Today’s entrepreneur will inevitably be asked at some point where you like to connect on social.
Are you on Facebook? Insta? Do you tweet? Pin? Prefer Linked?
If you are not in to social media, or you prefer not to have your business on social media, you will miss out on potentially thousands, maybe millions, of customers who use social to find all the information they seek.
But you have many options for choosing a preferred social media platform. Some will say follow your audience, others will stay stick with favorite site. Some believe in only being on the biggest. Others like the niches. Some insist you should be everywhere, others believe you must specialize on one.
In all cases, consistent and valuable content helps build a lasting audience that always knows where to find you.
But what is the best path for choosing a social media platform?
And how do you know which social media platform is right for your business?
Whether you love or hate social media, you are going to have to have a position on the platforms for your business. Potential customers will look for you on social, and they will want to engage with you there. You will also have the opportunity to market, promote and share value every day, all day.
So how do you choose?
Understand the platforms
You need to understand what each of the social media platforms are, and what they do. You should also understand the demographics for the dominate audience on each platform.
The basic idea of a social platform is that you establish a profile, post your text or pictures, and people engage with that profile, leaving comments and feedback that other people can see.
Find Your Audience
When marketers say you need to know where your audience is hanging out, you can use either formal or informal approaches to finding this information.
The informal approach is to check out the sites and see who is there. Make sure you set-up a profile and see if you can engage with other participants.
Search topics relevant to your business, and look at the people who are posting and commenting on the subject. Narrow your search as much as possible. If you search #entrepreneur on Instagram, you see tens of millions of posts.
But if you search #womenentrepreneursofsaskatchewan, there are fewer than 100 posts.
As you look at the public profiles or pages of your potential customers, you will be able to learn about their preferences and interests.
The formal search approach involves using paid analysis services.
When you are looking to analyze where the audience is located, you can look at sources like Hootsuite. Every year there are multiple organizations that analyze social media trends and usage. You could spend some time reading these documents, or you could just go to each site and see what’s there.
Although these are great services for information, they present the information in generalities. While the general profile of the audience may be valid, you will not have the specifics about your potential customers who could be anywhere.
Be careful about dismissing a potential audience thread because you read the audience is more likely to be somewhere else. Look at the content on the platform and see for yourself if you think the audience appeals to you.
Go through the platform as a user, search for topics that interest you and see what comes up, and whether it’s easy or difficult to find what you are looking for.
Do you get bored after a few minutes or end up being sucked in for hours? That’s the real test of whether or not the platform works for you – now ask does it work for your ideal customer?
Overview of Each Platform in Alphabetical Order
Despite its increasingly eroding reputation, Facebook is still the social media behemoth. With a couple billion users a day, Facebook is impossible to ignore. But ironically it’s one of the more difficult platforms for building an audience.
You must bring friends to your Facebook page, and hope they will like or follow you, or preferably both. Facebook is the most demanding platform when it comes to proving interaction.
Your potential customer must friend, follow and like you to count in your numbers. That’s three clicks just to be recognizes as operating in your world.
But you have the benefit of using Facebook for long text messages, short messenger messages, images, videos, and links. That kind of complete functionality does not exist on the other sites.
If your business is prepared to spend Facebook also has a robust advertising program that allows you to directly target people who have expressed an interest subjects you define. The scope of their customer analytics is extraordinary, but the frequently changing rules is a challenge for all sides.
Goodreads
Goodreads is included as an example of a subject specific social site. The site is for readers, which means it’s used by authors who have profiles, to answer questions, post reviews and engage in groups.
If you are a writer or writing a book that is linked to your business or other non-fiction in your genre you can engage with readers on the platform. But be careful, Goodreads is a readers site meaning authors are not welcome to promote their books, only to offer value.
You can search for subject social sites and forums discussing issues around your product or service.
The occasionally-defined, and often-repeated rule is to add value first, avoid promoting your product or service unless permitted, and respect the site for its declared purpose, not as a place only for you to find more customers.
For all the photography buffs, Insta is for you. The site is defined by its visual presentation of images and videos. The emphasis on images leaves you with a limited profile and no place to put links inside posts.
Insta is perfect for businesses that use images in promotion like travel and cooking. It has fewer opportunities to direct people off the platform, unless you have a business account, which does have additional features.
In the past, Instagram has been one of the best sites for growing an audience organically because you could use hashtags to connect your content to various topics and ideas, and people would discover you.
However, it seems to be getting harder to be discovered on Insta which limits the options for those who do not have community coming from somewhere else.
Linked In
The site for professionals is all about profiles, networking and adding value.
Linked In is probably the most serious of the sites, with people who have high expectations for the type of contact that should be available. You can add links, videos, and pics, but all should be of the highest quality and interest.
This is probably the hardest site for growing a business and attracting people to developing ideas, but one of the strongest for more established ideas and information people can use in their existing professional lives.
Many are surprised to realize that Pinterest is more of a search engine, than a social site. This is a place where people are looking for specific topics and ideas.
The user’s approach appears to make Pinterest more serious than a typical social site. Pins often lead to blogs, that provide detailed resources, keeping users off the social site. But the functionality also makes Pinterest the most mysterious of the social sites.
You are pinning your ideas, which require extra work to find and create an appealing pin graphic, and then writing the post in the description area. The organization and categorization of your pin is not intuitive. If you decide to become serious about using the site, you should do some research into keyword selection and writing for pins.
But if you are putting together interesting collections on your pin boards, you may be surprised about how you begin to attract new followers.
Snapchat
The site most associated with a younger crowd appears to have lost its original lustre. But it’s all about creativity – pictures and captions – decorated and enhanced for appeal and attraction.
This site is mostly ‘fast,’ and in the moment so if that’s how your business rolls it could be your preference.
Tik Tok
This is one big party. You could have room for your business here, but only if it’s a party.
Whether you are inflamed or not by the messages, you know Twitter is where people make statements sometimes short, sometimes threads, and all range of controversy.
If you want to be quoted, leave your comments on Twitter. You can also just use the site to post announcements about your business.
If you are using Twitter for business, you may not want want to be doing anything that will effect your revenue or turn off your ideal customers. The temptation is there to fill in those 280 characters with a shocking statement. But it’s not always the most ideal way to move forward.
YouTube
If you set up a channel for your videos, you can use the description section in YouTube to provide more detail, and help people find you.
Although YouTube not set up as a social site, it can still be used as one. Viewers can engage with you in comments and you can reply – allowing others to see the discussion.
Next to Facebook, YouTube is the biggest social site. It’s hard to ignore the appeal of video. Even if you are not comfortable on camera, you may still want to consider how the platform may be useful for you.
Summary of Social Media Platform Differences
Here’s a quick glance guide to each platform:
Facebook – short or long posts, images, videos, and links, but you have to get the audience to come to you. There’s an invitation step for friends, and a commitment from followers
Goodreads – readers, readers and more readers and all things books – look for similar sites in your niche
Instagram – images, videos, stories, people can find you through hashtags – but no links and not many long involved posts
Linked In – serious, professional, more thoughtful posts, but also more engaged and possibly more connected
Pinterest – images, text in the descriptions, links, more of a search network, no comments, but people can find you and follow you
Snap Chat – all social all the time, great if you want to be communicating with your audience all the time
TikTok – all performance all the time, if you have creative videos this is where you should be
Twitter – short phrases, witty posts, your quotes and brief comments hashtags, but not much room for serious engagement
You Tube – video with text explanations, a search engine, links in the description, social in the comments
by Case Lane
When you are first starting as an entrepreneur and manage to put away 15 minutes a day to work on your business, you will likely start by researching more about your business idea.
The purpose of your research should be to find sufficient information to move on to the next step in launching your business. But many aspiring entrepreneurs get caught in analysis paralysis, endlessly researching similar products or services in an effort to understand the competition. But there are more productive ways to spend your time.
When researching:
Investigate your Business Idea
Once you have a business idea, you have to find the information to fill in the gaps in your knowledge.
Most business ideas come from the entrepreneur’s own questions around their likes, dislikes, hobbies, experiences, work and education. Some people have also asked others to contribute to an idea. The origin of the idea is the foundation for going forward and doing your research.
Research Leads to Action
All research should be leading to action. The research provides the details about how you can bring your product or service to your community, then you can begin to take the action steps necessary to make it happen.
Research helps you realize what you need to do. The information can help you decide how to determine what you like or do not like that is already available, to identify best practices and good ideas, and to put together an action plan for yourself.
You want to see what’s going on in the marketplace – if anything – related to your product or service. And this exercise exists even if you have an idea of a product or service that does not exist in the marketplace.
Look at the context and functions for your idea
Looking at the broader market will help you determine the context for your product or service.
For example, there is a saying that if Henry Ford had listened to his customers, they would have said they want a faster horse. The statement is supposed to be profound because Ford of course brought the car to the masses. The masses could not have envisioned a car, they could only envision a faster horse.
But if you look at the context of this example, you see a different story. Consider the functional not literal product Ford delivered.
The customers were saying they want to get around faster. And Ford responded by giving them away to get around faster than a horse. He even emulated the infrastructure needed to manage his new product.
The car needs care and feeding, just like a horse, but this time with hay not gasoline. The product needs to be stored, not in a stable but in a garage. And it must be maintained, not with horse shoes but with tires. Ford actually gave people the functionality of a faster horse – that’s just not what we ended up calling it.
So when you are looking at your product or service, you are looking at the context for how you will introduce the product, and the functions it will perform.
