Ben Angel
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As a seasoned performance coach with over two decades of experience working with business owners, I have witnessed how frustrated many business owners are that their startup isn’t growing as quickly as it should or seems to have stagnated in its growth. One common factor that often stands out for such entrepreneurs is their lack of the attributes of team players.
Your business can only grow to the extent that your abilities as a team player grow, and my experience has shown that cultivating the following five attributes can make you a team player who is well-positioned to see your business grow.
As a business founder, you may have the burning desire to bring your vision for the business to reality, but business success will not entirely depend on you alone. You need input from your team, and their ideas can be the difference between mediocre business performance and successful steering of the business to higher levels.
Create opportunities for team members to share their ideas. Brainstorming sessions, weekly meetings and problem-solving sessions can be fertile grounds to get input from the team. Evaluate the ideas generated and find ways to implement those that show the potential to advance the goals of the business.
Google did a study and found that the best managers and leaders have coaching skills. However, most people confuse coaching with mentoring. Coaching and mentoring are not the same. Coaching is about unlocking the potential in your team. Mastering coaching skills enables you to do that.
As the founder, you may also have the expertise and experience that your team members lack, which means you’re more likely to mentor or “tell them” how to do it rather than coach them.
Coaching builds confidence, empowers your team to take on more responsibility, improves problem-solving skills and builds loyalty. The more you coach your team, the more your business will operate as a team effort rather than a one-person show. You’ll not only have a high-performing team, but you’ll also have a high-value team. Double win!
Related: Be a Mentor: 4 Simple Ways to Change a Life
This is where the rubber hits the tarmac! Many founders have a burning desire to bring their dream to life “yesterday” and are extremely impatient when their team isn’t moving at the pace they’d like. At this point, you ask yourself two critical questions: Did I hire the right people? Do I consistently share my vision and mission so everyone is clear about the direction of the firm?
I often tell clients that it may not be possible for their entire team to move at the same blistering pace that the founder is wired for, and it might be necessary for the founder to pump the brakes a little so the team can move at the same pace. This is a hard pill for many founders to swallow, but reminding them that they are not a one-person army allows them to be more accommodating and better able to foster teamwork in the business.
I am not advocating for letting your employees set the pace of the company. If you hire the right people and coach them regularly, chances are that while they may not move at supersonic speed, they will follow your lead and move at an above-average pace.
I always give this incident, which I witnessed while visiting a client’s restaurant for a follow-up session. The assistant manager was always pushing her direct reports to work at a blistering pace. The manager had cautioned the assistant to always give a particular employee their tasks in advance so they can accomplish them within a spread-out timeframe. This particular employee was known to be very thorough in anything they do, but if pushed to work at a pace greater than they could manage, they were more likely than not to do extremely shoddy work.
The assistant manager neglected this important piece of information and one time asked that employee to chop some ingredients and kept hovering over the shoulder of the employee nudging them to work faster. Pushed beyond their limits, the employee nearly lost four fingers when, in a bid to work fast, they ended up accidentally cutting through those fingers. I rushed in with the manager when we heard horrified screams coming from the kitchen, and after the ambulance left with the injured employee, the manager called the assistant to a private corner and gently reminded them about the caution of not pushing that particular employee to work at a faster pace than they were capable of.
The message? Sometimes, it is helpful to slow down a little so that you can move with the entire team.
Related: Are You Hiring a ‘Team’ Player – or Someone Just Looking out for No.1?
Another important tip I give startup founders is that they can become team players who enjoy more than decent business growth on an ongoing basis by sharing recognition for the successes they attain. When you put your team at the center of all success, their motivation and loyalty grow, and they become invested in achieving the firm’s goals.
Related: Which Do You Need: A Coach or a Consultant or a Trainer? Here’s How to Know.
Make it a habit to consult your team members frequently. This can be when there are challenges that need to be fixed, when opportunities arise or when planning the next steps or direction of the business. Don’t be the founder who keeps their cards close to the chest and only issues instructions without involving their team.
As you implement the tips above, you will notice that your team will galvanize around the organization’s goals and mission, and your company will be better positioned to weather any storm. Teams always find a way to win.
Jairek Robbins
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For the very first time, the world witnessed the first all-black podium in women’s gymnastics Olympic history. Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade joined Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles from Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where they were captured in an iconic photo showing the power of women of color in sports. This Olympics hit a groundbreaking milestone, with 50% of competing athletes being women and more than half of all medal events open to female athletes.
This year, many moments of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) were demonstrated. So, what DEI lessons can we learn from the 2024 Olympics that entrepreneurs can apply to their businesses today? The short answer is quite a few.
In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the world was stunned when Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time, dropped out because of the “twisties,” a dangerous break in the brain-body connection causing the gymnast to lose sense of where they are in the air. She took a step back and let her teammate, Suni Lee, perform and subsequently take home the all-around gold in women’s gymnastics — an achievement Biles was perfectly poised and expected to win. Biles taught us that no matter what the stakes are, your mental health should come first. How can you perform at the highest levels of business and entrepreneurship if your mental health isn’t in a good place? The answer is that you can, but it’s not even what the G.O.A.T. would do. If no one’s told you today, here’s your friendly reminder that self-care is not selfish; it’s productive.
While some entrepreneurs dream of being the “first” to invent or discover something, others feel intimidated when finding their niche or area of genius in their industry. When faced with the daunting opportunity to be the first person to start or lead in a certain area, the fear of failure or high visibility might make some entrepreneurs squirm. Despite the nerves and fear that come with innovation, it’s okay to be “the first” in something and confidently walk into that arena with a bright idea. That’s what fencer Lauren Scruggs did at the Paris Olympics this year. She became the first Black American woman to win a gold medal in fencing, and I’m sure she was nervous. But she came ready to win and kept her eye on the prize. Entrepreneurs who are nervous about stepping into the space of being the “first” should take a deep breath and know why they’re there, then bravely step into their arena with confidence and focus.
As entrepreneurs, we wear numerous hats and fight for our business success. However much success we gained, we didn’t do it alone. We must always remember to give people their flowers and lift them up as we grow. For example, while running the preliminary heat 100-meter race, South Sudanese runner Lucia Moris collapsed to the ground in the heat of the day and was unable to get up and finish the race. As soon as fellow competitor Silina Pha Aphay from Laos finished her race and realized Moris was on the ground in pain, she stopped and ran back to make sure Moris was okay and offered comfort and support while waiting for the medical teams to arrive. The business world can often feel cutthroat and like every person is out for themselves, but the heroic and noble athletes at the Olympics remind us that as we grow, we must lift others up with us. We’re not winning if others suffer as a consequence.
Like most athletes that go to the Olympics, the goal is to win, and they know winning requires them to stand out. Most athletes don’t get an opportunity to stand out when the other competitors are neck and neck with them. But Simone Biles certainly has. After having several gymnastic moves named after her, she reminds us all to be aware of what we contribute to our areas and how we can set ourselves apart by doing what others aren’t doing. Creativity and innovation are the name of the game, and exceptional athletes like Biles show how our creativity can inspire others in business and entrepreneurship to imagine more.
When it comes to business, we all want to be number one and become entrepreneur of the year. But the best of the best in the world of sports can teach us a thing or two about how to get there. Lifting others up when they’re down doesn’t give your competitor the upper hand; it gives your competitor a compassionate hand. Creating value and being the first to do something sets a standard for others in your sphere to strive for more and reach higher, too. Finally, taking care of your mental health isn’t selfish; it’s one of the most productive things you can do for yourself and others. While the Paris Olympics have come and gone, the lessons live on. Let these lessons seep into your mind and business, and see where you go. Who knows, you might just get the gold.
Nika White
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With U.S. venture capital fundraising at a 6-year low, raising investor capital for your startup has become more challenging than ever. Potential investors are tightening their budgets and adopting a “wait and see” approach before putting their capital at risk. Yet, some of the best startups — like Airbnb, Uber and Square — were born during market downturns. So, if you’re an entrepreneur seeking capital in this environment, you might wonder about your chances of success.
As a serial entrepreneur and now CEO of Builderall, I’ve heard over 3,000 pitches and helped founders raise millions. From my experience, seven common mistakes often derail attempts to raise investment capital. If you’re looking to raise money for your startup in this uncertain economic environment, be sure to avoid the following:
Many founders rush through their pitch, but speed isn’t always your friend in the venture capital world. Your goal is to establish key points and let them resonate, not finish your presentation as quickly as possible.
Think of it like telling a good joke at a party — you wouldn’t rush to the punchline before everyone has had a chance to grasp the setup, right? The same principle applies when pitching. You want your investors to hang on to every word. But that’s impossible if you rush or gloss over crucial information.
One effective technique is to use strategic pauses. In between slides or after making a key point, pause for about three seconds to let it sink in and observe your audience’s reactions. Don’t be afraid of silence. Patience in delivery can be a powerful strategy.
Related: What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know About Raising Capital
Balancing detail with brevity is tricky, but it’s essential. There are some critical signals you should share to help build trust and differentiate your business. While most founders want to focus on how great their product is, there are two questions that are arguably more important:
As far as team qualifications, don’t be shy about including specifics on years of experience, prestigious university degrees, previous exits, existing patents and/or impressive startup or corporate experiences.
I once coached a founder who was struggling to raise capital. After reviewing his pitch deck, I said, “The problem is that you have no real startup experience.” He then proceeded to tell me that he and his co-founder sold their last company for $80 million, but he thought it wasn’t relevant since it was in a different industry. Let me tell you, your previous accomplishments are 100% relevant to whether or not investors will trust you with their money.
