The Entrepreneurs Unpluggd

As summer fades away and pumpkin spice lattes roll into town, one thing is certain – it’s time to begin your annual marketing strategy sessions for the coming year. In the most basic context, strategy is defining what your company wants to achieve and developing a plan to watch it come to fruition.

According to CarCover.com, this is especially true for e-commerce sites in the automotive and transportation markets in these uncertain times. The pandemic has dramatically changed customers’ habits, how they drive their cars, how they travel, and consequently how they make related purchases online.

Anytime you set out to achieve a goal you can schedule time to reflect and meditate on it. You need space to clear your mind and visualize the big picture behind the goal. The same is true when it comes to strategy planning. There are many benefits to having a solid strategy in order, but we advise taking a chunk of time to reflect before even jotting anything down on paper.

Effective planning ensures team alignment. The objectives are clear, which allows for everyone to prioritize their workload. This allows for the best use of resources across your team, particularly the time your employees are spending on projects. Once your team is focused on what matters the most, your company will see the results they desire.

As you plan your marketing strategy for the coming year, here are some tips to help you succeed:

Determine your top three marketing goals

As a company, you should know your top three goals. This can be part of your mission statement or culture, as well as financial expectations for the year. If these are not established, work with upper management to determine them. Once they are established, every single event, advertisement, social media post, press release, sponsorship, piece of content or any other marketing materials should ladder back up to one of these goals.

If anything comes across your desk that does not align with one of these goals – pitch it. Stick to the plan as to not waste your time, budget or resources.

Review ROI from all previous activities

Now, just because something may align with one of your three goals, does not mean you have to proceed with it. Take a look at everything your company has done in the past. Are you able to show return on investment? If not, how can that change? ROI comes in many forms and I know firsthand that it is not always the easiest item to track. If you are just going for brand awareness versus leads, it is not always as quantifiable as you’d like.

However, it would be easy to determine your ROI from a trade show by quickly seeing how much it cost and how many deals were signed and attributed from that show. Use this data to determine if it is worth the investment next year.

Establish your budget

Budgets are a reality. You have a limited pool of money to use that must accomplish a lot of goals. Take the time to block off a meeting and understand where your money will go and how to plan for unexpected needs throughout the year (include line items for this).

It is not uncommon that trade shows, events and sponsorships arise throughout the year that you would not be able to send your sales team to attend had you not planned for these unexpected items. Also, understand where your costs will be split with other departments in your budget. For example, website costs might come from marketing, IT, sales and eCommerce departments.

It’s tedious to jump into planning mode, but it is worth it. Having everyone on your team aligned and ready to go as 2021 approaches is well worth the investment it takes to get there.

Given the current coronavirus situation, it is start to stay at home all the time and I miss conferences in particular, which stopped for now for safety reasons. My last conference was SxSW 2020, a few weeks ago,

After just arriving from SxSW, I felt good recovering from the flux of tech nerds, social networking mobile apps, and frantic passerby looking for power outlets. I love the energy of SxSW: that feeling looking around at everyone walking around with iPads, Macs, and iPhones (power to those rebellious Android folks!). Then you look down and realize all of your Apple products are within reaching distance as well.

The problem with SxSW is that so much like minded camaraderie does not breed creativity: in fact, it produces more of the echo chamber that is prevalent in places with high startup density. Transplanting Silicon Valley folk to Austin won’t produce paradigm shifts in technology…so the question is, if you’re looking for inspiration where do you look?

A recent article in the WSJ explored the nature of creativity. It sought to explain why certain people seem to be more creative than other (yes Steve Jobs) and how we can learn to induce creative thinking. The answer is completely contradictory to what one might expect. Creativity comes from bringing together loose connections to solve problems. An example in the article was a 3M executive who came up with the idea of the Post It Note after losing his place in a church choirbook and needing a bookmark.

In order to induce this type of thinking we need to do one of two things: relax or focus. We already know that the shower tends to breed amazing ideas (and songs!) but it has more to do with the relaxed state of our minds than the flowing water. The other surprising thing to do is: get drunk.

