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Tag: Business Process

  • How to Fall Back in Love with Your Business | Entrepreneur

    How to Fall Back in Love with Your Business | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Early in my entrepreneurial journey, I found myself stretched very thin and losing my enthusiasm. I was trying to figure out, “Who will I be when I grow up?” I was a coach, coaching a variety of clients with a variety of needs. A couple of clients were executives struggling with work-life balance. A few clients were small business owners needing help with team member issues. Some were coaches trying to grow their own coaching business. They saw how busy I was with client work and figured I knew something about marketing. Money was coming in. I had plenty of work, and I was exhausted.

    To survive the critical first five years of business, we entrepreneurs typically try all kinds of things to see what works, to create a demand for our products or services to find clients. Once we find clients, we try to serve different needs. We say “yes” to every opportunity that comes our way because we are determined to make a go of the business.

    We pile on the products and offerings, always looking for ways to get the cash flowing. While this helps your business survive the first few critical years, it is not a long-term strategy for thriving. If we continue to operate this way, our businesses will become overweight, and the demands will be crushing.

    We end up with products and offerings that may or may not be profitable. But we’re so busy with all the demand we created. Who has time to stop and pay attention to which customers, clients, products and offerings are the most profitable? AY!

    Related: 4 Companies Followed This Secret Formula. Now They’re Valued at $50 Million or More.

    Our capacity gets stretched thin, and we decide it’s time to hire. Now we are increasing one of the biggest expenses in our businesses: payroll. We are growing our payroll to serve customers who are not profitable.

    Even though revenue is growing, our business is becoming less and less efficient. This inefficiency is why an entrepreneur bringing in millions in revenue can still struggle to meet payroll, laying awake night after night worrying about cash flow.

    If you’re recognizing yourself and your business in this description, it’s time for your business to go on a diet! Shed the extra, unnecessary weight in your business.

    The 80/20 Principle provides a path forward. If your business generates $1,000,000 in revenue annually, 20% of your clients likely are responsible for $800,000 of that $1,000,000. Suppose you set a modest goal to increase revenue by 25% from the top 20% of your clients by delivering additional value. In that case, your business will generate $200,000 in additional revenue annually, for $1,000,000, from your top 20% of clients.

    Related: What You Really Need to Know About Marketing’s 80/20 Principle to Succeed

    The implications of this are significant if it’s important to you to have more time for what matters most and more money in your bank account. It allows you the choice to drop 80% of your clients. Do you know those PITA (Pain in the Assets) clients? The ones who complain, are never satisfied, pay late and take too much of your team’s time and energy? Imagine being at choice to let them go without any negative impact on your revenue!

    Would you be okay with that? I’m betting you would be. Letting them go increases your profit. You get to work less, serving fewer clients. Moreover, the clients you are serving are a joy to work with. They appreciate you and the value you deliver. The freed-up time also allows you to replace those you drop with better clients who are similar to the clients in your top 20%.

    Because you are serving fewer clients, you only need a few team members. Remember, payroll is typically the biggest expense in a business. Furthermore, suppose you put A-Players in the remaining roles and align the A-Players with roles that allow them the opportunity to work from their strengths. In that case, you will see 900–1200% more productivity from those A-Players than from “warm body” employees.

    Meanwhile, you have far fewer headaches and more time for what matters most, and you are running a much more profitable business.

    This was painful for me at first. I created a robust, evergreen program to help coaches with their marketing. We had almost 50 coaches in the program. My virtual assistant ran the program, and her hours increased almost weekly. These coaches were not tech-savvy and needed a lot of hand-holding to utilize the online platform. I loved that I had created a “hands-off” offering that brought in passive revenue. I quickly realized that this offering was not hands-off and was losing profitability weekly as we added participants. I cut this program. The business was more profitable within two months, even though revenue dropped! It’s not about how much you make, it’s about how much you keep.

    My next step was to claim my top clients. These are the twenty percent of clients contributing eighty percent of the revenue to the business, the ones I love working with the most, whose values align with mine, and who value my services. Gremlins screamed in my head: “But what if you lose business?” “What will your executive clients think when you focus on small business owners?” “Don’t let anyone down!”

    Saying goodbye to clients who were not my top clients was hard. The following week, I had open spaces in my calendar. This was fun! I had room to be creative again. I got to work on improving services for my small business owners. I showed up on-site. I asked questions. I saw simple ways I could help. They ate it up! They paid me to do more for them. They smiled when they saw me on-site, working with their teams. Their team members looked forward to our meetings. Suddenly, my days were energizing. I looked at my calendar each day and thought, “Wow! How cool is that to get to work with these people today?” Work became fun and life-giving. I had fallen back in love with my business.

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    Dr. Sabrina Starling

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  • 3 Practical Ways AI Can Work for You | Entrepreneur

    3 Practical Ways AI Can Work for You | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The parabolic growth of accessible AI tools has intriguing implications for businesses. Analysts imagine that generative AI, for example, will have a massive impact on productivity across multiple business functions. Many organizations are scanning the horizon for a long-term AI-fueled transformation, eager to make the most of bullish CAGR projections. And while leaders mustn’t lose sight of long-term goals, staring out too far into the future may be overwhelming — distracting, even.

    Rather than redesign their business’ entire approach just to meet AI somewhere along the horizon, leaders can instead take a more practical route and ask how AI can improve their current strategy. Can AI accelerate current tactics? Can it help teams do things better? Can it help organizations reach their goals with less overhead? The answer, especially regarding product, customer success and internal processes, is overwhelmingly “yes.”

    Related: The Robots Are Coming — But They Can’t Outsmart Us When It Comes To This Particular Skill.

    Product teams can let AI do the legwork for them

    AI’s impact on product development begins with the nitty gritty. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT can help teams with everything from documentation to marketing briefs and website content. My team has leveraged AI for these very purposes, letting AI rewrite code into additional languages once we create the initial sample code. Humans are still an essential part of the process, but AI helps provide a kickstart.

    Tech companies have taken AI a step further, embedding it into their products. AI represents both a tremendous opportunity and a threat for security solutions providers. Bad actors have new tool sets that enable them to create more sophisticated attacks faster and more intelligently. Cyber product teams use the same tools to defend against emerging threats and offer in-product help to ensure their customers are more productive, better informed and ultimately satisfied with the experience.

    Non-tech companies should be thinking about the experience around their products, and, indeed, many are. Car manufacturers use AI to enhance their collision-detection systems. Healthcare solutions providers embed AI in their diagnostics and imaging products. Nike uses AI to power its product personalization efforts.

    AI helps customer teams create responsive, tailored experiences

    Customer-experience chatbots have been around for a long time, but concerns about data privacy, unnatural language and unhelpful results have kept them from becoming ubiquitous. Recent advancements have helped fine-tune chatbots such that they can answer questions more efficiently and accurately than a support desk person. AI-enhanced chatbots have helped transform these experiences from feeling like an impersonal human replacement to a better and more responsible customer experience, yet some consumers are still wary. Most will use chatbots, provided there is always an option to transfer to a live agent.

    Chatbots aren’t the only way organizations can infuse their customer experience with AI. Many companies effectively employ powerful data analytics, feeding valuable purchase and customer data into algorithms that help create ever-evolving seamless, personalized omnichannel experiences – think about how Spotify recommends new songs based on listeners’ history and allows them to switch from one device to the next easily.

    AI allows everyone to escape process mundanity

    For both product and customer experience teams, much of the AI magic happens behind the scenes. Chances are those teams are also using intelligent tools to automate workflows and speed up processes so that people can do their jobs more effectively. Teams for nearly any business function can use AI to do everything from creating images for a slide presentation to drafting website content and writing documentation.

    Leaders interested in process-focused AI can begin by asking, “How can AI help deliver a product or service more effectively?” and “What are we spending time on that AI could/should be doing?” By leaning into existing tools, such as those that Microsoft, Google and OpenAI provide, organizations can simplify mundane tasks involved in creating documents, spreadsheets and slide decks to free up their workforce for more creative and mission-critical work.

    Related: Automation Is Becoming a Business Imperative: Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late

    AI: the ultimate means to achieving business goals

    On my product management team, we’re exploring all facets of our roles and asking ourselves how AI can help us spend more time analyzing information instead of gathering and summarizing it. This approach has been a tremendous shortcut for some components of our research and is a helpful way to think about AI as it relates to our company’s trajectory. When we ask how AI can help us fulfill our goals, we stay focused rather than become distracted navigating to some nebulous AI-enabled future along the horizon.

    Making AI work for us — not the other way around — is also a useful reminder that modern intelligent tools aren’t here to replace employees. In fact, a human in the loop is critical, regardless of AI’s application. Product teams must validate AI’s documentation; customer experience teams need to review modeling output for errors and continue to interact with customers when the time comes.

    The next time you make a decision about AI, remember that it is just a practical means to achieving business goals and not the end goal in and of itself.

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    Jason Oeltjen

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  • Do You Know How to Lose? 4 Principles for Cutting Your Losses | Entrepreneur

    Do You Know How to Lose? 4 Principles for Cutting Your Losses | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    I’m a great loser. Before I explain just how good I am at it — and why you should work at it, too — you need to know two things about me:

    First, I’m a day trader. Much of the investing world values the long-term “buy and hold” strategy. Warren Buffett is the most famous example, and he’s done well. In contrast, the very definition of day trading is that you cannot hold any positions overnight. In my case, I rarely hold trades for even hours. My average hold time over my last 20,000 trades has been about five minutes.

    The second thing to know is I’ve built both my day trading account and my information business by self-funding them. Much of the business world values leverage. It’s the notion that if you really believe in your business, you should take on debt or get equity partners. “You’re either growing or you’re dying!”

    Being a day trader and a self-funded business owner have combined to make me really good at cutting my losses. Here are four principles for cutting losses that may be useful to you, even if you have no intention of day trading.

    Related: I Turned $583 into $10 Million. Here’s How I Did It and 5 Lessons I Learned Along the Way

    1. Don’t waste your latitude just because you have it

    Currently, I could afford to lose six figures in a trade, but instead, I still trade the same way I did when my back was against the wall.

    For a little backstory, I lost a lot of money day trading until I was close to broke: I was divorced, living with my dog in Vermont, selling my furniture on Craigslist and chopping wood instead of paying for heat. In that crucible, I identified what my previous winning trades looked like and one other thing: that I was holding my losers too long. I had to cut my losses faster if I would survive.

    This is painful to do! Walking away not only removes the hope that the situation may turn around, but it goes against what we’ve all been told: “Stick with it! Don’t be a quitter! Finish the job!”

    Let’s say your situation is different: you have enough money that you can stick with a difficult situation for a while. Should you?

    I don’t know your situation, but I do know this: making the decision to quit is doubly hard when you’re in the thick of it. The best way to decide is to identify your quitting criteria upfront. In day-trading lingo, it’s your “max loss.” You are insane to take a position in a stock without knowing the point at which you absolutely must sell. That way, you don’t need to think or evaluate if that number is reached — you simply must react. If you know those criteria with the business venture you’re involved in, it will be far easier to minimize the pain if things suddenly go south for you.

    Related: Stepping Aside: When To Walk Away As A Leader

    2. Don’t let sunk costs hijack your larger perspective.

    A “sunk cost” is what you’ve already spent on a project at the point when you start to think about abandoning it. Examples might be a half-built nuclear reactor, a Pentagon project wallowing in budget over-runs — or the project that’s become a boat anchor to your business.

    You might already have spent a lot on that project, and writing it off may be painful and embarrassing, especially if only recently you were on record as optimistic. The only thing worse would be to throw even more good money after bad. You need to be willing to cut your losses.

    Here’s how it happened to me. Day traders can — and should — use a trading simulator to develop and test their trading skills without risking real money. It’s a crucial piece of software, so we decided to buy some source code to form the basis of our proprietary simulator. We customized it, and it worked quite well.

