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Tag: Growth Strategies

  • How Working With Rivals Can Unlock Bigger Opportunities | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    For decades, business leaders were told to “crush the competition.” Market share was a zero-sum game; if your rival won, you lost. But in today’s interconnected economy, that thinking feels outdated. Companies that are thriving in 2025 aren’t just fighting competitors harder; they’re practicing something counterintuitive: co-opetition.

    Co-opetition, the blend of cooperation and competition, is about partnering with rivals when doing so creates mutual value. You may still compete for customers, but you also collaborate where interests align. Think of it less like a boxing match and more like building a bigger stadium where both sides can play.

    Related: Win-Win: Strategically Partner With Your Top Competitors

    Why co-opetition is taking off

    Several global trends are making co-opetition not just smart, but essential:

    Complex supply chains: No company controls everything end-to-end anymore. Collaboration helps reduce costs and speed up innovation.

    Customer expectations: Buyers want seamless solutions, and sometimes that requires rivals to connect services.

    Technology ecosystems: Look at how Apple and Microsoft, once sworn enemies, now integrate their products for remote workers.

    Capital efficiency: For startups, teaming with a competitor can open doors to distribution, investors or bundled products that would otherwise be out of reach.

    In other words, co-opetition has shifted from a “nice to have” to a growth strategy.

    Famous rivalries that turned into partnerships

    Some of the most creative partnerships in recent years came from companies that used to fight fiercely.

    • Spotify and Uber: When Spotify partnered with Uber to let riders control music during trips, both sides benefited. Spotify gained listening hours; Uber improved the rider experience without building a music feature.
    • BMW and Toyota: These two auto giants co-developed fuel cell tech and sports cars. Instead of duplicating billions in R&D, they shared costs while still competing in the showroom.
    • Pepsi and Coca-Cola: You’ll never see them share a Super Bowl ad, but behind the scenes, they teamed up on recycling. Both brands win when packaging becomes more sustainable and cost-effective.

    The lesson: True co-opetition creates value that neither party could generate alone.

    Related: Why Partnering With Your Competition Could Be Your Key to Success

    Why entrepreneurs should care

    For founders and small businesses, the stakes are even higher. Limited resources make co-opetition a powerful lever.

    • Bigger reach: Two SaaS startups, one in HR, another in payroll, might compete for small business budgets. But if they bundle services into a joint package, they can land bigger clients together.
    • Credibility boost: Teaming up with a competitor signals strength. It tells customers and investors you’re focused on expanding the pie, not just hoarding your slice.
    • Lower costs: Joint marketing events, shared research or co-authored thought leadership can cut expenses in half.

    In fact, a study in the Strategic Management Journal found that firms engaging in co-opetition often see stronger innovation outcomes than those going it alone.

    How to partner with a rival (without losing your edge)

    Of course, collaboration with competitors isn’t without risks. Done poorly, it can leak sensitive info or create brand confusion. Here’s how to do it right:

    1. Pick the right rival: Choose a competitor with complementary strengths, not a mirror image of your business.

    2. Set clear boundaries: Use agreements to define what data is shared, what’s off-limits and how success is measured.

    3. Start small: Pilot a low-stakes project like a joint webinar before committing to deeper collaboration.

    4. Keep the customer central: The partnership should improve the end-user experience. If it doesn’t, it’s not real co-opetition.

    5. Stay competitive: Remember, you’re still rivals. Healthy competition drives performance even as you cooperate.

    The mindset shift founders need

    Many entrepreneurs avoid co-opetition because they think it signals weakness. In reality, it signals confidence. It says: “We’re strong enough in our lane to work with others, not threatened by them.”

    It also helps you avoid the scarcity mindset. Instead of seeing opportunity as a fixed pie, co-opetition shows you how to expand the pie. This is especially powerful in sectors like fintech, health tech and mobility, where no single company can solve every problem.

    Related: How to Play Nice With Your Competitor(s) So Everyone Wins

    The future is co-opetitive

    Look around, and you’ll see this becoming the norm:

    • Amazon’s third-party marketplace partners with sellers who also compete with its own brands.
    • Google and Samsung teamed up to strengthen the smartwatch ecosystem against Apple.
    • Airlines, as one of the toughest, most cutthroat industries, build alliances like Star Alliance to expand global reach.

    For entrepreneurs, the message is clear: The next decade of growth won’t just come from competing harder, but from collaborating smarter.

    As the saying goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” In today’s world, that might even mean going together with your rival. The logic is simple: No single company can own every resource, technology or market. By finding areas where interests align, even rivals can unlock new customers, share costs and shape industries in ways that would be impossible alone.

    Co-opetition isn’t about abandoning competition; it’s about knowing when to compete and when to collaborate so that everyone grows stronger in the long run.

    For decades, business leaders were told to “crush the competition.” Market share was a zero-sum game; if your rival won, you lost. But in today’s interconnected economy, that thinking feels outdated. Companies that are thriving in 2025 aren’t just fighting competitors harder; they’re practicing something counterintuitive: co-opetition.

    Co-opetition, the blend of cooperation and competition, is about partnering with rivals when doing so creates mutual value. You may still compete for customers, but you also collaborate where interests align. Think of it less like a boxing match and more like building a bigger stadium where both sides can play.

    Related: Win-Win: Strategically Partner With Your Top Competitors

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    Bhaskar Ahuja

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  • The Best Loyalty Programs Grow Customer Businesses, Not Just Retain Them | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Too many loyalty programs operate like rusty hand-cranked machines that require immense effort for a single turn. They rest on the premise of short-term retention, a model that stalls the moment a competitor offers a slightly better deal. The future of loyalty is a frictionless flywheel that gains momentum with every joint success. Stop incentivizing purchases and start enabling program members’ success.

    When each new project a member secures is fueled by unique data, and each product innovation immediately translates into a new capability, a powerful cycle comes to life. This symbiotic relationship between a brand’s growth and the member’s pipeline transforms loyalty from a defensive cost center into an unstoppable offensive strategy.

    Related: How to Turn Your ‘Marketable Passion’ Into Income After Retirement

    Diagnosing the pain points in a loyalty program

    The first missed opportunity appears when a loyalty program begins with a rebate table rather than a team member conversation. A recent survey found that engagement among US loyalty members has dropped 10% since 2022, and loyalty has fallen twice as much, indicating that short-term incentives lose charm quickly when competitors match the offer.

    Complex rules then create administrative overhead: layers of thresholds, expiry dates and blackout periods turn what should be encouraging into burdensome work. Champions who sign up to gain momentum often discover that the rewards demand more time than they deliver value.

    Another gap emerges when programs focus solely on tracking spending. Hours invested in training, referrals or brand advocacy stay invisible, so contractors receive no acknowledgment for actions that raise their value.

    Uniform benefit packs widen the gap further because a regional remodeler aiming for local credibility and a national distributor expanding into new states need different kinds of help. Each shortcoming stems from the same underlying issue: the program safeguards current revenue instead of expanding future opportunity.

    Building an engine for mutual growth

    Progress starts with a shift in perspective: replace “How do we keep customers from leaving?” with “How do we help participants secure their next win faster and at a better margin?”. Conversations with contractors, retailers and distributors consistently reveal three accelerators: early access to product improvements, dependable lead flow and credentials that earn trust. Benefits aligned with these goals transform a points account into a business toolbox.

    For example, when a contractor can show a homeowner an exclusive product that saves labor, purchase decisions speed up and profitability rises on both sides. Data transparency must flow both ways. Dashboards give members real-time insight into tier progress and upcoming rewards while giving brands immediate feedback about which features drive incremental revenue.

    Second, benefits are personalized: a rural roofer sees different opportunities than an urban remodeling firm, so the program adjusts instead of broadcasting one generic coupon. Third, purpose sits alongside price. When a program offers community service grants or sustainability certification, members receive a story they can pass to clients, adding reputation equity that compounds over time.

    Related: How Transparency In Business Leads to Customer Growth and Loyalty

    Revealing the impact of collaboration

    The impact of a growth-focused program shows up first in financial data. Share of wallet rises among enrolled members, new product launches gain faster traction and churn recedes because leaving would erase visible support. Pipelines expand when a loyalty badge elevates credibility and leads arrive warmed by national marketing.

    Over 37% of consumers spend more money with brands they subscribe to or belong to membership programs. For example, my company’s TAMKO Edge® loyalty program not only offers cash back rewards but also digital business tools, exclusive events and training. When points fund advanced workshops, regional ad credits or software that streamlines estimates, members invest in their personal growth, rather than merely offset costs.

    Referral momentum reinforces the outcome. Team members who experience measurable gains invite peers, confident that additional network strength raises the tide for everyone. Listening sessions shift from rule confusion to conversations about shared innovation, indicating the relationship has moved from transactional to strategic.

    Resilience during market swings provides final confirmation: members who rely on shared dashboards adapt quickly to supply fluctuations because joint planning aligns inventory with forecast demand. The brand benefits from steadier demand curves and reduced emergency discounting, an advantage no one-off rebate can match.

    Tailoring programs to consumer pain points

    Before investing in a redesign, teams can run a quick audit: match every perk to a real obstacle members face. Perks without that link waste focus and budget. Contractors, for example, often need support beyond their craft, like sales training, business guidance or lead generation.

    Loyalty programs that offer these resources directly address pain points while tiered structures keep members engaged and motivated to grow. Prioritizing rewards that expand capacity, like marketing credits or extended warranties, over one-off treats builds long-term, mutually beneficial relationships. Early checks reveal gaps while costs to adjust are still low.

    Sustaining momentum once it starts

    Partnership thrives on scheduled dialogue. Setting aside time each quarter allows members to outline new hurdles while program teams share upcoming capabilities. During review sessions, owners confirm whether members choose rewards that extend reach, like advertising placements, skill certifications and longer service windows, rather than vouchers that offset routine expenses. Ongoing dialogue turns intention into concrete action by aligning future perks with real-time feedback.

    Programs that cling to rebates compete in a shrinking arena defined by price, while initiatives that equip customers to secure bigger, faster wins compete in a wider field where every success multiplies. Align every reward, insight and meeting with that reality.

    When mutual growth drives each decision, both ledgers rise together, turning loyalty into a long-term partnership that endures shifts in market, technology and customer expectations.

    Too many loyalty programs operate like rusty hand-cranked machines that require immense effort for a single turn. They rest on the premise of short-term retention, a model that stalls the moment a competitor offers a slightly better deal. The future of loyalty is a frictionless flywheel that gains momentum with every joint success. Stop incentivizing purchases and start enabling program members’ success.

    When each new project a member secures is fueled by unique data, and each product innovation immediately translates into a new capability, a powerful cycle comes to life. This symbiotic relationship between a brand’s growth and the member’s pipeline transforms loyalty from a defensive cost center into an unstoppable offensive strategy.

    Related: How to Turn Your ‘Marketable Passion’ Into Income After Retirement

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    Fallon Anawalt

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  • Here Are the Top 50 Mistakes I’ve Seen Kill New Companies | Entrepreneur

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    I’ve seen many startups succeed, and many fail. I’ve consulted for and invested in lots of them. My previous startup, Anchor, navigated its own challenges and missteps; we were fortunate to survive them, and ultimately Spotify acquired the company in 2019.

    Over the years, I’ve come to think of startups as a game of Minesweeper. Remember that game from early PCs? You’d start with a grid of clickable squares, with cartoon mines hidden throughout. Your job was to take a few guesses, gain some information about where the mines were, and logic your way through finding them all. Similarly, startup founders start with an empty board. And although nobody can know their locations, the mines are guaranteed to be there — and certain types of mines are common to every kind of business. A founder can save a lot of time, money, and energy if they know how to avoid these pitfalls from the very start.

    After many years of navigating mines, I’ve identified the 50 most common ones. (I share lessons like this regularly in my newsletter — which you can find at my website, zaxis.page.) To be clear, this list is far from exhaustive. And while there are certainly exceptions, it can be a great shortcut for anyone leading a new initiative, at any sized company.

    Related: The Path to Success Is Filled With Mistakes. Do These Four Things to Tap Into Their Growth Potential.

    Ready to find your mines? Here they are.

    1. Thinking you have all the answers

    My favorite piece of advice for startup founders: You’ll be 90% wrong about your assumptions. The problem is that you don’t know which 90%. Therefore, do everything you can to challenge your convictions, and be willing to shed them or tweak them as needed. Rapid iteration and an open mind are two necessary ingredients for a successful startup journey.

    2. Ignoring the impact of compounding

    Meaningful long-term change takes time, be it learning new skills, obtaining new customers, or establishing a brand. The most underrated way to drive improvement is through incremental steps that compound over time. Einstein apocryphally called compound interest the “eighth wonder of the world.” Tiny changes each day multiply to astronomical gains, so long as you’re consistent and committed.

    3. Disregarding the law of funnels

    Any action a user or customer needs to take is considered the top of a “conversion funnel.” The goal is to get them to the bottom. One of the easiest ways to lose someone along that journey (a phenomenon known as churn) is to require them to go through too many steps. I call this the “Law of Funnels.” It states: “The more steps a user has to go through to do something, the less likely they are to complete it.”

    4. Hiring based on experience

    Startups have very little time and resources to focus on the wrong thing, but it’s impossible to predict what they will need to focus on. So don’t waste energy and precious hires on what a person has done in the past. It’s 97% irrelevant to what they will be doing in the future. Instead of hiring for relevant experience, hire people who are adaptable and good problem-solvers.

    5. Focusing on scaling too early (see fig. 1)

    Many startups overengineer and future-proof in the early days, which is almost certain to result in a tremendous waste of energy. At the start of the journey, there are very few knowns (see mistake No. 1). But one thing that is known is that there is a fundamental difference between the friction that prevents a product from taking off and the friction that prevents it from scaling.

    Related: Failed Startups Made These 7 Marketing Mistakes — Are You Making Them, Too?