Next, I can almost guarantee that whatever amazing idea you are pitching — we have probably already seen it. This begs the question, how are you going to execute differently when you get to market? This is where your current traction becomes crucial: existing user base, early subscribers, accepted patents and strategic partnerships all come into play. These elements demonstrate that you’re not just another idea but a viable business that is already making waves.
I know — this sounds like a contradiction based on the first point, but hear me out. Blathering on is another fatal mistake. You should plan for a nine-minute pitch, but you don’t want to “rush through” your nine minutes. Instead, be relentless about what to include – and what to cut – so the pacing feels natural and you’re still covering the key data points that make your business compelling.
I often ask new founders to introduce their startup in just two sentences: What do you do, and why should I care? After that, you have under 10 minutes to explain the market problem, the market size, your business model, your solution, your traction, your team, and your ask. That means you need to be very specific about what details will tell your story most effectively.
I’ve seen many founders get nervous and overcompensate by filling the conversation with unnecessary details and fillers. This often has the opposite effect of what they intend. If you talk too much or too quickly, investors might think you’re not being straightforward, or they may get bored and lose interest.
Related: 5 Innovative Ways for Entrepreneurs to Raise Capital in Today’s Market
Remember, you’re pitching to investors, not potential clients. Investors are not interested in how great your product is; they want to know about your market, margins, and differentiation.
I once sat through a pitch for a young women’s jewelry startup where the founder spent the entire time trying to sell me on the jewelry. As an investor, I wasn’t the target audience and the pitch fell flat. Rather than sell me on the business, she was selling me on the product. When talking to investors, they want to hear about the business opportunity, not the product.
This might seem like needless semantics, but words like “hope” subtly signal uncertainty, and investors are not fond of taking chances on “hope.” They want clear-cut projections backed by data and logic.
Instead of saying “we hope,” use phrases like “we will” or “we project.” This shift instantly ramps up your pitch’s credibility. Be definitive; your words should exude confidence, not wishful thinking.
Here are a few more examples:
These subtle language changes replace hesitation and probability with assertiveness. It emphasizes that your pitch is built on credibility and supported by a solid, well-thought-out plan.
When pitching to investors, generalized claims can raise red flags, making investors wonder if you’re trying to obscure the truth or lack the necessary detail.
For example, instead of saying, “We have a huge subscriber list,” focus on concrete details like, “We have over 20,000 subscribers.” Specifics not only clarify your claims but also significantly boost your credibility and trustworthiness.
Here are a few more examples:
These changes in phrasing turn vague assertions into solid, data-backed statements, which help to build investor confidence and convey that your pitch is grounded in reality.
Our final lesson: show, don’t tell. Depicting something visually instead of through words will have a greater impact and be more likely to be remembered. Instead of telling investors, “We have a great interface,” show the interface screens and let them make the determination themselves about whether it’s great or not. Instead of saying, “We’ve grown exponentially over the years,” show a line or bar chart illustrating your impressive growth.
One more example: telling investors how much your customers love you is far less impactful than showing screenshots of social media posts where your customers are raving about you in their own words. Keep this mantra in mind: less talk, more visuals.
Mastering the art of pitching involves more than just avoiding pitfalls — it’s about crafting a narrative that resonates with investors and builds trust. However, by avoiding these seven mistakes, you significantly increase your chances of securing the capital needed to take your startup to the next level.
In today’s challenging economic climate, precise communication, showing rather than telling, and delivering data-backed arguments will set you apart. Investors want to back entrepreneurs who can navigate adversity and drive their ventures to success. Keep refining your pitch, build strong relationships, and show investors why your startup is the one to bet on.
Pedro Sostre
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In the past year, our company has evolved significantly, expanding our services and integrating new internal systems. It’s been a period of retraining and adaptation.
Implementing a major change to a business used to happen once every five or ten years, but with advancements in artificial intelligence coupled with economic uncertainty and digital transformation, businesses are having to pivot and adapt much more frequently. Global spending on digital transformation is expected to hit $3.4 trillion by 2026, and 64% of organizations report needing to build new digital businesses to stay competitive in 2024 and beyond.
We often hear entrepreneurs and business leaders talk about working “on” the business rather than “in” the business but understanding your company from the bottom up has significant benefits. Today, I am the president and CEO of my company, but throughout my career, I’ve worked in every area of my field, from the warehouse to driving a truck. Here’s how it’s given me an invaluable perspective when it comes to change management.
Related: 3 Ways Change Leaders Prevent, Minimize and Manage (or Create) Resistance to Change
Earlier in my career, I worked for a company that hired outside consultants to revamp its operations to comply with new customs regulations. More than 75% of its employees at the time were frontline workers, and unfortunately, they weren’t consulted in the process.
When it came time to roll out the new structure, to say the implementation was messy, is an understatement. Oversights led to significant storage fees and operations issues that caused projects to fall off track and employee morale to drop. In the end, the lack of internal consultation caused the company a lot of money and pain.
When it comes to implementing any big change, it’s critical to involve the people working on the frontlines of your business. According to Beekeeper, employees on the front lines often face a disconnect with leadership, with only 23% feeling included in change-related decisions. This exclusion fuels resistance and disengagement, as 74% of employees believe leaders need to understand why people resist change to foster collaboration.
By really grasping the day-to-day responsibilities of your frontline workers and understanding how the change will impact them, you’re more likely to get buy-in and internal advocacy and make necessary adjustments to the plan.
I’ve seen too many businesses make the vital mistake of pushing down a change from top to bottom rather than consulting with their teams to get feedback on critical decisions. In these cases, it almost always leads to staff and client turnover, which has a spiraling effect on culture and morale.
More often than not, implementing a change in a business is an attempt to improve profit margins. However, too often, company leaders fail to understand how much of their bottom line is being driven by their entry-level workers. For example, a high turnover of entry-level staff reportedly costs Amazon $8 billion annually.
To successfully implement a change, it’s crucial to have representation from every department in your organization involved in the discussions. This shouldn’t be limited to team leads and managers; it’s equally important to have representation from frontline employees involved.
Among this mix, I personally like to include vocal naysayers—the team members who are known to influence the culture and not always in a positive way. This serves two purposes: the first is that sometimes the naysayers have valuable feedback that other team members are too coy to vocalize. The second is that if you can convince a vocal naysayer that a change is positive, they often become your best internal advocate.
I remember a time when we promoted a frontline employee into a leadership role. She wasn’t a frontrunner for the position. In fact, she had started her career being vocally critical of our operations, particularly of other departments.
In the end, what won her the promotion was the leadership skills she developed through change management education and training. She embraced the training and ended up becoming a champion for the departments she once critiqued, committing to helping them improve and do things better.
When we educate and train our teams on how to embrace and adopt change, we create stronger leaders. Research shows employees who receive proper training are more likely to stay with the company, directly impacting the bottom line through reduced turnover and increased productivity.
This is true at any level. Anytime we host training at work, even if I’ve already gone through it, I try to make a point to attend. As leaders, we are often removed from the practical implications of what we ask of our teams. Attending company training can be a great reminder. It also shows your team you’re not above learning and that you’re going through the change, too.
Change is hard. But when we develop the skills to prepare and adapt for it, we can build stronger businesses with more resilient teams. To do this effectively, it’s crucial for leaders to engage with team members at all levels. The insights and perspectives gained from consulting frontline employees are often what make or break a company.
Mike Chisholm
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What if I told you that one of the most powerful tools for enhancing your team’s performance and your company’s success is hiding in plain sight? A tool so effective that it can transform even the most disparate group of individuals into a well-oiled machine, working together towards a common goal.
This often overlooked and underestimated tool is the garden variety performance review — one of the most effective and accessible management tools at your disposal.
I know performance reviews might conjure up memories of awkward conversations, generic feedback and half-hearted promises. But when done right, they can be a game-changer for your business.
In this article, I’ll share the value of performance reviews, strategies for effective implementation, emerging trends and more.
Skeptical about the value of performance reviews? Let me convince you otherwise:
Feedback: Regular, meaningful and timely feedback clarifies expectations and provides actionable guidance. When employees receive consistent feedback, they understand their strengths and weaknesses, leading to increased motivation to improve and higher performance overall.
Talent identification: Performance reviews help identify high-potential employees early, enabling targeted development opportunities to prepare them for future leadership positions. This ensures a strong pipeline of homegrown talent and supports succession planning.
Employee value: Recognizing achievements and providing growth opportunities boost employee satisfaction, engagement and retention. Also, when employees feel valued and supported, they are more likely to go above and beyond, contributing to increased company success.
Fairness culture: Consistent, well-documented performance reviews promote a fair and transparent workplace culture. They prevent toxic environments where raises and promotions are based on favoritism rather than merit. By ensuring that employees clearly understand how their performance is measured and rewarded, legal risks associated with discriminatory practices are mitigated.
Addressing discrepancies: Performance reviews help align expectations and perceptions between employees and managers. By asking both parties the same questions about performance, goals and development needs, these reviews ensure that everyone is on the same page. Addressing any discrepancies early on prevents frustration, disengagement and potential turnover down the line.
Core values: Effective performance management assesses employees’ job performance and alignment with company values. While technical proficiency is important, embodying core values is equally critical. Evaluating this alignment helps identify individuals who may not positively contribute to the company culture.
Identifying systemic issues: Performance reviews can reveal widespread company issues, such as management issues, cultural concerns or unclear expectations. Spotting trends across multiple employees allows you to address root causes and implement timely changes.
Related: 4 Things Leaders Misunderstand About Performance Reviews
Now, how can you make your performance reviews as impactful as possible? Here are some key tips:
Set clear expectations from the start. Collaborate with employees to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goals aligned with company objectives, ensuring they know exactly what they’ll be evaluated on.
Make it a two-way conversation. Engage employees in a dialogue, asking questions, listening to their perspectives and brainstorming solutions together. This makes it feel more like coaching and less like a trial.