    Only it didn’t scale. The first 50 to 100 users liked it, but the system began to show signs of choking with hundreds of users. I had invested six figures in buying and modifying the code. Could we have rebuilt it from the ground up? Yes. But the prospect of turning it around was too far distant. I threw it away and entered a partnership with a company that specialized in simulation software. That hurt, but it was the right move.

    Related: The Sunk Cost Fallacy is Ruining Your Decisions. Here are 3 Life-Changing Lessons I’ve Learned From Pivoting

    3. Encourage feedback, but don’t let it have outsize influence on hard decisions

    Business owners want engaged employees who feel their opinions are being listened to. Sometimes, that means doing the opposite when it’s in the company’s best interest.

    There have been times when I had gut intuitions about what we needed to do, and my team was like: “This is way too much! How are we even going to explain this when people write in?” In these cases, I tell them: “I have confidence that you’re going to figure it out.” My job is to solve what will work long term, and other team members must solve the challenges in their areas.

    Related: How Business Leaders Can Keep Employees Engaged

    4. Protracted losses have compound effects

    When you don’t cut your losses quickly, that’s an opportunity cost: you’ve spent time managing the loser when you could have redirected that time and money to other opportunities. But an extended loss has another downside: it shakes your confidence for weeks or even longer. In contrast, a quick decision to cut a loss can be a confidence builder.

    Making decisions is like exercising a muscle. Some decisions are easy, like where to eat. But when faced with a tough one involving losses, consider using that muscle, feeling the pain, and doing it anyway. You’ll be that much stronger.

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    Ross Cameron

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  • 7 Critical Pieces of Business Advice for Entrepreneurs | Entrepreneur

    7 Critical Pieces of Business Advice for Entrepreneurs | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Going out on your own as an entrepreneur can feel both intimidating and exhilarating at the same time. Though you may have the skills and experience to get started, knowing the responsibility relies solely upon you may not feel like the same security as working a regular 9-5 job. However, a sense of freedom and accomplishment makes the risk feel worth it.

    Every person who’s decided to take the leap and forge their path has felt a bit of uncertainty at some point along the way. After all, several unknown variables exist, but learning to forge ahead builds resilience.

    When embarking on an entrepreneurial endeavor, it’s important to go at the pace and in the direction that feels right for you, but here are a few pieces of general advice as you start your journey.

    Related: 9 Lessons to Learn From Being in the Entrepreneurial Trenches

    1. Commit to the process

    As an entrepreneur, you wear all the hats. You are the boss, the operations, the accountant, the cheerleader, and so on. Therefore, it’s up to you to champion your brand and adapt as needed.

    Even when times get rocky (and they will), you must dig in and believe in your business.

    No one will care as much about it as you are, so be discerning when deciding who you work with and bring on board to help reach your goals. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, so not everything may happen as quickly as you’d like. Have patience in the process.

    2. Get organized

    Having big ideas is the exciting part, but the reality is you have to get things organized to execute well. Take advantage of project management tools and programs for invoicing, scheduling and online branding and promotions.

    Ensure your focus on business growth isn’t taking away from delivering a quality product or service. There must be an excellent balance to maintain your clients and entice new ones to come aboard. Getting organized takes more time initially but will save you invaluable time and money once your business is up and running.

    3. Be confident in your rates

    Setting rates is one of the most challenging things for entrepreneurs, mainly because they’re unsure what they should be. Research your industry averages and factor in your expertise, experience and skills to come up with a rate you’re comfortable with.

    However, don’t sell yourself short. Not everyone may be a good business fit for you, and vice-versa. Focus on building quality client relationships rather than worrying too much about quantity.

    Related: Confidence Will Make All the Difference to Your Hustle

    4. Seek the support of others

    Every business has competition, but every industry has plenty of room for anyone wanting to succeed. Reach out to the support of other entrepreneurs through networking and social events or even online. Sharing stories of struggles and tips for taking your business to the next level can motivate you during the lulls.

    It allows you to be part of a community even as you’re running a business solo. Plus, camaraderie can help you feel less alone when you’re unsure of the next step.

    Related: 6 Principles From the Navy SEAL Code That Will Make Your Team Stronger

    5. Channel gratitude

    The frustrations of being an entrepreneur can lead down a slippery slope of feeling sorry for yourself. Some days, it’s going to feel like nothing is going right. Other days, you may compare yourself to others in your field and wonder why their success is coming more quickly. In these moments, wanting to quit can feel all too easy. Don’t.

    Allow yourself time to feel and reflect, but switch those feelings to gratitude for everything you have and the promise of where you are heading. There will be bad days, but when you change your perspective, you can turn things around for the better.

    6. Stay true to yourself

    Being an entrepreneur is a test of your integrity. With so many different challenges and new situations coming your way simultaneously, it can be easy to lose sight of your goals. While stepping out on your own is an emergence from your comfort zone, you want to do so as your authentic self.

    There will be shortcuts you find along the way; just make sure they align with how you want to do business. It’s essential to pause and check in with your strategies, your partnerships, and your path to ensure it is still true to you. Otherwise, you may reach a place of burnout or breakdown because you’re misaligned.

    Related: Understanding Entrepreneurial Burnout (And How To Deal With It)

    7. Celebrate the wins

    Life as an entrepreneur is busy. There are weeks when it’s hard to track what day it is. However, as chaotic as your schedule gets, take time to celebrate the big and small wins and plan rewards.

    A reward can be as small as treating yourself to lunch or as big as acquiring new office space to help grow your brand. Whatever marks the effort feels valuable to you, do it. Acknowledging your accomplishments along the way will motivate you to keep going, improving, and growing. And more than that, you deserve it.

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    Kelly Hyman

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  • The Number One Thing That Holds Entrepreneurs Back | Entrepreneur

    The Number One Thing That Holds Entrepreneurs Back | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    On this episode of The Jeff Fenster Show, host Jeff Fenster speaks with entrepreneur, salesperson, and motivational speaker David Meltzer. With a remarkable journey that began with humble beginnings, Meltzer shares his insights and experiences, offering valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs.

    From Rags to Riches: A Desire for Success

    David Meltzer’s journey began with a burning desire for wealth, despite his challenging upbringing. His determination and entrepreneurial spirit propelled him forward, leading to various successful ventures. Meltzer’s credibility lies in his extensive experience as a successful entrepreneur and his role as the CEO of Sports 1 Marketing. Meltzer states, “I always had this desire to be rich, and I knew that money would buy me the freedom and the things that I wanted in my life.”

    Related: Discover more great Entrepreneur Podcast Network shows

    Understanding the Business Aspect Is Key to Success

    Throughout his career, Meltzer emphasized the importance of understanding the business aspect of any venture. His credibility stems from his diverse experiences, including selling legal research online and running Samsung’s phone division. Meltzer explains, “I learned that the key to success in any business is understanding the business of that business.”

    The Power of Core Values: Creating Desired Outcomes

    Meltzer firmly believes in the power of core values and how they can shape one’s journey to success. His credibility lies in his role as a motivational speaker and his work with Lee Steinberg’s sports agency. Meltzer shares, “Core values are the foundation of creating the outcomes that we desire in our lives.”

    The Importance of Gratitude: A Path to Success

    Meltzer highlights the significance of gratitude in achieving success. His credibility is established through his own experiences and his role as a motivational speaker. Meltzer states, “Gratitude is the most powerful emotion that we have. It allows us to find the light, the love, and the lessons in everything.”

    Trusting the Universe and Helping Others

    Meltzer emphasizes the importance of trusting the universe and helping others along the way. His credibility stems from his successful career and his dedication to philanthropy. Meltzer explains, “When you trust the universe and you help as many people as you can, you’ll be amazed at what comes back to you.”

    Prioritizing Health and Wellbeing for Success

    Meltzer recognizes the significance of prioritizing one’s health and well-being in order to achieve success. His credibility lies in his own journey and his commitment to personal growth. Meltzer shares, “If you don’t take care of your health, you won’t have the energy, the focus, or the clarity to achieve the success that you desire.”

    Grabbing Inspiration

    David Meltzer’s journey from a desire for wealth to achieving great success is an inspiration to aspiring entrepreneurs. His insights on understanding the business aspect, the power of core values, gratitude, trusting the universe, and prioritizing health and well-being provide valuable lessons for anyone on the path to success. With his credibility as a successful entrepreneur and motivational speaker, Meltzer’s wisdom serves as a guiding light for those seeking to create their own success stories.

    Subscribe to The Jeff Fenster Show: Entrepreneur | Apple | Spotify | Google | Stitcher

    About The Jeff Fenster Show

    Serial entrepreneur Jeff Fenster embarks on an extraordinary journey every week, delving into the stories of exceptional individuals who have defied the norms and blazed their own trails to achieve extraordinary success.

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    Jeff Fenster

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  • Why Every Business Leader Should Write a Book | Entrepreneur

    Why Every Business Leader Should Write a Book | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    From memoirs like Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog to leadership guides like Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, books have long been a powerful medium for executives to share their stories and wisdom. But in today’s noisy digital age, does authorship still matter for modern business leaders?

    The answer is a resounding yes. Here’s why every leader should make writing and publishing a book a priority.

    Related: 7 Books Every CEO Should Read

    Establish your thought leadership

    Publishing a business book has become a rite of passage for today’s foremost executives across every industry. It’s one of the most effective ways to demonstrate intellectual authority and cement your status as a thought leader.

    Writing a book lets you articulate your unique perspectives, business philosophies and life lessons. A book is a tangible artifact of your ideas that delivers lasting value to readers long after publication. Whether it’s leading a startup or a Fortune 500 firm, authoring a book provides an unparalleled way to define your leadership brand.

    Share your story

    Books allow leaders to share their origin stories and behind-the-scenes glimpses into pivotal moments. Vulnerable and personal stories connect with readers on a human level. Mixing anecdotes with practical lessons also makes teaching moments more resonant. A book provides the space to tell your journey – from early career struggles to the risks that fueled your success. Every leader has impactful life experiences worth capturing in print, which a book makes possible.

    Related: Harness the Power of Storytelling to Transform Your Business for the Better

    Spread your vision

    Business books give leaders a unique format to cast a vision and rally people behind it. Certain ideas require more nuance than a tweet, blog post or speech can provide. A book allows you to comprehensively articulate your philosophy and prescriptions around leadership, culture, innovation or any topic. Whether predicting future trends or detailing growth strategies, a book gives leaders the bandwidth to inspire action around their ideas. Put simply, books make messages stick.

    Attract top talent

    Your book can be a powerful recruitment tool to engage and hire world-class talent. It provides insight into your leadership style and company values. For candidates considering roles at your firm, reading your book is like getting a crash course straight from the CEO.

    They can discern whether your culture and philosophy resonate before stepping into the office. A book signals that you are invested in developing people. Top performers will find the care and forethought behind your book attractive.

    Related: How to Attract and Retain Top Talent

    Build your brand

    Authoring a book is a brand-building exercise that boosts your professional visibility and name recognition. A book gives you a product to promote across all your marketing channels. The content also fuels speaking engagements, podcast interviews and social media. Every touchpoint where someone engages your book spreads brand awareness. Over time, your book can make you synonymous with key ideas. Whether trying to attract investors, partners or media, a book strengthens your brand considerably.

    Leave a legacy

    Once a business leader departs, their tangible impact can fade quickly. A book, however, creates a lasting legacy that continues influencing people for generations. It serves as a formal record of your fundamental principles and achievements.

    Whether instructing others or reminiscing, your book remains a reference. Great entrepreneurs like Rockefeller and Disney still impact people through their biographies today. A book provides future leaders with enduring life lessons.

