Mohit Tater's Blog, page 501

Best SEO Tools of 2020

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most critical components of digital marketing. Whatever the vision you have for your Singapore business, you have to include SEO in your strategy. It boosts organic traffic and also increases your ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). Many great local businesses fail in their marketing campaigns because they fail to embrace the latest SEO trends or fail to appreciate the importance of search for their businesses.

Today, SEO has evolved into a multi-pronged operation. Multiple tasks go into these campaigns from the competitor analysis, keyword research, link audits, tracking and analytics, reporting, ROI monitoring, automation of SEO, and many more. How do you integrate all these tasks for a successful search engine optimization Singapore campaign?

There are several SEO tools available to boost your efforts. Some are free, while others are premium tools customizable to suit your company’s SEO needs. This post explores some of the best SEO software that your business should consider in 2020.

Google Search Console

Google dominates the search engine market and accounts for 94% of total organic traffic. If you want to boost your SEO efforts, there’s nowhere better to start than with Google’s SEO tools. The company offers a suite of valuable tools to help businesses grow. Among these tools is Google Search Console, which is ideal if you are new to search engine marketing.

The main advantage of this console is the amount of insight it gives about your website all in one place. From your site’s performance, broken links, spammy links, spam, URL inspection tool, or the new sitemaps report, you have all the tools to monitor and report your site’s SERPs’ presence.

It is a great troubleshooting tool and also helps tackle problems hindering your SEO efforts. Your SEO agency will most likely recommend this as part of your ongoing SEO project.

SEMRush SEO Tools

Most businesses now use digital marketing agencies to achieve their marketing objectives. The best marketing and SEO Singapore agencies leverage cutting-edge software to help clients build better strategies. One of the most popular tools used to achieve this is SEMRush.

You can easily assess your rankings and also compare them to the competition. There are multiple SEO tools, such as the Domain Vs. Domain analysis feature, that compares your site to other competitors in your niche.

There are also analytics reports with metrics such as data, traffic, or even your competitors, while the On-Page SEO Checker tool gives tracks your ranking and offers tips on how to improve. Their site audit will also help optimize your site’s health. Their ‘Pro’ subscription costs $99.95 per month and gives users access to all SEO tools.

Moz SEO

If you have done some research on the best SEO tools online, you have likely come across Moz. It is one of the most popular SEO tools with regular updates to keep your campaign fresh. Their   Standard plan starts at $99 per month.

From keyword recommendations, site crawl/audit, store’s metrics, troubleshooting, to backlink analysis, there’s so much you can do with this amazing suite of tools offered by Moz. It is the tool used by professionals and any leading SEO agency in Singapore should include it in their operations.

You will get access to industry-standard metrics, keyword management, and reports, handy suggestions on page optimization, the software comes with a chat portal for users to get insightful responses. It is a powerhouse SEO suite with all the bells and whistles.

Woorank SEO Ranking Tool

Woorank offers both free and paid options for ranking analysis. It is a crucial software that any dependable SEO agency Singapore will find valuable. You can check your competitors, track and report on your marketing data, discover new keywords and identify problems with your website both in the content and technical aspect.

Problems such as duplicate content, downtime, and security issues are easy to identify with Woorank making it a valuable SEO tool in 2020.

SEO Spider Tool

This is a software application created by Screaming Frog back in 2010. It remains one of the best site crawling tools, and it is important to keep track of your site’s health. The tool can quickly perform a quick search of URLs, check for broken links, missing title tags, tags of the wrong length, duplicate meta tags and so much more.

You have the option of a free SEO Spider with basic features or a paid version of $180 per year, which includes free support and more advanced crawling features.

KWFinder: SEO Keyword Tool

Keywords are integral in SEO and the best search engine marketing agency will focus on finding the best. These experts rely on the best keyword tools, with KWFinder being among the best. This SEO tool helps you find long-tail keywords and run analysis reports on backlinks

The software also helps find local keyword research, track your site’s ranking based on specific metrics, SERP analysis, Competitor keyword research tool, and see keywords with exact search volumes. The basic package starts at $29.90 per month and the premium at $39.90 per month.

Wrapping Up

The digital market landscape in Singapore is volatile and only innovative businesses can survive. By harnessing the power of cutting-edge SEO tools such as these, you can stay ahead of the competition. These tools help you track, monitor and improve your site’s SEO performance.

