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Tag: Business Growth

  • How to Build a Business That Lasts 100 Years | Entrepreneur

    How to Build a Business That Lasts 100 Years | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Limiting your company vision to 5 or 7 years will force you to chase short-term metrics to impress investors, credit organizations and clients. The focus, however, is quite different when you have a century-long mindset and realize your company will still exist in 2122. Businesses with a 100-year vision should focus on building a solid foundation. It’s like launching a long-term space exploration ship equipped with all the supplies instead of just sending it out into space with no thought to how it will survive.

    Education-oriented organizations especially have a great deal of responsibility on their founders’ shoulders. You take nine months off from your students for the learning process and influence their career paths, which might shape their lives for the next 10, 20, 30 years, and beyond. Eventually, we are building something massive that can compete with universities on a similar level or even replace them.

    Here are several crucial strategies for building a long-term company.

    Related: Be an Innovative Leader or Risk Your Company’s Longevity

    Keep long-term goals in mind, not short-term revenue metrics

    It is crucial for companies that aim at long-term goals to focus on complex, costly processes that will pay off in the long run. Although it might take more time and money than you would otherwise spend, it is worth the effort.

    An excellent example of the short-term metrics investors monitor for an edtech company is the completion rate of the course. Although we focused on this metric since day one as an ed tech company, we are currently not meeting the benchmark. This metric would have been the priority of the company targeted to the short-term revenue, but as we aim to help people find a job, we’ve chosen not to fix it directly.

    Most adult students are employed and must pass the course at their own pace. If we were focused on metrics, we would have told our clients to finish the course in 9 months or be expelled. In contrast, we offered clients a solution tailored to their schedule instead of pushing them to complete the course faster. Rather than focusing on short-term investor metrics, we build products to suit the needs of our clients.

    Related: How Entrepreneurs Can Achieve Longevity

    Stay on top of long-term global trends

    Long-term-thinking entrepreneurs should always watch long-term global trends to prepare ahead of time or adjust their company’s direction accordingly. Here are several global trends to be aware of:

    • Automation and AI will dramatically reduce human labor: According to the new World Robotics report, an all-time high of 517,385 industrial robots were installed in factories worldwide in 2021, up 31% from the previous year, with 74% of all newly deployed industrial robots located in Asia, which has the world’s most significant industrial robot market. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report 2020, 85 million jobs might be replaced by machines by 2025.
    • Anti-globalization: In 2019, approximately 3 million migrant workers came from ASEAN countries, according to the International Labour Migration Statistics (ILMS) of the International Labour Organization. The data on ASEAN nationals going abroad for work indicates Vietnam (152,530) is the leading country among those providing data, followed by Cambodia (68,040) and Lao People’s Democratic Republic (54,091). One of the ways to address this issue can be partnering with local employers to provide students with employment opportunities within the businesses.

    For a company striving for 100-year history, it’s not wise to apply any trend right after it appears. For example, we currently don’t teach blockchain or metaverse developer professions at my company, even though the trend is emerging. There is no certainty as to what extent companies will migrate into virtual worlds nor how the adoption of the metaverse and cost reductions for wearable devices will proceed. As this will develop in the future, there’s no point in jumping on the bandwagon now if you’re not building the metaverse yourself.

    Don’t skimp on your service

    You must go the extra mile for your clients, no matter what type of business you run. It may mean spending more money and taking a greater risk, but the long-term benefits are worth it. If we talk about education, the feedback the students get is key — otherwise, they could’ve watched open-source videos.

    Another perk that costs you extra but makes the product better in the long term is helping students get employed. Refocus students are guaranteed a job or a refund at the end of the course. We do this to ensure that our graduates can find employment. For this, we assist students in their job searches, interview preparation, and application process.

    Related: 5 Tips for Improving Client Relationships

    Plan ahead for expansion

    If you have a global expansion plan, consider the development of countries, their education needs and when to begin targeting those markets. All processes are in place, and you should know the exact timing for expansion.

    Another part of long-term planning is integrating several partners and gathering information from modern tech companies on what skillsets are needed from potential employees. We have decided to invest in it from the beginning because it’s an essential step towards embracing more significant flows of students in the future.

    Related: 3 Tips for Global Business Expansion

    Antifragility

    According to Nassim Nicholas Taleb, an antifragile system becomes more resilient when exposed to stresses, shocks, volatility, noise, errors, faults, attacks or failures. It is vital to envision your company so that unfavorable events would strengthen it rather than weaken it. Antifragility is essential for a business to survive in volatile and uncertain conditions.

    One way to adhere to this philosophy is to conduct so-called debugging meetings to identify why we failed at some point and what needs to be changed. The results should be included in a “playbook,” outlining what to do and what not to do, whether it is launching a new marketing campaign or entering a new market.

    To survive storms, you need to be able to predict the bad moments and strategize accordingly. For example, as part of a strategy session, discuss the possibility of surviving a nuclear or third world war as a company. For us, the conclusion was that we would still exist but with a microservices-based architecture.

    Final words

    It’s hard to predict what the future will look like in 100 years. However, regardless of how education is delivered, it will be in demand forever. In any form, whether through the metaverse, VR, augmented reality, or any other cutting-edge technology, build the education spaceship that will explore the unknown depths of the future and improve people’s lives for decades.

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    Roman Kumar Vyas

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  • Want to Quit Your Job and Start Your Own Business? Here’s How. | Entrepreneur

    Want to Quit Your Job and Start Your Own Business? Here’s How. | Entrepreneur

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    In the throes of pandemic life, I told my husband I wanted to launch an online media training course. The next day, ads from Amy Porterfield started popping up on Instagram. That’s how I landed in Porterfield’s powerful orbit — joining millions of followers who turn to her for her business advice and products. Countless courses, newsletter emails, podcast episodes, and Clubhouse sessions later, I had a binder full of her workbooks, worksheets and downloads and launched my course a year later.

    Porterfield has been transforming the lives of entrepreneurs and business owners for more than a decade. For the past 14 years, the online marketing expert has been providing valuable insights, strategies and guidance through her engaging and informative content. Now, she’s taking her expertise to the next level with the release of her highly anticipated book, Two Weeks Notice: Find the Courage to Quit your Job, Make More Money, Work Where You Want and Change the World.

    In each chapter, Porterfield empowers readers with practical tools and actionable steps to help them create a business from scratch. Yes, that might involve creating an online course down the line but for now, Porterfield is focused on helping people who dream of leaving their jobs, walk out the corporate door and into financial freedom. She joined me from her Nashville home to talk about her eight-figure business, how you can go from employee to entrepreneur and what she does for fun. Click on the video above to watch the full interview.

    Jessica Abo: Amy, you quit your own nine-to-five job more than 10 years ago and went on to create an $85 million business. Take us back to when you were getting ready to give your notice.

    At my very last nine-to-five job, I worked with peak performance coach Tony Robbins. One day, he did a focus group and brought in a bunch of online business owners. I was the director of content, but I was brought in that day to take notes. So here I was sitting at a side table listening to all these guys around a big oak table talk about the businesses they built. They were talking about working when they wanted, where they wanted, how they wanted. They were talking about living a life on their terms. They were talking about making a lot of money and a lot of impact. In that moment, I thought, “I don’t even know who these guys are or what they’re doing, but I want a piece of it.”

    It was the first time in my life that I realized I’d never been free. I didn’t call the shots. I wasn’t my own boss. I wasn’t working when I wanted, where I wanted or how I wanted. So in that moment, I thought, “I want a piece of this, and I’m going to figure it out.”

    How long did it take from the time you sat in on that meeting until you actually gave your notice?

    It took me about a year from that moment to the day I drove out of those San Diego offices in my little white car with all the boxes packed in the back, and I drove off to start my own business.

    But in that year, I created a runway, like how am I going to quit this job with dignity and integrity, but also get ready to start my own business and figure that all out?

    What did that runway look like? What are some of the steps that people need to take to build their own runway?

    There are very specific things I did and I outlined them in my book Two Weeks Notice. The first thing is I had to get clear on my why. Because if you have a strong reason for leaving behind your job and starting your own business, your why will pick you up when your worries knock you down.

    My why was that I didn’t want a boss. I wanted freedom. I wanted to bust through that glass ceiling. I wanted to call the shots. Once I got clear on my why, then I had to choose my exit date. I wrote my exit date on a Post-it note and looked at it every single day and I asked myself, “What do I need to do today to move me closer to that date? Do I need to pick up a book? Do I need to listen to a certain podcast? Do I need to ask for advice? Do I need to get support?” Every day, I was working toward that date and starting to build my ideas for the business I wanted to create. That exit date is everything because you will not quit if you don’t have a plan.

    The next thing I did is I got really clear on my finances. I had to look at my finances and say, “How much do I really need to make each month to make ends meet?”

    Then I started a side hustle. This way I could bring in a little extra money, working on it mornings, nights and weekends. I started a side hustle to gain a little courage and bring in a little extra money in the meantime. My side hustle was really important because it was a starter idea that gave me momentum.

    Finally, I told three people: my husband, my mom and my best friend. In my book, I encourage you to only tell three people. Most people will not understand your dream of quitting a job and starting your own business. Most people, including your coworkers, will tell you all the reasons why you shouldn’t do it. Be careful who you tell.

    What roadblocks did you hit in the beginning?

    I really struggled with imposter syndrome. From the day I left my job to go out on my own, the thought was, “Who am I to be doing this? I am not smart enough.” I couldn’t even use the word entrepreneur. That was too fancy and too big for someone who had always had a nine-to-five job.

    But each time it came up for me, I kept going back to my why. Why do I want this? I want freedom. I want to call the shots. I want to build something amazing. I want to make a lot more money. So on the days that my worries and doubts knocked me down, my why would pick me back up.

