ReportWire

Tag: Business Lessons

  • I’ve Been a Tech Entrepreneur for Over 20 Years — Here Are 5 Key Lessons I’ve Learned Along the Way

    I’ve Been a Tech Entrepreneur for Over 20 Years — Here Are 5 Key Lessons I’ve Learned Along the Way

    [ad_1]

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    From the moment of conception to the pinnacle of success and beyond, startups encounter bumps, grazes and sometimes giant crashes along the way. Building a successful company that goes “all the way” takes grit and determination — and learning from others is one of the best ways to get inspired.

    Throughout my many years in the world of tech startups, there are a few key ideas that have stayed with me. Here are five objectives that have proven useful:

    Related: 6 Timeless Strategies That Drive Successful Entrepreneurship

    1. Understanding your audience

    When it comes to understanding the needs, wants and mindset of your target audience, the dogfooding theory is a great way to go. It is irrelevant to produce a product or business for a customer you think exists. Instead, you must ask yourself the following: Would I actually use this? Does it give added value? Does this customer actually exist?

    While I was leading the development of Windows Defender at Microsoft, we would “dog food” everything — the whole operating system and every piece of software included in it. It’s a critical element of developmental experimentation. We used to see these huge corporations building products they think people want, but they weren’t actually consumers of the product themselves. Like a chef creating a dish that he himself wouldn’t eat. Why make the products when you don’t believe in their value?

    Feedback and constant testing are also imperative. Keep going until you get the top results that you desire. There’s no law about how many times you can improve a version of a product.

    2. Importance of building the MVP-way

    The phrase MVP (Minimum Viable Product) was first coined and defined in 2001 by Frank Robinson and later popularized by Steve Blank and Eric Ries. In his book, The Lean Startup, Ries commented:

    “The minimum viable product is that version of a new product that allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.”

    Establishing an MVP is a critical way for companies to develop a gateway to success. Through an MVP, you can gauge how well something is working and whether people actually want it and find it useful. Put simply, building an MVP is a useful way to assess risk. Once it’s circulating, you can see where and what you need to improve — but taking that first step by putting something out there is crucial. Then you can test away to your heart’s content and utilize feedback where it’s constructive.

    Related: The Most Valuable Lessons These 5 Top Entrepreneurs Have Learned

    3. The F-word

    Another important aspect of business-building is that dreaded word: Failure. However, failure is okay and actually a necessary evil. Failure can give you a sense of perspective and open up new windows of opportunity in the future. Failure is acceptable.

    Many great entrepreneurs failed multiple times first. From Edison’s legendary multiple tries before he created the electric light bulb to Henry Ford’s initial failure with William H. Murphy in the late 1890s. Yet failure builds resilience, so you must pick yourself up and try again. More than that, though, failure teaches us how to overcome obstacles. You learn where the gaps are.

    4. Have a flexible end goal

    Success in the startup world is not all about unicorns. There’s nothing wrong with slow growth. “Slow and steady wins the race” is an expression for a reason. You don’t have to take your startup public. There are different ways to exit a startup, and being a unicorn isn’t the only option.

    In the tech world especially, everyone wants to be the next explosive big thing — the next Figma, Slack or TikTok. This isn’t typical, though. There are successful companies that built themselves up a lot slower. So, don’t be beholden to what the stereotypical idea of “startup success” is. Goals differ between various companies and products.

    Related: 8 Important Lessons From Leading Entrepreneurs

    5. Don’t be afraid to pivot

    Knowing when to pivot and when to say, “Enough! It’s not working. Let’s try something else” is key in working towards your end goal. Sometimes you do need to simply throw it all away and start from scratch. Typically, it’s easier for a startup than a legacy company to pivot. Take Netflix as an example. They pivoted from DVDs to streaming and then from the reliance on content from other companies to making their own content. Where is Blockbuster today?

    In 2022, we see the same within the antivirus industry. Legacy corporations aren’t innovating in the way the new-generation startups are to protect against next-generation threats. An example of this is the recent attack vector that RAV researchers discovered involving the metaverse and virtual reality.

    More often than not, the solution for legacy corporations is to buy up other products. Their business model is so stable that they are afraid to take on new technology and systems and disrupt their business. Conversely, young tech companies are constantly innovating their own products. We aren’t afraid to change or to take risks. Risk can be a good thing. It may not work all the time, but you may need to take some risks in order to advance your business.

    The main conclusions to be drawn from here are: If you fail — learn from it. Take what you’ve learned, and apply it to future ventures. Additionally, calculated risks often prove worthwhile. Knowing your audience is another major key to success, as is knowing yourself. Taking something you love to do and running with it is always the best jumping-off point.

    [ad_2]

    Andrew Newman

    Source link

  • 5 Lessons I Learned From Children That Helped Me Create an Apple Award-Winning Business

    5 Lessons I Learned From Children That Helped Me Create an Apple Award-Winning Business

    [ad_1]

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    When you spend most of your week with people from work, you tend to form a community. And with any community, you’ll find yourself facing many ups and downs along the way. During our years developing and pivoting mobile applications together, we’ve argued, laughed, broken up, and at times, cried.

