Five Practical Tips to Get Started as an Entrepreneur
Maybe today was the day. The rudest person at work interrupted you for the tenth time, your supervisor ignored your brilliant suggestions, and you had to cancel lunch with a friend because a useless meeting was just scheduled up against your lunch break.
You’ve had it.
It’s time to get serious about starting your own business.
First question: Where do you start?
Many people know they want to start a business. And for many the reason to start is to gain control of your own schedule and manage your time as you see fit. Entrepreneurship is not easy, and will often be frustrating, but being the boss means you have ownership. You can make the process as difficult or complex as your resources permit.
Yet even after you’ve made the decision to start your business, you are often distracted by the endless directions advice you receive. From start a business plan to build a website to complete market research, deciding where to start your entrepreneurial dream can be confusing.
Here are five tips:
1. Pick a business idea (which can, and probably will, change)
If you already have a business idea, skip to point 2.
If you do not have a business idea, pick one. You do not have to stick with your pick. Having a business idea simply gives you the context for getting started on the rest of your business. Points you will learn about Idea A may help you with Idea B. So the time you spend on an idea you do not actually turn into a business will still be useful.
If you have no idea, start with your hobbies and interests. Where is there a gap you have identified in the marketplace when people say about a particular good or service: I wish we could have this? Or I wish it could do that? That is your opening to slip in your business idea.
Pick your business idea first because this will give you a specific topic to focus on while you get through the next four tips. It’s easier to say, you need 15 minutes to work on a specific idea than it is to continue to sound as if you are just “thinking about” starting a business.
But if you are still lost for an idea and really want to move forward with your entrepreneurial dream, then keep going. Part of “starting” your business will be to define your idea, you can still move forward on the next four steps.
2. Identify your Space
You will want to have somewhere to work on your business. But when you are just getting started your space does not have to be elaborate. You can decide to work in the bathroom or closet if that’s the only quiet place you can find.
Maybe you prefer the library or local coffee shop. All of these options are viable.
But if you choose a space that is not near your home or work, include the time it will take you to travel to and from that space in the time you are setting aside for work. So if you are going to do 15 minutes of work and it takes you 15 minutes to get where you need to go, you need to set aside 45 minutes to make it happen.
Be realistic about the time you need and how you plan to use it before settling on a space. You might find you need a spot closer to home to preserve your time.
3. Gather your tools
The tools you need to work depend on how you like to work.
When you are first getting started you might not even think about this topic, but the minute you sit down to do some research you realize you need a notebook (digital or paper?), a cup of coffee or tea, a brighter light (artificial or natural), a power outlet, a sweater/blanket, a timer, a bottle of water, some chips, maybe cookies, light music (Spotify or playlists?)….
And you do not want to make excuses or get up every minute because you forgot to put one of your productivity tools in your work space.
If you have no idea which tools you like to have around you, go ahead and start with nothing, and add your preferences at the end of that day’s work session.
4. Clear your distractions
In our busy worlds, distractions are not only living all around us – ie. kids and dogs – but digital also. You have to figure out how to turn everything off for the time you want to work on your business.
For the family, find the time to do your work within the family schedule. However that works best for you. Since you have your business idea (see #1), you can tell everyone what you are doing and how you really need to move forward with transitioning to lifestyle freedom.
For digital, you know what you have to do. Turn off the phone. Or at least turn off the sound and lay the phone upside down so you cannot see the screen. And don’t try and work around any other screens like the TV or your partner’s mobile.
You only need to give yourself that first 15 minutes to get the ball rolling, so push the distractions away.
5. Take 15 minutes
The best way to start a business is just to get started.
That may sound roundabout but it’s true. People often make excuses like they do not have enough money or are not sufficiently qualified for a business idea. But you really do not know the truth behind those excuses because you have never spent any time working on the business.
Take 15 minutes. I know you have it. Before you start bingeing on Netflix take 15 minutes to research your business idea.
What are you researching?
- Similar businesses to see what other people are doing
- Specifics about your business idea and your industry.
- Courses in your area of expertise or about the product or service you are interested in.
As you continue researching, you will begin to move towards creating your action plan for starting the business. But it’s just brain-storming at this point. You do not have to pursue anything formal. You will likely find that the more time you spend researching your business and putting together ideas, the more time you will have to work on your business.