The post Best SEO Tools of 2020 appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

How to Relax When Working from Home

For millions of workers across the world, working from home has quickly become the new normal. And, while working from home certainly presents a number of key advantages, it can also be quite challenging for some. Indeed, given the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s easy to see why many professionals are feeling extra stressed and worried at the moment. Thankfully, despite the less-than-ideal circumstances, it is possible to relax and relieve some of the pressure you’re feeling. Here are four smart ways to reduce stress and have more fun right now: 

Turn Off Electronics

People already used their phones and their laptops an exorbitant amount before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Now, though, many professionals spend their entire day logged on to their social media account, a news outlet, or their work assignments. It’s key to give yourself a break from this electronic usage every now and again. Shut down your laptop, turn off your phone, and breathe. Don’t spend your evenings sifting through emails or working on a project –– instead, give yourself time away from the virtual workplace. 

Exercise

It’s a fact: even mild forms of exercise can greatly enhance your mood and make you feel better. Of course, it’s possible to engage in certain exercises in your own home –– like yoga for instance. What’s more, you may also be able to exercise outside of your home, so long as you maintain a safe distance from others while you jog, walk, or run. Don’t exercise with others right now, though.

Learn a Skill

Have you always wanted to learn a particular skill, but found that you never had the time to do so? Well, this lockdown presents pros with the opportunity to better themselves and pick up valuable life knowledge. Consider sharpening your culinary skills or learning basic Japanese, for example. You’ll never have a better time to learn new abilities. 

Try Something New

Just because you’re stuck inside your house, it doesn’t mean you can’t try new things. In fact, it’s more important than ever to expand your horizons metaphorically –– since you can’t do it literally. Order a kratom sample pack and use it for an energy boost when you need it; watch a TV show you’ve never seen before; call up a new restaurant and patronize them with a carryout order. Just do something to liven up your day. 

Conclusion

Learning how to relax and unwind is a useful habit that almost all successful professionals possess. Don’t burn yourself out focusing on the negative. Instead, do your best to adopt a positive attitude and control what you can. Let the rest go!

The post How to Relax When Working from Home appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

How to Open a Home Warranty Plans Business?

Home warranty businesses are flourishing in the United States because of the kind of services that they provide—easing the financial burden of homeowners. Home appliances and systems are under constant gradual deterioration, eventually rendering them non-functional. Their cost to repairs and replacements aren’t cheap either, making homeowners leave their damaged appliances to languish around for years. Worst still, their day-to-day routine also gets disrupted. These are the reasons why homeowners in America tend to protect their homes with home warranty coverage. So, to open a home warranty plans business is quite a lucrative option for budding entrepreneurs. 

Starting a business can be an arduous task, and is even more so without the right guidance. As a newbie, you might have questions like what is covered under a home warranty, how to start a home warranty company, how much do home warranty plans cost, or just how does a home warranty insurance work? So, if you have any plans on starting one of the best home warranty companies, make sure to check out these tips to get started!

Start with a Business Plan

The first step in establishing any kind of business is to create a business plan. And it is no different when opening a home warranty plans business either. The business plan will provide a framework, direction, and prepare you for any future contingency. 

Nowadays, you can make well-organized plans using business planning software. With these, you can make thorough and accurate plans that will act as a strong and fortified foundation to your home warranty business. 

Evaluate Your Competitors

The level of competition makes or breaks your business. Hence, market research of your business competitors lets you strategize the right moves to take your home warranty business to new heights. Some of them have been in business for over 40 years, like American Home Shield, so a careful study is needed to seize that share of the pie.

Gain Insights from the Professionals

To make your home warranty plans business a big success, you must know its secrets. And there is no better way than to get them from individuals who are already into the business. However, not many business owners make their success strategies privy to ambitious beginners, especially if they happen to be in your neighborhood. 

What you can actually do is ask regional home warranty business owners outside of your geographical area to give you information that is invaluable to your emerging business. They will be all the more ready to provide great advice since they wouldn’t see you as a threat to their business. 

Benefit from Acquired Home Warranty Plans Business

The fastest way to reap profits is to acquire a home warranty business. The company would already have built a reputation and created a brand name, thereby making it easier for you to acquire customers. 

Acquiring an established business can be costlier, but in the end, the results are greater. You will have access to a big and loyal customer base, and resale value.

Franchising is Another Option to Make it Big

In a franchise, the company would have already spent a lot on the marketing efforts, thereby building a strong reputation and a customer base. You would only have to concentrate on the operations part of the business, and the higher-ups will manage the rest of the business activities. Since a name already has repute, you would have no problem in attracting a large number of consumers.

Happy Customers Mean a Successful Business

The success of your business depends on the satisfaction of your clients. If you can provide stellar customer service, something better than your competitors, your clients will be inclined to remain loyal to you. Superior customer service is a great way to set off the word-of-mouth marketing strategy. Many smaller home warranty companies have grown quickly solely due to this factor. 