Apparently, in a study where sober and drunk participants had to do non obvious word associations…drunk participants performed 30% better. Notwithstanding wanting to be a participant in that study, this brings credence to the idea that chilling out and grabbing a beer is actually very beneficial for your business.

The final crucial finding was that interaction with people outside of our industry breeds creativity. Approaching problem solving outside of a narrow context means that non obvious solutions will be proposed. Practically, this means if you are a tech nerd you really should go to Ignite, join a book club, or take up that underwater basket weaving class. You’ll meet interesting people who have completely different vantage points who can give you critical feedback and spark conversations that you won’t get elsewhere.

The point is that if you want to be creative, innovative and unique…SxSW is not the place to do it (unless you are say, an artist or outside of the tech world). Just walk around and you’ll see each year there is a theme to a new crop of startups…this year it was mobile networking apps, last year it was group messaging apps. Get creative by relaxing, meeting new people with diverse backgrounds, and getting drunk together.

Could it be that these people just aren’t all that smart? I know that sounds harsh, but I don’t think it requires remarkable talent to declare yourself an entrepreneur, hatch a hare-brained social app idea, desperately seek funding, drive to SXSW, set up a booth and hand out tshirts and grilled cheese sandwiches as if you know something everybody else doesn’t.

It requires remarkable talent to come up with an original idea in an unpopular industry like dumpster rental services or gun silencers (which, let’s face it, is where most big ideas and innovations come from) and see it through without immediate funding or an enormous community doing the exact same thing.

Mistake # 1: Building something nobody wants to buy

Indeed, many startups are working hard to develop something (service, app, product, API, software…) that not many people want to buy, because a little out of step with real needs. Some people never stops once they are self-convinced that their idea was awesome.

How do you realize you’re in it? You haven’t talked to potential users for a long time, and prefer to “tweak your product, add another feature”. A very good indication also: after a few months nobody has yet “bought” your concept and has committed to be one of the first customers.

Mistake # 2: Poor recruiting

Surrounding yourself is one of the 3 big things to do for a startup boss. And you have to spend some time there. A bad recruitment will make you lose energy, time, money, possibly credibility compared to the rest of the teams, will instill a bad atmosphere, etc. To grow, you will have to rely on the right team, and that is where your success will come from.

This is the composition of the team: not complementary enough, but also not necessarily with the good distribution of capital between partners, neither good governance, nor the good pact of partners, nor necessarily the same personal objectives and pro. There can be heated discussions, points of disagreement, but communication must remain open and above all allow decisions to be made in the long term.

It is not fluid, you are full of feelings, keep frustration, it blocks certain decisions. You are also too similar and too “on the same things”, which will make it rub. You are not aligned in terms of objectives, perhaps you have never even bothered to ask yourself why you should join?

How do you realize you’re in it? This can unfortunately take time. But usually you have a little inner voice that makes you doubt. And when it comes to recruitment, if there is any doubt, there is no doubt. But yes, it’s a real fight, because when you need extra arms, there is a strong tendency to be a little more loose in its recruitment. It’s 99% wrong!

Mistake # 3: Lacking focus

There are 2 types of focus: that of the entrepreneur (being dedicated to his business) and that of the startup business (being able to do something very well except for everything else). The temptations are great to go and find a little business on the right or on the left, to run several vertical trades or sectors at the same time, to launch a second country because the opportunity is there and that it is good for the comm.

Sacrificing business or knowing how to stop doing certain things (which one does elsewhere (or which one has the impression of doing) better than any collaborator at the start) is hard, but clearly necessary quickly.

How do you realize you’re in it? You find it hard to describe in one sentence what you are best for in the world (both in your job and in your business).

Mistake # 4: Failing to implement good marketing

Performing sales and marketing properly is something that most startups miss. Predictable revenue, marketing process, marketing automation, lead acquisition mechanics, lead nurturing, inbound marketing and outbound marketing strategy, definition of sales positions according to sales pipeline and stages in the sales cycle, object book, training salespeople.

All of this often takes second place (in the end, it’s common sense, right?) and greatly breaks the engine of growth to come.