    Let’s talk about the person who is unhappy in their job. How do they have the courage to give notice and how do they identify when it’s time to leave?

    This really is turning inward and asking yourself, “What do I want?” When you look around your job, and you think, “Okay, I’m underpaid and undervalued,” or sometimes people say, “I just feel ignored here. People aren’t even taking my ideas seriously,” or if you just look around and you think, “I don’t want my boss’s job. I have a desire to do bigger things in my life” you have to listen to those thoughts. The question you want to ask yourself is, “Okay, if I’m not happy here, if I want something bigger, what am I waiting for?”

    So it’s going to take courage, but also know that there are steps you can take. Two Weeks Notice is your guide to start getting a plan together.

    What are the steps that people need to take so that they know they’re building a strong foundation for the next chapter?

    We’re going to start out scrappy. We’re not going to have all the answers. You’re just going to go forward with your starter idea. So whatever that might be, here are a few things you want to think about.

    In Two Weeks Notice, I’m going to teach you how to put together an offer based on your starter idea, show you how much to charge, and how many customers you need in order to hit your goals. We’re going to break down the tools you need such as your website. There are so many resources today that you can get a website up in one or two days. I give a lot of resources in the book, especially if you’re on a budget.

    Of course, you’re going to use social media to start building up that business and I’ll show you how to do it on your terms.

    We’re also going to talk about growing an email list, your messaging, how to show up on video with confidence and how to really put yourself out there to find your ideal customer.

    Amy, give us an overview of your company today. You have 20 employees and a list of products.

    14 years in, my business looks very different from the days that I was doing social media for small businesses. That’s the point. Your business will evolve.

    But today, I have built a team that I’m so very proud of and here’s the funny thing. I teach people how to quit their jobs and start their own business. One question I get asked a lot is, “How do you keep employees if that’s what you teach people how to do?” I’ve built a business where it doesn’t feel like corporate, and that’s so important to me. Any of you that are watching right now that want to build a business, I’m sure you don’t want your business to feel like your nine-to-five job.

    So we do a four-day workweek, which is so incredibly powerful. We work Monday through Thursday, eight hours a day. We take Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. I want people to have balance in their life, and I want them to enjoy their time outside of work, so I make it a point to set up a business that way. They also have unlimited time off. I have perks in my business to make it feel very different than a nine-to-five job.

    Also, we do amazing projects, and we build really cool things, but we also make sure that we have fun in the business. We do in-person retreats since we work virtually, just to make sure we get time in each other’s proximity. The culture on my team is just as important as the students that I serve.

    What do you think young Amy Porterfield would be saying or be thinking about everything that you’ve created?

    She would say, “No way this is our life!” Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have a business this successful or get to have a team that is amazing as they are, or get to work with the people that I get to work with. My life is beyond my wildest dreams, and that is why I do what I do.

    I know I am not special. I want to help other people leave their nine-to-five job, start their own business, and one day tell me, “Amy, my life is beyond my wildest dreams.” There’s a whole other world waiting for you beyond the nine-to-five, and I want to help more people realize this.

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    Jessica Abo

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  • How to Sell Your Business for 10x or More

    How to Sell Your Business for 10x or More

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Every entrepreneur dreams of funding their freedom by one day selling their business for 10 to 20x multiples or more. Unfortunately, selling for multiple valuations is not as common as we all wish it was. We know it’s possible because we’ve seen it happen, but it’s the exception, not the rule.

    So what’s the secret? What makes a business achieve that level of success?

    As an entrepreneur and a coach to my fellow entrepreneurs, I have had countless conversations on this subject. After an intriguing meeting with my friend Tom Lambotte, founder of OneDayWorkWeek.com, I now know the secret is to establish processes and systems that allow the business to run smoothly without the founder in place.

    When it comes time to sell, the multiples will be dismal if the business is highly dependent on you to run it. If the business is self-running, the payoff has the potential to be exponential.

    There’s a bonus to this strategy: You get more freedom before selling the business. You get to work in your zone of genius and enjoy downtime and family time away from the business without guilt.

    Related: How to 10X Your Business, Income, and Life

    You may be laughing out loud now at the concept of a self-running business and a one-day workweek. But Lambotte has actually done it and believes every business can operate this way.

    Here are six steps with implementable tools for creating a self-running business.

    1. Vision design

    Begin with the end in mind. The essential first step is establishing a clear vision of your long-term personal and business goals and your company’s core values. Then you can break down your goals into annual goals and monthly goals.

    Taking the time to establish your goals and reflect on your values is especially important for founders who have more business coming in than they can handle and spend most of their time putting out fires.

    Related: Your Vision Doesn’t Matter Unless You Act on It

    2. Diagnose and track

    Get crystal clear on your biggest challenges and problems and the most important success factors of your business. Make changes where necessary. This step most often requires the objective perspective of a skilled outsider.

    Related: Asking For Help Is Good For You and Your Business

    3. The right team

    You must build a team of A-plus players united around your well-defined goals and values. You can do this by hiring for skill and aligning with company culture. Build systems so that you are always recruiting and easily attracting quality hires and so that you can train and onboard with ease. Additionally, if you’re a founder or CEO working in the nitty-gritty, day-to-day aspects of your business, you either need a COO, implementor and executive assistant, or you need to get effective people in those positions.

    4. Process hub

    A lack of well-defined processes pulls the leader into every aspect of the business. Identify your core processes, keeping in mind that in most businesses, around 20% of the processes create 80% of the results.

    After identifying them, document them well and ensure they are implemented. This is how you create self-replicating team members.

    5. Tech return-on-investment multiplier

    Leveraging your technology is the secret sauce that can free up time for you and your employees. Are there features or automations in your current software that could save you 10 minutes daily? That’s 40 hours a year.

    When everyone on your team seeks out efficient processes, you can accomplish more without hiring more people. A motivator for efficiency is profits, which equals raises. If you don’t know how to leverage your technology, get the help you need.

    6. Velocity engine

    When you have the right systems in place, it’s time to get your meeting structure and learn how to run effective meetings. It’s also time to teach your team members how to plan their weeks. With all these components in place, your velocity engine will run smoothly, and you’ll be free to work on your business, not in it, one day a week.

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    Mike Koenigs

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  • 7 Crucial Ways To Scale Your Startup or Business

    7 Crucial Ways To Scale Your Startup or Business

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Did you know that Quibi launched in April 2020 and imploded six months later? It shut down in October 2020, despite receiving funding of $1.75 billion. This article should motivate others to start scaling, so why did I start so dismally?

    Entrepreneurs want to scale, but not all businesses are ready for scaling. Some startups never make it big, so first, analyze if your business is prepared to scale up.

    Related: 4 Keys to Grow and Scale Your Startup

    3 telltale signs you are ready to scale

    1. You meet and exceed business targets: As a new business, your sales forecasts and action plans cannot predict how your business fares. Use exact time frames, expenses and average revenue for accurate sales predictions and increased profitability. Document met (and exceeded) targets to assess your statistical data. Next, set attainable, higher goals; if you still beat those, it may be time to scale.

    2. Your long-term business goals are challenging: If you are meeting revenue targets, why would the long-term goal of increasing profits be an issue? Your monthly returns may be great because you are fulfilling existing demand. Your long-term success may seem challenging because you currently lack people or resources. Refusing sales orders as your demand increases makes extended goals look challenging. This lack indicates that your business is growing quicker than you expected.

    3. Your supply is insufficient for your demand: Rising demand for your products or services is precisely what you aimed for, right? You will lose customers if you lack inventory, employees, or time to keep up with surging demand. The hype and brand image you build will also dissipate. Your revenue and expansion depend on your customer base. Improving customer handling ensures that they remain satisfied with your brand. If your startup is ready to grow, reinforce your infrastructure first.

    Related: How to Know When It’s the Right Time to Scale Your Business

    Successfully scaling a startup

    Entrepreneurs and business owners who scale up earn higher revenue at lower investments. Effective scaling improves your profit margin and increases revenue while reducing costs. Once you have determined that you are ready, the next question is how to scale your business. Below are seven ways you can successfully scale your startup.

    Data helps predict the resources required to scale. While scaling, it is crucial to maintain productivity and efficiency. A successful business handles spikes in workflows without losses like employee turnover. The following strategies make scaling up less stressful and improve efficiency and productivity.

    1. Create a business plan

    Create a durable strategy and include a monthly sales projection and milestone deadlines. List your target audience, ways to approach them and marketing strategies for conversions. These guidelines will help you track your progress.

    Do not forget to log known and expected expenses. Your current expenditure will be the baseline to measure how much it will cost to scale up. Make sure you document all the relevant details, or you may run into cash flow problems.

    Related: 7 Steps to a Perfectly Written Business Plan

    2. Build a team

    Hire employees or contractors, or embrace a franchise model as your operation scales. Work towards developing a cohesive team of people with diverse skill sets and talent.

    Inform your team members about all expected goals and objectives. Look after your team, and encourage regular meetings to understand their pain points. Brief them on key performance indicators to improve their performance. Do not foster employee burnout by expecting employees to take on added roles as you grow.

    3. Reduce costs of products or services

    Reduce material costs and buy used equipment. Hire inexpensive labor and reduce wastage. Compare vendor services and choose the most cost-effective ones. Use effective online marketing strategies that are often free.

    Negotiate for lowered rent or equipment expenses with vendors. Ask shippers for special rates to reduce shipping charges. Find ways to lower energy consumption and switch to green energy, which will cost less in the long run.

    Related: 4 Smart Ways to Reduce Costs Starting Right Now

    4. Optimize your product (or service) for buyers

    Identify your target market and learn how to reach and sell to them before you scale. Keep building your brand image on established online platforms. Create value additives, such as blogs, DIY articles, press releases and industry publications. Ask customers for reviews to build credibility.