Focus on behaviors and outcomes, not just numbers. Discuss the behaviors and skills that drove results, providing employees with insights on how to improve their approach, in addition to quantifiable metrics.
Give specific examples. Offer concrete observations like “I noticed how you took the initiative to streamline the reporting process, resulting in better client satisfaction” instead of vague feedback like “Good job” or “Needs improvement.”
Balance positive and constructive feedback. Recognize accomplishments and strengths while candidly discussing areas for growth, ensuring employees feel appreciated and challenged.
Discuss the future, not just the past. Review prior performance but spend ample time discussing goals and development opportunities to keep the focus on growth.
Document key points, but keep it conversational. Jot down notes to stay on track but maintain an organic, free-flowing discussion rather than reading from a script.
Evaluate company-wide goals. Assess if the company as a whole met its targets for revenue, growth, etc., considering the individual’s impact on achieving these goals, not just their personal performance.
Establish a clear formula for calculating salaries, bonuses and raises based on individual and company performance, ensuring fairness and consistency across the organization.
Assess employees on their fit with company values and culture, not just individual performance. High performers misaligned with company values or team culture can be detrimental to your success.
Encourage employees and managers to provide ongoing positive and constructive insights about their experience by offering incentives. Keep a detailed record of this feedback to streamline annual reviews, rather than relying on memory alone.
As the workplace evolves, so does performance management. The right technology streamlines review processes, encourages a feedback culture and provides data-driven insights for more meaningful performance discussions. Here are some emerging trends:
Modern performance management platforms enable frequent, real-time feedback, keeping development a constant focus.
HCMS (Human Capital Management System) and talent management systems provide valuable data on performance metrics, flight risks, succession planning and more. Mining this data enriches performance review discussions.
Borrowing from agile methodology, some companies are adopting shorter-term performance cycles with regularly adjusted goals, allowing for greater flexibility as the business evolves.
Related: How to Conduct Employee Performance Reviews That Reduce Stress
As you create your performance review process, keep in mind that there’s no universal formula. What works for the big players might not be the right fit for your unique business. The key is to tailor your approach to your specific needs, culture and team.
If this sounds overwhelming, bring in a fractional CHRO or HR Director to design and implement a performance management strategy that reflects your company’s unique identity and vision. This way, you can gain the same benefits without the commitment of a full-time hire or the frustration of trying to adapt generic advice to your specific needs.
The bottom line is that performance reviews are arguably the most important investment you can make in your company’s growth. Your employees are the heart and soul of your success; how you nurture and engage them determines whether your business thrives or merely survives.
Adi Vaxman
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When I started Appfire in 2005, hardware was king and companies like Dell, IBM and HP were the leaders and innovators of all things tech. Businesses relied heavily on hardware to fuel their IT infrastructure, and the idea of the cloud seemed like a utopian dream. My partner and I built our business to support traditional hardware-centric models, and it was a system that served as well in those early years.
By 2010, I found myself at a crossroads as the rise of cloud computing was slowly shifting focus toward virtualized environments and we were deep in development to deploy new collaboration software on a hardware-based platform. VMware burst onto the scene, making virtualized software all the rage. Hardware evaporated almost overnight.
As a business leader, I had to make a difficult decision: should I steer my team and company in a direction that would essentially abandon all the work we’d put towards our hardware-based product to jump on the virtualization trend with the rest of the market and our competitors? Or should we stay the course, pressing on with our product that was built on a hardware platform? After careful deliberation, we decided against investing in virtualization right away as the timing wasn’t right for us.
I’m reminded of this anecdote as the AI boom continues its momentum, with no signs of slowing down. Just take a look at Nvidia’s recent earnings or Atlassian’s introduction of Rovo, an AI assistant. Someday, when we look back at the history books, this period will be marked by the incredible rush and shift we’ve seen from companies of all sizes to integrate AI into their offerings. This extends beyond merely providing AI-powered solutions. Companies are rebranding, restructuring and reinventing themselves as AI-centric to attract investment, talent, and market share.
As business leaders, we’re constantly faced with the challenge of whether we, too, should jump on the latest trend. Do we follow the pack and shift our entire strategy and product roadmap, or remain on our current path?
Related: 10 Growth Strategies Every Business Owner Should Know
Through my own journey of growing and scaling a leading software company from $10 million to over $200 million ARR in four years, I’ve identified three tips that can help leaders determine whether to embrace a trend or stay the course.
Don’t lose sight of customer wants and needs during times of change. Getting it right for your customers is more important than being right. Research has found that more than 90% of people believe companies should listen to customers to drive innovation. Even if as a business leader you vastly desire to incorporate AI into your end model, if it’s not important to your customers you will fail and you won’t make a profit.
There are several ways you can get this feedback from your customer base. Deploying customer surveys, implementing a customer advisory board and meeting with customers in person are great ways to understand if what you are building makes sense for your customers. If your company has a strong channel program, talk to your partners regularly about what they are hearing from customers
It can be tempting to jump on a trend, particularly when the market demands it and competitors are already on board. In 2010, one of the main reasons we decided not to quickly shift from our hardware platform strategy to virtualization was that we didn’t have people in place with the right skill set. Because of that, we knew we couldn’t succeed in virtualization in a way that would have an immediate impact on our customers.
When a drastic market shift happens, instead of jumping on the bandwagon, put those efforts and resources into training your staff. Many are willing and looking to expand their skill set – in fact, one study shows nearly 75% of employees are willing to learn new skills. Then once you have the right people with the right skills who can help you make an impact, you can turn your focus to innovation. When employees get the right training to gain the skills they need, the business itself will see the benefits.
Related: Your Company Won’t Grow Until You Follow These 4 Keys to Success
Remember the core values you established when you launched your company and use them as guiding principles as you make decisions. Nearly all employees agree that a workplace culture grounded in core values plays a critical role in long-term success.
If the latest trend aligns with your mission, vision and purpose, it could be a valuable addition to your strategy. However, if it doesn’t, pursuing it may not help your company long term. Staying true to your foundational principles ensures that your business remains focused, authentic, and purpose-driven amidst evolving market dynamics.
When a new trend disrupts the market, navigating a path forward can be challenging. Consider the approach Atlassian took with Rovo. While others rushed to get an AI assistant to market last year, Atlassian was intentional and strategic. It mattered more to them to release a tool that aligned with their mission of making teams more effective than being the “first.”
Remember that getting it right for the customer matters more than conforming. Oftentimes blindly following the crowd without critical thinking can lead to conformity and a loss of innovative thinking. Don’t lose sight of your mission, vision, and purpose. These values are likely what attracted employees and customers to your organization in the first place, and what will keep them long after a trend has faded out.
Randall Ward
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We’ve come a long way from the days when identity verification meant simply presenting a handwritten document or a personal endorsement. The Digital ID movement signals a new era where your identity is a digital entity, stored and accessed online.
This shift promises many benefits, like positively transforming efficiency, security and fraud prevention. Yet, here is the challenge: the transition isn’t an overnight overhaul. It’s a gradual, evolutionary process.
Consider the reliability of a physical document – tangible, verifiable and trusted across various industries. Despite the charm of digital transformation, a 2024 Forrester Consulting study commissioned by Regula reveals that 46% of organizations still manually verify documents, including in remote setups. This reliance is even higher in sectors with stringent security demands, such as Aviation (63%) and Finance (44%).
Why the attachment to paper? It’s simple. Physical documents are trusted and familiar, and they provide unmatched authenticity. They work. For business leaders, this means a gradual transition to digital identity systems is not just sensible – it’s essential. The current systems can coexist with emerging technologies, ensuring operations remain smooth while new methods are integrated.
The dream of a global Digital ID system faces significant challenges. Chief among them is the lack of universal legislative frameworks. It’s like trying to conduct a global orchestra without a shared music sheet.
According to the study, 74% of respondents highlight the need for unified global standards to ensure seamless integration and acceptance worldwide. This lack of alignment means businesses are navigating a fragmented landscape, where interoperability across borders is a complex challenge.
Furthermore, technological disparities create uneven progress. While some regions, like the UAE, are racing ahead with advanced digital infrastructures, others, including the US and Europe, are taking a more cautious approach due to stringent regulations. This disparity underscores the importance of tailored strategies considering regional readiness and capabilities.
As businesses examine the digital leap, several Digital ID concerns weigh heavily:
These concerns are not trivial. They reflect the real and present challenges of a digital transition. But they also point to the need for robust, secure, and reliable systems that can build trust over time.
Related: Deepfakes Are on the Rise — Will They Change How Businesses Verify Their Users?
In this complex landscape, a hybrid approach to Digital IDs emerges as the most pragmatic path forward. This strategy embraces both digital and physical verification methods, allowing businesses to transition at a manageable pace. By maintaining physical documents alongside Digital IDs, organizations can leverage the strengths of both systems, ensuring reliability while gradually adopting new technologies.
For business managers, this hybrid model offers a reassuring compromise. It minimizes disruption to existing processes and provides the flexibility needed to explore and integrate digital solutions incrementally.
At the same time, to adopt digital IDs into the current IDV (Identity Verification) process, a business must undertake several steps. First, it should assess the compatibility of its existing infrastructure with digital ID technologies, ensuring it can seamlessly integrate the new system. This involves upgrading or adapting current software and hardware to support digital ID functionalities. Next, the business must select a reliable digital ID provider, prioritizing those with strong security measures and compliance with regulatory standards. Implementing digital IDs requires employee training to effectively manage and operate the new system. Additionally, the business should develop a clear strategy for data privacy and protection, addressing potential cyber threats and ensuring compliance with data protection laws. Finally, a thorough testing phase is essential to identify and resolve any issues before fully deploying the digital ID system, ensuring a smooth transition and maintaining the integrity of the IDV process.