    But during those trying moments, it’s often been the lessons I’ve learned from children that have helped me to keep going and ultimately led our team to create an app called Magic, which Apple chose as one of the best apps of 2017. Here are five insights I learned from children that helped us create this award-winning business:

    Related: 5 Ways Children Can Teach You How to Keep the Dream Alive

    1. Patience is a superpower

    “Are we there yet?” A common phrase uttered by a bored child on a long car ride. While this may be a tired trope, it’s no surprise that children are often impatient. To them, everything needs to happen instantly because they don’t understand the concept of time. So, whenever my twins would ask me this question, I would refrain from saying “no” and instead turn the conversation into an educational game.

    One of my business partners used to ask me every few weeks, “When will we become successful?” So, instead of answering his question, I used the same approach and tried to engage in conversations about our progress, how far we’ve come, brainstorm ideas on moving forward and what was still ahead. Instead of getting frustrated, this shift in my mindset reminded me of patience being a superpower — something that I had to develop if we were going to succeed.

    2. Make short-term goals

    LEGOs are one of the most popular toys among children because of how easy it is to be successful with them. All they have to do is follow the instructions, and each of their tiny pieces will eventually come together to form a larger construct in a matter of minutes, helping them to achieve their short-term goals faster. Combining small steps with instant results helps motivate children to keep going.

    This can be applied to business, as well. Instead of focusing on long-term goals, it’s essential to break them down into smaller chunks in order to keep the momentum going. For example, our team agreed to release evolutionary app updates every three months. Once we published the app’s new version, we would share it with the community, opinion makers and media to get feedback and improve the product.

    This strategy helped bring attention to our product, keep us motivated throughout the development process and helped us grow from a few thousand to a few million users. Overall, our team stays motivated when small successes arise from our short-term goals.

    Related: 3 Things My 5-Year-Old Cousin Taught Me About Entrepreneurship

    3. Don’t listen to what others say. Keep believing.

    My kids may use hammers to paint, kitchen appliances to play music or deodorant as a microphone to sing. At an early age, they had no established notional and social patterns of behavior. However, this allowed them to be creative and confident in their ideas, no matter what others said or thought.

    The same holds true in business — don’t listen to what others say, but keep believing and be confident in your ideas. When we first released Magic, many people said it would flop and never be a success. We didn’t let that stop us and kept pushing forward even through hard times, which paid off in the end. Whenever people around you doubt your ideas, keep in mind that Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, laughed at the first iPhone model in 2007.

    4. Turn failure into motivation

    I’m always amazed at how stubborn kids can be when practicing what they love. For example, when I play soccer with my kids and fail to score a goal, my kids always cheer me on, saying, “Dad, don’t worry. Now you know what not to do. Just try again.”

    This lesson helped me realize that failure can be a great experience rather than something to feel embarrassed or ashamed about. This helped me to stay motivated even when hundreds of investors and journalists turned down our ideas. With every rejection, I worked to improve my pitch to make sure it was just right. Whenever we face setbacks or fail to reach expectations, I encourage our team to take those failures as an opportunity for learning, not only for ourselves but for the future of the company and how it could be improved.

    Related: 7 Things Entrepreneur Dads (and Moms) Can Learn From Kids

    5. Go through hard times together

    A child’s empathy is heartfelt and supportive. For example, when one of my twins falls down and starts crying, the other helps them get up, and they hug each other.

    This taught me the importance of team spirit and how support from your team can help you overcome any obstacle. Creating machine learning-based apps is based on a ton of research and development. Typically, only one of five hypotheses turns out to be true. I have been supporting our team members when they believed they tried all possible opinions, and within a few weeks, they usually found a solution that worked.

    By embracing kids’ spirit of creativity, confidence and teamwork, I’m able to stay positive even through hard times and use failure as an opportunity for learning, resulting in our team building an app with millions of users and even earning an Apple award.

    [ad_2]

    Ashot Gabrelyanov

    Source link

  • 3 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From The Rise and Fall of History’s Biggest Companies

    3 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From The Rise and Fall of History’s Biggest Companies

    [ad_1]

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Only recently, just before the pandemic, it seemed big companies were on a roll. A few “superstar” companies were dominating software industries and reaching their tentacles into multiple sectors. Market share was concentrated in much of the economy, the performance gap between large and small companies was widening and people were forming fewer new businesses. An article in Harvard Business Review reported concerns that “a lack of competition was strangling the U.S. economy.”

    Many of those worries have begun to fade. We’re seeing a historic surge in new business creation and a shrinking performance gap between big and small businesses. The pandemic, with its “Great Resignation” and “Quiet Quitting,” was only a catalyst, accelerating an inevitable change — inevitable because that’s the nature of large organizations. They can’t sustain dominance for long, and indeed the profitability and longevity of big companies have been shrinking for decades. The superstar companies, now suffering from depressed stock prices, are laying off thousands of talented employees, giving way to smaller firms that are still hiring.

    While this is a striking change of events, it follows a cycle that has existed since the beginnings of capitalism. By looking back at previous cycles of creative destruction, in which large firms have risen only to fall to scrappy smaller competitors, entrepreneurs can find many lessons that are applicable today.

    Related: How Looking Back at History Can Make You a Better Entrepreneur and Leader

    Lesson 1: Take advantage of complacency

    The first lesson is that large companies tend to grow complacent the more successful they become. This provides an opening to smaller companies that are hungrier and more ambitious.