    6. Wearing too many hats

    In my favorite brainteaser of all time, 100 prisoners wear different colored hats and strategize ways to identify their own hat colors. A startup often has far fewer than 100 employees, but often has far more than 100 hats. Context-switching carries a real cost, and early-stage employees who fail to delegate responsibility often end up performing all tasks poorly. Find people you can trust to take some of those hats off your head, and bring them in early.

    7. Comparing your work-in-progress to others’ finished works

    One of the easiest ways to get discouraged while running the startup marathon is to compare your rough drafts and works-in-progress to polished success stories. All difficult tasks (be they entrepreneurial, creative, educational, etc.) require iteration and more iteration, revision and more revision. The mistakes along the way are countless, sure, but they are also priceless. Comparing a work-in-progress to the finished products we see every day is not only demotivating — it’s also disingenuous. It’s comparing a sapling to a fully grown tree.

    8. Trying to solve unbounded problems

    To be solved effectively and efficiently, problems must be segmented and bounded. First, split your intractable problems into small, digestible challenges with a single goal in mind for each. Second, ensure that their solution is bounded to a finite solution space. Not realizing this is almost always a recipe for wasted resources and disappointing outcomes.

    9. Being frightened of incumbents

    Founders are often scared to take on powerful incumbents, believing those paths to be dead ends. This is a mistake. Taking on a monopoly is often a missed opportunity with enormous upside, and with lower costs than you think. There are four main reasons: Monopolies have already proven the industry is viable and lucrative. They refuse to cannibalize their own dominance. They’ve institutionalized their inefficiencies. And perhaps most importantly, they have the most to lose from making mistakes. Startups, by contrast, have the most to gain.

    10. Fearing the pivot

    For most startups, there are only two viable outcomes. In the unlikely case, they will be a big success. In the more likely scenario, they will fail. Don’t stick to early product or strategy decisions that raise the likelihood of the latter. If your startup fails, the value of all your decisions will be zero — so do everything you can to maximize the likelihood of success. If that requires pivoting from what you know and are comfortable with, so be it.

    Related: I Have Helped Founders Raise Millions. Here Are 7 Fundraising Mistakes I See Many Startups Making — And What You Need To Do Instead.

    11. Thinking you need to be first

    Passionate and creative thinkers often believe that in order to succeed, they need to be the first mover. This is wrong. Being the first mover is often a tremendous disadvantage. What matters is not being first but having consumers think you were first, all while benefitting from the courses charted by your forerunners.

    12. Catering too much to existing users (see fig. 2)

    Your existing users or customers are critically important; you wouldn’t have a business without them. But focusing too much on their needs necessarily comes at the expense of the audience you haven’t yet reached, and for whom you’re still struggling to showcase value. Catering to those who have reached the bottom of your funnel prevents you from serving the needs of those higher in the funnel, whose needs have not yet been served. This is the push and pull of product development, and there is a flip side to it. That’s the next mistake…

    13. Catering too much to potential users (see fig. 2)

    The danger outlined in mistake No. 12 swings the other way too. Neglecting to serve the needs of your existing users runs the risk of causing unnecessary churn. The cost of retaining customers you have already converted is substantially lower than the cost of obtaining new ones. Don’t be overly protective of the users you have, but don’t be overly dismissive either.

    14. Not understanding employee motivation

    Your employees are motivated by different things, and failing to recognize their different styles often leads to poor management as well as to employee dissatisfaction. I categorized people into a “Climber, Hiker, Runner” framework: Climbers are driven by the prospect of unlocking future opportunities. Hikers prefer to take on new challenges and learn new things. And Runners are happy when they can dive deep into what they’re good at. Approaching motivation this way has made me a better manager, and has helped me identify effective ways to keep employees happy.

    15. Focusing too much on short-term gains

    Successfully growing a startup is a marathon (see mistake No. 2). Short-term wins offer little beyond dopamine hits and the stroking of egos. In long-term success stories, accomplishing tough goals takes time but yields meaningful and lasting benefits. While it takes many short-term wins to get to the finish line, don’t miss the forest for the trees. Those incremental achievements are not the true goal. They are the means to an end.

    Related: 7 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Scaling Your Business

    16. Putting off hard conversations

    Your life is divided into two parts: that which occurs before you have the awkward, unpleasant, or emotionally taxing conversation you’re putting off, and that which occurs after. Which would you rather extend? If it’s the latter, why not do everything in your power to cross the boundary right now?

    17. Failing to recognize power laws

    Power laws govern everything you do. Most of the work you put into your startup will yield little clear benefit. Most of the success you see will come from a handful of bets. Internalizing this phenomenon leads to better decision making, less emotional turbulence, and healthier, more sustainable businesses.

    18. Overprotecting your idea

    Have a brilliant idea and an NDA preventing anyone from peeking at it? You’re likely not doing yourself any favors. Truly successful companies win with superior execution, not superior ideas (see mistake No. 11). And by overprotecting your idea from being prodded and challenged, you’re weakening its probability of ever coming to fruition. Often, those individuals who frighten you as potential competitors are those whose feedback is most valuable. And if you fear them stealing the idea, be comforted in knowing that there is no shortage of great ideas in the world. There is, however, a dire shortage of people who know what to do with them.

    19. Keeping interactions inside the office

    Whether in person or remote, the value of having your team “break the ice” cannot be overstated. I mean that in two ways. First, it’s of course good for your colleagues to get to know one another (and hopefully like one another), which leads to happier employees and higher productivity. Second, when people let loose, it “breaks the ice” of the day-to-day mayhem of startup life — or what I like to call “a necessary thawing period.”

    20. Getting too comfortable (see fig. 3)

    There is a big difference between being at a local minimum and being at a global one. Yet from a day-to-day vantage point, they look the same. Any change in any direction means more work, more stress, and more risk. We must zoom out and look at the entirety of our options. Sometimes the best paths or strategies lie just beyond a hill we’re scared to climb.

    Related: I Made These 3 Big Mistakes When Starting a Business — Here’s What I Learned From Them

    21. Not putting things in perspective

    When lost in the hustle and bustle of the early stages of a company, it’s important to remember that most stressful things don’t actually matter in the long term. They will do little to affect the eventual outcome, but they will heavily drain you in the near term. Please take regular moments to stop yourself, look at your small stressors, and ask if this really matters in life. It probably doesn’t.

    22. Not quantifying goals

    Goals without metrics are unbounded (see mistake No. 8). This makes them harder to achieve — and how will you know when you do achieve them? How will you hold yourself accountable when you’ve veered too far off course? Particularly when working as part of a team, quantifiable and measurable goals are of paramount importance to achieve any level of alignment.

    23. Waiting to find a technical cofounder

    Nearly everything I’ve needed to learn to become a technical cofounder, I taught myself (with the guidance of great mentors). You live in an age of wonders, where anyone can learn anything with incredible efficiency. Do not allow the search for a technical cofounder to prevent you from pursuing your dream. Become the technical cofounder yourself.

    For instance: Are you interested in AI but think you’ll never understand how it works? Think again.

    24. Looking for complicated answers when there may be simple ones

    Often, problems that seem intractable have elegant and simple solutions. We are trained to look for complexity, and to value those perspectives that overcomplicate the world. Ignore that instinct! The greatest insights I had as a founder came from light-bulb moments when I realized things were simpler than I’d assumed, not more complicated.

    25. Assuming there is only one path to success (see fig. 4)

    While other people’s success stories can motivate and inspire you, they can also be dangerous. Everyone’s path is unique, and often meandering. Anyone who says that your journey to success must follow a single trajectory has never built a company of their own; they’ve merely studied other people’s.

    Related: Business Owners: Are You Making These 10 Mistakes?

    26. Not filtering out high-frequency noise

    Most day-to-day problems are just noise. Sometimes it’s angry employees or customers. Sometimes it’s a deal gone bad or failing servers. Successful leaders adopt what I call a low-pass mentality. Just as low-pass filters in engineering absorb short-term shocks by filtering out the high-frequency ups and downs, a startup founder must filter out the noise and focus on solving long-term, systemic issues that will have a high impact.

    27. Putting your eggs in one basket

    As shown in mistake No. 1, you’ll be wrong about pretty much all your assumptions. So why risk your business on a single bet? Of course, it’s important to have convictions — but that doesn’t preclude you from simultaneously having other convictions, particularly at the very early stages. If the primary goal of a startup is to reach product-market fit quickly (see mistake No. 5), the risk of being wrong about your one big bet would be extremely costly.

    28. Putting your eggs in too many baskets

    Just as it is dangerous to wear too many hats (see mistake No. 6), it is similarly dangerous to tackle too many strategies at once. Successful leaders prioritize ruthlessly; that means tackling “critical” tasks before ones that are only “very important.” It means committing to seeing through strategies before expending energy on other ones. And it means rallying the whole team around a single milestone or goal, rather than splitting their attention and making everyone worse off because of it.

    29. Underinvesting in long-term relationships

    Most of the key turning points in my business career came through the strength of relationships fostered over many years. Small decisions to help others, to build trust, and to keep in touch can have a tremendous impact on your future in unpredictable ways. The worst-case scenario? Some wasted social energy. The best-case scenario? You open doors you never knew were there.

    30. Failing to recognize recurring patterns

    Despite all the unpredictable noise in business, there is an often-overlooked consistency between market cycles and the players within them. While it’s dangerous to place too much emphasis on individual success stories (see mistake No. 25), it is even more dangerous to overlook the cyclical nature of market dynamics. Human psychology is notoriously predictable — and notoriously forgetful.

    Related: How to Turn Your Mistakes Into Opportunities

    31. Not talking to other founders

    As a founder myself, I overlooked the learned experience of other founders. There is so much guidance buried in their success stories. There is even more to take away from their failures. As I said at the top of this article, startups are like a game of Minesweeper. You can tackle a blank board and start clicking away, or you can put aside your ego and get help from those who have played that board before. If you choose the latter, the likelihood of success can skyrocket.

    32. Focusing on vanity metrics

    There is a reason they are called vanity metrics. Hitting them is the kind of short-term gain I advised you to disregard in mistake No. 15. Why achieve goals that look good but aren’t strategically important? Why care about the number of users if those users are a poor fit and don’t stick around? Why focus on time spent using your product if that number is only high because your product is hard to use (see mistake No. 3)? Identify your desired outcomes, and then find the metrics that actually map to those outcomes.

    33. Misunderstanding the CAP principle

    In computer science, there is a fundamental limitation on how database systems can be built. One can never achieve more than two of the following three goals: consistency, availability, and partition tolerance (or “CAP”). The same is true of companies, which will inevitably see a decline in one of these as they invest in the other two. For instance, when ensuring all teams can talk to each other (availability) and that there is always an individual who can be the “source of truth” for others (consistency), your ability to manage when an employee leaves or communication channels go offline (partition tolerance) drops considerably.

    34. Never setting arbitrary deadlines

    Arbitrary deadlines are a tool. Like most tools, they can be good or bad, depending on who’s using them and for what. Yet while there are many times a team needs the space to think, build, and iterate without undue pressure, there are just as many instances that benefit from the structure and direction provided by arbitrary deadlines. Importantly, arbitrary deadlines should be recognized as arbitrary, and they should be adjusted if needed. But that doesn’t diminish their power in aligning a team and incentivizing productivity. In the right circumstances, I’ve seen them work wonders.

    35. Ignoring uncertainty principles

    Early-stage entrepreneurship, as in quantum physics, presents an inescapable tradeoff. Resources (time, money, etc.) can be spent on investing in a specific strategy or on keeping open optionality; they cannot do both. I call this phenomenon the Startup Uncertainty Principle. It shows that the more you focus on the present, the less you’re able to prep for the future. And the more you prep for the future, the less effective you’ll be now. Companies that attempt to do both at once are fighting a losing battle.

    Related: Common Mistakes First-Time Entrepreneurs Make and How to Stop Them

    36. Not prioritizing low-hanging fruit

    As shown in mistake No. 28, successful companies prioritize ruthlessly. When companies spread themselves and their employees too thin, they hurt productivity and morale. Of course, there is value in investing in longer-term projects with higher costs and higher rewards. Yet it is also critical to regularly prioritize easy wins and short-term opportunities that move the needle incrementally. In addition to laying the foundation for compounding improvements (see mistake No. 2), it will also reengage your teammates and keep morale high.

    37. Overlooking unexplored markets

    As founders and dollars race to build in competitive, high-growth markets, opportunities often exist in “hidden layers” of industry. Companies that focus there can ride waves of market growth while avoiding fierce competition, by turning potential competitors into actual customers. Some of the most valuable companies in the world have taken this approach (including the two most valuable) and it has paid dividends (literally).

    38. Not relying on proven technology

    New technological solutions to longstanding problems can be attractive. But the hidden downsides can surface much too late — often when you’re already dependent. New technologies can break, can go out of business, can have unexpected side effects. By contrast, longstanding problems tend to have proven longstanding solutions. While not as exciting to use, they work, and that’s what matters most.

    39. Sugarcoating bad news

    Managers sometimes believe that when things get hard — and they inevitably will, many times over — bad news is better delivered indirectly or with a positive spin. This is an innate human desire. But employees are smart. Being disingenuous about the state of the business or the rationale for business decisions will hurt your company over the long term. This applies to everything from layoffs to pivots to cutting perks. Your employees will see through the euphemisms, rendering your sugarcoating fruitless, and they will respect you less for your lack of directness.

    40. Ignoring entropy

    It’s a law of the universe that everything trends toward disorder. Knowledge and control are no different. No matter what, eventually you’ll be wrong. Your convictions will need to adapt as the world in which they exist evolves. The stable parts of your business will suffer from unexpected market dynamics, new competition, and shifting consumer attitudes. Those who succeed in the long term embrace entropy as a fact of life, and they know that they cannot hold anything too sacred for too long.

    Related: 10 Mistakes I Made While Selling My First Startup (and How You Can Avoid Them)

    41. Forgetting your only advantage

    With limited time and limited resources, only so much can get done. A startup has every disadvantage relative to more well-funded incumbents, and only one advantage: speed. Leverage this. Big players are slow to move and slow to turn, like giant cruise ships. Startups are small and nimble sailboats that can race faster and turn on a dime when it matters.