Conclusion

Starting a business is a trial and error affair. So, follow these great tips to open your home warranty plans business and make it the best home warranty company ever! If you would like to get a sneak-peek into the different kinds of strategies, policies, and business offers implemented by leading competitors, visit HomeWarrantyReviews.com

The post How to Open a Home Warranty Plans Business? appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Is Really Worth Spending Money on Business Checks?

Yes! A business owner needs to know how to separate his company’s business from his personalized business.

A business owner’s employees know that they can only use business checks for company use. Even sole ownership or a small staffed company requires a way to differentiate from tracking their company’s income (earnings) and outcome (e.g. staff’s salaries); and of one’s personalized income and outcome (e.g. spendings, bills, groceries, and educational needs). They, therefore, maintain a clear delineation between a personal and business image.  

What are the differences between personal checks and business checks?

In basic terms, personalized checks are connected to the individual’s bank account, and business checks are connected to the business’s bank account. Separate your finances in order to organize your different life expenses. Business checks also demonstrate their communal, professional image. Personalized checks are the size of US paper currency, and business checks are larger. Personalized checks usually have cute designs or with a special statement. Business checks usually have a design that is simple, functional, and in keeping with a company’s professional image. The business check’s larger size allows them to display the company logo. Businesses are required to protect their documents, company, and clients from fraud, and the business checks will often have security measures, such as watermarks, void indication, chemical removing fiber, etc. Business checks can provide larger space and more lines to put company information or additional information messages; these aren’t often on personalized checks. Personalized and business checks require clear delineation between their different uses and representations. 

Why are business checks essential?

For a modern company, business checks are essential to the office and to present professional representation and legitimacy for the company. A business needs to start branding with its company name, address, and logo (which they can post their logo on their business check!) for a professional persona to their vendors and clients. It will help when they work with a bookkeeping company when tax season comes around, and to protect their company security from fraud.

What happens if the business owner uses the business earnings for their personalized expenses? 

If a business owner uses a business checking account for personal use as the sole owner of the company, it is not a crime. If their company becomes a partnership company, it can be a bad idea to use company funds for personal expenses, because you might be using your partner’s share of the profits and then ultimately dissolve the partnership.

During tax season, separate checks and bank accounts will make filing much easier. If you don’t have a separate business account, you may have difficulty persuading the IRS which are your business expenses versus your personalized expenses. The bank accounts need to be kept separate because two separate checking accounts will prevent intermingling your finances.

When can business issues become personal?

Sole ownership or a partnership business will render you and your business legally one and the same, where your business debts become your debts as well. Your partner’s and employee’s negligence will put you and your assets at risk. 

A Limited Liability Company (LLC) limits blame against you because you don’t own the company. Outside of you are the LLC’s responsibility of debt, and your assets (e.g. home and bank account) can’t be touched used to collect on business debts. Your assets are then also protected if an employee, business partner (e.g. fraud), or the business itself (e.g. bankruptcy) is sued for negligence. 

What kind of business check should I order?

To choose which type of business check you should order, you as the business owner must define the kind of company that you have and take stock of how the business works daily. For example, a business owner may need executive deskbook checks for seamless transactions and security features to protect client and company confidentiality. If someone needs a traditional handwriting check and more space for information on their checks for the company’s information, they need manual checks. For a business owner always on the go, they may need a pocketbook that offers less space, a professional protected checkbook cover, and deposit slips. Buying checks for business use requires more research from the business owner.

In conclusion, successful personal finance precedes improved business finance and a professional world of business checks. As an entrepreneur, a business check will keep your expenses recorded and finances organized, and this will save you time and stress down the road.

The post Is Really Worth Spending Money on Business Checks? appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Project Management Tips Every Manager Should Know

Managers have a lot on their plates. When you work as one, you will be responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the organization, which can include keeping track of the income made and how the employees perform on a day-to-day basis. Managers will also be in charge of the staffing and training of new employees and setting new goals for the organization.

You’ll have several responsibilities as a manager, which is why you should spend time and effort in honing your project management skills. This skill is essential because it helps managers define a realistic plan, organize chaos within the team, and encourage collaboration, making it easy for them to produce high-quality projects in less time.

Listed below are some project management tips every manager should know:

1.      Learn How To Communicate With Every Level

As a manager, you will work with different individuals in order to complete a single project. The more extensive the project is, the more people you will have to work with. Depending on the project you’re going to manage, you also have to work with individuals outside of your organization.

To ensure that you can easily complete projects with all of these individuals, learn how to communicate with every team member based on their levels. This means that if you are tasked to work with remote employees, consider looking into SEO project management tools so you can communicate with them without the need to see personally. If you’re going to work with the heads of different departments, make use of online communication channels to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

2.      Get The Right Resources Behind You

Regardless of how easy you think one project is, expect that you will still experience several roadblocks along the way. If you were tasked to come up with a robust marketing strategy for an organization, for example, you would likely experience problems that are affiliated with the changing demands of the customers or the on-going strategies implemented by the competitors.