    For example, the East India Company, chartered in 1600 and arguably the world’s first big business, once operated not only ships and warehouses but armies of soldiers to enforce colonial exploitation. Enjoying a monopoly on imports of tea and other staples, its power was so great that Adam Smith devoted a large section of The Wealth of Nations to criticizing its heft. Yet the company became a victim of its own success, eventually declining as its leaders enriched themselves, got caught up in politics, and stopped innovating.

    The same lesson applies today. As soon as large companies think they’re in a solid situation, they relax and start enjoying their position. That’s the perfect time to enter the market with an innovation or a fresh way of thinking.

    Lesson 2: Powerful connections aren’t everything

    The second lesson is that entrepreneurs can still beat out larger companies even if they lack the same connections to power. History shows that “right” can often beat “might.”

    Consider the example of wealthy Robert Livingston, who funded Robert Fulton’s successful invention of the steamboat in 1807. Livingston used his connections and wealth to gain a monopoly of the ferry business between New York City and New Jersey. But scrappy Cornelius Vanderbilt, with no social standing or education, dared to challenge Livingston’s privilege and won a landmark Supreme Court case, Gibbons v. Ogden, striking down interstate monopoly charters. Thanks to Vanderbilt’s relentless push for efficiency and lower costs – and the new country’s distaste for government-backed privileges, he gained the capital to improve not only ferries but ocean-going ships and then railroads.

    Vanderbilt proved that companies that rely on personal connections often become over-confident, believing themselves protected from competition. This makes them vulnerable to smaller competitors who are willing to call out their unfair practices.

    Lesson 3: Big companies prefer stability to innovation

    By the end of the 19th century, steel had become fundamental to the economy, and Andrew Carnegie had the biggest and best factories. Like Vanderbilt, he had rapidly expanded by keeping costs low and reinvesting profits. The remaining steelmakers were so concerned about his moves into their markets that they pressed J.P. Morgan to buy him out for the then incredible price of $480 million.

    After Morgan did so, creating U.S. Steel, he failed to maintain Carnegie’s aggressiveness, allowing tiny rivals to expand. Fearing antitrust and preferring stability and dividends to risky growth, U.S. Steel failed to innovate and eventually fell apart with foreign competition and the rise of steel mini-mills in the 1960s.

    U.S. Steel’s preoccupation with stability is common among large firms, and it’s an opportunity for smaller competitors to rise up. Consider the many brick-and-mortar retailers that failed to invest in e-commerce until it was too late. They assumed they were safe because of their size, but their failure to innovate ultimately caused their downfall.

    Innovation is critical to building and maintaining a competitive advantage — and it gets harder to do as companies succeed and grow. Entrepreneurs, as guerillas, can often find openings of attack against even the mightiest of gorilla companies.

    Related: 6 Ways Small Businesses Can Win With Big Corporations

    We need big and little

    The history of creative destruction shows us that the current travails of Big Tech companies like Meta are nothing new. Large companies tend to fall prey to a combination of hubris and complacency, while ambitious entrepreneurs continue to find openings to take advantage of emerging technologies and market trends.

    Energetic commitment and talent will beat resource-rich rivals, as long as entrepreneurs pick their fights wisely. There are two reliable ways of spotting opportunities to do so.

    First, as companies get bigger, even well-managed ones must leave opportunities on the table — market segments or product opportunities too small or too different for them to do well in or focus on. These often provide windows of opportunity for small players. Today’s small markets can become tomorrow’s large markets.

    Second, new technologies and platform shifts inevitably create openings for nimbler firms, whether in specialized areas such as digital marketing or in transformative areas such as blockchain. Big companies almost never move fast enough.

    Finally, in assessing today’s large companies, it’s important to remember that their success usually came from a basic entrepreneurial achievement combined with an organizational mindset. As entrepreneurs grow their businesses, they should be mindful of the competencies they have developed and remain intent on building new ones over time. New competencies — fueled by innovation — will likely increase their trajectory in growth and value.

    A modern economy still needs big companies, which are essential to producing goods and services at scale at an affordable price. That’s where they excel. But we also need entrepreneurs to challenge them wherever they fall short — and eventually, replace them as new giants to move the economy forward.

    For pundits and other desk-bound observers, bigness might seem inevitable. But bigness also inevitably corrupts. The vitality is not in supposedly “professional” management but in scrappy entrepreneurs.

    [ad_2]

    John Landry

    Source link

  • 7 Lessons That All Entrepreneurs Must Know

    7 Lessons That All Entrepreneurs Must Know

    [ad_1]

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Recently I decided it would be a good idea to participate in a Kidnapping Survival Course. During the course, I would become trained in handling a real-life kidnapping, interrogation and being hunted for a day by professional bounty hunters.

    It sounds nuts, I know. So, why did I do this?

    One reason — to learn critical performance and stress management mindset and skills.

    I believe that mindset is everything. It can be the difference between success and failure. It can determine whether a business will grow from five figures to six figures, to seven figures and beyond. Mindset is essential for your success.

