Pro Tips for Hitting the Pricing Nail on the Head

Robert W. Bly

Contributor

In The Marketing Plan Handbook, author Robert W. Bly explains how you can develop big-picture marketing plans for pennies on the dollar with his 12-step marketing plan. In this edited excerpt, Bly outlines the five factors you need to take into account when pricing your product or service.
What should you charge for your product? Are you looking to create a low-priced item you can sell as a loss leader to bring in new custom­ers? Or are you looking to create a high-priced back-end product to sell to your existing customers?
To me, it’s more rewarding to command a higher price, charge premium fees, and get paid very, very well for what you sell. Especially if you're in a service business, competing on price means you work harder to earn less. Who wants that?
But in a competitive world where many other businesses seemingly offer products and services similar to yours, how do you command a premium price? There are five factors you can control or exploit to enable you to charge a much higher price than your competitors in virtually any field -- and have more customers than you can handle waiting in line, cash in hand, to pay it.
The first factor is supply and demand. According to simple economics, the greater the demand for something and the more limited the supply, the more the seller can charge and get paid for it. Since you’re not OPEC, you probably can’t control the supply of your product or service, so what you have to do is create an overwhelming demand for you, your product, or your service. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to position yourself as the pre-eminent expert or authority in your field. If people view you as the guru in property taxes, hazardous waste cleanup, or whatever your field is, they'll come to you first, knocking each other over to hire you instead of your lesser-known competitors.
The second factor you can control is your market niche. As a rule of thumb, the narrower your market niche, the more you can charge. Specialists can always charge more than generalists. If you're a marketing consultant handling any small business clients you can get, you have lots of competition and great difficulty commanding a premium fee. On the other hand, if you specialize in the marketing of accounting practices, accountants will pay a premium to get your advice because it applies to their own situation.
The third factor you can control is value. If your competitors all sell audiobooks with six CDs for $79, and you want to charge $300 for six CDs on similar topics, why should the buyer pay it? You could include a CD with related software programs (e.g., if the album is about time management, the CD could contain a personal day planner). The material cost is only a dollar or so per CD, but the perceived value of software is easily $100 or more, enabling you to charge a premium price for your package. And that’s the trick: to add extras that have high-perceived value but don’t cost you much.
In addition to high-perceived value, look for premiums that are unique. The Sovereign Society, a newsletter on offshore investing, had great success offering new subscribers an unusual premium: their own Swiss bank account.
The fourth factor you can control is ROI. If you design your product or service so it generates a large ROI that's easy to see and measure, it'll be much easier to sell at the price you want to get. For example, $200 for a high-tech thermostat may seem like a lot of money, but not if the manufacturer can prove that installing the thermostat will save the homeowner $300 to $1,000 a year in heating and air conditioning costs.
The fifth factor you can control is customers’ concern about whether they'll be satisfied with your product. You can control this by offering a money-back guarantee. Guarantees overcome sales resistance. If you guarantee customers will be happy and you'll refund their money if they're not, they'll be more willing to pay your price, no matter what it is.
The best guarantees are:

• Fair
• Generous
• Long-term
• Unconditional

Most people won’t take unfair advantage of your guarantee. If you sell a quality product, accurately described in your marketing, at a price that’s fair in relationship to its value, your return rate will be low -- probably less than 5 percent.
That still means 1 in 20 will ask for a refund. Give them back their money promptly and with good cheer. Few things will cause more customer dissatisfaction and ruin your reputation faster than being difficult, adversarial, and uncooperative when people believe what you said in your guarantee and take you up on it. Don’t get angry with these folks. Returning the product is their right -- and part of your cost of doing business.
And there you have it. Increase demand for your product or service, target a vertical market niche, add value, generate a good ROI, and guarantee satisfaction, and customers will gladly pay your price, even if it’s 50 to100 percent or more above what your competitors charge.

culled from:entrepreneur.com

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Why Sending a Deck to an Investor Before a First Meeting Is a Bad Idea

Alex Iskold

Contributor

Here's a typical exchange between a founder and an investor:
Founder: Hi! Would LOVE to meet you and talk to you about what we are doing.
Investor: Do you have a deck?
Founder: Sure, here it is. When can we meet?
Then, after about a week or two:
Investor: Sorry, doesn't look like I could help. (Or even worse: I am pretty busy now, let's reconnect in a month.)
So why do investors ask for decks? To avoid a meeting. Most founders don't get strong introductions. They just get any introduction they can get. Investors ask for decks to get an idea if the business is a fit for them. But that's not quite true. Investors are really just looking for the team slide and the traction slide. They want to know if the team has experience in the space, and what progress they have made.
Investors will make a decision to pass on your business based on your deck. Investors pass immediately if the team doesn't have relevant experience and there is no traction. Once they decide to pass, it will be difficult to get another look.
Your business isn't your deck. You are not your deck. Don't let the deck represent you.
This is as simple as I can put it.
Once an investor gets the deck, there is little urgency to act. It can sit in his or her inbox for days. It feels like work to look through.
All decks are different. Some are really long and not standard. Investors hate those. They flip through a slide or two and stop. I know that because I often struggle to get through the decks I get.
Then there is the danger that if you liberally send out your decks, you will quickly find that your competitors have it.
But, you say, everyone asks to send the deck. How could I possibly say no? What do I do?
To solve a problem, let's understand its cause. The cause is that you are actually too early, don't have traction, don't necessarily have background in the space, are coming to the investor via a not-so-warm introduction and asking for a lot of time.
Flip this on its head. Don't go after investors until you have traction. Get a warm intro from someone who knows you and can attest to your progress and who knows the investor. Find a person who the investor actually trusts and respects -- most likely another founder he or she backed or a person he or she worked closely with in the past.
Instead of the deck, send a two-paragraph introduction. Be sure to include progress on your traction thus far, how you are different from competitors and why you are working on this business.
Ask to get feedback via a 15-minute Google Hangout session. This way, you can still make a connection with the investor, because in the worst case you will get a call, and in the best case the investor will actually be impressed and ask you to come in for a meeting.
Two well-written paragraphs should be easy enough for the investor to decide if it makes sense to engage with you. Those two paragraphs are easier to understand than a deck. You are saving the investor a lot of time. You are also making sure your deck is not parading around the Internet.
If you want to up your game, shoot 60 seconds (no longer) of video to give the investor more background on you and the business. I love seeing these in Techstars applications. Video is way better than the deck. The investors can actually tell a little bit about you as a person. Awesome video increases the chance of investors saying yes to a meeting.
While sending the deck before the meeting is generally a bad idea, you do need a deck, and it needs to be awesome. You will use the deck when formally raising money from venture-capital firms. Typically you will need the deck to walk investors through your business during the second and the third meeting.


culled from:entrepreneur.com

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5 Tips to Prepare You and Your Business for the Holidays

by Joshua Sophy

The holiday season often brings the busiest time of the year for small businesses and increasing demands from the owners’ family and friends.
By being well prepared, owners and their families increase their chances for a happy holiday season — and a happy and prosperous new year.

Staying Ahead of the Competition

Let’s face it. Yours isn’t the only business out there that’s hoping to take advantage of the busy holiday season. So it’s important to stay a step ahead of the competition.
These five tips will help prepare you and your business for the holidays.

1. Track Inventory

A lot of a business’s success this holiday season will depend on what it’s able to offer its customers when they want it. That starts with inventory.
By looking at last year’s sales, owners can gauge the products that resonated best with customers — and what didn’t do as well. Remember, it can be just as bad to order too much of a product as it is to run out of product that’s in high demand. Having shelves stocked with inventory that’s not moving is a loss.
If sales figures from last year don’t provide much help with purchasing inventory this year, put a plan in place to track sales this time around. This will not only help in the current holiday season, but also better prepare for planning in the year to come.

2. Minimize Back Office Work

High volume sales and extended hours are likely to keep owners from managing the back end of their business in a timely manner. It’s the customer first, everything else later.
Small businesses today should be taking advantage of the myriad technological advancements that ease the burden of handling tasks like accounting, billing, collecting customer data and presenting and automating business transactions.
“It’s important that small business owners understand how to use technology to help manage the needs of their business,” said Laura Miller, president of Ink app from Chase. “These technologies can quickly and easily provide small business owners with more time and flexibility to focus on growing and maintaining the business.”