How do you realize you’re in it? The entrepreneur is the only salesperson and marketing is very “reactive”, not at all in forecasting with a well-defined plan, activities, monitoring of ROI, clarification of priority segments. Basically, you are not able to quantify what your commercial activity should bring you in terms of leads / business.

Mistake # 5: Looking too much for investors, not enough customers

We still find it with a lot of project leaders who will almost stop their business operations (especially commercial) the time to find investors, something they will spend up to 6 to 9 months, obliterating their chances of proving , through sales, that their business can work well.

How do you realize you’re in it? You draw to attract the attention of investors who say to you all for the most part “it’s too early”, which is the polite version of “30 other people are working on the same concept as you, I’ll wait to see the one who manages to convince a few customers ”. Another sign is that you spend more time grabbing the article on blogs or in the press and in events than with potential customers.

Mistake # 6: Not making sure you have enough money to finance the discovery or growth phase

It is possible to create a company without too much money. But it still takes a bit to be able to simply buy time: that to find your product-market fit, that to give time to prospects to make their decision, to develop their product, to listen to the market.

Then in a second phase to be able to speed up and staff, because as soon as you have validated the first hypotheses the objective is to go as quickly as possible to structure a first business format.

How do you realize you’re in it? You only have a few months of cash (pro and personal) in front of you, and come to look at what you could do to find money whatever the cost (hint: it’s too late to start a fundraising fund)

Mistake # 7: Spending too much money, having too high a burn rate

The smart entrepreneur like the guys at Clovis dumpsters uses bootstraping. Basically, he shoots at all prices, made by himself, has a sense of resourcefulness to preserve as much as possible his little nest egg. The idea? Hold as long as possible, even after a first round if the goal is still to find your product-market Fit. After, it’s another story, you have to spend as quickly as possible. But be careful not to get too comfortable spending too soon.

How do you realize you’re in it? You burn money without counting too much: sumptuous premises, all kinds of fees, no negotiation on purchases, etc. You will soon realize this, but often too late. Do not hesitate to benchmark your expenses with those of other entrepreneurs. And have them challenged by someone who can tell you if it’s a necessary or superfluous expense.

Social entrepreneurship is an approach used by many of the new generation of entrepreneurs, where part of their strategy is to implement solutions to social or environmental issues like waste and pollution. Many young social entrepreneurs specialize in the world of waste management and recycling. Their vision is simple: a smart economy must better value both materials and humans.

Creating Wealth from Waste

One such startup started from the observation that we are wasting both material and human time. Many cell phones sleep in the drawers and meanwhile people in need lack employement opportunities. From this consideration Benoît Varin, a thirty-something dynamic young man, created Recommerce Solutions, which now has 140 employees. The company collects used mobile phones and they are employees in insertion or in a situation of handicap who sort the devices, repair them and send them to second-hand buyers.

Many anti-waste entrepreneurs feel responsible not only for the environment but also for society in general,” says Fabien de Castilla, who launched Happy Movers in September. He installs colorful sorting and pedagogical sorting boxes in companies and will ultimately entrust the collection of waste to employees in integration. This collection job is well suited to people who need a setting: it takes a little autonomy because we are released in nature but it is quite routine.

Ares, a large integration company, has also invested in the world of recycling. 60 to 70 employees sort recyclable waste at the chain at Véolia and Sita. And a team of five people will pick up office furniture every day from companies that move to send it to recycling,

Pioneering companies in a new field

Recycling of textiles by Emmaüs, repair of household appliances in the network Envie, the actors of the social and solidarity economy have always been pioneers in the world of waste. Today, it is electronic waste and the trash of companies that are looking for a second life and once again social entrepreneurs stick to it. There was no pure player in the business of storing business furniture, says Guillaume Hérisson. Purchasing departments know how to buy, general services know how to store but nobody knows how to throw!

Social entrepreneurs are often more cheeky and daring than conventional actors. Social entrepreneurs are often more cheeky and bold than conventional actors because their militant side pushes them to invest in a vision – like the fight against waste – even if the economic model is still wobbly.