    Related: How to Leave Your Legacy, Help Others and Raise Your Authority

    The benefits for your business

    Beyond individual gains, a book also directly benefits your business in several ways:

    1. Credibility and PR. A book is a powerful credibility booster that generates buzz and media coverage for your company. Journalists rely on readers to inform their reporting. A book gives you a pre-researched resource to share with reporters. It’s also great fodder for landing speaking gigs and PR opportunities. Any publicity the book drives ultimately shines a positive light on your business.
    2. Lead generation. Your book can fuel a robust lead generation strategy. Using sections of the book or lessons within it as gated content offers in exchange for contact info is proven to attract qualified prospects. Books make ideal gifts to existing clients and high-value targets. They establish you as an authority worth paying attention to. Promoting your book is also a pillar for capturing speaking leads or advisory roles.
    3. Recruiting perk. A book can be a nice added perk to entice candidates during recruiting. Providing copies to finalists or new hires is a meaningful gesture. Your book enables them to hit the ground running by quickly getting up to speed on your leadership style and business principles. C-suite candidates, particularly, see your book as a strong indicator of your dedication to mentorship and developing future leaders.
    4. Culture ambassador. For organizations with thousands of employees across disparate locations, a book allows you to reinforce vision and values consistently. Your book encapsulates the culture you want to be embodied at scale. When distributed widely internally, it is an invaluable reference that keeps everyone rowing in one direction. New hires receive a clear artifact of the company’s ideals and history from day one.

    The book process

    Writing a book may seem daunting, but modern publishing options have made the process more accessible than ever:

    • Work with an experienced ghostwriter – They handle the writing based on your vision and interviews.
    • Use pre-orders to fund production – Cover upfront costs by pre-selling copies.
    • Start with a goal of 250 pages
    • Schedule 4 months to complete the manuscript
    • Hire a professional designer – Have a budget of around $1,000 for an eye-catching cover.
    • Self-publish and retain rights – Platforms like Amazon make this simple.
    • Launch with PR and events – Land media hits and plan release parties.

    The benefits demonstrate why authorship should be on every leader’s radar. But ultimately, a book allows you to impact people seeking wisdom on thriving in business and life. And there is no greater legacy.

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    Vikrant Shaurya

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  • How to Turn Every Adversity You Face into an Advantage | Entrepreneur

    How to Turn Every Adversity You Face into an Advantage | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Entrepreneurship is a wild ride, right? I would know. I’ve ridden that rollercoaster through storms and smooth stretches. But every time life threw a curveball, I stepped up to bat.

    I still remember when one of our key developers had to leave our company for personal reasons right before we launched a massive update — it was scary. I learned to rely on multiple people to do a given task.

    Life can flip from incredible to terrifying before you can say “entrepreneur.” I still remember when COVID-19 started. My company went from getting high-fives from industry titans to realizing our users couldn’t even step outside, let alone upload content.

    So, join me on the journey where I turn setbacks into my secret weapons.

    Related: 10 Growth Strategies Every Business Owner Should Know

    Embracing the crazy swings of life

    Here’s the thing about entrepreneurship: It’s like diving into an ocean of challenges. When I jumped into this sea of business, obstacles seemed like roadblocks. But guess what? They were stepping stones, leading me to growth and wisdom. It’s like when you learned to ride a bike without the training wheels — scary but exhilarating.

    Big-company solutions often don’t apply to us entrepreneurs. “Never rely on just one person to do a given task” would seem like an obvious lesson an industry titan might give you. Well, guess what? We small business owners often don’t have the luxury of having multiple employees with the same skill sets.

    So what do we do? We get creative. Seek solutions in places you might have never considered. Websites like Fiverr, Upwork and Flexjobs often offer temporary freelance solutions to get you through the day.

    Get comfortable with being uncomfortable because that is what being an entrepreneur is about.

    Related: Creativity, Innovation, And Leadership: The Elements of Transformation

    Why cultural roots are a different kind of power tool

    In Mexico, we’ve got this saying: some of the best engineers don’t need fancy degrees. They just rocked their resourcefulness like pros, using whatever tools they had. As a Mexican entrepreneur, that gritty mindset is my secret sauce. It’s like taking lemons and making the best orange juice you’ve ever tasted. Like, how’d that happen? We got creative.

    When adversity knocks, I knock back. Drawing from my heritage, I tap into the spirit of innovation that’s the heart of the Mexican entrepreneurial scene. It’s like when your grandma used her secret recipe to turn a regular meal into a feast. Our cultural foundation is like rocket fuel, powering us through the roughest storms.

    Related: 6 Obstacles to Creative Thinking and How to Overcome Them

    Turning challenges into allies: My game changer

    Every entrepreneur’s journey is filled with “uh-oh” moments that, with a little twist, become “Aha!” sparks. When my company, Replay Listings, got the side-eye, I flipped it into an invite for collaboration. I turned feedback into business gold, forging partnerships that set the stage for victory.

    For example, given that my business is focused on real estate video tours, I started calling real estate agents who have leveraged our technology and invited them for a cup of coffee or even lunch. During that time, getting to know my user base, their needs and their experiences while using our mobile app was really nice. In fact, many of Replay Listings’ in-app features were built because they asked us to! Who would have known? Listening to your users is helpful and essential when learning your businesses’ areas of opportunity.

    Pay close attention to your users’ needs, and you’ll see more clearly your path ahead.

    Innovation through tough times

    Picture this: a partnership I’d banked on suddenly vanished into thin air. One minute, we were chatting, and the next? Poof! They pulled a vanishing act. Now, instead of moping, I spun it around. I diversified my partnerships to ensure my venture’s future wasn’t hanging by a thread.

    Life’s got a funny way of switching things up. Hard times can be your secret ingredient to success.

    As I’ve mentioned before, It is obvious that not relying on a single employee to do a specific task is advised, but diversifying talent does not need to come at an extra expense. It often needs to take the shape of more partnerships, collaborations, or allies within the industry.

    Allocate some of your time to making allies — it’ll help you in the long run.

    Finding gold in the rough

    As we sail through this entrepreneur sea, remember that every crash can be turned into a smooth wave. Just like I’ve learned from my Mexican roots and my own ups and downs, the trick is to tackle challenges like they’re stepping stones.

    As I navigate the tumultuous waters of entrepreneurship, I realize that the wild ride is not just about braving storms and smooth stretches. It’s about harnessing every twist, turn and curveball to my advantage. Entrepreneurship isn’t just about building a business; it’s about building character and resilience.

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    Rodolfo Delgado

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  • Building a Successful Business on a Foundation of Feedback | Entrepreneur

    Building a Successful Business on a Foundation of Feedback | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Alok Ahuja started Trexity, a last mile, local delivery platform, after realizing there was a specific need for a software platform that offers efficient, same-day delivery from small businesses to the doorsteps of customers. This realization came when Alok was juggling the multiple responsibilities that came with being a stay-at-home dad and caring for his ill father, making it impossible for him to step away from home.

    This gap in the market propelled Alok to change the local delivery game. Back in 2019 when Trexity was first created, he sought out the advice of Uber drivers in order to better understand the industry he was breaking into.

    “I went to those driver’s cars, and I knocked on their windows one by one, and I asked them, ‘Why do you do this? What do you love about it? What do you hate about it? What would you do if you were in charge?’” Alok said. “I started to get a tremendous amount of feedback from these drivers… Now, the crazy thing is, those drivers in 2019 are still my same focus group drivers. They’re still working with Trexity, so I love them. But from day one of deciding to build this out, I only made my decisions based on the feedback I got from the couriers that were already doing it.”

    In addition to seeking feedback from those in the business, Alok highlights how crucial it is to dive deep into the needs and wants of your customer base—and the best way to do that is to listen to them.

    “For me, feedback and focus groups are a part of every decision we make as a company. And it’s so important to stay in touch with making sure you’re actually solving a problem that needs to be solved.”

    Although his business is built on feedback, Alok knows that the number of reviews a company receives can be overwhelming. While it might seem impossible to sift through the commentary, Alok’s personal tip is to allocate a small part of your week to read through what your customers are saying.

    The key is to remember that reviews are written by real humans who typically want to help your business improve. While critical feedback can sting, reviews that are three stars or fewer are the ones Alok pays particular attention to when looking for ways to improve his business.

    “Go to the darkest places of your feedback [from] actual shoppers that have constructive feedback on something that you can do to improve. If they truly care about your business or the value of goods that they’re getting, they’ll give you real feedback,” he said. “It’s not hard to get nowadays. So my advice is to those business owners, don’t be overwhelmed by the amount of feedback you get, but try to home in on the ones where you know you can improve as a business.”

    Reading through reviews is only half of the battle. The next step is deciding how to incorporate feedback. Alok’s advice? Never make knee jerk reactions. Instead, take ample time to think about what is being said so you’re never making decisions based on a temporary emotion. Second, don’t try to get a genuine, critical review removed—that’s the equivalent of silencing your customer.

    Creating a dialogue with reviewers humanizes your business and gives you an opportunity to provide great customer service. Not every reviewer will give you a second chance, but other potential customers will see how you responded or tried to resolve any issues. You might even find some reviewers are open to talking about their experience and just need you to listen.

    For example, Alok shared that a customer might say: “‘Listen, thanks for reaching out. I appreciate you guys trying to solve this problem, but I’m still upset.’ And that is an opportunity for you to go offline and show the humility you have as a company for the issue they went through because of something you couldn’t deliver on or something you couldn’t provide them with.”

    More lessons Alok has learned that other entrepreneurs can apply to their businesses include:

    • Don’t take your company so seriously that you can’t enjoy yourself. Never forget the real reason you started—to fulfill people’s needs while being able to do what you love and are passionate about.
    • As the owner of a business, show humility and grace. Talking to your customers yourself can help you understand them on a deeper level and help you build brand loyalty.
    • Set boundaries. Your business is important, but so is work-life balance. Avoid burnout by taking time away from work and delegating important tasks to your team.

    Listen to the episode below to hear directly from Alok, and subscribe to Behind the Review for more from new business owners and reviewers every Thursday.

    Available on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and Soundcloud.

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    Emily Washcovick

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  • How to Use Human Psychology to Crush Your Sales Goals | Entrepreneur

    How to Use Human Psychology to Crush Your Sales Goals | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Although the marketing world has been changing drastically over the years, some things have stayed the same. I’m talking about human psychology. There are tried and true tactics that win every time based on how we behave and what signals our subconscious behavior and emotional triggers.

    According to McKinsey & Co., 80% of consumers want retailers to personalize their experiences — so when you use sales psychology, your audience will believe you understand them and their needs. Knowing sales psychology can also help you predict when your clients are going to buy, which in turn can lead to you being more prepared with inventory and/or employees to gain more sales.

    Related: 6 Psychology-Based Tips to Boost Your Sales

    Start with clearly defined goals

    The first step may seem obvious, but before you start selling, it’s important to make sure you have clearly defined sales goals. At my business, we start by creating sales goals every quarter and making sure we meet those goals on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

    At my company, we make sure our sales team records all of their calls so we can go through and see what they need to work on. We conduct a weekly sales training call with all of our closers, go through calls they recorded throughout the week and analyze what needs to improve — whether that’s making sure they’re asking prospects the correct questions, using an assertive and supportive tone of voice, building rapport or making prospects feel comfortable and understood.

    If the client thinks you don’t understand their problem first and foremost, they won’t feel confident in your company being the solution they need.

    Understand the unconscious mind

    Did you know that 95% of purchase decision-making takes place in the unconscious mind? If you want to learn how to access the unconscious mind — and your customers’ emotions — focus on these key areas:

    The psychology of color

    Colors evoke different types of emotions so it’s a great way to use it in your branding and marketing. There are usually many different feelings associated with each color, but here are a few to get you started:

    • Brands that choose purple usually portray luxury and feelings of sophistication.
    • Blue evokes feelings of calmness and trustworthiness. That’s why a lot of doctors’ offices and spas will be painted blue.
    • Orange creates feelings of warmth and showcases creativity and adventure. It’s also vibrant and can be well suited to attracting younger crowds.
    • Restaurants that want to evoke feelings of hunger and excitement may want to use the color red.
    • Brands that want to come across as confident and sophisticated can opt for the color black.