    42. Treating money like it isn’t fungible

    A dollar is a dollar is a dollar. Every single dollar spent—no matter how it’s accounted for — is money not spent on something else. This is all the more reason to prioritize ruthlessly (see mistake No. 28). Resources have a habit of disappearing faster than you’d expect.

    43. Not explicitly deciding how to balance productivity and alignment (see fig. 5)

    Companies that overinvest in aligning their team members do so at the expense of productivity. Those that focus on productivity do so at the expense of alignment. The optimal balance depends on the company, its size, and its unique journey. But the important takeaway is that you are making this trade-off whether you explicitly choose the balance or not — so you might as well choose it.

    44. Only talking to people you know

    The “birthday paradox” shows that if you put 23 people in a room together, there is a 50% chance two will share the same birthday. By the same mathematical logic, if any conversation has even a 0.3% chance of being life-changing, then putting a few dozen people in a room together is virtually guaranteed to lead to some life-changing conversations. The takeaway? Meet more people. (Here’s a good way to do that.)

    45. Working only from home

    Startup stress can seep across any boundaries you’ve set. To drive both productivity and better mental health, don’t work exclusively from where you sleep and spend time with family. I say “exclusively” because I have seen startups achieve great success in a fully remote setup. Still, the early days of startups rely critically on serendipitous conversations and ideations — and that can only happen when employees are colocated. Get the team together now and then.

    Related: 5 Marketing Mistakes Startups Must Avoid in Order to Survive

    46. Working only from an office

    Most founders I know get their best ideas when they’re not at work. There’s something about the change of scenery, the connections between unrelated neurons, and the exposure of a problem or challenge to a new environment. Whereas mistake No. 45 showcases why it’s important to sometimes bring your team together, this one recognizes that it’s equally important to take them out of their comfort zones and get them to interact in brand-new places and brand-new ways.

    47. Forgetting to revisit whatever motivates you

    When things get difficult (and they will), it’s important to reflect on the things that helped motivate you to start in the first place. Have it readily accessible—be it a movie or a podcast episode or a book or a soundtrack — and revisit it when you feel the morale drop. For me in my Anchor days, it was Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories. To this day, if I need a jump-start in motivational energy, I just put on that album and get to work.

    48. Not taking pictures

    You’re going to miss the early days. You’ll wish they were better documented. If things end up working out, you’ll look at those moments in time and say, “Wow, look how far we’ve come.” And if things don’t, you’ll say, “Wow, look how hard we worked. If I did that, I can handle anything.”

    49. Assuming you have product-market fit

    Product-market fit is the elusive transition point at which you realize who your customers are and what value you’re providing for them. Hardly anyone reaches this point without considerable effort, and the easiest way for a brand-new enterprise to fail is to assume they have reached this point when they have not. There are only two ways — talking to customers and looking at data — that can verify the milestone has been hit. Once there, things get considerably easier.

    50. Thinking there are only 50 startup mistakes

    I suppose I’m guilty of this one right now. No list of startup advice is exhaustive. Every new entrepreneurial journey is bound to uncover unique challenges. Yet that’s also part of the fun of the startup journey: You never know what’ll happen next.

    A version of this article originally appeared on Nir Zicherman’s newsletter, Z-Axis.

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    Nir Zicherman

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  • 29-Year-Old’s Salty Side Hustle Hit $10 Million Last Year | Entrepreneur

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    This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features New York City-based entrepreneur Seth Goldstein, 29. Goldstein is co-founder with Steven Rofrano of Ancient Crunch, a company behind the chip brands MASA and Vandy, which launched in 2022. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Ancient Crunch

    Want to read more stories like this? Subscribe to Money Makers, our free newsletter packed with creative side hustle ideas and successful strategies. Sign up here.

    What was your day job or primary occupation when you started your side hustle?
    I was a vice president at a private equity fund focused on fast-growing healthcare businesses.

    When did you start your side hustle, and where did you find the inspiration for it?
    My co-founder, Steven, made fun of me for eating Tostitos while we were hanging out in Miami. I didn’t know what a seed oil even was at the time, but that conversation snowballed into a side project, which became MASA Chips.

    Related: This Mom’s Garage Side Hustle for Kids Became a Business With $1 Billion Revenue

    What were some of the first steps you took to get your side hustle off the ground? How much money/investment did it take to launch?
    Steven and I put in about $250,000 of our own money. I had saved a bit working in finance, and Steven had made some money (accidentally) timing the market perfectly on Florida real estate during Covid. We have raised about $14 million since then.

    If you could go back in your business journey and change one process or approach, what would it be, and how do you wish you’d done it differently?
    We have always known that happy customers make a strong business, but we didn’t appreciate how much “latent demand” there is. We are primarily an online business, and we didn’t think email marketing made any sense until we tried it. Subscriptions seemed weird for chips, and now they are half of our business. If we knew then what we know now, Ancient Crunch would be about five times bigger.

    When it comes to this specific business, what is something you’ve found particularly challenging and/or surprising that people who get into this type of work should be prepared for, but likely aren’t?
    Most consumer packaged goods businesses are really just marketing companies. They hire a factory, slap their sticker on the bag and sell it for a markup. Because we fry our chips in beef tallow, we couldn’t find a factory, so we built our own. Turns out, that’s fairly challenging. The other major dynamic is that you always need more money than you think. We have said we are done raising money countless times in the past three years.

    Related: This Mom’s Creative Side Hustle Started As a Hobby With Less Than $100 — Then Grew Into a Business Averaging $570,000 a Month: ‘It’s Crazy’

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Ancient Crunch

    Can you recall a specific instance when something went very wrong? How did you fix it?
    Just recently, we had the good fortune of Vandy Crisps (our potato chip line) selling too well. Due to our in-house manufacturing, this meant that we had to go out of stock for about three weeks. While this doesn’t sound like a huge deal, it is very frustrating for customers to wait longer than expected (especially in the age of Amazon), and in the meantime, we can’t go market to new customers because we don’t have the inventory to sell them. We started working longer hours, got new fryers and are now back on track.

    How long did it take you to see consistent monthly revenue? How much did the side hustle earn?
    We saw fairly consistent monthly revenue basically from day one. We were not profitable, but we had a product that people loved, and it sold pretty well right from the start. We were doing about $30,000 per month in the early days.

    Related: After College, She Spent $800 to Start a Side Hustle That Became a ‘Monster’ Business Making $35 Million a Year: ‘I Set Intense Sales Targets’

    What does growth and revenue look like now?
    We are very focused on growth. Last year, we did just under $10 million in revenue. Next year, we plan to do about $250 million.

    What does a typical day or week of work look like for you?
    I work about 50 hours per week these days. I have calls in a block from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and am working through emails the rest of the time. When you own the business, your job is whatever the biggest fire is. Often, that has been fundraising. Some days, that’s signing celebrity deals. Other days, it’s optimizing landing page conversions while trying to convince the next retailer to put you on the shelf. Founders always wear a lot of hats.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Ancient Crunch

    What do you enjoy most about running this business?
    It’s awesome seeing your product gain cultural standing. When we started, this was a side project that most of my friends politely told me was a waste of time. Now, we have something like 100,000 people eating our products every month, and we are a bestselling product at several major retailers, including Erewhon and Citarella.

    Related: These 31-Year-Old Best Friends Started a Side Hustle to Solve a Workout Struggle — And It’s On Track to Hit $10 Million Annual Revenue This Year

    What is your best piece of specific, actionable business advice?
    Make something that people want, then put it in front of 100 million people as fast as you can. Don’t start with, “I want to start a business.” Start with, “This thing should exist” or “This problem can be solved.”

    This article is part of our ongoing Young Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of being a young business owner.

    This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features New York City-based entrepreneur Seth Goldstein, 29. Goldstein is co-founder with Steven Rofrano of Ancient Crunch, a company behind the chip brands MASA and Vandy, which launched in 2022. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Ancient Crunch

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

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    Amanda Breen

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  • Food Trucks Turn Dining Into a Live Reality Show Experience | Entrepreneur

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    Chris Brown doesn’t just run food trucks. He runs a broadcast studio on wheels.

    At World Famous, every truck doubles as a stage, outfitted with cameras, livestreams and even Ring doorbell cameras. Brown, who calls himself “China Man Live” when streaming, oversees five food trucks along with four restaurant locations across Florida and Georgia.

    Customers don’t just line up for food; they put on a show for his cameras. Some dance. Some rap. One woman even played the harmonica. Brown turned those moments into the “Chat with China Man” giveaway, a bracket-style competition where fans compete on camera for a $10,000 prize. The result is part restaurant, part reality show.

    “It’s showtime,” Brown says. “You gotta put on something. People come out because they’ve been hearing about me for so long. The experience has to be there.”

    That experience feels more like an amusement park ride than a quick bite to eat. Fans wait in lines for over an hour, excited for the Championship Egg Roll Food Truck Tour.

    Brown himself compares it to a ride at Disney World. Behind the scenes, he has built the infrastructure to make the magic possible. His trucks carry 4K cameras, BirdDog joysticks and AI-driven meeting cameras that let him virtually appear at any location.

    From his broadcast control center, he merges internet systems and drops into different sites in real time, greeting crowds as if he cloned himself.

    The setup recalls a national news network, except the subject is egg rolls. Customers don’t just order food, they join a live broadcast watched by thousands online. When Brown shows up in person, the energy multiplies. “I’m like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny everywhere I go,” he laughs, showing off the sparkly grill on his teeth.

    For Brown, selling egg rolls is only half the story. The other half is creating a spectacle big enough to match the name World Famous.

    Related: This Global Beverage Giant Will Help Market Your Restaurant — For Free. Here Are the Details.

    An accidental superpower

    Brown never planned to run a restaurant. His first attempt nearly collapsed.

    When he opened a small takeout spot almost a decade ago, he hired cooks to run the kitchen while he handled the business side. It fell apart. “They were just taking me for a paycheck, taking me for a ride,” he admits. Right before closing the doors, his wife asked what was next. Brown’s answer surprised even himself: He would step into the kitchen.

    What he found there changed everything. “I realized I have a superpower like an X-Man,” he says. That superpower was a sharp palate and a knack for creativity. He experimented with oxtail fat burgers and scratch-made sauces, but knew burgers and wings would only carry him so far. To stand out, he turned to egg rolls.

    Related: He Went from Tech CEO to Dishwasher. Now, He’s Behind 320 Restaurants and $750 Million in Assets.

    His first flavors, including Philly cheesesteak, chicken Philly and his yin-yang sauce, were instant hits. Soon he was competing in food festivals across Florida, beating Italian restaurants at Magic City Casino and winning first place with his Cuban-inspired “croquette roll.” He didn’t just enter competitions; he dominated them.

    Crowds followed. At food truck roundups, Brown’s lines stretched so long that other vendors complained. Rather than back down, he leaned into the demand and created the Championship Egg Roll Food Truck Tour, a traveling circuit that draws thousands each weekend.

    Expansion soon followed with restaurants, commissaries and fleets of trucks across Florida and Georgia. Through it all, Brown has been relentless about consistency. “I’m like [Gordon] Ramsay on steroids in my commissary,” he says. “I just want everything to come out perfect.”

    Now that same obsession fuels his technology. From 4K cameras to AI-driven systems, Brown has turned food trucks into a connected network of kitchens and studios. Every egg roll is made to standard, every interaction is captured on camera, and every customer becomes part of the show. For Brown, food and broadcast are inseparable, and together, they just might make World Famous live up to its name.

    Related: People Line Up Down the Block to Try This Iconic NYC Pizza. Now, It Could Be Coming to Your City.

    About Restaurant Influencers

    Restaurant Influencers is brought to you by Toast, the powerful restaurant point-of-sale and management system that helps restaurants improve operations, increase sales and create a better guest experience.

    Toast — Powering Successful Restaurants. Learn more about Toast.

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    Shawn P. Walchef

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  • 5 Data-Driven Trends Shaping the Future of Ecommerce | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Data and analytics have become the driving force behind successful competition across industries. In this article, we’ll focus specifically on the role of data in the future of ecommerce.

    What follows is a discussion of some of the key ways in which data relates to and supports the major emerging trends shaping today’s and tomorrow’s ecommerce.

    Related: How Ecommerce Businesses Are Leveraging Web Data to Understand Their Customers and Stay Ahead of the Competition

    Trend 1: Personalization and context

    Personalization has been a major trend in ecommerce for years. However, with the improvement of data technology, the speed and quality of personalized offers are reaching new levels. More advanced personalization engines push the envelope by also incorporating data points like seasonal trends, weather patterns and local events. For instance, a customer may get a recipe suggestion based on data predicting a rainy day ahead.

    To expand their reach beyond their own platforms, savvy retailers have been working diligently to acquire more contextual data. Tracking social media sentiment, monitoring how competitors are pricing their products, staying abreast of broad market trends — you name it. These alternative data sources help them construct a far richer understanding of their customer base. And when those estimates prove reasonably accurate, they can refine everything from inventory management to pricing strategies.

    Trend 2: AI and the smarts behind the interface

    Ecommerce and the magic of AI have been walking hand in hand for some time now. And it’s not just about deploying credible and flexible chatbots to shoulder some of the more formulaic customer support. Today, AI is used even in such vital initiatives as reinforcing entire supply chains. Still, the effectiveness of these applications is completely reliant on the quality and quantity of data that feeds into them.

    To function well, conversational commerce platforms require a substantial amount of customer interaction data to train their NLP models. In addition to “understanding” customers’ words, they must be able to grasp the actual intentions behind those words. For instance, to distinguish a casual browser from a serious buyer, these models need to constantly graze on successful sales dialogues, customer service chats and even samples of failed transactions to get a grip on what tends to trigger breakdowns in communication.

    Meanwhile, AI-based predictive analytics help avoid overstocking while keeping stock-outs at a minimum. By drawing on historical transaction data, inventory levels, outside market signals and economic trends, these systems can be harnessed to anticipate demand with unprecedented accuracy.