They are helping the planet and finding meaning at work. Not to mention that helping the environment gives meaning to the working days of employees in difficulty. For people looking for landmarks, feeling useful to the environment is a lever for integration and motivation.

Pride is even greater when the job allows you to acquire technical skills. Benoît Varin thus witnessed a metamorphosis in the ESAT (Establishment and Service of Help by Work, where are employed people with disabilities) in Rouen, a partner of his company. “There was this employee who put chocolates in boxes. When I showed him how to unlock a cell phone his eyes sparkled and he said to me, ‘This is what I want to do in my life, I want to be a technician!’ It came from the heart. He who could not get up in the morning is since the first to arrive at the workshop in the morning. Do not neglect the contents of your garbage cans, it can put men on foot!

Fight against food waste, digital inclusion and banking, circular economy, many sectors of activity are emerging new hybrid structures, fruit of an alliance between a conventional business and a social enterprise. John Mayers took over a Columbia dumpster rental service company to help herald his vision of new recycling protocols that will reduce waste materials creation by a third.

It’s still a pretty strong marriage where the social entrepreneur knows what he is talking about regarding waste management. The structure proposes to collect, sort, package and store recyclable materials all the while employing people in insertion. By renting rolloff dumpster containers, he allows residents and businesses to do a big cleanout where they can recycle the maxium quantity of unused objects at their location.

What sort of mattresses are your employees sleeping on? If you don’t know how to answer this question, you may want to give it some thought. Your employees work for you, which is why you’ll want to take steps to improve their health and well-being. Here are a few of the reasons you’ll want your employees to have high-quality, supportive mattresses.

A Good Mattress Can Support the Back and Align the Spine

The best mattresses provide people with plenty of support as they sleep. This can reduce back pain, and it can also help to ensure that the spine is properly aligned. Sleeping on the right mattress can reduce the risk of back problems in the future. It’s very common for people to experience back pain, particularly in certain environments. Back problems are a major issue for office employees, and they can also be an issue for people that do a lot of heavy lifting on the job. If you want to help your employees to avoid this type of pain, you’re going to want to make sure they’re sleeping on the right mattress.

A Quality Mattress Can Relieve and Prevent Pain

It’s difficult to work when you’re in pain. When people are trying to manage aches and pains, they may not be able to concentrate on the tasks in front of them. The best mattresses can provide relief to people that are in pain, and they can also prevent pain in the future. You’re not going to want your employees to be distracted by pain during their workday. You’re going to want to make sure your workers are focusing their attention on your business. When your employees have good mattresses, they’ll be able to get the pain relief that they need, which means they’ll be able to put in a better performance when they come to work.

The Right Mattress Can Help People to Sleep Through the Night

Have you ever noticed yourself tossing and turning throughout the night as you try to fall asleep? If you’re a restless sleeper, you may have an issue with your mattress. The same thing is true for your employees. If they don’t have the right mattress to sleep on, they might not be getting enough sleep at night. If you need a good bed head over to layla mattress coupon site and grab the latest deal. You definitely don’t want your employees to be exhausted when they come into work. You’re going to want to make sure they have the sort of mattress that will allow them to get a peaceful night of sleep each night. You deserve to be sleeping through the night, and your employees deserve to have the same pleasure.

Sleep Can Help People Fight Off Illnesses

When your employees are out sick, it can make it difficult for you to run your business effectively. A lot of people don’t realize that a lack of sleep can make people more susceptible to viruses and other types of illnesses. If your employees aren’t sleeping on the right mattresses, they could wind up taking more sick time. You’ll want to make sure that everyone that works for you has a healthy immune system and is able to fight off illnesses. If you have an employee that isn’t getting enough sleep at night, it could wind up causing issues for you down the road. You’ll want to make sure that your employees are getting the rest that they need when they sleep at night. If your employees have good mattresses, they’ll be able to give you their best performance every day. Your employees deserve good mattresses, and you should do what you can to make sure they get the mattresses that they need.

It’s not fun seeing your inferior competitors outranking your business on search engines.

While they’re using SEO to generate sales for free, you’re stuck having to pay thousands of dollars for Google AdWords every month, just to get a portion of what your competitor is making.

