Entrepreneur, 10-19-2016 -- Everyone fails in life, and failure can be a crushing experience. The only thing that separates successful people from the rest is how they respond after they fail.

When facing obstacles, you have to decide if you’re going to let them be the excuse for your failure or if you’re going to make them the story behind your success.

“There is no failure. Only feedback.”   -- Robert Allen

When you adopt the right attitude, failure is a great teacher. Failure interrupts your routine and gives you an opportunity to explore new solutions, but only if you have the right attitude.

Psychologist Albert Bandura conducted a study that showed just how great a role our attitudes play in the face of failure. In the study, two groups of people were asked to complete an identical management task. The first group was told that the purpose of the task was to measure their management abilities. The other group was told that the skills required to complete the task were improvable and that the task was merely an opportunity to practice and improve. The trick was that the researchers made the task so difficult that all participants were bound to fail, and fail they did. The first group -- feeling like failures because their skills weren’t up to snuff -- made little or no improvement when they were given opportunities to repeat the task. The second group, however, saw each failure as a learning opportunity, and they performed at progressively higher levels each time they attempted the task. The second group even rated themselves as more confident than the first group.

Just like the participants in Bandura’s study, we can either view our failures as reflections of our abilities or as opportunities for growth. The next time you catch yourself wallowing in the self-pity that often accompanies failure, focus on what you can control: your attitude.

Some of the best lessons in life are also the toughest to accept and to adopt the right attitude toward. These are the lessons that challenge your flexibility and willingness to learn. When we don’t embrace them soon enough, the lessons we learn turn out to be harsh ones.

Related: 9 Phrases Smart People Never Use In Conversation

1. The first step is always the hardest. When you want to achieve something important, that first step is inevitably going to be daunting, even frightening. When you dare to make that first move, anxiety and fear dissipate in the name of action. People that dive headfirst into taking that brutal first step aren’t any stronger than the rest of us; they’ve simply learned that it yields great results. They know that the pain of getting started is inevitable and that procrastination only prolongs their suffering.

2. Good things take time. Success, above all, requires time and effort. Author Malcolm Gladwell suggested that mastery of anything requires 10,000 hours of tireless focus. Many successful people would agree. Consider Henry Ford, whose first two automobile businesses failed before he started Ford at the age of 45, or author Harry Bernstein, who dedicated his entire life to writing before he finally landed a best-seller at the age of 96. When you finally do succeed, you realize that the journey was the best part of it.

3. Being busy does not equal being productive. Look at everyone around you. They all seem so busy, running from meeting to meeting and firing off e-mails. Yet how many of them are really producing, really succeeding at a high level? Success doesn’t come from movement and activity; it comes from focus -- from ensuring that your time is used efficiently and productively. You get the same number of hours in the day as everyone else, so use yours wisely. After all, you’re the product of your output not your effort. Make certain your efforts are dedicated to tasks that get results.

4. You will always have less control than you want. There are too many extenuating circumstances in life to control every outcome. You can, however, control how you react to things that are out of your control. Your reaction is what transforms a mistake into a learning experience and ensures that a victory doesn’t send your ego through the roof. You can’t win every battle, but with the right attitude, you can win the war.

5. You're only as good as those you associate with. You should strive to surround yourself with people who inspire you, people who make you want to be better. And you probably do. But what about the people who drag you down? Why do you allow them to be part of your life? Anyone who makes you feel worthless, anxious or uninspired is wasting your time and, quite possibly, making you more like them. Life is too short to associate with people like this. Cut them loose.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

11-27-2017, Entrepreneur.com -- Failure, for entrepreneurs, is inevitable. This might come in the form of small losses, like losing an important deal to a competitor, or in big ones, like being unable to make payroll.

The best entrepreneurs, however, are not defined by these failures but rather by how they deal with them. Navigating difficult situations both externally and internally is crucial to being a successful entrepreneur. When faced with this failure, here are 10 ways to better handle it:

1. Be prepared.

You do not have to come up with full contingency plans for any type of failure. Although, being mentally prepared for failing and difficult times is critically important. If you have expectations that things are going to go perfectly according to plan, then, once they do not, those hard moments will be more difficult than you will expect.

Better understanding yourself and the outlets that you need to deal with difficulty is underrated. People who know what they need to feel better and think clearer are much more equipped for facing hardship head-on. This could be in the form of exercising, spending time with people that you care about, or going to an inspiring and isolating spot.

It is easy to make emotional decisions immediately after something negative happens. Doing so is often detrimental, though. Even if it means taking five minutes to go collect yourself, it is worthwhile. Making rational as opposed to emotional choices prevents your problems from compounding.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

Entrepreneur.com, 8-10-2016 -- Working as a senior vice president for a Fortune 100 company and running IT Services for 48,000 end-users on a global scale was a tough job. It was long hours, lots of pressure and difficult customers. But, even so it was nothing compared to joining the ranks of the entrepreneurs and starting my own business.