Another project management tip to follow is to always have the right resources behind you. As a manager, you should identify the niches, experiences, and talents of the individuals who belong to your team. The uniqueness of your team members can become your ticket to solve and surpass the roadblocks you can possibly experience as you’re working on a specific project.

This process will require a lot of hard work as you will have to put your best foot forward to converse with every single team member, but this will surely be worth it in the end. Once you have successfully built a rapport with your team members, you can easily collaborate with them and get any project done on time.

3.      Formally “Kick Off” All Of Your Projects

How you handle the first meeting with your team after the project was given to you can significantly affect their motivation and engagement in completing the project. If you introduced the project to your team with low morale and insufficient details, more often than not, they won’t be interested or excited to work with you. How can they look forward to completing the project if you were not able to provide the necessary details?  Do you think they will be interested in working with you if you yourself aren’t excited to complete the project?

Make sure that none of these happen by formally kicking off your projects with all of your team members. You should make the most out of your first meeting by energizing the team, setting proper expectations, and establishing guidelines. You should also maximize the first meeting to encourage the team members to ask questions and share their insights about the projects.

4.      Hold Regular Team Meetings

Contrary to popular belief, holding regular meetings isn’t a waste of time in project management. Holding regular meetings is actually essential for the team to share information, solicit feedback, set individual timelines, and update every member involved in the project. Regular meetings are vital, especially if you are going to work with a large team.

For you to facilitate and hold effective team meetings, make sure that you follow these tips:

Always have an agenda and make sure to inform participants about these days or weeks before the meeting. Sending out the agenda ahead of time will make it very easy for the team members to set their expectations and prepare their questions for the topics to be discussed.



As a manager, make sure that you stay on track and control topics being discussed during the meeting. Avoid talking about your personal life (like how your son won against his football match or asking about how your colleague’s weekend went) in order to save time. These discussions should be done in the pantry during breaks, not during meetings when a lot of people are involved.



Take notes during the meeting, or, if you can’t do it by yourself, assign someone who will solely have this task. List down all of the important points discussed during the meeting and email all of the participants about this information.

If someone from the team has questions about the meeting or the agenda, they can easily look into this email rather than asking other people about it. The latter can delay tasks and often lead to miscommunication.

5.      Praise Your Team For Accomplishments

Human beings naturally love to feel appreciated and valued. They will be motivated to work better if other people in the team will see their efforts and are happy about their contribution. Praising a team member during one of your meetings will surely boost their morale and keep them engaged to work better with the team.

Another project management tip that every manager should follow is to never forget praising the team for their accomplishments. A simple tap in the back or congratulating them for a job well done will go a long way in ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency of your team members!

Knowledge Is Power

Project management is not an easy skill to develop, but as long as you’re willing to learn, this will gradually become innate to you. Along with your dedication and patience, this article can surely help make this process easy for you!   

The post Project Management Tips Every Manager Should Know appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

How to Prepare a Security Incident Response Plan

Cyber attacks happen every minute. You never know where criminals may strike. They can target your network, system resources, online accounts, or any other assets. In the process, they can do severe damage. The average cost of a cyber-attack now exceeds $1 million—something no business can afford in this economy. 

Incidence response is how you handle data breaches, online threats, and other security incidents. The right plan not only helps to repair the damage but also allows you to identify problems and reduce the total cost of an attack. It can also help to prevent similar threats in the future. 

When putting your incident response plan together, make sure to include these five essentials: 

1. Preparation 

Begin with a cybersecurity audit. Identify your strategic assets, potential weaknesses, and the types of threats most likely to happen to your business. 

Answer these questions to start getting a sense of what you need: 

What type of business are you in? Do you conduct financial transactions online? Do you have a physical or digital inventory of products? Where do your store employee and customer records? Who has access to your corporate network? 

As you do this, start to overhaul your approach to security. What security tools do you have in place? Do you make use of web firewalls and a VPN? 

If you have to ask “what is a VPN” or “what is a firewall,” you’re not doing enough. Click here for more information: https://nordvpn.com/what-is-a-vpn/

A VPN is a virtual private network that safeguards your internet connection and limits remote access. VPNs create an encryption tunnel for all data in transit to pass securely. Likewise, firewalls regulate traffic and block specific incoming and outgoing connections. Together, these measures protect from many types of cyber-attacks. 

2. Education 

Preparation and education go hand-in-hand. Your team needs to know how to recognize the variety of threats that exists in the digital landscape. Do they know what a phishing email looks like? What about a suspicious file attachment? 

Most data breaches happen because employees don’t have this knowledge. Therefore, training staff to avoid these prevent attacks from happening in the first place. 