    I learned this specifically when I picked up my first business book in 2002 by Robert Kiyosaki. His timeless must-read book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” completely shifted the way I thought and changed my life trajectory. Since then, there have been numerous books, classes and workshops that I have invested in spending over $100,000 in education to upgrade my mindset.

    And that is precisely why I decided to take a kidnapping survival course. Realistically, I don’t think I will get kidnapped anytime soon. Still, I thought to myself, if I can learn to survive a kidnapping, being trained by the same people that train Navy SEALS, the CIA and the FBI, then I can control my emotions when a major crisis happens in my business. I can control my communication when working with customers, clients and my team.

    What did I learn & how does it apply to business?

    Related: 4 Leadership Lessons I Learned From a Marine Corps General

    1. Be prepared

    All entrepreneurs need preparation. Without preparation, you become more vulnerable. To survive a kidnapping, you must first be mentally prepared. To survive the ups and downs of business, preparation always helps us get one step ahead. No matter if we are preparing a pitch deck to ask for investment or if we are preparing our tasks for the week. You can’t control when you get kidnapped or oftentimes what is going to happen in business, but you can control your reaction and be prepared is essential to making that easier.

    2. Develop a plan

    As mentioned before, being prepared is essential, and planning is an important part of that. To survive a kidnapping, one must plan to evade those trying to capture them. Choosing undercover personas that blend in well with the environment and don’t stand out is essential. This is also essential in business. Robust plans can make our business operations run more smoothly and keep us operating more effectively. The more you can create an educated and detailed plan, the better your chances of success.

    3. Breathe

    This is the most simple underestimated lesson we learned. When a Navy SEAL gets kidnapped, they are trained to manage their breath. Why? Because breathing will manage your brain’s stress response. When you fear something, your amygdala reacts. Your heart rate and the levels of adrenaline and cortisol start to increase. If you can learn how to slow your breath down, it will control your heart rate and begin to wash away the stress hormones. It also improves brain functioning so we can focus better and make better decisions.

    Related: How to Find Clarity Through the Conscious Breath

    4. Be adaptable

    During our kidnapping simulation, we stayed undercover the entire day while bounty hunters searched for us. We had to change clothes regularly to blend in. We had to hide when we were spotted and run when we were being chased. We had no control over when we would be under stress and had to react instantly. We were taught to remain completely adaptable. This is very similar to business. I can’t tell you how often entrepreneurs (myself included) get stuck on resisting change. Often it is the main reason why most businesses fail. It is important to plan well and follow your plan, but it is also essential to know when to adapt and shift.

    Related: Why Resisting Change Will Only Hurt Your Business

    5. Work as a team

    Throughout the kidnapping simulation, we worked in teams of three. We had 14 missions we needed to complete throughout the day while avoiding being caught by the bounty hunters. We did this without phones, the internet or money. The only thing we had to rely on was our training, our plan and our team. My team decided to start by planning who would work on each mission and how.

    The missions included getting someone to give us money for a bus ticket, translating a phrase into Russian or Portuguese and finding a free food and water source to survive. Like in business, we discussed a plan to accomplish each task to the best of our ability. All companies have some team and need to make daily decisions on what that plan will be and who will work to accomplish the mission.

    Related: Here’s Why Teamwork and Collaboration is a Must For You

    6. Learn to sprint

    While undercover, if a bounty hunter spotted us, they captured and handcuffed us to a bench or a pole. We then had to escape from the handcuffs in a downtown area while people were awkwardly staring at us. After being trained for a week to survive a kidnapping, I had my mind set on not getting caught.

    Toward the end of the day, my team was walking through an outdoor mall when a bounty hunter spotted us. We looked at one another and went on a dead sprint through the mall. This took us on a chase through the back rooms of various stores, racing through a parking lot and running circles inside a Macy’s department store. As you can imagine, the pedestrians thought we were running from the police. All of our team went in different directions. I thought I was in the clear and started to walk when a bounty hunter came around the corner at that exact moment. I began to sprint as fast as I possibly could. I turned another corner and dove behind a pillar of a building. Unfortunately, as the bounty hunter walked by, he saw my reflection in the window and captured me. He then handcuffed me to a bench and walked away with a smile. I spent the next few minutes embarrassingly picking the handcuffs while people were walking by and giving me the most awkward looks.

    Business is very similar. There are deadlines you will have to hit even when you don’t want to. You will often need to push your limits to accomplish impossible things. You will need to flat-out sprint and hustle with everything you have got, and the more prepared you are for these moments, the better you will be able to handle them when they happen.

    Related: 5 Comfort-Crushing Tips to Reach Your Goals

    7. All things are possible

    The last lesson was that all things are possible. If goals are dissected into a simple step-by-step process (make a plan), it is much simpler to take each hurdle and obstacle that comes your way. It seems nearly impossible to be kidnapped, handcuffed, blindfolded, duct taped, waterboarded, shocked by a stun gun, escape from bounty hunters and accomplish 14 missions in one day that most people would struggle with working on only one. But we did it, and we did it because we were prepared, planned, worked as a team, were adaptable, remembered to breathe and ran as fast as we could when needed.

    I firmly believe that anyone can build a business if they believe in themselves and their dreams. Learning to survive a kidnapping was just one way to reassure me that anything is possible if you believe.