Before you know it, you will forget to watch Netflix.
Once you get to number 5, you have started your business. Because when you set aside time to transition your life, every step counts. From here you will begin to formulate the questions you want to ask, the activities you want to do and even the courses you may want to take to transform your business idea into a viable reality.
You will also start to build your confidence. The more you know about your business idea and industry, the stronger you will feel about your capabilities and the possibilities you have for making your lifestyle dream come true.
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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.
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Developing World Markets and Your Business Strategy
If you are old enough to remember the songs ‘Feed the World’ or ‘Do they know it’s Christmas?’ your image of the country of Ethiopia may be of a long line of starving people holding a bowl as they wait for a spoon of food.
If you were paying attention to the news headlines the week of October 22, 2018, you know the country just appointed its first female president, in a country where women hold half the seats in the cabinet.
If you are young enough to have never heard of Ethiopia except during the Summer Olympics, you may need an update. Because Ethiopia today is indicative of the changing global landscape all entrepreneurs should understand and embrace.
Ethiopia is a country in north east Africa, with a land-mass covering most of the Horn of Africa. Wars and disputes made the second most populous country in Africa land-locked, but they are not without water. The ancient civilization is built around the start of the Blue Nile river. Today there are over 100 million people, who live, not in a desperate dusty desert, but in one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
When global charity was galvanized by Irish rocker Bob Geldof to help save the people of Ethiopia from starvation in 1984, the country had fewer than half as many people as it has now. But today, three decades later, agriculture is one industry’s leading the economy’s turnaround. This remarkable achievement should galvanize those who seek to provide aid to the suffering in hope of a better future; and humble those who said failed states should be left to die.
Ethiopia today is being heralded as a country that has made an effort to build infrastructure, stabilize the economy and promote growth. The African nation is one of the many development growth stories that are unknown to the typical North American media consumer, and therefore ignored by the typical rising entrepreneur.
Of course there are still problems. Ethiopia is both one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and one of the most impoverished.
But understanding the transformation in Ethiopia and other developing countries is critical for positioning your business in the expanding global marketplace. Remaining aware of the countries that may provide open markets gives you an opportunity to participate in the growth.
Because if you miss the story of a developing Ethiopia, you miss the opportunity of the broader global marketplace. Every entrepreneur can reach out to the entire world through businesses that solve global problems. In Ethiopia, as in many other countries in the developing world, actual development – the building of infrastructure, creation of jobs, running of schools and hospitals – is taking place at an unprecedented rate. The effects – new highways, skyscrapers, housing, healthier citizens – are visible and reflect a renewed hope in global progress.
Of course there is no denying many countries still face the challenge of poverty, malnutrition, disease, internal instability and civil unrest, but these issues also place a threat to the developed world. The emphasis in the rising economy countries is on moving forward, and working to change the history to reflect a more promising future for its citizens.
For rising global entrepreneurs, it is important to look at Ethiopia and other countries from the perspective of their emerging middle class. For countries moving towards what the World Bank calls ‘middle income’ status, the government targets continued investment and access to credit as the key economic policies to encourage. Once a reliable infrastructure – electricity, water, sanitation, road, communication – has been built out, investors feel more comfortable pouring money into factories, office buildings and resource mines.
For entrepreneurs with smaller businesses, especially those operating online, there is no need to wait for these large scale physical pieces of the structural pie to be constructed. An alert entrepreneur who is looking for opportunity can use Internet resources to find out what people are looking for online.
A quick glance at Twitter #ethiopia #ethiopian includes references to investment like a call for policies for startups to raise capital; as well as notes about products like – hair, food, Ethiopian airlines, jewelry, coffee, music. My disclaimer: this post is focused on business and entrepreneurial issues but I will note the overwhelming number of tweets are about politics, migrants and refugees, and government action against different ethnic groups.
These difficult development issues do dominate the headlines. But if you looked at the opportunities in the United States from the perspective of the twitter feeds, your focus would be on election inquiries, voter suppression, corruption, civil rights protests and opioids. In other words, there is more to the business economy than the news cycle is prepared to discuss.