If an attack does occur, what’s the next move? Above all, all staff should feel comfortable reporting unusual computer activity. The sooner you remove a threat, the less damage it can do. Create an open environment where employees feel safe sharing their mistakes. It’s better to err on the side of caution than to let these threats go uncontained. 

In case of an incident, your employees need to be ready to answer these critical questions: 

When did the event occur? Who discovered it? How was it discovered? What has been impacted? How significant is the compromise? How does it affect operations? Can you identify the point of entry? 



3. Containment 

After discovering a data breach, you may want to return everything to normal immediately. Resist this urge. You don’t want to destroy essential evidence that tells you how the offense started. It can prevent another one from happening. 

Likewise, malware can spread quickly. Deleting it may only play into the cybercriminal’s plan. 

Containment is a much more effective strategy to prevent the spread. Disconnect the infected devices from the internet asap. If you have redundancy systems in place, get them up and running. Quarantine affected devices and leave for your infosec team to diagnose and clean. 

At the same time, update and patch your systems. You need to change all user IDs and admin credentials. Furthermore, ensure multi-factor authentication is running for remote access protocols. 

4. Removal and Recovery 

Now it’s time to remove the cause of the data breach. You need to delete all malware, patch and harden systems, and apply updates. If possible, perform a clean install of your operating system for a deeper removal of threats. 

Regardless of whether you decide to remove the malware yourself or use a third-party, you must be thorough. Any trace of malware can cause you to continue losing data and increasing your liability. 

Once all systems are clean, you can get devices back into operation. Don’t rush and answer these questions: 

When can devices return to use? Have these devices been patched and tested? How long will you monitor affected systems? What tools will prevent attacks from reoccurring (i.e., intrusion detection, antimalware, etc.)? 



5. Notification 

According to Wikipedia, data breaches are security incidents that cause “intentional or unintentional release of secure or private/confidential information to an untrusted environment.” 

Privacy laws, including California’s SB1386 and the EU’s GDPR, require public notification in the event of a data breach. You must notify affected parties so they can protect themselves from identity threats of other damage caused by the breach. 

If you fail to do this, you increase your liability for damages, potentially resulting in substantial fines. Report breaches immediately, especially to your customers. It’s better to be honest than to put their safety at even greater risk. 

The post How to Prepare a Security Incident Response Plan appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

8 Qualities You Can Nurture to Become A True Leader

Leadership is a virtue, a virtue that can be cultivated with some sincere efforts. All the great leaders who have walked the face of Earth started out as an ordinary person just like you and me. But what set them apart at one point in their life was the extraordinary zeal to achieve even in the face of adversity and resistance.

Many people perceive the meteoric rise of famous leaders as luck, but as the great philosopher Seneca rightly said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Now you might be wondering what kind of preparation am I talking about, right?

Well, to be honest, there is no set blueprint for the preparation that is required of you to become a leader. However, as I have already said, leadership is a virtue, so there are certain qualities that you can actually nurture to culture this virtue.

Here are eight such qualities that can bring out the leader hidden in you!

Courage 

To start anything new needs a lot of courage, since there is always a fear of failure. If you can hold on to your visions despite all the risks involved and try to be as bold and brave as you can, you are already en-route on the paths of the greats.

Aristotle, one of the greatest philosophers of all time, had said, “You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.” I know that it is easier said than done, but to muster up your courage and to be honorable sounds like a worthy deal, doesn’t it?

Persistence 

You must have heard it before, but persistence is indeed the key to success. In the words of Chinese philosopher Confucius, “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop,” and “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential…these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.“

Decision making 

In whatever sector of life you want to excel, the moment of decision always comes upon you. It is on these decisive moments, great leaders face the hardest of challenges and create history.

In Plato’s opinion, “A good decision is based on knowledge and not numbers,” and “The beginning is the most important part of the work.” So, if you have to decide on something important, go ahead bravely and remember there is no stopping you once you have set sail!

Perfection  

You need not do a lot at once but whatever little you choose to do, do that with precision and perfection. Plato said,” Better a little which is well done, than a great deal, imperfectly.“

You cannot achieve perfection in a day. But what you can do is try to be a better version of yourself at work or life in general, to inch closer to the perfection that you have always desired to achieve. 

Also remember what Thucydides had said, “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.” So, don’t be afraid if your imperfections make way through your attempts, being brave enough to do it anyway is the first step forward.

Teamwork 

A great leader is a team player. So, along with self-development, you got to build your team spirit for a holistic way to achieve goals. 

Lao Tzu has famously said,” When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, “We did it ourselves,” and this could not have been more appropriate. So be a team player, because when the team wins, you win too.