    Track sources you get the most traction from to identify and fix issues in your lead funnel. Use the money saved by reducing costs to augment your product or service. Invest in customer service and functionality improvements, add new features and train your employees.

    5. Streamline processes

    Processes and procedures should be in place before companies scale up. Break tasks down and assign priorities. Automate because it saves you time and money and boosts employee productivity.

    Automated billing invoices your customers or adds any applicable surcharges. Automated customer support boosts your customer experience.

    Related: Want to Streamline Your Life? Get a System.

    6. Assess finances and funding

    Scaling costs money. It uses lesser investment but yields better returns. Scaling by using only reinvested profits may be difficult. You may choose to bootstrap to be self-sufficient, but that is not always possible.

    Apply for a business loan or line of credit from banks or lenders, or approach investors to fund your growth. The money you borrow will cost less than equity if you manage repayments well. Carefully choose repayment schedules, interest rates or investor control options.

    7. Improve your marketing

    Small businesses often rely on referrals or free online social media campaigns. You may need to supplement your marketing efforts as you scale.

    Focus on organic marketing channels such as search engine optimization and content marketing. Optimize your campaigns to control budget spending if you run paid campaigns on any platform, and set realistic goals to track campaign performance.

    Related: 10 Marketing Strategies to Fuel Your Business Growth

    Conclusion

    Any business growth requires elaborate planning for short-term and long-term business goals. These goals will guide you on the need for investors, recruitment and automation and their relevant solutions. Scaling is attractive because of its returns, but you will face challenges.

    Stay efficient and avoid errors by keeping data and processes streamlined. Increased customer retention helps; use your customers’ feedback and suggestions for improvement. You can do this.

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    Yasin Altaf

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  • 8 Secrets to Business Success

    8 Secrets to Business Success

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Yearly small business growth takes a vision and a plan. You need to envision where you’re going and develop a step-by-step guide to get there. Most of the time, growing your business requires doing things a bit differently.

    Many entrepreneurs get so bogged down in day-to-day operations that their growth goals become a distant memory. You may look back in Q3 and realize that what would have been possible if you started in Q1 may not be feasible this year at all. Avoid this scenario by understanding your goals and setting a path toward growth.

    Here’s what you should do differently to catalyze small business growth.

    1. Set 3-5 goals for the year

    Always start with goals. Set three to five overarching goals for the year with detailed steps on how you will achieve each one. Break down the plan by quarter. Assign due dates and add them to your calendar. Make room in your schedule to prioritize each step.

    Building a digestible structure helps you achieve your goals systematically instead of having them all on your plate at once, which might end up overwhelming and demotivating. Allow your team to assist with bringing your goals to completion. Share due dates on when each step will be finalized each quarter.

    Related: 7 Steps to Achieving Any Goal in Life

    2. Be transparent with your team

    Bring your team into the process. Be transparent about what you aim to achieve this year and how you plan to get there. By sharing your vision, your team gains visibility into their roles in accomplishing each goal. This enables collaboration and helps your team feel involved in what the business achieves.

    Further involve them by asking for input and ideas. You might be surprised by how helpful their perspectives can be. Stay open to recommendations as long as they point to more efficient strategies or better solutions.

    Related: 5 Things Preventing You From Being Transparent

    3. Get to know your customers or clients

    Be creative in getting to know your customers or clients. Send surveys and check in personally. Share in their wins as often as you can. Go beyond merely following them on social media and reposting content. Surprise and delight them by sharing their goals, growth and other exciting news they may share.

    Offering special attention to your clients enables them to envision a strong, long-term partnership with you. That mindset leads to raving fans who sing your praises and help grow your brand.

    4. Challenge yourself

    Challenge yourself each week to be 1% better. Reaching for that small 1%, even broken down over the year, will enormously impact your success. Think about continuous, mindful and meaningful improvements. Address your weaknesses and fortify your strengths. Make your impact through small wins over time.

    Related: 12 Actions You Can Take to Become a Better Person and a Better Leader

    5. Do what you love

    Determine what you love and do more of it — in business and life. This keeps you motivated and combats burnout. For example, traveling will be at the top of my list this year. With careful planning, a workcation — or an extended stay vacation with a mix of fun and work — is one of my main priorities and a practice worth following.

    Find what you enjoy (i.e., a big city, ocean, etc.) and take a workcation as part of your upcoming plans for the year. You will return re-energized and ready to tackle the road ahead. Plus, you more than likely have new business ideas that you discovered while away from your business’s day-to-day activities and stresses.

    6. Practice listening

    You gain so much more from conversations if you simply learn how to listen. So often, leaders listen to respond as opposed to genuinely listening to what is being said. In doing so, they miss out on subtext and depth in the conversation, especially since much communication is nonverbal.

    When you focus on listening, you gain a more accurate sense of what is being said and why it matters. And truly, doesn’t it feel great when you know you are being heard?

    Related: How to Listen to Your Employees

    7. Find a mentor or coach

    Find a mentor or coach. More specifically, find someone in your industry that you admire because they perform better than you in your space. They will help you develop better strategies and overcome challenges.

    A mentor or coach will provide a learning experience, offer a bird’s eye view of your company and help you reach the next level. Working with someone who understands your challenges and has risen above them can be priceless.

    8. Set your goals high

    Knowing what is truly possible, set your goals high. As an accidental entrepreneur, if you had told me 11 years ago that my business would grow to a more than two million dollar business, it would have been hard to imagine — it would have felt crazy.

    With hard work, delegation, a dedicated co-founder and a team that supports us, it is now our reality. We continue to put goals and systems into place to sustain and multiply this growth.

    Follow these secrets to success to make 2023 a standout year for your business. Remember, success is achieved in your personal life as well as your professional life. Be sure to enjoy the entrepreneurial journey along the way.

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    Lauren Gall

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  • Your Company’s Responsible Guide to Staying Profitable in a Recession

    Your Company’s Responsible Guide to Staying Profitable in a Recession

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The recent trend of easy money and exorbitant valuations has skidded to a halt amid recent economic volatility. Understandably, many companies rode that wave as long as they could, but in doing so many prioritized growth over sustainability and sound leadership. Layoffs continue to ripple through the tech ecosystem, so employees both in this sector and elsewhere are feeling the consequences.

    Having to let go of staff members is all but unavoidable in a company’s lifecycle, but there is always more that can be done to keep businesses afloat while preserving morale. Strategies can include responsible budgetary decision-making, thoughtful and prudent responses to external pressures and transparent dialogue with employees, to name a few. Such actions can help companies remain healthy, productive and profitable, even as they navigate challenging waters.

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    Jillian Goldberg

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  • 5 Traits Fast-Growing Companies Have in Common

    5 Traits Fast-Growing Companies Have in Common

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Today’s marketplace is increasingly competitive. Every entrepreneur and company strives to be an industry leader and develop the latest and greatest innovations to disrupt the market and best position themselves. The road to success is often not straightforward, and many companies fail to achieve the necessary goals. But why do some ventures realize strong success and rapid growth while others do not?

    Common traits are shared among many of the world’s fastest-growing companies that others can adopt to help increase their growth and differentiate themselves from the competition.

    Here’s how they excel within the market:

    1. Innovate new products and services with clear strategic intent

    In a constantly changing environment, it is essential to understand and adapt to new consumer trends. The most successful companies understand the firm’s strategic purpose and effectively develop an innovation agenda, often with strong novel combinations of products and services. They go to market with the latest “must haves” for their customers, often establishing a competitive advantage.

    Studies have demonstrated the positive impact that product and service innovation can have on a company’s top and bottom line trajectory. Hopper, a travel booking site, has focused on innovating and developing their app and cloud technologies. Now, you can book flights, hotels, rental cars, and homes in one seamless transaction. Hopper complements their travel products with peace-of-mind services, such as price reductions, freezes, cancelations and a premium VIP experience.

    The company’s strategic intent is clear — to be the most seamless, convenient, and price-competitive travel portal on the market, especially for first-time users. This committed effort has attracted a $96 million investment from Capital One Travel “to accelerate the company’s growth on several fronts,” following $170 million in fundraising garnered in 2021.

    Related: Continue to Innovate Your Products, or Die a Slow Death

    2. Thoughtfully explore new business arenas beyond their core

    Companies need to reinvent themselves and expand into new arenas to grow. Consumers’ needs are constantly changing, and high-growth companies excel at identifying new markets to move into based on new consumer behaviors. However, new business arenas are inherently more risky and costly to explore because of the distance from their core. Hence the common question: How much attention should one devote to speculative areas while also maintaining and improving core business? The answer is a thoughtful exploration through sequential steps that build on each other and accumulate to drive real transformation.

    Roku Inc.’s business strategy illustrates this. Twenty years ago, Roku became an add-on for existing television HDMI ports. In 2007 Netflix chose not to build its own hardware and instead invested in a partnership with Roku, setting in motion Roku’s path. The company then launched a service allowing advertisers to serve ads to Roku users, followed by the launch of the Roku Channel, and in 2014, they released their first Smart TV. This is a progression of incremental well-sequenced steps, stretching the company beyond its core yet setting the foundation for real transformation.

    3. Invest in their people wholeheartedly

    Employees are the engine of any business. They represent your brand to customers often better than anyone else and express the company’s culture in a critical way for attracting new talent. Leading companies provide their employees with opportunities to learn new skills and further their professional development, foster an inclusive environment of respect and collaboration, and provide flexible working arrangements. This translates to high employee retention, increased productivity, and a strong reputation for the firm.

    This is why companies like ClickUp invest in their people. They prioritized new workspaces with employees front of mind. New offices include open floor plans, standing desks, rooftop terraces, and gyms. Meanwhile, Airbnb has experienced over one million new prospects visiting their job portal since announcing their “permanent work from everywhere” policy. Additionally, LinkedIn offers a $2,000/year wellness benefit for people to expense on activities related to physical or mental well-being.