Many people would not be prepared to do business in Ethiopia because of the country’s history and potential instability. But for rising entrepreneurs who want to stay alert and interested in the global marketplace, consider the needs of the developing world middle class in your plans.
- Acknowledge there is a developing world middle class to whom you could be engaged in business.
- Incorporate broader consumer wants and needs in your business planning. What did you need as someone functioning with a good job, growing family and maybe a new residence to keep up? What are the types of services currently not available to people in rising economies? Pay particular attention to information and entertainment products. These types of products travel well, have universal appeal and can be translated for different markets. If you teach value skills, you may find you have a market in the countries where education is coveted.
- Decide how you will approach new markets. This will not be easy. But when you begin marketing and promoting, for example when you look at blogger sites, see if there are more international sites you can appeal to. Also the global media has sites for news, which can be approached to determine opportunities for promotion, and to provide leads to other influencers in that market. If you want to actively target a particular country – try finding their most popular media sites first.
- Stay connected to your new global market. It would be a shame to take the time to build and cultivate a particular market only to abandon it later because of the extra legwork required to establish a connection in the first place. New markets are here to stay and should have a permanent place in your business plan. Of course keep following blogs at Ready Entrepreneur where we always incorporate global marketplace ideas into our discussion.
One other note, as the developing world becomes developed, there will be no shortage of new businesses arising on streets and online that will be able to market goods and services to the locals. Stay focused on your niche, the particular product area, which could be valuable to any consumer anywhere in the world.
Authenticity is important in business, and trying to imitate locals in their own market rarely works. Instead play to your differences. Locals are often curious about foreigners and foreign products. Use your uniqueness to your advantage.
The growth of Ethiopia’s middle class is an example of how the developing world is moving rapidly towards development. These busy and exciting markets provide plenty of opportunities for business especially rising entrepreneurs who are interested in operating wherever you see a problem that needs to be solved.
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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.
Do you feel the Urgency to become an Entrepreneur now?
The number #1 reason to become an entrepreneur right now in the 21st century is because the world has changed irrevocably. The twin waves of globalization and technology are changing the economic and employment landscape for every profession.
You will not escape. This is already happening.
In Yuval Noah Harari’s fabulous book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, he says:
“The global empire being forged before our eyes is not governed by any particular state or ethnic group. Much like the Late Roman Empire, it is ruled by a multi-ethnic elite, and is held together by a common culture and common interests. Throughout the world, more and more entrepreneurs, engineers, experts, scholars, lawyers and managers are called to join the empire. They must ponder whether to answer the imperial call or to remain loyal to their state and their people. More and more choose the empire.”
If you are a person who has business ideas in your head, you can become an entrepreneur right now and avoid being ‘left behind’ by “the empire.’ To visualize the rapidly changing world, think back to the past twenty years on earth and the impact the iPhone, Amazon and Facebook have had on business and culture. Now think forward to consider where we will be twenty years from now. If you think the ‘rise of the empire’ is unlikely to affect you and the way you live your life, you are missing your opportunities as an entrepreneur.
The dangers of waiting to start your business
Both globalization and technology help you start a global business, and reach out to a global audience of potential customers and clients from anywhere in the world. This reality is incredibly liberating and exciting for anyone who has dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur. You are free to get started on the work you want to do.
If you wait, you may face a situation where you are scrambling to start your own business because you have run out of options. If globalization and technology, replace more traditional jobs and transform your local labor market, you may find your ability to get the kind of challenging and valuable work you seek is no longer available. There is no issue with starting a business at any point in your life. But it’s more fun to do it when you are feeling comfortable about your future, and you can make good decisions based on your own timetable.
Waiting to start your business also puts you up against issues you may not understand. You may face increasing competition as more global markets develop, tighter financial markets as lenders become more selective, restrictive legislation from overzealous lawmakers, and personal inertia from the debilitating effects of your own procrastination.
But if from the beginning, you think of globalization and technology as resources you can use, you can rapidly move forward on your plan to start your own business and live your life dream.
Globalization as a resource you can use
If you are thinking about your business ideas and trying to get started, you likely feel compelled to deliver value to the marketplace through a product or service you know people want or need. Just like big businesses that must make decisions supporting the goals of shareholders who are based all over the world and expecting economic gains, you have to make decisions to satisfy your own hopes, dreams and economic plans.