Here are 10 things I wish I had known before I started as it would have helped me be better prepared for the important first few years of my entrepreneurial life.

1. Don't create new products, solve problems.

Forty-two percent of product launches fail because there is no need for the product. That's right 42 percent fail because nobody wants the product.

So instead of trying to develop new and wonderful products to look for problems to solve. Where there's a problem, there is a need.

2. Forget about being an overnight success.

Even the companies regarded as the quickest overnight successes, Amazon and Yahoo, took at least three years to get there, and the majority of companies take up to 10 years to really make it. So if you're the goal is to be the next billionaire start-up owner then you need to be prepared for a long haul.

Related: 6 Signs You Are Not Ready for Entrepreneurship

3. Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses.

Your success is going to come from your strengths so make sure the majority of your time is focused in that area. We all have weaknesses, but either outsources those areas or hire someone to take care of it for you. Focusing on your weaknesses takes you away from what you're best at and is not a good use of your time.

4. Get the right team around you.

We can't do it all on our own; we need help, but we need to make sure we get the right help. Twenty-nine percent of start-ups that fail do so because they had the wrong team in place. So take the necessary time to evaluate the team that you need and then hire the best people you can.

5. If you're going to fail, fail quickly.

Failure is all part of the process, not only should you expect it, but you should plan for it. The best approach for failure is to fail quickly, adapt and try again. One of the worst things we can do is to fail slowly, desperately hoping that things will turn around. You need to learn quickly what's working and what's not that needs to be stopped.

Read the rest of the piece HERE.

Entrepreneur.com, June 24, 2016 -- Too many people succumb to the mistaken belief that being likeable comes from natural, unteachable traits that belong only to a lucky few -- the good looking, the fiercely social and the incredibly talented. It’s easy to fall prey to this misconception. In reality, being likeable is under your control, and it’s a matter of emotional intelligence (EQ).

In a study conducted at UCLA, subjects rated over 500 descriptions of people based on their perceived significance to likeability. The top-rated descriptors had nothing to do with being gregarious, intelligent or attractive (innate characteristics). Instead, the top descriptors were sincerity, transparency and capable of understanding (another person).

These adjectives, and others like them, describe people who are skilled in the social side of emotional intelligence. TalentSmart research data from more than a million people shows that people who possess these skills aren’t just highly likeable; they outperform those who don’t by a large margin.

Likeability is so powerful that it can completely alter your performance. A University of Massachusetts study found that managers were willing to accept an auditor’s argument with no supporting evidence if he or she was likeable, and Jack Zenger found that just 1 in 2,000 unlikeable leaders are considered effective.

I did some digging to uncover the key behaviors that hold people back when it comes to likeability. Make certain these behaviors don’t catch you by surprise.

1. Humble-bragging. We all know those people who like to brag about themselves behind the mask of self-deprecation. For example, the gal who makes fun of herself for being a nerd when she really wants to draw attention to the fact that she’s smart or the guy who makes fun of himself for having a strict diet when he really wants you to know how healthy and fit he is. While many people think that self-deprecation masks their bragging, everyone sees right through it. This makes the bragging all the more frustrating, because it isn’t just bragging; it’s also an attempt to deceive.

2. Being too serious. People gravitate toward those who are passionate. That said, it’s easy for passionate people to come across as too serious or uninterested, because they tend to get absorbed in their work. Likeable people balance their passion for their work with their ability to have fun. At work they are serious, yet friendly. They still get things done because they are socially effective in short amounts of time and they capitalize on valuable social moments. They focus on having meaningful interactions with their coworkers, remembering what people said to them yesterday or last week, which shows people that they are just as important to them as their work is.

3. Not asking enough questions. The biggest mistake people make in conversation is being so focused on what they’re going to say next or how what the other person is saying is going to affect them that they fail to hear what’s being said. The words come through loud and clear, but the meaning is lost. A simple way to avoid this is to ask a lot of questions. People like to know you’re listening, and something as simple as a clarification question shows that not only are you listening but that you also care about what they’re saying. You’ll be surprised how much respect and appreciation you gain just by asking questions.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

Entrepreneur, July 22, 2016 -- T.S. Eliot was clearly onto something when he asked, “If you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?” The very act of stepping outside of your comfort zone is critical to your success and well-being.

Our brains are wired such that it’s difficult to take action until we feel at least some stress and discomfort. In fact, performance peaks when we’re well out of our comfort zone. If you’re too comfortable your performance suffers from inaction, and if you move too far outside of your comfort zone you melt down from stress.

Peak performance and discomfort go hand in hand. Stepping outside of your comfort zone makes you better, and it doesn’t have to be something as extreme as climbing Mount Everest. It’s the everyday challenges that push your boundaries the most, none of which require a flight to Nepal. Step out of your comfort zone and embrace these challenges.