    Related: To Grow Your Business Start Focusing on Your Employees

    4. Carefully monitor and adapt to new technologies

    Every company must have the capacity to adapt to new technology or be left behind. Furthermore, companies can raise productivity and cut costs by tailoring technology to their needs.

    Campbell Soup, the iconic brand that has brought its soup products to American dinner tables for nearly three centuries, is leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to inform its product development better. According to FoodDive, Campbell’s “Insights Engine” uses AI to scan billions of data points that their innovation team then uses to predict where a strong trend is emerging, if it will last, and if any of their brands are positioned to exploit it. This process has informed the launch of oat milk-based soups and FlavorUp, a cooking concentrate that enhances food flavor, pushing new products to account for 2% of yearly net sales with a line of sight to reach 3.5% by 2025.

    Related: How to Get Your Company to Adapt to New Technologies

    5. Focus on customer experience and truly understand their customers

    According to Forrester, companies that lead in customer experience outperform laggards by nearly 84%! With the rise of digitization, the most innovative companies are providing more tailored support with 24/7 customer service. Both parties benefit by surpassing potential or existing consumers’ expectations: customers have a positive experience, and companies grow.

    L’Oreal dialed up its focus on people with limited mobility by launching its novel HAPTA make-up applicator at CES 2023. The applicator uses “built-in smart motion controls” and “customizable attachments” to increase the user’s range of motion, helping the customer open product packaging and self-apply make-up precisely.

    Companies that continue to innovate their products and services, explore new business arenas, invest in their people, adapt to new technologies, and focus on the customer experience place themselves in a position to succeed in 2023 and beyond.

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    Francesco Fazio

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  • 5 Crucial Predictions For Retail in 2023

    5 Crucial Predictions For Retail in 2023

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    With 2023 here, retailers geared up to make the most of the festive season with discount deals, slashed prices, free deliveries, bonus packages and more. That said, there’s an elephant in the room this season — and that’s the uncertainty about the consumer market. Recent headlines about inflation have changed most shoppers’ buying habits this year. Compared to 2021, one in four Americans (22%) is spending less on gifts this year. Conversations on social media around inflation relating to holiday shopping have increased by 35%.

    Further complicating the issue was the disruption of global supply chains caused by the pandemic. Increased demand for items led to skyrocketing prices. With customers now less willing to pay higher prices for goods, retailers face a potential decline in revenue, sales and profit margins. Retailers looking to minimize the impact of inflation, changing customer behaviors and an unstable market on their business must employ strategies to create an engaging and immersive shopping experience.

    Here are five predictions to help you meet your customers’ needs — and keep your business competitive.

    Related: How Compliance is Exposing the Fragility of the Global Supply Chain

    1. Increased adoption of an omnichannel approach

    A seamless shopping experience is quickly becoming the order of the day as customers want the flexibility of combining shopping on their phones with shopping at brick-and-mortar locations. The recent Shopify report proves this, with 54% of consumers saying they’re likely to look at a product online and buy it in-store — and vice-versa.

    Sephora is an excellent example of a company already adopting this approach. Customers can visit the brand’s website to add products to their carts and visit the store to try on their items before buying.

    To take advantage of the omnichannel experience, retailers should create a social presence that retains the brand identity across multiple channels. This includes messaging, services, pricing and overall customer service.

    Doing this well can make it easier to understand and predict customer behavior. You can tailor your consumers’ experiences to match your marketing and sales needs.

    Related: Future Of Retail Is Omnichannel

    2. Hyperpersonalization will skyrocket

    With shoppers now spending cautiously, typical personalization tactics are becoming ineffective in driving sales. Gone are the days of generic marketing emails with automated first-name snippets.

    Now, customers want purchases to fit their needs which requires brands to make customers feel more connected to the brand — which can increase loyalty and retention. According to a McKinsey survey, 71% of customers expect companies to personalize their experience, and 76% are frustrated when they don’t find it. Creating hyper-specific recommendations based on customers’ browsing history, past purchases, location, gender and age — increases the likelihood of making more sales and generating 40% more revenue.

    3. AI redefines the shopping experience

    The introduction of DALLE-2, LensAI and, most recently — ChatGPT — has sparked discussions around their use in retail. ChatGPT is an AI with nearly accurate responses to user queries—which can be used for conversational commerce. For example, in terms of personalized recommendations, AI can accurately recommend products using customer data. This helps the customer make an informed decision, driving sales.

    Regarding customer service across different channels, AI can easily give users the same experience by providing support and assistance at a far larger scale. While artificial intelligence is already in play in most parts of the retail industry, its adoption in 2023 will redefine the entire shopping experience.

    Related: Princeton Student Builds ChatGPT Detection App to Fight AI Plagiarism

    4. Data privacy laws will become stricter

    The debate on data privacy will likely become more heated in the next year, with the European Union proposing stricter regulations via GDPR. Under GDPR, user consent plays a big role in collecting sensitive and non-sensitive data. This means retailers and advertisers need to be transparent in using user’s personal data and offer consumers the option to delete or erase their data.

    The problem with the GDPR: Advertisers need user data to serve targeted ads. Retailers need advertisers to market their goods. Now, with laws becoming stricter in collecting this data, advertising prices are expected to increase.

    5. A switch to organic marketing

    The recent rise in advertising costs has pushed most retailers over the edge. Why? The current ad space price is double (with some triple) what it used to be. This means retailers are paying more to reach the same audience—with no estimated profitability, sales or even revenue guarantee.

    As a result, many brands are now moving toward organic marketing and capitalizing on its benefits. SEO, social media, content marketing and influencer partnerships are all tactics to ramp up in 2023. Using organic marketing in retail is a strategic approach that can help you build trust and maintain long-term customer relationships.

    Looking ahead, retailers are facing ups and downs in the market. Finding ways to appeal to customers’ needs is vital to staying afloat — and profitable. The strategies we’ve highlighted here will help you along the way while preparing you for what’s to come.

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    Jacob Loveless

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  • Securing Venture Capital for Your Business Means Getting Back to Basics

    Securing Venture Capital for Your Business Means Getting Back to Basics

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    It’s tough out there for businesses looking to raise money. After several record-breaking years, startups saw funding cut in half in the third quarter of 2022, according to Crunchbase News. Even as many of us wonder if we’ve hit bottom, there’s reason to be hopeful that dollars in reserve could boost prospects in 2023. Whatever the market holds, venture capital funding will likely look different in the coming years, with VCs prioritizing evidence of focused, sustainable growth in the companies they back.

    Simply put: In this environment, it’s about going back to basics.

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    Douglas Wilber

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  • How Retailers Can Ensure They’re Setup for Success This Holiday Season

    How Retailers Can Ensure They’re Setup for Success This Holiday Season

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Over the last couple of years, Christmas in July has taken on a new meaning for retailers — what once was an opportunity to offer a summer sale has now transformed into a critical time to prepare for the upcoming holiday shopping season.

    But the past few holiday shopping seasons have proven to be anything but ordinary. The past two years, the pandemic caused supply chain delays resulting in backlogs and undelivered gifts, a challenge for retailers and a lesson learned for consumers. As a result, this year, consumers began their holiday shopping earlier to avoid supply chain bottlenecks and to combat high inflation — with 25% of consumers starting as early as August or September. Additionally, the pandemic accelerated the online shopping trend, with new data suggesting that 24.5% of this year’s total retail holiday sales will come from online orders.

    With all of this in mind, some (myself included) may argue that July may be too late for retailers to start their holiday season planning, especially given that the holiday season can account for up to 30% of retailers’ annual sales.

    Related: July Is Just Early Enough to Start Planning for Holiday Selling

    So, how can retailers adapt their strategies to focus on holiday season planning throughout the entire year (as opposed to just the second half) to cover all their bases, increase revenue and prepare for the unexpected?

    Prioritize cash flow planning

    Consumers are currently facing the highest inflation rates in nearly 40 years and a halt in government stimulus payments, which in turn impacts how they approach their holiday shopping (e.g., how much they’re planning to spend, through what channels, etc.).

    As a result, small business retailers are entering a challenging and unpredictable time. To mitigate this uncertainty, they must look internally and assess their cash flow well in advance of the holiday season in order to be best prepared for what’s ahead.

    The most effective way retailers can approach this is by creating different cash flow scenarios early in the year that map out the business’ best-case scenario, worst-case scenario and most likely scenario for how the holiday season will pan out. Accounting for these three scenarios can help retailers create a plan of action for how they’ll tackle any challenges and how they’ll activate each scenario. Proper planning gives business owners the confidence needed to forge forward by removing ambiguity and unexpected situations (e.g., not having enough cash on hand, supply chain delays) come the most critical time of year.

    Whether you’re a big box retailer or a local mom-and-pop shop, it’s important to have a full understanding of your cash flow positioning year-round in order to make key business decisions and plan for various scenarios. For small businesses, leaning into technology such as Xero, a cloud-based accounting software platform, allows small business owners to keep track of their cash flow across the customer journey. Keeping track of this data in real-time can help retailers see their full cash position at any point in the year, which can help contribute to their holiday planning strategies.

    An important question all retailers should be asking themselves early in the planning process is: How will my product/service make out if the economy dips into a recession and budgets get tighter? Where does my product/service sit on the hierarchy of needs? If you’re a retailer selling non-essential items (e.g., jewelry, home decor) your planning strategy may look different than if you’re selling essential items like groceries. Having an understanding of your product and consumer purchase patterns will allow you to assess strategies such as how to price your product, how to manage the supply chain, how to effectively market the product/service and beyond.

    As retailers start their holiday planning earlier in the year, what factors should they consider during the planning process?

    Return policies

    According to the National Retail Federation, $218 billion worth of online purchases were returned in 2021 — more than double the year before. The uptick in returns is likely due to retailers offering more lenient return policies during the pandemic as they sought out creative solutions to address in-store closures/restrictions.