    My company’s logo is a mix of blue, red and white. As an American company, we purposefully chose these colors to mimic the feelings that come from the pride Americans have for our flag. Red isn’t just used to evoke feelings of hunger, it’s also used to signify power and fearlessness, which is what we stand for.

    A quick note of precaution on the psychology of color: Each color can also portray a negative emotion along with a positive one. For example, red is great for evoking feelings of hunger, but it can also evoke anger.

    Related: 6 Ways You Can Leverage Consumer Psychology to Drive More Sales

    The psychology of pricing

    I believe that the psychology behind numbers is one of the most powerful tactics you can use. An MIT study shows surprising results regarding the number nine. You may have even done this powerful trick yourself. In fact, it’s so powerful that the MIT study indicated when it came to a dress in a women’s catalog, the experiment tried three different prices $34, $39 and $44. You would think people would have bought the dress the most when it was $34, but changing the price from $34 and $44 didn’t change demand at all, however, changing it to $39 increased demand by a third.

    The psychology of scarcity

    People want what they can’t have, and there are various ways you can leverage this psychology of scarcity. I recommend using flash sales as a quick cash flow increase and to keep your customers on their toes. You can do this through email marketing, ads or social media. On your website, you could also try showing how many items are left in stock. There’s more FOMO (fear of missing out) if there are only four items left versus 100.

    The psychology of social proof

    People want to follow what other people are doing. You might think they just “want to be popular,” but the need comes from wanting to feel like we belong and are well-liked. It’s a basic human need, and as such, we look toward what others are doing when we’re confused. A 2022 study by TINT showed that 75% of customers search for social proof, including reviews and testimonials, before making a purchase — so make sure you use everything from user-generated content on social media to video and written testimonials.

    Related: 5 Psychological Reasons ‘Social Proof’ Beats Everything Else in Marketing

    Focus on why people buy

    There are many factors why people buy, including but not limited to money, status, security, popularity and transformation. At my company, we focus on business growth and transformation, so our ad campaigns specifically revolve around making sure feelings of success, security and power are evoked.

    You should be evoking emotions throughout the entire client journey, from your ad to the purchase and even after you close the sale. This is where a lot of businesses fall off on the client journey, but even after your product is bought, there are still many ways to evoke feelings and make sure you receive a positive client testimonial/review or a referral. Checking up on your clients will make them feel like you care.

    In order to win at selling, at the end of the day you need to focus on selling a lifestyle, not just a product based on features. By defining your sales goals, learning about customers’ emotions and needs and accessing the unconscious mind through pricing, colors, scarcity and social proof, you will be able to leverage sales psychology.

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    Jason Miller

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  • 3 Principles for Scaling Content With AI Without Sacrificing Quality | Entrepreneur

    3 Principles for Scaling Content With AI Without Sacrificing Quality | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    As a web publisher, I’ve always focused on scaling content production. During 2022, we published a high volume of new articles across our websites — upwards of a thousand new items in a typical month. We employed a team of more than 100 writers and editors to accomplish this gargantuan task. Fast-forward to the middle of 2023, and we now achieve the same publication numbers but with a team of only ten content creators.

    We do this through harnessing the power of AI. We were early adopters of fully transitioning to AI-assisted content. And we did that without lowering our editorial standards.

    Scaling your content strategy is always challenging. Even without considering AI, there’s always been a tightrope between quantity and quality. Tip the balance, and you either can’t keep up with demand or lose the trust of your audience. Bringing AI into the equation meant we could speed up production significantly.

    But what about the quality? Our main challenge was to create workflows and processes that would allow us to scale AI-assisted content production while maintaining the same quality as before. To achieve this delicate balance of quantity and quality while using AI, we created a new system based on three key principles.

    Related: Top 5 Ways AI Can Enhance Your Content-Creation Process

    Principle 1: Human-AI collaboration

    You may have noticed that I mentioned neither writers nor editors when describing our current team. We no longer use those terms in our team. Instead, we now call the people who create our content “AI Wranglers.” These people are not writers; they’re AI-human collaboration experts. Using prompting strategies and AI tools, our content creators can develop a first draft quickly and then work on improving on that.

    Depending on the type of article, our content creators may use a writing tool or work directly with an AI such as ChatGPT. When using ChatGPT directly, they follow a structured creation process that includes prompts that:

    1. Start by asking the AI to give an overview of the topic. The content creator may need to provide some background context if the AI needs help getting up to speed.

    2. Give the AI clear instructions on the tone and style, such as “aim for a conversational tone and keep the writing at eighth-grade level.”

    3. Have the AI suggest an outline it thinks would work best.

    4. Then, go section by section, collaborating with the AI to put together the full draft.

    The structured prompting helps our content creators speed up the process and quickly develop a first draft.

    Related: Here’s How Your Business Can Use 3 Popular AI Content Creation Tools

    Principle 2: Quality enhancement processes

    Some websites publish what is known in our industry as “one-click content.” As the name implies, these articles are created using AI-based tools to generate an article in a single iteration. These articles are typically published immediately with no additional steps.

    There’s no denying that one-click AI content allows for extremely fast content production scaling. Moreover, this type of content goes way beyond the old-school “content spinners.” In many cases, today’s AI content tools — especially those employing the GPT-4 API — create coherent and sometimes even insightful content. And, of course, this hands-off approach significantly lowers the production cost.

    However, our experience has shown us that relying on one-click content often leads to subpar articles in more ways than one. While the AI can produce amazing output, that content still needs to be refined by capable humans. It’s the only way to reliably and consistently produce results that meet our publication standards. That’s why the AI is only used to develop a first draft. The AI gives us a head start, but our human content creators take the content to the finish line.

    Our quality enhancement process includes three layers: Fact-checking, reducing fluff and adjusting the article to make sure it aligns with the reader’s needs.

    Verifying that the generated article does indeed “deliver the goods” is the content creator’s first concern. They ensure the topic is fully covered and that the reader’s questions have been answered in full.

    Fact-checking is another pillar of our process. While constantly improving, AI systems can still occasionally produce inaccurate information. Our content creators thoroughly fact-check the article to make sure numbers, dates, locations, names and any other factual information is valid. They also link back to authoritative sources to reference important facts.

    Last but not least, the content creators improve the writing style. They often clean up redundant words, sentences and even entire paragraphs to ensure the article is succinct and, therefore, more helpful.

    In a way, you could say that our content creators are editors who specialize in working with a highly prolific writer. That writer may be silicone-based, but it certainly is not without flaws. Competent editors are needed in order to take this writer’s work to the next level.

    Related: How to Enhance Business Automation and Unlock New Levels of Operational Efficiency

    Principle 3: Reducing production time

    Before AI, a single article would take about five hours to write. Now, with a robust first draft in place, it takes our trained content specialists between one and two hours to generate the finished text. And while our process is more costly than producing one-click AI content, we don’t sacrifice quality.

    This AI-assisted approach allowed us to maintain high output and quality while reducing costs. Furthermore, we keep looking for ways to improve our initial prompts and the quality enhancement process. Through this continuous improvement, we can further reduce the cost per article and scale production even more.

    When you save time and maintain quality, it’s a win-win for everyone. Your team, business and, most importantly, readers benefit. With the right strategies, content creators can leverage AI to enhance rather than replace human creativity and judgment.

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    Anat El Hashahar (Anne Moss)

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  • Want to Onboard Like a Pro? Here are 5 Ways to Retain Good Clients and Staff | Entrepreneur

    Want to Onboard Like a Pro? Here are 5 Ways to Retain Good Clients and Staff | Entrepreneur

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    In my many years of running my own PR agency, I’ve experienced a lot of hiccups when it comes to onboarding. And if I’m being honest, I must admit I caused most of those hiccups. I’m just not particularly good at it — it’s not one of my strong suits.

    Though fine-tuning my onboarding techniques is a work in progress, it doesn’t come naturally to me. Once I find a potential team member I like or I’ve got a hot lead on a potential client, my tendency is just to jump into the deep end, all enthusiasm and “we’ll figure it out as we go along” and very little step-by-step processing that would pave the way for a mutually beneficial and lasting connection.

    On occasion, the “winging it” approach might work. But usually, it doesn’t. So I recently looked closely at my firm’s onboarding procedures from the inside out, which yielded some interesting insights. Before I share them, it’s important to note that the objectives here could not be more straightforward: Regarding internal onboarding, the goal is incorporating a new staffer into a welcoming and positive work environment. When it comes to external onboarding, the goal is as simple as keeping the client happy. That’s it. That’s the end game. Here’s how to win it.

    Related: The Secrets Behind Successful Employee Onboarding

    Winning steps for internal onboarding

    1. Immediately upon bringing a new staffer on board, express gratitude for their contribution. Acknowledge the skills that led you to hire them, tell them how those skills will bolster team efforts and make them feel like you’re lucky to have them, not vice versa. Everybody wants to feel valued at work, even from the very first day.
    2. Pay on time and pay above-market rates. This one may sound like a no-brainer, but small businesses sometimes don’t have automated payroll in place to ensure timely payment. Landlords and banks don’t accept delays, so don’t chase promising new hires away with delays of your own making. As for salary, a higher-than-market rate will often secure you better-than-average talent, but if you can’t afford that right now, other forms of compensation work equally well to solidify employee buy-in, like half-day Fridays, remote work options, the use of company equipment, and a results-based bonus plan.
    3. Provide an overview of the organizational structure, preferably in the form of an org chart. This is essential. People need to know where they fit in to feel like they fit in.
    4. Allow the individual’s abilities to shine bright by supplementing and supporting their output. Here at RPR, every piece of content that is written for our clients passes my desk and is copyedited/proofed by our editorial support people. At first, my content writers sometimes balk at being reviewed, but it’s a win-win for everybody when our customer reviews come back glowing about error-free and accurate assets. Teach your team to, lead your team to and support one another in their roles, not just fulfill their own.
    5. Check in with your people for no reason. For no reason at all. Just send a text, write an email or call to regularly reach out to them to (a) ask how things are going — do they need any support and (b) reinforce continual messaging of how fortunate you feel to have them on board.

    Related: Are You Guilty of Poor Onboarding? The Consequences Are Worse Than You Think.

    Winning steps for customer/client onboarding:

    1. Send a warm introductory email detailing what the client can expect for your initial engagement. Having this in writing can avoid many explanatory phone calls, provide a tangible form of your commitment, and assure the client that they’ve entered a functional, efficient workflow.
    2. Continue to send a chain of emails to follow up; first, to ask the client to confirm that they received the last communiqué you sent them; second, to always open a window for them to write back with questions or concerns.
    3. Go beyond the to-do list. It may be enough just to do your job or what you were hired to do. But to retain long-term B2B clients, why stop there? Be exceptional by exceeding expectations with unanticipated gestures, like forwarding an article of interest, sending the client something that reminded you of them, providing them with referrals or having flowers or lunch delivered for a special occasion.
    4. Speaking of which, recall step #1 for your internal onboarding: Showing gratitude to your client base, as well, is a little action that generates a big reaction. Sending a thank-you note is the simplest but tremendously significant way to let someone know how much you appreciate their business.
    5. Finally, another repeat: Check-in for no reason. You can never go wrong with any contact in the business world by being reliably present, open-eared, and always interested in how they’re feeling about your relationship status. Some people are afraid to initiate unnecessary contact if they receive negative feedback. Better to catch any lapses that are occurring so you can attend to and remedy them than to lose the client based on a lack of authentic communication.

    As I see it, onboarding is the “honeymoon phase” of any business relationship. Once you’re united with this business partner under mutually agreed-upon terms, you want to have fun with them, go places with them in a favorable climate and create and sustain a memorable impression that will fuel and ground your future interactions. Basically, you want to start things off on the best possible footing to point the way toward a smooth and successful venture ahead together.