3. Stay On Top of Sales and Expenses

During this time of the year, things tend to move at a more frenetic pace, which can make it more difficult to stay up-to-the-minute on the daily business tasks. This also means spending more time than usual trying to reconcile checks and balances when you do finally get to it.
This is where automation and technology become a small business owner’s best friends. A product like the Ink app from Chase (available to Ink app from Chase) gives instant notifications of sales and purchases made whenever the card is used.
“It’s important that business owners have the proper tools in place to help support the ongoing needs of their business, since slowing down to tackle these is the last thing today’s small business owners have the time to do,” Miller said.
And for those unexpected, last-minute expenses, the Ink app allows users to snap photos of receipts so they can be tracked by accounting software and not accidentally thrown in the trash or lost amid the shuffle.

4. Develop a Marketing Strategy

It’s important for businesses to stand out among the endless marketing gimmicks and promotions used to entice customers. Instead, small businesses should focus on offering holiday promotions specific to their products and services. Once owners have special loyalty offers in place, they need to figure out how to get them in front of potential customers. Here are a few options.

• Email marketing still proves to be the most effective with the highest conversion rate for owners with a robust email list.

• Social media is also an obvious first step. Initial promotion is free and there are paid options to promote products and services on these sites. Companies may also want to consider ad campaigns through major search engines like Bing and Google. And brick-and-mortar shops should consider offering local in-store promotions.

• Gather customer data to keep them aware of future promotions and offerings. Consider a promotion that offers a discount in exchange for an email address to build an email list and repeat customer base.

5. Maintain Momentum

Preparation for the holiday season hopefully leads to less clean up after it ends. There should be no penny unaccounted for at the end of the season. Organization, proper tracking and planned strategies prepared in advance are important to a successful and fruitful holiday season.
Chase for Business has many products and services that can help prepare you and your small business for the holidays to compete successfully.


culled from:smallbiztrends.com

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You Made It Yourself: Now What? 29 Places to Sell Your Handmade Creations

by TJ McCue

The word “handmade” evokes feelings of warmth, of comfort, of craftsmanship. Earlier this summer, I mentioned some cool niche sites serving the artisan community in my 19 new additions to a large ecommerce list.  Amazon and eBay are certainly well known marketplaces among those looking to sell just about anything, but niche marketplaces and communities are growing quickly. These 29 Marketplaces offer a way to buy and sell handmade goods.
Etsy is probably one of the best-known marketplaces for artisans and craftpeople of all types. You’ll find new and vintage goods on Etsy. You will find curated lists by category or topic as well as a directory of local shops in your area. They have an excellent blog with deeper topics, such as The Value of Home Economics and other topics you might not expect to find in an online marketplace.
ArtFire is a well-known indie marketplace with a great community feel to it.  Another feature that really stood out for me: you can place an item on your Amazon wishlist. The fact that ArtFire tied into Amazon’s Universal Wishlist technology is a brilliant move.
Supermarket offers an elegantly simple marketplace. They don’t offer every category under the sun, but four meta ones: everything, wear + carry, space + place, and paper + prints.  You’ll see photos of items on the home page; clicking that item takes you into a designer’s store. It is a clean and simple structure including a directory of designers.
eCrater is both a free Web store builder and an online marketplace. If you are a seller, you can create your own free online store in minutes. You can also import an eBay store into eCrater. If you are a buyer, you can browse and search millions of products.
Craftly is one of those hot, new startups that earns points for online marketing savvy. It’s online marketplace meets Kickstarter (the crowdfunding site), but for artists and craftspeople. The site is just getting started, but holds promise as a great place to test the market before you start making your product on a bigger scale.
Free Craft Fair is less a marketplace and more of a Yahoo-type directory. Still, it serves a purpose for those looking to get in front of craft buyers.
Handmade Artists’ Shop is a combination of marketplace and community forum. If you are looking for a collection of artists and craftspeople learning from one another, this forum might provide some useful help.
Folksy is a U.K.-based handmade goods marketplace. With everything from books to jewelry to soap, Folksy has plenty for sale. But they also have a Make magazine-style do-it-yourself section.
ShopWindoz (a German site) is for creatives of all types who are turning exciting ideas into unique products outside the mainstream. ShopWindoz gives designers and artists the opportunity to become shop owners and sell their products online to a global audience.
Notmassproduced is a do-it-for-you type of model.  You set up your store,  pricing and shipping, but they handle everything else. They manage the sales process, you ship to the customer, they pay you from the Notmassproduced service. Each vendor is selected to be on the site, so it validates each artisan to assure a match. U.K. and Europe focus.
Misi is a U.K. online craft marketplace. Sellers get a “free for life” shop including a subdomain. They have a forum to help you get your business started or to advance your marketing skills, for example. There is a low commission on sold items.
Coriandr is a fun U.K.-based marketplace for buying and selling handmade gifts. It has an easy-to-set-up storefront and some enthusiastic marketing materials and badges to drive people to your store. I like their gifts under £20 section (conceptually because it drives people to a bargain area in this crazy  economy). They even have a “mini shop” idea that lets you embed a store quickly into your own blog or website.
Dawanda takes an interesting approach that lets buyers create unique collections of products and share them with their friends. If you are a seller of handmade or unique products, this marketplace is well organized and looks seller-friendly.
SpoonFlower is one of my favorite discoveries for local, handmade products from artisans. They focus on fabric and make it possible for individuals to design, print and sell their own fabric designs. As many readers know, I love to find entrepreneurs who dig deep into a niche and do something no one else is doing. Spoonflower is precisely that. If you’re looking for fabrics or looking to sell them, try Spoonflower.
Zibbet looks pretty competitive with no listing fees, no commission fees and a free level account. What’s not to like about that? They have an Etsy importer, too, if you’re leaving that service.
I Made It Market is a nomadic indie crafts marketplace that provides opportunities for artists to bring their wares to market. They do it by partnering with community, arts and nonprofit organizations to raise funds and awareness to assist them in improving communities. Artists and craftspeople apply to be part of live events.
PoppyTalk Handmade is a monthly online street market curated by Poppytalk to showcase, buy and sell handmade goods of emerging design talent from around the world. The key word here is “curated” as PoppyTalk finds and accepts only certain merchants for its storefront. But the Buy button on this curated site drives the buyer back to your existing online storefront, whether it is your own, Etsy or another marketplace. They have won a number of awards for best blog and best site.
iCraft is for original handmade products, not vintage, not for resellers and not for food products. In fact, they are very, very specific about what they accept in their marketplace and it is actually refreshing to see such clarity. It may not be for everyone, but you will know if you fit or not. The pricing structure seems to resonate for lots of artisans.
Silk Fair allows you to have a free Market Booth on their marketplace or to build a full-fledged custom online store with their Web-based software. You can appear in the marketplace and as your own independent store.
Bonanza has been cited as the best alternative to eBay and Etsy. They have free listings and low fees. And something that caught my eye was their emphasis on having live humans available for sales consultations — to help you sell more — at no cost.
Made It Myself is a free marketplace where you can list your products for sale. It is still in beta and looks to be a rapidly growing community and handmade artisan service.
eBay has a special fair-trade marketplace that is worth mentioning. World of Good is a marketplace dedicated to socially and environmentally responsible shopping, featuring tens of thousands of stylish and unique products from around the world, and all backed by the eBay name.
Mymela is a marketplace for arts and crafts from India. It is a combination of ecommerce storefront and micro-finance in that buyers or consumers can also donate or make a small loan to an aspiring merchant. They call it Integrated Micro Advance Funding and it works slightly differently than traditional micro-finance.
Renegade Craft is not a directory or online marketplace, but a cool bunch of craft fairs around the world. Worth a look.
Of course, there are the Maker Faires, which are among the best known do-it-yourself events anywhere.
If you make or sell food items, check out the following:
Foodoro is a marketplace for artisanal food that connects passionate Foodmakers directly with consumers.. If you’re a food producer, this is an online storefront technology worth checking out.
Foodzie has a very cool model: They are not your traditional online marketplace and appear to take a commission on successful sales. So, if they are not successful in helping you sell more, it looks like you don’t pay anything. They help passionate small food producers and farmers across the U.S. reach new customers and connect directly to foodies searching for wonderful foods and gifts.
LocalHarvest is an organic and local food website. They offer a definitive and reliable directory of small farms, farmers markets and other local food sources around the nation.
Fooducopia is a marketplace for indie food producers and small scale farmers. You can open a store on their marketplace and they help do the heavy lifting, so to speak, of helping you sell and market your goods.