Even if you have invented a new product or service, you still need to research the other products or services that try to address the same or a similar problem.
Go Offline
After all the online research, it’s important to remember there is a world outside where potential customers could be demonstrating the literal or functional use of your product or service.
If you look and touch the real world, you might learn more about what you intend to offer. Go out to see your product or service in live action. You can go to a store and see people shop or ask questions about the product, or maybe just walk down the street to see if your idea evolves based on your real world interactions.
Even if your product is completely digital, consider if the problem you are trying to solve also plays out in the physical world.
Limit Your Research Time
When starting research, Now I mentioned earlier that you do not need to do endless research. You can decide how much time you really want to spend. Part of the decision rests on how your life is currently organized. If you are only taking 15 mins a day to research because you are slowly working up to your available time then it make take you several weeks to put together sufficient information.
Generally if you have one or two hours a day, start with one week, and see how much information you can gather. If you still feel you need more information, go one more week. But do not keep procrastinating or delaying the work.
You are much better off getting started than just trying to keep researching forever.
You will know you are finished when you have enough information to move forward. For example, if you are starting a podcast and you’ve researched equipment and learned how you can do the recording, and where to host the completed file, at that point it’s time to create content.
You don’t need to keep looking at microphones. You can go with the most recommended one and if you don’t like it you can upgrade later. The same is true for the hosting platform or recording software. You can always change your mind after you get started and receive initial feedback on how the process is working.
In general, you are doing research to give you enough information to move your business along, not to have an excuse to delay starting your business.
Summary for How to Research Your Business Idea
- After you have selected your business idea, research is used to determine what you need to do next to take action on getting your business started
- Think about the functional use for your product or service and the context that people will use it, not just the literal use of similar products or services
- Go out into the real world with your research, not just online. Look up how similar products and services are presented in the marketplace
- Keep going until you have enough information to move on to the next step of your plan. A week of 1-2 hour days is a good start. Make sure you stop and move on. You can always change your mind after you have started and tested the results of your decision.
- It’s better to start the business with a little research, than to not start at all while you continue to spend time endlessly looking things up
The key to researching your business idea is to get enough information to move you along to the next step.
The idea as always is to just get started.
How to Get Started with No Audience or Market
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur with no friends, family or colleagues who support your idea of becoming an entrepreneur; or you have tons of friends, but all of them are only interested in partying, celebrities, sports or other things, and nobody ever wants to talk about business, how do you get your business idea out into the global marketplace?.
You may have a business idea in your head, but when you try and share your plans, you get the cold shoulder. No one is going to give you any feedback about whether or not your idea is any good. But you are ready to launch. You have a product or service you want to put out into the global marketplace, but you have no idea how to make sure your potential customers know about you.
How do you get started?
Product Launch
When you start a business you often do something called a product launch. One of the best ways to think of it, is it’s like a movie premiere. The final official launch of a new movie is a big party announcing the ‘product’ is now available for everyone to see.
If you are a billion-dollar Hollywood studio, you throw a huge bash, invite all the stars, roll out the red carpet, tell the press, and bam! your product is launched, and gets mountains of free publicity.
Publicity that comes months after – trailers, bus side posters, interviews in the press, and many other promotional activities have already taken place. If you are a Hollywood studio, you spend money to launch a product and you’re done.
How can your business idea get the red carpet treatment?
But if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur and you don’t have the multi-million dollar budget, how do you get started?
If you would like to hear these strategies, check out the Ready Entrepreneur Podcast Episode 063: How to Get Started with No Audience or Market on Apple Podcasts or wherever you enjoy your podcasts
Friends and Family
Many entrepreneur how-to gurus will tell you to start your promotion with friends and family. If you can get the people around you to try your product or service, and maybe even review it, you can easily get started with immediate feedback and ‘social proof.’
The early support is helpful and inspiring, but really only works best when friends and family are your potential community. If they’re not, the support your receive may not be genuine, as they may not be interested in contributing to your idea, or might provide a half-baked response.
Using friends and family works best for those who have strong, supportive and active friends and family. If you belong to religious groups or organizations that support individual endeavors, you can leverage those connections.
If you don’t have a supportive immediate circle, you have to think like a Hollywood studio.
Publicity
When launching a new product or service, an entrepreneur needs publicity. And you get publicity by creating a compelling story about your product or service, and then telling people who are, or can connect you with, media influencers.
There are many ways to start telling people about your product or service. Start with social media. Develop the message of your product or service and post about it on social media. Different platforms perform differently for this approach.
If you use Instagram and your product or service can be displayed in pretty pictures, then go ahead and post attractive photos. You can also use hashtags to highlight your product or service for people who are looking for something similar. Instagram works best for this because it gives you the popularity of hashtags.
Twitter works in a similar way. Sometimes people search for an idea, or phrase ,and you can lead them to your product or service if you are using a hashtag that is associated with your product or service.
If you use Facebook, you can write a detailed post, with links to your site. However, you may have a more challenging time circulating your posts to others.
If you have some friends or family who you know are not interested in your business, try and get them to circulate your message others by encouraging them to repost or pass it on to someone who may be interested.
Social media allows you to move forward if you have no other resources, and you just want to see what kind of an organic response your idea may receive from the marketplace.
Giveaways
Before a Hollywood studio releases a movie, they let a lot of people see it for free. They hope those people enjoy the movie, write reviews and spread the word to others. You can do the same with your product or service.
You can offer the product or service for free, or offer a portion of it or a companion product that prompts people to just pick up and try your idea.
Free promos have been part of the marketing playbook for years. You may already be familiar with the practice inside your local Costco. There is a reason they are giving out free samples. The store is trying to prompt the customer to buy the whole product. You can use the same tactic.
Depending on your product or service, you have to find the best place to provide your free offer. The aisles at Costco are controlled. But you may be able to find a local event or product fair that suits your style and business intent.
Online you can use tools like webinars, YouTube videos or Internet calls to provide free services that allow people to sample what you have to offer and how you deliver it.
Once you are able to obtain a potential customer’s attention through a free offer, then you have an opportunity to retain them by collecting an e-mail address, and continuing to communicate and follow-up.
Blog, Podcast or Video posts
You can also build your audience through blogging, podcasting and online videos. These platforms can be free to use, and provide you with an opportunity to present a more detailed and thoughtful message about your product or service.
Plan your ‘message’ from the perspective of the customer. What would you want to hear about a new product or service that would peak your interest and stop you in your tracks? You can write a story about your product, or the reason you decided to start your service, or a testimonial from someone else. And if you come up with a compelling idea, you may even be able to leverage other people’s audiences.
Other people’s audiences
If your idea resonates with the audience of another blogger, podcaster or vlogger, you can ask to appear on their established platform. These influencers are often looking for great new ideas for their audience. If you can present your product or service in a way that appeals to them, you may be able to ‘launch’ to an established audience.
But make sure you do your research. Do not approach influencers who have nothing to do with your product or service, or whose audiences would be completely different from your intended community. When you reach out, make sure you have something to offer that’s compelling and interesting enough for the influencer to want to present you to their community.
Most businesses began with no visible market. In fact, many aspiring entrepreneurs were told their idea would not work, and their business will not be successful.
The founding entrepreneur had to reach the people who would be interested in the product or service they had to offer. Ben and Jerry drove around selling ice-cream out of the back of their van. They took the product to the potential customers, and let them spread the word.
Summary:
- You can start your own publicity machine with family and friends if they are supportive
- If the people around you are not your intended community, reach out to social media with your messages, photos and hashtags that appeal to the people you are trying to reach
- You can giveaway your product or service in the arena that is most appropriate, whether that be at a physical event or online. Let people give your product or service a test run, and then become the testimonials for your future promotions
- Use online tools like blogging, podcasting or vlogging to create a compelling message about your product or service, and deliver it to a larger audience
- Reach out to people who have established blogs, podcasts or vlogs and let them know if you have a product or service that may be beneficial to their community. You have to show them how you provide value.
A Quick Start Guide to Online Entrepreneurship
Many aspiring entrepreneurs want to start an online business. The idea of low or no start-up costs, running an empire from your laptop, and being able to use all the latest technology in your day-to-day operations is appealing and romantic.
Many believe online entrepreneurs move faster, get things done easier, and reap immediate rewards by keeping their entire business infrastructure online.
The Internet is full of success stories from people doing what you want to do. But what, if anything, makes their process different from any other type of entrepreneur?
To listen to these tips, check out the Ready Entrepreneur Podcast Episode 062: A Quick Start Guide to Online Entrepreneurship at Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen to your podcast
What does it mean to be an online entrepreneur?
Being an online entrepreneur is the same as being an entrepreneur in general.
Entrepreneurs identify value to deliver to the global marketplace. If you have a product or service that people want or need, and you want to bring that product or service to a potential community, then you are already thinking like an entrepreneur.
You become an entrepreneur when you get the business started and reach out your potential customers.
What is different for an online entrepreneur?
To understand any potential differences between online entrepreneurs and traditional entrepreneurs start with the definition of an online business.
An online business means a business enterprise that delivers products or services only over the Internet, and you earn your revenue the same way. You take advantage of online tools and resources to get your idea in front of your community.
Some of the most popular online businesses include blogger, vlogger, podcaster, author, teacher, software designer, artist, editor, copywriter, marketer…and the list goes on and on. These are all businesses that can be started and function only online.
For the purposes of this article, online businesses are those that were created through the rise of the Internet, and its applications.
