Joel Comm's Blog, page 20

This Entrepreneur Coach Listened to His Dog and Put Fun Into His Work

Why being an entrepreneur is as much fun as riding a BMX. The dog did it. Michael O’Neal had a dog called Jake. Each morning Michael would leave his dog to go to his job as a Web designer in Boulder, CO. He’d set out when it was dark, and he’d come back when it was dark. And when Michael came home and turned on the lights, Jake would look up at Michael with his big, dark eyes as if to say, “I thought we were going to play Frisbee today.” And Michael understood that he was losing all his daylight hours doing something that he didn’t love, something that for him just wasn’t fun. He doesn’t do that any more. After 15 years in Web design, Michael decided that he was “unemployable” and set out to employ himself. He now runs the Solopreneur Hour, delivering podcasts, talks and coaching for entrepreneurs. Michael has been pretty successful. He’s talked at events across the country and is well paid for his coaching sessions, but he could be doing a lot more. “A very prominent business coach told me that I was leaving $150,000 to $200,000 a year on the table by not doing X,” Michael recalled. “I told him that X takes me away from waking up when my body wakes up, walking down to my favorite coffee shop, going to get some work done, scheduling the things I love.” And there are lots of things that Michael loves to do. He studied music at college and still plays semi-professional drums. He bought a vintage Porsche which he renovates himself and occasionally takes out to a track. He plays racquetball four times a week. But while lots of people have hobbies, for Michael, those activities are the first things that go into his schedule. “I write this in: 45 minutes, I’m on my drums. This is when I play racquetball… When I do my podcast interviews, they’re around my racquetball schedules. “When someone asks if I have stress in my life,” says Michael, “the answer is not really. It’s pretty rare for me to have stress in my life.” That’s not the result of good luck or careful planning. It’s the result of a decision, a conscious choice to move on from the hustle and grind, and emphasize enjoyment over work that doesn’t deliver a sense of satisfaction. But while Michael might be reducing his income in his preference for fun, he’s not leaving the entrepreneurial world entirely behind when he walks out of the office and picks up his drumsticks. All of those fun activities deliver valuable lessons not just in the reason for doing work he enjoys but in how to achieve success at those tasks. We always enjoy activities that we’re good at, but we only become good at an activity after a long period of not being very good at it at all. Recently, Michael pulled down the old BMX he had ridden when he was a teenager, built it up again and took it out freestyling. “You fall and fall and you get a whack on the shins from a pedal, and you fall again,” Michael said. “And then eventually you do the trick and it was all worth it. If there’s a closer parallel to entrepreneurship I don’t know what it is.” Choosing to put fun into and alongside your work doesn’t have to replace work. It can also show you how to work better… and still have time to throw a Frisbee for your dog. Enjoy the full interview with Michael O’Neal on the FUN podcast.

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Facebook’s Day Just Ruined Snapchat’s Year