culled from:smallbiztrends.com

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3 Ways to Use the Green-Eyed Monster to Your Advantage

Marc Mawhinney

Contributor

People seem to share everything on social media nowadays: their political opinions, cat videos and even pictures of what they had for breakfast. So it’s not surprising that they also share the big wins in their businesses -- the victories that they’re excited about.
When you see others celebrating their successes, how do you feel? Let’s be completely honest, and admit that you might feel a pang of envy shooting through your body when you see others doing well. This doesn’t make you a bad person.
It makes you human.

I used to struggle with envy when I was a brand-new coach, and I wasn’t getting the kind of traction that I wanted with my business. I’d be going along with my daily tasks, and then a celebratory post from someone would pop up on social media and throw me off my game. I looked at what they were achieving and wondered why I was struggling so much.
Yes, the Green-Eyed Monster had entered.
When you’re an entrepreneur who’s pushing hard to grow your business, seeing others talking about their successes doesn’t always make you feel better. Although envy is a natural feeling, you can’t let it drag you down.
It’s essential that you instead turn envy to your advantage. Here are three things that you can do to make it work for you:

1. Put it in perspective.

Remember that when you see the success of others, you’re not seeing the amount of blood, sweat and tears that the person went through to achieve what they did. The path to success is rarely an easy one, and every entrepreneur suffers through many setbacks along the way.
I love what Steve Furtick said: “The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel”. What you’re seeing from other people is really just part of their story.

2. Congratulate the other person.

I realized that being bitter and envious of others would do me no good. I decided to change my approach and celebrate with other people instead. Now, when I see others doing well, I congratulate them. I send messages with sincere kudos, which improves my mood and makes me a lot of new friends in the process.
Try sending out a couple congratulatory messages today, and you’ll find that it will give you more energy and make you feel a lot better. Ask them the secret to their success. You will get some great tips to help you in your journey.

3. Use the success of others as motivation.

Instead of wasting your precious time and energy focusing on what others are doing, use those feelings of envy as fuel to push you to take greater action for your dreams. The good news is that if others are achieving success -- it means that you can as well. They don’t have magical powers, and they’ve proven that success is within a person’s grasp.
I’ve had the opportunity to interview hundreds of successful guests on my podcast, and I’ve noticed something about each of them. Successful people aren’t envious -- they’re too busy working on their own goals to be bitter about the success of others. They’re the opposite of envious. They’re cheerleaders for others and recognize that there’s a huge pie out there for entrepreneurs. Just because someone else achieves something it doesn’t take opportunity away from you.
I recently received an email from someone who publishes a monthly income report to his email subscribers. When I opened it and saw his revenue for the previous month, my eyes almost bugged out of my head -- it was way higher number than mine! But I took a deep breath, smiled, and felt genuinely happy for him. He reached the top of the mountain, and I’ll keep climbing to get up there with him.
I sincerely hope to see you there too.

culled from:entrepreneur.com

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Best Practices for CRM Marketing Integration

by Megan Totka

If your business is considering investing in a customer relationship management (CRM) platform to create synergy between your sales and marketing teams, the way you implement it into the workflow matters.
Using these best practices, your business can successfully integrate CRM marketing to get the most out of the CRM and the data it offers.

Train Employees on How to Use CRM

Spend time working with employees in the sales and marketing departments to train them on the effective use of the CRM. Understand that some employees will take the training seriously, while others may not. Fifty four percent of employees say they’d be more likely to perform a task if it included game elements, so gamification of the training experience can help encourage participation.

Use All CRM Features

Many CRMs include a number of features and integrations with other tools and apps you’re already using. Closely look at the features your CRM has and determine how you can use them to not only improve company workflow and productivity, but to improve the customer experience.
If your business involves managing projects for your clients, why run a completely separate project management system? If your CRM has a built-in project management system, use it to:

• Create tasks and milestones for various projects.
• Track email correspondence.
• Keep an eye on who’s doing what over the course of a project.

Take advantage of CRM reports. These reports can provide critical information about what’s going on in your business, including:

• Which employees have created the most sales opportunities over the course of the month.
• Which clients produce the most revenue for your business.
• Identify the main reasons you’re losing business.

Automate Where Possible

Some everyday tasks are repetitive and boring. Use tools within your CRM to automate parts of your company’s workflow, such as assigning tasks to members of the team. Task automation tools like Zapier integrate with your CRM to perform file backups (saving a Gmail attachment to Dropbox, for example), create contacts in your CRM, add contacts to your email marketing lists, and more.

Process All Leads Through the CRM

Once your staff is comfortable with the CRM, create a plan for a smooth transition from your old method to the new technology. The sooner you completely integrate the system, the better off the company will be in the long run. Set a date and require all new leads be processed through the CRM by this time. An incomplete transition to the new system could wreak havoc on internal communication or cause valued customers to fall through the cracks.

Meet with Employees to Discuss Refining the System

After the employees have had time to actively use the system, meet with them to determine how well it is working for them. Find out what they love about it, what improvements they’d like to see made, and any difficulties they’ve encountered. Use their feedback to make adjustments where possible. Forty eight percent of employees say giving them a chance to provide feedback, and then seeing it implemented, is part of what entices them to stay with a company. So working with and listening to your employees plays a key role in the success of changes within the company.

Use CRM Marketing with Social Media

Using social media for business plays a critical role in the sales and marketing process. So if your CRM integrates with social channels, make the most of it. Using a contact’s email address, CRMs can detect social profiles attached to the contact. Use this information to bring your clients and social media together whenever and wherever possible. As your relationships grow, you can collect information from their social profiles to foster long-term relationships. Use social CRM to engage customers directly, as well.
In 2009, Best Buy launched the Twelpforce initiative to integrate the Best Buy Community team with Twitter. Their approach allows anyone in the community team to respond to respond to questions directly from the social network. Not only does the community see an average of 600,000 visitors, and more than 22 million pages of content, the initial community engagements provided a $5 million benefit (PDF) to the company.
Bosch used social CRM to target select trades on Facebook. With the tool, they were able to determine their Facebook audience was a separate, and younger audience. Bosch also learned a higher than average number of their Facebook fans were woodworkers, so they adjusted their marketing to the group with staging of power tools in woodworking.
Taking time to craft a CRM marketing strategy and determine exactly how your company will use all the features of your CRM can make implementing it much easier. With the robust features of CRM, social media and employee support, your business will continue to grow and see increased profits.



culled from:smallbiztrends.com

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Business Insurance Coverage You Should Have (But Might Not)

By Nicole Fallon Taylor

Like home and auto insurance, business insurance provides you with financial protection, should your company suffer from damages, lawsuits or some other costly event that involves your business. In addition to mandatory workers' compensation and unemployment insurance (if a business has employees), most business owners know they should have some sort of general liability or business owner's policy. But these policies don't cover every scenario — and just because most types of business insurance are optional, that doesn't mean you should skimp on your coverage.

Insurance experts shared a few important policies that many business owners should have but may not have thought to purchase.
Auto and home insurance riders

Do you use your personal car and/or home for business purposes? If so, your regular insurance policies for these assets may not fully protect you. Dan Klaras, president of Assurance insurance agency, said that if you don't own a separate commercial vehicle, you should get nonowned and hired auto liability insurance. This covers any claims against your business for incidents that occur while you or your employees are driving your car during a workday.