The development and adoption of Digital ID systems will require collaborative innovation from authorities, businesses and stakeholders in the IDV market. Key players like the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) are working to establish frameworks for Digital ID adoption. Their efforts foster interoperability, security and privacy across different systems. However, creating comprehensive standards is a meticulous, time-consuming process.
However, even if all standards are prepared and fully verified, the next stage involves implementing software according to these standards. This is not just a single module but a comprehensive suite of systems for each vendor, and there will be many vendors. Each vendor may interpret the standards differently, leading to inevitable compatibility issues.
This brings us to the necessity of having process standards as well as testing and certification standards. However, even if vendors pass certification, questions about the completeness and reliability of the software will remain, especially when used by end-users. For example, an SDK might be fully functional, but during integration, developers might cut corners and not utilize all necessary components.
Who will handle the certification? Laboratories will be needed to prepare testing software, and these labs will charge significant fees for conducting time-consuming tests. Not all vendors will be eager to invest in certification. Given that each country might have multiple vendors, the scale of the problem is immense.
Currently, passports function without any online infrastructure, but digital IDs will need online services capable of handling massive volumes of requests, potentially from around the world. Imagine 300 million simultaneous requests in the USA alone. This feels like the scale of Facebook, Instagram or Google, with dedicated data centers and more. The cost could be astronomical. Poorer countries might decide they don’t need such systems or opt for minimal implementations.
As a result, we will have many document variants: not only paper documents, paper documents with chips, and digital IDs but also many different types of digital IDs.
Related: U.S. State Will Now Accept Digital Driver’s License on iPhone
The journey to widespread Digital ID adoption is indeed a marathon. Even after the development of comprehensive standards, global adoption will take time. The initial issuance of Digital IDs will still require physical passports or ID cards, underscoring the ongoing relevance of traditional identification methods. Moreover, the implementation costs and the need for robust infrastructure further slow the transition.
For business owners and managers, introducing Digital ID is best viewed as a gradual evolution. After all, in this long road to digital transformation, patience and pragmatism will be your greatest allies.
Ihar Kliashchou
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When sales are down in a franchise network, the franchisor tend to be the party chiefly held responsible. It’s a diverse and challenging job — one that includes marketing on two levels: recruiting the right franchisees and then the unit-level marketing for which they will be paying a fee (typically a percentage of their sales), often expecting the moon in return.
Attracting and retaining prospects or customers is everyone’s job in a business, but marketing with a consistent and compelling message really does start at the top. One of the benefits of joining a franchise system, after all, is to be privy to existing and successful branding and outreach, including trade dress, professional signage, website design and advertising templates.
But before we look at what you as a franchisor need to provide to franchisees for local marketing efforts, let’s start with what characterizes a winning recruitment program.
Related: The 8 Rules to Live By in Franchise Marketing, According to Top Franchise CMOs
First and foremost, sales materials need to be both compelling and meet compliance rules. Different states have different requirements, so hire a franchise marketing expert as well as legal counsel to ensure you’re both hitting the right notes as well as acting in accordance with both state and federal law.
And even if you’ve been franchising for years, it’s never a bad idea to revisit sales materials to update messaging, check for unified look and feel, re-ensure compliance and take advantage of any new channels. How many franchisors dreamed they’d be considering making TikTok videos even five years ago?
Start with a website that will capture your intended audience’s imagination — one that reflects and burnishes the brand, tells a good story and spells out the specific and unique benefits your franchise offering provides.
It’s also important to leverage a variety of media, including electronic collateral materials, search engine and social media ad campaigns, direct marketing tactics and trade shows and publications. And know your audience so that you’re putting time and effort in the right places.
Since prospects have become used to getting immediate responses, technology will play a big part in ongoing communications with potential buyers, particularly once they become leads. Whether via AI chatbots, texts, email or phone call, find out how candidates like to receive information and interact.
Additionally, have both a plan and a budget. If you don’t have the in-house staff to develop and execute a franchise marketing plan, hire a firm with expertise (and success) in creating and implementing plans for other franchises. This is not the time to just throw ideas at the wall and see what sticks.
Related: The Real Cost of Franchising Your Business
Once you have franchisees who have joined your system, it’s your responsibility to support them in promoting and marketing. Word of mouth has traditionally been considered the best form here, but with the takeover of social media, words are coming out of a great many mouths now — and not just your fans’. To ensure you and your franchisees are sending the same message, provide them with sample content, and at least monitor (better yet, directly manage) their online (including social media) presence, as well as overall marketing messaging.
Keeping an eye on all franchisees’ marketing activities may sound daunting, but it’s vital to not leave things to chance. At minimum, approve all content posted on their individual social media accounts or websites/webpages. A better approach, I’ve found, is to provide templates and messaging so that the look and feel of all posts, announcements, promotions and videos are always on-brand. These can be generated using your own staff and/or an outside agency.
Yet another idea is to take a hybrid approach, in which the franchisor manages the overall campaigns, but allows franchisees to do posts for territory-specific events, as long as they get content approved beforehand.
To be sure, this direct-manage approach requires dedication and planning, and may seem to not leave much room for spontaneity. So, make an effort to be responsive when a franchisee wants to advertise or post about something going on in their market.
Another important consideration: When establishing a brand development (or system marketing) fund, do the math to ensure that fees collected from franchisees will be adequate to cover the expenses of creating marketing materials, including staff time. Make plain to them that such fees benefit each local franchise, certainly, but are also used to help fund regional or national campaigns from which the entire system benefits. Lastly, consider having any parent-company-owned stores contribute the same percentage for system marketing as franchisees so there is a sense of equitable participation across the entire network.
Related: Your Franchise Marketing Needs This Secret Weapon to Captivate and Convert
There will always be pressure (on new and emerging franchisors in particular) to come up with fresh marketing materials to justify marketing fund contributions. Historically, one of the most common complaints from franchisees is that they expected to receive more support in this area. And some franchisors further require a specific spend by franchisees for their own in-territory marketing, which can be a source of additional consternation. One additional solution may be to blend both of these fees into a combined percentage, especially if an outside agency is being used to manage campaigns.
But no matter how you architect your marketing funds and programs, transparency is key. Provide regular accounting/reporting on how funds are being used, including efforts towards social media growth and ad reach, and have proof ready as to how campaigns are working.
Emiliano Jöcker
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The process for exiting a business is about so much more than numbers and contracts; it’s about the people in your organization, from the front-line employees and executives who have created the business’ value to the leadership team that lands the deal at the most favorable terms. Your people have been at the heart of your organization, but their involvement in the exit process needs to be thoughtful and delicate – requiring trust and discretion. Here’s how to support them throughout the transaction.
When should the owner inform employees that the business is being sold? Not until the sale is final and the buyer has officially taken possession. That’s the number one rule: Only the owner, their transition team and possibly one critical team member should know about it until after the transaction is complete.
Prematurely revealing this information can have several adverse results:
Without adequate precautions, keeping your plan under wraps could be easier said than done.
Related: 7 Preparation Essentials for Selling a Business
Your company may have such a well-cultivated grapevine that you sometimes feel you’re the last to hear your own personal news. Most breaches of confidentiality occur when owners try to handle everything themselves without professional guidance. Keep your in-the-know list small by recruiting a team of experienced advisors who will ensure discreetness and protect sensitive information about company operations, customers and employees.
Sometimes, you may have to inform a key employee about the sale early in the process — a top salesperson, the CEO or someone else. Do this as the last step of due diligence, and be sure it’s handled with strict confidentiality agreements.
What if someone finds out despite your best efforts? Your response depends on where you are in the sale process. If it’s early, you can say you’re exploring partnerships or considering offers without actively shopping the business. “Everything is for sale if the right offer comes along” is truthful but vague enough to quiet rumors. If those strategies don’t work, you may have to get transparent and insist they sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Once it’s final, communication should be strategic and focus on the positive. If you’ve handled the sale proactively, you should have no trouble presenting it as good news – because it will be good news:
You’re finally retiring and found the right person to continue your legacy. Other life changes are taking you in new directions, and the new owner understands the team and mission. The business is so successful it has attracted an owner who can take it to the next level.
Start by informing the management team first. Provide talking points to help their teams navigate the transition. Then, have a full team meeting with both the seller and the buyer present. Celebrate the event, express gratitude to your staff—they’re the ones whose work attracted the perfect buyer—and highlight the opportunities that the new owner brings. For smaller companies, individual meetings with each employee can address personal concerns and questions.
One of the first questions will be whether the new owner will let people go or make other significant changes. This shouldn’t be a concern unless you’re a large company or corporation. Contrary to popular belief, employees are rarely let go in small to mid-sized business sales. Buyers typically want to retain the staff because they are integral to the business’s success. The goal is to maintain a stable and strong team post-sale.
Related: I Specialize in Exit Planning — You Need to Make These 5 Moves Before Selling Your Business
The seller usually trains the buyer in business operations. This transition period can last up to a year, depending on the complexity of the business. Employees can see this as an opportunity to demonstrate their value to the new owners.
New owners should avoid making significant changes for the first six months. Stability helps employees adjust to the new ownership without additional stress. Small, positive changes, like new benefits, can help build trust.
At least during the transition, an open-door policy is essential. It allows employees to voice concerns and feel heard, which builds trust and can prevent minor issues from escalating into major problems.
People are one of the top value drivers in a small-to-mid-sized organization, and this holds true in a sale. Building a solid team and demonstrating their value through proper documentation and reporting can significantly enhance your business’s value. Planning and managing the transition carefully ensures a smoother process and preserves the company’s integrity and performance.