What happens when you turn down Mark Zuckerberg’s $3 billion dollar offer. If you snapped up shares in Snapchat at their recent IPO, you might want to worry today. Facebook has rolled out Messenger Day –and it’s looking like it might be a serious Snapchat threat. Open Messenger and you’ll now see a strip of thumbnails above your contact list. Select a thumbnail and you’ll get a series of connected images and videos created by your contacts that together form a “day.” As soon as you’ve finished watching one friend’s day, the next begins. The content is only available for 24 hours, and as you create your own day, you can add filters to your images, write captions, and draw doodles. You can’t determine how long an image or a video remains visible nor can you see how many people have viewed your day but you can see who has viewed it and you restrict views to particular contacts. In short, you can do many of the things that you can already do on Snapchat. And Day is just getting started. The feature has already been tested in countries including Poland and Australia, and it’s now being rolled out worldwide on both iOS and Android, as well as on desktops. Now, this is pretty much a straight-up copy of the feature that’s turned Snapchat into a multi-billion dollar business, and when Snapchat came up with Stories it was great. But Snapchat’s audience is limited. The demographic is young and compared to the billion or so people who use Messenger, it’s also small. If you like Snapchat’s Stories but you’re already invested in Facebook, why wouldn’t you use Messenger Day to reach so many more people? It’s a move that really puts Facebook on its way towards global social media domination. Whatsapp, which Facebook owns, has status settings. Instagram, which Facebook also owns, has its own version of Stories. Now Facebook’s platform itself has a version of stories so almost everywhere you look, if you want to create temporary, visual content messaging, Facebook has the market sewn up. The move isn’t a big surprise. It was one of my predictions for 2017, and Facebook won’t be resting on its laurels. The big feature missing is the ability to post a “day” from Messenger into a public page. You can pull images and video from your device and add them to a day, and you can post the same content on Facebook, but you can’t yet take the entire day and share it to your page. Expect that to change. And custom geofilters? Facebook already has geolocation down. Seeing that monetization is one of Zuck’s Prime Directives, I would expect the ability to create paid geofilters for special events will happen within the next year. Then there’s the hardware question. While Facebook’s Oculus Rift VR glasses haven’t been a massive hit, I’d expect to see a version of Facebook Goggles sometime soon to rival Snapchat’s glasses. Facebook’s biggest advantage has always been the size of its massive user base. Everybody’s there. As long as Facebook can take features that users love on other platforms and make them available to their own users, those other platforms will always have reason to worry — and so will their shareholders. Personally, I’d like to see Snapchat succeed if for no other reason than competition breeds innovation. But there is trouble brewing.

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Top 50 Social Media Influencers of 2017

We are well into 2017 and already the lists are being released. What lists, you ask? You know… the ones that rate people for the amount of social influence they have. It’s pretty funny to not appear on some lists and be at the top of others. Ultimately, influence is something that is very difficult to measure due to the different ways people influence. While it’s always an honor to have recognition, nothing in these lists should really change what we do or how we do it. Just do you and at the end of the day, be happy with who you are and what you’ve done. The truth is that while these lists are designed with measurements in mind, there is an ulterior motive in creating them… driving traffic to the list creator’s product, service and/or site. Three years ago, I compiled a list of the Top 50 Social Media Influencers of 2014 for three reasons. 