspect of business proposals is to secure a healthy and mutually beneficial relationship for all parties involves. While any business will go through trials and tribulations, staying the course and being unified is the only way to overcome adversity and obstacles. Make it abundantly clear that you’re willing to give investors more of a role in your startup – if that is what they desire.

Being a successful entrepreneur is also about timely communications with your investors, clients, and customers. You must maintain discipline while staying on track of your business strategy and goals. These are crucial in turning your startup brands and initiatives into lifelong dreams.

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BusinessFinancial AdvisorSales

Top 5 Skills that Are Important for Entrepreneurs

by Williams Adebowale
written by Williams Adebowale

If you were part of a top sales team for a leading business corporation, you would attend regular training programs and seminars presented by consultants who would charge you up and build your confidence and skills. If you were an Olympic Athlete, optimistic audiences would cheer you on to great feats. Your coaches and mentors would instill discipline, encourage, and guide you to success.  But if you are one of today’s entrepreneurs, or an aspiring entrepreneur, who cheers you on and gives you the boost you need? Chances are you will have to do most of that yourself.

The skills that are important for entrepreneurs to evolve with time and are different from what might have been most important some years ago. Though there are many business and people skills that a successful entrepreneur will have, the following top 5 skills are the ones that you need to make your business successful:

Communication

Every entrepreneur needs to be an effective communicator. Communication is how you will be able to cultivate loyal employees, and charm customers into coming back time and time again. If an entrepreneur cannot communicate the company’s value, it’s unlikely the company will be successful.

Also, entrepreneurs need to master all forms of communication, including one-on-one and in-person conversations, email or online messages, group conversations, and written communication.

Sales and Marketing

The soft skill of sales and marketing goes hand-in-hand with the communication necessary to be a successful entrepreneur. If an entrepreneur can communicate effectively, they are better equipped to sell their ideas and physical products.
An entrepreneur needs to sell the business idea to potential investors, the product or service to customers, and themselves to employees. It is imperative that entrepreneurs develop a marketing mindset. Having a marketing mindset enables you to adjust your focus from how you do what you do to the benefits of what you do.

Financial Management

Financial management skill helps entrepreneurs control cash flow.  About 29% of all small businesses established between 2014-2018 ran out of cash due to the lack of financial management skill. Entrepreneurs must acquire financial management skill to stay in business, manage, and grow their finances. You might be good at this aspect of running a business, but if you are not, you need to make sure you employ a financial management expert. Depending on the nature of your business, you might wish to expand, open new branches, or invest in developing new products. Whatever your priority, have a plan for getting there and how you are going to fund it.

Discipline and Meditation

As a business owner, persistence in the face of uncertainty, pressure, or the potential of failure, requires a level of discipline. The best way to get started, then, is to find as many things in life that could boost your discipline level. The path to successful entrepreneurship is full of ups and downs, and only disciplined entrepreneurs can stay on track when the going gets tough.
While discipline enables you to stay focused as an entrepreneur,  meditation helps you to get rid of unnecessary tensions and stress so that you can make healthy business decisions. An entrepreneur must include fifteen-thirty minutes of mediation in his or her daily routine for personal and business growth.

Business Strategy

Entrepreneurs need to have a business strategy skill to take their businesses from good to great. Plan out where you expect to be every step of the way in terms of financing, sales, staffing, and any other key aspect of your business. A detailed SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is an excellent way to get yourself and your team members to start thinking strategically. Also, business strategy skill helps you to keep a narrow focus on paying customers and learn from competitors.
As you move through your beginning months and years in operation, it is always a good idea to revisit your business strategies regularly to make sure they still appropriate based on any changes with your business.

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Personal Trainer Marketing Ideas in 2019

by Kathe Zuber
written by Kathe Zuber

Marketing yourself as a personal trainer is a hard task, believe me, it can be as hard as the training itself. As a personal trainer, marketing your business will get you more clients to work with and train. But how do you get those clients, when you are going to be spending hours on training them? That’s the big question. Luckily enough, we have ideas on how to get it done.

The fastest way to market yourself as a personal trainer is to use a marketing automation software coupled with a few personal training campaigns that advertise yourself, this enables you to store their information, have quick communication between the potential customers.

Here are some marketing ideas that you can use as a personal trainer.

1.) Use Social Media To Your Advantage

The easiest, cheapest, and quickest way of marketing yourself is by using social media to your advantage. Almost everyone is on it, and you should be on it too. Create accounts on all the important social networks; these include popular ones like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and others. Entice them by posting “inspirational posts” about fitness, this technique will impress potential customers and earn you followers, and as the rule says, the more followers you get, the more business you will have.