Consistency 

If you want to be a leader, you cannot waste time being lazy or complacent about your past achievements. It’s exactly like what Lao Tzu said, “An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox.”

Being consistent is really important. Through success and failure, you need to have unwavering grit towards both. As Epictetus had said, “Make the best use of what’s in your power and take the rest as it happens.“

Focus 

“All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else.” – Plato

When your goals are clear, and you are focused on it, the path to success becomes much more perceivable. As the age-old saying goes, you can’t have your legs in two boats at the same time; being focussed on your goals is imperative.

Modesty

Your abilities are limitless. However, as Harry Truman had wisely said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”

Being down to Earth, even in the limelight of success, is the true character of a real leader. Just like failure doesn’t bother such a person, neither does success because to him /her, the glory of accomplishing work is much more critical and valuable.

Keeping this in mind, try to practice modesty in every step of your life and cultivate the character of a true leader within you!

Concluding Remarks

Great leaders are also humans with their share of mistakes and learning curves. But with diligence and perseverance, they tend to overcome all obstacles to emerge as great. 

Through all these qualities mentioned above, you, too, can become a great leader one day with the right amount of hard work and sincerity on your part. Attaining all these qualities is not an easy job, but surely not impossible either.

Lastly, always remember, Douglas MacArthur’s words about a true leader,

“A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.” 

The post 8 Qualities You Can Nurture to Become A True Leader appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Top 5 Challenger Brands to Watch in 2020

Imagination plays a vital role in brand disruption. It enables brands to upstage dominant players and change market dynamics. In 2020, the majority of challenger brands showing a great potential focus on a wide variety of consumer products. These contenders operate from various parts of the world. 

They stand out from the crowd thanks to focusing on innovation, ingenuity, and drive. These brands also demonstrate high levels of commitment. On the other hand, the term challenger brand was coined by Adam Morgan who is a talented brand consultant. 

He is the co-founder of EatBigFish, a brand consultancy agency that focuses on preparing firms to challenge the status quo in the marketplace. The agency makes it easier for brands to adapt to a fast-changing world. Hence, it is only natural to pay attention to the agency’s top picks for challenger brands for 2020.

The list incorporates many brands that are focusing on products that deal with climate change. Here are some of the best challenger brands for 2020.

1. Quip

Quip introduced an advanced electric toothbrush that brings together a subscription model similar to the Dollar Shave Club with the Apple-style designs. It comes as no surprise that the product is being billed as the Tesla of toothbrushes. The product is simple yet sleek in its design, thus making it attractive to consumers looking for a stylish toothbrush.

The subscription model covers accessories like brush heads, batteries, and other oral care products. In turn, the brand has become a prominent player in the sector. Its products attract rave reviews across the internet and get nominated for the best toothbrush title.

When it comes to subscriptions, Quip managed to enroll more than one million customers by the start of 2019. These numbers are expected to rise as the brand gains a foothold in the market.

2. WellBeing Brewing

As alcohol sales drop, some innovative brands like WellBeing Brewing are disrupting the market with non-alcoholic beer products that fit the trend. In the United States, brewers have experienced a 2.4 percent decline in overall beer volume. The changes are widely attributed to a shift toward healthier beverages.

Additionally, consumers are opting for different types of alcohol, such as hard seltzer White Claw. Estimates show that non-alcoholic beer or near beer sales will reach a staggering $25 globally by 2025. Wellbeing has positioned itself to leverage this growth by becoming the first fully non-alcoholic beer brewery.

The brand produces a quality non-alcoholic beer with rich tastes and flavor. The best part is that the product is natural, thus providing a healthy option for drinkers. It is no wonder that Wellbeing Brewing doubled its sales in 2019.

3. Lottoland

Lottoland is revolutionising the lottery industry by introducing an innovative prize insurance model for instant win games, casinos, and scratch cards. Furthermore, the brand offers the largest prizes that attract many betting enthusiasts.

Customers stand a chance of winning instant prizes that are insured by Lottoland’s insurance infrastructure. This is made possible by the Random & insured Number Generator (RiNG) technology. According to the company’s director of solutions, Lottoland is managing prize payout risk for the benefit of customers. The figures run into millions of euros.

NotCo

NotCo manufactures plant-based alternatives to mil, ice cream, and mayonnaise. It leverages machine learning to identify molecular structures from plants capable of imitating the smell, texture, and color of foods. The Chilean brand also specializes in the production of vegan foods that imitate the original.

It comes as no surprise that the firm quickly gained market in Chile with its mayonnaise products before expanding to other plant-based foods. The most fascinating aspect of the brand is that the majority of its customers are not vegan. It manages to attract consumers by developing plant-based foods that can compete with original versions of their products. 