1) It’s easy to get focused on our own stuff. But I am surrounded by so many amazing people that I want to share some of them with you. Connecting awesome people with other awesome people is one of my favorite things to do. 2) I wanted to demonstrate that I could easily create a list based on my own highly scientific algorithm. Essentially, I added together the number of followers on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google +; factored in the number of likes, comments and shares on each platform; checked to see how much traffic you got to your website; and multiplied that result by the number of times you mention “bacon” in your posts. Then I toss that number in the circular bin because it doesn’t really mean anything. After going through the motions of pretending to be scientific, I use the simple formula of “X = Who Influences Me?” It’s my list, after all. 3) I wanted more traffic to my website. You’re here, so I guess it worked. Linkbait is alive and well! So here we are in 2017 and I realized that it’s time once again to provide an updated list of the people in my sphere who have influenced me, in both large and small ways. If you appeared on the 2014 list, you won’t appear here a second time. It’s not that you aren’t influential in my life. It’s that I’ve already praised you for your wonder and beauty. Don’t be greedy. If you aren’t on the 2017 list, you may have been on the 2015 or 2016 list that never got written. Do you have any idea how long it takes to compile these lists? I did, however, think about you. And I think about you every night when I lay my head on my pillow. After I eat the mint left there by my  imaginary housekeeper. Or, perhaps you’ll be on a future list. If you get your feelings hurt over not being on this list please go outside and play. I love all my friends. If you have any doubt about this, send me a message on Facebook and ask me what I think of you. I’ve got a chatbot set up to reply with “You’re #1 in my book!” and “I never stop thinking about you!” So, without further ado, here is my Top 50 Social Media Influencers of 2017 list. They are NOT in any particular order. But if Travis Wright wanted to say he was #1 in my list, I guess he could technically do so. Whatevs. I don’t care… tell people whatever you want. It’s the Internet! The bottom line is I am sharing awesome people with you. And THAT, my friends, is the point of social media. So get ready to meet some great people who influence ME in unique and special ways. You should get to know them! Let’s do this… 1. Travis Wright He’s an author. He’s a marketer. He’s a columnist. He’s a podcaster. He’s a technologist. He’s a speaker. He’s a consultant. Good grief, what doesn’t Travis do? He goes by the name T-Dub to many of his friends, but most of all he’s just a super-nice nerd who is as passionate about tech, digital and social as I am. He also likes people… especially people with a digital sense of humor. 2. Scott Smith – Are you looking for a swift kick to your attitude? Scott Smith is just the guy to deliver it! As the Chief Motivating Officer at Motivation to Move, Scott hosts the highest-rated motivational podcast in the world. His daily show has received over 20 million downloads. That’s a lot of motivation! Scott’s also a giver. I’ve experienced his kindness first-hand. 3. Vincenzo Landino Another from the millennial marketing rat pack, Vincenzo is savvy with digital and is most certainly a rising star. Along with his business partner and soon-to-be bride, Amy Schmittauer (featured in my 2014 list and affectionately known to me as Schmitty Schmitt Schmitt-Pants), Vincenzo runs AfterMarq, a broadcast & media production company. I first encountered Vincenzo on the now-defunct Blab (may it rest in peace) where we co-hosted the weekly BlabTalk Live talk show. Ah, those were the days… 4. Mark Schaefer He’s the author of multiple best-selling books including The Content Code and The Tao of Twitter (which happens to be a far more scholarly book on Twitter than my own Twitter Power). He’s also an internationally known speaker. Mark is a college educator (on faculty at Rutgers), but he’s also one of the nicest guys you could get to share a meal with. If I was able to place animal qualities on people, I’d have to put Mark in the teddy bear category. Try to hug him… you’ll see. Oh, he’s got a new book out called Known! 5. Virginia Salas Kastilio From the “Distinctly Amazing Human Being” file comes my friend Virginia. Most know her on Snapchat and in other social places as @GiniCanBreathe. She’s bold. She’s audacious. She’s entertaining. […]