Old vs. New
Traditional businesses that are now conducted online are different from new economy businesses that were invented online. If you are a licensed professional in a traditional business like healthcare, and you start providing medical advice online, you are governed by a different set of rules than a blogger who starts providing opinion about a healthcare issue online.
An aspiring entrepreneur starting an online business must decide: what business you are in. If you are in a regulated industry, you must follow that industry’s rules even online. If you are in a new economy industry, the rules are still murky and somewhat free. However, the environment of online law is changing rapidly, by the day, and all entrepreneurs must be aware of how these changes may effect their business.
A Website or Landing Page vs. Social Media presence
When starting an online business, an aspiring entrepreneur must know if there are potential customers. And the potential customers must know where to find the entrepreneur.
Many online businesses start with a website, but some avoid even that early expense by focusing on a social media presence.
If you have only social media, your biggest challenge will be in knowing who your audience is, and finding a way to keep them as part of your business. Setting up on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram provides you with a free forum for posting about your product or service offering. You may even be able to communicate directly with your community using services like Messenger. This may set up your initial business, and even provide you with a few customers.
But you also have to think of the customer experience. With a website, you can set-up and organize all your information in an easy-to-navigate format. Most importantly, you can host a permanent location for new and interested customers to sign-up with you and learn more about your product or service.
Own your audience
From the first day you begin an online business, you want to be able to own the potential customers who come looking for you by maintaining a relationship with them. You start by giving them a place to sign up for more information. When they sign up you get their e-mail address, and you can ethically continue to communicate with them about your product, service or related issues.
If your audience is only located on a third party platform like Facebook, then that company owns the audience. You can be kicked off of Facebook at any minute, and at that point you lose the audience and all the comments and connections you may have made.
If you own your audience, you control the relationship.
To own your audience, you can sign-up for an e-mail management service like ConvertKit that provides both forms and landing pages for you to collect e-mails, and back end organization for the e-mail lists you have. You can learn to use the service’s features which automatically upgrade your plan as your email list grows.
New Rules
Aspiring entrepreneurs should be aware of the regulations that are being implemented to protect people’s personal information, children, and commerce in general.
Taking possession of someone’s email information means you are subject to privacy regulations. Most legitimate entrepreneurs state upfront that they never sell or share an e-mail with a third party. This type of transparency helps build trust with your audience, and positions you as a business that does not need to run scams to attract people for only their e-mail address.
If the content you provide is not suitable for children, you must also be aware of the appropriate warnings that you need to include to warn parents and others.
Even with the focus on issue like privacy, other Internet practices are not diligently governed, and you must police yourself using common ethical standards and practices.
The Internet is global, anyone, anywhere in the world can put up any type of online front page and be in business. The governance for this behavior is not universal, nor recognized by everyone.
The reality is both an opportunity and a trap. If you are doing business with the public, you are subject to certain rules and ethical practices. If you abuse people’s trust, they will find a way to bring down your business. The same forces that allow you to successfully join the global business community in a matter of minutes can end your business just as quickly if you prove to be unworthy of their trust.
The best practice for an aspiring entrepreneur is to be prepared to behave online as if you are facing your customer directly in the face, and not as if you are anonymous and unaccountable for your actions.
Which Online Business should you select?
The criteria for deciding which business idea is best for you to start is another article. In general, you should consider:
- A thoughtful, truthful personal brainstorm on your strengths
- Issues or problems that come up in every day life
- Products or services you would use to make your life better
- Align the above with your education, experience, knowledge and hobbies
When you have your idea, you decide which platform is best for delivering it to the global marketplace. Here are some useful links depending on the type of person you identified with above:
For personalities – Start Video-blogging
For Teaching Others – Start an Online courses
For techy types and gamers – Create an App
For software designers – Create Software as a Service (saas)
Online entrepreneurship is the same as all entrepreneurship. You identify value you can deliver to the global marketplace through a product or service that will solve a problem, or deliver a solution.
Summary of The Quick Start Guide to Online Entrepreneurship:
- As you are getting started, decide if you are moving a traditional physical world business online, or starting with a new economy purely online business like blogging
- If you cannot decide, check out the resources just above this section for how to get started in the new economy areas
- Once you have an idea of what you want to do, decide if you want to have a website or strictly social media presence as the place where your potential community can connect with you. If you have a website or landing page, you can begin immediately to collect e-mail addresses and communicate directly with people who are interested in your product or service. If you only use social media, you can get started right away, but you do not own your audience
- Be aware that just because you are online does not mean you are above the law. You must still recognize laws, regulations and ethical practices when dealing with the public and operating online
Disclosure: links to ConvertKit on my site are affiliate links which means I earn revenue for eligible purchases that helps support this website and other resources for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Stay One Step Ahead of the Robots
by Case Lane
The rise of technology into every area of our lives has frightened many people into believing the unchecked advances will eventually overwhelm us. Humans will fight the machines…and lose.
But when humans face a new fear – diseases, rodents, other humans – the response has usually been to…fight. Throughout history, humans have challenged attackers head on. The survival instinct has made fighting part of human DNA.
The Rise of Robots
Now comes the rise of robots. Or more specifically the advent of robotic and artificial intelligence products and services that can replace the work currently being done by humans. The fear is that these technological marvels will render humans useless.
People with no work lose their self-confidence and dignity. They turn to substance abuse, violence and other harms to express their frustration. A world where humans believe they have no work is a world no humans would want to live in.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Although many people have been faced with technological change in the workplace, to the point of losing their jobs to technology, the response has been to expect more of the same.
But the response could be…to redefine your value.
The New Hope for Humans
The rise of technology matches the rise of human freedom and independence. Although there are many governments who will use technology to control their population, the difference with advances in the past is that those governments can also have technology used against them.
For the first time, the people have within their ‘brain’ power, the opportunity to override government action with technology solutions of their own. And in so doing to maintain their freedom and independence.
Aspiring entrepreneurs can take advantage of the same opportunity. The rise of a global, high tech future means the every day person has the opportunity to live life on their terms.
This type of freedom has never existed before in history. People were always constrained. In the beginning you were politically free but controlled by your resources, and up to the 20th century your freedom was politically controlled although resources were abundant.
Now the shackles are being thrown off, but a new fear has emerged. The one where you are so free, you are not wanted by anyone, and your value is reduced to nothing by technology that can do everything you can do.
Entrepreneurs Do What the Robots Cannot Do
For an aspiring entrepreneur, this potentially dire fate is actually an open door. Aspiring entrepreneurs can control of their own futures, by starting a business, defining the value you intend to create, and becoming valued for being human with the ability to deliver your product and service in a way only humans can make viable.
Entrepreneurs by definition identify new opportunities. Sometimes the product or service you intend to bring to market already exists in form. If you want to help people learn to paint, or sing or you want to create a new bag or t-shirt. Those products and services exist – but they may not necessarily exist for the audience you intend to target.
For the aspiring entrepreneur, your audience is the one that wants the product or service from you because of the way you design, produce and/or distribute it. You can buy books anywhere, but you buy books on Amazon because they are delivered to your door.
Many companies make computers, but people buy Apple computers because they’re slickly designed.
And when it comes to fashion – t-shirts to haut couture dresses, flip-flops to high heels – the marketplace wants an extraordinary variety of products.
Entrepreneurs fill gaps in the global marketplace. The plan for the robots is to do work that already exists. But not all work can be delivered by robots. Even if you believe that may not be the case someday, the chances that you living right now, will see robots do absolutely every single possible job in the world is probably zero.
Robots also do not do the most human-contact type of work from hair stylists to surgeons. As long as humans want to maintain contact with humans in professions where human thought and interaction are required, the robots will be one step behind.
The Technology Risk to Entrepreneurs
Now obviously there are no guarantees. Science and technology can accelerate at any moment and place your business at a disadvantage. But that has been the prediction throughout history. Sometimes when technology replaces an entrenched product or service, the product makes a comeback, or evolves to fulfill a new need.
Vinyl records now sell for 5 or 10 times the price people used to pay for them because the once ubiquitous item has become a novelty people purchase as a gift or collector’s item.
Other items like the 8-track tape player are not expected to return, ever.
But as an aspiring entrepreneur with one eye on the global marketplace and the other on your niche audience’s demands, you can hedge your own bets about what may or may not work by focusing on fulfilling the need your audience has right now.
The path to controlling your professional life runs through entrepreneurship. By turning yourself into a person who recognizes a gap in the market, you can deliver value to more people who are searching for the same thing.
Because you have to find a product or service that your audience wants or needs, by definition, that product or service does not already exist. And therefore the chance that robots or A.I. can deliver the product or service also does not yet exist.
If you are fulfilling someone else’s vision or working at a company where someone has a specific idea about how the product or service is delivered, you likely have limited flexibility within your job, and perhaps in the not to distant future, no job at all.
Any product or service that exists today is vulnerable to replacement by technology. Robots or A.I. can do many of the activities that humans have always done.
Which job is next for replacement?
At Singapore’s state-of-the-art Changi International Airport, one of the best airports in the world, passengers with time to spare can leave their luggage in traditional baggage storage, or self check-in the baggage at the same time as themselves.
The process involves no humans, only sensors, cameras and prompts provided to you by a screen. An airline ticket counter agent was a position that required training. But the functions were easily automated. The checks and controls gate agents used to provide were covered by cameras. And the rest of the task was left up to the passenger.