To deliver your product or service to the global marketplace, you may end up hiring, for example, a Latvia-based graphic designer to create your logo, just as a big company moves an entire factory offshore to make parts for their product. The process is efficient and straightforward. Once you look at the best offers you receive for a project, the quality of the test work and prior reviews, are you going to look at the person’s location to determine whether or not to give her the job? Maybe some of you will, but it’s possible many of you will not. You’ll participate directly in the global economy by hiring the most qualified, accessible person you could find.
This type of decision-making is happening right now all over the world. You may even be directly affected if your work has been impacted by offshoring or outsourcing. As difficult as cutting jobs is for a business, managers look at what’s best for their company.
The value of global competition
As an entrepreneur, you may find yourself in the same position. But in the long-run being forced to compete on a global scale is typically beneficial to the work force. What would be the quality of the NBA brand if the league did not recruit the best players from around the world? Do we as fans, as an audience and customers really want to miss out on seeing the best in the world play the game? And do we want to miss out on becoming the best in the world through our exposure to the best competition?
In business as in basketball, competing with the best can only make you better by compelling you to improve your skills to keep pace with your competition.
Or get out of the game.
Although the reality is competition can force you out of a particular organization that does not necessarily mean you are completely out of an industry. Many tech companies were started by people who were not necessarily the most successful where they were, but could not get their ideas taken seriously until they went out on their own. You can find an angle for your product or service that creates its own market and finds its own customers in the marketplace. The experience, although painful in the short-term, will ultimately be a huge boost for you if you stay with your plans.
Technology as your primary tool
And you do not only get better on the basis of your personal skill. Your ability to use technology to your advantage is a major factor in success and the other major driver of changes in the new economy. As a rising entrepreneur, you can employ technology tools to support your business in every area from accounting, to design and email management and marketing. The new technologies allow you to produce high quality work at a fraction of the price the work used to cost. This is called reducing barriers to entry. You can enter into the global entrepreneurial workforce by using technology to ensure your product can compete.
Technology is even more certain to take direct aim at employment by humans. Technologists are all over the world. Every company must compete with bright minds in Russia, India and South Korea who can severely disrupt a business enterprise overnight. This fear does not only apply to hackers or pirates. All over the world bright minds are engaged in developing new software and innovative ideas designed to disrupt the functioning of traditional business. Since the Internet is global and most people have access to its possibilities, there is no reason to believe the technology will stop at anyone’s border.
We adapt to technology (not the other way around)
Lately some people are getting a little concerned about the influence of companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook. In less than twenty years, these companies have fundamentally changed the way we shop, communicate and decide where to eat. Those companies were built with rules set only by the people who built them. And we are adapting to how they are making the world.
As an entrepreneur who uses these online platforms, you have to approach your business decisions on their terms. In medieval times when ‘ancient you’ was farming a plot of land, a new landlord could come by and tell you now submit to his demands or face dire consequences. If you did not have a Knight or some other defender to help you, you were forced to do as you were told or lose your land, or at worst be killed. You effectively had to play along to get along.
The same is true today of technology’s key consumer-facing Internet platforms. In today’s world, if you do not behave on Amazon or Facebook as required, you will lose access to the site, which may mean the end of your business or your social life. Most people are not willing to take that risk. Although it’s technically possible for a new company to rise up tomorrow and replace the big names on the Internet, you have to manage your business in the world you see before you today. You will both have access to a global market through the mega online platforms, and you can lose access just as easily. Your goal is to hang on while remaining true to your vision for your company.
Your business or your job
As globalization and technology define our world, opportunities for continued employment are dependent on these twin pillars that are out of your control or the control of governments. Most people will have to try and get into a job without any hope of staying in the position for a long time. At the same time, millions of jobs go unfilled because the education system, and popular thought, cannot adapt quickly enough to the changing demands of the job market. If the teachers are not trained, the students will not be either.
Where does that leave you?