Business interruption insurance

Fires, floods, building collapse, theft. Any of these situations — and others — could make you have to temporarily shut down your business and a consequent loss of income.

"Any time you have a loss of income [as a small business], a couple of months could put you out of business," Klaras said.

Business interruption insurance will compensate you for some or all of the money you lose by not being fully operational. The Insurance Information Institute provides more information about whether or not your company needs this type of coverage.
Credit insurance

If your business sells goods or services on credit, you open yourself up to the risk that the buyer may not come through with the money. Credit insurance provides coverage for a variety of losses related to bad debt situations, Klaras said. Depending on your policy, credit insurance may cover all or part of your accounts receivables and help with your customer credit management/debt collection.
Cyberinsurance

According to research by the Ponemon Institute, more than 40 percent of U.S. companies have experienced a data breach in the last year — and yet 27 percent didn't have a data breach response plan or team in place. Klaras advised all business owners to look into cyberinsurance to protect sensitive employee, client and financial information in the event of a data breach.

"If a small business has a website, it has exposure [and] needs to have this coverage," Klaras told Business News Daily. "Cybercriminals are focused on small businesses for the simple reason that they know network security is much less sophisticated. It's easier to get in and get the information. In having [cyber] coverage, you're getting ... the best practices to keep a cyber breach from happening, and that value alone is important."
Employment practices liability

Employers are required by law to have certain types of insurance to cover their employees, but what about protection for your business if an employee sues? Because of the close-knit culture of most small businesses, Klaras said that many owners see their employees as friends, and don't believe they'd ever sue. However, should a disgruntled worker take you to court for an issue like wrongful termination or sexual harassment, you could lose a significant amount of money, even if you're not guilty. Employment practices liability ensures that your business won't go bankrupt defending itself if an employee files a claim.
Errors and omissions insurance

Most small business owners don't think it will ever happen to them, but lawsuits can and do frequently occur when business disputes need to be settled. Errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, also known as professional liability insurance, protects your business and reputation in the event that a client or customer files a lawsuit, Klaras said. This is most important for service-based businesses, and helps fill in some of the gaps in general liability coverage. In certain states such insurance is required for certain professions, such as medical doctors.

Hunter Hoffmann, head of U.S. communications at small business insurer Hiscox, agreed that professional liability insurance is a key consideration for any business owner.

"Professional liability insurance protects you and your employees if you're sued for errors or negligence," Hoffmann said. "Even if you've done nothing wrong, the costs to defend against a lawsuit can be significant for a small business, and insurance provides for both legal representation and payment of any judgment made against you."

Less than half of small businesses carried professional liability insurance, according to the 2015 Hiscox DNA of an Entrepreneur Report.
Product recall

As a business owner, you have a certain responsibility to the people who purchase your products. Ted Devine, CEO of small business insurance provider Insureon, said that U.S. laws have evolved in recent years to favor consumers by applying a "strict liability" doctrine. This means that anyone — vendor, distributor, manufacturer, etc. — involved in the sale of a product that causes injury or illness when it is used correctly can be held legally and financially responsible for those damages.

While product liability itself is often covered within a general liability policy (though Devine advised double-checking to make sure), you're not covered if you need to undergo the expensive, time-consuming and potentially reputation-damaging process of a recall. To help you with this, product recall insurance may be available as a rider to your general liability policy.

"Product recall insurance ... can cover the cost of recalling products, including getting them off the shelves, destroying them and running a PR or advertising campaign to rebuild public trust," Devine said.
Does your company really need these policies?

Every company has different insurance needs, depending on the industry, location and nature of the business. While the above-named policies are recommended, they may or may not be right for your business. Be sure to consult with your insurance agent frequently to assess your risks and ensure that your business is getting all the protection it needs.

"Set up a regular time frame to meet with your agent and update him or her on your business and any changes [that have occurred] to make sure you're adding the coverage you need," Klaras said.

"Do your research ... and make sure you're covered," Hoffmann added. "The costs can be very reasonable and insurance provides the protection you need to make sure somebody else doesn't get in the way of your path to success."


culled from:businessnewsdaily.com

Additionally, homeowner's insurance is not designed to provide business coverage, so Klaras advised home-based business owners to speak with an agent about adding endorsements or riders to their policy to cover their business activities. [5 Websites for Comparing Small Business Insurance Quotes]

Business interruption insurance

Fires, floods, building collapse, theft. Any of these situations — and others — could make you have to temporarily shut down your business and a consequent loss of income.
"Any time you have a loss of income [as a small business], a couple of months could put you out of business," Klaras said.
Business interruption insurance will compensate you for some or all of the money you lose by not being fully operational. The Insurance Information Institute provides more information about whether or not your company needs this type of coverage.

Credit insurance

If your business sells goods or services on credit, you open yourself up to the risk that the buyer may not come through with the money. Credit insurance provides coverage for a variety of losses related to bad debt situations, Klaras said. Depending on your policy, credit insurance may cover all or part of your accounts receivables and help with your customer credit management/debt collection.

Cyberinsurance

According to research by the Ponemon Institute, more than 40 percent of U.S. companies have experienced a data breach in the last year — and yet 27 percent didn't have a data breach response plan or team in place. Klaras advised all business owners to look into cyberinsurance to protect sensitive employee, client and financial information in the event of a data breach.
"If a small business has a website, it has exposure [and] needs to have this coverage," Klaras told Business News Daily. "Cybercriminals are focused on small businesses for the simple reason that they know network security is much less sophisticated. It's easier to get in and get the information. In having [cyber] coverage, you're getting ... the best practices to keep a cyber breach from happening, and that value alone is important."

Employment practices liability

Employers are required by law to have certain types of insurance to cover their employees, but what about protection for your business if an employee sues? Because of the close-knit culture of most small businesses, Klaras said that many owners see their employees as friends, and don't believe they'd ever sue. However, should a disgruntled worker take you to court for an issue like wrongful termination or sexual harassment, you could lose a significant amount of money, even if you're not guilty. Employment practices liability ensures that your business won't go bankrupt defending itself if an employee files a claim.

Errors and omissions insurance

Most small business owners don't think it will ever happen to them, but lawsuits can and do frequently occur when business disputes need to be settled. Errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, also known as professional liability insurance, protects your business and reputation in the event that a client or customer files a lawsuit, Klaras said. This is most important for service-based businesses, and helps fill in some of the gaps in general liability coverage. In certain states such insurance is required for certain professions, such as medical doctors.
Hunter Hoffmann, head of U.S. communications at small business insurer Hiscox, agreed that professional liability insurance is a key consideration for any business owner.
"Professional liability insurance protects you and your employees if you're sued for errors or negligence," Hoffmann said. "Even if you've done nothing wrong, the costs to defend against a lawsuit can be significant for a small business, and insurance provides for both legal representation and payment of any judgment made against you."
Less than half of small businesses carried professional liability insurance, according to the 2015 Hiscox DNA of an Entrepreneur Report.

Product recall

As a business owner, you have a certain responsibility to the people who purchase your products. Ted Devine, CEO of small business insurance provider Insureon, said that U.S. laws have evolved in recent years to favor consumers by applying a "strict liability" doctrine. This means that anyone — vendor, distributor, manufacturer, etc. — involved in the sale of a product that causes injury or illness when it is used correctly can be held legally and financially responsible for those damages.
While product liability itself is often covered within a general liability policy (though Devine advised double-checking to make sure), you're not covered if you need to undergo the expensive, time-consuming and potentially reputation-damaging process of a recall. To help you with this, product recall insurance may be available as a rider to your general liability policy.
"Product recall insurance ... can cover the cost of recalling products, including getting them off the shelves, destroying them and running a PR or advertising campaign to rebuild public trust," Devine said.

Does your company really need these policies?