Many consumers buy Notco products for their taste and texture. The firm is disrupting the market by changing perceptions about the practicality of plant-based foods. In the end, Notco has successfully introduced these foods to the mainstream. In the end, it has transformed a niche trend into a popular consumer option by harnessing the power of machine learning.

TomboyX

This brand is making waves in the lingerie market using a direct-to-consumer model. It specializes in underwear products for nonbinary and queer individuals. TomboyX offers a wide variety of size-inclusive and gender-neutral underwear at reasonable prices.

It captured the imagination of its target market immediately after launching on Kickstarter. TomboyX managed to raise more than $25 million in funding. It continues to meet and expectations by paying attention to customer feedback. On the other hand, inclusivity is one of its strong selling points. Millennials and Gen Z customers love the brand’s approach to business.

TomboyX introduced one of its flagship products, boxer briefs for women in response to a customer inquiry. The shopper could not find the product after searching many stores for a long time. 

The brand’s response landed a best seller. Meanwhile, its customer-centric approach is contributing to increased customer loyalty. The marketing team at the firm understands the need to connect with the customer base. 

The post Top 5 Challenger Brands to Watch in 2020 appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Learning to Mitigate Risk by Playing Games

Regardless of the field, investment is the glue that keeps your business together. It can be time, money, or connections, but you need to invest something to get something back. This is where you encounter risk, and knowing how to deal with risk is essential if you want to grow, or even start, your business. Thankfully, you can learn to mitigate risk by playing games, which is why games exist, and learn how to deal with potential loss or gain.

What most people conflict when it comes to taking a risk are courage and stupidity. These two so often look very much alike that it is hard to distinguish when one begins and when the other ends. But, there is a significant difference.

Stupidity is just rushing into anything without any prior thinking or regard to your wellbeing. Courage is the ability to act when you know it is the opportune moment and that you have a good chance of winning.

Thankfully, the best way of learning this difference is quite pleasurable. By playing games we can make a good analogy between the opportunities in our life and business, and the goals inside the game.

The Art of Risk-Taking

Knowing where there is risk is mostly science and experience, but knowing when and how to take it is much more akin to art than to anything else. There is no clear moment and lines get blurred. You need to recognize the feeling that can only be described as ‘dangling chaos’ where you know that you have found your chance.

Those who master this ability, as well as know their own skill, will be able to take almost every opportunity that presents itself to them and avoid any endeavor that looks nice on paper but is a path to disaster.

In her book of the same name, neuroscientist Kayt Sukel explains the art of risk, a subtle difference between foolishness and courage. But, for young entrepreneurs and business people, this is hard to learn, at least in the beginning.

We need to compensate for our lack of experience by using the information we take from others, as well as analogs we can make in our own life.

Use Analogs

What is the first place that comes to your mind when you think about taking a risk?

For most people, it is a casino, while some may see that some similarities exist in sports and video games. As a matter of fact, all three are games we have created exactly to be faster analogs to business and work, a microcosm of our whole life.

A simple solution like an online casino can teach you how you feel about taking a little bit of risk with the idea of winning a little bit of money. Often, they will also teach you about taking a loss.

It is quite probable that modern online casinos are even better than old brick and mortar establishments because they have clearly defined rules that mix skill and chance. They are the other side of the coin from video games, as those usually have the odds in your favor, while in the casino you need to beat them.

Start Small

Similar to a business where few people start some venture as a billionaire, you need to start small. The point isn’t to make yourself dull to risk, loss, and winning, but to understand the different emotions that come with it.

Every risk you take needs to have the desired winning, and an acceptable loss. And, the more you play with your comfort zone the more you will have that line crystalize. Once it is there, taking the risk will not incur any stress on your part, it will be a calculated risk. Fear and greed will not cloud your judgment, thus you can do the best you can.

Accept Loss

It is very easy to accept that you are a winner. Winning is not only nice objectively, but also psychologically. Taking a loss is the opposite. Even for those who have experienced it many times, it is never a nice feeling.

The goal of your gaming, gambling, or playing exercise is not to remove any sensation from losing, but to learn how to accept that feeling and push forward with the same vigor as before.

Make Parallels

The final step is to use what you have learned from games and apply them to your business.

How do the rules work, what are your options, are there any jokers you can play in your work to reduce risks and losses and increase the reward. Also, what are the things that only you bring to the table and the tricks that can only be in your sleeve?

Not understanding your line of work would make the same results as not understanding the rules of a sport you want to play. If you don’t know the rules, you don’t know the game.

Act of Perpetual Reward

This may be a point of mastery but needs to be mentioned as the final goal of any venture, both in life and in business. Every card can win.

We are wired to believe that there is always an absolute winner and an absolute loser, missing all the people in the middle. By adjusting your expectations, joined with your skill in mitigating, and accepting risk, you can make all plausible solutions work in your favor.