Thoughtful preparation, strategic communication and professional guidance are the keys to successfully supporting staff when exiting a business.
Jessica Fialkovich
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Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.
Mastering new languages can be a game-changer for business leaders looking to expand their horizons and tap into global markets. With a Rosetta Stone Lifetime Subscription, you gain access to immersive lessons in up to 25 languages for just $189.99 (reg. $399).
Trusted by prestigious names like NASA and Calvin Klein, Rosetta Stone has been a leading source of language learning for decades.
Its immersive training method is designed to mirror the natural language learning process. Just as you learned your native language as a child, you’ll start by matching words with images and gradually move on to more complex interactive lessons. This approach helps solidify your understanding of vocabulary and grammar in a contextual, meaningful way.
One of Rosetta Stone’s standout features is its proprietary speech-recognition technology. This advanced system analyzes the words you say and provides instant feedback to help you improve your accent and pronunciation. Refining your speaking skills in real time will give you a more authentic and confident command of your new language.
Rosetta Stone’s progressive learning structure ensures that you build your skills systematically. You’ll begin with basic conversational topics like shopping, ordering food, and taking a taxi.
As you progress, you’ll move on to more intermediate skills, such as sharing opinions and current events. This structured approach allows you to gain practical language abilities that are relevant to everyday situations and business interactions.
With expert-taught, immersive lessons, cutting-edge speech recognition technology, and a progressive learning structure, Rosetta Stone provides a comprehensive and effective language learning experience for anyone looking to learn for any reason.
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Get a lifetime subscription to all 25 Rosetta Stone languages for just $189.99 (reg. $399).
StackSocial prices subject to change.
StackCommerce
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In business, everyone has an opinion. It can be easy for founders to get swayed by the latest trends, customer chatter, or investor pressure. However, for Christian Toetzke, founder and CEO of the global fitness racing craze HYROX, staying true to his original vision has been key to the company’s explosive growth.
“You have to be very convinced about your product and the DNA of a product. And you have to stick to the game plan,” he says.
Toetzke appears this week on an episode of One Day with Jon Bier to talk about the power of persistence, the importance of retaining company equity, and other lessons he’s learned since launching his brand in 2017.
By any metrics, HYROX is a success. Competitors run 1 km during the races, followed by one functional workout station, repeated eight times. In 2024, 260,000 people are expected to participate in 60 global events in 65 countries. Sponsors include Red Bull, Puma and Centr.
Still, Toetzke says he’s frequently asked to tinker with the formula.
“In the last five years, I don’t know how many people told me what we have to do.”
The number one request he gets is to change the workouts, which are always the same and include the farmer’s carry, rowing, SkiErg, wall balls, burpee broad jumps, sandbag lunges, and sled push and pull. But Toetzke says he’s studied the most successful sports in the world—marathons, triathlons, golf, tennis, Olympic sports—and notes they never change the fundamental rules of the competition.
Sports are “built around principles and rules and history and heritage,” he says.
Moreover, constantly changing the competition makes it impossible to compare the results of past competitors.
“In traditional sports, you have world records, and that’s one of the strongest marking tools in the world of sports,” he says. “If someone breaks a world record in a hundred-meter run, he’s immediately a global superstar.”
Related: How One Company Transformed a Medical Device into a Mass Market Phenomenon
By maintaining consistency, Toetzke has built a strong brand identity for HYROX. He wants to make it the “marathon of fitness” — a gold standard event that remains consistent across locations.
He admits they still have work to do on this front. As HYROX expands globally, he personally attends events worldwide to ensure they meet brand standards. “I see one million things they did differently in Melbourne and Mexico City. And that’s what we have to change.”
He wants HYROX to be a consistent, reliable experience for participants worldwide.
“To control the brand that is exploding globally, everyone has to follow the same game plan. Everyone has to follow the brand DNA. That’s a difficult task and not easy to do because with more and more people involved, everyone has own ideas how to do it.”
Related: 40 Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets to Staying Focused
This is not to say that HYROX isn’t in favor of innovation. Toetzke says that HYROX continually tries to evolve and improve without changing the fundamentals of the sport.
He uses the iPhone as an example. Since its inception, there have been 42 different models with different features, but the basic look has remained the same.
In that regard, Hyrox has made significant innovations in its technology, as well as practical innovations with its equipment. Recently, they introduced sensors so that counting during the wall ball competition is done digitally, taking the onus off the judges. Through their partnership with Centr, the Official Equipment Partner of HYROX, the competition kettlebells are now designed with a unique ‘octo’ shape to allow for better weight distribution and handling during the farmer’s carry.
In an era where many startups rush to secure venture capital, often at the cost of significant ownership dilution, Toetzke calls for a more measured approach.
“My biggest advice is if you really believe in your product, try to keep as many shares as possible as long as you can,” he says. “Don’t take the quick money; take the risk.”
He warns against being the “guy who drives the whole business, who’s running all the operations, while the investors are making all the money but do nothing for the business.”
Related: How to Fund Your Business With Venture Capital
Another factor in HYROX’s success has been its ability to build a strong, engaged community around the brand. Toetzke says that 60 to 80 percent of the HYROX community view fitness as integral to their social life.
“You’re not just going to a gym. It’s your group of people. It’s your community, and that is now happening in every gym around the world.”
Toetzke envisions gyms becoming modern-day clubhouses, similar to golf clubs, where members form strong social bonds.
You go together to a HYROX event where you compete together, and you represent your gym,” he says. “Suddenly it’s emotional, suddenly it’s become a community.”
Jon Bier
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Founders often dream of being sold in Costco — but last year, when Costco offered to carry my beverage brand, O2 Hydration, I said no.
It was a gut-wrenching decision. I love Costco and would love to be carried in Costco, but also I knew a terrible truth: My brand just wasn’t ready yet. And if you go big before you’re ready, retail can kill you.
If you have a product that you want to sell on shelves, here are three things you absolutely need in place before saying yes to a retailer.
1. Understand Your Market and Prove Demand
Before scaling as a CPG founder, you need a deep understanding of your market and must prove demand for your product.
For my brand O2, we started our retail efforts in a single region with a single retailer, Whole Foods. We expanded to 10 Whole Foods within a year, and then we expanded to a full region. This approach allowed us to understand what worked, and then double down on that.
For example, we found that product samples drew customers in, and they were hooked once they heard our story. That’s awesome insight, but it means we had to scale accordingly. By running a slow ground game, we built a loyal customer base and secured more shelf space — and we did it store by store, and region by region.
2. Secure the Necessary Resources to Replicate
O2 was flying off shelves at Whole Foods, so we thought we were ready for prime time and agreed to launch nationally with Kroger, Publix, and Sprouts the following year.
That’s when we learned our first hard lesson about retail.
When we expanded across the country, the lack of geographic concentration diluted our efforts. We initially had success by focusing on the Midwest, where our team could actively support and promote our products. But when we went national, we couldn’t hire and train people fast enough to replicate what we were doing on a national level, and we were promptly discontinued.
Pro tip: Having a concentrated geographic focus allows you to manage and support your retail partners more effectively. It also helps in building brand recognition and customer loyalty in specific regions before expanding further. Without the right resources, you can’t support the increased demand and logistics that come with larger retail placements. This can lead to out-of-stocks, poor customer experience, and ultimately, being dropped by retailers.
3. Have the Conviction to Say “Not Yet”
When a retailer offers to carry your brand, it can feel like winning the lottery — and founders are often afraid to say no. They worry that it means closing a door.
That’s not the case. It’s perfectly appropriate to say, “Not yet.”
Retailers want brands that are set up for success, and they’re relying upon the brands to know if they’re ready. Brands must ensure that they have the necessary resources in place, in the right regions, before agreeing to retail expansion — and they also need to know what tools can get your product off the shelf.
For example: How often do you promote your product, and at what price? What off-shelf merchandising do you need to be successful, and how will you obtain it?
Retailers will not do this for you. You’re Odysseus and they’re the sirens. They see something working, and they want to push it out as fast and as wide as possible, and they’ll dangle a seductive six-to-seven figure PO in front of you to get what they want. They assume you know what’s working, have figured out how to scale it, and have secured the resources needed to do so. So if you say yes, you better know all of that!
If you don’t, then say “not yet.” The retailer will respect you for it. You just saved everyone a lot of heartache.
Retail expansion can be incredibly seductive, but it’s essential to ensure that you’re genuinely ready before taking the leap. By understanding your market, securing necessary resources, and building geographic concentration, you can set your brand up for sustainable success. Remember, saying no when you’re not ready can save your business and turn future opportunities into even bigger wins when you are.
Now you understand why I turned down Costco. I know my market well; my product sells great in many regions, and in specialty retailers nationwide. I’m building toward that national, mass-market ground game — and when I finally say yes to Costco, it’ll be because I’m confident I can make it a win for us both.
Dave Colina
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Money can often be the barrier between being stuck where you are or breaking through to the next level. This includes having or not having a budget, using it properly, hidden revenue or even misaligned goals — all of which influence your growth trajectory. These four common secrets have helped my company elevate our clients to the next level.
The first blindspot we often notice with new clients is not having a clear reporting connection between your tools, like ads and a CRM like HubSpot, to see which channels drive the most significant return on investment (ROI). Do you know your best-performing channels? Or your best-performing piece of sales copy? What is the most opened document that leads to a closed deal?
And we’re not just talking about marketing and sales; this applies to many connected platforms — for example, the closed-loop revenue or your ERP systems. When things are not connected, they are disjointed and siloed. You end up flying blind. Without connecting your marketing tools with your revenue tools, and with that being CRMs, finance platforms, or ERPs, to name a few, there is a disconnect, and the arms and legs end up moving in different directions.