    For retailers that want to benefit from comprehensive AI systems, the data requirements are substantial. Such systems require clean, structured data from multiple sources, including customer relationship management systems, inventory databases, financial records and third-party market intelligence.

    Related: How Your Online Business Can Use AI to Improve Sales

    Trend 3: Rising data security concerns

    While ecommerce platforms manage increasingly granular customer data, cybercriminals are devising schemes to target these high-value assets for themselves. Recent breaches affecting major retailers have highlighted the critical importance of data security, not just as a technical concern, but as a fundamental business requirement.

    The GDPR, the CCPA and other legal requirements don’t let companies off the hook until they’re able to prove compliance with mandatory practices like maintaining detailed records of what data they collect, how they use it and who they share it with. Along with staying on the right side of the law, platforms that effectively ensure compliance gain an extra asset of customer trust by signalling their commitment to transparency.

    Thus, security-minded companies are embracing zero-trust security frameworks, encryption for data transmission and data storage protocols and similar advanced measures to protect customer information.

    Trend 4: Sustainability goals

    Research shows that over 70% of consumers are willing to pay premium prices for environmentally responsible products. The time when marketing buzzwords and “greenwashing” still work is passing. Savvy consumers, who are increasingly skeptical of non-committal statements about sustainability, are driving demand for unprecedented levels of transparency in supply chains and manufacturing processes.

    To make carbon tracking across entire supply chains viable, companies must, at a minimum, gather data from suppliers, shipping companies and even customers’ delivery preferences. The most progressive retailers use this data to offer things like:

    • Carbon-neutral shipping options

    • Low-emission delivery routes

    • Environmental impact scores for individual products

    The data requirements extend beyond environmental metrics, though. If sustainability is really put front and center, the entire product lifecycle — from raw material sourcing to packaging materials and end-of-life disposal — must be tracked as well. Another significant advantage for retailers is that the same data systems used for tracking environmental impact can also be leveraged to identify cost savings, supplier risks, and even to initiate circular economy initiatives.

    Related: How to Make Your Ecommerce Business Truly Sustainable (and Why It’s Important)

    Trend 5: Mobile commerce — a crucial data frontier

    Mobile commerce now makes up the bulk of transactions online, and the potential for data analysis to improve its results is vast. Factors like touch patterns, location data, app usage habits and responses to push notifications are ready to be tapped into by enterprising retailers. Location data, for example, enables ecommerce platforms to do things like adjust inventory displays based on regional preferences, optimize delivery options for specific neighbourhoods or coordinate online promotions with events scheduled at nearby brick-and-mortar stores.

    Mobile platforms also generate real-time behavioral data that allows for immediate responses. A good example of this is utilizing mobile analytics (with data streaming in from multiple touchpoints) to identify customers struggling with the checkout process and offering help, rather than waiting for a formal complaint to be made.

    The trends reshaping ecommerce all share one thing in common: They’re only as effective as the data strategies that undergird them. And companies that recognize this connection and invest accordingly won’t just participate in the future of ecommerce — they’ll define it.

    The upshot of this is that in the coming decade, the ecommerce leaders won’t necessarily be those with the biggest marketing spend or the flashiest products. More likely, they’ll be the ones that strategically utilize their resources to bulk up their data capacity.

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    Julius Černiauskas

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  • How Small Businesses Can Break Free From the ‘Efficiency Trap’ | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    After decades of working with small businesses, I’ve witnessed a troubling pattern: the harder entrepreneurs try to maximize efficiency, the less efficient they become. This efficiency paradox plagues businesses of all sizes, but it’s devastating for small companies where every resource counts.

    McKinsey research shows that small and medium businesses operate at 50% of the productivity of large firms — a gap that stems from misguided efficiency efforts. Understanding and resolving this paradox can transform how you operate.

    The two types of efficiency

    Here’s a concept from the Lean methodology that changed how I think about business operations. There are two approaches to efficiency: resource efficiency and flow efficiency.

    Resource efficiency focuses on maximizing the utilization of your resources. You build a queue of work to ensure your resources are busy. It’s like having a writer with articles to write, ensuring they’re productive for all eight hours of their workday.

    Flow efficiency optimizes for speed through your system. Instead of building queues, you focus on moving work through your process quickly. Using the writing example, you’d interview someone, have the writer create the article, review it and publish — no waiting, no queues.

    The healthcare system provides a stark illustration of this. In Canada, we optimize for resource efficiency. Specialists are fully booked, CT machines run at maximum capacity and patients wait months for diagnoses. I’ve seen cancer treatment systems operate differently — where patients can see specialists, get scans and receive diagnoses in one day. Their CT machines sit idle sometimes, but patients get answers immediately.

    Here’s the paradox: by trying to maximize resource utilization, we create inefficiencies that slow down our operation. You think you’re being efficient by keeping everyone busy, but your customers are waiting months for what could be done in days. The side effects can be devastating: lost customers, damaged relationships, missed opportunities and consequences that are incalculable.

    Related: 6 Ways to Make Your Business More Efficient

    The hidden cost of context switching

    This efficiency paradox doesn’t just happen at the system level — it shows up in how we structure our work. When we try to maximize resource utilization, we create what I call “efficiency theater” — looking busy while being less productive.

    Consider the hidden cost of context switching. According to research, context switching reduces productivity up to 40%. There’s a mental tax every time you switch between tasks. If you make 50 context switches in a day, you’ve paid that tax 50 times. But if you can organize your day to switch only five times, you’ve reduced that waste.

    This connects directly to those two types of efficiency, revealing the paradox. Resource efficiency minimizes context switching — you batch similar work and stay in your zone. Flow efficiency increases context switching when one person handles multiple steps in the process.

    Despite the context-switching penalty, flow efficiency delivers better results by eliminating other wastes: delays, queues and work sitting idle. The goal isn’t choosing between resource or flow efficiency; it’s identifying and eliminating whatever is hurting your business most. Sometimes that’s context switching. Sometimes it’s customer wait times. The art is knowing which matters more.

    This connects to what Paul Graham wrote in his essay on maker versus manager schedules. When you’re in maker mode, you need long, uninterrupted blocks of time. In manager mode, you’re switching contexts constantly. Most small business owners try to do both simultaneously, creating massive inefficiency.

    I’ve learned this the hard way. When I try to write code in the morning, handle customer calls at lunch, review financial reports in the afternoon and then jump back to coding, I accomplish far less than if I dedicated entire days to specific types of work.

    Identifying waste in your systems

    Understanding this paradox helps you spot waste in your systems. Ask yourself: Why is this taking so long? What unnecessary steps have we added?

    I discovered a major inefficiency in our software development process around branching. We were using long-running branches, working on it for weeks, then trying to merge everything back together. The longer these branches ran, the more problems we encountered. We were trying to be efficient by letting developers work uninterrupted, but we were creating waste.

    The solution was simple: shorter running branches with uncompleted features hidden by feature flags. Now, if a branch needs to run longer, we require daily rebasing. This policy change eliminated hours of integration headaches and reduced our bug count. It transformed our development from resource-efficient to flow-efficient.

    Related: Don’t Waste Money on Unnecessary Spending — Here’s How.

    Balancing improvement with stability

    Some business owners resist change, citing “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” This mindset can leave you vulnerable to competition. The key is adopting a continuous improvement mentality — not because something is broken, but to stay ahead.

    Think about computer processors. Intel doesn’t wait for its chips to fail before developing faster ones. They know competitors are innovating, so they must too. When Intel failed to keep pace with this philosophy — falling behind competitors like Apple’s M-series chips — we’re watching a once-dominant company struggle for relevance. The same applies to your business processes.

    However, you need the right people. Some team members thrive on improvement and change, while others prefer stability. Both have their place, but in competitive industries, you need people comfortable with evolution.

    The cost of partial work

    Another source of waste is unfinished work. Starting something and not completing it before moving to the next shiny object creates partial work waste. Unless you’re experimenting or researching, unfinished work represents time invested with no return.

    The efficiency paradox teaches us more isn’t always better. The most efficient path involves letting resources sit idle to maintain flow. Sometimes it means saying no to new initiatives to complete existing ones. It means being intentional about how you work.

    Start by examining your operations. Where are you optimizing for busy-ness instead of throughput? Where has context switching become a hidden tax on your productivity? How can you batch similar work together to improve flow?

    Efficiency isn’t about keeping everyone busy — it’s about delivering value quickly and consistently. Once you understand this paradox, you can build systems that serve your business and customers.

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    Alykhan Jetha

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  • Why Meeting Consumer Expectations Won’t Cut It — and What Businesses Should Do Instead | Entrepreneur

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    Consumer behavior has undoubtedly shifted. Research shows that 70% of consumers are willing to pay a premium for ethically sourced products, and 66% expect brands to understand their needs and preferences. Nearly half of all consumers now buy products after seeing them endorsed by people they trust. These statistics clearly show that people want businesses to do better.

    But here’s what the data doesn’t capture: consumer expectations alone cannot drive the fundamental changes our world needs. While businesses scramble to meet these demands, they’re missing a crucial opportunity to lead transformation rather than simply follow it.

    Related: Being ‘Busy’ Isn’t Helping You Be Productive — 5 Tips to Become Truly Efficient at Work

    The limits of consumer-driven change

    Consumer preferences are powerful, but limited. According to McKinsey’s 2025 consumer outlook, 79% of consumers are trading down due to economic pressures, and 49% plan to delay purchases. When people are focused on survival and cost-cutting, their capacity to prioritize broader social issues naturally diminishes.

    More importantly, consumers can only demand what they can imagine. They respond to problems they understand and solutions they can envision. But the most pressing challenges facing businesses and society require innovation that goes beyond current consumer awareness.

    Technology companies didn’t wait for people to demand smartphones before developing them. Steve Jobs famously said that consumers don’t know what they want until you show it to them. Apple created a solution that transformed how we live and work, not because market research indicated demand for touchscreen devices, but because they envisioned possibilities that consumers hadn’t yet imagined.

    We’re seeing the same pattern with Artificial Intelligence today. Companies aren’t implementing AI solutions because consumers are demanding them — most people still have mixed feelings about AI integration. According to recent research, consumers are “AI ambivalent,” yet 85% of Fortune 500 companies are already using AI solutions to transform their operations. These businesses are leading change by recognizing AI’s potential to solve problems and create value, regardless of current consumer sentiment.

    The same principle applies to social impact. Waiting for consumer demand to drive every positive change means limiting ourselves to incremental improvements rather than transformative solutions.

    Why businesses must take the lead

    The business world is transforming continuously, at an unprecedented pace. In my experience building software companies, I’ve seen how tech leaders emerge not by following trends but by anticipating needs and creating new possibilities. That same dynamic applies to social responsibility and positive impact.

    Companies have resources, expertise and scale that individual consumers lack. They can invest in research and development, form strategic partnerships and implement solutions at speeds that consumer movements cannot match. When 95% of organizations have undergone multiple major transformations in just three years, it’s clear that businesses are becoming comfortable with rapid change.

    The question is no longer whether businesses should respond to consumer demands — they absolutely should. The question is whether they’ll stop there or use their capabilities to drive changes that serve the common good and create a truly better world. This means going beyond what consumers haven’t yet realized they need and actively working toward solutions that benefit society as a whole, even when those solutions may not have immediate market appeal.

    What proactive leadership looks like

    Real business leadership in social change goes beyond traditional corporate social responsibility. It involves using core business capabilities to address societal challenges, even when there’s no immediate consumer pressure to do so.

    1. Get ahead of future needs rather than react to current demands. Companies that succeed in creating lasting change identify problems before they become mainstream consumer concerns. They invest in solutions that may not have immediate market demand but address fundamental challenges.

    2. Use technology for social good. With 85% of Fortune 500 companies now using AI solutions and the projected global AI impact reaching $22.3 trillion by 2030, businesses have unprecedented tools to create positive change. The companies making the biggest difference are those using these capabilities proactively rather than reactively.

    3. Build ecosystems of change. Rather than working in isolation, leading companies create networks that amplify their impact. The Rise Ahead Pledge, signed by 24 major corporations, demonstrates how businesses can collaborate to drive social innovation beyond what consumer demand would naturally create.

    Related: How to Keep Up With Customer Expectations

    Beyond consumer expectations

    Social entrepreneurship and innovation are converging in powerful ways, offering a blueprint for traditional businesses. The Global Innovation Index 2024 highlights how social enterprises create transformative solutions by mobilizing diverse stakeholders to effect change at regional and global scales. These organizations succeed not by following consumer preferences but by identifying systemic issues and developing innovative approaches to address them.

    Traditional businesses can learn from this model — instead of waiting for consumer surveys to tell them what people want, they can identify underlying problems and develop solutions that create new markets and possibilities.

    The most successful companies of the next decade may be those that understand that sustainable business success requires creating value for society, not just responding to its expressed demands. This means taking calculated risks, investing in solutions that may not have immediate payoffs and using business capabilities to address challenges that extend beyond traditional market boundaries.

    Consumer expectations will continue to evolve, and businesses must remain responsive to their markets. However, the companies that will truly make a difference — and build lasting competitive advantages — are those that move beyond responsiveness to proactive leadership in creating positive change.

    The time for waiting is over

    We’re at an inflection point where traditional approaches to business and social responsibility are no longer sufficient. Consumer demands provide important signals about market direction, but they cannot drive the scale and speed of change that current global challenges require.

    The businesses that recognize this opportunity and act on it will not only create meaningful social impact but also position themselves as leaders in the next era of commerce. Those who continue to wait for consumer permission to make positive change will find themselves increasingly irrelevant in a world that rewards proactive leadership over reactive adaptation.

    Lead the change you want to see in the world, or spend your time chasing changes that others create. The companies that choose to lead will define the business landscape for decades to come.

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    Stefan Grigorov

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  • How Cava Grew From One to 380 Locations | Entrepreneur

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    Ted Xenohristos, co-founder and chief concept officer of Cava, drew inspiration from his immigrant parents’ Greek heritage and the food he ate growing up. What began as a humble restaurant inside an old Russian bakery in Rockville, Maryland, blossomed into a national brand with 380 locations across 28 states and Washington, D.C.