As you consider today’s employment field, focus on the positions that have repetitive and mechanical steps. Those are the jobs that can be replaced.
As an aspiring entrepreneur, you create the job for yourself and your team. You are not, at least not immediately, facing the same vulnerability to replacement as existing controlled positions. As long as you maintain your unique approach to the product or service you are delivering, you maintain your distinct advantage over the robots.
The job you create for yourself by becoming an entrepreneur puts you in charge of a future you create.
Cherish the Value of Humans
Your vision is singular. Can robots see the world as we do? Not yet, and probably not ever. Because it’s the essential humanness of ourselves that we put into our business that makes it valuable to other humans.
As long as humans value humans. We will value what humans do. And your opportunity to be your own boss and be part of the global marketplace comes from your ability to put something new and differentiated in to it.
You stay one step ahead of the robots by identifying the value you add to the marketplace, and making that value available to those who want and need your product.
If you are still trying to think of an idea, or you are working on building your business, either way, you are already ahead of the airline counter agents, and those like them whose tasks can be performed by technology.
And if you continue to build on your idea and make your business successful. You are also one step ahead of those who are missing out on the life they really want because they work on someone else’s dreams.
You get to your life dream through globalization and technology. Even if you have been negatively affected by the twin forces of 21st century change, you can use the setback to your advantage, by leveraging the exact same forces that upended you, to make a better world for yourself.
In summary:
Stay One Step Ahead of the Robots:
- Globalization and technology are the twin forces of change that are here to stay
- Many jobs from airline ticket counter agents and beyond will be replaced by technology solutions
- You can hedge your bets against being replaced by robots or A.I., by developing your business idea
- Your business idea is designed by you to bring value to the global marketplace based on gaps and opportunities that you can see need to be filled.
- You develop your idea based on your individual uniqueness and qualities that appeal to your audience
- You create a product or service that is valued for its innovation, production or distribution – and therefore is unique to the vision you have seen
- You stay one step ahead of the robots by creating your own business, providing a product or service that is valued in the global marketplace, and continuing to deliver results for your audience
Understanding Tech as an Aspiring Entrepreneur
Why should you care about technology as an entrepreneur? Not the smartphone in your hand or the laptop on your desk, but the entire realm of technology advancement and achievement. The transition from an industrial to a technology society.
Technology is the practical application of knowledge in a particular area, or the capability presented by that knowledge (Merriam-Webster dictionary).
What does that mean to you as a business person in the 21st century?
How should you be thinking about these incredible tech developments as an entrepreneur?
In this article, we look at the use and application of technology for your business, lifestyle and the future, this article and the accompanying three-part podcast series look at technology not from a purely technical place, but from a more philosophical place.
As an aspiring entrepreneur in the 21st century, you should have an idea of how you view the advent of technology in our economy, and the impact on our society.
You can develop a tech plan that fits your business, lifestyle and future plans.
Business: As a business person, you will implement technology into your operations, but you will also have to be aware of how technology affects your business, and your customers.
Lifestyle: As you use technology to build your business, you (hopefully) will be in a position to transition your lifestyle, and use some of the advances you have learned to improve your own standard of living.
Future: And what does the future hold for your business and lifestyle as technology continues to advance and change our lives? What are some of the issues you should be aware of as you make the transition to the next century?
Your Business
As an aspiring entrepreneur, you need to formulate in your mind how you want to see technology as you build your business. Aside from determining which technology tools you are interested in using such as e-mail management software or websites, what will technology mean to you as you move forward?
Is technology a life force you will incorporate at every turn, a hindrance, or a conspirator in exploitation you will use for nefarious ends?
For comparison, we can look at how technology was viewed by witnesses of the transformation from the agrarian to the industrial age. Imagine how people had to view their lives when they began to see the transformation as described here in Frank Norris’s 1903 book ‘The Pit: A Story of Chicago:
…the life was tremendous. All around, on every side, in every direction the vast machinery of Commonwealth clashed and thundered from dawn to dark and dark till dawn..carrying Trade – the life blood of nations…bringing Trade – a galvanising elixir – from the very ends and corners of the continent…The Great Grey City, brooking no rival, imposed its dominion upon a reach of country larger than many a kingdom of the Old World. For, thousands of miles beyond its confines was its influence felt…It was Empire, the resistless subjugation of all this central world…whence inevitablity must comes its immeasurable power, its infinite, inexhaustible vitality…the true life – the true power and spirit of America; gigantic, crude with the crudity of youth, disdaining rivalry; sane and healthy and vigorous; brutal in its ambition, arrogant in the new-found knowledge of its giant strength, prodigal of its wealth, infinite in its desires…In its capacity boundless, in its courage indomitable; subduing the wilderness in a single generation, defying calamity, and through the flame and debris of a commonwealth in ashes, rising suddenly renewed, formidable and Titanic.
The character Laura says….”I suppose it’s civilisation in the making, the thing that isn’t meant to be seen, as though it were too elemental – primordial….”
The character recognizes a little bit of fear for this force of technology and industry that is changing civilization, but is also impressed and awed by its presence. At the turn of that century, and in the coming of the industrial age, people had to understand not only the obvious power of the machinery, but the impact it will have on humanity.
But in the industrial age, you could look technology in the eye. You could see it in its drama and majesty. The negative impact on the environment and the average worker was visible and obvious. The changes that were to come – in law and society – had plenty of examples about why they were needed.
Today, in the 21st century, in the transition to the technology age, many of the impacts are unseen, far-reaching and unknown.
Certainly you know Facebook is a gigantic company used by billions, but you probably have no idea what the technology is doing each time you click, post, like or follow on a page.
As an aspiring entrepreneur, when you think about how you want to build and grow your business. Think about how you will use technology, and consider these four issues: privacy, opportunity, accessibility and impact as you either formally or informally create your tech plan.
Privacy
The changing concept of privacy is one of our biggest challenges. Most people have traded privacy for convenience, the right to use free services. But few truly understands what their acquiescence means. Technology companies do not reveal the details of their algorithms, nor the scope and range of how they use and manipulate data. 
An entrepreneur, using the Internet in any form, must be aware of these issues. For example, you may collect e-mail addresses. What are you going to do with those e-mail addresses? When you add a Facebook pixel to a webpage, what data are you collecting and how will you use it?
As an entrepreneur, you should be prepared to explain what you are doing with the data you can collect. You should also be aware of your responsibility, and have a plan for protecting the data. The blanket ability to collect data does not necessarily mean you should blindly participate in the process. But if you do, you should also have policies that clearly define how you are participating and your intentions going forward.
Opportunity
With new technologies, opportunity is rapid and tempting. A new software, service or device may allow you to change your business model, provide better products or make more money. New technologies are rapidly adopted, and companies encourage early adopters to promote their views.
As each new technology comes on line, even if the product permits you to have access to data or applications you were not expecting, you must still consider if using the product makes sense for your business and your consumers.
You may have an opportunity to do something spectacular or destroy your business with recklessness. Opportunity does not necessarily mean an open door.
Accessibility
Technology is everywhere and there are many ways that you can use it. Accessibility in this case does not refer to tech tools for the physically-challenged. This accessibility concept is about how a global audience can find you.
As a globally-thinking entrepreneur, you want to make your product or service as accessible as possible through the available tools. When you do this, think about who you are trying to reach and the best methods for spreading information about your offering.
Some potential customers may only access the Internet on their phone, others may use public services with time limits. If you want to spread your message widely, use technology in a way that lets others access it as well.
Impact
You have a chance today to make an impact far beyond your own laptop. In Frank Norris’s Chicago described in the book The Pit:
…axes and saws bit the bark of century-old trees, stimulated by the city’s energy…her force turned the wheels of harvester and seeder a thousand miles distant…spun the screws and propellers of innumerable squadrons of lake steamers….
The impact is direct and present.
In the 21st century as you build your business now, your impact is likely to be through words if you teach or coach online, or contact if you create an app or software as a service, or even directly if you place a product in someone’s hands.
In all cases, you are still part of an economy of industry and action, but with technology you can move faster and have a greater reach, even more so than in a newly industrializing city in the last century.
A 21st century entrepreneur should have a position on technology. For example, consider:
Technology as a force for good, one that will help us mend our ways and fix our ills – but only if it is deployed well
To make technology a force for good, society needs innovative practices, creativity and facilitation – recognizing that there are things we do and do not want in our economy.
In so many aspects of our lives, we want the best that technology has to offer, but we have to recognize that also means taking the worst. As an entrepreneur, are you fueling a hate-filled society by using social media? Or just trying to get the word out about your product?
Given the customer-facing issues discussed above: privacy, opportunity, accessibility and impact – you can create your own tech policy.
You may decide you will always protect your customers’ data and never sell e-mails to third parties. But you cannot stop there. You have to understand how other technology services that you are using affect your customers. You do not want to inadvertently break your own policy by not understanding the one used by entities you access.
On opportunity – decide to weigh your technology decisions carefully. You do not want to just chase the shiny apple. If there is an idea that might work for you, make sure the technology is really an opportunity and not just another fast sale from the latest hot thing.
On accessibility – think global, always. If appropriate for your product or service, keep your content simple, clean, clear, open and honest for an audience that can understand your message at all times. And even if your product or service is more ‘adult,’ remember you still have a global audience.
On impact – recognize you are delivering a message in everything you do. What is it? How do you want to potential customers to see you? And what should be the takeaway?