    So put some effort into planning every onboarding process per new contact, just like you would map out your honeymoon destination and activities. The advanced planning and customized blueprint will lay a strong, solid foundation on which the relationship can continue to grow and expand in positive, productive, and fruitful ways for years to come.

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    Emily Reynolds Bergh

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  • 7 Things Companies Should Consider Before Going Public | Entrepreneur

    7 Things Companies Should Consider Before Going Public | Entrepreneur

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    Pursuing an Initial Public Offering (IPO) is something many entrepreneurs will only experience once, and it’s important to get it right. 2021 was the biggest IPO year ever with extraordinary volumes globally. The global IPO market delivered 2,682 IPOs and raised $608 billion. The largest IPO globally in 2021 was the $13.7 billion IPO of Rivian Automotive on NASDAQ. During 2022, the market saw a dramatic decline in IPOs after a year of incredible IPO growth. Despite this, micro-cap and small-cap companies continued to dominate the 2022 IPO market in the U.S.

    To date, there have been 101 IPOs on the U.S. stock market in 2023 raising more than $60.9 billion. It’s a huge amount of money and yet, this is -25.78% less than the same time in 2022, which had 136 IPOs by this date. As you say, the markets go up and down constantly. Companies now have a new host of considerations when it comes to choosing the right time to go public. In today’s current economic climate, most entrepreneurs feel fearful going into this environment wondering, will it be a success? In order to go public, the company becomes very exposed to scrutiny, the costs are high, and the complexities are many. It is important to make the right choices to establish the best chances of success.

    As the CEO of Exchange Listing, LLC which helps micro-cap and small-cap companies list on the senior USA stock exchanges like NYSE and Nasdaq, we have seen it all. In this environment, we advise companies to focus on what we call “IPO readiness,” so that a company can IPO as soon as market conditions are practical for their goals. Whether you are a company founder looking to take your business to the next level, an investor seeking to understand the risks and rewards of small-cap and micro-cap IPOs or a professional advisor helping clients navigate the IPO process, here are the seven things to consider before going public:

    Related: How to Get Your Business IPO Ready

    1. Get committed

    Be clear that this is a direction for you. If you’re not sure, don’t start getting on a roller coaster, because once you’re on it, it’s dangerous if you try to get off in the middle. It sounds exciting to take a company public, and it is. But the evolving landscape and fluctuations demanded along the way can derail you unless you are convinced this is the best course of action for the success and growth of the company.

    2. Prepare before taking action

    Preparation for a micro-cap or small-cap IPO needs to begin well before the IPO date. Ideally, a company should start assessment anywhere from 18-24 months before the actual IPO date. Going public is gratifying, but it requires significant internal and external resources. In addition, the complexities, cross-functional participation and interdependencies of going public require effective management and a clear understanding of the content and process. Therefore, preparation and groundwork are critical to a smooth execution process. Brian Cox, the CEO of SurgePays Inc. which went public in November 2021, attested to the value of having brought Exchange Listing on early in the Nasdaq Uplisting process. The company was able to prepare for its IPO well in advance and ultimately was able to raise a total of $19.78 million.

    3. Ensure the right business model

    One of the most fundamental criteria for success includes having a business model best suited for the public markets. We ensure that a company will be ready to IPO from a regulatory position. Business IPO readiness requires the coherent articulation of the core elements of the business, which will be unique to the company in question. Generally, it will encompass critical areas such as the business’s strategy, markets, products, sales, marketing, operations, financial statements and metrics. You need a company deck, a one- or two-page teaser and a comprehensive financial model.

    4. Tighten your organizational readiness

    For private companies that are planning a micro-cap or small-cap IPO, a strong executive team and a board of directors are critical. A well-positioned team will increase the value of the company and provide confidence to potential investors. The assembly of a management team, advisors and board, including the form and structure of management compensation, is critical. The management team, advisors and board need to be optimally aligned with the company’s strategic objectives and public market expectations so that they can guide the company’s operations successfully and provide public market reporting.

    Related: 5 Things You Need to Know Before Taking Your Business Public

    5. Align with SEC compliance

    The S-1 registration statement may sound unfamiliar. Preparing the S-1 registration statement involves the creation of a basic business description consistent with the SEC regulatory requirements. This involves a summarized explanation of the business, its customers, its competition and other information relevant to investors who want to make an informed investment decision regarding the company and its prospects. It includes business and financial information designed to inform prospective investors and outline all material business risks.

    6. Prepare for scrutiny

    While audits may sound scary, these are a mandatory part of the process of preparing for the IPO, and it’s important to get the details right. Footnotes and schedules are required when compiling the company’s financial statements to ensure that the company’s financial reporting complies with industry standards. The footnotes also provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements are presented fairly, free from material misstatement, and thus can be relied upon by investors.

    7. Get your finances in order

    If the company’s financials have been sloppy, now is the time to track each detail and category to ensure confidence from investors and approval. Prepare two years of profit and loss, balance sheet, cash-flow statements, related footnotes and supporting schedules. It is vital to have your financials in order to present the most accurate and thorough picture of the company’s health and the opportunity to the investors.

    Although the broader IPO market seems to be on pause due to less-than-ideal marketplace conditions, know that these market conditions are not here to stay, at least not forever. Companies that are considering an IPO would be wise to use the current pause period to hustle while they wait and prepare to become IPO ready. Thorough preparation requires that your company not only takes the proper steps and does the right things but also invests in the right partners, resources, technology tools and team. Taking these actions now will set you up for the best chance of success when the time is right to execute your first or next IPO.

    Related: To Be IPO Ready, You Need to Prepare for These 5 Potential Pitfalls

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    Peter Goldstein

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  • How to Manage the Expense That’s Costing Your Company a Ton | Entrepreneur

    How to Manage the Expense That’s Costing Your Company a Ton | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Many businesses don’t give it much thought, but a huge expense lurks in their books that can easily spin out of control. I’m talking about the cost of cloud services, which almost every company needs to compete in today’s world.

    Just how volatile are cloud costs? It isn’t a pretty picture. In a survey of 750 U.S. enterprises from a wide range of industries, more than a third had cloud budget overruns of as much as 40%, and 1 in 12 topped that number. The global situation is equally shocking. Worldwide, businesses will invest almost $600 billion in cloud spending this year. Conservative estimates indicate that nearly 30% of that — around $180 billion — is wasted.

    Most companies wouldn’t tolerate such wastefulness in any other part of their business. But runaway cloud costs remain an exception, partly thanks to opaque billing. A typical scenario: A business learns that its tab from Amazon Web Services or another big cloud provider has jumped from $100,000 to $150,000 in just one month. What gives? Cloud may be simple to buy, but good luck deciphering that invoice, which can list thousands of acronym-filled services used by company software engineers.

    Having served as CFO of several tech companies, I’ve seen how quickly those costs can add up. Think of it as the Wild West of spending — massive, unpredictable costs with little or no accountability. That’s why it’s so important to have a strategy for managing cloud expenses. For entrepreneurs and their companies, taming the beast means more money to invest elsewhere.

    Here’s how cloud costs became such a big problem — plus five tips for reining them in.

    Related: 3 Ways Tech Companies Can Bring Their Cloud Costs Back to Earth

    Why cloud is so easy to buy — and costs are so hard to control

    In the old days, businesses bought and maintained their own servers. Scaling up meant buying more hardware, a time-consuming task. Then, the cloud came along and changed all that, catering to companies’ growing appetite for on-demand computing resources. The good news: Software engineers could quickly buy what they needed without waiting for lengthy approval and procurement processes, helping accelerate innovation. The bad news? Lack of control over spending, which continues to balloon as offerings grow ever more complex.

    For most businesses, the dirty little secret is that they don’t understand how much cloud computing power, storage and other features they actually need. There’s often poor visibility into what other teams are doing, plus minimal accountability, with no one setting or enforcing budgets. This is compounded by a lack of tools to help them look under the hood.

    How to save your company money on cloud costs

    Working with Fortune 1000 companies, from big banks to airlines, I’ve seen up close how dramatic the cost savings can be. Here are five ways to take action:

    1. Spread the word that everybody wins by cutting cloud costs

    Reining in cloud spending starts with education and awareness. Simply sharing with employees the true magnitude of the problem can be powerful. We aren’t talking about saving a few dollars. At many companies, the waste from cloud spending amounts to one of the single biggest budget items.

    Then, rather than take a Big Brother approach, sell teams on the benefits of lower costs. The more a business can control cloud expenses, the more money it will have to hire another software engineer to develop a new product or another sales rep to penetrate a new market. The message: Everybody wins by getting it right.

    2. Get FinOps on the case

    FinOps (financial operations) might sound technical, but it’s just a name for the team that creates a process and framework for managing cloud costs. From sales to HR, nearly every department has a dedicated, expert operations team these days. As a major operational expense, cloud needs the same attention.

    The FinOps team might be just two or three people — say, a senior finance executive and the CIO or CTO. Have them create a framework that encourages accountability by assigning ownership of cloud spending to different business units. To get a clear, detailed picture of costs, give each team responsibility for its own budget and how much cloud it consumes.

    3. When in doubt, automate cloud controls

    Manually reviewing cloud bills each month for overruns and inefficiencies might sound archaic, yet far too many companies still rely on this ad hoc approach. A far better strategy: Leverage the growing number of tools on the market that help companies gain visibility into cloud spend in real time, flag overruns, automatically optimize where resources are allocated and even offer suggestions for economizing spending.

    For example, an alert system to detect spending anomalies should be table stakes. Besides catching questionable purchases by staff, this alarm can catch intruders — for instance, crypto miners mooching off the company’s servers.

    To avoid shelling out for idle cloud computing power, organizations can also use auto-stopping tools. Let’s say that each day from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., usage of a subscription service drops to zero. Dispensing with manual controls, auto-stopping takes that expense off the board.

    4. Make cloud part of the procurement process

    Automation of governance and approvals is crucial, too. Would a company approve the purchase of a large piece of equipment with no questions asked? Any business spending millions of dollars a year on the cloud should have procurement controls. With a cloud asset policy tool, it can establish guardrails that require people to justify their cloud spending.

    5. Keep ‘tending the cloud garden’

    Like a garden, cloud costs require consistent pruning. After taking a weed whacker to the biggest, most wasteful expenses, keep tending the smaller ones, or they’ll quickly grow out of control again. Cloud cost forecasting can help reduce the uncertainty around future usage.

    All that yard work is well worth the trouble, because the potential savings are enormous, as much as 30% to 50% for many businesses. That’s real money better spent somewhere else — on product development, customer acquisition and the teams for whom the cloud should be a means to drive innovation, not a costly headache.

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    John Bonney

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  • Why Employee Accountability is the Holy Grail of Every Successful Business | Entrepreneur

    Why Employee Accountability is the Holy Grail of Every Successful Business | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Accountability is a remarkably dynamic word and so much more than a simple promise to perform. While the concept is rooted in responsibilities, the term also implies continuous action and a healthy system of checks and balances. At its core, accountability is about showing up, claiming ownership of a task, and then accomplishing the things you have committed. And everyone in your organization should do the same – because accountability is not a solo act. Accountability is the kinetic energy that fuels every successful organization.

    Your own accountability as a business owner is a gimmie; as the leader of your company, your word is your bond. And there are also huge benefits in creating a culture of accountability throughout your organization.

    You want employees to be answerable for their responsibilities. You want your team to work toward company goals, maintain certain metrics and meet their deadlines. While these accountabilities might seem rudimentary, you might be surprised how many businesses struggle with them.

    I believe most employees want to do a good job and try hard to be accountable. If they fall short, a glitch in communication is usually at the heart of the problem. Maybe the employee was never clear on expectations. A lack of transparency possibly hobbled achievement. Or, as is often the case, perhaps the employee’s definition of success differed from that of their manager.