1. Get up early. Unless you’re a morning person, getting up earlier than usual can take you way out of your comfort zone. However, if you get up well before you have to start getting ready for work, it’s worth it. It gives you an opportunity to collect your thoughts and mentally prepare yourself for the day ahead, rather than just dashing from one activity to another. It also gives you the opportunity to eat a good breakfast and exercise, both of which have well-known health benefits.

2. Accomplish an “impossible” goal. Few things compare to the exhilaration of accomplishing something that you didn’t think you were capable of. These achievements fall so far outside of your comfort zone that they seem impossible. Maybe it’s running a marathon or giving a keynote speech at a convention. These accomplishments are worth every bit of suffering you endure to achieve them because once you finally do it, you feel invincible and carry that triumph with you forever.

3. Meditate. It’s easy to get stuck in your comfort zone when you’re so busy that you don’t slow down enough to really think about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Meditation is a great way to break this cycle and also happens to be very good for your brain. Harvard neuroscientist Sara Lazar found that meditation creates important physical changes in your brain. It increases brain density in areas responsible for self-control, focus, problem-solving, flexibility and resilience. Best of all, these changes are lasting.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

The ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance.

6-1-2017, Entrepreneur.com -- The ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance. TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that 90 percent of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control.

If you follow my work, you’ve read some startling research summaries that explore the havoc stress can wreak on one’s physical and mental health (such as the Yale study, which found that prolonged stress causes degeneration in the area of the brain responsible for self-control). The tricky thing about stress (and the anxiety that comes with it) is that it’s an absolutely necessary emotion. Our brains are wired such that it’s difficult to take action until we feel at least some level of this emotional state. In fact, performance peaks under the heightened activation that comes with moderate levels of stress. As long as the stress isn’t prolonged, it’s harmless.

Research from the University of California, Berkeley, reveals an upside to experiencing moderate levels of stress. But it also reinforces how important it is to keep stress under control. The study, led by post-doctoral fellow Elizabeth Kirby, found that the onset of stress entices the brain into growing new cells responsible for improved memory. However, this effect is only seen when stress is intermittent. As soon as the stress continues beyond a few moments into a prolonged state, it suppresses the brain’s ability to develop new cells.

“I think intermittent stressful events are probably what keeps the brain more alert, and you perform better when you are alert,” Kirby says. For animals, intermittent stress is the bulk of what they experience, in the form of physical threats in their immediate environment. Long ago, this was also the case for humans. As the human brain evolved and increased in complexity, we’ve developed the ability to worry and perseverate on events, which creates frequent experiences of prolonged stress.

Besides increasing your risk of heart disease, depression and obesity, stress decreases your cognitive performance. Fortunately, though, unless a lion is chasing you, the bulk of your stress is subjective and under your control. Top performers have well-honed coping strategies that they employ under stressful circumstances. This lowers their stress levels regardless of what’s happening in their environment, ensuring that the stress they experience is intermittent and not prolonged.

While I’ve run across numerous effective strategies that smart people employ when faced with stress, what follows are ten of the best. Some of these strategies may seem obvious, but the real challenge lies in recognizing when you need to use them and having the wherewithal to actually do so in spite of your stress.

1. They appreciate what they have

Taking time to contemplate what you’re grateful for isn’t merely the “right” thing to do. It also improves your mood, because it reduces the stress hormone cortisol by 23 percent. Research conducted at the University of California, Davis found that people who worked daily to cultivate an attitude of gratitude experienced improved mood, energy and physical well-being. It’s likely that lower levels of cortisol played a major role in this.

2. They avoid asking “what if?”

“What if?” statements throw fuel on the fire of stress and worry. Things can go in a million different directions, and the more time you spend worrying about the possibilities, the less time you’ll spend focusing on taking action that will calm you down and keep your stress under control. Calm people know that asking “what if? will only take them to a place they don’t want -- or need -- to go.

3. They stay positive

Positive thoughts help make stress intermittent by focusing your brain’s attention onto something that is completely stress-free. You have to give your wandering brain a little help by consciously selecting something positive to think about. Any positive thought will do to refocus your attention. When things are going well, and your mood is good, this is relatively easy. When things are going poorly, and your mind is flooded with negative thoughts, this can be a challenge. In these moments, think about your day and identify one positive thing that happened, no matter how small. If you can't think of something from the current day, reflect on the previous day or even the previous week. Or perhaps you’re looking forward to an exciting event that you can focus your attention on. The point here is that you must have something positive that you're ready to shift your attention to when your thoughts turn negative.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

Entrepreneur.com, DECEMBER 26, 2016 -- A successful career doesn’t just require great ideas and a good work ethic -- it also takes the right people. In order to work well with others, you’ll need to become a pro at leadership and management.

3-22-2017, Entrepreneur -- Changing leadership is an adjustment process. It’s a period of excitement, growing pains and hope. While earning the trust and loyalty of an entire organization is a challenge, there are five things an incoming leader can do right away to hit the ground running and earn support:

Get to know all levels of staff.