    [ad_2]

    Chris Reynolds

    Source link

  • 9 Lessons Entrepreneurship Will Teach You

    9 Lessons Entrepreneurship Will Teach You

    [ad_1]

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Once upon a time, my wife Jenna and I and our three kids under ten moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles, had another baby, and bought our first house together. This, we thought, is the perfect time to quit our jobs and start a business! [eyeroll]

    The idea of our company, Be Courageous, was born during the facilitation of a client session when the team was at odds with each other while exploring the future of their business. This quote from George Prince was on the wall: “Another word for creativity is courage.”

    I realized many of us stay trapped in old thinking and actions when we lack the conditions to be creative and courageous.

    A question emerged for me, “What would a world with an abundance of courage look like? How can I help create it?”

    With my experience in marketing, strategy and facilitation, and Jenna’s in psychology, human resources and operations, we founded our business consultancy, Be Courageous. Every year we’ve grown. Every year our impact has expanded. Every year we’ve learned.

    Here are some of our biggest learnings for those of you on your entrepreneurial journey.

    Related: The 7 Business Lessons You Should Learn by 30

    9 lessons from five years of learning

    As any reader here knows, starting and running a business is a piece of cake. Ha!

    For real, here is what we learned, having grown our U.S. business of two to a worldwide organization with dozens of clients and 35+ network partners while positively impacting nearly 1 million people in 82 countries.

    1. Agility

    One of our most in-demand programs with Fortune 500 companies this year has been our training on agile leadership. When you own your own business — the unexpected will happen. A successful entrepreneur adapts to new challenges and situations and creates lemonade from lemons.

    We have created programs we never thought we would in response to what the world has needed from us.

    Have a solid plan, but be flexible.

    Related: These Are the Core Elements Needed to Successfully Pivot Your Business

    2. Purpose

    We aim to activate courage in companies worldwide and align them with a planet-beneficial future. Yours might be to improve humanity’s mental health or lessen people’s stress by building an easier-to-use product. Whatever your purpose is, make sure you’re deeply passionate about it and that it fuels your actions.

    Use the strength of your purpose to courage through challenges.

    3. Superpowers (and kryptonite)

    We found more success when we identified and focused on our greatest strengths. We aligned our strengths with our values and the services we wanted to provide to our clients to solve a problem they faced.

    For example, my superpower is guiding businesses to realize their potential and future. My kryptonite is getting tripped up in the micro-details of spreadsheets. That’s where Jenna comes in. She leads operations with her superpower of keeping our company financially stable, growing and on the ground. I’m the visionary, and she makes it possible.

    Align your superpowers with your business goals and values. Find people who have superpowers you lack.

    Related: Find Your Flow Through Deep Work and Unlock Your Superpower

    4. Curiosity

    In an exponentially-changing world, having an open mind is the key to running a successful business. Be curious about skills you don’t have and new ways to solve problems. Challenges will arise, but if your curiosity remains peaked, you’ll always get to the solution positively. Ask, “What is the courage needed in this situation?”

    Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it feeds company growth. (We’re a dog company, anyway, no offense to cats.)

    5. Healthy company culture

    Create a team that feels safe, strong, empowered and able to share and receive ideas. When you foster personal connections with your team and your clients (yes, business is personal), you will thrive beyond competitors who are only in it for the buck.

    Develop a positive company culture to unlock the full potential of your team.

    Related: 4 Ways Leaders Can Create Award-Winning Corporate Culture

    6. Operational foundation

    While you don’t want to get bogged down in systems and processes, your business won’t thrive without a solid operational foundation. Get an understanding of legal, financial and team infrastructure.

    Stay pragmatic and, as we like to say, “aggressively conservative.” We make leaps, but only with a net.

    Develop systems to streamline your business, so you can focus on serving your customers.

    7. Integrity

    Many people make empty promises, which erodes trust over time. It’s far better to over-deliver on your word. Pay what you say you will, earlier than you say you will. We’ve established deep, trusting relationships with our clients. We foster community.

    We get callbacks five years after doing one program with a client because we don’t burn bridges; we build them.

    Show up with your heart, don’t be a jerk, and honor your word.

    Related: Understanding the Burden of Trust for Business Leaders

    8. Optimism

    Never doubt what you can achieve, yet don’t be disillusioned. Approach everyone you can as a holistic human being, putting aside bias. Presume positive intent and look for positive solutions. Expect people to be their best until proven otherwise. And even then, be graceful about terminating any relationships.

    Work and live from a place of abundance, not scarcity.

    9. Mindful hiring

    Be thoughtful about who you bring into your organization.

    We hire a type of person — not only for the exact level of expertise we need. We hire people in love with our vision. A person who can be adaptive and learn with us. Who is willing to put in the work for a shared purpose.

    Hire the right puzzle piece for your vision, not just how they look on paper.

    Related: Why Kindness Should Be Part of Your Hiring Process

    Bottom line

    Owning your own business isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s an ebb and flow of successes and learnings. But 20 years from now, if you look back, would you regret not doing something about your big and burning idea?

    Fear will never go away, but when the desire to fulfill your purpose outweighs the fear of risks involved, that’s when you know you’re made to be an entrepreneur.