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The One Most Important Thing To Do Before Hitting The Live Video Button

Why live video is a lot like radio.. Facebook has made live video incredibly easy. Open the app, hit the first icon and there below the text field is a button for live broadcasts. It’s almost rude not to use it. When you’re at a concert, when you’re watching your kid take his first steps, when you’ve just won the lottery, that button will be right there to share the moment with your friends. The number of friends who see it will be small, a fraction of your total number of Facebook contacts but you’ll get to share the moment. When you’re using live video to promote a business though, you want to reach more than the small fraction of your followers who happen to be online at the time. And you want to do more than entertain them for a few minutes. You want an audience that’s as large as possible. You want that audience to pay attention to you. And you want them to leave with a closer bond to your company and to your product. Some broadcasters are already succeeding. Take a look at Facebook’s own Live Map, and you’ll see a mixture of different videos being broadcast around the world. Some will have no more than a handful of viewers; others might have several thousand. The difference isn’t in the video itself. It’s in what happened before the video went live. The broadcasters with big audiences prepared. How To Prepare For A Live Video That preparation will have included a number of areas. WATCH VIDEO Why the Best Leaders Don’t Fix Everything Themselves MORE: Top 10 Business Plan Templates You Can Download Free Sharing the C-Suite: How to Co-Lead Your Company T-MobileView Doing Well by Doing Good The Founder of 2 Billion-Dollar Companies Just Bought the Most Expensive San Francisco Home Chicago Needs “Cooptition” to Win the Talent Wars Science Found the 5 Things That Drive Employees to Go Above and Beyond This 75-Year Harvard Study Found the 1 Secret to Leading a Fulfilling Life It’s no coincidence that the broadcasters with the largest number of viewers tend to be media channels such as radio stations and television channels. They already have large audiences and those audiences know when their favorite shows are on. The first act of preparation then is to make sure that your audiences know when you plan to go live. Broadcasting at a regular time each week is one good option but you can still make a one-off broadcast provided that people know when you’ll be going out and what you’ll be discussing. Pin the date to your Facebook feed. Remind people in the days leading up to the broadcast. Trail your show. You should also prepare what you’re going to say in that broadcast. When I worked in radio, I would spend at least as much time preparing the show as I’d spend broadcasting it. That preparation was fun too! Lay out your segments. Know what messages you’re going to share in the broadcast in the same way that a DJ knows which tracks he’s going to play, and know how you’re going to engage your audience. Live videos are more like radio call-ins than television shows. They work best when the audience joins in, asks questions, reacts and talks about the broadcast in the comments. So the preparation should also include knowing how to get that reaction from your audience. Just as a radio phone-in show will know which questions it’s going to ask to get the phone ringing, so you should also know what you want audience members to write in the comments. Finally, prepare your sign-off. Know what you want your audience to do when they click away… and make sure they know when your next broadcast will be.