Here’s a simple example we see all the time: If you knew that one channel drove more deals by a 75% faster conversion rate, wouldn’t you invest more time and energy in that channel than one that only had a conversion rate of 10%? Many people don’t want to share the revenue numbers within the company, but all of that information informs the other departments; without sharing these revenue numbers, your money secret is keeping it in hidden silos.
Another financial blindspot is not investing in marketing. We have had prospects come in with no budget and no internal marketing team, but we want to grow by 150% and spend a total of $1,000. I wish achieving growth like this was possible, but unfortunately, it’s not. The old adage that you get what you pay for, or it takes money to make money, speaks the truth. Your investment goals should match your growth goals. The amount of money invested should be measured not just by short-term, quick wins but also by looking at long-term investment to growth.
You would never measure an HR department strictly on the number of hires. However, looking at the whole picture of longevity amongst many other important KPIs, You would not use an HR department for a few months. It is something that is constant and needs care and attention. Marketing is no different — if you strictly only measure marketing by the number of leads, you are missing out on the full picture. Marketing helps push leads through nurture campaigns, creates automation, leads scoring, builds new campaigns and tests, supports sales enablement activities and many other components. A buying cycle is rarely a straight line to click and buy unless we’re discussing Amazon.
That said, everyone has budgets, margins and bumper lanes they need to stay in. I am by no means saying throw your budget to the wind, but your goal should match your budget. If you have modest growth goals, be realistic about the budget needed to get there. Set incremental micro goals but stay the course for long-term growth.
Related: You Won’t Have a Strong Budget Until You Follow These 5 Tips
Another money secret that costs companies is spending without the data to back it. We had a company inquire about a new website, a full blow-up, new navigation, new content, new page layouts, migration onto a new CMS, a new theme and the works. They said they had a $75,000 budget for the whole project. In theory, it sounds great, right? Willing to invest? Check. Has a budget? Check. Know what they want the end result to be? Check. But when we asked them the next question, they looked at us like we were crazy, “Do you have data that backs the changes you are looking to make?” Are you running a tool like Hotjar to see real user data behind how these proposed changes will impact your existing inquiries and the only source the sales team was currently using for leads?
The answer was no. When the heat map was overlaid, do you know what happened? Well, they were looking to build that new navigation out and replace the old one — nearly 90% of the traffic was going to two pages of their site directly from the navigation, both of which they had originally wanted to remove. In this case, it wasn’t just about having the money but also about making sure the decisions you make with the budget are informed by real data: user data, sales data, marketing data and more. The more informed you can be by closing the loop on your data, the better your end result will be.
Related: Want to Be Better at Decision Making? Here are 5 Steps to Better Data-Driven Business Decisions
What is likely costing you the most is using old-school channels without the ability to measure. Companies have spent the last decade on traditional marketing channels and are switching to digital. The company’s historical growth has relied on things like trade shows, print, postcards and online magazines. We ask what the ROI you have seen by each channel is, and rarely can they share a specific revenue number and say it is for brand awareness. Some of the budgets can be over 50 to 100 thousand dollars spent on these traditional methods, but there is no ROI attached, yet they continue them.
When the pandemic happened, we saw a massive influx in businesses shifting from once only boots on the ground to digital. The lockdown changed everything; there were no more trade shows, no more door knocking and no one picking up their mail or faxes daily. It made traditional selling channels challenging and obsolete and forced a new level of openness to try new ways to get the job done. In the example of running online magazine ads there are lots of ways to capture them, we can use UTM tracking, referral analysis or create a custom landing page for the offer and capture the leads directly. Without running them to a landing page or form, you rely only on the online publication for leads and analytics. We’ve had people show a list of just names, no emails to follow up with, or only show a random number of visitors to the page, not a single name. It’s important to know what they will provide for reporting and tracking when you publish or use traditional channels. The rule of thumb is to use connections and tools that leverage old-school methods into technology and not blindly spend on channels that cannot be measured.
Stop wasting time, energy and revenue on these blind spots. They have easy solutions, so you can avoid them and focus on growing your business!
Jennelle McGrath
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Disability Awareness Month is not just about acknowledging the hardships that come with having a disability — it’s also about recognizing the work of disabled people and how we can make physical spaces, policies and practices more accessible in the workplace.
I’ve lived with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, but I’ve never let it affect my corporate position for over two decades, and I’ve seen firsthand what true inclusion can do for an organization.
Related: How to Revolutionize Your Organization Through the Power of Inclusive Leadership
Here are three meaningful ways companies can observe Disability Awareness Month and make lasting changes:
Team-building training and workshops are the best ways to celebrate Disability Awareness Month. Workshops can dispel myths and prejudices about people with disabilities and educate employees on appropriate etiquette and awareness when discussing and working with people with disabilities. This includes appropriate and inappropriate behavior and language, accessibility considerations and more. Workshops and training sessions can serve as the foundation for creating an inviting environment that can promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace.
Employees will have a better understanding of disabilities, which can lead to more sympathetic and supportive work policies and better accommodation practices and policies within the workplace.
In honor of Disability Awareness Month, take a closer look at the current accessibility and accommodation practices within your company. Ensuring that your working environment, from the physical perspective, is universally accessible to everyone gives a foundation for creating an inclusive environment. Accommodation policies are intended to provide a barrier-free environment that allows people with disabilities to access employment, public services and facilities as independently as possible.
Accessible workplaces are not just about responding to minimum legal requirements; they ensure all employees can perform to the best of their abilities without unnecessary barriers.
Employers who make their places of work accessible to all consider this a good inclusiveness policy. Such actions would benefit not only the specified employees with disabilities but also all employees, as diversity is an aspect of mutual respect towards employees and results in higher morale and productivity.
Related: How to Embrace People With Disabilities In Your Business: A Disability Advocate Explains
Another effective strategy for observing Disability Awareness Month is to celebrate employees with disabilities. Recognition and appreciation can be given in various ways, including honors, awards and talent performance.
Recognition enlightens and accentuates a sense of worth that comes with having a disability among employees.
Celebrating and recognizing the contributions of all employees boosts their morale and makes them feel like part of the team. It also sets an excellent opportunity to appreciate all forms of diversity in the workplace.
Disability Awareness Month affords companies the perfect avenue to increase inclusivity and support for their employees with various disability conditions. Ways to achieve this would be through educational workshops, raising office accessibility, and recognizing contributions by people with disabilities.
These would not only benefit the employees with disabilities but also truly enhance the organizational culture by making it more robust and much more cohesive. Embracing all these makes for real change in life, whereby each employee feels valued and can contribute at their best. I, being one who has gone through the challenges and triumphs of being in the corporate world while disabled, can attest to what a tremendous difference genuine inclusion makes.
Let this month not just be about awareness but about concretizing actions that will make life different for employees with disabilities. Together, we can build workplaces where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
Jose Flores
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Growing a startup is both an exciting and challenging journey. However, the path to scaling your business is often fraught with competition, limited resources and the constant need to innovate.
When I founded ButterflyMX in 2014, it felt like we were building a plane while trying to take off. Fortunately, with the right growth marketing strategies, we’ve navigated these hurdles and carved a thriving path forward for our startup. Here are ten effective growth marketing hacks and strategies that can help you achieve the same.
Related: 6 Innovative Marketing Strategies Designed for Startups
Content is king, and in the startup world, it’s the key to reaching your audience. By creating valuable, informative and engaging content, you can establish your startup as an authority in your industry. This builds trust with your audience while driving organic traffic to your website.
To leverage content effectively, you can start a blog, publish whitepapers, create how-to videos and seek out guest blogging opportunities. The key is combining consistency with quality. So, make sure your content addresses the pain points of your target audience and offers practical solutions.
SEO is a powerful tool for driving long-term, sustainable traffic. By optimizing your website for search engines, you can improve visibility and attract more visitors. So, conduct keyword research to understand what your potential customers are searching for.
Moreover, optimizing your website’s on-page elements — such as meta tags, headers and content — will ensure your site is mobile-friendly and fast. Building backlinks from reputable sources can also significantly boost your search engine rankings.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X offer robust advertising tools that help you reach a highly targeted audience. With detailed targeting options, you can tailor your ads based on demographics, interests and behaviors.
Experiment with different ad formats, such as carousel ads, video ads and sponsored posts, to see what resonates best with your audience. Moreover, regularly monitor and optimize your campaigns for better performance.
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to nurture leads and convert them into long-term customers. Build an email list by offering valuable resources and freebies, such as eBooks, free guides or exclusive content, in exchange for email addresses.
Segment your list based on user behavior and preferences, and send personalized, relevant emails that offer value. Further, implementing automated email sequences, such as a welcome series or abandoned cart reminders, into your workflow can help you engage with your audience at the right time.
Related: 4 Growth Marketing Strategies That All Startups Should Implement
Creating a sense of urgency can significantly boost your conversion rates. Time-sensitive promotions and contests are a great way to generate excitement and drive sales for your growing business.
Offer limited-time discounts, flash sales or special deals to encourage immediate action. Running contests and giveaways on social media also drives engagement and expands your reach. Make sure to promote these events throughout all your marketing channels to maximize visibility.
Influencer marketing can be a powerful strategy for reaching new audiences and building credibility. Partnering helps you reach new prospects and generates high-quality leads for your business while getting your brand noticed.
Identify influencers in your niche who have a strong following and align with your brand values. Collaborate with them to promote your products or services through sponsored posts, product reviews or social media takeovers. What’s more, the authenticity and trust that influencers have with their audience can translate into increased brand awareness and conversions for your startup.
Word-of-mouth is one of the most effective forms of marketing. Encourage your existing customers to refer friends and family by offering incentives, such as discounts or freebies.