    [ad_2]

    Kyle Hermans

    Source link

  • 7 Relationship-Building Lessons I Learned By Partnering With Over 20 Franchises

    7 Relationship-Building Lessons I Learned By Partnering With Over 20 Franchises

    [ad_1]

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Franchising has become increasingly popular in recent years, and with good reason. There are two big reasons to do franchising: It allows you to partner with another business to share resources, customers and brand recognition. Secondly, the franchisor and franchisee rely on each other for growth — one can’t grow without the other. So this creates an incentive for both to strengthen their relationship and keep each other happy.

    Business is rough. It’s a battle full of discomfort, pain, haziness, unpredictability and uneasiness. When I consider all the pieces of this business puzzle, the biggest realization I have is that I need to build a team. By working with other entrepreneurs, we can go to “war” together and become stronger because we will have built a supportive network for each other.

    Related: 3 Tips on How to Empower Your Franchisees to Acquire Local Customers

    Having worked with over 20 franchises, I’ve learned so much about partnering with other business owners. I’ve found many similarities between building a business partnership and getting married. In both cases, you’re committing to working with someone else towards common goals, sharing resources and dealing with the good and bad times together.

    Related: Why People are Rethinking Retirement and Franchising Instead

    In business, we often discuss partnerships and franchising as if they are marriages. And in many ways, they are. Both require constant communication, trust, honesty and commitment from all parties involved.

    Just like in a marriage, these relationships can be incredibly rewarding and fraught with challenges. But if all parties are committed to making the relationship work, it can be a very successful venture.

    Here are some key lessons I’ve learned from franchising and partner relationships in business:

    1. With more franchises, you’ll have less time to give them

    When you have just a few franchises, you can dedicate more time and attention to every franchise, as you can keep up and meet their needs. However, it’s important to understand that as you grow in partners, the harder it gets to provide the necessary support and attention they need.

    When you’re starting out and only have to manage a few franchisees, you can get to know them personally and understand their business goals. But as your franchise network grows, providing that same support and attention becomes harder.

    2. You need self-sustaining partners

    As your franchise network grows, you need self-sufficient partners who can sustain themselves without your constant hand-holding. These partners clearly understand the franchisor-franchisee relationship and know how to operate their business independently.

    Communicating and meeting your business partner’s needs is important. However, having them be self-sufficient removes a lot of pressure from you and your team, allowing you to focus on other important matters.

    Related: 10 Ways the Pandemic Transformed Franchising

    3. Franchisees need to feel like they’re part of the family

    Like in a marriage, both partners need to feel like they are part of a family. For a franchise relationship to be successful, franchisees need to feel supported by the franchisor. They should feel like they are part of a team and that their success is the franchisor’s.

    As the franchisor, you must provide adequate training and support so franchisees can succeed. But more importantly, you need to create an environment where franchisees feel like they belong.

    4. Disagreements are inevitable — it’s how you handle them that’s key

    Just like in any relationship, there will be disagreements. It’s important to remember that how you handle these disagreements will determine the relationship’s success.

    In a franchising relationship, both parties must be willing to compromise and find a middle ground. They need to be able to see things from the other person’s perspective and be open to finding a solution that works for both parties.

    5. It’s difficult to keep everyone happy

    In any relationship, it’s impossible to keep everyone happy all the time. And in a franchising relationship, there will always be franchisees who are unhappy with something.

    The key is to listen to their concerns and try to find a way to address them. But at the end of the day, you need to make decisions that are in the best interest of the franchise as a whole.

    Related: How To Launch, Grow and Thrive in Franchising

    6. All relationships require work

    All relationships – whether they’re marriages or business partnerships require work. If you want your relationship to be successful, you must be willing to put in the time and effort. You need to communicate constantly and work together towards common goals.

    The relationship will suffer if you’re not willing to do the work. And in a business setting, that can mean big problems down the road.

    7. Focus on the opportunities

    Having a successful franchising relationship comes down to focus. You need to focus on the opportunities that the relationship provides. You must understand that this requires hard work, but it’s a very rewarding experience.

    You need to see the potential for growth and expansion. And you need to be willing to work together to make it happen. You’ll be well on your way to a successful franchising relationship if you can do that.

    [ad_2]

    JC Hite

    Source link

  • 5 Crucial Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Traveling the World

    5 Crucial Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Traveling the World

    [ad_1]

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Any entrepreneur could tell you that the road to success is paved with blood, sweat, tears and many lessons learned. While you can learn some of these lessons from home, there is a level of personal and business growth that can only come from traveling to new places.

    According to the Brightpark Edu-Travel report, 94% of U.S. business leaders believe that world travel gives them a competitive edge in the workplace. From opening your eyes to different perspectives to learning how to effectively communicate with people from all walks of life, travel offers a broad spectrum of valuable benefits for entrepreneurs everywhere. Here are five crucial lessons entrepreneurs learn while traveling:

    Related: Why Travel Should Be a Top Priority for Every Entrepreneur

    1. Traveling teaches you to be open to the unexpected

    Starting a new business venture comes with a lot of ambiguity. After all, you’re signing up for a truckload of the unpredictable. Will the business succeed? Will this year be a good one? Can I trust this investor? Is this the right move? Embracing the unpredictable can be a tall order, but doing so will afford you a much better chance at success.