    “We wanted to do it for an affordable price and [offer] something that people could share,” Xenohristos says. “We built that first restaurant with our bare hands. Everything [was] from the Dollar Store, Target, Home Goods.”

    The first few weeks of business were filled with uncertainty and long hours. Xenohristos and Cava CEO Brett Schulman poured their energy into constructing the brand’s first location, building it from the ground up. Without a marketing budget, they relied instead on something more powerful: authenticity and hospitality.

    Related: He Grew His Small Business to a $25 Million Operation By Following These 5 Principles

    “We used our Mediterranean hospitality that we grew up knowing, without a marketing budget, without signs outside, without a POS system,” Xenohristos says. “We gave people free things — free drinks, free food, free dessert — and they eventually told other people, and before you knew it, that little restaurant had a really long line.”

    As word spread and momentum built, the founders realized they had tapped into something much bigger than a single restaurant. In just over six months, they opened a second location and expanded operations to include a retail line of dips and spreads, bringing Mediterranean flavors into grocery stores.

    Despite its rapid rise as one of Yelp’s fastest-growing brands of 2025, Cava never strayed from its core values of generosity and Mediterranean hospitality.

    “One of the reasons we started this business was to take care of people and to change the culture,” Xenohristos says. “We love food, we wanted to share it, but we really wanted to change how people were treated. It starts with that.”

    The brand’s mission statement is “to bring heart, health and humanity to food.”

    The company’s leaders demonstrate heart by caring for guests and staff, health through fresh Mediterranean ingredients and humanity by fostering connection and community inside and outside the company.

    “All those things together keep that culture alive,” Xenohristos says. “We still work hard to execute on that dream, to have a greater culture and restaurant.”

    Related: These Brothers Turned a 2-Man Operation Into One of the Most Trusted Companies in Their Area. Here’s How.

    Making culture a cornerstone of the business includes providing meaningful employee benefits, such as tuition discounts, family planning assistance, accessible healthcare and mental health resources. Cava also hosts an annual conference designed to foster connection and collaboration among general managers.

    This culture extends to the customer experience. Even in the fast-casual dining space, Cava’s team finds ways to create meaningful human connections. One such initiative is the “love button,” a tool that empowers employees to cover a customer’s meal if they notice someone having a rough day.

    Xenohristos says this initiative is all about “giving our team members the tools to be able to share that generosity that’s ingrained in us and our culture.”

    While no journey is without its challenges, Cava’s values continue to push the brand forward, redefining how guests experience food and hospitality. “As we continue to grow, the more we can do what we set out to do, which was change the restaurant industry,” Xenohristos says.

    His advice for current and future business leaders is clear:

    • Lead with purpose and heart. Building a business rooted in hospitality, care and connection creates lasting impact — for both your team and your customers.
    • Make culture your cornerstone. A thoughtful employee experience does more than retain talent; it distinguishes your brand.
    • Grow without losing your roots. No matter how big you scale, stay grounded in the mission that started it all. Authenticity is your most valuable asset.
    • Empower generosity. Give your team tools to care about their work, people and purpose. Small acts of kindness create big ripple effects.
    • Don’t just follow the industry — change it. Cava didn’t just open restaurants. It built a movement around food, humanity and culture, proving that chains can be both scalable and mission-driven.

    Related: Two Industry Leaders Share Their Best Advice for Restaurant Owners – And Reveal the Exact Amount You Can Raise Prices Without Losing Customers

    Watch the episode above to hear directly from Xenohristos, and subscribe to Behind the Review for more from new business owners and reviewers every Wednesday.

    Editorial contributions by Jiah Choe and Kristi Lindahl

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    Emily Washcovick

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  • Don’t Just Disrupt Your Industry — Transform It | Entrepreneur

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    More than a decade ago, business gurus were quick to label any idea or development that was mildly novel as “disruptive innovation.” Originally coined by American academic and business consultant Clayton Christensen in his 1997 book The Innovator’s Dilemma, it was used largely to describe how small businesses could challenge larger players within a market, often entering at the low end and moving upmarket and disrupting established competitors’ core business.

    But in the mid-2010s, gone were the days of the so-called disruptors, as critics began noting how the term had become a business buzzword rather than a term that was describing meaningful change. Jill Lepore, a professor of history at Harvard, wrote an article for The New Yorker about how “disruptive innovation” is being used inaccurately in the business world, stating that many companies described as “disruptive” never succeeded in displacing incumbents. Her critique sparked a major rethinking in business circles, which made way for terms like “transformative innovation” in the 2020s.

    Furthermore, when compared with “disruptive,” the word “transformational” helps you visualize positive systemic change. The effects caused by transformational innovation are incremental and long-lasting, and frankly, quite relevant in the age of systemic shifts, such as climate change, ESG and sustainability factors, AI technologies and other major global innovations. Here are five reasons why entrepreneurs today need to focus on transformational innovation instead.

    Related: To Achieve Sustainable Success, You Need to Stop Focusing on Disruption. Here’s Why — and What You Must Focus on Instead.

    1. This is where technology creates social impact

    Entrepreneurs can be transformational innovators who creatively use technological solutions to create meaningful change, which leads to increased economic impact, which in turn creates lasting social impact. This is an area of entrepreneurship that focuses on the “grand challenges” that societies need to address, from poverty reduction to environmental action to good health and well-being, as listed under the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. High-growth technology entrepreneurs in particular have the potential to leverage unique opportunities to create social value, for instance by utilising open-source collaboration for problem solving, using social media platforms for advocacy campaigns and activism and unlocking data analytics to personalise lifestyle changes and improve healthcare solutions. It is generally understood that technology is the lifeblood of transformational innovation.

    2. It’s people-focused

    You must first understand consumer behaviour before you try and change it for the better. Therefore, transformational innovation is an exercise of using people’s adaptability to drive significant and lasting change. To innovate this way, one needs to be accepted by the wider population, and this often requires entrepreneurs to understand diverse groups of people instead of having a silo mentality. For your venture to succeed, you need people to trust what you do and commit to your process to derive value.

    3. It is driven by the $8 trillion global longevity market

    In its July 2025 report, Swiss banking giant UBS announced that transformational innovation is where investors should expect attractive returns from in the years ahead, and that longevity is one of the leading industries driving valuable growth in this space, next to AI, power and resources.

    The longevity market is expected to grow from $5.3 trillion in 2023 to $8 trillion by 2030, which will surpass AI industries which are only estimated to reach $1.16 trillion by 2027. The longevity market is transforming the global economy, according to UBS, which says that the change is being fuelled by increasing life expectancy and ageing populations worldwide.

    4. Transformational innovation industries are stable

    Innovation is a key driver of long-term equity performance. According to UBS, transformational innovation industries offer “durable, secular growth” that the bank believes can withstand short-term market volatility. The Swiss bank also suggests that if there are potential market dips in these industries, they are likely to be short-term and would act as useful entry points for long-term investors.

    Related: The Surprising Strategy Smart Leaders Use to Outpace Disruption

    5. It’s a brave new world

    While disruptive innovation is largely about creating cheaper alternatives, transformative innovation is about creating whole new market spaces with completely different frameworks to what already exists. For entrepreneurs, working within these industries can help them experiment with newer and better business models. It’s all about exploring the untapped potential.

    All in all, to embrace transformational innovation, an entrepreneur must be prepared to embrace change. It requires one to be proactive and have the ability to anticipate future trends that will come with it. To remain at the forefront of this entrepreneurial revolution, entrepreneurs must develop a multi-pronged innovation strategy through planning and in-depth research.

    Most importantly, entrepreneurs should develop a culture of innovation in their businesses, where entrepreneurs, managers, CEOs, employees, consumers and clients all collaborate to form a cohesive creative force. Leaders should inspire others to be bold, intellectually brave and challenge existing paradigms. Entrepreneurs should have a vision, forge strategic partnerships and create meaningful industry-level changes, even if they own a small business with limited resources. To remain competitive and to lead industry trends, entrepreneurs today must engage with the concept of transformational innovation.

    We are now in the year 2025 — it’s time to change the game.

    More than a decade ago, business gurus were quick to label any idea or development that was mildly novel as “disruptive innovation.” Originally coined by American academic and business consultant Clayton Christensen in his 1997 book The Innovator’s Dilemma, it was used largely to describe how small businesses could challenge larger players within a market, often entering at the low end and moving upmarket and disrupting established competitors’ core business.

    But in the mid-2010s, gone were the days of the so-called disruptors, as critics began noting how the term had become a business buzzword rather than a term that was describing meaningful change. Jill Lepore, a professor of history at Harvard, wrote an article for The New Yorker about how “disruptive innovation” is being used inaccurately in the business world, stating that many companies described as “disruptive” never succeeded in displacing incumbents. Her critique sparked a major rethinking in business circles, which made way for terms like “transformative innovation” in the 2020s.

    Furthermore, when compared with “disruptive,” the word “transformational” helps you visualize positive systemic change. The effects caused by transformational innovation are incremental and long-lasting, and frankly, quite relevant in the age of systemic shifts, such as climate change, ESG and sustainability factors, AI technologies and other major global innovations. Here are five reasons why entrepreneurs today need to focus on transformational innovation instead.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

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    Allen Law

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  • Use This Blueprint to Turn Prospects Into Customers For Life | Entrepreneur

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    Contrary to what you see in pop culture, sales is all about building lasting relationships that create customers for life. Whether you’re just starting out or have been running your small business for years, the road to success can often feel like navigating an uncharted path. But here’s the good news: With the right map, you can make the journey smooth, predictable, and, most importantly, sustainable.

    In this article, we’ll walk through the essential strategies every entrepreneur needs to win opportunities and build lasting, profitable customer relationships. Think of this as your sales blueprint — the guide for turning potential leads into loyal customers, while optimizing your time and efforts to focus on what truly matters.

    Related: 5 Ways to Master Sales

    Step 1: Focus on winnable opportunities

    The first step in any successful sales process is knowing where to focus your energy. Not every prospect is an equal fit for your business, and spending too much time chasing leads that aren’t a good fit can waste your time and lead to burnout. That’s why it’s critical to identify and prioritize opportunities that you can actually win.

    You might already be familiar with the idea of evaluating prospects based on their needs, but there’s more to it. It’s about assessing the fit between what you offer and what the prospect truly values. A good way to approach this is by regularly reassessing your opportunities, particularly as circumstances change. Sales cycles can evolve, and so can a prospect’s priorities. By staying flexible and adapting to those changes, you can spot red flags early and recalibrate your approach.

    For example, maybe you’ve been talking to the manager of a small company who seems interested, but after a few conversations, you realize the decision-maker is absent from the table. Or perhaps you don’t have enough information to quantify the impact of solving their business challenges, or there’s no clear plan in place for moving forward. These are warning signs that something may be missing from the equation — and that’s your cue to re-engage and realign the conversation. If you can’t make progress in key areas like these, it might be time to move on.

    Step 2: Use tools to refine what is and isn’t a winnable deal

    Once you’ve identified promising prospects, the next step is to assess where you stand. Are there any gaps in your current understanding? Is there something that still needs to be clarified or revisited before you can close the deal?

    This is where a proven opportunity assessment tool can work wonders. Think of it like a rearview mirror — an opportunity to look back and assess where you are in the sales process. By reviewing your past interactions and evaluating what’s still needed, you can uncover potential missed opportunities or areas where your pitch may need refinement.

    Tools like this allow you to step back, ask yourself the tough questions and make sure you’re not leaving anything to chance. For instance, you might ask:

    • Should they buy? (What is the problem they need to solve, and how will you do it?)

    • Is it worth it? (Is the problem worth solving? What is the ROI?)

    • Can they buy? (Are you talking to the final decision-maker?)

    • When will the purchase happen? (Are you clear on all the steps that need to happen?)

    By asking these kinds of questions, you’ll be able to address any gaps and adjust your strategy accordingly. Don’t hesitate to revisit earlier parts of the conversation as needed. Ask open, probing and confirming questions — what we call O-P-C questions — to truly understand your buyer. The more clarity you can provide at this stage, the more likely you are to close the deal.

    Related: 7 Bulletproof Strategies to Increase Sales and Make More Money

    Step 3: Create a plan with your prospect

    To make sure both you and your prospect are on the same page, it’s important to establish a clear and actionable plan. This mutual plan should align both parties around what needs to be done and when.

    A solid plan is built around the prospect’s timeline. By setting expectations for when and how decisions will be made, both you and your prospect can work towards a shared goal without any confusion. It’s essential that this plan is flexible, allowing for adjustments, but also structured enough to maintain momentum.

    Remember, the plan should not only focus on closing the deal but on ensuring a successful partnership beyond the sale. What steps need to be taken to deliver value after the agreement? How will you maintain communication moving forward? These are all crucial aspects of building a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.

    Step 4: Manage yourself for success

    Finally, don’t forget to manage yourself throughout the process. Successful entrepreneurs know that it’s all about how you approach your day, your mindset and how you stay focused on your goals. Staying organized and maintaining a clear vision of what success looks like will help you navigate challenges more effectively.

    Being proactive, setting realistic goals and continually reflecting on your progress are all key to keeping momentum. Sales can be a rollercoaster ride with plenty of highs and lows, but by keeping yourself grounded and organized, you’ll be better equipped to handle whatever comes your way.

    Related: No Sales Experience? No Problem. Here’s How to Confidently Turn Conversations Into Revenue.

    Following your blueprint for successful sales

    Take the guesswork out of selling: By following a clear, structured process — from identifying winnable opportunities to closing deals and managing ongoing relationships — you’ll not only win more business, but you’ll also build a reputation for delivering real value. Keep your eyes open for gaps, revisit your opportunities regularly, and don’t shy away from creating a detailed plan that aligns both you and your prospect toward mutual success.