Every company has different insurance needs, depending on the industry, location and nature of the business. While the above-named policies are recommended, they may or may not be right for your business. Be sure to consult with your insurance agent frequently to assess your risks and ensure that your business is getting all the protection it needs.
"Set up a regular time frame to meet with your agent and update him or her on your business and any changes [that have occurred] to make sure you're adding the coverage you need," Klaras said.
"Do your research ... and make sure you're covered," Hoffmann added. "The costs can be very reasonable and insurance provides the protection you need to make sure somebody else doesn't get in the way of your path to success."
- See more at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8558-important-business-insurance-coverage.html#sthash.Fzv9nUjQ.dpuf

Like home and auto insurance, business insurance provides you with financial protection, should your company suffer from damages, lawsuits or some other costly event that involves your business. In addition to mandatory workers' compensation and unemployment insurance (if a business has employees), most business owners know they should have some sort of general liability or business owner's policy. But these policies don't cover every scenario — and just because most types of business insurance are optional, that doesn't mean you should skimp on your coverage.
Insurance experts shared a few important policies that many business owners should have but may not have thought to purchase.

Auto and home insurance riders

Do you use your personal car and/or home for business purposes? If so, your regular insurance policies for these assets may not fully protect you. Dan Klaras, president of Assurance insurance agency, said that if you don't own a separate commercial vehicle, you should get nonowned and hired auto liability insurance. This covers any claims against your business for incidents that occur while you or your employees are driving your car during a workday.
- See more at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8558-important-business-insurance-coverage.html#sthash.Fzv9nUjQ.dpuf

Like home and auto insurance, business insurance provides you with financial protection, should your company suffer from damages, lawsuits or some other costly event that involves your business. In addition to mandatory workers' compensation and unemployment insurance (if a business has employees), most business owners know they should have some sort of general liability or business owner's policy. But these policies don't cover every scenario — and just because most types of business insurance are optional, that doesn't mean you should skimp on your coverage.
Insurance experts shared a few important policies that many business owners should have but may not have thought to purchase.

Auto and home insurance riders

Do you use your personal car and/or home for business purposes? If so, your regular insurance policies for these assets may not fully protect you. Dan Klaras, president of Assurance insurance agency, said that if you don't own a separate commercial vehicle, you should get nonowned and hired auto liability insurance. This covers any claims against your business for incidents that occur while you or your employees are driving your car during a workday.
- See more at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8558-important-business-insurance-coverage.html#sthash.Fzv9nUjQ.dpuf

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From Battlefield to Business: These Companies Are Looking to Hire Veterans

Jason Daley

Franchise systems are picky. But JDog Junk Removal & Hauling might be the most selective of all. The Berwyn, Pa.-based company sells units exclusively to military veterans and their families -- no exceptions -- and hires as many veterans as possible to clean out, transport and repurpose customers’ junk. It’s great marketing. When a JDog crew shows up to do a job in camouflage trucks and trailers and military-style uniforms, it’s hard not to take notice.
“When these guys walk into the consumer’s home, people instantly respond and say, ‘Thank you for your service,’” says Army veteran Jerry Flanagan, who began franchising the brand in 2013 and now has 21 units operating in seven states. “It makes marketing much easier because we are able to show how we are different. We’re able to penetrate new markets quickly. People really want to get behind veteran-owned and -operated businesses.”
When he launched his business in 2011 in a Philadelphia suburb, he didn’t plan to employ a post-military work force, though he did hire as many veterans as he could. What he found was that employees with a military background often had better leadership skills and were more likely to follow his systems than other staffers. They showed up on time, caused few problems and took pride in their work.
“I’m not really looking for entrepreneurs to be my franchisees,” Flanagan says. “I’m looking for guys who can follow orders and can look at my playbook and follow it effectively.”
While JDog’s vets-only policy is unique, Flanagan is not alone in realizing that veterans have skills that make them great franchisees. In fact, over the past decade, franchise systems have made aggressive efforts to recruit military veterans, offering discounts, incentives and even free equipment to get them through the door.
But it has taken time for franchise brands to fully realize the potential of the veteran community. In 1991, at the end of the first Gulf War, Don Dwyer, founder of the Dwyer Group of franchises that include Mr. Rooter and Glass Doctor, started a program called VetFran, which was a loose affiliation of franchise brands that recruited vets to help them transition to civilian life.
Over the next decade and a half, the program had periods of high and low activity, but in 2007, as increasing numbers of those who’d served in Iraq and Afghanistan began transitioning out of the military, member brands ramped things up. VetFran became a program of the International Franchise Association designed to educate vets about franchising and connect them with companies offering incentives.
In 2011 VetFran launched Hiring Our Heroes, a program aimed at bringing 80,000 veterans into the franchise industry; as of 2014, it had brought 203,890 former service members into the fold, including 5,608 franchisees. Today VetFran comprises nearly 700 franchise brands.
“In February I visited with Budget Blinds, which waives their $75,000 franchise fee for veterans,” notes George Eldridge, program manager of VetFran, who left active duty in 2012. “They were so impressed by the vets they’d worked with that they wanted more. That was nice to hear. Here’s a company making decisions not on what vets have done in the past, but what they can do now. No vet wants a handout. All the franchise brands I talk to say the same thing: They wouldn’t be doing their vet programs if there was no return on investment.”
Former Navy SEAL Monty Heath is executive director of VetToCEO, a Marietta, Ga.-based nonprofit that offers free online programs for veterans exploring entrepreneurship. He believes franchising is perfectly suited to the mentality of many veterans.
“These guys learn leadership and perseverance in the service. They are hard-working and mission-focused, and they complete the task in front of them no matter what,” Heath explains. “Guys and gals in the military are very much used to giving orders and executing. That’s how franchising is. They’re given a playbook and they figure out how to execute it. The military mind is set up to be in that environment. That’s what a veteran provides vs. someone who has to start from scratch learning how to run a business.”
Mosquito Joe, a franchise system based in Hampton Roads, Va., home to several large military installations, is investing heavily in veterans; some 15 to 20 percent of its franchisees are former service members. While the company offers a $2,500 discount on its franchise fee to veterans, COO Brian Garrison, who left the military in 2012, believes vets are attracted to the brand’s culture. Many members of Mosquito Joe’s corporate team also served in the military.
“We feel vets bring the right set of experiences and work ethic to our business,” Garrison says. “Veterans coming through the pipeline look at the other vets in our system, and it resonates with them. Our team has close to 100 years of franchise support experience. We can look veterans in the eye and say, ‘We understand that you don’t have any experience in the private sector. But we can be a backstop for you as you make the transition.’”
Indeed, Mosquito Joe’s culture resonated with Dennis Corrigan from the start. He grew up in a military family and spent the first 24 years of his adult life as a U.S. naval aviator. After retirement from the cockpit, he spent the next 17 years on the fringes of the Navy designing training materials for pilots and air crews. When he decided to go into business for himself, he signed on with Mosquito Joe and launched his unit in Virginia Beach, Va. “I found that because of their focus on the military and because we have the same values, it made it much nicer to interact with them,” he says. “I was able to build relationships with corporate almost immediately based on our common work ethic.”
Corrigan is paying his success forward by primarily hiring veterans and firemen on his crews, which control mosquitoes in homeowners’ backyards and in outdoor areas before events. “I have found that folks from the military have a different commitment to the job,” he says. “They understand a lot about customer service, although they may not know they’re doing it. They are really good at completing a job to the best of their ability and on time.”
Jan-Pro, the 10,000-unit commercial cleaning franchise, and its recently launched residential cleaning brand Maid Right, have sought to employ former service members since 2000, when the company launched its VetConnection Program. The Alpharetta, Ga.-based company offers a 10 percent franchise-fee reduction for vets. Because of its master franchisee model, the company aims to find individuals who have experience managing large groups of people.
Scott Thompson, vice president of franchise development for Jan-Pro and Maid Right, looks to match the right veteran with the right opportunity. “I probably wouldn’t give an infantryman who never managed a larger unit a master franchisee license, and I probably wouldn’t give a major who worked hard to learn leadership skills a small package,” he explains. “We try to align our opportunity to a veteran’s goals, skill set and capital.”
Thompson adds that many service veterans have the advantage of a military pension, which gives them a level of security that other prospective franchisees may lack. “That pension gives them flexibility,” he says. “They have some income already as they’re ramping up their business. In some cases, what they make from their franchise is just gravy. They can take the time to build their business up correctly.”
Eric Freeman, who served in the Gulf War and now works as a Dallas policeman, started his Maid Right franchise last May. By August, he’d exceeded his personal goals by signing up more than 60 clients in his first six months. “The military made me goal-oriented and driven,” he says. “I grew up in a military family and learned discipline. I won’t sit around and wait for someone to do something for me.”
Workout Anytime, an Alpharetta-based fitness franchise, reduces its $30,000 franchise fee by a third for vets. Co-founder and president John Quattrocchi says the past few years remind him of when he returned home from Vietnam after serving four years in the Air Force.
“It seems like an awful lot of people are coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan and are looking for work, and we have a great need for people with the tools they’ve learned to help us expand,” he says. “When I came home in the ’60s we faced the same thing. I was able to get a job in a steel mill after college, but a lot of friends who served in Southeast Asia couldn’t find a job. I certainly have a soft spot for veterans. We should give back to anyone who serves their country.”