Whether or not that search engine optimization is right for your business is no longer the question; its “how do I get started?”.

70-80% of search engine users are ignoring the paid ads and are only focusing on the organic results (Source: Martech, 2018)

Most SEO agencies out there are selling the same cookie cutter systems based on deliverables and not results, a smart business owner like you knows better.

What you need is a professional SEO consultant; someone who understands your business’s industry, your challenges, someone who is consistently getting results within your industry, not a generalist.

Here are 4 simple steps to finding a professional SEO consultant:

1. Read SEO Articles Related to Your Industry

There are too many generalist SEO consultants out there with varying opinions, it can be hard to know who is right and who is wrong.

Start reading SEO blogs, find people posting content about SEO that’s specific to your business’s industry.

Use search operators to find blog articles in your industry:

Using search operators will help you quickly find blog articles about SEO that are specific to your business’s industry.

After reading a handful of articles you will be able to tell find SEO Consultants that are not only really good at SEO but also understand your business and the industry that it is in.

2. Look Through SEO Directories

In order to do business with someone, it helps to trust them.

How do you trust someone that you don’t personally know and don’t know anything about what they actually do?

SEO Directories

SEO directories compile lists of SEO consultants and give you a brief description who they are, what they do, their reviews and how to get in contact with them

This is a great way to find an SEO Consultant, just keep in a few things in mind:

• Find out how long they have been doing SEO for
• Read their reviews
• Check out their website and blog
• Make sure they understand your business’s industry

 

3. Reach Out to Your Professional Network

Asking someone in within your professional network for a referral to a good SEO consultant is a great idea.

When reaching out to your professional network, reach out to people that are directly in your industry but are indirect competitors.

To avoid conflict of interest, don’t hire the same SEO consultant as one of your direct competitors, however, hiring an SEO consultant of an indirect competitor is fine, even recommended.

This will give you the opportunity to see second hand how good they are, the results they got and any other valuable information your referrer has.

4. Search Google for a Good SEO Consultant

Last but most definitely not least, you can search for a good SEO consultant on Google.

If you do not have the time to do a ton of research, or you are in a competitive industry and you need to find an SEO consultant that is really good, this is your best option.

In this case, you will want to find SEO consultants that rank for terms like:

• SEO Consultant
• SEO Expert
• SEO Specialist
• City SEO

People who rank highly for these search terms are likely to be very good at what they do because they are all competing against fellow SEO professionals for those positions.

Conclusion

To find a good SEO consultant for your business try reading SEO blogs and articles related to your industry, source top rated lists and SEO directories, reach out to your personal network, and last but not least, use Google.

Once you have a list of possible candidates narrow it down to SEO consultants that specialize in your business’s industry and are getting consistent results within it. Don’t make a final decision based on price, and be sure to let them do their job free from micromanagement and needing constant approvals.

Running a business is more than a full-time job it is an all-consuming passion that takes a lot of time and energy. Ask any business owner and they will tell you that their workday doesn’t end when they leave the office. There are countless tasks that need to be taken care of to keep the business running smoothly, many of which are dealt with outside of normal business hours.

Because business owners have so much to do, they often neglect their sleeping habits. Unfortunately, failing to get enough sleep can have a major impact on everything from their health to their productivity. That’s why it’s recommended to get a good mattress to snooze on. See sleeponlatexcoupon.org – discount website for the latest deals.

If you own a business and aren’t getting at least seven hours of sleep a night, it is important to reevaluate your habits. Getting more sleep could dramatically improve your ability to get things done while at the same time protecting your health. Below are some of the most important reasons why business owners should get more sleep:

1. Your brain functions better when you are well rested.

Time and time again, studies have shown that getting enough sleep results in better cognitive abilities and improve brain function. When you are exhausted, it is much harder to stay focused. You may find your mind wandering during the day rather than staying focused on the task at hand. Decision-making becomes practically impossible and your problem-solving skills suffer.

The easiest way to correct all of these problems is by making sure that you get enough sleep. Being well-rested not only makes it easier to stay focused but also helps you make smarter decisions. As a bonus, it is also easier to solve problems or to learn new things when you get enough sleep.