In some situations, new leadership can mean staff changes across the board. But, in most cases, tenured staff are still in place. The new head coach of a sports team can be great, but he has to start with the players the team already has. Focus on earning their trust and respect. 

United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz is a great example of a new leader who came in and got to know people at all levels. He said that “there was a high level of distrust and disengagement with employees” when he came in. That’s not unusual. When new leadership takes over, some people may be skeptics at first. 

Read the rest of the story HERE.

Grasp these four principles in order to develop a business that has a major impact in the online world.

11-7-2016, Entrepreneur -- I'm writing this article from my apartment in Cape Town, South Africa. I'm here because a company hired me to train their staff on what it takes to create a successful digital marketing strategy in today's crowded market. The company found me through my articles here on "Entrepreneur" and some of the other large media publications I write for. They paid for my expenses and have given me a generous training fee. Five years ago, I owned a business in the vendor industry. To say that there are a lot of opportunities online would be an understatement. 

Billions of people use the Internet and social media for life, to shop and for business. Today, you have the opportunity to tell millions of potential customers how your business can help their lives and solve their biggest problems. While the opportunity, tools and access are there, too many online entrepreneurs are making very little to no money in their business. There is a ton of competition, unclear and impractical messaging and a lack of focus. If you want to build a successful online business that makes an impact and income, there are four things you need to realize about online business and money.  

1. Money isn't everything, but it is important.

As soon as there is an article like this, there will be a line of people ready to scream "money isn't everything." You're right, it's not, but you better believe it is an important part of the success of your business. It also allows you a life free of financial stress. When you're living paycheck-to-paycheck or worse, you can't focus the way you should. You are constantly worried about paying the bills or losing your foundation and that causes you to react instead of implementing a focused plan. 

You need money to pay your bills. You need money to support your family and your lifestyle. You need money to do some of the fun things in life -- like travel. It's not everything, but without it, you could end up stuck in a business and life you want to escape from. Don't make money your main motivator to start or grow your business, but respect what it can do for you and learn to use it to in a way that benefits your life and helps you accomplish your goals. 

2. Money is an important component in freedom.

At the end of the day, most of us start businesses and become entrepreneurs to create freedom. We want to live life on our terms and have control of our most important asset: our time. This freedom allows us to do the things we want to do in life like spending more time with family, travel or fun hobbies. 

Having a steady and consistent revenue stream leads to freedom and allows us to do those things that we want to do without worrying. Start or grow a business that leads to you creating freedom. Use the income to help you accomplish your biggest life goals. Don't be afraid or ashamed that you want certain things for your life. 

Read the rest of the story HERE.

Entrepreneur, May 25, 2016 -- You're likely already familiar with optimizing your site for specific keywords. You may have a list of specific keywords and phrases you're targeting, or you may be more in the "add amazing content and see what happens," camp.

However, the idea of optimizing for branded keywords may not have crossed your radar. Branded terms are words or phrases that are specific to your company. They often include your business name, but also may include certain trademarked product names or your website name. For Apple, some examples of branded terms might be:

• Apple
• Apple Computers
• Applecom
• Apple dot com
• Aple (a misspelled version)
• Apple Phone

We want to rank for these branded terms because there are three main types of search queries: informational (e.g., looking for answers to a question), transactional (e.g., looking to make a purchase), and navigational (e.g., looking for a specific company).

People who fall into the third category are specifically looking for your business or website. If your site doesn't show up in the first few spots in the SERPs, your competitors will be benefiting from these branded searches.

Fortunately, ranking for branded keywords isn't fundamentally different than ranking for more generic keywords. Here are four tips for ranking for your own branded terms.

1. Build up citations.

While it's obviously important to build up high-quality links to your site, non-linked mentions ("citations") can be just as important, particularly for locally-based businesses. When Google sees a website with many citations, it recognizes your website is an ongoing concern, active and current, and therefore worth being in the search results.

One of the best ways to build up these citations is to register your business with big data aggregators like Factual and Acxiom. Local search engines (including Google) license data from these aggregators to populate their own index with business-related data. So, if the data they have is inaccurate, your local search listings will also be inaccurate.

Other ways to gather citations include:

• Getting your business listed in local directories
• Getting mentions in local blogs
• Getting listed in Yelp, Yellow Pages and Yahoo Local

If you're currently being outranked for your own branded keywords by other local businesses, try a tool like the Local Citation Finder. After plugging in your keywords, the tool will return a list of all the citation site listings for the top-ranking pages.

Related: Position Yourself as an Authority, and Watch Business Boom

2. Keep your Google My Business listing up to date.

Considering the entire right-hand site of the SERPs is often dominated by Google maps and business listings, you'll definitely want to make sure your business name is listed here. You can enter or update your Google My Business listing here.