A well-designed referral program can turn your customers into brand advocates, helping you acquire new customers at a lower cost. With this in mind, make it easy for customers to refer others by providing them with shareable links or social media assets.
Acquiring new customers is important, but retaining them is even more crucial for sustaining growth. Focus on delivering exceptional customer service and creating a memorable customer experience.
Use tools like CRM systems to track customer interactions and identify opportunities for upselling or cross-selling. And don’t forget to regularly engage with your customers through newsletters, personalized offers and loyalty programs to keep them coming back.
Data-driven decision-making is essential for optimizing your growth marketing efforts. Use analytics tools, such as Google Analytics or social media insights, to track the performance of your campaigns.
A/B testing allows you to experiment with different elements of your marketing, such as email subject lines, ad creatives or landing page designs, to see what works best. So, leverage AI to analyze this data and refine your strategies based on proven results.
Video content empowers you to show your audience what your brand offers in a way that is compelling and visual, and it effectively communicates your brand message. So, use video marketing to showcase your products, share customer testimonials or provide educational content.
Platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok offer plenty of opportunities to engage with your audience. Plus, live videos and webinars can also be powerful tools for building a community and interacting with your audience in real time.
Related: 4 Marketing Strategies Every Startup Can Afford
Growing a startup requires a strategic approach and a willingness to experiment with different marketing tactics. By leveraging these growth marketing hacks and strategies, you can increase your visibility, attract more customers and drive sustainable growth for your business.
Remember: The key to success is through continuous learning and the flexibility to adapt.
With persistence and the right strategies, your startup can achieve remarkable success. Stay updated with the latest trends, analyze your performance, and be ready to pivot when necessary.
Cyrus Claffey
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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
True story: Recently, my daughter was at a major brand car dealership with her boyfriend, intending to purchase a pre-owned car. Note I made up the numbers for the sake of my daughter’s financial privacy, but the takeaways are still the same.
The dealership asked for, let’s say, $26,000 “all in” for the car, but my daughter had already decided that $20,000 was the most she would pay. There was a lot of ground to cover to actually make a deal happen. After some discussion, the salesperson did his best, dropping the price to $25,000. But that still left a big gap, so he told her, “Let me go check with my manager and see if he has any ideas.”
After five minutes, the salesperson and his manager entered the room together. The manager explained that at $25,000, this was a great price; it was already well below their MSRP, and the deal was “very thin” as it was for him. He then used the famous line, “Okay, here’s what I’m going to do to get you into this car today.” The manager pulled out a piece of paper with revised numbers that showed his price now at $23,995. He explained to my daughter that this was the absolute best possible price. He was “all in;” this was his “best offer,” and he told her to take it or leave it. For the grand finale — keeping in mind that this is a 100% true story — the manager took out a big red ink stamp and smacked it down on the paper. The stamp read “FINAL” in bold red ink. $23,995. FINAL.
My daughter responded, “Thanks, but I’m sorry; it looks like it’s not going to work out.” Without hesitation, he immediately blurted out, “How about $22,500?”
When my daughter told me the story, I had a wonderful laugh. After the big show, the manager held his price for a full six seconds. And the idea of the red final stamp just made the story even better. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized there’s actually quite a lot to unpack here regarding sales tactics, psychology and effectiveness.
Related: 3 Unconventional Sales Tactics That Will Close More Deals
I’m not in the car business, and I’ve never sold cars, but I can see some familiar sales tactics (and mistakes) playing out here:
All this went down after my daughter had spent hours on the lot. It was getting late in the day on a Saturday, and the manager knew she was hoping to get it done. At some level, the manager was wearing her down and playing out the clock, playing the “waiting game.” It didn’t work in this case, but often, this notion of using time as a weapon can be very effective. Utilizing time as a strategic element in the negotiation process can be effective, but it must be used carefully and respectfully. Pushing too hard on time constraints can backfire.
When the salesperson reached his personal negotiation line or felt he would lose her, he brought in his manager. In addition to adding some time to the clock, this step created a new opportunity for a new dynamic. The dealership never really wants a potential buyer to walk out the door, so if one person doesn’t get the job done, it’s always worth trying someone else. Involving a manager or company administrator in the negotiation process can create new dynamics and opportunities for closing a deal.
Although I laughed hysterically when I heard about the red stamp, I soon realized it was actually a smart move. Once upon a time, I’m guessing some sales and marketing people sat in a room, and someone said, “I have an idea — let’s make a red stamp that says final and use that during negotiations.” Everyone probably laughed, and they would have said, “No, I’m serious!” And then everyone thought about it and agreed, as funny of an idea as it was, it actually made sense. It’s one thing to tell someone something verbally, but when it’s “official” and in red ink on paper, it’s human nature to believe it and take it as indisputable. Using psychological sales tactics to create a Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) effect, such as a “Final Offer” stamp, can be effective in conveying seriousness and finality, but you have to honor your word, or you will likely lose credibility.
All the tactics I outlined above were smart, but here’s where I think the dealership dropped the ball:
The manager came in cold, and rather than take some time (again, time is on their side) to talk about the value, create some alignment, and build some rapport, he went straight for the kill. That tactic may work, but I felt it was too aggressive. He would have been better off discussing the pain points and goals concerning the product, coming up with some extra incentives, etc. Understanding the customer’s needs, discussing the product’s value and building rapport and trust can be crucial in successful sales.
Related: How to Master Your Sales Success — Why Every Answer and Rejection Matters
The manager decided to go for the close in a fairly aggressive way. In some cases, that tactic makes sense. But he played it all wrong with the numbers. He knew they were a full $5,000 or 20% off, and he decided to put it all on the line at $23,995. Obviously, given how fast he dropped another thousand, he had plenty more room. If he was going for the hard close and “FINAL” offer, he should have made it more compelling. By putting on the big show and then immediately dropping his price, he completely lost credibility and lowered the odds of closing. In this case, he lost my daughter’s trust and the sale. In negotiation, it’s important to understand the other party’s budget and limits before making an offer. Being aware of their constraints will increase the likelihood of closing a deal.
If you offer something of value at a good price and tell them it’s “final” (which I personally don’t recommend as a sales tactic), then stand by it and mean it. Your word has to mean something. Once he realized his “final” price was not going to work, rather than lower it, he could have thrown in some additional valuable incentive, perhaps some amount of free service or some kind of special financing. If a “final offer” is presented, standing by it as your final word is essential. If adjustments are needed, they should include additional incentives or value to maintain trust and credibility.
Sales is an art, no doubt about that. A great salesperson builds a relationship, asks questions and listens, understands the client’s pain points, is honest and transparent, and operates with integrity. Of course, strategies, techniques, incentives, and a lot of human emotion and psychology are at play, but all of them can happen successfully without losing your credibility.
So, the overall moral of my story? Choose wisely before using the big red stamp!
Jason Foodman
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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
It’s currently summer, so most people are thinking about attending barbecues and buying fireworks — not planning their holiday shopping season. However, if you run a brick-and-mortar store or ecommerce business, this is the best time to begin thinking about the holiday inventory.
Successful planning in June and July will set you up for profitability in November, December and January. Here are six ways you can successfully plan for increased inventory demand during the holiday season.
Related: July Is Just Early Enough to Start Planning for Holiday Selling
The holiday season is the most profitable sales period for most retailers. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), holiday sales exceeded $964 billion in 2023, a 3.8% increase from the previous year.
So start by coming up with a timeline of key dates when you can anticipate increased sales and demand. These dates most likely include:
Think about the shipping cut-off dates for each of these holidays, and add them to your calendar. That way, you can let customers know the last days to receive standard and expedited shipping on their orders.
Next, you’ll forecast the types and amount of inventory you’ll need for the holiday season. Having enough inventory on hand to meet customer demand will ensure you don’t lose out on business to competitors. It will also help you avoid overstocking items you don’t need.
The best way to estimate holiday demand is by looking at previous sales data and taking note of customers’ shopping patterns. Of course, shopping habits can change slightly from year to year, so you also want to look at industry trends. For example, you can see what your competitors are doing and how they’re preparing for the holidays. And if you have an NRF membership, you’ll receive insights into consumer and retail trends.
Once you’ve done adequate research, you can begin planning your holiday inventory. You can also start to think about when you should begin marketing and how much staff you’ll need to have on hand to manage the increased demand.
An inventory audit involves regularly reviewing your inventory for accuracy. During an inventory audit, you’ll verify that your physical inventory matches what you’ve recorded in your financial records. An inventory audit can also help you spot inefficiencies in your supply chain.
To perform an inventory audit, you’ll start by organizing your inventory to reduce the odds of miscounting items. From there, you’ll begin physically counting and recording each item into your inventory management software.
Once the audit is complete, you’ll reconcile the count with your inventory records. If there are any discrepancies, you can investigate where they came from. You can also begin developing a plan to reduce discrepancies in the future.
Related: You Should Be Planning Now for Holiday Sales — Here’s How
Once you know how much inventory you’ll need to meet the holiday demand, you should begin reaching out to your suppliers. Checking in early with your suppliers will ensure you’re on the same page and you’re not caught off-guard by changes to their order times or pricing.
It’s also a good idea to ask if any of your suppliers offer pre-sale discounts or promotional pricing. It never hurts to ask, and some may be willing to give you a discount for large orders.
As you begin planning for your holiday inventory, one of the biggest issues is how you’re going to pay for everything. Many small businesses don’t have the cash flow to pay for a large inventory order, shipping supplies and the unexpected costs that come along with it.
If you find yourself in this place, financing may be a good solution. Inventory financing is a one-time loan or ongoing line of credit you can use to purchase inventory for your business. The inventory purchased is used as collateral for the loan.