    Two years later, retailers (especially small businesses) are now facing higher costs for labor and shipping due to persistent inflation, requiring them to look inward for alternative ways to reduce costs (which for a lot of retailers is shaping up to include changes to generous return policies).

    My advice: Retailers should continue to offer lenient return policies around the holidays, including keeping the return window at least 30 days (in-person and online) and allowing for online-only purchases to be returned in stores. Keeping the window shorter (but still allowing for returns) can help alleviate the impact returns have on the beginning of the year’s cash flow.

    Supply chain

    Worldwide supply chain constraints have had a lasting impact on retail operations. If we’ve learned one thing from these challenges, it’s the importance of planning.

    Having an adequate supply chain strategy in place will reduce the risk of overspending on unnecessary items and the risk of running out of supply for highly sought items. Ordering inventory early in the year can ensure you have adequate stock for top-selling items when the holiday season rolls around. Not having a bestselling product available often means the product will get substituted by the best alternative.

    My advice: Consumer data is your best friend. Properly tracking and utilizing this data can help you have a better understanding of your consumers and their purchase patterns, and which products will likely be in high demand during the holidays (for inventory planning purposes).

    Related: Think It’s Too Early to Strategize for Holiday Ecommerce Sales? Think Again.

    Labor market

    A tight labor market and rising labor costs continue to cause challenges during the holiday hiring season. Failing to meet hiring goals can eventually lead to a loss in sales due to not having enough staff to help ensure shipments, inventory and in-person sales are accounted for.

    My advice: Retailers should consider revamping recruiting strategies, raising wages, offering flexible schedules and extending benefits in order to attract new or seasonal hires. For retailers who are rethinking their reliance on seasonal workers, consider more appealing offerings for regular staff to take on extra hours.

    Consumer behavior

    The current economic climate has impacted the way consumers approach brand loyalty, with many looking to shop for the best deal, even if it’s not through their preferred retailer. As economic uncertainty persists, consumers are experiencing behavioral shifts.

    My advice: Retailers should focus on loyalty strategies to reward customers for shopping at their stores (e.g., offering exclusive deals to loyalty members or offering a point system for each dollar spent rewarding customers down the line with credit or a gift). Retailers can also draw in new customers by offering bonus rewards for signing up for the loyalty program that encourage them to return to the store. Creating a connected omnichannel experience where the physical and online stores sync is also a big draw for consumers.

    Adequate planning and forecasting throughout the year is the foolproof way to ensure your business is best positioned for the most wonderful time of year. By preparing for the upcoming holiday season year-round as opposed to just in the second half of the year, retailers can directly apply lessons learned from the previous year, effectively plan for various scenarios based on different external factors (i.e., inflation) and get a head start on competitors.

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    Ben Richmond

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  • How to Produce Quality Competitive Intelligence

    How to Produce Quality Competitive Intelligence

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Competitive intelligence, or CI, is a crucial component of business strategy. It helps you understand your competitors, identify new opportunities and better predict market trends.

    Competitive intelligence is a continuous process, not a one-off briefing document. It is also not just about the competition. It also includes insights into your client and their needs, which can help them to get ahead of the game in their industry. You’ll be able to anticipate trends and opportunities before they happen, giving your clients a competitive advantage over their competitors and allowing them to grow their business faster than those who don’t have access to this kind of information.

    Related: Your Business is Failing Because You Have a Bad Strategy. Here Are 5 Hacks for the Perfect Business Strategy

    Don’t rely on what you think your clients or competitors want

    We often assume that we know what our clients or competitors want — this is a mistake. It’s easy to do this when you’re working with a firm from a similar industry, but it’s important to remember that every client has unique needs and interests.

    You should always start by asking questions about the business objectives of your client or competitor. These questions will give you insight into what they are trying to accomplish and how they hope to achieve it — information that can be invaluable when crafting reports for them in the future.

    Gain other perspectives

    There are four primary groups you need to speak with:

    • Users of your product or service, including current and former users. They can tell you how they use it, why they like it or don’t. They can also give insight into the people who don’t like it. And if they’re former users, they may have valuable information on why they left. You’ll want as much detail as possible so that you can make use of that data in competitive intelligence analysis later on (for example, “Users say this feature is confusing.”)
    • People who do not use your product or service but would potentially be interested in using it if they knew more about what it does and how well it works. These are potential customers for whom there may not currently be an opportunity for purchase — they don’t know enough about your offering yet! Get them talking about their business needs so that you can market effectively in the future. For example: “This company thinks our product could help them solve their problem.”
    • People who do not currently use a competitor’s product or service but would potentially become a customer if offered one at an attractive price point or with better features than those offered by competitors (e..g., “These guys love our product because we provide X at only half its competitors’ price.”) If these folks were already using something else — and had a good reason why — you’d want to know if there’s anything specific about those products/services which makes them unsatisfactory; if yes then perhaps these shortcomings could be remedied through innovation efforts within yourself?
    • People who are already using your product or service but have not yet been convinced of its value (e.g., “We’re working on getting these guys to see the benefits of our product; we think they will like it once they try it.”). These are potential customers that you may need to spend more time educating about why your offering is better than competitors’ offerings.

    Related: Customer Intelligence As a Revenue Predictor

    Fully understand your audience and their needs

    It’s imperative to understand the needs of your audience and the needs of your competitors. A comprehensive competitive intelligence program can provide a wealth of information that will help you better understand the landscape, your customers’ needs and how they behave toward their competitors.

    Understanding the needs of your audience is essential for any successful business venture. You need to know what matters to them so that you can meet those needs with an innovative solution or product. This can be as simple as knowing who they are (demographics), where they live (geography) or what they like (lifestyle). It could also mean understanding what motivates them; why would someone buy one product over another? How many people do I need to sell my product annually to break even?

    Related: 9 Ways to Meet and Understand Your Audience

    Identify different audience segments

    Once you’ve identified your audience, the next step is to segment them into different groups based on their needs. This will allow you to craft a solution that meets all those needs. For example, if you’re selling a product aimed at helping people lose weight, one group could be people who need something simple and easy to use. Another group might be more tech-savvy and want something more complex and customizable. Knowing how each audience segment views fitness products will help you see what aspects of your offering are most important for each audience type.

    Related: 7 Outdated Habits That Will Paralyze Your Business

    Experimentation can help understand clients and competitors and identify new opportunities

    Experimentation is a vital part of the process. Experimentation can help you better understand your clients and competitors, identify new opportunities and discover how to make your offerings more competitive. Such an example is A/B testing. This type of experiment compares two versions of a single element to see which one performs better by improving conversions, sales or whatever else you’re looking for. For example, it could be an email subject line A/B test comparing “Doing these four things will help you grow sales” with “Doing these four things will help you grow sales 50%.”

    Ensure you are fully informed before you move forward with a new product or service

    To stay ahead of the curve, you must constantly gather information from as many sources as possible. Talk to your clients and ensure you are fully informed before moving forward with a new product or service. Conduct interviews about what they think are missing in the market, and see if a gap needs filling. Look at data from recent surveys, reviews or complaints that your company has received. Look at what competitors are doing and take notes on what’s working for them and what isn’t. Talk to people in your industry who can give feedback on how they perceive your business and suggestions on how it could improve its services or offerings.

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    Christopher Massimine

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  • 3 Ways You Can Harness The Benefits of Your Flat Organization for Growth

    3 Ways You Can Harness The Benefits of Your Flat Organization for Growth

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Organizational structures have been a hot topic of debate in the business world recently, due in no small part to the events of the last few years. Many companies simply lacked the agility to respond to all the disruption. However, others were stuck in place as conflicting leadership decisions pulled them in different directions.

    These companies’ chains of command got so bogged down that decisions began to slow and communication experienced delays. According to MIT Sloan Management Review, almost 40% of workers felt that the level of bureaucracy at their companies was especially problematic during the first six months of the pandemic. Employees also noted the stability of priorities (36%) and amount of red tape (34%) as hindrances to employers’ abilities to respond to pandemic-related changes. Ironically, these impediments are the unintended consequence of successful growth.

    If you think about it, a company’s organizational structure is akin to a building without elevators. A tall structure has many floors. Information, decisions and transactions flow from one floor to the next, moving through each level until they reach the front line. Should a customer-facing employee have a suggestion or resource request or require approval, the flow must then move in the opposite direction.

    Conversely, a flat organization has very few floors — in some cases, it has only one. It doesn’t take much effort to get information from one end of the building to another. That is, a flat organizational structure simply means an organization that has few — if any — levels of management. Many startups fall under this model, relying heavily on their founders but maintaining open communication. The challenge is to be intentional about the organization’s structure as it grows.

    Related: 3 Ways That Your Actions Today Will Shape Your Company’s Legacy

    Preserving the benefits of a flat organizational structure as you grow

    Successful entrepreneurs focus on business, product or service development, sales and marketing. Most often, a founder has a clear vision and personal values. Yet, as the company grows, the organization’s structure tends to develop independently from the vision and values. Here’s how to be intentional in maintaining the culture that made the enterprise successful as it grows — without building in costly bureaucracy:

    1. Take stock of your personal trust orientation

    Many companies throw around the buzzword “flexibility” in reference to employee benefits, but few understand what team members want. Research from Harvard Business Review reveals that what employees really need is flexibility by way of autonomy. However, the study found that the flexibility they want is contingent on their ability to exercise it how they see fit. In other words, employees need to feel trusted.

    Entrepreneurs often have tunnel vision. They accurately see themselves as the brains behind the success, and the business becomes their “baby.” I’ve seen this firsthand as a consultant. It can be hard to trust others with your creation. Yet, it is absolutely essential for successful growth. So, as you build your organizational structure, assess your personal trust orientation as it relates to your leadership role. If your belief in employees’ capabilities is low, then you might encounter the cultural struggles of a large company with a tall structure. On the other hand, high trust levels result in flatter organizations.