    Fostering a culture of employee accountability is key to the success of any business, and the formula almost certainly starts with respect for your team, their strengths and their goals. Best-selling author and TED Talker Daniel Pink says that fostering a spirit of autonomy, mastery and purpose in your employees allows them the freedom and inner drive to develop creative solutions. He is right; by affording them these opportunities for self-direction and responsibility, you create better alignment in an environment where your people feel valued and their talents nurtured. This is to say that you set the stage in your business for a culture of accountability.

    Related: How to Create a Culture of Gentle Accountability in 3 Steps

    Employees crave autonomy

    Autonomous employees are empowered to leverage their own judgment and take ownership of their decisions. Embracing a culture of self-responsibility throughout your business fosters a stronger sense of employee commitment, supports innovation and demonstrates your trust in your team’s capabilities and professionalism. By giving employees more flexibility and responsibility in their own approaches and outcomes, they become more thoughtful in their actions and decision-making processes.

    Accountability and autonomy might feel like conflicting concepts at times. Getting the balance right can be challenging, but it is well worth the effort. It starts with communication and clarity. When you or your management team assign a task to an employee, ensure that the person is clear about what you want them to do and the expected results. Ask the employee to confirm what you are asking them to do. Let them know you are available if they have questions about the task. Then allow them to do their job. You can check in periodically to track their progress along the way.

    Related: Want Elite Performance? Adopt These 5 Practices Of Top Tactical Units

    Employees want mastery

    Mastery is the process of honing one’s skills to a refined level. When you provide employees with development opportunities, they become quantifiably more engaged, productive and fulfilled in their jobs. Mastery boosts employees’ sense of accomplishment, positions them for a more rewarding career trajectory, and seeds the business with increasingly capable people. I talk a lot about win-win in business. Creating opportunities for your employees to master their skills while increasing your company’s competitive edge is certainly one of them.

    Consider investing in your business’s employee development, mentorship and leadership training programs. The ROI for learning initiatives tends to be high from a financial and cultural perspective. And while an increase in accountability is challenging to track with real numbers, it is most definitely positively impacted by employee mastery.

    Related: What is the Caliber of your Company Culture and How Can You Develop It?

    Employees desire purpose

    Now more than ever, employees yearn for a sense of purpose that serves as something larger than themselves in their professional and personal lives. Millennials and Gen Zs are particularly motivated to make a difference in the world around them at both a micro and macro level. By instilling a profound sense of purpose within the vision and mission of your company, you better attract and retain those people who are aligned with similar concerns and causes.

    When employees feel empowered and impactful in their ability to support what they care about, they are more committed, intentional and accountable. Greater purpose inspires ownership in achieving above-and-beyond outcomes.

    Purpose-driven employees also tend to be more adept at tackling challenges. They have faith in their own ability to overcome adversity to achieve a desired goal, so they willingly take on more responsibility and accountability to make things happen. Purpose is a powerful motivator on so many levels.

    When employees fall short on accountability

    What if you have put in the effort to create a culture of employee autonomy, mastery and purpose in your business, but your people are still lagging in the accountability department or are regularly just not meeting expectations?

    Rather than resorting to criticism, I suggest you take a coaching approach. Ask the employee how they felt a glitchy project went. What worked well and what panned out poorly. Ask them to analyze the processes and procedures, then have them share those opinions with you. This will provide you with enormous insight, at least from this employee’s perspective, that you may not have considered.

    While leveraging the coaching approach, you will often find that the employee admits their own culpability or poor performance in the project and makes suggestions for self-correction. Which, when you think about it, really is the definition of employee accountability, isn’t it?

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    Jason Zickerman

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  • Why Successful Collaboration Comes Down to Proper Team Balance | Entrepreneur

    Why Successful Collaboration Comes Down to Proper Team Balance | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The wrong way to approach values is obvious: You’ve seen the movie Office Space when the boss calls everyone together to unveil a new banner on the wall asking, “Is This Good for the Company?” As far as that value exercise goes, everyone looks at the banner, but that’s about it.

    The “right” approach requires more nuance.

    Our company just welcomed five corporate cultures under its single umbrella. After nearly three decades of working alongside the company’s founders, most people could articulate our values very well. Only when our newly incorporated team members asked us to point to behaviors demonstrating how we live out those values in practice did we realize that we couldn’t point to anything concrete enough for them to “get it.” Employees want employers to represent their ethics and values to stay engaged. We knew we needed to fix this.

    Intentional values prevent misalignment around company non-negotiables and can guide employee action and collaboration in the right direction. Still, defining and aligning the various departments of a company around those core values is more complex than it sounds; the task is even more challenging when merging multiple companies.

    Related: How Collaboration Can Help Drive Growth and Propel Your Business to New Heights

    Over-communicate, then communicate again

    Part of my work in M&A is ensuring that our people’s experiences with the company are consistent. If I visited one of our offices in Australia or Japan, they would feel like part of the same world. Most of that came through working alongside the company’s founders and absorbing their approach to making decisions by osmosis. Sure, we articulated our values in onboarding materials. We offered some swag and other replicated forms of them in our recognition programs. Still, we mostly took that tacit learning from the company’s culture carriers for granted and developed little else to reference our values in action beyond that.

    This five-company merger was an “ah ha!” moment that made us reconsider how we communicated our values, and they still hold up after all this time. Without clear communication and explicit practical applications, it would be only natural that people bring their old ways of operating into a new company, even without realizing it. If we want to carry values forward as we merge companies or aim to break down silos, we need to embed them across the employee journey at every touch point in both words and action.

    Consider values in the hiring experience — how we describe the position in the job post and our interview questions for potential candidates. If one of our stated values is collaboration, we might ask them to describe when they successfully collaborated on a project and, more importantly, when it wasn’t. Seek to hire people who understand and appreciate those intrinsic values and spend time discussing them in all onboarding sessions globally. People can be talented but not always aligned, so figure out what’s non-negotiable and ask questions about what matters to them, and you’ll soon see if they “get it.”

    Related: 10 Simple Steps to Build an Exceptional and Efficient Team

    Live, not laminate

    It takes more than coffee mugs, posters and pieces of flair to align everyone around a company’s values: We need to be able to attribute behaviors to them. If a company says they’re “people-centric,” it should showcase this in an actionable way — performance evaluations that allow employees to tell their own stories rather than their performance review happening to them; benefits that provide coverage for the whole family; meetings that regularly represent that value as a theme or recognize someone who exemplifies them. At our company, we have a Kudos chat where, every week, people acknowledge when they have observed someone’s behavior that directly aligns with our values.

    Leaders must ensure people live, feel and see their company values repeatedly. In a 2022 survey of U.S. and U.K. employees, respondents were likelier to stay with an employer whose values align with theirs. Still, almost half would consider leaving a company if its leadership fails to act by them.

    When we give people examples of living our values, they have more reasons to discuss them. Over time, stories get retold and cement themselves into company lore. When a customer attempted to return two tires to the local Nordstrom retailer in Fairbanks, Alaska, the clerk called, researched tire prices and processed the refund despite Nordstrom never selling tires. Nordstrom’s legendary tire story demonstrates the brand’s dedication to living its value of customer service.

    Related: 3 Ways to Foster Trust and Communication During a Global M&A

    Evaluate and evolve

    After almost 30 years, our company has gone through many chapters, and what was right in the past needs to be constantly reexamined to ensure we are still true to our word.

    One of the companies we acquired had active and illustrative values, including “create success” and “be brave.” Their values were strong and actionable: Someone who needed to make a critical decision on a Friday afternoon with no one else around could recall the value “be brave” and go for it. So, we are taking this moment to evolve our values to match the company’s evolution. We’re reevaluating the original company values and if they still hold. The core ones, like respect and integrity, will remain, but in our 25+ years later, some values may not be quite right.

    Ultimately, most values aim toward the same ends — respect, integrity and a feeling of trust and belonging. Focus on four or five values that answer the question, “What do we believe in that will help us make better decisions?” Then, make leadership decisions that reflect them. Trust is built when people see their leadership standing by those values. Even when merging five companies into one, strong values enable a healthy culture that ensures that people are motivated, engaged and committed to work every day to deliver the results for the company.

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    Victoria Maitland

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  • How to Manage Rapid Business Growth Through Visionary Leadership | Entrepreneur

    How to Manage Rapid Business Growth Through Visionary Leadership | Entrepreneur

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    Leading a startup through high growth is exciting yet intimidating. As opportunities continue to arise, entrepreneurs must find ways to manage rapid expansion without compromising stability. To do this successfully requires knowledge from experienced professionals who have been in similar positions and know how best to approach this stage of growth.

    With careful planning and resources, business owners can position their companies for significant development without overstretching capital. It is important that leaders take heed of expert advice to set themselves up for success during periods of fast growth.

    Related: 3 Perspectives of Visionary Leaders

    The central role of visionary leadership

    A compelling vision can be the difference between a startup simply existing in the market and being a game-changer. It’s not just an abstract idea or slogan; it’s an actionable plan that guides your decisions and drives you toward your desired outcome. A vision should encapsulate what makes your company unique, its mission and how it adds value to customers.

    Embracing a leadership role means forming this vision and expressing it so that everyone on board understands it clearly. According to experts in the field, having strong leaders is essential for startups looking to succeed, as they are key figures when attracting new talent and keeping current team members motivated. A visionary leader‘s role can significantly influence a startup’s trajectory, as people don’t stay because of loyalty to their job but rather respect for those they work with (and for).

    However, powerful visions will remain stagnant if only seen within management circles. Each employee needs ownership over making them manifest. Whether we’re talking about sales teams or operational departments, every individual must align their tasks with this goal in order to fully appreciate its importance while also understanding precisely how they contribute towards achieving success together as a unit.

    Building a team geared for growth

    Preparing for a high-growth phase necessitates having a team that’s ready to handle the demands and complexities that come with it. It’s important not to make the mistake of compromising on hiring standards in favor of quick scaling because, at the end of it all, your people are your most valuable resource.

    Positioning yourself for expansion requires more than just technical skills; you need people who can think quickly, solve problems effortlessly and work together in harmony. There is great wisdom in never settling when it comes to recruiting talent. So, don’t shortchange yourself by opting for rapidity over quality. By taking time during this crucial stage to assemble an A-team, you will ensure maximum value from each one of your resources.

    Maintaining high hiring standards is only the first step. It’s crucial to invest in nurturing this talent and fostering an environment of learning, collaboration and recognition. Regular feedback and recognition of every individual’s contribution toward achieving the company’s goals can build a sense of ownership and commitment.

    Related: How to Keep Pace With a Fast-Growing Business

    Collaborative goal setting: A stepping stone to growth

    As an entrepreneur, your startup’s success hinges on setting clear and achievable goals that are shared throughout the organization. You need to look at all facets of your business when determining these objectives, from sales figures and product development to company culture benchmarks. Knowing which metrics matter most is a critical part of being an effective leader in any industry, so it’s important to stay informed about meaningful KPIs. Ideally, you should evaluate them at regular intervals to figure out what is working and what needs to change.

    Creating purposeful goals requires collaboration between departments. Inviting representatives from each team into the goal-setting process ensures that you’re making decisions with realistic expectations based on collective knowledge and experience. Once established, it’s essential to communicate these targets across all levels within the organization so everyone can understand what they’re working towards achieving together as one united force.

    The importance of a scalable onboarding process

    As your business expands, it’s essential to have a comprehensive onboarding process in place. Creating an environment of learning and collaboration is key. This means making sure everyone on the team takes part in training new hires. Not only does this ensure that all employees are well-versed in their roles, but it also encourages collective responsibility among colleagues. When your employees hold one another accountable, you can drive productivity, ownership of performance and company loyalty, all of which will serve your business well as it continues to expand.