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Top 10 Chatbot Marketing Influencers and Keynote Speakers You Should Follow

The tech is automated but the leaders are anything but artificial. The ever-changing landscape of digital marketing is hard to dominate, especially when it comes to chatbots. Chatbots are relatively new marketing tools, and thanks to Facebook’s adoption of tatbot, among others, they are rapidly gaining momentum. Because chatbot technology is moving so quickly, it’s critical to stay updated with the influencers who are driving change and innovation in the chatbot world. I’ve put together a list of the top 10 chatbot marketing influencers you should follow to stay up to date with new trends and techniques that will help you build a powerful chatbot marketing strategy. Most of them are also international keynote speakers. 1. Murray Newlands Murray Newlands describes himself as an entrepreneur, business advisor, speaker, and founder of Chattypeople.com. He is a frequent contributor to prominent publications, such as Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com writing extensively on the topic of chatbots. He also wrote a chatbot marketing guide. “Where 10 years ago every company needed a website and five years ago every company needed an app, now every company needs to embrace messaging with AI and chatbots.”Murray Newlands source Top 10 Best Chatbot Platform Tools to Build Chatbots for Your Business 2. Dharmesh Shah Anyone who is familiar with online marketing thought leaders will recognize Dharmesh Shah, or at least his company, Hubspot. Shah is a co-founder and CTO at Hubspot, a developer of software products to aid inbound marketing and sales. He has taken a strong stance on the importance of chatbots and was one of the driving forces behind the release of Growthbot, Hubspot’s own chatbot. 3. Matt Schlicht One of the biggest resources available for learning about chatbots is Chatbots Magazine, and its founder, Matt Schlicht, is one of the industry’s top influencers. Known as one of the best social media guys around, Schlicht has earned a reputation for founding companies specializing in chatbot creation and AI marketing, like Octane AI. He wrote “The Complete Beginner’s Guide To Chatbots” which is well worth reading. 4. Sujan Patel Sujan Patel is an entrepreneur and marketer with more than thirteen years in the field. He has helped thousands of companies boost their online traffic and sales rates. Patel has founded numerous successful companies, including WedProfit and Mailshake. He has released a number of publications through Forbes.com and Entrepreneur.com regarding chatbots, covering effective uses in marketing and an introductory guide to chatbots, among others. 5. Michael Perry Michael Perry, the founder of Kit CRM, has also made a huge impact on the world of chatbots. Kit CRM is a virtual marketing tool that focuses on conversational commerce – the same drive behind chatbots. Perry has successfully created a number of chatbots and has predicted the importance of chatbots in today’s answers-first culture. 6. Adelyn Zhou Adelyn Zhou is the co-founder and Head of Marketing at TOPBOTS, a company that offers growth-driven marketing services for companies to engage with their customers using chatbots. Zhou is also part of the Chatbot Magazine team, has published numerous blog posts on how chatbots can help small businesses, and is a co-author of the book Chatbots. 7. Bernard Marr Although he focuses on big data analytics, Bernard Marr should be on the radar for any chatbot news fiend. Marr has already made a splash in the world of chatbots by publishing an article on what questions you need to ask your chatbot to get the most significant information. The connection between big data analytics and chatbots is irrefutable, so staying tuned to what this published author and data guru has to say can make a huge difference to later interpreting your metrics. As quoted by Bernard Marr – “Artificial Intelligence is the broader concept of machines being able to carry out tasks in a way that we would consider ‘smart’.” AI is nothing but intelligence manifested by machines. And ‘chatbot’ is an exemplary example of AI. It is an AI based chat option.   source How Chatbot and GPS augment customer experience for hospitality industry 8. Ben Parr Ben parr is the co-founder of Octane AI and co-editor of Chatbots Magazine. Parr is an award-winning entrepreneur, investor, published author, and is the founder of DominateFund. He has written numerous articles about chatbots and how to successfully implement them in your marketing strategy. It is worth noting that Parr is a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and is an active member of the Octane AI team. 9. Marlene Jia Chatbots are relatively new; however, prominent publications are helping business owners understand how chatbots can help their companies. Malene Jia, in association with Adelyn Zhou, published Chatbots, a book that helps marketers build efficient bots on Facebook and other platforms. Jia is also the Head of Revenue and Operations at TOPBOTS and helps drive superior experiences for customers through chatbot technology. 10. Neil Patel Neil Patel is a renowned digital marketing guru and has covered almost every single aspect of online advertising imaginable. He has founded huge marketing entities, such as KISSmetrics and Quick Sprout, and has recently acquired Ubersuggest.io, the popular keyword research tool. Patel has predicted the ability of chatbots to take over search engines, and how they can be used as conversion-based tools rather than a self-serving tool for customers. His input and knowledge of chatbots can be of huge value to marketers of any level, as well as business owners. Keeping an eye on these leading influencers will guarantee that you are up-to-date with the best techniques and practices to create efficient chatbots that help your customers while simultaneously moving them through your sales funnel.