2.) Word Of Mouth

The most powerful tool for advertising and marketing is word of mouth. By word of mouth, your present customers can help you get prospective ones. The best part about this is that it is free.

3.) Create Creative Local Flyers

The best way to attract people is to create an attraction. Promote your business by printing flyers and posting them around town, leaving business cards in places where they can be picked up quickly, brand items like T-shirts, shorts, and others with your logo and contact information. Get everyone you come across with engaged in you with your flyers that advertise you.

4.) Focus More On Building Relationship Rather Than Marketing

The end result of your marketing is to have relationships that last, so why not just focus your attention more on building relationships. The more solid your relationships are, the more sessions your clients will book.

5.) Have A Flexible Plan

Not all your clients will stick around if you have boring sessions, spice up your sessions to combat monotony. This makes them keep their interest in the sessions that you run, as you spice up old routines with new styles.

6.) Offer Special Programs

Special programs have ways of getting prospective clients to you. It shows them that you’re in the business because you are interested in them and want the best for them.

7.) Partner with Local Businesses

Partner up with other local businesses such as stores, this helps promote you and them likewise. Getting them to promote your business, let’s you get access to their clients and the contacts that they have. For this, you can also give them mutually benefiting programs

All these marketing ideas are sure to get your business as a personal trainer in the minds and on the lips of everyone.

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50% of Small Businesses Do Not Have Marketing Plans

by Nishad Jiwa
written by Nishad Jiwa

A new study unveiled that many small business owners across the US are functioning without sound marketing plans. The study was conducted by Outbound Engine and surveyed 350 small to medium-size (SMB) about their online marketing campaigns. Sadly, 50% of SMB owners stated they are operating without any type of marketing.

The study also highlighted the problems business owners are facing – namely lack of effective marketing tools and revenue growth. Similarly, the surveys discussed business owner goals and the obstacles that are preventing them from growing and expanding.

Here are some key points from the survey:

  • Most SMB owners are stressed and have limited budgets. They are also pressed for time and simply overwhelmed with daily business processes and protocols.
  • 62% of SMB owners are more stressed about their brands this year than last year.
  • Many business owners that were surveyed have somewhat given up on their marketing efforts due to the daily grind.
  • Several business owners simply do not have the time or knowledge for DIY marketing, nor the expenses for hiring in-house advertising teams.

Can SMB Owners Rebound?

While many small business owners are dealing with problems across the country – there are ways to rebound and get your marketing back on track. In fact, hiring a seasoned and reputable SEO agency is still the best way to put your advertising plans to fruition. From website development and content marketing to social media integration, SMB owners must get back to the basics in order to re-establish brand visibility and awareness.

Here are some more highlights of the survey that show why many SMB owners are in marketing peril:

  • 25% of business owners surveyed stated they were unsure on how to grow their businesses in 2019.
  • 55% of business owners surveyed spend less than 5% of yearly revenue on marketing.
  • Over 58% of SMB owners spend five hours or less on marketing each week.
  • 86% of respondents stated they would rather spend time on their businesses than on marketing.

Get the Marketing you Need

Business owners who feel overwhelmed still have cost-effective ways to get the marketing they need. In fact, the study also reported that SMB owners do not have to spend significantly more money or time to achieve desired results. Here are some crucial findings of the survey that SMB owners should pay close attention to:

  • SMBs saw more revenue growth in 2018 with small marketing investments.
  • Data compiled showed that investments as low as 5 percent was sufficient for influencing lead and profit generation.
  • 81% of SMBs surveyed invested between 5% – 10% of annual revenue in marketing for 2018. This helped their respective brands grow and expand – with plans for more investments in 2019.
  • Only 50% of respondents who invested less than 5% of yearly revenue into marketing saw some traction and growth.

The last figure should speak volumes about online and digital marketing in general. Essentially, you will get back what you put in for optimal or maximum ROI. Therefore, spending too little may or may not furnish the results you need. In contrast, investing at least 5% of your annual revenue is enough to tap into the current and burgeoning marketing – SEO trends.

If you still struggle with brand validity, visibility, or lack of market share, the solution is simple. SEO companies have the tools and expertise to propel your brands to new heights in any industry or niche. They also monitor your brands’ reputation online, as well as handle content, social media, and mobile optimization so you can concentrate on running your business.

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