    To make the most of your onboarding system, your leaders must review the program regularly for any necessary updates or changes. This helps keep newer members up-to-date with company operations and allows them to hit the ground running from day one. Neglecting this process will often lead to a high turnover rate as talented staff may find themselves lost or unappreciated by their employer without proper guidance upon entry into the organization. Ensure the quality and efficiency of your onboarding process to boost retention rates.

    Related: The Keys to Empowering a Lean, High-Growth Company

    Navigating the high-growth environment: An ongoing journey

    At the head of a high-growth startup, the journey is ever-evolving. As you scale up your business, it can be tempting to stick with the strategies that drove initial success. But if your goal is sustained growth and continued success, then maintaining an open mind is essential. Don’t be afraid to try new ideas or approaches. After all, each challenge presents an opportunity for you to strengthen not only your team but also yourself as a leader.

    Throughout the thrilling ride of scaling your startup, don’t forget what inspired you in the first place: your vision. Keep it close at heart, and use it as motivation for yourself and others around you so that even when faced with difficult obstacles on this path towards higher growth potential, hope will never fade.

    Of course, no one should expect themselves to go through such challenges alone. Reach out when you need a helping hand, because having help from outside sources allows us to more carefully evaluate the direction of the company and ensure nothing is overlooked.

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    Brandon Newman

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  • You Only Need These 3 Things to Come Up With Your Best Ideas | Entrepreneur

    You Only Need These 3 Things to Come Up With Your Best Ideas | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    It’s easier than ever to feel lost — lost in the workplace, lost in your personal life, even lost in your overall purpose and mission as a human being. I personally blame a lot of this on social media. It’s the perfect concoction for depression, anxiety and the feeling of not knowing what path is right for you.

    A couple of hours on the Zuckerberg Express (a.k.a. Facebook) and you’ll be fed other people’s successes so much you’ll start to doubt your own. A video of a fix-and-flip specialist will quickly make you think you need to stop what you’re working on, buy houses and renovate them yourself. You’ve never held a hammer and you don’t know what HVAC stands for, but if this 30-second video on Instagram taught you anything, it’s that the time is now…

    Excuse my sarcasm, but even as I’m writing, I’m reminded of the ridiculous paths I’ve gone down thanks to social media. That’s a story for another time though. Through exploring and failing on many of these voyages, I’ve learned a tried and true method to keep me goal-oriented and combat as much of the social media facade as I can: whiteboarding.

    Yes, you read that right. Structured and creative time away from all other work and life needs, with just a whiteboard, a marker and your thoughts. In my nine years as a business owner, I’ve found whiteboarding to be the single strongest tool for fine-tuning my ideas, innovating and niching down. Below are the three biggest rules I use for effective whiteboarding.

    Related: The Whiteboard Method: 5 Easy Steps to Discover Your Niche and Turn Your Passion Into a Career

    1. No erasing

    Before you start, remove the eraser from the room. It’s so easy to get hyper-critical of what you’re writing when you know you can erase it. By operating under the “no idea is a bad idea” philosophy, I’ve been able to discover new revenue streams for my business, fine-tune my goals and more. Not erasing anything is a great way to leave thoughts up on the board for further development. Sometimes an idea I quickly jotted down — that I would’ve erased in real time — just needed some further tweaking. That idea later became a huge component of my business moving forward.

    2. Time your whiteboarding sessions

    I like to do 20-minute sprints, but find an amount of time that feels comfortable for you. Remember, this exercise is for you. If 20 minutes is too long, do 10. If 20 minutes is too short, do 30. This is your time.

    Turn a timer on and turn everything else off for whatever amount of time you decide. I like to stand up in front of the board (sometimes even pace) and write as much as my brain and hand will let me. After the allotted 20 minutes, I sit down and spend time reading and digging into each thought. Oftentimes, this is where I’m able to expand a simple thought into something much more developed and fleshed out. If I feel like I hit an “aha” moment, I take a photo of the board, then erase and flesh that idea out further. If I didn’t, I spend some more time reading and digesting, then I take a photo and get back to my work. Not every time will be one of those euphoric highs we all love about entrepreneurship and finding new ideas, but the simple act of doing this frequently creates clarity.

    Related: How Journaling Can Make You a Better Entrepreneur and Leader

    3. Frequency

    I personally do these whiteboard sessions once a week. I’ve found that to be frequent enough to work through things, but not so frequent to the point of wasting time or energy on the same thoughts over and over. If I’m feeling extra lost that week, rather than adding an extra session, I prefer to jot it down to work on at my next whiteboarding session. Routines are everything.

    A lot of people talk about the power of whiteboarding in groups for creative brainstorming. I find that to also be an effective way to pull ideas out of a group, but the sessions need to be structured enough to not be a time suck for everyone and the groups need to be small pods before opening them up to bigger teams.

    When my business partner Ian Rodriguez and I launched Innovo, we’d spend hours behind a whiteboard taking turns workshopping every little detail and idea. Those days were extremely effective for clarifying who we were and what we wanted to accomplish.

    Once your business is moving you obviously can’t spend hours weekly doing those sessions though. In my opinion, the best go-forward strategy I’ve found here is to whiteboard solo, develop some thoughts and opinions, then bring your partner(s) and team in to take it to the next level. This allows for personal clarity as well as tapping into others’ skill sets and ideas.

    Ideas are good, but clarity is great. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself through whiteboarding — it’s become my secret weapon in entrepreneurship.

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    Sam Saideman

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  • How to Successfully Launch a Product in Under 90 Days | Entrepreneur

    How to Successfully Launch a Product in Under 90 Days | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    SaaS continues to expand at record rates, with SaaS growth at 11.7% CAGR and fintech, also mainly cloud-based, growing at a similar velocity at 11%. But most SaaS startups will fail for a variety of reasons, including poor go-to-market (GTM) strategy. I’m on a mission to change that.

    Why? Because I’ve spent 15 years working with companies struggling to land their messaging, make an impact in the market and drive consistent expansion. In a terrifyingly titled McKinsey report, “Grow Fast or Die Slow,” the authors outline that even at 20% annual growth, 92% of SaaS companies will cease existence within a few years. Fast, sustainable growth is everything. The sooner, the better.

    In my experience, B2B and B2C SaaS, fintech and services teams, from startup to enterprise, often suffer the problems mentioned earlier at different scales. There’s also too much noise and bad advice for early-stage and less confident founders; VCs tell them to go and sell their product, which is fundamentally the right strategy, but there’s no context or value beyond that.

    It should seem obvious that companies need solid foundations to enable long-term growth and stability. Still, time and again, I see founders bypass this (admittedly hard) work in the scramble to get to market — only to find themselves back at square one, needing our help reorienting the ship. So, how do you get it right?

    Related: How to Build a Go-to-Market Strategy That Prevents Risk

    Your GTM strategy should be based on assessment, research, ideas, strategy and execution (ARISE)

    Start by assessing. Look at what you’ve done to date, and use that as a basis for change. For instance, analyze your website performance, your content. What’s resonating? What isn’t? Where are you losing your audience? Dig into your product, from retention rates to average lifetime value (ALV). Measure your onboarding effectiveness — where could you refine it? How can you measure its impact?

    Next up is research, which includes competitive analysis, customer feedback and market sizing. To set a north star, you must set a user or buyer hypothesis and find people to interview even without customers. Wynter and Respondent spring to mind as platforms for this research.

    Ideas — the creative element. Here, you focus on jobs to be done, your value proposition, storytelling and messaging and the service design framework. Understand the typical things your intended or current buyer/user does without your platform, and use that to understand where your solution picks up the heaviest load for that buyer. You must change their world. Use that insight as part of your external communications.

    Strategy — by now, you’ve done a lot to organize your platform for GTM readiness, but here the work starts in earnest: goal and objective setting, content planning, personas and segmentation, keyword research, website strategy, sales enablement strategy (you don’t want to wait on this one in particular), asset management, paid marketing, reporting, analytics and your CRM.

    Related: How to Nail a Successful Product Launch

    Your CRM is key to success (and a 360-degree view of your customer)

    I’m a fan of HubSpot to enable the strategy, execution and operationalization of this approach. Not only because of the capacity of the platform but because early-stage tech companies can often achieve significant discounts via the HubSpot for startups program or their VC/angel investors. This allows business leaders to align their growth goals from go-to-market into full-blown revenue operations down the line.

    Finally, you move to execution. All of the research and prep done in the previous stages come together, and now you can go live. We’ve seen B2B services teams closing their first deals in under two weeks, with an active pipeline in under a month. By this, we mean a mix of closed won, closed lost and open sales.

    I believe growth should be programmatic in the sense that a business needs stages of development to achieve growth, clarify the chaos and work with the best business practice — that is, all teams operating on a single source of customer data.

    Founders take note: Predictability is a good thing. A systemized, repeatable and scalable framework with proven results is the pinnacle for early and mid-stage tech firms.

    Related: 6 Key Things to Consider When Bringing a Product to Market

    The power of review — this is not a one-and-done process

    The main assumption of go-to-market is that once you’ve done it — it’s done. But as your offering matures (i.e., new features or fresh products in your tech stack), who buys from you and how you solve for those buyers may change. Therefore, you have a compelling reason to revisit positioning, messaging and personas periodically in order to keep scaling results.

    We prefer the above approach, and to keep companies aligned to regular review, we set them up for success on HubSpot by building an ARISE framework into the platform. This enables founders and marketers to assign and track progress.

    If you want to successfully launch a product in under 90 days, this framework has proven successful amongst the businesses that we work with. It’s not for the faint of heart; it’s for leaders who understand that strong positioning and messaging, combined with a robust sales strategy supported by comprehensive onboarding will allow you to retain and expand revenue from the outset. Plus, you develop a culture of testing and development. No slow deaths here.

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    Paul Sullivan

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  • How I Built A Multi-6 Figure Coaching Business And Achieved 3-Day Work Weeks | Entrepreneur

    How I Built A Multi-6 Figure Coaching Business And Achieved 3-Day Work Weeks | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Eight years ago, I started my Rise Lean from scratch. I had a mission: Helping people end a toxic relationship with food while losing weight effortlessly, using Asian wisdom. As a new online entrepreneur, I encountered a series of challenges in turning will into success.

    First, I’ve never developed a coaching program. I’ve also never sold a thing. And considering the U.S. weight loss industry was incredibly saturated, I felt anonymous and unseen.

    Today, my company magnetizes a consistent stream of ideal clients from around the world. And with its client acquisition, delivery and support systems built for scale, it’s seeing 20-40% growth month after month while working three days a week. This article will cover five major components that have shaped my company’s core foundation and readiness to beautifully thrive and scale.

    Related: 7 Innovative Online Business Ideas for Digital Entrepreneurship

    Create a remarkable and irresistible product

    People want massive, real and lasting results that come quickly with the least amount of effort needed. If your product can bring them that experience, it’s remarkable and irresistible. When I first started, I immediately wanted my program to be that way. To ensure that, I interviewed 155 prospects to get a deep understanding of what they truly needed, took on 30 clients for a low price and built the first version of my company’s formula, informed by their experience, challenges and needs.

    Throughout the past eight years, I’ve upgraded the course 12 times. Today, I still ask myself these two questions periodically:

    • Can it be better?
    • Can it be easier for my clients?

    Turning your product into a masterpiece should be an unstoppable obsession. When you have a remarkable and irresistible product, it becomes a source of unshakable faith for you — even as you navigate market volatility.

    1. Make competition irrelevant with an irreplaceable brand

    I don’t prefer easy games, that’s why I headed into the weight loss industry despite the crazy competition within. What made me confident? A unique and strong brand identity, which is highly recognizable by my audience. If you can make your target audience fall in love with you, competition is irrelevant and you are irreplaceable. Whether you can have a successful brand identity depends on your ability to really understand your clients, articulate the problem they are facing and tell your story compellingly.