When adding or reviewing your listing, make sure the following elements are in place:

• Your business is properly categorized.
• Ensure your NAP (name, address, phone number) are consistent with your other listings and citations.
• Add relevant photos to jazz up your listing.
• Include business hours and methods of payment.
• Encourage customers or clients to leave reviews on your listing.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

Entrepreneur.com, 12-7-2016 -- The end of 2016 is fast approaching, and while many of us area already caught up in all of the hustle and bustle that comes with the holiday season, there is actually no better time to regroup, refocus and to start thinking about 2017.

What are your goals for the coming year? For many people, these goals include financial motivations. If you want to finally get wealthy in 2017, here are five ways you can actually do it.

1. Work for your dreams, not someone else’s.

If you really want to start making money and finally be wealthy in 2017 then you need to do something that you are truly passionate about. Without this passion, you are never going to reach your full earning potential. Focus on doing what you love and what you are passionate about, not just something that happens to be in a highly paid field.

2. Dream big but start small.

Everyone wants big success fast but it’s better to go slowly. Optimize your process first before you try to go big. Take my top student, Tim as an example. He started stock trading with just $1,500, grew it to $1 million in three years and then over $3.3 million in four years. He bets bigger now that he is more confident, thanks to his early education. He is one of my favorite examples of starting small and working your way up slowly to something much more.

3. Give to others instead of yourself. 

Most people find this tough to do, but trust me, you can only have so many Lamborghinis and Ferraris and Porsches. Trust me, as someone who has had all three, they are not as fulfilling as giving back to charities, such as my Timothy Sykes Foundation is infinitely more rewarding and fulfilling. Remember that true wealth is not just about having the most money, but the most inner peace too. You will truly feel successful, established and wealthy if you start giving to others.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

8-30-2016, Entrepreneur -- When I first took the helm as executive director of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center over a year ago, I brought with me 15 years of experience in the Silicon Valley venture capital community. I’d been through tech booms and busts, economic upswings and downturns, so I was feeling an abundance of confidence: Like anyone who’s been in a profession for over a decade, I (initially) found it easy to sit back and think I'd "seen it all.”

I was mistaken; in fact, my first year of leading the Center taught me, through the experience of others as well as my own, that when it comes to starting and leading any young entrepreneurial organization, every day is filled with surprises and unexpected lessons.

The Nasdaq Entrepreneur Center, for those who don't know, is a new San Francisco-based non-profit organization designed to educate, innovate and connect aspiring and current entrepreneurs. Since the center's 2014 inception, some 2,000 entrepreneurs have gained from its classes and programs. Through interviews I conducted with the Center’s Young Executive Advisory Board members, I myself gleaned five practical lessons that can help any entrepreneur who dreams of starting something big:

• Customer problems are solved on a continuum, not with a single solution.
• Data cannot be collected retroactively.
• Patience for your company's most important problems is essential.
• Strategy time is crucial.
• Never deprioritize your team in pursuit of more working time.  

Here are the direct words of those entrepreneurs:

1. Aleda Schaffer, strategic partnerships manager, American Airlines 

'Customers are more than just a single problem they’re trying to solve.'

"Coming from venture capital, I was used to finding a single problem to solve. With the Center, I expected the single [biggest] problem to be an entrepreneur’s need to fund-raise -- and that this would drive the focus of our programming. But it quickly became clear that our customers needed a richer experience beyond just investor guidance; they responded to classes aimed at design thinking, sales and marketing, PR and media training and even organizational management. Don’t get me wrong -- they still wanted to meet investors, but it wasn’t a 'be all' solution.  

Read the rest of the story HERE.

Entrepreneur, June 1, 2016 -- Social media marketing is still a new business tool, relatively speaking. There’s no magic formula for success, and the potential benefits of your efforts are broad and not entirely predictable.

That promise is appealing, especially to young entrepreneurs, but results don’t come automatically -- even if you have a solid strategic foundation for your campaign. In fact, it requires a tremendous amount of planning, effort and refinement before you start to see results. And in most cases, the tools and features offered by social media platforms straightaway aren’t typically enough to give you the edge you need.

Social media operates in a hyper-competitive arena, and if you want to stay alive, you’re going to have to use the newest tools to support your efforts.

The key measure of success in social media, as in most other forms of marketing, is your overall return on investment (ROI). When most people think about ROI, they focus on the return they’re getting, and how to improve it.

They help you work more efficiently, to reduce the amount of time and money you expend in managing a campaign, and increase the power of everything you create or direct. In theory, at least, this should boost the potential of every dollar or hour you put in.

Related: 6 Tools to Develop an Outstanding Social Media Marketing Strategy

With those goals in mind, we want to show you five incredibly powerful up-and-coming social media tools you should be using to enhance your campaign:

1. Notifier.

One of the biggest trends in social media marketing right now is influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is the art of engaging with prominent authorities to earn more visibility for your posts and brand.Notifier is a tool that helps automate and improve your influencer relationships. By plugging in your content, it will automatically search it for references you’ve made to other brands, and pull up their social information so you can notify them that you’ve cited them. This gives you an “in” for engaging with new influencers, streamlining your influencer marketing campaign.