culled from:entrepreneur.com

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What Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Achieved With His $197M Gift to Employees

Tor Constantino

Contributor

culled from:entrepreneur.com

Last week, newly-anointed Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced via tweet that he would give a third of his stock options, that's approximately one percent of the total issuance with a market value of $197 million as of October 28, to all Twitter employees.
While he still holds an additional two percent of company shares, this unprecedented act of generosity holds some valuable lessons for leaders.

1. He'll retain Twitter's most valuable asset.

There are a variety of assets that companies value, including intellectual property, exclusive customer contracts, unique service offerings, proprietary manufacturing technology and business processes or differentiated market locations. Those are all valuable assets but they require employees to maintain, enhance and commercialize that value.
Dorsey recognizes that his highly-skilled workforce is Twitter's most valuable asset in the long term, which is why he gave them the options grant as a retention incentive. An employee's options grant tends to be broken up into percentage blocks, with each block vesting annually over a set number of years.
It's an effective long-term incentive (LTI) tool that Dorsey selflessly shared to keep his people at Twitter and help keep them happy.

2. He boosts employee morale.

A company wide options grant can boost employee morale in at least four ways.
First, it gives employees an attainable performance target to align their day-to-day activities toward. Second, it transforms them from company employees into company owners. No one cares more about a company than an owner.
Third, it helps instill confidence in employees that they are valued and matter to the broader organization. Fourth, it can inspire a sense of esprit de corps that they're all in it together.
Leaders like Dorsey see the value of engaged and incented employees.

3. He is building a culture focused team.

Additionally, Dorsey's leadership by example sets the tone of conduct across the entire organization.
Employees will not soon forget such an uncommon demonstration of generosity towards them. They will understand that teamwork, generosity and consideration of others are all part of the Twitter DNA, and one leader was responsible for setting that tone.

4. He is telling investors they matter.

Whether it's a start-up raising venture capital or a publicly-traded company accountable to its investors, shareholders matter.
One of the amazing leadership aspects of Dorsey's gesture is that his block of options is not dilutive to current shareholders. In other words, Dorsey's stake in the company was already publicly disclosed, so the amount of his options grant was already factored into the stock purchase decision of existing shareholders who had already bought the stock.
However, Dorsey could have just as easily had the company issue a new block of six-to-seven million options for employees that would have been dilutive to shareholders. He didn't do that but instead pulled from his own resources. That's a remarkable example of shareholder stewardship and leadership.

5. He burnished Twitter's reputation.

Every leader is responsible for the reputation of the organization. Dorsey's selfless act has already resulted in a significant amount of positive media coverage and public perception.
Whether intended or not, Dorsey's $197 million gift to his "tweeps" is a significant deposit in the metaphorical "Bank of Public Goodwill." That can only benefit him and Twitter in the future should they ever need to make a "withdrawal" from that account due to an unforeseen crisis or issue.
While some may discount or criticize Dorsey's selfless action claiming he didn't do enough, the reality is that he didn't have to do anything for employees. But because he did, he deserves a lot of credit as a visionary leader who cares.
Who knows, he might inspire other leaders and CEOs to follow suit.

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Crowd-Sourced Funding Can Help Your Business. It Can Also Save Lives

By Adam Fridman

culled from:inc.com

Crowdfunding is changing lives in a big way.
One of the most noticeable entrepreneurial innovations of the 21^st Century is crowd-sourced funding. If you have a good idea but don't have an angel investor waiting in the wings, you may be in luck. Via the Internet, you can set up an account to solicit and collect donations or investments to support your project. The largest, most popular crowd-funding sites, such as Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, get frequent references on social media as even celebrities use them to support their projects. Moviemaker Spike Lee used Kickstarter to raise more than $1.5 million to support a movie project. And business start-ups use crowd sourcing too, including one very successful campaign in support of an affordable 3-D printer.
People love a good idea, and if you have one, crowd-sourced fundraising might be the way to go. But it doesn't have to be an art project or a business start-up. It can be an idea to improve the quality of life for struggling populations, like a filter to help anyone, anywhere, convert dirty water into clean water.
Here in the US, when we want a glass of water we turn on the tap, and out it pours. But 783 million people on this planet do not have access to safe, clean water, and that number is growing each year. Most of us take clean water for granted, but residents of South Carolina understand how quickly that can change, having just endured a temporary interruption of potable water as a result of flooding. When you don't have access to clean water, getting it becomes your first priority. If you can't find it, and you're forced to drink unsafe water, you can easily end up with diseases and parasites. Such is the plight of entire populations in Cambodia, Africa, and other developing areas.

Water For Life, a non-profit, is repurposing an existing technology to help families provide their own clean water. Using the same technology employed in kidney dialysis machines, Water For Life distributes fist-sized filters capable of filtering 150 gallons of water per day. And they are using crowd sourcing to fund that effort.
The other way to get clean water, typically, is to dig wells. But that is labor intensive and has its own challenges, including high cost and risk of contamination. For the (donated) cost of about $50, a single filter allows a family to collect a bucket of dirty water and run it through the filter into a second bucket. The result is clear, safe water. And the filter can be cleaned easily through periodic back flushing. One filter means clean water, every day, for a family of five, for up to 10 years. That not only saves lives, it frees people to pursue other activities such as cooking, education, raising a healthy family and earning a living.
Thus far, Water For Life has delivered more than 4,000 filters in 16 countries and it's just getting started. They are now raising funds using IndieGoGo and have raised $30,000 as of this writing. If they can succeed at raising money through crowd sourcing, maybe you can, too. And while you're making money, why not make a difference by giving the gift of clean water?

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The 3 Biggest Secrets Entrepreneurs Keep

AmyK Hutchens

Contributor

culled from:entrepreneur.com

Looking in the mirror at the end of the day can be a painful endeavor for entrepreneurs. It’s that raw moment when they drop the “fake it till you make it” smile. They let their anxiety seep through their pores, and wonder out loud just exactly how much stress, frustration, life lessons and wrinkles they will physically endure before they hit their target numbers or shake hands with their next investor.

It’s that raw moment when entrepreneurs -- and this may include you -- come face to face with their secrets. These are the secrets you'd prefer no one else discover. And here, you may feel isolated, but you're definitely not alone.
The reason is that everyone keeps secrets, and entrepreneurs are no exception. In fact, there are three specific secrets entrepreneurs share that prevent them from achieving greater success, faster: imposter syndrome, self-criticism fixation and comparison condition. When not addressed, these afflictions truncate success. When they are overcome, however, not only do they unleash potential but help entrepreneurs meet and often exceed their goals.