Invest your time and money so that even if you don’t win the grand prize you will still have more in the end than what you began with. This profit doesn’t need to be anything more than just experience, but you need the ability to take value from everything.

With this skill, your life will be a constant journey to the top.

The post Learning to Mitigate Risk by Playing Games appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

A Journey Of Entrepenurship In The CBD Oil Industry

I don’t have to say it – entrepreneurship is hard. Scratch that, it’s really hard!

You’re trying to build a business which until recently didn’t exist while fighting your demons which give you a reason to doubt your success. 

Sound familiar?

Yup, if you’ve built something before you know what I’m talking about. 

In any industry, it’s an uphill struggle to conceive an idea and then bring it to market. But, when you’re talking about the CBD oil industry, there are unique struggles you need to contend with and somehow resolve.

We asked Ahmed Mir, the founder of Nature and Bloom CBD UK, for his thoughts on the subject. This is what he had to say:

CBD is not new 

Before we dive into the industry, it’s essential to highlight CBD isn’t something which has been recently discovered. CBD stands for Cannabidiol, a compound found in hemp, a plant which has grown for millennia.

Sure, CBD oil has only recently been adopted by the masses, but it’s been a part of plant-based medicine for centuries. 

The CBD industry is in the midst of a revolution

Usually, when entrepreneurs bring a product to market, they look for the most economical route to market. 

For digitally native brands, this tactic often begins with leveraging the power of paid ads. Using the reach of industry leaders such as Google or Facebook to build an audience and then use retargeting tools along with lookalike audiences to scale the ads on Facebook. Sometimes, this is also supplemented with listings on Amazon to increase reach on autopilot through their FBA program.

Unfortunately, if you’re in the CBD industry, these strategies are not available to you. Google and Facebook both have exclusions in place for paid advertising when it comes to anything associated with CBD. Cannabidiol is also explicitly banned when it comes to Amazon. 

How come?

Well, that’s the million-dollar (probably billion actually) question. But, the crux of it is that while CBD is legal in most jurisdictions, there is significant ambiguity around quality control as the products are sold as dietary supplements.

Supplements are not subject to the same rigour of testing which pharmaceutical drugs are. Consequently, bad actors have been able to quickly jump into the market and deceive consumers through products which are not fit for resale.

You can’t blame these huge tech companies from taking a conservative outlook on the whole thing, even though in the short term they could rake it in via increased ad spend.

Strategies to market CBD 

As a result of these constraints, many business owners struggle to get their CBD business off the ground. 

Regardless of if you go to the effort of sourcing a high-quality product range, ensuring its safety and stability, if you don’t have potential customers to sell to you’re screwed.

Instead of sitting and weeping over the advertising policies for which you have no control, you need to consider the tools available at your disposal.

My three favourite approaches include:

Influencer marketing

Connect with micro-influencers who have an engaged audience in your niche, offer to gift them your product(s) in return for an Instagram story or post. 

You’ll be surprised to see the power of genuine referrals to an audience who is already familiar with your type of products. This approach will also build your organic social reach so that you can market to them for free via organic posts later. 

Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is where you optimize your website for search engines and users. In short, you do this by building out content which people resonate with and promote the article(s) to get other sites to link to you.

For this to work, you need to carry out keyword research and figure out topics which are niche relevant and that you can rank for and then create that content.

Your content needs to answer the search intent. Otherwise, users will bounce from your page never to be seen again, and Google will demote you for not being relevant. 

It’s important to realize that while SEO can trigger swarms of qualified traffic without paying for Google Ads, it takes time to work.

Give yourself 6-9 months before you complain that it doesn’t work and make sure you educate yourself on what SEO is before hiring an agency or doing it yourself.

Email Marketing 

Email marketing is the jewel in the crown and offers the highest ROI of all digital marketing methods. It’s also wholly controllable by you without the need to pay anyone else.

It helps you capture customers who got to check out but for one reason or another abandoned before making the payment (it’s common, and it sucks). In addition, you can email your subscribers with offers to tempt them to buy again and improve overall engagement. 

The latter is where you can make some serious money but first things first, you need to build an email list! 

How?

Create a lead magnet (offer something for free in exchange for an email). This could be something as simple as x% off their first order with you! 

Once you’ve started building a list, you need to actually email them too! You might laugh, but it’s common for people to do all the work of capturing new subscribers to let them sit idle.

Summary

Being a CBD entrepreneur isn’t easy, but if you want to live life on your own terms and build a business, it’s never going to be easy.

Give yourself time and be consistent in your approach. Remember it might take some time to perfect these methods and that overnight success is rarely a thing!

The post A Journey Of Entrepenurship In The CBD Oil Industry appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.