The purpose of Ready Entrepreneur is to help aspiring entrepreneurs achieve the dream lifestyle of financial and schedule independence by learning how to use the global marketplace and new technologies to start your own business.
In my book Life Dream: Seven Universal Moves to Get the Life you want through Entrepreneurship, you can find the steps you can take to help you move forward with getting your business launched. As you move through each of those steps, you want to be considering where technology fits in your progress.
The goal is to help you deliver the value you have as an entrepreneur to the global marketplace.
YOUR LIFESTYLE
One of the key benefits of becoming an entrepreneur is to live your dream lifestyle – right? Where does technology fit in that picture? Are you prepared to use technology to separate you from day-to-day work? Or are you just waiting for the cocktail-serving robot to get you through your day?
If you are a fan of technology, you may be thinking all the time about how you can incorporate technology solutions into your business to help facilitate your lifestyle.
Some of you may have the Hollywood vision – lying by the pool, being waited on, driving a fast Italian sportscar or a Rolls-Royce, and having people do whatever you say whenever you say it. You have no demands, no unmet desires and no troubles or issues.
Others may be thinking – you just want to quit your 9-to-5, get away from annoying people and do what you really want to do all day.
Some of you, like me, are traveling all over the world.
Considering your vision and how the idea of a ‘dream lifestyle’ plays out for you – what is technology doing to help you?
At Ready Entrepreneur, the idea is to get you started on your business. We focus on getting the confidence, time and money to get started, picking an idea that delivers value to the global marketplace, putting that idea into action, and then transitioning to the lifestyle of your dreams.
When you follow the path – confidence, time, money, value, action, lifestyle – how does technology move in to help you make that final transition into the life you really want?
And why do you care?
The idea is to develop an approach and understanding about technology and what it means to you, so that you can adapt your tech plan to your purposes as you make the transition to entrepreneurship.
And in your entrepreneurship transition is your new lifestyle.
For many people this means business runs in the background, which means tech tool are in place to transform your life.
Business in the background
In the typical entrepreneurial dream lifestyle world, your business runs itself. That means in almost all cases you will be using technology to make that happen. If that’s your approach, you are going to want to set-up systems and processes from day one that are automatic or independent. You may even want to build your business around this idea.
What are the ideas you can use to have your business running on auto-pilot without you?
Virtual assistants, concierges
You can start with remote personal help. In your dream life, you tend to be self-sufficient which means you may want to add a virtual assistant or concierge who supports your work.
When you go to work with someone virtually the key is to know exactly what you want that person to do and how you want them to do it – then leave them alone.
Once you have set up a good working situation with a virtual assistant, you can feel confident in freeing up time for yourself.
Outsourcing
The term outsource has become a bit of a dirty word in the corporate world where the practice removes people from their jobs and gives their tasks to people who earn less money.
But as an entrepreneur, you are likely going to look at outsourcing as a way to help you avoid tasks that you do not do well.
One of the best ways to use outsourcing is to fill in for the type of work that you do not like to do. This frees up your time to do other things while the job gets done in the background. As you develop your business consider the tasks you do not want to do and look for outsourcing options.
Once you have the business running in a way that frees up your time, what are you going to do with the time?
If you are a fan of technology, you will likely find apps or other tools to help drive your leisure activity as much as your business.
As you make the transition to an entrepreneurship lifestyle, keep in mind what you like to do and how you like to do it. Use the tech tools that facilitate your decisions and make your life easier. And stay connected to your own ideas about how you want to make things work.
Technology in your lifestyle does not have to be a burden – an extension of the always buzzing smartphone tied to your hand. It can be a support, an assistant, a part of the infrastructure of your new business that you are able to use to your advantage.
As you develop a tech plan for your business, develop one for your lifestyle too. Incorporate technology into your decisions beyond the obvious. And keep an eye out for new technologies that may be even more useful as your processes are understood.
The complete path to life as a ready entrepreneur includes making a successful transition to your dream lifestyle by incorporating the ideas and practices of your business life into your civilian life. You use one to support the other.
THE FUTURE
Is technology taking over the world? Will we eventually be slaves to the machine? And either way how do you manage to prevent this apocalypse from happening to you? As an entrepreneur you want to be ready for the future, for the role technology will play and for the adjustments society will have to make.
At some point in the not too distant future, we as a society are going to have to define what the technological revolution means to humanity. And you as a globally-thinking entrepreneur will be right there, trying to decide where we are going. Changes may be imposed on you by technology before you have even had a chance to think differently.
How do you plan to adapt?
Here are some ideas to think about:
The world is moving from an industrial to a technological society. In the past when we moved from agriculture to industry, the changes were profound. But human beings still maintained an element of control.
Now as we go from industry to technology, changes are happening quickly. So quickly, we do not even know all the changes that have taken place and the impact these processes have had on society.
As an entrepreneur, you need to be aware of these transitions because a changing economy, and evolving consumer behavior have an effect on your ability to deliver your product or service to the global marketplace.
If the government brings in legislation designed to control big tech companies, and it ends up limiting your ability to function online – what happens to your business?
If all education moves online, will you understand the knowledge background your potential customers have?
Do flying cars and drone delivery affect your business opportunity if you have to send everything via courier services?
In a surveillance world, do you have a product or service people do not want to be seen buying?
In the battle for online privacy, are you protecting your customer data? How far is privacy going – are you aligned with companies that are using your consumer data?
If law enforcement tools are enriched to target people before they act will your business be caught up in delivering customer information to law enforcement entities without your customer’s approval?
If social media and the use of smartphones changes consumer behavior, what does that mean for your business?
While all these questions may not all seem relevant today, you are probably aware that processes are taking place that already have upended common practices.
For example, if you are surfing online for something like – storage spaces – you begin to get promoted ads in social media for – storage spaces? Why does that happen? And do you care? You should care if you are in the storage business and not one of the promoted ads. And you should care as a businessperson in general.
We are learning to live with cross-site tech tools that follow us all over the Internet. But if your company cannot afford to compete at that level, can you afford to compete at all?
Online and digital tools are being invented based on the way society functions today. But how will we evolve if the status quo is literally coded in to our machines? How will your business be successful if the playing field is coded against you?
These questions are designed to plant into your mind the idea that technology is moving forward without consumer input, regulation or oversight. That’s not always a bad thing, but as an entrepreneur you have to stay awake, aware and ready to correct or adapt to advances that negatively affect your business.
In general, without an idea about how society wants to move forward or where we want to take our future, we do not have a say in the changes that are taking place and how they will affect us.
We need to develop fundamental ideas about where we want to end up as a society.
Do we want to trade privacy for convenience? In many cases, we already have.
Do you want a world that is free if you pay with your data? In reality, nothing is free. There is a price to be paid for the tools we are using for free. So far the price is your personal data. If these services move to pay for privacy services, the gap between rich and poor could also become a privacy gap.
How do we encourage creativity and innovation, reward those who do the work, but continue to provide free services?
Whose world do you want to live in?
Regardless of the laws or regulations created in one jurisdiction, a tech maverick can change the game by inventing new applications or software that upend the law. If democratic, fair and free jurisdictions do not encourage relentless technological development, undemocratic, restraining and corrupt jurisdictions might. In that scenario, we are subject to the more powerful technology and the race is won.
In the past when other major societal beliefs – women’s rights, climate, human rights – were evolving, organizations like the United Nations formed commissions that developed guidelines and blueprints for countries.
The United Nations has commissions on and science and technology. But there is no comprehensive global go-forward plan on the impact of technology and the opportunities and issues that are coming up for adapting societies. There is not yet a globally negotiated approach for the world on the changes facing humanity and the cross-border impact of the role of technology in our lives.
But almost certainly entrepreneurs will help drive these changes. Entrepreneurs who are operating in the global marketplace and can see the opportunities and constraints of technology and potential legislation will be in an excellent position to help define these processes going forward.
To start, define for yourself the world you would like to see. If you want to get some ideas, jump over to my writer’s site, www.claneworld.com and download the free Guide to the Future.
As an entrepreneur, look at the issues that affect you and your business and be prepared to come up with a solution before a solution is designed for you.
The best way to predict the future is to create it – Abraham Lincoln apparently once said. Which means you need to understand the possible future developments and make adjustments that work to your advantage.
Continue to ask yourself where you stand as you navigate your business. At Ready Entrepreneur, we use technology to grow our business and reach the global marketplace. But we cannot be indifferent to the impact technology is having nor the concerns from the consumer marketplace about privacy, surveillance and tracking.
We have to decide the world we want to live in. And as an entrepreneur, you demonstrate your decision by the way you run your business.
BUSINESS, LIFESTYLE, THE FUTURE
The world is changing and as active entrepreneurs you can see these changes daily. Technology will be used to facilitate the growth of your business and to improve your lifestyle. At the same time, you must stay alert to how the changes affect your customers and how you can protect data and processes from evolving negative practices.
Technology is a powerful force, transforming our society as dramatically as the world was transformed by industry. But this time, you are in the midst of it, and how you adapt and evolve with the changes can help build, or destroy, your business.
Disclosure: This website participates in the Amazon Affiliate program. Links to books and physical products are affiliate links to the Amazon store, and compensation may be paid that supports this work.
Popularity vs Excellence: A Decision Guide for Rising Entrepreneurs
In the battle for relevance between popularity and excellence, how should rising entrepreneurs market their business?
This post discusses how the decision to create a ‘popularity Oscar’ signals our society’s shift from value, quality and excellence to popularity. Rising entrepreneurs must make a decision about how to market a product, service or business, and decide whether to place emphasis on popularity or excellence. This post looks at some of the factors to consider.