    Related: 3 Tips to Build Trust and Drive Business Transformation

    2. Clearly understand and avoid bureaucracy

    Maintaining quick, clear and effective communication is key to nurturing a flat organizational structure. Airbnb executives had this same realization when it revamped its hiring process and general core values over the last few years. Its leadership team found that investing in trustworthy employees and removing rules instead of adding them allowed for more communication and more freedom to move inside the organization.

    The main takeaway from Airbnb’s transformation? Replace policies with principles. You have to remember that the rules and policies you create do not exist in a vacuum. New company rules interact with every other system in the organization. By replacing rule-making with principle-founding, you can move from a restrictive, bureaucratic space to one that’s open, honest and straightforward.

    3. Distribute power as the company grows

    In the post-coronavirus landscape, companies must realize the need to adapt and broaden their hierarchical structures. Imagine a multimillion-dollar organization with checks that all must be signed by the same person. That structure would lead to delays and frustrations. Hierarchical models worked well back in the Industrial Revolution, but in today’s corporate landscape, it’s vital to nurture self-management.

    This means making an intentional and purposeful shift to elevate your employees to a position where they have power and where you invite them to actively voice their ideas. In self-managing organizations, power is distributed instead of delegated. Post-pandemic, there’s no room for delays due to hierarchies. Most leaders think that they have to have all the answers, but your employees want to help with solutions. This new era calls for leveraging your entire team’s collective strengths instead of leaning solely on your own.

    Related: 7 Components for Successfully Designing Your Organization

    One of the main drivers of any organizational structure is your people. Even if the business is your baby, you must keep people at the forefront of your mind as you progress. Today, success relies more on the collective intelligence of the whole. Recognize this fact before making any organizational decisions.

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    Sue Bingham

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  • 5 Things You Should Know Before Collaborating With An Influencer

    5 Things You Should Know Before Collaborating With An Influencer

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Brands are projected to spend a whopping $15 billion on influencer marketing in 2022. Influencer marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing techniques to help brands connect with their audience. Why? Because people tend to trust influencers and their content about the product more than companies.

    According to this study, 63% of their participants between the ages of 18 and 34 trust what influencers say about brands more than what brands say about themselves.

    Collaborating with an influencer to scale your business is a smart move, but there are a few things you should know. Let’s dig right into some of the best practices for better influencer-brand collaboration.

    First, choose the right platform that fits your product or service

    As we know, a major part of your social media strategy is selecting the right platform. Selecting the right platform depends on a few factors:

    • Your goals: Do you want to drive more traffic to your website, drum up sales or encourage more engagement from your audience? Some social platforms encourage engagement and conversation, while others encourage views. This can help you identify the platform you should focus on when looking for an influencer. For example, if your goal is to encourage engagement, I recommend TikTok where the average engagement rate per post reaches 5.9% while it’s only 0.83% on Instagram and 0.13% on Facebook. Let’s say you’re selling B2B products or services, LinkedIn will be the most suitable platform to build brand awareness, drive website traffic and generate leads.
    • Your target audience: You should also consider demographics like age, gender and location when choosing a platform. Adults between 24 – 34 years old, for instance, make up 31% of Instagram’s audience, while 24% of TikTok’s global audience were women between the ages of 18 and 24 years are more likely to be on TikTok. Facebook is the top-visited social media platform in the U.S., while Twitter is the most popular social media in Japan if we exclude LINE, a messaging app founded in South Korea. Do your research before selecting the platform. Back up your decisions with demographic data, rather than being swayed by the current trends.
    • Where the competitors are: It can save you time seeing how the competitors are performing, what things they did well, what things they dropped the ball on and learning from their mistakes.
    • Identify if the influencer is well-known on the platform: You might find an influencer with more than a million followers on TikTok while having little or no presence at all on YouTube. So, validate that the influencer has a highly engaging audience on the selected social media channel(s).

    Related: How to Succeed Using Influencer Marketing and Brand Collaboration

    1. Choose a relevant influencer

    It is essential to choose an influencer that addresses the same target audience as you do. For instance, when marketing a fitness product, a suitable influencer could be someone who shares educational content about health and fitness or workout videos. Relevancy is a crucial part of selecting who to partner with to build trust with your audience and provide advice and recommendations from experts with authority in the field.

    You should also keep in mind that there are different types of influencers out there and that you can expect different results from each. There are four main types of influencers when it comes to their follower base:

    • Nano-influencers: 10,000 followers or fewer.
    • Micro-influencers: between 10,000 and 100,000 followers.
    • Macro-influencers: between 100,000 and 1 million followers.
    • Mega-influencers: 1 million or more followers.

    If you aim to raise brand awareness, relevant mega and macro-influencers would fit nevertheless. Although micro and nano-influencers reach fewer people, they are more likely to inspire action. Micro-influencers can have a greater impact on followers’ actions than celebrities can. One study suggests the reason for this is that audiences usually find them more trustworthy and relatable than celebrities.

    2. Validate the followers

    To know whether an influencer is a perfect fit, you first need to pay close attention to their followers. If you have a business account on a social media platform, chances are you have come across those accounts that pretend to be like real ones by collecting fake followers and engagements. A simple but effective test to see if the influencer you want to work with has fake followers or not is to select some of their followers at random and notice how they engage with that account.

    Check on their profiles to confirm that they are not fake and that they look like your customer profile. A fake account can be easily detected, a typical one would normally hold zero number of posts or very few ones. The fake follower would most likely follow thousands of accounts while having a significantly lower number of followers. Sometimes the account has no profile picture or a vague profile description. All these criteria are red flags that they are fake accounts.

    You can also check the influencer’s previous posts. If you find only a few engagements (likes, comments, shares) then don’t be deceived by the high number of followers. This influencer most probably bought fake followers. A good exercise is to chat with the influencer about previous successful campaigns’ they’ve worked on.

    Related: What ‘Authenticity’ Actually Looks Like in an Influence-Marketing Collaboration

    3. Give influencers room for creativity

    The content delivered to the audience should be authentic. The best way to do this is to analyze the influencer’s previous posts as a reference point, and work together on how the content will look, the constraints you have and the things you expect to achieve without dictating and letting them do the talking.

    4. Monitor engagements and track campaign results and outcomes

    One of the core pillars of social media marketing is listening and engagement. Social media listening is identifying and assessing what customers say about the brand, brand mentions and the trends around a company. It will allow the company to measure the campaign’s success, know what worked well and avoid future mistakes.

    It is really important to track the impact of influencer marketing by using social media listening tools and not depending only on data supplied by the influencer. There’re many social media listening tools like Brandwatch, which helps marketers understand their audience, track conversions and monitor brand mentions.

    If influencers drive website traffic, you have to set up Google Analytics to measure the campaign performance KPIs like the number of visitors to your website, pages per session and bounce rate. Ultimately, if you’re selling a product online, you should track sales in real-time. An easy way is to give each influencer a discount coupon to share with his/her followers so you can easily detect the source of each transaction.

    Are you ready to collaborate with an influencer? When in doubt, refer back to these pointers before you commit.

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    Ahmed Mokhtar

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  • Need Workers? Employers Are Realizing The Untapped Talent of These People.

    Need Workers? Employers Are Realizing The Untapped Talent of These People.

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    If you give any leader the opportunity to increase their talent pool of potential employees by 15% — with all these new hires belonging to an underrepresented minority — they’d jump at the chance, especially given tight labor markets and CEO desires to increase headcount. Yet too few leaders realize that, according to the U.S. government, people with disabilities are the largest minority group in this country, with 50 million — 15% of the population — living with disabilities.

    Sure, many executives feel concerned by the extra investments involved in providing accommodations for people with disabilities. Yet these accommodations might not involve anything besides full-time remote work, according to a new study by the Economic Innovation Group think tank. The study found that the employment rate for people with disabilities did not simply reach the pre-pandemic level by mid-2022, but rose far past it, to the highest rate in over a decade. Remote work, combined with a tight labor market, explains this high rate, according to the researcher’s analysis.

    Related: 5 Ways Employees With Disabilities Help Maximize a Company’s Growth

    A bit of history: Employment rates among people with disabilities dropped, along with the rest of the labor market, early in the pandemic. However, they recovered quickly. People with disabilities aged 25 to 54, the prime working age, are 3.5 percentage points more likely to be employed in Q2 2022 than they were pre-pandemic. What about non-disabled individuals? They are still 1.1 percentage points less likely to be employed!

    That means the labor market recovery for those with disabilities was substantially faster than for those without disabilities. We know that both those with disabilities and those without faced a similar conditions of a tight labor market. Given that, remote work appears to offer the major differentiator that enabled those with disabilities an opportunity to join the workforce.

    These statistics align with expert statements. For example, according to Thomas Foley, executive director of the National Disability Institute (NDI), workers with disabilities had been asking to work remotely for decades before the pandemic and had consistently heard companies say “no.” During the pandemic, he said that when “we all realized that … many of us could work remotely … that was disproportionately positive for people with disabilities.”

    Related: How Entrepreneurs Can Find Great Talent Despite a Labor Shortage

    The benefits of remote work for people with disabilities are particularly relevant due to the impact of long Covid. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that about 19% of those who had Covid-19 developed long Covid. Recent Census Bureau data indicates that 16 million working-age Americans suffer from it, with economic costs reaching $3.7 trillion according to a recent estimate.

    Certainly, many of these so-called long-haulers experience relatively mild symptoms — such as loss of a sense of smell — which, while troublesome, are not disabling. But others experience symptoms serious enough that they have become disabled.

    According to a recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, about a quarter of those with long Covid changed their employment status or working hours. That means long Covid was serious enough to interfere with work for 4 million people. For many, this interference was serious enough to qualify them as disabled.