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How to Overcome the Fear of Public Speaking in 5 Minutes

It’s commonly believed that the greatest fear common to humans is the fear of public speaking. Surprisingly, more people are afraid of standing before an audience than of dying–though I suppose the reason many are afraid is that they believe they will die on stage, at least metaphorically. The symptoms of glossophobia can include intense anxiety leading to fight-or-flight sensations as well as physiological reactions, which may include nausea or panic attacks. It’s safe to say that reactions from all across the spectrum are quite common. But are there ways to overcome your fear and sleep well the night before you are to deliver a speech? In my 10 years as a professional speaker, I’ve experienced the gamut of emotional and physical reactions prior to taking the stage. While some have suggested that you imagine your audience being naked, I think that might actually be an unhelpful distraction. However, along the way I’ve discovered a few things that I believe may be helpful for anyone and keeps your audience fully clothed. 1. Remember that it’s not about you. It’s about your content. Unless you are already a big celebrity, people are coming to hear your content. When you stress out on how well you are going to perform, you are putting the focus on yourself rather than your audience. Remember the reason you are giving a talk. In all likelihood, it is to teach, inspire, or entertain (or some combination of the three). It’s not about you. Your audience is counting on you to deliver value. Simply give the people what they want. 2. Shake some hands before your talk. I find it calming to visit with audience members before I speak. I’ll shake hands, introduce myself and thank people for coming. The familiarity of friendly faces, warm smiles, and human contact can have a calming effect. There’s something about humanizing your audience that makes them less intimidating. Unless you are speaking to a hostile audience, odds are people are eager to hear what you have to say. 3. Keep in mind that you’re the only one who knows. While you may not have slept the night before (or for an entire week prior to your speech), your audience doesn’t know it. They are simply looking forward to what you have to share. The truth is that most people can’t tell that you are nervous or afraid. And if you do show signs of anxiety by stammering or forgetting what you were about to say, recognize that your audience is pulling for you. Most people don’t enjoy watching a train wreck. There’s nothing wrong with saying, “I forgot where I was going with this.” A polite audience member will probably gently remind you, and then you may continue. 4. It’s OK to not be perfect. Even presidents make mistakes when they speak. When they do, it often makes headlines. But no one is going to remember your mistakes. It’s OK to be human and not get it completely perfect. Relax and go with the flow. And if you do put your foot in your mouth, it’s completely appropriate and endearing to be self-deprecating about your faux pas. I find when I laugh at myself that the audience laughs with me, making it even easier to continue. 5. Audiences are made up of people just like you. Whether you’re speaking before a small group of 10 or a massive audience of 10,000, recognize that all audiences are essentially the same. They are just people, many of whom suffer from the same fear of public speaking. Applaud yourself for having the courage to overcome your fear and believe that you leave the stage having accomplished your goal. 6. Be gracious with yourself. Most people are much harder on themselves than others are with them. Go easy on yourself, physically and emotionally. Get plenty of rest the night before your talk, have a good meal, and let it go. Unless your speech is truly a matter of life or death, recognize that you are embarking on a unique experience and that you are going to give it your best. Don’t ask more of yourself than anyone would ask of you. Just be yourself and you’ll be brilliant. 7. Your passion, knowledge, and experience can carry the day. You will be speaking because you have something important to share. If you know what you are talking about, allow your passion for, and your knowledge of, your subject matter to be the driving force. Even as I hear my introduction happening, I make a conscious effort to get out of my own way so that my reason for being on stage won’t be obscured by my own needs. There’s one more thing I’ve observed from the hundreds of talks I have delivered over the years. When I look out into the audience and see blank faces staring back at me, I used to think that I had completely lost people. But what I’ve discovered is those “blank” faces are actually people locked in on me and hanging on my every word. Being invited to present to any audience is an honor and a privilege. It’s social proof that there is an interest in your expertise. Allow that privilege to help you place your fear behind you so that your audience can learn, be inspired and/or have a few laughs. I believe you’ll find it rewarding.

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What Donald Trump Taught Me About Authenticity

Know me. Like me. Trust me. Buy from me. That’s always been my motto when it comes to growing a business. When people get to know you and like you, they learn to trust you. And winning that trust is the most important part of generating sales. So if you can make everyone like you, you should be able to generate lots of sales. Marketing should be about being as pleasant as possible to as many people as possible so that they can all become customers. But it doesn’t really work that way. You can never connect with everyone, and if this election cycle has taught us anything, it’s that you can do very well not being liked by everyone. Hillary Clinton’s unfavorability ratings have been second only to one person to run for the presidency: her rival Donald Trump. While there has been a shift, his ratings have managed to peak at no less than 70 percent. At one point, up to seven out of ten people in polls have said that they don’t like him. And yet he went into the first debate neck-and-neck with Hillary Clinton. Watch footage of any one of his rallies and you’ll see thousands of people who don’t just like him; they love him. Whatever you think of Trump, his ideas, or his temperament, you can’t deny that he manages to engage his audience in a way that Hillary Clinton just doesn’t. He could have acted like her. He could have done exactly what every other politician does. He could have put on a false front and tried not to annoy anyone. But you know that the Donald Trump you see on the screen, and he’s on the screen several times every day, is the real Donald Trump. There’s nothing inauthentic about him at all. People either like him or hate him, and those that like him like him a lot. Now, Trump hasn’t actually been a builder for a long time. He’s now a brand. He gets paid for licensing his name to other people’s properties in the same way that Michael Jordan gets paid to put his name on shoes. Even though he’s such a controversial figure, his brand remains tremendously valuable. There’s a lesson there for every business and for every brand. Companies usually try to spread their net as wide as possible. They’re nice to everyone and hope that a lot of people will like them just enough. The success of Donald Trump’s brand shows that it can be possible to risk alienating people. You can turn your back on some people you might want as customers if you end up turning towards those people who really do want to be your customers. When those people feel that you’re genuinely on their side, think like them and are part of their lives, you’ll win the kind of engagement that will make it very easy for them to buy what you’re selling. You’re not going to be liked by everyone, but Donald Trump’s success has shown that authenticity and engagement beats general likeability when it comes to brand-building.