The Academy has given in.
On September 5, 2018, the Academy rescinded its decision to award a ‘popular’ Oscar. So this post is now dated but still applicable for the overall message.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the people who put on the Oscars, have announced their latest category “outstanding achievement in popular film.” Although the eligibility rules for this category have not been announced yet, people are assuming this will be the Oscar for ‘getting people to like you.’
The most glaring example yet of the transformation of our society from value to likeability, from excellence to acceptance.
Prepare to Pitch Investors in under Five Minutes: Tips for Rising Entrepreneurs
Are you ready to pitch your business idea in under one minute?
You have one minute. One minute to convince someone with money to give you money for your business. Have you prepared?
Rising Entrepreneurs have an opportunity to directly pitch angel investors and venture capitalists at events like the Funding Post Investor Roundtables held all over the country. Here are some tips to make sure you arrive prepared and give your business an opportunity to get funded.
Want the FREE Pitch Investors in under 5 Minutes Cheatsheet CLICK HERE
Attending a recent Funding Post Investor Roundtable and listening to about thirty pitches, it was clear some people had prepared, maybe some people had not or maybe some were just a little nervous.
In all cases, the opportunity was presented and available to anyone who wanted to get a business idea in front of potentially interested investors (for a fee). Entrepreneurs signed-up to pitch for either one minute or five minutes, followed by questions from the investor panel. Watching the event and speaking to both investors and entrepreneurs, here are the key tips for entrepreneurs who want to try this next.
If you have one minute:
- Show Them the Money!
Every entrepreneur must be able to explain how the business will make money. Funders are investing in enterprises that will bring returns, fundamentally the return on their investment. Without quickly stating exactly how this will be possible, you could lose the investors’ interest.
- Explain the Problem you are Solving
Successful entrepreneurs find gaps in the marketplace. Consumers are searching for solutions to help them with their problems. You must be able to make it clear to investors how you are filling a gap.
Even if you are creating a new version of an existing product, you must be able to explain how your vision is solving the gap created within the existing marketplace. Make the gap and the solution clear.
- Highlight why you are the person to solve the problem
Investors may quickly recognize the business opportunity, but since they don’t know you, you have to convince them you are the best person to solve the marketplace issue. Like most people, investors want confidence around their decision based on the information you are providing.
How did you come up with the idea? Who are you working with? Do you have advisors or mentors on your team?
You can convince them your business is ready to take control of your market, because you have the ability to exploit your advantage.
- Clearly state the name of the company
Seriously, pronounce this one word or phrase, the name of the company, clearly for future recognition. At least investors can remember you by that name. If they hear a great pitch, but not the name of the company, you make it harder to follow-up or find you in the program, and you will miss a great opportunity.
All this in one minute?
Yes, you can make these points in under one minute, but you have to practice. Put yourself in the investors’ shoes, would you invest in you after your pitch? If you have doubts about how you sound, imagine how the investors feel.
Here’s how to prepare to pitch to investors:
Create your response to points 1 – 4. Write out and organize your points first, without thinking about time.
Read the answers aloud. Does your response make sense? Have you stated how you will make money, the problem you will solve and why you can solve it? If yes, you have the fundamental information together, now work on getting those details under one minute.
Time your response. Use the timer on your smartphone. Turn it on as you read your response, how long is it taking?
Based on the time, edit, edit and edit again. Cut out extraneous words. Tighten long phrases. Use everyday language. Make the message short and concise.
Keep editing until you are under one minute. You’d be surprised how much time 60 seconds really gives you. Keep re-writing until you get this right. You will get cut-off if you go over one minute so leave the extra details out of the story.
If you have five minutes, all of the above plus:
The five minute presentations featured more detailed explanations of the business, and slide decks to support the information.
Assume the investors are going to ask you for your pitch deck. You want to incorporate all the information from points 1 to 4, plus the details behind all those points.
But stick to clear, concise details that people can understand. If you have a technical solution and want to attract a certain type of investor, you can tailor your deck to that language. For everyone else, make your points clear and straight-forward.
Include your contact information. Do not miss a chance to put your name, company name, website, phone number, e-mail, social media sites – all this information should be in your deck. You do not have to mention it, but make sure it’s there for investors to find later.
- Speak to your audience, not to the screen
You are pitching to the investors in front of you, not to the screen behind you. You should know the information in your deck and not need to read off the screen to make your pitch. You do not have to read the slides verbatim. Speak to each point on the slides. But address the investors directly.
Questions from Investors
Whether you pitch for one minute or five, you may get a question from an investor, any question.
At a minimum, you must be able to answer the following questions about your business:
How your business makes money
How much money you are asking for
Why you want money at this time
Your credentials and those of your advisors and mentors
Technical details related to anything you said in the presentation
Answer as many questions as you can. If you absolutely do not know the answer, ask the investor if you can follow-up. This is a great way to ensure ongoing contact with someone who has expressed some interest in your idea.
Questions from entrepreneurs:
Does it matter how I’m dressed?
No one mentioned the entrepreneurs’ look as a factor. You are doing the presenting, so dress how you are comfortable. It’s only one minute so the information you deliver is more valuable than your personal look.
What if I’m shy?
Put on the investors’ shoes. You have asked for their valuable time and you want money for your business. You have to be able to speak about your business. If you are terrified, you may have another person make the presentation, but investors want to hear from founders so at least be in the audience for follow-up questions or one-on-one contact.
Summary
As an entrepreneur, you want the opportunity to speak directly to investors so you can raise money for your business.
Practice your pitch to investors. You may end up attending dozens of events before you receive one dollar. Look at those presentations as an opportunity. You want the practice. You want to be able to clearly state what your business can do. You want to hear the types of questions investors will ask. And you want the exposure to as many investors as possible. So keep attending events and practicing your pitch.
Know your audience. Read the program and have an idea who will be listening to your presentation. Watch for investors who have an interest in your field or industry. Even if they do not ask you a question during the event, you can follow-up afterwards, or offer to send more detailed information.
If you’re serious about taking your business to the next level and want to reach out to investors to participate in your world-beating idea, make sure you are prepared to let them know how ready you are to work with them.
You have a great opportunity to bring your idea directly to the people who have the money to fund it, take advantage of every second you get. Good luck!
Rising Entrepreneurs: Is Advertising Worth the Cost?
How to Measure Your ROI when Making Marketing Decisions
Big Words vs. Your Business Numbers: Bad advice and wild declarations could be preventing you from maximizing opportunities for your business. Here is a straightforward process for determining, for yourself, whether you are making or losing money from your marketing decisions.
Do you listen to – just about everybody – as you try and build your business? Are you wondering who is right and who is wrong about spending ideas like buying advertising on Facebook or managing your own website?
How should you decide what to do?
One option is to decide based only on numbers – the actual profit – you could make from your decision. Even if your business has no customers or profits, you can be disciplined about evaluating every decision along economic lines. Make your calculations against a long-term vision for your business. You do not have to worry about making money tomorrow, only about making money.
When you hear someone say a particular business decision is “expensive,” you have to determine, for yourself, if the statement is true. The word ‘expensive’ is relative to your own costs and profit goals.
You have to do your own assessment. Taking someone else’s statement at face value may be costing you your opportunity to be successful with your business plans. If you are a rising entrepreneur, you may be missing an approach for directly making money if you take advice without knowing your own numbers.
What is expensive to You as CEO?
Entrepreneurs must understand whether or not your business spend is making you money – or you may soon go broke. When you spend money on your business, you have to learn how to measure the return you are getting from your investment. Another person’s declaration of what is or is not expensive should have no effect on you, if you truly understand how you make money.
You must be able to calculate your ROI – return on investment – for your spend. An ROI greater than 100% is the minimum goal. You want to earn back every penny you put in, and more. But the question is: 100% of what measure? The calculation of ROI is relative to your objectives.
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Your Business Must Make Sales
Most entrepreneurs have something to sell – either products or services or both – into the global marketplace. You offer solutions to problems, conveniences, value, opportunities, short cuts and other benefits to consumers who want or need what you have to offer.
You want your business sales to return greater than 100% of the cost you pay to run the business. For example, authors want to receive more than 100% of costs returned as royalties from book sales.
To determine if the spend is getting a return consider: how you earn revenue, the timeframe when you will recover costs, and who you expect to eventually receive the payment from.
To illustrate, we will use the example of purchasing advertising from Facebook or Google to promote your business. When you make the decision to purchase advertising do you expect to eventually sell to people who see your ad, click on it, or convert by taking a specific action?
These are the factors you must consider – where is the revenue eventually going to come from?
To determine your parameters for calculating your return, ask yourself a few questions: Why are you buying ads? What do you expect the ads to do for your business?
If you cannot answer those questions with exactness, meaning exact dollar figures, you may be pursuing a blind advertising strategy for your product or service.
Entrepreneurs buy advertising to reach an audience. Facebook or Google advertising allows you to target people who may be interested in your ad because they fit a specific demographic or interest group connected to your product or service. For example, if you write thriller books, you can target all the thriller fans who have claimed the interest on a digital platform.
To Calculate ROI on Advertising:
Set-up your Ad
This example will focus on calculating your ROI for advertising spend only. You will not find the information on how to do a Facebook ad or use Google Adwords. If you want information on technical features such as creating or placing your ad, tweaking the ad, or writing better copy, put a note in comments to request a future article.