If you have a business idea in your head, you should be feeling it’s time to take that idea into the global marketplace. Globalization and technology are already here and the world economy is changing right now. The global GDP, or gross domestic product is currently valued at the $78 trillion, with a T, mark. You can take your business idea – your product or service – and deliver it to the market and take your part of that soon-to-be $100 trillion dollar pie.
But you have to get started. The time to become an entrepreneur is now when the field is wide open, your product or service idea is needed, and the available tools and resources provide access to the global marketplace.
Do you feel the urgency?
Struggling with how to get started? Download my book Life Dream: Seven Universal Moves to Get the Life You Want through Entrepreneurship.
Disclosure: book links in this article are affiliate links to Amazon.com meaning I may be compensated if you click on the link to go to the Amazon.com website
Are you a businessperson or an entrepreneur?
People often ask the question:
What is the difference between a businessperson and an entrepreneur?
Some would say the businessperson is the blue suited MBA with a briefcase, process workflows, five-year strategic plans and a corporate AMEX card.
The entrepreneur is the disheveled garage dweller testing concept after concept in a bubble of failed experiments and idea frustrations.
Others would say difference only depends on where you are in the process. If you are bringing a product or service to market, you will transform from one image to the other…from entrepreneur to businessperson.
The entrepreneur is often considered the idea person. You are an entrepreneur if you create a product or service idea that you want to place in the marketplace. When entrepreneurs get started, they have to think of the business aspects of their idea. After all, it’s not possible to put the product or service into the market unless you think about the specific business activities you need to do.
A businessperson is often seen as the manager with the numbers, holding meetings about strategy, and dealing with taxes and lawyers. The business is the entity built after the entrepreneur’s idea is commercialized.
When you start a business, the entrepreneur often has to do everything. There is no divide between the two titles – businessperson or entrepreneur – when you get started, especially if you are bootstrapping which is the practice of paying all your own bills without external financing.
Over time, perhaps as you professionalize your business, or you open multiple businesses, you transform into the more familiar business image that Wall Street loves.
If you start a business, based on your idea, you are both an entrepreneur and a businessperson.
An entrepreneur is often defined as: a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.
A businessperson is defined as: a person who works in business or commerce, especially at an executive level.
If you did not start the business, but you work for it in a management role, you are the businessperson.
You can call yourself an entrepreneur if you take the business idea and turn it into a company that delivers products or services to the marketplace. You eventually hire businesspeople to run the operations, administration, production, distribution and marketing for you. As you continue to develop ideas and create new opportunities for your product or service, you remain the entrepreneur.
That’s the achievement you want to be able to be the entrepreneur hiring businesspeople to help you run your business. At that point you have the life dream you wanted to achieve when you got started.
What do you need to make it happen?
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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.
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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 $4.09, and you receive fewer conversions with the same ads, then you can agree ads are getting too expensive for your business model. But you cannot know exactly what your risk is until you have run your own numbers.
You must decide:
Why you are creating the ads?
What you want to achieve through the ads?
Which product or service you plan to sell and what is potential profit?
Decide on your own definition of “expensive.”
If you have an opportunity to reach an audience, and good marketing ideas, do not let the moment pass you by because someone else has found the prospect daunting. Pursue your own advertising strategy based on the options that work for your business.
–$–
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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How do you define Real Success as an Entrepreneur?
When people set out with a goal, like to start their own business, the achievement is clear. When the business opens, the goal has been reached.
But many entrepreneurs do not feel successful at that moment. Doubt quickly creeps in: What if the business has no customers? What if only the launch went well? Most new businesses fail. Owning a business is only a dream.
Fear soon overtakes you and you press on until you reach the next milestone moment. And that moment…whenever it comes…it hits you like a bright burst of sunshine.
Perhaps it’s the day you first realize that you have control of your own schedule and can really go to your friend’s wedding for a week, and not just one day. Or maybe it’s the day when your child asks if you are coming to the game and you do not hesitate in saying: “yes of course I’ll be there.”
You don’t check the calendar. You don’t ask permission. You just know, you can be part of that moment.
The average person spends 2,080 hours a year on the job. This is only one-third of your entire year. Yet it feels like so much more. Your employment and the commitments associated with it take so much of your energy and fill many worry spots in your brain. When you are finally free of someone else’s all encompassing agenda, you can take that time back.