    Who are they? Can you describe their traits, stories, life stages, emotional states, pain points, dreams, fears and inner needs? If it’s challenging for you at this moment, do what I did. Collect customer feedback to get a better understanding of their needs.

    What exactly is the problem you solve? Be very specific and clear about it. On my website, I describe every main symptom and problem my target audience experience. I echo the thoughts in their head to become more relatable and drive a stronger connection.

    What’s your story? What makes you different and amazing? And what makes you irreplaceable for your audience?

    During the first year of running my business, I intentionally hid my story of losing the 50 pounds I’d gained in the U.S. organically, using the wisdom and knowledge I gained from my travels in China. Huge mistake.

    My personal, uniquely Asian experience is my golden competitive advantage. Because of it, I’m able to have a distinctive message in a highly crowded market based on real-life experience. As soon as I loudly shared my story in my own voice, my company’s growth spiked. Your story, when articulated well, can make your competition irrelevant. Check-in with yourself: Are you telling your story without holding back?

    Remember, you don’t need to attract everyone — only the selected group of people you desire to work with. And your brand identity, when optimized, magnetizes only the right people and makes you irreplaceable to them.

    Related: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Startup Pricing Strategies

    2. Price for success — for both you and your clients

    The best pricing model is the one which sets both your clients and your business for success. There are two questions you need to ask yourself when thinking about your pricing:

    • Question #1. What number reflects the level of commitment, services and outcomes from you?

    For instance, if you run a life coaching program priced at $150, I’d imagine this is primarily an information product with minimal personalized coaching. On the other hand, if your offer is helping established businesses get into a seven-figure revenue through 1:1 coaching with a top expert, that implies a multiple five-figure price tag.

    As always, your pricing sends the signal to your target client regarding what to expect, the level of services and the outcome delivered.

    • Question #2. What number will inspire your clients to be serious about your offer and co-creating the desired outcome with you?

    I priced the earliest version of my program at $500 during a test run. I quickly encountered one problem: A significant number of my clients weren’t showing up for the calls or doing their homework. After talking to them, I found they weren’t prioritizing the program.

    I immediately realized two things: First, I’d attracted the wrong buyers who weren’t committed to the work. Second, my price didn’t convey the magnitude of the outcome and commitment from my end. Charging a price that attracted the wrong buyers meant low engagement, morale and client success rate. If I let that cycle continue, it’d kill my business and drain my passion for it.

    Right now, I run my program with a pricing model that ensures I work with the most committed, responsible and coachable clients worldwide. They are incredibly enthusiastic about achieving the milestones set in the course. They are natural action-takers, accomplished in their professions and roles, humble and excited in front of the opportunities to have better life experiences. I never worry if they attend the coaching calls and do their homework. And deep, colorful and high-energy conversations keep flourishing during our live sessions, elevating the coaching experience to new dimensions.

    This dynamic drives me to be the best version of myself whenever I do my work. I wake up in the morning looking forward to our calls. And I never ever feel tired. When combined, all these pieces maximize my clients’ success rate and happiness throughout the experience, which tirelessly fuels the success of my business and my sense of fulfillment as an entrepreneur.

    In this experience, my clients and I contribute to each other’s victories.

    #4. Build a multi-channel scaling ecosystem

    Relying on just one funnel was the biggest risk I’ve taken in my business. Before 2020, I was only running Facebook ads which worked wonderfully for me. I was blinded by the ease and thought I’d never need a Plan B.

    Then, Facebook implemented an upgrade. The next thing I knew? The same funnel no longer worked. Lead flow immediately stopped and it was scary because I thought I was going to lose my business.

    My company bounced back in a few months and ever since I’ve started building a multi-channel lead generation ecosystem that generates multiple streams of leads in parallel. Here are the main components of this system I’ve built:

    How much does it cost to be seen (without clicking through) by 10 million ideal clients through ads? Easily $1 million. However, you don’t need to spend $1 million to reach millions of clients. Getting onto five to ten major podcasts in your niche can help you accomplish that, likely with greater results because a 30-minute podcast interview can gain you a lot more trust than an ad.

    They are similar to podcast interviews, in a different format.

    Investing in SEO is worthwhile for those who desire to build an epic brand that stands out from a whole crowd of competitors. It can take eight to 12 months to take off. However, once established, it brings a consistent stream of ready clients throughout the year.

    My TikTok channel is where I talk to my audience “face-to-face.” It’s not a lead generation platform yet. However, it serves as a powerful source of confirmation for people — building trust before we talk.

    Meanwhile, don’t forget your email list. People sign up for my email list through various sources, and I use it to build relationships and trust with my audience.

    Building a multi-channel scaling ecosystem indeed requires a lot of work. But if you start today and be consistent, in three years, you’ll have a client-attraction system as powerful as a tank.

    Related: Does Richard Branson’s 3-Day Workweek Actually Work?

    Lastly, how did I achieve a three-day workweek lifestyle?

    It’s because of all of these components above. Thanks to the multi-channel scaling system, I now have a semi-automated lead-generation system that brings me a steady flow of interested people. Having established organic funnels saves me from spending hours chasing after people.

    Meanwhile, my brand message ensures that those who approach me are the type of clients you want to work with. It means I’m not wasting time speaking to irrelevant people. With a strong conversion rate, I can sustain this revenue without running ads. Because of that, I’m not spending hours and days creating, maintaining, refreshing ads and analyzing ad-related data. And since my program features an online group coaching experience, I can deliver well to my current clients without significantly expanding my coaching hours.

    At this moment, most of my working hours during the week are split among doing group coaching calls (two hours a week), talking to potential clients (six to eight hours a week), and generating new content — whether it’s new TikTok videos or a product interview (around five hours a week). Every week, I write one to two email newsletters, with each taking between 15 minutes to an hour, thanks to how much I understand my audience. I use automation as much as possible for the remaining miscellaneous work. I also outsource work whenever needed.

    All the groundwork, from product development to funnel building, was developed over eight years since the launch of my business. And I sure have had many 80-hour work weeks in the first couple of years. But thankfully, the majority of the work I did was intended to generate evergreen, compounding results. All of that has allowed me to enjoy my business along with many other things in life — from motherhood to traveling and equestrian.

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    Leslie Chen

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  • A Cybersecurity Expert Reveals Why You’re a Cybercriminal’s Next Target — and 5 Things You Can Do to Beef Up Your Defense. | Entrepreneur

    A Cybersecurity Expert Reveals Why You’re a Cybercriminal’s Next Target — and 5 Things You Can Do to Beef Up Your Defense. | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    If your company was hit by ransomware today, who would you call? Or perhaps a better question: How would you call them? It sounds absurd, but as a cybersecurity expert, I’ve seen organizations paralyzed in the first hours after an incident simply because nobody knows anyone’s cell number anymore. Without access to email or messaging systems, communication grinds to a halt and workers, customers and suppliers are all left wondering what is going on. Panic rapidly escalates into a crisis.

    There’s a tendency to think about cybersecurity as being the responsibility of the IT or security department. But protecting your company comes down to two things: organizational culture and planning. That’s why some of the most important people on cyber defense aren’t in the IT team — they’re in human resources.

    The HR team is uniquely placed to embed cybersecurity preparedness into the everyday working of an organization. It’s responsible for building the policies and processes to mitigate risks and ensure the business has the competencies to be resilient to foreseeable challenges — and those include cyberattacks. And as the custodians of employees’ sensitive personal information, HR teams are themselves prime targets for hackers.

    Unfortunately, this vital role is often overlooked. So here are five ways HR can help make your business a tough target for cybercriminals.

    Related: 78% of Employers Are Using Remote Work Tools to Spy on You. Here’s a More Effective (and Ethical) Approach to Tracking Employee Productivity.

    Build a cybersecurity culture

    Eternal vigilance is the price of our liberty to roam the internet. The number of threats is mind-blowing — a recent report found the average education institution faces more than 2,300 attempts to breach its systems in a week, while healthcare organizations fend off more than 1,600 attacks. With so many digital grenades being lobbed, it’s incredibly hard to catch them all. However, a strong cybersecurity culture helps an organization defend against attacks and limits the blast radius when one does get through. The tough part: Everyone has to be on the same page when it comes to online behaviors.

    Step one is to ensure you have the training tools so that employees know what they should and should not be doing. Most organizations are reasonably good at this. Whereas, many fall short by not putting that information into practice every day.

    The best way to ensure that everyone considers cybersecurity a fundamental part of their responsibilities is to build it into performance reviews. This should not take the form of calling out workers for every dodgy link they click on. Instead, it should be a constructive conversation about how they’re keeping up with their cyber literacy training. There are cyber health-check tools that workers can use to analyze their online behavior and address weaknesses (like reusing Pa$$w0rd across half the internet or not using two-factor authentication) and often these can be used to track progress toward cybersecurity goals at an organizational level.

    When safety precautions are regularly discussed, they just become part of how you do business.

    Protect your crown jewels

    HR has custody of some of the most sensitive information in an organization — and hackers know this. In the past five years or so, many companies have adopted platforms that enable employees to self-serve routine tasks like vacation requests. However, third-party platforms come with risks. Hackers target them in so-called supply chain attacks, knowing that if they get lucky, they can access troves of information from multiple companies. In 2021, more than 300 organizations were breached in a hack of a widely used file transfer system. One of these was the University of California, which said the information exposed included employees’ social security numbers, driver’s licenses and passport details (the UC system offered its staff free ID monitoring services).

    Job one for HR professionals is to ensure employee data remains confidential. Perform extensive due diligence before your organization signs up for any third-party HR service. Only consider companies that comply with international standards (SOC 2 and ISO 27001 are the main ones to look out for) and check online for reports of security incidents at the site in the past few years. Also, look into where your data is being stored and how it is being backed up. Depending on your location and industry, you may have to comply with data residency laws.

    Stop hoarding data

    Updating the data retention policy should be on the to-do list of every HR department. I say updating because every company has a data retention policy whether they know it or not. If yours isn’t written down, then your policy is simply to keep everything forever. And that exposes you to considerable risk. The more data you have, the worse a breach can be — it’s especially bad if you’re hoarding data you no longer need. Many jurisdictions have limits on how long companies should retain sensitive information — it’s often around seven years for records on former employees.

    Figure out who will call the shots when a breach happens

    Cybersecurity may be everyone’s day-to-day responsibility, but when an attack gets through there should be one person in charge of the response. In cybersecurity lingo, we call this the incident commander. While everyone can have an opinion on the best course of action, decision-making power rests with them.

    The job spec for incident commander only has one line: It’s whoever best understands cybersecurity issues in your organization. Depending on the size of your business, that might be a cybersecurity leader, the head of IT or it could be Joanne in accounting who took a few courses on this stuff. Whoever it is, make sure you’ve identified them before an incident happens and have clearly communicated that to your team. Once a cybersecurity incident happens, events move quickly — in one case I was involved in, the hackers gave a 45-minute warning before starting to post sensitive information — so you don’t want to waste time figuring out who’s in charge.

    Run some drills

    Planning is only one half of the equation. Practice is the other. Plenty of research has shown that people don’t think clearly in stressful situations. We perform drills for fires and earthquakes to give us a framework to fall back on in an emergency. The same idea works for cybersecurity incidents. Set aside two hours once a year to run a tabletop exercise with key staff that simulates what you’ll do if the company is hacked. In these exercises, someone takes the role of a moderator to explain the nature of the attack and what’s been affected, while everyone else plays out how they’d respond.

    The first time you conduct the exercise, it’ll likely be a mess — but that’s the point. The scramble to figure things out will reveal the gaps in your plans. Over time, the drills will become second nature.

    Related: So, You’ve Been Hacked. These are the Best Practices for Business Leaders Post-Hack

    And write contact information down — on paper

    Put the incident team’s phone numbers down on paper and update the list regularly. Yes, it’s old school. Yes, it’s annoying. And yes, one day you’ll be thankful you did.

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    Claudette McGowan

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