When setting up your ad, you will want a measure of performance. For example, people create an ad to prompt a Call-To-Action (CTA) – an activity they want the ad viewer to do. The CTA is aimed at fueling an end goal for your business. You are then able to measure performance based on how many people do what you want them to do.
The value of the return starts with your reason for creating the ad.
Let’s use the following illustrative example: You have a brand new product that no one has heard about, but you are interested in targeting potential customers who may be interested. You can create an ad campaign with ads that have a CTA to click to enter an e-mail address and receive an incentive from you such as an introductory product supplement or important research information related to your new product.
For this campaign, two measures are important – how many people click the ad, and how many people enter their e-mail address to receive the incentive.
Calculate your expected profit from selling the new product
To apply real numbers to the calculation of your return, you must determine your expected profit. If, as a result of the advertising campaign, you were able to sell the product to everyone who executed the CTA, what would you earn from each sale?
More generally, determine how you expect to drive sales through the money you are spending. If you set up a website, buy supplies, take a competitor to lunch, attend a conference – how are you creating sales for your business? The same thought process must be applied to your advertising.
Once you know the potential profit you expect to receive, you can determine the return you need to achieve it.
What is the expected profit from the sale of the product?
Know Your Costs for Each Outcome
In our advertising example, you must know the ad spend for each successful CTA by a potential customer.
One note: This article is only about recovering your cost for specific spend such as advertising, and not all the other potential costs you can have when creating your product or service. For this example, this calculation does not include the costs for creating, producing or distributing your product or service, the cost of your time, materials, outsourcing, or web services. The actual total cost of the product or service includes more than advertising spend or another targeted expense. But we are not going to consider the ROI on your entire production and distribution process.
The purpose of this article is to help you weed out facts from hubris when listening to third party advice about your business decisions. You have to know your own numbers to avoid having people persuade you to take action that may be against your best interests.
With your advertising expenses, you should know exactly how much money is being spent, which means you can track the value of that spend directly to your results.
Tracking Your Results
Using our earlier example for digital advertising, you must decide which result statistic matches your overall strategy.
From earlier, if you decided on measuring how many people click on the ad, and how many people enter an email address, you have the important statistics you want to analyze. The people who enter their e-mail are conversions.
You want to pick one of these measures to track against the money you are spending.
Conversions are the number of people who acted on your CTA – such as those who entered an email address or went to your website. For many advertisers, the number of conversions is the statistic that matters.
You will have to decide which measure optimizes returns for your marketing strategy. How are you going to continue to motivate customers – with great products, added value, more information or other incentives?
Based on this overall plan, you must set your goal for the ads. What is the connection between your marketing and the potential for a sale?
For example, an author may give away one free book in a series, in the hope the potential customer will buy the next book in the series. Perfumers give away free samples in the hope you will buy the whole bottle. Cruise ships throw in the drink package to tempt you to take the cruise. When was the last time you got through Costco without sampling a new food or drink?
Make the connection. This goal is speculative. You have no idea if someone will eventually end up buying your book or perfume or food. Nor do you know if they bought the product or service only because of the advertising. You’re guessing based on past performance, research, habits for people in your industry and other concepts. Maybe you can clearly see a bump in sales after you advertise. But there are no guarantees. You will want to generate enough ongoing interest to keep the new customer engaged on some level.
Calculate Your Return
Go back to the expected profit and our advertising example. If you assume that your advertising will lead a customer to buy your product, perhaps within one year, you want the expected cost per conversion to be less than the expected profit per customer.
To calculate the return, divide the total amount spent and total number of conversions (number of successful CTAs or email addresses received). This will give you the cost-per-conversion. Then you can assess the value of your marketing.
For example, if your expected profit on each sale is $2.09, and cost-per-conversion is below $2.09 you can feel good about earning the money back. If it’s above $2.09, you may need to tweak the ads or target audience to try and get that amount down.
You should always know your expected profit from your product, and the cost-per-conversion so that you can automatically see if you have the potential to earn more money than you are spending on your ads.
Ideally, you want to minimize the cost-per-conversion number as much as possible. You really only want to pay $0.01 (one cent or less) per conversion. [This means if you were spending $10 a day on advertising, you would need 1,000 conversions a day, which would be awesome, but you see the challenge].
The key is to understand what each conversion means to you. When you look at your overall campaign, focus on the number you originally determined to use as the basis for a return. If cost-per-click is not a factor for you, do not bother tracking the number. Only worry about the number you want to use to track performance. Other numbers remain interesting to your overall results, but not important to determining your return.
If you set an ROI number based on conversions you only have to worry that conversions are performing. Do not get obsessed with clicks if your conversions are delivering.
To determine your long-term prospects for earning your money back, you can also track how many products you would have to sell to break even. For example, based on the above numbers, if after one month, you have 500 people on your e-mail list, but no sales, you need to sell at least 144 products to earn your ad money back. [Note the math: Spending $10 a day for 30 days = $300, potential profit is $2.09, $300/$2.09 = 143.54 – rounded up).
You can envision selling 144 products over the next year, so the prospects still look good. But if after a year of the same monthly spend and you still have no sales, you would need to sell 1,723 products to break even. Now you may be a little worried.
However, if you have 6,000 e-mails on your list you can work on marketing to your list and try and earn the money by promoting the next product to your existing ‘warm’ leads. You can think of new incentives and ideas to show your customers the value you have to offer and how you can help them find satisfying solutions.
Be Wary of Big Talkers Making Pronouncements
The next time you hear someone say “Advertising is expensive,” remember to do your own math. You have to determine “by what measure?” and then apply the measure to your business.
Using our ongoing example again, if next year, cost-per-conversion goes from $2.09 to $4.09, and you receive fewer conversions with the same ads, then you can agree ads are getting too expensive for your business model. But you cannot know exactly what your risk is until you have run your own numbers.
You must decide:
Why you are creating the ads?
What you want to achieve through the ads?
Which product or service you plan to sell and what is potential profit?
Decide on your own definition of “expensive.”
If you have an opportunity to reach an audience, and good marketing ideas, do not let the moment pass you by because someone else has found the prospect daunting. Pursue your own advertising strategy based on the options that work for your business.
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Case Lane founded Ready Entrepreneur to help people who struggle to get the information they need to start a business and fulfill their lifestyle dreams. Ready Entrepreneur works with aspiring entrepreneurs, wantrepreneurs and rising entrepreneurs who are frustrated, confused by the technology solutions but thirsty for the information they need to grow the business. Case shows you how to access the resources you have to tactically develop a business that can be competitive in the global market and deliver market share, profit and cash flow. Please feel free to visit her blog to find unique articles and resources that support this vision.
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They said Doing a Webinar was Easy…27 Tech Tools later I figured it out…
For those of you building an online business using the available tools, and your own brainpower, hang with me for this one…
Online entrepreneurship is made possible by the technology. Processes that used to have huge barriers to entry have been broken down and handed to the average person who can take a shot at building an audience from anywhere in the world. Each year, more intuitive and accessible tools are released into the marketplace, the work becomes much simpler…
…until it’s not.
Why are some of the most popular online product creation processes so tedious to complete?
I discovered this cold reality yet again when I set out to create a webinar.
Right now, many online gurus are singing the praises of webinars. Web-seminars. Short ‘classes’ or training sessions designed to deliver a spurt of knowledge to seekers who are prepared to put aside at least 45 minutes, sometimes two hours to hear the information. Webinars are generally free to attend, but almost always spend at least another 30 or 45 minutes offering products related to the subject for sale.
Webinars help many online course creators deliver their products to a large audience. And for the most part, from what I have seen, the time is well spent. The ‘teachers’ do deliver valuable information.
As an online entrepreneur in the business of delivering information, webinars seemed like the next important step to take in growing my business. And having watched dozens of presentations, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what it would take to deliver one of my own. So I set out to do just that.
What I discovered was the further verification of a hard truth about online entrepreneurship that I first realized when I worked on formatting my first self-published ebook.
As straightforward as the technology appears, the process is another story.
I have followed other how-to systems, and become frustrated because too many ‘teachers’ who are providing ‘how-to’ guidance online, skip the details. And by details, I mean the real specifics. The actual step-by-step pitfalls of D-I-Y online anything, that forces you to create an elaborate project plan, access multiple tech tools, keep a dozen browser windows open for weeks, back track on each of your processes (because a detail was missed), and try not to fall into despair.
The reality of putting a webinar together is a long, twisted march through dozens of apps, none of which you can really test for compatibility with your style, and a great deal of patience as you dream of someday reaching the webinar pinnacles the gurus have been cheering about.
So for those of you who are going to make the move and try and make it work by yourself, here are the realities to watch out for. I will explain as much as possible, the real story behind the magical revenue source of creating a webinar.
Full disclosure: This article is not an endorsement of any specific technology tools. All the tools I use came from recommendations, usually from watching webinars. The links for ConvertKit,EasyWebinar, LeadPages and Teachable are affiliate links meaning I receive a commission for clicks through to sale. All other links are included for some of the other tools that were used in the process as described. The PDF version of this blog contains links to all of the products.
THINGS TO BE AWARE OF WHEN CREATING AND SETTING-UP A WEBINAR
My basic assumption here is your overall intention for creating a webinar is to do what the bigwigs do: collect email addresses through registrations and send reminder emails, appear on screen for a worldwide audience, present a slide presentation, deliver an offer, follow-up with other e-mails, build authority, an audience, a connection to those who are looking for the information you have to deliver.