1. Imposter syndrome

Imposter syndrome occurs when entrepreneurs experience feelings of inadequacy and chronic self-doubt that persist even when a closer look indicates that the opposite is true.
Entrepreneurs often have the internal mantra, “I do not belong here. I’m not worthy of being taken seriously, and everyone will soon discover that I’m a fraud.” Unfortunately, many successful, smart, talented entrepreneurs believe they are neither good enough nor have enough to play in the coveted sandbox of "innovator and game changer.” These entrepreneurs end up behaving poorly in an attempt to cover up their fears.
What's more, those that fear being “caught” may avoid taking risks that could reveal their perceived inadequacies, or they'll settle for less, not believing they deserve better than mediocre results, mediocre talent or average opportunities. Those fears undermine their success by manifesting real-life mistakes and self-induced failures.
When entrepreneurs replace their feelings of inadequacy and paranoia about being discovered a “fraud” with a healthier, more realistic assessment about their strengths and contributions, they build self-confidence. When they focus less on their skill gaps and more on how best to leverage their gifts and talents, they create new value.
How might your own self-doubts be inhibiting your ability to lead?

2. Self-criticism fixation

A self-criticism fixation occurs when entrepreneurs are so hung up on their past transgressions that they can’t believe in their future excellence. Entrepreneurs are notoriously hard on themselves for early mistakes and failures. They often allow their perceived regrettable moments to cripple their potential or truncate their ability to successfully execute their next idea.
These hang-ups influence whom they hire and fire, how and when they make decisions and which relationships and partnerships they prioritize. They define themselves by mistakes instead of assessing the knowledge they have gained from past missteps and identifying how they turned that knowledge into wisdom to avoid subsequent, similar mistakes.
Letting go of resentments and grudges against ourselves is perhaps more difficult than letting go of others’ trespasses against us. Yet, it’s imperative for entrepreneurs to do exactly that. The point is not to avoid accountability, it’s to accept responsibility for the lesson. Once entrepreneurs realize that business and life are long learning curves, they can more readily let go of past mistakes and more expediently and effectively bring fruition to their next big idea.
If you were to love your followers as you love yourself, should your followers be warned?

3. Comparison condition

Comparison condition is one of the worst forms of entrepreneurs' self-abuse. Many entrepreneurs are so busy comparing themselves to other businesses and other entrepreneurs, living in a world of “should haves” and “should bes,” that they lose focus on their own path to success. When entrepreneurs compare themselves this way, they end up taking detours, trying out other people's paths. They dilute their talent and ultimately lose their mojo.
When that happens, they drift too far, often burn out and lose their followers. In contrast, staying on your own path is integral to focus, productivity, performance and results. It’s hard to charge full-steam ahead when you’re always looking sideways.
What have you done when a case of the "shoulds" hits you? How have you adjusted the internal conversation to be healthier and more supportive of your own ideas? 
When entrepreneurs are willing to expose the secrets they keep -- if only to themselves, and then work through them -- they can positively and exponentially transform their business success. Oftentimes, entrepreneurs say they pay a high price to chart a new course. And that price may well reflect on the secrets they keep.

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4 Things I Learned After My First Year as an Entrepreneur

 

Jeff Boss

Contributor

It’s been almost a year since I took the entrepreneurial leap and launched my executive coaching practice. I’m not going to lie, working for myself has been completely spoiling. Setting my own agenda, choosing the place and times to work, and determining the clients with whom I work (no social hand grenades) has been completely fulfilling.
I’m a big believer that in uncertainty lies opportunity. If the rules aren’t already written then write your own rule book, and if there is a book, make edits.

Sharing lessons is important. After all, nobody learns from their successes or really even question why they won something, they just accept it. Here are four things to consider before taking your leap into the entrepreneurial unknown:

1. Marketing isn’t easy.

Not in terms of marketing your product but yourself (self-promotion). Now, I’m not blanketing all entrepreneurs by saying this because there are certainly people out there who believe the world revolves around them. However, for those who live in reality and “get it,” selling yourself (not that way) isn’t easy.
Here’s the secret to not sounding like a you-know-what: don’t talk about yourself. Instead, highlight what it is your product or service provides and let customers make the connection for how it benefits them. This is a subtle yet important difference. People want to know how they’ll benefit from buying what you’re selling, and yes, who you are is a large part of that.
Consumers buy from vendors they like, trust, and respect. They also buy products and services that benefit them so be sure to craft your marketing message that way.

2. A strategy is different from an objective.

I wrote in another column what a sound strategy looks like, and just the process of thinking strategically can be a challenge if you’re more inclined to the executor role. Think of it this way: an objective is where you want to end up -- it’s your destination. Strategy is how you get there.
Consider, for instance, a ladder -- the kind you lean up against the side of the house to clean out the debris in your home’s gutters. When you lean the ladder against the house, the goal is to climb to the top (and not fall off). The rungs provide the means by which you get there -- the daily behaviors that help you execute the strategy -- and the rails of the ladder set the direction for where those rungs lead (they can only go one way). If, once you get to the top of the ladder you find yourself on the wrong roof, you simply shift the ladder.

3. Focus on what you, and only you, can affect.

Entrepreneurship is an investment in yourself, your beliefs, convictions and definition of value. After all, if you don’t believe your new widget is valuable then you wouldn’t feel compelled to sell it, right?
As an entrepreneur, you should focus on your area(s) of expertise, on what only you can affect, and allocate other tasks to outside professionals. Virtual assistants are great for this as they provide the subject-matter expertise to work effectively and efficiently in their roles while allowing you to do the same.

4. Stay fit.

Anybody who says there’s no time in the day to exercise simply doesn’t place fitness as a priority. It’s that simple. Being an entrepreneur is no different. What prevents people from doing the hobbies they enjoy is fear. They worry that if they’re not working on something geared toward business then they’re not being productive, and this is anything but true.
We all need personal time, it’s how we decompress from the pressure of the day so we can return the next day and work optimally. Learn how to manage your fear of missing out (or FOMO) syndrome and watch your stress levels plummet.
It's not an easy decision, but holding your feet to the fire and placing yourself in an environment that demands success certainly narrows down your priorities of what's important and what isn't. It also wields greater fulfillment. Choose wisely.

culled from:entrepreneur.com

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Why Millennials Are Better At Home Buying Than You

Lucy Mueller , Contributor
culled from:http://www.forbes.com
Because of our sheer numbers, we millennials tip pretty much any scale we touch, whether it’s the housing market or the wine industry. (We’re drinking more of it, but we prefer the cheap stuff.)
That’s why Gen Y is either thanked or scolded for most major market moves. A year ago, millennials were “dragging down homeownership”; this year we’ll “make it easier for you to buy a house.” Either way, as the older tier of the generation rounds into their early 30s, millennial homeowners are turning out more than ever before.
And we’re a really weird brand of home buyer.
Millennial homeowners are saddled with obstacles no previous generation has had to face, like an average student loan debt per borrower that’s both monstrous and unprecedented. They’re also less romantic about the whole process than their predecessors — buying before marriage, owning for shorter periods of time, and flipping with gusto and success.

Millennials buy houses earlier, own them for shorter periods and flip them more. It’s working.

 

The country will soon get used to it. For the second year in a row, we represent the biggest group of home buyers in America, 32% of the market, according to a March 2015 report from the National Association of Realtors.
This number is only going to go up in the coming years. According to the 2015 TD Bank Mortgage Service Index, 50% of millennials say they are either “extremely” or “very” likely to buy a house in the next year.
“Millennials will have a huge impact on the housing market for the next decade, just because of demographics alone,” Nela Richardson, the chief economist for Redfin, told me. “So whatever a few of them do, there’s enough of them that they’ll make a big impact.”