    Traveling can be brutal at times. You’re forced to say goodbye to the comfort of your home and family, you have to trust strangers along the way, and you are constantly off balance as your mind and body adjust to a new time zone, new surroundings and new people.

    When you travel, you quickly learn that it’s imperative to be open to the unexpected. There are many variables in travel that cannot be controlled, and how you react to those challenges will determine how you can move forward — just like in business. As an entrepreneur, you must be open to the unexpected. Traveling the world is a fantastic way to learn that lesson early.

    2. Traveling can prevent burnout

    Taking calls or responding to emails when you should be sleeping doesn’t make you a better entrepreneur. On the contrary, devoting every minute of your existence to your career can actually prevent you from reaching your full potential and lead to burnout early on.

    Sleep deprivation has several adverse effects on your body, including:

    Lack of sleep will eventually catch up with you, causing you to hit a wall both physically and mentally. The effects of workplace burnout are real and can significantly hurt your chances of success. Likewise, stress and sleep deprivation can be detrimental to your business growth.

    Leading a healthy lifestyle is essential for entrepreneurs seeking success, and sometimes this means taking some much-needed time off to avoid burnout. Taking a vacation can give your mind and body the break they crave while allowing you to get a fresh perspective in a new environment. Traveling gives you time to reflect, come up with new ideas and gain focus.

    Burnout can quickly become the nail in the coffin for a hopeful entrepreneur, especially since it commonly leads to poor decision-making in the workplace. If you are feeling excessively fatigued, stressed or irritable, it may be time for you to hit the road for a refresh.

    Related: 5 Reasons Why Travel Should Be an Essential Part of Building Your Business

    3. Traveling gives entrepreneurs new ideas

    Traveling to new destinations around the world is an incredible way to benefit from the shift in perspective that can only come from experiencing different cultures and places. As entrepreneurs, we never stop searching for new ideas and business solutions.

    When you explore somewhere new, you gain a new understanding of what people in different parts of the world are interested in and what they worry about from day to day. If you’re stuck creatively or looking for inspiration, traveling abroad is the best way to form new ideas.

    Well-traveled people are more likely to think outside the box since their thoughts and beliefs are constantly being challenged. A curious mind is a creative one, and sticking to your daily routine forever is bound to lead to an eventual drop in productivity and innovation.

    4. Travel teaches entrepreneurs how to form valuable relationships

    During our daily lives, much of our communication is limited to colleagues, friends and family. When you travel, you’re forced to step out of your shell and communicate with strangers in all sorts of situations. It could be the man sitting next to you on the plane to Denmark, the hotel manager in Prague or the waitstaff at a sushi restaurant in Japan.

    These immersive experiences cause a mental shift to occur as you converse with people from different backgrounds, participate in new adventures, try new foods and adjust old habits. While it may not seem like much at the time, learning how to connect with different types of people and embrace new connections is a valuable lesson that will prove to be beneficial in the workplace.

    Your opinions and beliefs are re-evaluated when you travel. The more you learn about how others live and think, the more open-minded and curious you become. When your mind is flexible and void of rigid ideas about the world, it’s much easier to connect with those around you.

    As you gain insight into unique cultures and the common struggles of people in various parts of the world, you learn more about how you can support different people through your business ventures. The more you travel, the more you stray from your comfort zone, leading to a powerful transformation into an entrepreneur who is more willing to take risks and try new things.

    5. Traveling teaches entrepreneurs how to use body language effectively

    You have less than seven seconds to make a first impression. In business interactions, making a positive first impression is crucial. Once someone labels you — whether it’s as trustworthy, suspicious, powerful or submissive — everything you do is viewed through this lens.

    While it’s impossible to stop anyone from making a snap decision about you, you can use effective body language to sway the decision they make in those first few seconds after meeting you. It is widely believed that non-verbal cues are significantly more influential than verbal cues.

    Past studies have found that individuals who communicate through active gestures are generally perceived as warm, energetic and agreeable. On the other hand, those who remain still or whose gestures are more likely to come off as stiff or robotic are viewed as cold, dull and analytical.

    When traveling to foreign places where you don’t speak the language, you’re forced to rely more on nonverbal cues to communicate with those around you. By researching the culture ahead of your trip, you can determine how to use body language to your advantage. This knowledge can later be used in the workplace to help form positive interactions with peers and clients.

    Related: Traveling the World Is an Adventure That Makes You a Better Entrepreneur

    Travel offers a staggering number of benefits to anyone, but entrepreneurs are uniquely capable of turning these benefits into actionable ideas and solutions. Plan a trip — maybe even one without a set travel itinerary — and write down everything you learn during the journey.

    You might just be shocked by how many fresh ideas you bring back home. Perhaps you’ll even be inspired to start a whole new business. After all, variety is the spice of life, and what better way to discover variety than by exploring the world?

    [ad_2]

    Kareem Dus

    Source link

  • 5 Lessons I Learned From Starting a Company at 19 Years Old

    5 Lessons I Learned From Starting a Company at 19 Years Old

    [ad_1]

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    I had no intention of creating my own software company. I was kind of forced into it. You see, a few years ago, I was a full-time YouTuber. All was well until my channel got demonetized. This means that I was making $0 from the ads being placed on my videos.