Financing can help you maintain consistent cash flow during seasonal fluctuations in your business. It will also give you the flexibility to respond to increased customer demand. If you’re interested in exploring your financing options, you should begin looking into this now so you’ll be well prepared come fall.
Many customers begin their holiday shopping in September and October out of concern over product shortages and slow shipping times. So you want to place your inventory orders as soon as possible so you can capture those early shoppers.
However, it’s impossible to forecast exactly how much inventory you’ll need, and you’re bound to run out of items. So you also want to have a plan for how you can quickly replenish out-of-stock items. For example, a good inventory management system will alert you when you’re running low on certain items and need to re-order.
Related: Keep Calm and Holiday On: How to Plan for the Holidays Year-Round
Joseph Camberato
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Global expansion is a huge move for your business that can complicate matters when you want to increase the size of your team. Hiring qualified employees from abroad can be complicated. Many things have to be considered, including new rules or regulations in different countries that need to be followed and cultural differences that may also arise.
In the ever-changing global business environment, the use of appropriate technologies and strategies can set apart successful firms from average or struggling ones.
In light of this, how do you then put together an amazing global team? Through my own experience, I’ve discovered 5 key strategies that can set you and your team up for success.
If you establish an inclusive and efficient system culture across your globally expanding enterprise, then performance will increase immediately. However, one should also bear in mind that cultural disparities exist among team members from diverse backgrounds. You will need to create a workplace that respects and recognizes each person’s culture while also fostering an understanding of various traditions and opinions.
There’s a need for companies to consider various holidays people celebrate in different countries so as not to be seen as ignorant or insensitive by their own employees who come from other places. Common concerns revolve around non-verbal communication like gestures at work, dress codes in offices and how we relate with one another socially . One way out is by employing experts who specialize in diversity issues across cultures, such as customs or traditions, to ensure a safe and respectful work culture.
If you are expanding your business globally, it may really help to hire an Employment of Record (EOR) service provider. An Employment of Record legally employs your team members in their local country on your behalf. It enables you to access the best skills from anywhere around the world without necessarily having to go through the lengthy procedure of first establishing foreign legal entities yourself.
When you partner with a good EOR, you get a bunch of sweet benefits:
Lean on EOR specialists so you can focus less on annoying HR logistics and more on finding superstar talent around the world.
To succeed globally, you need awesome managers across the board. That’s why strategy number three is to invest heavily in management training.
Make sure your managers are pros at leading global teams. A quality manager in a distributed team excels at nurturing career growth, making the most of their unique talents, ensuring smooth conflict resolution, and guiding through change and uncertainty. They build adaptability and psychological safety, encouraging open communication.
Additionally, the ability to encourage and inspire individuals as a manager will create an environment in which every team member feels welcomed and encouraged. Each one’s unique strengths can be recognized and leveraged for the success and cohesion of the team.
In fact, managers account for 70% of the variability in team engagement. Well-trained managers unite your global workforce and amplify your culture anywhere.
When your team is distributed worldwide, success depends a ton on trusting relationships. That’s why strategy number four is to focus on building trust and connections, even from afar.
Building trust in a global team requires participation in a variety of activities that promote bonding and camaraderie. Icebreaker games during meetings and setting up Slack channels for casual talk all help team members bond. Hosting virtual coffee talks or happy hours provides for socialization outside of work, whereas annual in-person offsite gatherings provide valuable face-to-face interactions.
Furthermore, it is critical to tailor communication techniques to each direct report, publicly acknowledge wins and progress, and listen deeply to understand different perspectives. These actions make team members feel appreciated, heard, and connected, ultimately building trust within the team.
When managers invest in relationships, their teams perform better. Trust accelerates team cohesion, collaboration and results.
Related: 10 Simple Steps to Build an Exceptional and Efficient Team
When organizing a clear communication protocol, time zone differences could become a major, even impactful, issue. Face-to-face meetings between team members may be nearly impossible when they work from different areas of the world. That’s where video conferences can ensure fast and efficient dialogue.
A number of video conferencing tools recently achieved global use as remote work grew in popularity. Tools like Zoom and Google Meet help businesses hold on-the-spot presentations, webinars, and team meetings with accurate, real-time visuals. They also give team managers the ability to arrange one-on-one check-in sessions with employees, allowing them to discuss workload and other relevant concerns.
Expanding your business globally does not always mean success. However, you can achieve this goal through careful planning, effective communication, and an all-inclusive corporate culture. Above all, using local collaborators in the form of an Employer of Record exponentially increases the chances of building a winning team.
Pritom Das
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We live in a corporate world driven by data. Why, then, do 85% of business leaders report feeling uneasy about the choices they’ve made recently based on cold, hard facts? It’s because data only tells half the story, which is where intuition fits in.
Intuition fills in the gaps and picks up where data leaves off. Have you ever “felt” someone staring at the back of your head? How did you know the person was there? It wasn’t data. It was intuition. You have about 120 billion neurons in the “first brain” within your skull and 100 million neurons in your “second brain” (aka, your gut). If you’re only focused on one of those brains, you’re apt to make poorly informed decisions.
For those just starting out on their entrepreneurial journeys, trusting your “gut” or intuition can feel daunting. You’re often bombarded with a flood of information, conflicting advice and new experiences. In this whirlwind, leaning on your gut might feel like navigating without a map. However, developing this trust in your intuition is crucial. It’s about honing an inner compass that guides you through decisions when clear-cut answers might not be apparent. Over time, as you gain more experience and learn from both successes and failures, what once felt like an overwhelming reliance on an unknown force will start to feel more like a trusted ally in your decision-making process.
I don’t mean to suggest that data isn’t important. It is. However, trusting your gut is just as important. Your gut can speak volumes. You just have to learn how to marry it with data to drive an informed conclusion. If you’re new to allowing intuition into your decision-making process, follow these steps:
Related: 4 Reasons Intuition Is an Essential Leadership Skill
When you have a problem to solve, don’t just pore over spreadsheets and charts. Look for innovation elsewhere.
Once, I was part of a group asked to increase the penetration of the Hispanic marketplace at Disney. To find ideas in unusual places, our group spent a day with three different types of people: a “weird,” a “deep” and a “normal” (for context, a “weird” is someone who has a tangential relationship to your challenge but is from a different industry. A “deep” is someone who works in your industry but doesn’t work for you. A “normal” is someone within your industry and company sphere).
My “weird” was a Hispanic car dealer. He and I drove a car to a Hispanic family so they could test it out. The car dealer noted to me that there would be more than 20 people in the kitchen when we arrived. He was right. I considered this a clue, so I wrote it down. Another clue happened when the abuela casually mentioned: “When there’s a fiesta, we fiesta; when there isn’t one, we make one.” Her words were met by laughter, and the laughter kept coming as more of the family loaded into the car.
Next up was my “deep,” a theme park industry travel agent who catered to Hispanic families. I watched as she talked with a couple about a 50th wedding anniversary cruise. All they cared about was having five tables of 10 people together for dinner on the cruise ship. They didn’t care about the ports or the cruise line. Another clue.
Finally, I met up with a “normal.” This was a Hispanic woman celebrating her son’s first birthday. Tons of friends and family members were there, but she lamented that the party wasn’t complete because her brother was missing. Now, the clues came together: Hispanic families wanted a place where they could gather together in large numbers. Therefore, if we could create a series of packages to meet that need, we could better attract and serve the Hispanic market.
Our experience of reaching out in unusual places resulted in a bucketload of ideas. Those ideas couldn’t have seen the light of day without being prompted by the intuition that our data wasn’t telling us everything we wanted to know.
Related: Study the Data But Then Trust Your Gut
It’s one thing to believe in the power of intuition. It’s another thing to embrace it wholeheartedly at work. So, how can you cultivate it in yourself and those around you? Start by integrating it into your discussions, especially during meetings or planning sessions. While it’s important to respect and understand data, also open the door to conversations focused on the human element of whatever you’re trying to figure out.
Listening is a critical aspect of these intuitive-based discussions. Ask open-ended questions to push people to provide more information that feeds into your intuition. And don’t just listen to what they’re saying; observe their body language and how they’re interacting with the world around them. Something invaluable I learned early in my career at Disney was to speak last. Listen to everyone in the room so you can gain the insights needed to more intuitively contribute to the conversation. Avoid overthinking it; instead, let your intuitive voice speak to you and guide you.
Remember: Your competitors probably have a lot of the same data as you. However, they don’t have your and your team’s unique, intuition-derived insights. By trusting these insights, you can uncover emotional connections and consumer needs that aren’t evident in the data alone, giving you a competitive edge. Invite couples into the conversation when you’re seeking these intuitive nuggets. Often, couples will police each other’s responses, ensuring authenticity as one partner corrects the other if they stray from the truth. This dynamic allows you to glean deeper information than you might from individuals alone.
Furthermore, take the opportunity to step out of your usual office or focus group settings and visit the living spaces of your consumers. Observing them in their natural surroundings can reveal additional intuitive insights, as you’ll notice things in their environment that either confirm or challenge your preliminary thoughts. This approach not only enriches your understanding but also strengthens the human element in your research, providing a robust foundation for making more empathetic and consumer-focused decisions.
Related: How to Hone and Harness Intuition in Your Career and Business
For entrepreneurs, mastering the balance between data-driven insights and intuitive thinking is a powerful stepping stone toward effective decision-making. While data provides a solid foundation, embracing your intuition adds a critical dimension, allowing you to see beyond the numbers and make connections that might otherwise go unnoticed. I encourage you to trust your gut feelings, as they are invaluable in navigating complex situations where data alone may not provide all the answers. As you continue to grow your business, combining these skills will not only boost your confidence but also distinguish your approach, helping you craft innovative solutions and forge meaningful connections.
Duncan Wardle
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