What enough of them are doing is making home buying pedestrian. And, at least for our generation, that’s a smart move.
A Different Kind of Home Buyer
A more accessible job market, a later marriage age and the mammoth costs associated with a wedding have meant many new home buyers are putting a mortgage before a marriage.
Chantel Bonneau is a wealth management advisor for Northwestern Mutual and a Gen Y-er who bought her first condo by herself at 24. (Three years later, her second home purchase is in escrow.)
“A lot of millennials are delaying marriage and children by almost a decade, as opposed to people maybe 30 years ago,” she told me. “That just gives you a different phase of your life where you’re earning, you’re focused on your career, but maybe we don’t have all the same responsibilities as parenthood or marriage yet. So that creates this new decade of life for some people — it means life choices to postpone some of those other relationship decisions.”
It’s a life choice many are making. A recent Redfin study found that 38% of millennials have or would delay a wedding or honeymoon in order to buy a home.
That means several things; for one, millennials are looking to buy for utility and own for shorter periods of time — “they’re not really focused on buying the house that they’re going to live in forever,” Bonneau explained. For another, they’re looking at their purchases more as an investment than a place to live.
That’s affecting the kinds of homes Gen Y-ers are purchasing, Richardson told me.
“We know that a lot of millennials want to live in the city, they want to live close to work, they want to live in walkable neighborhoods — and guess what? These neighborhoods are great investments,” Richardson said. “The millennials I’m profiling are typically not the ones buying large McMansions in the suburbs that will take longer to pay. Many of them are buying condos in the center of cities.”
That was the case for Hanna Johansen, a 23-year-old digital marketing strategist in Des Moines, Iowa, who bought her first home with her 22-year-old boyfriend several months ago.
“Our home is more of an investment property for us,” she said. “We purchased our house with the intent of improving it and making a profit, while also increasing our credit score and credibility with the bank.  We did a lot of renovation in the first month and a half before we moved in, and we will continue to make improvements over the next year, which is when we plan to list it.”
That kind of quick turnaround — once cautioned against by most financial advisors — is again trending among home buyers, said Michael Slavin, founder of Privlo, an alternative mortgage lender that caters to millennials.
“When you look at the average life of a home loan, it still ranges in the five- to seven-year range. It’s a lot more transactional than it used to be,” he said. “That’s where I think we are very different than baby boomers. We don’t stay in the job until we get the golden watch after 40 years. … Millennials — all of us, really — like upward trajectory in our jobs; we like to go to a job, really, really do well, get an advancement in our actual title, and then say ‘OK, now I’m ready to be in the market again.’ We might meet somebody on Tinder or Match and just have to go there.”
The Unique Obstacles to Gen Y Home Buyers
Unfortunately, because more of us are short-term buyers, millennials are competing with investors for similarly priced homes — and are at a serious disadvantage.
“While the investor share has dropped in recent years, we do still see a high share of investors in the market,” said Jessica Lautz, director of survey research and communications for the NAR. “The investors could be coming in paying all cash for a home, where the Gen Y-ers wouldn’t necessarily have [all that] cash on hand and would be financing that through a mortgage.”
Samantha Hill, a 25-year-old director of marketing in Seattle, had this problem when she was shopping for a home with her husband.
“We bid on several homes over the course of a year,” Hill said. “We were outbid by cash buyers every time. Every home we wanted had well over a dozen bidders.”
And then there’s the down payment: often a struggle for home buyers in any generation, and a huge problem for a generation that is saddled with an unprecedented amount of student loan debt — about $28,400 per college graduate, on average.
“The good thing is there’s lots of financial institutions that have designed special programs for first-time buyers where down payment requirements are less than historically required,” Malcolm Hollensteiner, the director of retail lending sales and production at TD Bank, told me. “Those options are plentiful throughout the industry right now.”
This was Hill’s recourse; she took advantage of a USDA loan on a property in the country — no down payment at all. “We bought at the end of the recession, so list prices were higher than previous selling prices. Because of this, we appraised $40,000 lower than asking and the sellers accepted,” she said.
Tips for Millennial Homeowners
Gen Y-ers shouldn’t let their aspirations of homeownership give them financial tunnel vision, Bonneau told me.
“It’s not OK to ignore proper risk management, an emergency fund, utilizing your 401(k) match, just because you’re so singly focused on buying property,” she said. “It is much more exciting, potentially, than saving for 40 years down the road, but it’s the responsibility of forward-thinking millennials to not be thinking of just property now and throwing caution to the wind in terms of everything else.”
On top of contributing to your regularly scheduled savings goals, Bonneau said, millennial homebuyers should also keep a buffer for the various unexpected fees that come with new property.
“You have to understand the property tax in your area, are there HOA or maintenance fees, if you’re part of an association,” she said. “If you’re part of an HOA, they have the right to potentially ask you for more money above and beyond if they decide to embark on a big project like repainting the whole complex. Obviously if something breaks, it’s on you — you’re the landlord now. … You have to do your due diligence when it comes to what you’re buying.”
That due diligence extends to life insurance, too, which Bonneau said she purchased for herself to make sure there would be no scenario in which her parents would inherit her debt.
April Masini, author of the advice column “Ask April,” added that unmarried couples buying a house have one last document to sign after the insurance and mortgage papers.
“Prenups are not just for married couples,” Masini told me. “Having a written agreement before cohabitation commences, when there is real estate involved, is always a good idea.”
It’s an unromantic process, to be sure — flipping a house, legally promising to divide assets equally, finding a condo within your budget. But the dream of homeownership hasn’t been lost amid the pragmatism of Gen Y-ers. The desire to own a home of your own remains the No. 1 reason people buy houses across all generations, according to the NAR, far more so than financial incentives.
For Johansen, and many other millennials, buying a home was both a milestone and a badge for her relationship. With the help of family members and an odd, instructional video on YouTube, she and her boyfriend have been renovating their new purchase.
“We have learned a lot about give and take, good communication and budgeting,” she told me. “I think we also both really respect the hard work and skill set each of us bring to the table. It is so amazing to look at a successfully completed project and say, ‘We did that!’”
 

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How to Spot Job Candidates Who Will Have Attendance Problems

By Alison Green

culled from:http://www.inc.com
Can you screen out candidates who won't be reliable--before you've hired them?
Editor's note: Inc.com columnist Alison Green answers questions about workplace and management issues--everything from how to deal with a micromanaging boss to how to talk to someone on your team about body odor.
A reader writes:

Do you have suggestions on how to screen for employees who will have absenteeism problems and not show up for work?
I work in a call center. Most of the folks we hire know what that type of environment is. And yet we still end up terminating people on a regular basis for not showing up for work. It's extremely frustrating!
We do everything we can to make it a fun place to work, and whenever we do hire, we have people recommending that their friends apply, so I like to think it's not the environment.

Well, first, no hiring process is perfect. No matter how thorough your screening processes, you can't screen out attendance problems with 100 percent accuracy. However, there are a lot of things that you can do to minimize the issue:
1. Really probe for motivation when you're interviewing people. For instance, you can ask things like, "Tell me about the workplace you were most satisfied with. What made you so satisfied? What about the time you were the least satisfied?" You're looking for people who talk about getting satisfaction out of productivity and results and a feeling of accomplishment.
You should also delve deeply into candidates' past work experiences--getting them to walk you through a past project in detail, with lots of follow-up questions. If you do that, you're going to start getting a sense of what drives the person and how they think about work.
2. In the interview process, talk explicitly about your company's culture and values. Talk about having high standards, a strong work ethic, and a commitment to results--because some candidates will self-select out if they're not a good fit with that environment.
For instance, I'll sometimes say this to candidates during interviews: "One thing to know about our culture is that we hold ourselves to high standards. We strive for excellence in everything we do, and the work ethic here is higher than anywhere else I've worked--you won't see anyone hanging out on Facebook during the day, or spending an afternoon goofing off in the kitchen. And we're direct about addressing it when things aren't working out. Some people absolutely love that, but it's not for everyone."
Candidates who will fit in well with that culture become excited and more invested in the job prospect at this point, and candidates who aren't good matches tend to reveal that through their responses or drop out on their own.
3. Reference checks can be extremely helpful at ferreting out this kind of thing. Aside from asking straightforward questions about attendance and reliability, find ways to make it "safe" for references to give you the truth about the candidate. For instance, you might ask something like this: "Some people are at a point in their careers where work is a top priority and they're really throwing themselves into it with enthusiasm. Other people are looking more for a 9-to-5 job that pays the bills, but it's not a passion for them. Both are legitimate approaches. Where would you put Bob on that spectrum?"
Now, all this said, there are some jobs where the nature of the work means that there's just going to be a revolving door element to the staffing. Call centers are a prime example of this. You should still do the sort of screening I outline above, and also be very transparent during the hiring process about what candidates can expect once working there, but to some extent, in call centers and similar environments, this may be part of the package.

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