    Indeed, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found in a just-released study that the number of disabled persons in the U.S. grew by 1.7 million. That growth stemmed mainly from long Covid conditions such as fatigue and brain fog, meaning difficulties with concentration or memory, with 1.3 million people reporting an increase in brain fog since mid-2020.

    Many had to drop out of the labor force due to the intensity of their long Covid. Yet about 900,000 newly disabled people have been able to continue working. Without remote work, they might not have.

    In fact, the author of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York study notes that long Covid can be considered a disability under the Americans with Disability Act, depending on the specifics of the condition. That means the law can require private employers with fifteen or more staff, as well as government agencies, to make reasonable accommodations for those with long Covid. The author notes that “telework and flexible scheduling are two accommodations that can be particularly beneficial for workers dealing with fatigue and brain fog.”

    Related: The Labor Shortage Is Only Getting Worse. What’s Causing It and How Can I Avoid Losing Staff?

    But companies shouldn’t need to worry about legal regulations. It simply makes dollars and sense to expand their talent pool by 15% of an underrepresented minority. After all, extensive research shows that improving diversity boosts both decision-making and financial performance.

    Companies that are offering more flexible work options have already gained significant benefits in terms of diverse hires. In its efforts to adapt to the post-pandemic environment, Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, decided to offer permanent fully remote work options to its current employees and new job applicants. And according to Meta chief diversity and inclusion officer Maxine Williams, the candidates who accepted job offers for remote positions were “substantially more likely” to come from diverse communities: people with disabilities, Black, Hispanic, Alaskan Native, Native American, veterans, and women. The numbers bear out these claims: people with disabilities increased from 4.7% to 6.2% of Meta’s employees.

    Having consulted for 21 companies to help them transition to hybrid work arrangements, I can confirm that Meta’s numbers aren’t a fluke. The more my clients proved willing to offer remote work, the more disabled staff they recruited — and retained. That includes more obvious employees, such as those with long Covid symptoms and mobility challenges. But it also includes employees with invisible disabilities, such as immunocompromised people who feel reluctant to put themselves at risk of getting Covid-19 by coming into the office.

    Unfortunately, many leaders fail to see the benefits of remote work for underrepresented groups, such as those with disabilities. Some even claim the opposite: thus, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon claimed that returning to the office will aid diversity. What explains this poor executive decision-making?

    One part of the answer comes from a mental blindspot called the in-group bias. Our minds tend to favor and pay attention to the concerns of those we perceive to be part of our in-group. Dimon and other executives who lack disabilities don’t perceive people with disabilities to be part of their in-group. They thus are blind to the concerns of those with disabilities, which leads to the kind of jaw-dropping statements made by Dimon that returning to the office will aid diversity.

    In-group bias is one of many dangerous judgment errors known as cognitive biases. These mental blindspots impact decision-making in all life areas, ranging from the future of work to mental fitness.

    Another relevant cognitive bias is the empathy gap. This term refers to our difficulty empathizing with those who aren’t part of our in-group. The lack of empathy combines with the blindness from the in-group bias, causing executives to ignore the feelings of disabled employees and prospective hires.

    Omission bias also plays a role. This dangerous judgment error causes us to perceive failure to act as less problematic than acting. Consequently, executives perceive a failure to support the needs and interests of those with disabilities as a minor matter.

    The failure to empower people with disabilities will prove costly to the bottom lines of companies that don’t offer remote work options to those who would benefit from such accommodations. They are limiting their talent pool by 15%. Moreover, they’re harming their ability to recruit and retain diverse candidates. And as their lawyers and HR departments will tell them, they are putting themselves in legal jeopardy for violating the ADA.

    By contrast, companies like Meta that offer remote work opportunities are seizing a competitive advantage by recruiting these underrepresented candidates and expanding their talent pool by 15%. They’re lowering costs of labor while increasing diversity. The future belongs to the savvy companies that offer the flexibility that disabled people need.

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    Gleb Tsipursky

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  • How Small Companies Can Contribute to Global Change

    How Small Companies Can Contribute to Global Change

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Small businesses can play an important role in addressing global challenges using their unique perspectives and resources. This is because they can generate new ideas, solve problems and create new products. They can also help to bring down global greenhouse gas emissions. By doing so, they can assist in reducing the impact of climate change on the planet.

    Small businesses need to be well structured and have a clear purpose to contribute substantially to local and global economies. By understanding their industry, stakeholders, and environment, they can identify opportunities and seize chances to make a positive impact. Below are some ways small businesses can help create solutions to global challenges that will benefit everyone.

    Related: 10 Ways Small Businesses Can Give Back Without Breaking the Bank

    1. Dynamism in the marketplace

    Most small businesses can respond to shifting economic conditions and counter them quickly. This is because small businesses are typically very focused on their customers. They not only understand the community‘s requirements but also cooperate with the consumers to produce the best goods possible through customer feedback programs, which many start-ups employ.

    Because of this consumer loyalty, small businesses are more likely to survive tough economic times, which can aid in the development of local economies. Small firms may be less at risk of losing money during economic downturns since they generate less income than larger companies.

    2. Environment conservation

    One of the most talked about challenges facing the global world right now is environmental conservation, and I believe that with the emergence of small businesses, there is a likelihood that environmental conservation can be solved. Small businesses come in handy when dealing with critical environmental issues.

    For instance, local businesses tend to set up shops in pre-existing buildings. This alone will minimize the destructive behavior of digging up land for construction. Larger enterprises and organizations frequently have infrastructure created for them, resulting in less green space in society and more dangerous materials. Because tiny enterprises require just a little room, they use the available space, which is what environmental conservation is all about.

    Moreover, small businesses have a fruitful relationship with other small manufacturers regarding supply chain and logistics issues, resulting in cheaper products being produced. As a result, it will have a lesser severe environmental impact. Finally, small enterprises tend to locate their community centers in areas where it is more common to walk or ride. As a consequence, fewer customers and staff will have to drive to the establishment.

    Related: How Startups and Small Businesses Can Address Climate Change in the Workplace

    3. Community development

    Small enterprises play an essential role in the community since they contribute to local economies by stimulating development and turmoil in their neighborhood. The issue of unemployment can be addressed through the establishment of small businesses. These small businesses create a pool of skilled and semi-skilled workforce who can come up with mind-blowing ideas to solve major societal problems.

    Small businesses require limited education to start, giving the population lacking credible education an equal chance to compete with large companies in the global market. Small enterprises attract people who create new goods or adopt new solutions to old problems. Larger enterprises are also huge beneficiaries of the emergence of small businesses because they tend to outsource talent from small businesses to drive their sales.

    4. Revenue collection

    When consumers do most of their business with small enterprises, they are more likely to contribute to the community. A successful local firm makes much money, necessitating higher tax payments, including local property taxes. Local police, fire, and education systems may use this money to invest in the community. A successful small business may also increase neighborhood property values, benefiting local residents and raising property taxes for government agencies.

    For small enterprises, sales taxes are still another source of revenue. Special taxing districts that concentrate on specific initiatives like lighting and sidewalk repairs to revitalize historic commercial areas and attract new consumers might be built on the support of local companies.

    Related: 10 Ways to Make Your Business More Socially Conscious

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    Ferrat Destine

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  • Drive Product Growth With A Metric That Guides You to Success.

    Drive Product Growth With A Metric That Guides You to Success.

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    As China continues to crack down on how companies handle user data, it’s time for the business world to think about what exactly they’re collecting and measuring. The country’s strict data privacy laws make it more challenging to store and manage Chinese consumers’ data, but it could also have more wide-reaching ramifications if other countries decide to adopt similar regulations (much like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation). This will lead to a new digital marketing landscape when it comes to data and metrics.

    Not long ago, marketing and growth teams relied on just a handful of metrics to analyze campaigns and measure business performance: revenue, expenses and profit. Then, the internet exploded, ushering everyone into the information age. The rapid proliferation of technology, product development and data-collection methods created a feeding frenzy of sorts.

    Marketers and product teams began capturing and measuring anything and everything they could get their hands on. Their intentions were good: They thought if they collected every piece of data available, then voila, those metrics would reveal what was and wasn’t working in their products. In practice, however, they simply created a game of “find the needle in the haystack.” And unfortunately, there’s no winning that game.

    When it comes to product growth metrics, more isn’t always better. Having too many metrics is as bad as having none at all. Simply look at the sheer amount of data people generate to understand why. Research estimates that humans collectively will create more than 180 zettabytes of data by 2025. To put that in perspective, that’s equivalent to the storage of 2,587 iPhone 13 Pros per second (1 terabyte model).

    Imagine the resources and time it would take to track this much data. Plus, some of the information could be old or obsolete. Other metrics might be readily available but ultimately lack relevance and practicality. In the end, you’re data-rich but insight-poor — not a good position to be in.

    Why do you need a North Star metric?

    Rather than chasing down any metric that feels remotely related to your product, consider centering your product growth strategy around a singular guiding metric. Just as sailors used the North Star located directly above the Earth’s northern celestial pole to navigate oceans, you can use a North Star metric to align your team around the top-line goal of product growth.

    Of course, the sales, engineering, product and marketing teams can still have their own subgoals and metrics. But having that North Star shining brightly overhead keeps everyone moving in the same general direction. Because a North Star metric is focused on overall product growth, there’s a built-in level of teamwide transparency and camaraderie not found in other team-specific initiatives.

    However, what makes a North Star metric such an effective measure of success is its intrinsic relationship to users. By definition, a North Star metric is the number that best reflects the value your product delivers to users. Therefore, your teams will always be aligned and working together to grow your product.

    Related: Customer Experience Will Determine the Success of Your Company

    What constitutes a North Star metric?