    There was a point where I was getting 2-3 million views a month on my channel and didn’t receive a penny. As a way to bounce back from this low, I decided to put my life savings ($5,000) into starting a creator economy software startup at 19 years old. I dropped out of college to work on my SaaS startup full-time, and I have learned valuable lessons along the way. Here are five of the most important lessons I have learned so far:

    Related: How to Start and Grow a Business: A Digital Guide for Young Entrepreneurs

    1. Done is better than perfect

    I had no experience in coding — let alone creating and growing a startup. Despite these challenges, I 100% believed in my idea. Backed with a proof of concept, I was willing to do everything within my limited budget to turn my SaaS idea into a reality.

    With a well-written vision and lots of persistence, I was able to find a good developer overseas that not only fit my budget but believed in my vision for Trend Watchers.

    We still work together to this day. The first versions of Trend Watchers were hideous, but over time, the UI/UX slowly improved. When I look back at my journey from a software development point of view, I should not have made it this far. I went through so many setbacks and hurdles. I should have quit back at the start line, but by having a great vision and team mixed with the desire to succeed, we were able to pull through.

    No matter how challenging a task may seem, done is always better than perfect. Oftentimes, perfection comes through the countless mistakes you make along the way.

    2. The importance of data collection

    One thing I implemented early on is good data collection. What do I mean by data collection? Data collection has a bad rep, thanks to large companies and scammers abusing it to make a quick buck. But there is a good side to data collection. Data collection can be used to make better marketing decisions. It can also be used to discover what users like and don’t like.

    I collect data in a few ways, but two of the most useful data collection tactics I used are asking good questions on our signup sequence and having a session recording software that tracks how long users are on each page and what they click on. These two data-collecting methods have helped with making the right decisions and software updates to improve the user experience.

    Related: The Complete, 12-Step Guide to Starting a Business

    3. Get a proof of concept before you build

    For the people in the back, I’m going to repeat myself: Get a proof of concept before you build. In early 2022, I thought it would be a good idea to build a marketplace within Trend Watchers. Marketplaces are great, and when used right they can be a great growth engine for startups — but no one wanted that. They just wanted trends they can use to go viral online.

    Instead of listening to this market feedback, I went ahead and built it anyway, and it was a major flop. It also caused a whole lot of other issues, but I wasted a lot of time and money on something my users didn’t want at the time. Because of that experience, I always conduct surveys and get a proof of concept before I add a new feature.

    4. Tell your story

    Starting a software company at 19 years old with my own money was already challenging enough financially. The next question was, how am I going to market this thing with a $0 marketing budget?

    Growing up, I’ve always been an amazing storyteller. In my free time after school, I would always write my own books. I would go into our home office, grab a few sheets of paper from the printer, fold them in half, staple them together, and boom — I had a book.

    I decided to leverage this skill I developed at a young age to slowly build a movement of loyal followers that would help me get traction for Trend Watchers. The two platforms I decided to focus on to document my progress were Instagram and leveraging press. This wasn’t an overnight success. It took tons of writing, documentation and pitching to slowly start getting my brand’s story heard, and now it is starting to pay off.

    One interesting insight I recently discovered about my paying customers is that they tend to stay longer knowing that their money is being put to work. A lot of my paying customers follow my story through my email list or Instagram page for weekly updates.

    If you are working on growing your startup, document your journey. Not only do you end up with a well-written journal in the end, but you can also find loyal customers along the way.

    5. Take every opportunity that presents itself

    Some of the best decisions I’ve ever made were time-sensitive opportunities that came my way. Some of these opportunities included opportunities to buy into programs, go to different places and break my schedule to attend certain events. About 90% of these opportunities came out of nowhere, and every time I took one, it significantly helped me in the process of growing my business.

    Related: 6 Tips for Building a Successful, Scalable Software Company

    As most people know, starting and growing a business is not easy, especially for a young adult with no prior experience. Reading books and watching YouTube videos can be very helpful and informative, but experience is truly the best teacher. The skills and lessons I’ve acquired through my experience have helped me grow exponentially, and hopefully, these five lessons above can help other entrepreneurs — young or old — grow their businesses as well.

    [ad_2]

    Dejon Brooks

    Source link

  • Learning to Embrace Her Culture Led This Entrepreneur to Found a Jewelry Brand Loved by Celebrities

    Learning to Embrace Her Culture Led This Entrepreneur to Found a Jewelry Brand Loved by Celebrities

    [ad_1]

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Growing up, I spent a number of summer vacations in India with my extended family. I would get gifts of dangly gold earrings and bright-colored jeweled bracelets that I would bring back home to Boston. I remember wearing the pieces to school and being teased for how gaudy, sparkly and odd they looked, so I stopped wearing Indian jewelry. Even as an adult, I struggle to pair Indian jewelry pieces with my Western clothing.

    “I also remember being teased for the Indian gold chains my mom would put on me before I headed out to school,” says Rekha Brar, founder and CEO of Blossom Box Jewelry. “I was reluctant to wear the chains, but my mother would remind me that they were passed down from my grandmother and how beautiful they were. Despite how different I felt in school, my parents always encouraged me to embrace my individuality, not blend in, and to never forget where I came from.”

    [ad_2]

    Mita Mallick

    Source link