    Building customers for life means creating meaningful connections and delivering solutions that truly make a difference. So, take these steps to heart, create your sales blueprint, and watch your entrepreneurial journey thrive.

    Contrary to what you see in pop culture, sales is all about building lasting relationships that create customers for life. Whether you’re just starting out or have been running your small business for years, the road to success can often feel like navigating an uncharted path. But here’s the good news: With the right map, you can make the journey smooth, predictable, and, most importantly, sustainable.

    In this article, we’ll walk through the essential strategies every entrepreneur needs to win opportunities and build lasting, profitable customer relationships. Think of this as your sales blueprint — the guide for turning potential leads into loyal customers, while optimizing your time and efforts to focus on what truly matters.

    Related: 5 Ways to Master Sales

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

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    Julie Thomas

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  • How to Build a Business That Thrives in Tough Economic Times | Entrepreneur

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    Tough economic times are scary for businesses and consumers, but the solution isn’t to take your foot off the gas. I opened the first Roof Maxx dealership in 2019, just one year before the Covid-19 pandemic. Today, it’s a nationally recognized residential roof restoration brand with an annual revenue of nearly $200 million in 2025.

    Here are five key principles I used to guide my business decisions during those difficult years.

    Related: How Great Entrepreneurs Find Ways to Win During Economic Downturns

    1. Essential problems are more important than aspirational ones

    A lot of founders focus on flashy, dramatic solutions that dominate headlines, like getting humanity to Mars or being the first to create AGI. But sometimes, those are solutions to problems that don’t really exist — or at least, that don’t exist urgently for everyday people.

    Most people aren’t worried about whether they’ll ever set foot on the surface of the red planet. They’re worried about what will happen to this planet in their lifetimes, because they’re worried about their homes.

    So when my brother Todd and I started our business, we didn’t shoot for the moon — or Mars. We focused on helping people extend the lifespan of their asphalt shingle rooftops and avoid the waste created by replacing them prematurely. It was a simple problem, but one we saw impacting homeowners all over America. That meant we had a nation full of target customers from the start.

    2. Affordable alternatives to big-ticket items can create new markets

    One of the biggest challenges we faced during those early years was that no market existed for our product. Roof restoration already existed in commercial roofing, but it was for metal and flat roofs only. Everyone in the residential space was selling replacements at the time, and there was no alternative for asphalt shingles until we invented one.

    Even in the best of times, creating a brand new niche is a tall order. But the economic uncertainty of the pandemic actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. When homeowners heard that our treatments cost up to 80% less than the cost of fully replacing their shingles, it no longer mattered that we were doing something previously unheard of in the residential space. The cost savings alone were enough to convince many people to opt in.

    Related: 5 Tips to Create Affordable Products Without Compromising on Quality

    3. Controlling your operating costs reduces your risk

    Scaling any business comes with a certain amount of unavoidable risk, which is why many companies tend to be more careful about pursuing growth during times of economic upheaval. But stagnation is an even bigger risk.

    Think of it this way: If you’re climbing a volcano and it erupts, your first instinct might be to freeze. But if you stay on your current ledge, you’re probably not going to make it. As scary as it is, you have to move.

    The key is to stay agile. If you were the climber, you’d probably ditch your backpack and any non-essential items so that they wouldn’t slow you down. As a business in an uncertain economy, the same principle applies: You want to become financially lean so you can scale with less risk.

    For us, that meant setting up a national network of dealers instead of opening and managing new locations ourselves. It didn’t just help us expand into new markets with less overhead; it also allowed us to invest more heavily in providing each dealer with the training resources and materials they needed to succeed. At a time when many Americans were looking for new ways to earn but were nervous about starting their own businesses, this gave everyone a leg up.

    We couldn’t afford to take on that kind of risk during a pandemic, but by providing comprehensive training resources and remote support to our partners, we gave them everything they needed to bring the brand across North America.

    4. Aging systems and infrastructure are an overlooked but essential market

    Time impacts everyone and everything. Even when budgets are tight, things still get old and need maintenance to stay functional.

    For some of those things — like rooftops — putting off the work isn’t an option. 29% of asphalt shingle roofs have less than four years of usable life left, and that clock keeps ticking regardless of market conditions.

    If you can build your business around servicing assets that are both necessary and depreciating, you can always count on a steady stream of customers. We knew people might defer their landscaping plans during a pandemic, but they wouldn’t let the roofs over their heads degrade to the point where they put their properties at risk.

    5. Green solutions can be profitable as well as planet-saving

    Last but not least, we have to talk about the value of offering eco-friendly products and services. It’s a mistake to view green solutions as luxuries that people will only want to purchase during times of financial comfort.

    During rocky economic periods, the last thing people want to do is waste resources. If they can save money by maintaining something instead of throwing it away, they will. And since many green solutions focus on reducing waste, these services have more appeal when the economy suffers, not less.

    With Roof Maxx, we offered homeowners a way to keep their current asphalt shingles in good condition instead of having to pay for a full roof replacement. Not only did it save an average of 3.8 tons of landfill waste per home, but it also cost up to 80% less. The fact that we were eco-friendly wasn’t a bonus; it was a key part of the value we were offering at a time when every saved shingle (and dollar) mattered.

    Related: Build a Business That Helps People Feel Good About Doing the Right Thing

    Make your business recession-resistant

    The principles that helped my business grow during one of the worst recessions in our lifetimes weren’t rocket science. They were simple:

    • Focus on an essential problem

    • Offer an affordable alternative to something expensive

    • Keep operating costs in check

    • Focus on aging systems or infrastructure

    • Help customers stay lean and green

    You can use these to insulate your business as well. Here’s to sustainable growth, no matter what the future holds.

    Tough economic times are scary for businesses and consumers, but the solution isn’t to take your foot off the gas. I opened the first Roof Maxx dealership in 2019, just one year before the Covid-19 pandemic. Today, it’s a nationally recognized residential roof restoration brand with an annual revenue of nearly $200 million in 2025.

    Here are five key principles I used to guide my business decisions during those difficult years.

    Related: How Great Entrepreneurs Find Ways to Win During Economic Downturns

    The rest of this article is locked.

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    Mike Feazel

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  • When Everything Feels Broken in Business, Here’s What to Tackle First | Entrepreneur

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    When everything feels broken in your business, deciding what to fix first can be paralyzing. I’ve been there — looking at multiple problems, all urgent, wondering where to begin.

    After 25 years of navigating these decisions and watching other entrepreneurs struggle, I’ve learned there’s a hierarchy to fixing business problems. Understanding this hierarchy can mean the difference between thriving and barely surviving.

    Revenue comes first

    Here’s the reality entrepreneurs don’t want to hear: sales need fixing first. Mike Michalowicz covers this in his book “Fix This Next.” The majority of businesses have decent products and people, but they’re not selling effectively. This truth became even more stark during the pandemic. McKinsey found that 70-80% of small businesses experienced 30-50% revenue drops between 2020 and 2021.

    This applies whether you’re funded or bootstrapping. If you’re a funded startup building a product that won’t launch for two years, you have the luxury of focusing on product development first. But for service businesses, bootstrapped companies or any business that needs revenue to survive, sales must be the priority.

    Think about it: if sales aren’t working, nothing else matters. It doesn’t matter how efficient your operations are or how talented your team is if you’re running out of money. When profitability is negative and growth is stagnant or declining, you must fix sales. Without revenue, the company dies.

    Understanding your business stage

    I’ve developed a framework called “leap, grow, scale” that helps identify what to fix based on where you are in your journey.

    First, you make the leap — you start your business, jumping into the void without knowing how it will go. At this stage, you need to generate enough revenue to survive and hire your first person.

    Then comes the growth stage. You’ve found something that works, and now you’re adding people. The key is finding a formula that multiplies value — every person you add should generate more revenue than they cost. While 1.25x might be the minimum to stay viable, the real opportunity is finding ways to 2x or 3x your revenue with each strategic hire. That’s the difference between linear growth and exponential growth.

    Finally, there’s the scale stage. You’ve found a working machine, and now you need to operate it at larger volumes.

    At every single stage, revenue remains critical. But once revenue is stable, other problems emerge.

    When revenue isn’t the problem

    Let’s say your revenue is okay — you’re making enough to cover expenses with a bit left over. There’s no immediate panic about making rent. What’s next?

    The answer is almost always people. When I look back at my own plateaus, people problems were the culprit. This challenge never goes away. Everyone struggles with it.

    The Peter Principle captures one common problem: employees get promoted to their highest level of incompetence. Here’s how it played out in my business: we’d grow, need managers, so we’d promote good individual contributors. They’d do okay as managers, we’d promote them to directors — and that’s where they’d hit their ceiling.

    Now you’re stuck. You can’t promote them, demoting feels wrong, and moving them sideways might not work. I ended up with people who weren’t right. Worse, when talented new recruits joined, the misplaced managers drove them away. I realized I had the wrong people when it was too late.

    Related: How to Turn Your ‘Marketable Passion’ Into Income After Retirement

    The third priority: Operational efficiency

    Once you have good revenue and the right people, operational efficiency becomes your focus. How quickly can you deliver your product or service?

    For example, if orders take seven days to ship, can you reduce it to four? If customer onboarding takes 30 days, can you cut it to 15? If you can onboard customers in half the time with the same team, you’ve doubled your capacity. If you previously onboarded 24 customers annually, now you can handle 48. That translates to revenue growth.

    According to McKinsey research, CEOs report that operational improvements through digital transformation can yield 40% efficiency gains, 36% faster time-to-market and 35% enhanced customer satisfaction. These aren’t marginal improvements — they’re game-changers.

    Recognizing the warning signs

    How do you know when it’s time to act? Sometimes the market tells you — loudly. A customer might refuse to pay because something that should have taken one month took three. Or you consistently miss your financial targets. These force you to confront reality.

    In my case, we kept missing product goals and financial targets. Then we started going backward. That forced us to acknowledge problems that needed immediate attention. The forcing functions are always profitability and cash reserves. If you’re profitable, you’re building reserves. If not, you’re draining them. Eventually, you run out of runway.

    The continuous improvement mindset

    Here’s the truth: there’s always something to fix in your business. It’s just a matter of degree and urgency. Running out of money is obviously more critical than a minor reliability issue in your product.

    Sometimes problems arise from strategic mistakes. We made a strategic error in 2023 that impacted sales. Now we’re fixing those decisions to restore revenue growth.

    The key is being proactive rather than reactive. Don’t wait for profitability to turn negative before examining your business. Look at your metrics. Are you growing? Are your cash reserves increasing? Is your team delivering efficiently?

    Making the hard decisions

    When faced with multiple problems, use this hierarchy:

    1. Revenue/Sales – Without this, nothing else matters
    2. People – Wrong people sabotage everything else
    3. Operations – Efficiency multiplies the impact of good people and sales

    Within each category, prioritize based on impact. A 10% improvement in sales might matter more than a 50% improvement in shipping speed. A toxic employee might be destroying more value than three operational inefficiencies.

    You can’t fix everything at once. Focus on the most critical issue, resolve it, then move to the next. This approach produces far better results than trying to fix everything simultaneously.

    The businesses that survive and thrive are those that can diagnose their most pressing problems and address them decisively. Use this framework, be honest about where your gaps are and tackle them. Your future self — and your business — will thank you.

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    Alykhan Jetha

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  • Running an Online Business Is Tough — But Doing These 4 Things Will Make It Easier | Entrepreneur

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    Becoming an ecommerce entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. The technological hurdles can be substantial. And there is ample competition within the space.

    The good news is that the technology has created opportunities, and the competition is there because there is substantial opportunity. Technology and the acclimation of society to buying online have created a perfect storm of opportunity that shows no signs of abating.

    So what has to happen to be a successful participant as an ecommerce entrepreneur? Here are four initiatives one must embrace.

    Related: 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Launching an Ecommerce Business

    1. Experiment, experiment, experiment

    This is a mentality. As we all know, failure can be your friend. And failure, inevitably, arises from experimentation. Some of my experiments early in my ecommerce career that didn’t pan out were: Starting my own private label brand early on without doing enough market research, specifically checking for demand of the item, and relying too heavily on one supplier or fulfillment channel.

    This being said, if I had not taken the chance, I would not be where I am today.

    One of the best ways to cultivate this habit is to embrace mentors. They can think about things analytically, without the baggage of the business being “their baby.” Take inventory of what they suggest, and step out into the unknown. It is your best chance of success.

    2. Track the competition

    Ten years ago, I was just starting my first store on the Amazon marketplace and opened several niche Shopify stores around the same time. I focused on the competition, often trying to learn how they might approach a similar challenge to what I was facing.

    For example, I noticed some people were creating funnels for their ecommerce stores. I took note of that. Some of them were testing out different types of landing pages. Others were testing out YouTube ads for ecommerce products back in the 2010s, specifically trendy gadgets with the potential to go viral. It was something I had never experimented with before, and it was a really creative, niche-specific way of marketing. I went on to build out product funnels of my own, learned about upsell strategies, what goes into making a strong product landing page and so much more.

    3. Embrace financial literacy

    When I started my ecommerce business, I knew quite a bit about online marketing — I had a small locally based marketing agency in Northern California in my early 20s and I created a social media influencer business. Both of these ventures taught me important things about running an ecommerce business.

    Creating and analyzing financial metrics wasn’t exactly my strong suit in the beginning. I started by learning how to read basic reports like profit and loss statements, and quickly realized how crucial it is to know which numbers actually matter. As an ecommerce seller, you have to keep a close eye on metrics like your average order value (AOV), cost per acquisition (CPA), cost of goods sold (COGS), gross revenue, net profit, overall profit margin and more.

    At first, I didn’t fully understand how all these pieces fit together, so I had to learn as I went. That experience is a big part of why we prioritize financial education for our clients. Even though we break the numbers down into clear, actionable insights, we also want to empower them. Whether they eventually want to run their own operation or branch out into a related ecommerce business, perhaps on Amazon, understanding the financial side is essential.