2. Real Geeks’ Facebook Marketing Tool.

If you’ve ever been intimidated or frustrated by the process of Facebook advertising, but are convinced of the potential value there,Real Geeks’ Facebook marketing tool is perfect for you. Designed for realtors, the tool connects your Facebook ad campaign directly to your website. From there, it automatically pulls data (such as home listings, images, etc.) and generates the type of ads that tend to generate the best results. You’ll be able to monitor and adjust these ads before they go out, and create your own if you so desire. The tool also provides detailed, easy-to-follow reporting, so you can track your progress accurately.

3. SocialOomph.

SocialOomph doesn’t have a particularly fancy user experience layer, but its functionality is powerful. With this, you’ll be able to connect all your social media profiles into one area, schedule posts in advance, and even “bulk upload” updates to have them roll out periodically over a preset schedule. It’s fantastic if you’re in the business of content syndication (as you should be), and it offers a number of audience insight tools as well.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

Entrepreneur.com, 10-24-2016 -- Entrepreneurs are the biggest dreamers on the planet. We are slightly crazy at times, but that’s what gives us the ability to "go for it" while others sit back thinking, “This might not work out as planned.”

Being an entrepreneur can be an emotional rollercoaster. We often experience fear, stress and anxiety. Sometimes we do fail. Not every startup idea is a unicorn. In fact, most eventually fail. There are going to be difficult times throughout every entrepreneurial journey. Here are five ways to remain highly motivated when the going gets tough.

1. Have a purpose.

Have a larger purpose, far beyond just your business. Once identified, use your entrepreneurial journey as a means to fulfill it. 

When you have something to work towards, and it consumes your mind, it makes the difficult times and situations much easier to confront and deal with. 

2. Surround yourself with a strong support system.

Often times when faced with difficult situations, our friends and family become our sounding board. The biggest hurdle most entrepreneurs have to overcome is being able to ask for advice when it’s needed. We are a very proud and sometimes stubborn group. Once you get over the initial fear of asking for feedback and advice, it becomes clear that your support system can help you get through even the most difficult times.

Talk to your friends and family on a regular basis if you don’t live near them, meet up weekly with friends to socialize, and consider hosting a weekly family dinner for your closest friends and family members. Positive energy is contagious, constantly interacting with positive individuals that have your best interest in mind is very healthy. 

3. Press pause.

Many entrepreneurs assume that if they face a tough time, the only way to power through it is by working 20-hour days until it has passed. If you work nonstop, it’s just going to make difficult times worse, and you will experience burnout.

Not only will pressing pause and getting away from your business allow you to recharge your batteries, but there is a good chance you will come back with amazing ideas for your business. When you are unplugged for a few days, it allows you to think more clearly than you would if you were head first in the daily grind. 

I recently took a trip to recharge, and it was on that trip that two new startups were conceived -- a home teeth whitening kit and a diet detox tea -- both launching this November. We also have another half dozen products rolling out over the next few months, and all of them were ideas that were sparked on this trip.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

MARCH 20, 2017, Entrepreneur.com -- For some people, entrepreneurship is a way of life. Creating something new and leading a team is living the dream, and a destination in its own right. For others, it’s only a means to an end, or might even be considered a detour en route to even bigger and better things.

Staying solvent at your current level is the key to taking your business to the next level.

4-17-2017, Entrepreneur.com -- Your clients are not paying on time, computer problems need attention, and your most productive employee is giving signals that they need a raise.

Late paying clients can be handled. Computer issues can be fixed. An employee who deserves a raise should receive it. You just need a plan. A great receivables employee can coax the slow-paying clients to deliver. Your IT manager can figure out what to do. The employee can be rewarded, sometimes in ways that don’t require large amounts of funding.

How do you cope with all of these issues? Think about it. All of the concerns are really stemming from one problem that has multiple aspects. That’s right. You need more cash flow, but don't let urgency tempt you to consider plans that might be financially risky.

Find the backup plan you need.

What you really need is money. Money really can solve most business problems. But, you don’t want to jump into something that can ultimately cause further angst. Consider a business line of credit. Although you may have thought of it and never applied for one, a business line of credit can remove the tension. If your business has been around long enough for you to have a staff and customers buying your products, then you most likely have temporary needs that can be resolved with a temporary loan.

An online bank connection can be key to helping you quickly and securely finance your business. https://t.co/lRvalZpnbF

— BlueVine (@BluevineCapital) February 22, 2017

Here are some approaches to resolving your immediate and future money issues:

Make a list.

What are your immediate, secondary and “if only” needs? The priority is to keep the business running as smoothly as possible. Don’t leave any aspect of your concerns out. Close your eyes and think about your facility, employees, customers, products, health plan, working hours -- everything. Write down the ideas immediately. Narrow the list down to the top three to five items that must be accomplished to keep the company on track.