That’s when you have achieved success.
The word success comes from the Latin, succedere, which means to ‘come close after.’ This definition seems to be an unintended origin for such an important word in our language. After all, to ‘come close’ is not to succeed at all in our culture. Coming close means you didn’t win. It’s like what they say about winning a silver medal at the Olympics – you’re the best of all the losers. People don’t say you’re the second best in the world – okay some will – but they’re thinking…You lost. You lost the gold medal.
Society measures success by those who win the awards, contests, and at making money. Regardless of whether you credit extraordinary ability, hard work, luck or circumstance – success means you are popular, wealthy, recognized, honored, and so on. In all circumstances it is the opposite of failure, of being a loser or a nobody in a world searching for approbation.
As an entrepreneur, it does you little good to try and cling to that broad meaning of success. You’re never going to know exactly how much money everyone else has. So if you try and run the money race, you’ll be a rat on a spinning wheel. You’re also never going to know if you’re the most popular person in your world – or in your neighborhood, in your genre, your industry – because it’s a big world and there are so many products or services. You could be number #1 by one measure today, and find out you’re #93 by a different measure or # 1,993,000 tomorrow.
What was the number one movie at the box office last week? What about number one year to date? What about in China the world’s biggest market? What about number one in terms of uninflated dollars? Who is number one? What is number one?
The only way to know if you have achieved success is to create the definition for yourself and stick to your idea of what success means to you.
Success has its more positive meanings. For individuals who are pursuing goals and objectives, success to is to achieve the result or accomplish a particular purpose. If you left the 9-to-5 grind to start your own business, success could mean getting away from all the reasons you wanted out of the job in the first place. Just as you left the formal workforce and went out on your own to live on your terms, you should define success as you see fit as well.
Aspiring entrepreneurs can define their own success by setting goals and working to achieve them. For some, the objective will be to create an online product available for sale, for others perhaps getting the first 1,000 names on an e-mail list, or 100 attendees at a webinar. Each goal is its own measure of success of your success. Real success, tied to you – the entrepreneur’s faith in moving forward and achieving even more.
Those who do not set goals tend to drift, uncertain of where they can establish their footing and begin to change their outcomes. Sometimes the idea of the goal itself prompts those who are afraid of their own success, to curl up and avoid any semblance of working on achievement. These people are unlikely to be entrepreneurs. Unlikely to be striving for a weightier outcome.
As you consider your own world, where are you positioned going forward? If you are tired of the 9-to-5 grind and hoping one day to have control of your own schedule, then you are likely leaning towards a life as an entrepreneur who works to make her own magic happen.
Being an entrepreneur is not an easy task. The best thing is your opportunity to live your life on your terms as you deliver value based on your singular ability. The worst is the risk you take on for the privilege.
Those that shy away from the entrepreneur’s life are likely unable to fathom having no regular paycheck or daily routine to fall back on if the project does not turn out as imagined.
But those who embrace the life are quite prepared to risk the initial disruption to give themselves an opportunity for long-term gain. Because when the work is done, and the business is thriving, the entrepreneur at the helm is truly in charge, not just of a business operation, but also of her own life.
No more asking permission to take a day off, or missing events held during a week day, or dealing with difficult people who have limited stakes in the work. Instead, you establish the world you want to work in and live to that standard every day.
Being an entrepreneur, your own boss is the goal, but it’s a destination. To get there you must travel a journey of ups-and-downs. And you must stay focused on where you want to be and on the value you have placed in reaching that location.
Define what real success looks like to you.
Then move forward with that vision as your guide and umbrella on the road to your lifestyle dream.
You can set typical business goals such as revenue, profit and customers. But you also set personal goals like going to the events you would pass up in the past, or making sure you attend everyone of your child’s games or recitals. Or reading all the great classics, one after another for a year or two. Or traveling to the top of the Eiffel Tower or to walk on the Great Wall. Whatever it is that your dreaming about doing one day – make that the definition of your success.
When you achieve each activity you have only dreamt of doing, you have reached success.
And when you are able to achieve these activities, because you decided to become an entrepreneur and take control of your own life, you have exponentially achieved even more.
You have made yourself the focus of your own success story. And that is the greatest success of all.
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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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