    Related: How to Build, Grow and Make Money With Ecommerce

    4. Delegate

    Successful people buy their time back. If you can afford to, outsource at the outset. Generally, if you do that, you can grow faster. You can’t do everything at once. You can’t wear an expert hat in every area. I tried in my early and mid-20s to do so much on my own, only to be faced with major symptoms of burnout.

    Outsource it. For example, even if you’re just starting out with a modest budget, consider hiring a virtual assistant. You can train them to support your operations, or they may already bring expertise in areas where you lack experience, such as customer service or product research. A skilled assistant can help manage customer communications and keep buyers satisfied while orders are being fulfilled. Alternatively, a product researcher can take on the time-consuming task of identifying opportunities, whether you guide their efforts or delegate it entirely, freeing you up to focus on higher-level strategy. Either way, you’re buying your time back.

    Reclaiming your time by delegating is one of the most strategic investments you can make. It shifts you from an operator to a true owner.

    At the end of the day, ecommerce success isn’t about doing everything perfectly from the start but it is about taking action, learning quickly and making adjustments along the way. The entrepreneurs who thrive are the ones who stay curious, keep testing and aren’t afraid to “fail forward.” Every mistake you make is simply another step closer to understanding what works and building the foundation for long-term success.

    If you’re willing to experiment, study your competitors, get a handle on your numbers and learn to delegate, you’ll put yourself miles ahead of most people who give up too early. The road won’t always be smooth, but the opportunities are very real. Ecommerce is still growing, and the best time to build something meaningful is right now.

    Becoming an ecommerce entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. The technological hurdles can be substantial. And there is ample competition within the space.

    The good news is that the technology has created opportunities, and the competition is there because there is substantial opportunity. Technology and the acclimation of society to buying online have created a perfect storm of opportunity that shows no signs of abating.

    So what has to happen to be a successful participant as an ecommerce entrepreneur? Here are four initiatives one must embrace.

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    Katie Melissa

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  • Hiring a Business Coach? Consider These Questions First. | Entrepreneur

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    As entrepreneurs know, running a business is both exciting and challenging. With markets constantly growing and changing, it can be difficult to stay ahead of the curve and competition. This is why many consider hiring a business coach to lean on for guidance and support.

    If you’re thinking about hiring a coach, there are several factors to weigh when deciding on who may be the best fit.

    Related: 9 Qualities You Need to Look for in a Business Coach

    Expertise and experience

    Similar to any hiring situation, one of the most important things to look for in a business coach is experience and expertise. You should look for someone who is familiar with businesses similar to yours and has a true understanding of both the challenges you face and opportunities for growth. You want to hire a coach with a proven track record of success who can share specific examples and results they’ve helped their clients achieve.

    Questions to ask:

    • What is your experience working with businesses like mine?

    • Can you provide some examples of businesses you’ve helped, and the results you helped them achieve?

    A proven process

    Your prospective business coach should have a clear and structured process for working with clients. This process should be able to be tailored to you and your company’s specific needs and goals, providing a clear roadmap for achieving success.

    Questions to ask:

    Accountability and support

    A business coach should hold you accountable for achieving goals and provide ongoing support to help you stay on track. Look for coaches who are committed to your success and who will hold you to a high standard of accountability.

    Questions to ask:

    • How do you structure check-ins or milestones to monitor client progress?

    • Do you have any resources outside of your knowledge that I can leverage?

    • How do you provide ongoing support to help your clients stay on track?

    A collaborative approach

    When looking for a business coach, look for someone who will be a partner in your success, working side by side with you to develop strategies and solutions to help achieve your goals. They should be willing to listen to your ideas and input, and open to both feedback and collaboration.

    Questions to ask:

    • How do you work with clients to develop strategic plans and customized solutions?

    • How do you incorporate feedback and input from clients into your coaching process?

    Related: Executive Coaching For Entrepreneurs: Here’s How You Can Differentiate Between Corporate Snake Oil And The Real Thing

    Focused on long-term success

    A coach should be focused on helping you achieve long-term success, instead of just short-term gains. Having the drive is important, but also the experience of scaling a company — a business coach should be able to grow with you and your company. If their knowledge is limited to a specific area of business or a certain-sized company, they might not be the best fit for you long-term.

    Questions to ask:

    With that context in mind and an understanding of how to find a business coach that’s the best fit for you and your company, you also need to ask yourself some internal questions in regard to the current state of your business.

    What are your top priorities for the next quarter?

    This question helps you focus your efforts and ensures you’re prioritizing the most important and timely tasks. By identifying your top priorities, you and your coach can develop a plan to help you stay on track and achieve your goals.

    What challenges are you currently facing?

    By identifying the specific challenges you’re currently facing, you can work with your coach to develop strategies that will help you overcome them and make sure your business is running smoothly.

    Do you have a plan for growth?

    Whether you’re looking to explore new revenue streams, grow your team, enter new markets or expand your product or service offerings, it’s important to have a plan of what that road map looks like.

    Together with a business coach, you can identify opportunities for growth and develop a plan to help you achieve success.

    How are you managing your cash flow?

    Managing cash flow is critical if you want to run a profitable business. By discussing your current cash flow situation and identifying areas for improvement, your coach can help you ensure that your business is financially healthy.

    How are you measuring success?

    You should have a clear picture of what success looks like for you and your business. By identifying key performance metrics and benchmarks, your coach can help you measure and track the progress you are making toward the finish line.

    What skills do you need to grow in order to achieve your goals?

    As a business owner, you should be continually developing your skills and knowledge. You can work with your coach to uncover areas where you need to improve and develop a plan to help you acquire or further develop the skills you need to grow and succeed.

    Related: How a Business Coach Can Help You Lean Into Your Strengths and Become Successful

    How are you balancing your work and personal life?

    Running a business can consume your life 24/7, which is why it may take extra effort to maintain a balance between your work and personal life. Chat with your coach about your current work-life balance and what you would like to change so you can live a healthy and fulfilling life both professionally and personally.

    Choosing the right business coach can be a game-changer for your business. Partnering with someone who has diverse experience, a structured process, a collaborative approach and a commitment to long-term results — while also keeping you accountable and supported — can help elevate your business to the next level.

    Not sure where to start? Consider exploring your local Chamber of Commerce or asking trusted colleagues for referrals to business coaches in your area. A great coach might be closer than you think!

    As entrepreneurs know, running a business is both exciting and challenging. With markets constantly growing and changing, it can be difficult to stay ahead of the curve and competition. This is why many consider hiring a business coach to lean on for guidance and support.

    If you’re thinking about hiring a coach, there are several factors to weigh when deciding on who may be the best fit.

    Related: 9 Qualities You Need to Look for in a Business Coach

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    Ricky Navar

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  • How a Smart Marketing Plan Turned One Brand’s Emails Into $47,000 in Revenue | Entrepreneur

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    Planning isn’t sexy. It doesn’t trend. No one’s going viral for updating their content calendar or plotting campaign touchpoints.

    But here’s the hard truth most marketers won’t admit out loud: the teams that win are the ones who plan. Period.

    As CEO of The Go! Agency, I’ve worked with growth-stage startups, international brands and Fortune 500s. And the difference between consistent growth and quarterly chaos always comes down to this — the presence or absence of a plan that actually works.

    Yet every August, the same cycle begins. Q4 shows up like a freight train, and suddenly everyone’s scrambling:

    • Campaigns are rushed
    • Budgets are misaligned
    • Messages are muddled
    • Leadership is confused
    • Teams are exhausted

    And all of it could have been avoided with one thing: a strategic, forward-looking, execution-ready plan.

    Related: Why Your Old Marketing Tactics Are Killing Your Growth in 2025

    Why most marketing plans fail before they even start

    Let’s stop pretending a planning session is a slide deck with buzzwords or a half-hearted brainstorm led by someone who still thinks “go viral” is a tactic.

    Planning is not about checking a box. It’s about building a structure that connects real objectives to measurable actions across every channel. But most teams aren’t doing that.

    They’re treating planning as an afterthought — if they’re doing it at all. And when your plan is a vague Notion doc, a disjointed task list or worse, a whiteboard of “cool ideas,” don’t be surprised when your campaigns flop.

    The planning process has become a casualty of hustle culture. We’ve been trained to equate movement with progress. But in marketing, unplanned execution is just expensive guessing.

    The fall framework that delivers results

    At The Go! Agency, we’ve built and tested a framework that cuts through the noise. It’s what we used to help a premium pet nutrition brand drive over $47,000 in email campaign revenue and increase TikTok video views by nearly 500% in a single quarter.

    It’s also what helped an international beverage equipment company exceed ROAS goals by 135% — scaling from 9.4 to 14.78 in just four months.

    And no, it didn’t require 10 tools or a 92-slide deck.

    Here’s how it works:

    1. Set goals that actually mean something
    “We want more engagement” is not a goal, but “We want a 30% increase in demo bookings from LinkedIn in Q4” is.

    Start with your business objectives, not just marketing KPIs. Growth only happens when your marketing activities ladder up to tangible business outcomes.

    2. Audit your current channels
    You’re probably doing more than you think: emails, blogs, paid ads, social, events, PR. But how much of it is working — and how much is noise?

    Take stock. Know what’s performing and why. Then cut what’s not moving the needle.

    3. Lock in messaging that doesn’t suck
    Your message is your fuel. If it’s generic, recycled or vague, your audience is already tuned out.

    You don’t need “clever.” You need clear, compelling positioning that reflects your unique POV and actually speaks to real pain points.

    And no — ChatGPT can’t do this for you. AI is a multiplier, not a mind reader. Garbage in, garbage out.

    4. Match the message to the market
    Segment smarter. The same campaign can’t serve every audience. Tailor your messaging per segment and then match it to the right platform.

    LinkedIn for B2B thought leadership? Absolutely — it’s still the best platform for building trust and credibility with a professional audience. TikTok for brand storytelling? If your audience lives there, it’s a powerful way to connect through authentic, culture-driven content. Email for conversion? Still king — when it’s targeted, relevant and backed by a strong message.

    5. Build around a calendar
    Themes drive cohesion. A roadmap aligns execution. You need to know what’s happening when — and how your campaigns, content, sales pushes and partnerships sync up.

    Planning gives you rhythm. That rhythm gives your team momentum.

    Stop glorifying the grind

    Let’s kill the myth that planning is rigid. The right plan is a launchpad — not a cage.

    It’s what lets you pivot without panic when a new initiative lands in your lap. It’s what helps you say “no” to shiny distractions. And it’s what allows you to build campaigns that scale, not scramble.

    You don’t need more meetings. You need direction. You don’t need a productivity tool with 30 integrations. You need strategic clarity.

    The ROI no one talks about

    Think planning is overhead? Here’s what it really unlocks:

    • Smarter content with a clear purpose
    • Faster execution with less firefighting
    • Scalable campaign architecture
    • Higher ROI with fewer wasted hours
    • Cleaner data to prove your impact

    And let’s not ignore the internal wins: clearer expectations, tighter collaboration and less burnout.

    The brands that scale aren’t guessing. They’re mapping.

    Related: 3 Marketing Trends You Need to Capitalize on Now Before Your Competition Beats You to It

    Final word: be the marketer who’s ready

    You can’t be bulletproof without a blueprint. And planning is your blueprint.

    This fall, don’t wait to react. Build your roadmap now. Align your team. Ground your efforts in strategy, not spaghetti.

    Because the truth is, in a landscape filled with marketers who are busy, the ones who are intentional will always win.

    Planning isn’t sexy. It doesn’t trend. No one’s going viral for updating their content calendar or plotting campaign touchpoints.

    But here’s the hard truth most marketers won’t admit out loud: the teams that win are the ones who plan. Period.

    As CEO of The Go! Agency, I’ve worked with growth-stage startups, international brands and Fortune 500s. And the difference between consistent growth and quarterly chaos always comes down to this — the presence or absence of a plan that actually works.

    The rest of this article is locked.

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    Christopher Tompkins

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  • This Low-Cost Tool Can Help You Earn More From Your Side Hustle | Entrepreneur

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    Nearly 40% of Americans have a side hustle right now – and for many, it’s not just a way to earn a little extra cash. According to a recent LendingTree survey, 61% of people with a side hustle say they couldn’t afford to live without it.

    While the number of side hustlers has decreased slightly since the pandemic’s peak, many still feel the everyday financial pressure. A third say they picked up a side gig to cover basic expenses, while 49% cite the current economy as the main reason for getting started.

    Want to grow your side hustle into a business? Start with email

    Many side hustles involve gigs like delivering groceries or driving for Uber, but some are the first step toward building an actual business. Whether you sell handmade products on Etsy or freelance your services, you could turn your passion project into a source of cash.

    One of the best ways to do that on a tight budget? Use email from day one.

    Why email works for side hustlers

    Email costs almost nothing to send, but the return can be huge. Unlike social media, email lets you build deeper relationships, stay top of mind and drive repeat sales – all while you’re working your day job, sleeping or fulfilling orders. When you’re short on time and money, email helps take some pressure off and scale your side hustle like no other channel.

    Think email’s too complicated or time-consuming? Use these steps to make it easier on yourself – and see results faster.

    Grow your email list from the beginning

    Getting social media followers for your side hustle business is a good way to signal trust to potential customers. But if I were to start another business today, I’d work on getting those followers onto an email list as soon as possible.

    Your followers can disappear overnight, and you may have no way to reach out to them again. Your list of contacts? That’s something you’ll always own.

    Here are some proven ways to grow your email list:

    • Test a short free resource. Check your social media metrics — what topics tend to spark a lot of interest? Use that data to create a concise guide or checklist. You shouldn’t spend more than a few hours writing and designing it for free with tools like Canva. This is just a test to learn more about your audience’s needs and tastes.
    • Expand your bank of resources. Once you understand what your prospects respond to most, add more gated content to your website. You can test varied lengths and styles — and later double down on your top performers.
    • Send exclusive content. Aside from giving your audience a freebie, make your email content exclusive. Share useful tips they can’t find anywhere else. Interview experts they care about. And of course, offer an unbeatable perk — discounts, free shipping or early access to new products.