Related: The 4 Lines of Credit Now Available to Small Businesses

Develop your plan.

Figure out what must be done now. Payroll is critical -- losing valued personnel would impact everything else. Fixing computer issues that prevent the company from receiving funds and processing orders is just as important. If your company manufactures a product, you need to keep your suppliers paid or you’ll have nothing to sell.

Brainstorm with key staff. You may need to streamline some approaches, but think of the greater good. Staying solvent and functional is the goal.

Apply for a business line of credit.

Although there are many approaches to finding fast cash, the business line of credit is one of the most flexible. Once approved, you can receive the funds you need as you need them. Use only what you need and pay interest only on that amount for the period of time you use the funds. Pay back the funds when your clients pay you, and you have the full value of the line of credit for a cushion. You don’t need to reapply for a loan if you need funds at another time.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

6-27-2016, Entrepreneur.com -- You work hard to get traffic to your website. You pay for advertising. You optimize for the search engines. You work it on social media.

And it pays off! Traffic comes. People arrive. They look at what you have to offer. And -- they hesitate.

It takes just a moment’s hesitation to create doubt. In that moment, you can lose a customer. They find you -- but do they trust you?

In the real world, people do business face to face. They meet the waitress, the sales clerk, the serviceman. They make a judgment call instinctively as to whether they like you, whether they trust you and whether they want to do business with you.

Does your website say “Trust me!" so that a customer never doubts? Let’s consider three types of business websites:

• Local business: Your website is an extension of a real business, where you come face to face with your customers in the flesh (store, theatre, trades).
• Service business: You interact with your customers, but not always in the same city (accountant, coach, translator).
• Ecommerce: Your entire process is automated. If all your customers were pink fairy armadillos, you would never know. (Those are real animals, by the way, although rarely seen on ecommerce websites).

Whichever type of businesses you run, ask yourself the following questions.

1. Can customers visualize me?

If they can’t meet you in person, the next best thing is to see you. A picture of the business owner, with his or her name, goes a long way. A quote beneath the picture about “quality” or how you “love customers” goes even further. A video message from the owner is best.  Video is more tangible, almost like meeting you. When I redesigned my website, it's the first thing I added.

Check out the video on the home page of a local contractor's website. There is something special about this screenshot. Keep reading.

If not a video, how about photos of the whole team, as The Pike Brewing Company has. You'll see the same approach across the pages of my website. The Great Lakes Brewing Company shows the "Two Irish brothers" who founded the company, when telling their story.

Which type of website most needs a real, live person up front?  Ecommerce, of course.  The more intangible the business, the more important to show real people behind it.

2. Can customers visualize my business?

If they can’t walk up to your counter, at least they can see that you have a real address.  That boosts trust right away. A real address means that you are less likely to be a fly-by-night scammer. Even better, post a picture of your place of business 

Which type of website most needs to show a real location? You guessed it: ecommerce.  The more virtual the business is, the more important to show that it is real. This business made sure that customers can contact them in every way possible:

Read the rest of the story HERE.

12-5-2017, Entrepreneur -- For busy entrepreneurs with loaded schedules and brimming task lists, there's nothing more frustrating than having the time to work but being so unable to focus that they feel that they're getting nothing done. If it's any consolation, know that your situation is hardly unique: even in a task as simple as reading, the average mind wanders from the task at hand anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of the time, according to Canadian researcher Jonathan Schooler.

But knowing that most entrepreneurs and professionals have trouble focusing doesn't exactly help with your problem. If you want to improve your focus on a daily basis, and correct the chronic distractions you face, you'll first need to determine the root cause of the issue.

So, if focus is a major concern in your work,the reason is likely one or more of these root causes:

1. Sleep deprivation

It shouldn't surprise you to learn that missing out on sleep can make it more difficult for you to focus. You're supposed to get seven to nine hours of sleep every night, but that's a hard requirement for entrepreneurs; as a result, many end up being chronically sleep-deprived professionals unable to focus their full attention on whatever task is at hand.

2. Distractions

Your problem might also have to do with the number of distractions you surround yourself with; even the most talented professionals are prone to wasting time at work, with 89 percent of employees in a Salary.com survey admitting to wasting at least some time at work every day. The top distractions were talking or texting on the phone, gossiping, browsing the internet and playing on social media.

You can eliminate these distractions for yourself by using a browser app that disallows distracting websites, or by turning off your phone.

3. No priorities

You could also have trouble focusing simply because you aren't sure what you should be focusing on. The typical entrepreneur has dozens of tasks on his or her plate at all times. So, if you're one and unsure what to do next, you might jump among tasks frequently, leaving them half-finished, and only dedicating half your attention to any of them.

If this is your problem, you'll need to work to establish a firmer system of prioritization.