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3 Terrible Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make (and How to Avoid Them)

Michelle Mone, founder of lingerie firm Ultimo Brand International, had just finished giving a speech in front of 3,000 people in Vietnam. As the audience applauded, Nguyen Tan Phat approached the stage with a bunch of flowers. Assuming he was no older than six, Baroness Mone, as she’s known in the UK, gave him a hug, picked him up and held him in her arms for a photo op. He turned out to be a very small 22-year-old man. Oops. Few entrepreneurs will make a mistake that embarrassing but every entrepreneur makes mistakes… and some of them are really cringeworthy. Here are three facepalm moments that every business-builder encounters, and how to avoid them. 1. “Er… what announcement that’s been all over the news?” Writing on Entrepreneursenvogue.com, business coach May Busch describes walking into a big meeting expecting to talk happily about her favorite topics: coaching and leadership. The first question the company asked her was what she thought about the firm’s recent announcement, a major piece of news that had been all over the industry press. Busch, who had recently returned from vacation, had no idea what they were talking about. It wasn’t easy to recover. Entrepreneurs are always juggling a thousand different tasks. It’s easy to let one slip but every meeting has to be prepared for and even every phone call. Sometimes you’ll spend weeks putting together the information you need and sometimes you’ll just have to do a quick Google. But there’s no such thing as a no-prep chat. 2. “It’s perfect. Now we can toss it.” Entrepreneurs have to be demanding. They have to push their employees and they have to make sure that the product they launch is the best it can be. Except when they don’t. Hiten Shah, co-founder at KISSmetrics, described on BufferApp.com how he and his co-founder once blew a million bucks on a Web hosting company they didn’t launch. “We were perfectionists so we built the best thing we could without even understanding what our customers cared about,” he said. When you’re starting to build, launch with a Minimal Viable Product. You’ll get to test your market… and make sure you’ve got one before you lose a million bucks. 3. “Sure, we can do that…” If you ever want to see the minefield that is corporate hiring, you don’t need to more than browse through the section of Quora called “Who’s the worst employee you ever hired?” You’ll get to see story after story of growing businesses handicapped by fast hirings and long, slow regrets: a junior copywriter who was better at sucking up to senior managers than writing copy; a newscast teleprompt operator who couldn’t read; a new engineer who promised a client a facial recognition feature because Facebook has it. Entrepreneurs will hire a lot of people. Not all of those hires are going to work out. Give new staff time to bed in but also give them a trial period that lets you see whether they’re as good as their interview suggests. If they’re not, ditch them quick before anyone notices you’ve made a giant mistake.

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4 Skills You Must Learn Now For A Successful Career