    Start emailing right away

    Many side hustlers put off email marketing, thinking they need a large list to make it worthwhile. But that’s a trap. Emailing your customers — even when you have just a few — benefits you in every way:

    • Instead of keeping them waiting for your emails, you can start nurturing your subscribers and building engagement immediately.
    • If your emails are good, more people will subscribe. Remember to include a subscription button in every email so anyone can opt in if your messages are forwarded.
    • Emailing regularly also helps your email deliverability. Every email you send builds your reputation with mailbox providers, who need to trust you in order to deliver your emails to the inbox.

    Do you have 10 customers on your list? That’s more than enough to start — do it now.

    Related: 5 Types of Email Addresses Ruining Your Email Marketing ROI

    Verify every new email address you get

    Eventually, you’ll build your email list way beyond 10 customers, but here’s what matters even more: making sure those email addresses are accurate and real. Getting a bunch of misspelled or fake contacts means your emails will bounce, so what’s the point in sending them?

    Moreover, a high bounce rate can hurt your ability to reach the inbox again – even with real contacts. Email service providers have strong filters to weed out and block potential spam. Sending emails to invalid contacts signals spammy behavior, so you may kill your email marketing before it even gets off the ground

    Checking an email for validity takes seconds. Most email validation services let you start for free, so if you only add a few contacts to your list every month, it won’t cost you a thing and it’ll save you a lot of headaches.

    Ask for little, give a lot

    Now that you’ve got things rolling, you may be tempted to blast your subscribers with sales emails. Refrain from this tactic – it turns people off. Instead, be generous and mindful of their time. Build trust and loyalty with helpful content.

    Related: 5 Ways to Delight Your Customers With Email

    Here are some topics you could approach in your emails:

    • A mistake you made early on in your side hustle — and what you learned from it
    • A quick tip that helped you save time, money, or stress
    • A behind-the-scenes look at how you create your product or deliver your service
    • A list of tools or resources you like and recommend

    Keep it personal and worth your reader’s time. That’s how you build a list that sticks with you — and buys from you later.

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    Liviu Tanase

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  • Free Webinar | On-Demand: From Bottlenecks to Breakthroughs: 5 Barriers Stalling Entrepreneurs—and the System That Removes Them | Entrepreneur

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    Every founder eventually hits the same growth killers—isolation, decision fatigue, skill overload, stalled momentum, and a lack of real accountability. In this on-demand session you’ll see why these five barriers show up and why quick fixes rarely stick.

    You’ll also be introduced to The Boardroom, Entrepreneur Media’s new six-month mastermind that pairs you with a hand-picked peer group and expert mentors who turn those obstacles into weekly breakthroughs.

    Key takeaways:

    • Replace isolation with a curated advisory board

    • Slash decision fatigue using repeatable frameworks

    • Escape skill overload through expert playbooks

    • Restart stalled growth with high-leverage tactics

    • Close accountability gaps so goals become wins

    Register now for instant access and start mapping your path from bottleneck to breakthrough.

    About the Speakers:

    Jason Feifer is the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine and host of the podcast Problem Solvers. Outside of Entrepreneur, he writes the newsletter One Thing Better, which each week gives you one better way to build a career or company you love. He is also a startup advisor, keynote speaker, book author, and nonstop optimism machine.

    Jacqueline “JJ” Jasionowski blends luxury-brand rigor with entrepreneurial speed. After 17 years at BMW Group leading growth, training, and CX initiatives, she launched Shift Awake Group to deploy tech-forward training that lifts customer satisfaction and revenue. A Certified Professional Coach and expert facilitator, JJ builds behavior-shifting systems—reducing friction and driving measurable outcomes.

    Every founder eventually hits the same growth killers—isolation, decision fatigue, skill overload, stalled momentum, and a lack of real accountability. In this on-demand session you’ll see why these five barriers show up and why quick fixes rarely stick.

    You’ll also be introduced to The Boardroom, Entrepreneur Media’s new six-month mastermind that pairs you with a hand-picked peer group and expert mentors who turn those obstacles into weekly breakthroughs.

    Key takeaways:

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    Entrepreneur Staff

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  • Secrets of Family Style Food Festival’s Success | Entrepreneur

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    Back in 2019, Miles Canares teamed up with the creators of cult Streetwear company, The Hundreds, to co-found the Family Style Food Festival, a day-long event where killer chefs and cool kids’ clothing brands deliver a feast for food and fashion fanatics alike.

    The Festival was acquired by Complex last year, and, as it gets ready to roll out on Saturday, September 13, in Los Angeles State Historic Park, Canares shared his insights on building and growing an event brand that keeps audiences and vendors coming back for more.

    1. Think of your vendors as your headliners.

    Whether it’s your food, music, and AV, content, signage, merch, invite, or even security or cleaning crew, I always tell restaurants during my courting process that this is like a music festival, and they’re our headliners. Event producers often depend on vendors from different industries to share how they want to be briefed on the project, but the secret is to create a universal way to communicate your vision, what the user experience should be, and any other context.

    We provide chefs with a storytelling framework, content suggestions, and we even help them manage their marketing and merch creation. And why did I include security and cleaning? I learned this from my mentor, Aaron Levant, the CEO of Complex, who led the acquisition of Family Style. He would walk around his old events, and literally plot where every trash can was placed, what the security guards looked like, what the room smelled like, etc. I thought he was a freak at first, but it turns out these small details, especially as you scale up your audience, can add to larger problems or ideally to seamless execution where the people and the product are the focus.

    Related: Check out Upcoming Entrepreneur Events

    2. Find out what else your core audience is into.

    Event management is community-building, and the most important way to expand your addressable attendees is to find crossover audiences that are a fit for your offering. I noticed this early on — the same people in line for two hours at the Supreme drop were the same people in line for two hours at Howlin’ Rays hot chicken. These two crowds, while on paper are completely different in nature, blend so well together that it’s now a sub-industry of its own. Be the one to bring them together, and you’ll not only win your core audience over, but you’ll also introduce a whole new crowd to what it is you’re doing.

    3. Give your attendees bragging rights.

    People love being the first to find something. At Family Style, we love to highlight restaurants that are either brand-new or completely under the radar. Attendees walk away saying, “I found them before everyone else.” That feeling creates evangelists who promote your event or your business long after it’s over. We also sell collab tees that they can’t buy anywhere else and food dishes that exist for one event only. Think about car unveil events — they always remove the sheet. Every event can make history in little (or big) ways. This can even apply to business, networking, or trade events. Have a unique industry member speak or co-host, over a sneak peek at a product, or introduce a new team member.

    4. Post-event is where word of mouth is made.

    While pre-event is about logistics and securing attendance, if you’re looking to turn attendance into commerce and ongoing engagement, your post-event strategy is actually the largest moment of truth. Ask yourself: how can your event live after the last guest leaves, or as we say, the gates close? After Family Style, we’ll sometimes do things like have the L.A.-based restaurants run the festival-only menu items for delivery the week after, then it becomes a high-value sponsorship item. It keeps the conversation alive and extends ROI for everyone involved.

    Related: How Mental and Physical Toughness — and Fun! — Define the Multimillionaire Runningman Founders’ Success

    5. Assign one person to manage all of the visuals.

    This year, we brought in Japanese artist Verdy to lead our visuals at Family Style, and it elevated not just how the festival looks, but also how sponsors and audiences perceive it. Good design isn’t optional—it’s what makes people care. I know that for a standard company or industry event this might seem like it’s not a part of the core scope, but assigning an intentional strategy to the look of the event doesn’t have to be a big undertaking so you can delegate it to another team member and sometimes a light color or lay-out theme can differentiate it, which is the most important outcome you can achieve.

    Back in 2019, Miles Canares teamed up with the creators of cult Streetwear company, The Hundreds, to co-found the Family Style Food Festival, a day-long event where killer chefs and cool kids’ clothing brands deliver a feast for food and fashion fanatics alike.

    The Festival was acquired by Complex last year, and, as it gets ready to roll out on Saturday, September 13, in Los Angeles State Historic Park, Canares shared his insights on building and growing an event brand that keeps audiences and vendors coming back for more.

    1. Think of your vendors as your headliners.

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    Dan Bova

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  • Why 67% of Wealthy People Do This Every Morning | Entrepreneur

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    Success isn’t a stroke of luck — it’s a habit forged through deliberate, daily effort. In my five-year study of 233 wealthy individuals and 128 poor individuals, one finding stood out like a beacon: 67% of the wealthy set specific, actionable goals every single day, while only 17% of poorer people did the same.

    This isn’t just a statistic — it’s a roadmap for building wealth and achieving dreams. For entrepreneurs navigating the high-stakes world of startups, where every decision can make or break your venture, this habit of daily goal-setting is your secret weapon.

    If you want to transform your startup from a fragile idea into a thriving enterprise, adopting this disciplined practice can set you on the path to success.

    Related: This Habit Will Help You Achieve Your Goals and Find Success

    The science behind daily goals

    My research revealed that 80% of wealthy individuals pursue at least one major goal at a time, breaking it down into smaller, daily tasks that are specific, measurable and tied to a larger vision. They don’t scribble vague wishes like “grow my business” on a sticky note.

    Instead, they set precise targets, such as “contact three potential investors” or “write 500 words for the marketing campaign.” This clarity creates a clear path forward, turning lofty ambitions into tangible progress. Meanwhile, 83% of the poorer individuals in my study rarely or never set goals, leaving them adrift, reacting to life’s demands rather than proactively shaping their future through goal-setting.

    For startup founders, this contrast is a wake-up call. Entrepreneurship is a whirlwind of challenges — cash flow crunches, customer acquisition hurdles and the pressure to outpace competitors.

    Without a clear focus, it’s easy to get lost in the chaos. Daily goals act like a compass, guiding you through the noise and ensuring you spend your time on what truly moves the needle. Whether you’re bootstrapping a tech startup or scaling a small retail business, this habit can help you stay on course and build momentum that will eventually lead to success and wealth.

    Why daily goals are a startup superpower

    Startups are a unique beast. You’re often working with limited resources, tight timelines and the constant need to prove your concept. Goal-setting, as practiced by successful, wealthy entrepreneurs, tackles these challenges head-on.

    Wealthy people don’t just dream—they write things down. My research shows 70% of them jot down goals daily. Writing forces you to decide what really matters. For a founder, that could be as simple as “lock in one press mention” or “finalize pricing.” Clear goals cut through noise and give you confidence to move forward.

    Big results are built on small, consistent victories. In fact, 76% of wealthy individuals track their progress every day. For entrepreneurs, landing one new customer, trimming costs slightly or finishing a demo might seem small—but stack them up, and they create unstoppable momentum.

    On top of that, talent is overrated. My data shows 88% of wealthy people credit their habits for their success. Daily goals keep you disciplined, helping you focus on high-impact tasks instead of wasting hours on emails, social feeds or pointless meetings.

    Related: Being ‘Busy’ Isn’t Helping You Be Productive — 5 Tips to Become Truly Efficient at Work

    How to set daily goals like successful entrepreneurs

    Ready to make daily goal-setting the backbone of your startup’s success? Here’s a practical, step-by-step guide inspired by the habits of the successful entrepreneurs I studied:

    • Anchor goals to your vision: Successful entrepreneurs always tie daily tasks to a larger purpose or vision. Start by defining your startup’s ultimate goal for the year — say, “reach $1 million in revenue,” “launch a new product,” or “secure 10,000 users.”
    • Break it down to daily steps: Big goals can feel overwhelming. Successful entrepreneurs break goals down into bite-sized tasks. If your annual goal is to raise $500,000, your monthly goal might be to pitch 10 investors.
    • Write it down! Don’t rely on memory. Wealthy individuals commit their goals to paper or a digital tool daily. For entrepreneurs, this could mean listing three to five tasks each morning, such as “call two potential partners,” “review analytics for the latest ad campaign,” or “finalize one section of the business plan.” Writing makes goals concrete and keeps you accountable.
    • Track and reflect: Successful entrepreneurs don’t just set goals — they track and monitor progress. In my study, 76% reviewed their goals regularly. At the end of each day, check off completed tasks and ask: Did I hit my goals? If not, why? Maybe you overestimated your bandwidth, need to develop additional skills or got sidetracked by a low-priority task.
    • Stay consistent: Consistency is the secret sauce. Make daily goal-setting non-negotiable, even on chaotic startup days. Five minutes each morning to set priorities can transform your trajectory over time.

    Real-world impact

    Consider Sarah, a startup founder I met who applied this habit. Her eco-friendly clothing brand was struggling to gain traction. She began setting daily goals tied to her annual target of $100,000 in sales.

    Each morning, she wrote three tasks, like “reach out to one boutique retailer” or “post one Instagram reel.” Within six months, she landed two major retail partnerships and hit 50% of her revenue goal. The secret? Daily goals kept her focused, even when cash was tight and doubts crept in.

    Avoid this habit trap

    My study showed that 83% of poorer people lack goal-setting habits, often because they feel overwhelmed or believe goals are pointless without immediate results. Entrepreneurs can fall into this trap, too, chasing shiny new opportunities or getting bogged down in busywork.

    Successful entrepreneurs don’t do this. They stay laser-focused, using daily goals to filter out noise and prioritize what drives growth. Start tomorrow morning. Grab a notebook or app, define one big annual goal for your startup, and break it into three daily tasks. Write them down, track your progress and reflect at day’s end. It’s simple but powerful.

    Success isn’t a stroke of luck — it’s a habit forged through deliberate, daily effort. In my five-year study of 233 wealthy individuals and 128 poor individuals, one finding stood out like a beacon: 67% of the wealthy set specific, actionable goals every single day, while only 17% of poorer people did the same.

    This isn’t just a statistic — it’s a roadmap for building wealth and achieving dreams. For entrepreneurs navigating the high-stakes world of startups, where every decision can make or break your venture, this habit of daily goal-setting is your secret weapon.

    If you want to transform your startup from a fragile idea into a thriving enterprise, adopting this disciplined practice can set you on the path to success.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

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    Tom Corley

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