4. Stress

According to Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, stress and focus have a mutually dependent relationship. When we multitask, or focus on too many things at once, we experience more stress; and the more stressed we are, the harder it is to focus. To focus better, we all need to take time to slow down with mindfulness exercises and relaxation.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

6/20/2016, Entrepreneur -- It’s one of the most popular questions in interviews, and also one of the most understandable. Why not hear why your future employee is right for the role straight from the horse’s mouth?

Why then, does it fill us with so much trepidation? Partly because there’s no way of tricking this question, you’ve just got to believably detail exactly why you’re better than all the other applicants for the job. You’ve got to tell them why what you’ve got is worth having.

The one key thing to remember is that the hiring manager is putting their reputation on the line, whoever they hire. Sell yourself into them with confidence and evidence that you’re the best person for the job, and this question can be the key to unlocking that job offer.

Work out what they want

Your first step, as always, is to do your research. Start by reading the job specification. Then read it again, looking between the lines. It might be that they’re asking for soft skills like flexibility or high emotional intelligence while what they’re really looking for is someone who can adapt to new tasks and be proactive with their work, or someone who understands others and can manage effectively.

By decrypting some of the jargon in job descriptions, you can gain an understanding of the kind of experience and skills you need to show the interviewer.

Next up, take a look at the usual avenues, quarterly reports, websites and industry or company news. This way you’ll be able to get a good idea of the kind of needs the company have, gain some insight into the focus of the business, and understand important growth areas across the industry or sector.

After this, explore their social media, blogs and general company output. This is key to preparing yourself to hit one of the most important factors in hiring nowadays; culture fit. You’ll know the kind of work environment you’re stepping into, and how to pull up old experience that is similar so that you can impress.

Once you’ve got a complete understanding, you can then start to tailor your answer to the interview. This is a chance to demonstrate that you’ve researched and care about the company, and you increase your chance that you’re saying what they want to hear.

It’s not about misrepresenting yourself in trying to plug a round hole with a square peg, but about selecting your most applicable qualities and demonstrating a particular problem you can solve.

Quality over quantity

The key things you want to get across in your answer are experience, skills, accomplishments, training or education and culture fit.

You also want to keep it concise. The chances are that you’ll lose their attention if you use more than three or four examples to cover these areas, and the quality may start to go on. Besides this, you want to keep a few things back for questions later on, even if you’re using your killer answers straight away.

Experience & Training -- To start with you want to use your experience to give a general picture of you as a candidate, and make sure it’s understood that you’ve got the knowledge to succeed. Having said that, if they’re hiring a project manager and you have project managing experience, the chances are that’s probably why they’re interviewing you in the first place. This is an opportunity to get specific, and correlate your experience to the specific industry, role or problems that you know the company has.

Accomplishments -- employers love quantifiable accomplishments as they provide proof that you can offer a strong return on investment immediately. Wherever possible, deliver relevant numbers, whether that’s that you’ve managed 24 people, driven sales by 150%, or completed 9 successful projects with client A, B and C.

Skills & Culture Fit -- Once you’ve identified the sort of soft skills that are key to the culture of your new company, provide some example of a time you’ve displayed them. Consider things like whether they want someone who is supremely organized, a great leader, or keen to come up with innovative solutions to problems.

Read the rest HERE. 

6/22/2016, Entrepreneur -- Few marketing vehicles offer the advantages live events do. They provide unmatched opportunities for customers and prospects to touch, demo and otherwise interact with a product. Events facilitate relationship- and community-building with like-minded individuals, and enable brands to create a “brain-washing chamber” where they have complete control over the environment and messaging.

Related: Online Marketing Gets All the Buzz But Check Out the ROI for Live Events

Plus, live events are custom made for photo-sharing on social networks.

It is probably no coincidence, then, that event planning is one of the fastest growing career categories in the United States, projected to grow at three times the average job growth over the next ten years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Here are some time-tested professional tips for successfully marketing your brand through live events.

1. Set clear, measurable goals.

It’s shocking how often this doesn’t happen, but without articulating event objectives, how will you know if your event was successful? If you’re having trouble with this, consider this perspective: What action(s) do you want people to take post-event? What circumstances or outcomes would lead you to absolutely not want to host the event again? What outcomes would prompt you to guarantee you'll host it again? Or, what do you want attendees to think about your brand after this event, and how does that differ from their current perception, if at all?

2. Build an easy narrative for guests to share.

Think about what you want attendees to say about your brand when they leave your event. The text should be like an elevator speech: short, easy to understand and compelling. (There’s a reason why so many startups explain their companies with references like, “We’re like Uber -- but for baby sitters": It's easy for people to grasp.)  Every element of the event should be designed to support this message. The goal is not just for on-site attendees to understand your story, but also to enable them to easily share that story with others. Likewise, avoid anything that might detract from it, or confuse people, such as a branded giveaway that doesn't clearly reinforce your narrative.

Read the rest of the story HERE.