We all learn a ton of subjects at school… and then forget most of them when we hit the job markets. Knowing how to figure out the circumference of a circle, for example, might have got us through our SATs but it doesn’t help too much when we’re building a business and doing competitor research. Whether you need to understand what your staff are doing or whether you want to show your boss that you know what you’re doing (and can do a whole lot more), here are four skills that will get you where you want to go. 1. Cloud Computing This is a big topic, but learn coding and you’ll always come out on top. On UpWork, PHP development was the skill most sought from freelancers in 2015. On LinkedIn, of the 25 most demanded skills in 2015, seventeen of them required some form of coding knowledge. And Top of the list was cloud computing. Know your Hadoop from your Hive, and you’ll never have to worry about looking for a job again. And you’ll also be able to judge the work of the highest paid employee in your company. Clearly, learning something as complex as cloud computing will take time and it might take some cash, but if you don’t need the certificate, this is the kind of skill you can teach yourself, and even for free. TutorialsPoint.com offers free lessons in Hive… though you’ll first need knowledge of Java, SQL, Hadoop and Linux. Start with Java and give it a little time every day. If John Grisham can write a bestseller while working as a lawyer you can learn a computer language while building a business or a career! 2. Marketing Campaign Management This is a bit easier. Of eight skills that weren’t related to coding on LinkedIn’s list, three were about marketing. Marketing campaign management came in third. Unlike other skills though, LinkedIn didn’t provide a link to a course on the topic which suggests that campaign management is a skill you learn by experience. If you’re running your own business, you’ll have learned the hard way how complex it can be to run a campaign over multiple channels, track the results and make adjustments. And if you’d like to be paid to run those campaigns by an employer start by selling an affiliate product. Even if you don’t make a profit with your first sale, you will have bought yourself a valuable education. 3. Marketing Communications In a 2016 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, written and verbal communication skills took up two of the five skills most demanded by employers. They even beat out a “strong work ethic” and “computer skills.” Learning how to communicate more effectively isn’t something you can learn in class. You can improve your written skills by reading more and by remembering to run everything you write through a spellcheck before hitting “Send.” And you can improve your verbal communication by understanding that different settings use different codes. Understanding that you can’t speak to a customer in the same way that you speak to a friend is a good place to start! 4. Networking Skills Career and business success depend on what you know. Then they rely on who you know. If you’re going to get on in life, you need to be able to get on with people. Again, there aren’t really any classes in improving your networking abilities (although some training centers do run them). But you can learn how to make small talk by asking questions and listening to the answers. Pay attention to your own body language as well as theirs. Remember to contact people after you’ve met them for the first time. And have confidence in yourself! Think of networking as a chance to meet people who are likely to be feeling as uncomfortable as you, open up and confide, and you’ll soon be making new friends. It’s those friends you’ll need to know when you need a new job… or a new cloud computing developer.

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The 1 Reason You Missed Out On Rent The Runway And So Many Other Multi-Million Dollar Ideas

Figure this out and you’ll be rich. The pitch would have written itself. “Netflix for Clothes” founders Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Carter Fleiss might have written on their pitchdeck, and investors would have known exactly what they were talking about. It would have worked too. When Rent The Runway finished its funding Round D at the end of 2014, investors gave the pair another $60 million to expand their warehouses, broaden their range of dresses and accessories, and bring in new customers. The investment brought the total amount of funding the two Jennifers had received to $115 million, and valued their firm at $600 million. Each retained a 13 percent stake in the company, making them both worth around $78 million. The company’s concept is simple to understand. Customers pay $129 a month to rent up to three fashion pieces at a time. They can send them back any time they want using prepaid packages, and receive the next piece on their lists. The system works in exactly the same way as Netflix’s DVD mailings worked in the days before the company started streaming. Jennifer Hyman has explained that she got the idea for the company after seeing the amount of money her sister was spending on new dresses. At a time when every party dress appears on Instagram and Facebook, it’s harder than ever for women to wear the same outfit twice. An easy way to rent outfits for special occasions–or even for daily office wear–looked like a good solution. But guys don’t feel the same pressure. No one cares if we wear the same jacket to a business event or turn up in the same suit. Heck, when Mark Zuckerberg can boast of having a closet that contains of nothing but identical grey t-shirts, it’s clear that male entrepreneurs can get away with wearing anything. So male entrepreneurs were less likely to spot what has turned out to be a $600 million business idea that’s already generating annual revenues of around $100 million. There’s a lesson there. When we’re fishing around for business ideas, it’s tempting to think about trends and market size and marketing, and all of that is important. (Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Carter Fleiss met at Harvard Business School so they also knew how to do the research and actually make things happen.) But businesses only succeed when they solve a problem and it helps when you can see that problem right in front of you. There are a lot of multi-million and even billion-dollar ideas that are growing and developing into huge companies but you didn’t think of them because it wasn’t you who needed them. But you do have problems right now whose solutions would make your life easier, cheaper or better. Identify those problems that really affect you, plan their solutions, and you too will be writing a pitch for a multi-million dollar company.

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