So here’s how it goes…
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Set-up a Project Plan – MS Excel
You have to plan to track every step of this process. To keep track of all the activities I had to do to create my webinar, I used Microsoft Excel. Why? I just have not set aside the time to learn all the new project planning tools that people say are fantastic. What I need is to be able to make a long list, easy to edit, broken into specific groups of activities, with highlights or other indicators that I can follow at a glance. I can do this very rapidly in Excel. Ancient, I know, but it works.
Whichever tool you decide to use, each time you think of an activity to include, put it in your project plan in the correct chronological order. There is nothing worse than getting down the line with one piece of the project, then realizing you have to go back and do something else first.
Keep reading to better understand this pitfall.
Write a Presentation – MS Word
To begin the process, surprise, surprise, I watched a few webinars. Specifically offerings from four different gurus of the craft (Alanna Kaivalya, Amy Porterfield, David Siteman Garland and Casey Zeman. Now I do think all these people are awesome in their fields, but I did not purchase any of their webinar courses. However, I did end up getting Casey’s product as you’ll see later).
The webinars on webinars focused for the most part on what to put in the presentation – words you have to use, slides to include, and so on. Once finished with their advice, my work began.
The assumption is you want to do a webinar because you have something to say, specifically teach, that you believe will help people get over a particular problem they may be having. None of the gurus really said this, but you should probably plan out what you want to say – in detail. Now this might not apply to everyone, no doubt some of you are already teachers so you have a set script, or maybe some like to wing it.
I decided to write a full word for word script using old standard, Microsoft Word. When doing the webinar, the script becomes a guide for making sure I do not forget important points.
Create an Offer for Sale – Screenflow, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Audacity, Calendly, iPhotos, iTunes, MS Word, MS Powerpoint, Pixabay, Scrivener, Slides Carnival
Before you can create your actual webinar presentation, you have to know what you’re going to offer to your audience so the information about the offer can be in the presentation. I realize that sounds obvious, but believe me that unless you think through the details and put it all in your project plan, you will miss something.
Some gurus do say you do not have to make an offer to the audience, but I am quite certain I have never seen a webinar that did not end with an offer. If you just plan to deliver the training with no offer, you can skip this part.
My offer is a mixture of video training, an ebook, audiobook, consultation call so without going into details, a variety of tools were used. For the most part, I already had the products created to include in the offer, but if you don’t you may have to begin from scratch.
Again without the details on how to create bonuses for your audience, which could really go on and on, there are a couple of things to know about why these tools were used: if you’re giving an ebook, you can just give a PDF copy, but if you want to provide .ePub (Apple, Nook) or .Mobi (Kindle) files you need to convert the document using a tool like Scrivener. If you record a video in QuickTime, you probably want to convert it to MP4, and you can use Screenflow for that. Same with recording in Audacity but wanting to output to MP3.
The basic advice here is that some tools listed were used in this case only to create ‘universal’ files that the majority of online users will be able to download and use. But there are other tools and services that can do that type of work on a one-off basis. You may also not need to convert files at all if you create in another software.
Set-up the Offer for Sale – Amazon Web Service, Google Docs, LeadPages, PayPal for Business, Stripe, Teachable
You are not finished with the offer yet – you have to decide where to host it, and how you will get paid. And no, you have still not created your webinar presentation. You have to finish with the offer because you want to be able to create slides showing people how they can access the offer and what it looks like to sign up for the offer.
For hosting the offer I used Teachable, which is software I already use for hosting online courses, and within Teachable I have a custom payment gateway requiring Stripe and PayPal for Business (not regular PayPal).
As part of storing the offer somewhere, you need a Sales Page so your audience can access the material. Remember this is the Sales Page to sign-up for the offer, we are not on the webinar yet. I did consider a combination of LeadPages to create a landing page with the documents stored in Amazon Web Services or Google Docs. But I decided on Teachable to avoid using the extra services or having to set-up a more complicated payment system.
Once I had the offer set-up, I could take the screenshots to be used in the presentation.
Create the Presentation Slides – iPhotos, Microsoft Powerpoint, Pixabay, Slides Carnival
Okay now you can actually make the webinar presentation itself. Doing presentation slides is dependent on how you want to present your webinar. Although I intend to do the standard slide presentation, you can actually do a webinar where you just stay on screen and talk. Or you can stand in front of a flip chart and write or draw in real-time. Apparently that can work well if you have compelling information or a gripping presentation style, or preferably both. My approach is to say hello to the camera and then go behind the slides with the details in the presentation.
To create the presentation, I was surprised to realize my first challenge was finding a suitable slide template. Who knew? Apparently using standard templates in Microsoft Powerpoint looks way to 1990s, so I had to find something sharper. The best free options I found were at Slides Carnival, but there are other services with good templates.
For creating the presentation, the gurus recommended a mix of words and pictures. Too many words and your audience reads the slides and ignores what you say. Too many pictures might look like elementary school. The decision also depends on your style. If you wrote out a full script and plan to be behind the slides you can read from your script. If you plan to give away the slides to your audience, you want to present more words because they will not remember what the pictures mean. You decide.
Oh and the pictures. Mine came either from my personal collection in iPhotos, which required exporting the pictures to my harddrive to put into Powerpoint. And I used free images from Pixabay, which has many theme-related pics. Selecting the right pictures can take hours by the way – just so you know.
Select a Webinar Service – EasyWebinar, GotoMeeting, WebinarJam, WebinarNinja, and Zoom
At this point, you have your completed presentation and the offer ready to deliver. You can now figure out which webinar hosting service to use. Using a combination of the recommendations I heard the gurus mention, and the services I have seen people using in other webinars, I compared EasyWebinar, GotoMeeting, WebinarJam, WebinarNinja, and Zoom. By compare, I mean I looked at their websites, watched whatever free videos they had about how to use the product, and looked at the prices.
The webinar service you choose will partly inform what you have to do next because the steps are dependent on the types of features the service provides. Since I went with EasyWebinar, I also used their features, so you may not have the same approach.
Create Registration and Thank You pages – Amazon Web Services, Handbrake, QuickTime, Screenflow
Before going out to the world, you need to have the registration page set-up. A thank-you page is optional. For this you should include either photos or a welcome video, but again that’s optional. If you create the video – QuickTime, Screenflow – you may also have to host it somewhere, like Amazon Web Services. That was where I initially hosted videos that were accessed by pages set-up in EasyWebinar. But I’ve changed my registration page from a welcome video, to a photo, to just the sign-up form.
Since you do not know how your audience is accessing the videos, it’s best to allow maximum efficiency by compressing the file. Handbrake is a free online tool, which is usually recommended to do that.
Set-up Email Integration – ConvertKit, EasyWebinar
You almost certainly want to be able to collect the email addresses of anyone who signs up for your webinar. You can follow-up with people about their interests and try and draw them into your permanent audience. Most people use a stand-alone email service provider that is integrated with the webinar host. My service is ConvertKit, which integrates to EasyWebinar. But that’s just the beginning.
You have to think through the workflow. What is the path you want your potential attendee to follow once they have registered for the webinar? Watched (or not) the webinar? Purchased (or not) your offer?
Map out the workflow. If your webinar software has built in e-mails, make sure you know when those will be delivered so you know when to set-up your own e-mails in your email management software. Use tags that you want to attach to email addresses to note ‘who does what when.’ This process takes a bit of time because you have to know how your webinar host works and your email service and how they work together. You also have to write all the emails. You have to know what you want to say to your audience at different steps in the process.
Practice your Webinar Delivery – EasyWebinar, Google Hangouts, YouTube
Assuming you’re still with me and are ready with the energy to broadcast your webinar to a global audience, it’s now time to test the process. Actually a few tests.
Test live – Schedule a live webinar in your webinar software, maybe invite a few friends to tune in, and go ahead and run the presentation. If you are using EasyWebinar, then you are also using Google Hangouts and You Tube (really the same thing but requires two open windows). You must practice to make sure you can actually be seen and that your webcam and microphone work (I’m assuming you have the hardware but if you don’t that’s another discussion).
Test registration – Sign-up for your own webinar to check how the registration and thank you pages work. Also see how the emails are delivering.
Test Automated – First, you have to create the evergreen video. If you are running your webinar ‘evergreen,’ meaning people can sign-up and see it whenever they want, you want to make sure that you have a clear, clean recording set-up in your system.
You can use the recording from one of your tests, but make sure it’s not the one where you are pretending to be live or chatting with your friends when they were helping you out. As you do the test, you should go through the features to make sure it’s working correctly, and all the e-mails deliver as you expected.
Practice delivering the entire webinar. Don’t just do the first 15 minutes. Make sure you know that you are capable of speaking non-stop for 45 to 90 minutes, including answering questions on the fly. And from wherever you plan to deliver the webinar, make sure you have peace and privacy for all the times you will be on live. You do not want to be halfway through when airplanes start passing by overhead.
Once you feel ready about your complete delivery and all systems are working…you are done.
Except. No one has signed up.
You still have to market and promote and get people to register and show-up and follow-through. But that’s probably another 27 tech tools, so I’ll leave it there for now, and come back later with my follow-up.
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If you are an aspiring entrepreneur who would like to begin the process of breaking away from the daily grind and becoming an entrepreneur, you can enroll in this free training course and get started on your business today.
Questions about getting started as an entrepreneur contactcase(at)readyentrepreneur(dot)com.