    So, what exactly is a North Star metric? It’s important to note that revenue isn’t a North Star metric. When you track your product’s revenue, you track how much money you made at the end of the month, quarter or year. Though this is a decent indicator of success, it’s not user-specific. For example, revenue alone can’t tell you how much the average user spends on your products and how long they remain loyal.

    In general, there are five categories of North Star metrics:

    1. Customer growth: Customer growth-focused North Star metrics include market share and number of paid users, among others.
    2. Consumption growth: Consumption goes beyond mere site visits. Instead, think about this category through the lens of product usage, such as messages sent or classes attended.
    3. Engagement growth: If your product is an app, you might use engagement metrics — such as monthly or daily active users — to track the number of unique users within a specific time period.
    4. Growth efficiency: When comparing the value of a new user relative to the cost of acquiring one, you might leverage metrics around lifetime value and customer acquisition costs as your North Star.
    5. User experience: User experience metrics, such as net promoter score, provide data that helps you measure user satisfaction and product experience.

    Related: 4 Reasons Sharing Performance Metrics Will Accelerate Your Business

    What’s your North Star?

    Your North Star metric should be the one that’s most predictive of your product’s sustained success and how users get value from the product. Therefore, it will vary based on your industry, audience, offering, etc. For instance, a fintech product might coalesce around the total assets under its management or daily active users. In contrast, streaming company Netflix uses total hours streamed as their North Star metric.

    Of course, the metric you choose must be regularly measurable. It also needs to fulfill two other criteria to be considered a North Star metric: help generate revenue and mirror customer value.

    1. Help generate revenue

    A metric that doesn’t measure advancement toward goals in a way that informs your next steps won’t be useful at all. So, make sure you can directly tie your North Star metric to product growth. Airbnb‘s North Star metric, for example, is number of nights booked. This reveals platform growth and correlates with the value customers and hosts receive from good experiences.

    Just remember that it’s important to balance this criterion with the other two. For instance, if you hang your hat on a money-centric metric to the detriment of customer satisfaction, you’ll ultimately drive users away. On the other hand, you can’t prioritize customer satisfaction at all costs, or you’ll run yourself out of business.

    2. Mirror customer value

    Your North Star metric needs to encompass what users find valuable about your product. If you fail to understand what they appreciate, then you’ll end up measuring the wrong thing. For instance, users disliked having to log in to Meta‘s virtual reality headset with a Facebook account. Meta was too focused on boosting its social media platform to realize that its audience wanted more flexibility and anonymity.

    To define your North Star metric, gather key stakeholders to outline your company’s needs and the value your product adds to users’ lives. Determine whether a metric helps users achieve the intended results of your offering. Look at the external factors that might impact your North Star metric, as well as the internal ones within your control.

    Related: How to Keep Leaders Focused on a Company’s Most Important Metrics

    Long ago, sailors turned their eyes to the sky to determine where they were going and what adventures awaited. In the same way, you can use your North Star metric to inform your product growth strategy no matter what the future holds.

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    Nick Chasinov

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  • 4 Tips for Choosing a Staffing Agency

    4 Tips for Choosing a Staffing Agency

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The current health crisis, combined with the labor shortage, has caused companies worldwide to rethink how and where to source their talent and establish their teams, with many turning to staffing agencies. This article addresses what you need to know before choosing a staffing agency to ensure it is the correct agency for your business.

    Offshoring as a business strategy is nothing new; it has been used for decades. What has changed, however, is the what, why, and who of offshoring technology. At the beginning of the offshoring trend, the answer to the “what” question was the manufacturing process; the answer to “why” was to reduce cost by taking advantage of a cheap labor force; and the answer to “who” was big companies that could open their manufacturing facility overseas.

    Today, with all the technological advances that have been made to provide remote work alongside the current situation, the answers to these questions have favorably shifted. Businesses are offshoring all sorts of functions and jobs: from administrative, virtual assistant, customer service and finance to digital design and Information Technology. Lower costs are less relevant as gaining access to a global talent pool has become the priority and is no longer exclusive to big companies.

    Related: Need to Hire? The Benefits of Using a Staffing Agency.

    Outsourcing versus offshoring

    Before itemizing the key practices to implement when choosing a staffing agency, it is essential to clarify the distinction between outsourcing and offshoring to avoid misconceptions.

    Outsourcing or business process outsourcing (BPO): Outsourcing occurs when a company outsources its entire process, giving control of the employees and the outsourced process to a third party. In short, the company is paying for a process to be completed.

    Offshore and nearshore staffing: Offshoring occurs when a company turns to another country to recruit staff. In this case, the company is paying for an agency to hire and manage every aspect of staffing (employee records, law compliance, payroll), but the staff reports directly to the company; the process is not outsourced. The difference between offshore and nearshore staffing is that the former involves an overseas company, whereas the latter involves a neighboring country.

    Design, for example, is an important function that can be outsourced, assuming your company does not specialize in the design and does not have enough workload to justify hiring a full-time employee. However, if you are a design or marketing company, you would do better to use a staffing firm to build and run a remote team of designers working directly under your supervision by company guidelines, training and policies. In this situation, outsourcing design is not an advisable option.

    What to consider when looking for the right nearshore or offshore staffing agency

    As you can see, there are multiple ways to grow your team. In our company, Remote Team Solutions, we have seen many success stories: from a business that started with a single employee and grew into more than ten team members in less than two years to a business that was initially outsourcing its call center and now has its entire call center in Mexico working remotely. Our company has identified four practices that are game changers when choosing the right nearshore or offshore staffing agency. These practices are listed below.

    1. Be ready and prepared

    Working remotely is not the same as having your employees in the office. When employing a staffing agency, you need to be prepared, have tools, processes and job descriptions in place, and know precisely what you expect from your employees abroad. Be clear on what is better for the company: offshoring or nearshoring. Do you need your employees to work in your time zone? Do you need them close so you can go to where they are and train them in person or fly one of the leaders to your headquarters?

    2. Look at the staffing agency as a partner

    You need to choose the staffing agency the same way you would a business partner. As you grow, you will need more staff and support from your staffing agency. Their work culture and values should match those of your company. Make sure they can provide the positions and staff you will require as you grow. I always suggest asking for references and looking at an agency’s employee turnover rate.

    Related: How to Recruit Talent That Has the ‘Agency Bug’

    3. Never delegate employee selection

    The team determines the company’s success. The staffing agency may be the expert in hiring and filtering, but no one knows your business and culture better than you; therefore, ensure you can interview all the candidates and have the last word on who to hire.

    4. Communicate with your team

    This is critical in ensuring the success of your remote team. You must see your nearshore team as an extension of your company, make them feel part of it and gain their loyalty. A sense of belonging is vital. Make sure you have direct communication with your team, ensure the team knows exactly what you expect from them and have daily meetings and remote events to integrate everyone within the team.

    Conclusion

    I encourage entrepreneurs and businesses everywhere to observe the changes that have taken place in remote working and consider how they can benefit the most from them. Non-core functions, such as bookkeeping and legal procedures, can be outsourced, leaving you to focus on the tasks and processes that bring value to your company and clients. You can obtain the full benefit of a staffing company for these functions, which should not be outsourced. In my personal experience, I have seen many companies grow, using the strategies identified here but remember, like everything in business, you must do it right. Put in the time required and choose the right agency for your business.

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    Pedro A. Barboglio Murra

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  • Regal Paint Centers Set to Deliver the Regal Difference to Catonsville

    Regal Paint Centers Set to Deliver the Regal Difference to Catonsville

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    Trusted family-owned paint and decorating retailer opens its first Baltimore-area store.

    Press Release
    –

    Aug 18, 2022


    ANNAPOLIS, Md., August 18, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    One of the highest customer-rated independent paint and decorating retailers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area is pleased to introduce its superior products, personalized service, and comfortable, “neighborhood store” experience to Catonsville.

    Regal Paint Centers, an independently owned Benjamin Moore retailer specializing in premium residential, commercial and industrial coatings, has opened a brand new, 3600-square-foot store and showroom off the Baltimore Beltway on Route 40.

    “We’re excited to open our first store in the Baltimore County area,” says President Patrick Smith. “Catonsville is a beautiful, thriving community and we’re looking forward to helping local residents bring home the Regal Difference.”

    Smith got his start in the family-owned and operated business while still a freshman in high school. His father, a paint contractor, and his business partner bought their first store in 1986. Ever since, the company has expanded to 11 locations but remains true to its core values of commitment, quality, integrity, and community.

    “The paint business is a people business, and nothing is more important to us than the relationships we build with our customers,” Smith says. “We take the time to truly listen to their individual needs and provide them with a higher level of service and support. Whether the person who walks in our door is a design professional, a contractor, or a DIY homeowner, it’s our mission to become the go-to place for all their paint and decorating needs.”

    In addition to offering top-quality service and products, Regal Paint Centers guarantees top-quality information too. “Because our customers come to us for advice they can count on, we only give them reliable advice that we genuinely believe in,” says Smith. 

    In recent years, that trusted advice has extended beyond the paint counter to the showroom. In-store design consultants can guide customers through the entire color and design journey, from creating a vision that reflects their personal style, to choosing the right paint, wallcoverings, and window treatments that bring together the desired look and feel of the space. 

    Regal Paint Centers has also won fans across the National Capital Region with its precise color matching, and Smith assures that despite customers’ toughest challenges, they still haven’t met their match. 

    “We’ve seen it all, including one lady who came in and wanted us to match some paint to her dog because she liked the color of its fur,” he laughs. “I guess that shows there’s nothing that we won’t do for our customers.”

    Now open! Regal Paint Centers’ new Catonsville store is located at 6600 Baltimore National Pike.

    For more information, contact:

    Ann Pailthorp, Retail Sales Manager
    ann.pailthorp@regalpaintcenters.com 
    c. 410-703-9724

    Source: Regal Paint Centers

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