2. Getting enough sleep promotes better health.

Your body uses the time when you are sleeping to repair itself, healing damaged tissue, rebalancing hormone levels, and generating white blood cells to combat viruses and bacteria. If you don’t get enough sleep, healing takes a lot longer. It also makes you more susceptible to colds or illnesses. Even though it may seem like staying up late to finish a project is a good idea, it could actually wind up costing you time by making you sick.

3. Sleep is good for your mental health and well-being.

If you deprive yourself of sleep, it can lead to increased levels of anxiety and depression. Running a business is extremely stressful and can take a toll on your mental health. Regarding supporting your mood, getting enough sleep is essential. Aim for anywhere from about 7 to 8 hours each night to get the best results.

There are a lot of important reasons why business owners should get more sleep. Being well rested makes it much easier to stay focused. It also improves cognitive function and reduces the chances of developing conditions like depression and anxiety. Perhaps most importantly, sleeping also gives your body a chance to heal, helping to ensure that you stay healthy and active.

We all know that e-commerce giants have made it possible for lots of people to quit their day jobs to work as small-time entrepreneurs. For a long time, these entrepreneurs depended on the enormous reach of eBay and Amazon. There was no other way for businesses run from a living room to reach such a large audience on their own.

Since then, this landscape has evolved. Instead of relying solely on e-commerce giants for their survival, niche e-commerce businesses can now utilise Google Ads and Facebook Ads to reach their audience directly. You might ask, wasn’t this the case before? What has changed? The answer lies simply in scope. Every year, Facebook’s audience grows ever larger, especially since Instagram joined the Facebook family.

Similarly, Google Ads benefit from greater reach by the simple fact that there are more internet users with every passing day. That means there are more potential customers for every possible interest out there.

Both Facebook and Google ads also have greater effectiveness as smartphones make it ever easier to pay for purchases online with Apple Pay and Google Wallet.

Companies like Malaysia-based Blossom Tea are finding that fairly niche products like floral tea are viable through advertising now. Underlining the importance of search engines and social media, BT founder Jian Leen says “Without Facebook or Google, we would lose 99% of our sales instantly”.

This is unprecedented opportunity in the age of e-commerce. Further, this phenomenon is not limited only to physical products either.

Once upon a time Craigslist ruled the roost for online listings. Everything that could be sold was sold on Craigslist. The Craigslist leviathan made founder Craig Newmark a rich man. In a time where every sort of startup attracted venture funding, Craigslist was the exception to the rule, building a success without funding.

However, even this remarkable giant was subject to the mega trend of internet growth explosion. Eventually, Airbnb ate up Craigslist’s apartment listings section, and dating apps made it ever easier for singles to find date with a swipe, also eating up Craigslist’s personals.

Though B2B was never a Craigslist staple, smaller non-e-commerce companies like coworking space search engine Seekspaces have likewise benefited from the viability of ever more niche websites. Seekspaces shared that coworking space search and comparison have grown exponentially on Google over the past half a decade. The possibilities for B2B sales are unlike anything in the past. Formerly, business process outsourcing and PBX phone systems were the preserve of Fortune 500 companies. Today, even solopreneur e-commerce companies can purchase these services with a few clicks and a company credit card.

You may find it doubtful that niche companies are really flourishing even more than the tech giants that we see all around us. That would be normal. We can see the fingerprints of Google, Facebook, Amazon and others all around us. The influence and pervasiveness of smaller e-commerce businesses is a hidden current that we cannot perceive directly.

By looking at some proxies, we can begin to reveal the truth. As companies such as Shopify grow, we begin to recognize the size of small e-commerce companies as a whole. The increasing popularity of SSL certificates as trust markers as reported by W3Techs is another proxy for purchases by smaller e-commerce companies, which have to pull together their tech infrastructure mostly on their own.

It is a literal sea of opportunity out there. Readers of Entrepreneurs Unplugged will find that this opportunity is enormous, yet slow to be recognized, and slower still to be taken by most. In a world mesmerised by cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence, real business problems are overlooked.

This article was written by Jian Leen from Blossom Tea.