Author: Pamela Swift

Categories
Entrepreneurship

5 Ways Mentors Help Inexperienced Entrepreneurs

Whether an entrepreneur is grappling with the inception of an idea or its execution, the significance of having a mentor for sound advice and proper guidance cannot be denied. A good mentor helps an entrepreneur think through the business idea, suggests various ways to generate capital for the business, offers the benefit of his experience, and makes up for the know-how that the entrepreneur may lack in the field.

A helpful mentor will be sincerely invested in your entrepreneurial success. Having a mentor who believes in your business idea is a great confidence booster. Finding a mentor who genuinely cares for your success is rare, and there’s nothing quite like actually having one by your side.

Here are five great ways in which mentors invaluably help inexperienced entrepreneurs.

  1. They Impart Practical Knowledge Not Found in Books

There’s no doubt that motivational books help momentously in boosting the confidence of young entrepreneurs. Various autobiographies of business stalwarts also offer great insights into their experiences of running a successful business. But it is an unstated truth that most authors are not comfortable with revealing everything in their books. A mentor, on the other hand, is your guaranteed help in dealing with challenges during your entrepreneurial journey. He/she has practically dealt with the obstacles of running a business and fought through them, which is why he/she can offer you hands-on advice when you face dire situations.

The combination of motivational books and the comradeship of a mentor can prove to be great for your fascinating entrepreneurial journey and keep your entrepreneurial spirit high.

  1. They Help Develop Connections within Industry

Starting from the bottom of the line and finally breaking into an important industry circle can be intimidating, especially if you do not have prior contacts. A successful mentor comes with an unlimited network of connections that can help a newbie enter the industry circle. Since a mentor already believes in your idea and is working with you for the success of your venture, he will introduce you to his connections in the industry and also recommend you.

It is also a well-known fact that investors trust a start-up that is recommended by a successful connection or friend. So, having a mentor helps both ways – building network connections and establishing credibility in the industry circle.

  1. They Assist in Better Financial Management

One of the hardest parts of maintaining the start-up course is to monitor its cash flow and stick to the business plan. More often than not, business execution does not go exactly as planned on paper. Numerous practical situations are responsible for the drift from the initial plans for your business. Only a mentor who has faced such situations and dealt with them can help a budding entrepreneur with the practical know-how of dealing with complex financial and maintaining a sustained cash flow.

From hiring employees to investing in business development, a mentor helps in better utilization of financial resources and provides a good understanding of business management.

  1. They Can Develop Better EQ and Reassurance

Implementing decisions with an emotional mind-set can prove fatal for a business. There’s no doubt that emotional maturity is crucial for the success of a business, but passion for your dream can often bring emotions into the picture. Having a mentor will help you keep emotions aside and think practically when taking critical decisions.

During the initial stages of the business, inexperienced entrepreneurs may need mental reassurance that their chosen path will lead them to success. A mentor helps the entrepreneur in dealing with inhibitions, worries, uncertainties, and promotes self-confidence that reassures a bright future.

  1. They Aid Longer Business Sustenance

As per statistics, more than 30% of new ventures do not survive for more than twenty four months, and 50% don’t make it past five years. An entrepreneur with a mentor should consider himself lucky. It is a proven fact that more than 70% of businesses guided by a knowledgeable mentor survive for more than five years. One of the biggest reasons for this success is that a mentor is invested in your business right from the start. He helps you design a good business model, and improves your skills through constructive criticism and positive mentor-ship.

With the help of a mentor, entrepreneurs can build businesses that are more organized, and grow their professional and personal skills through the mentor’s experience.

As a young entrepreneur, there may be several occasions when doubts about achieving success come to your mind. Having a mentor gives the encouragement to run the business with refined intellect. Mentors are essential to the success of a business and if you don’t have one yet, it’s time to be proactive and find a mentor who believes in you and your dream.

About the Author

Nicola Reynor is a passionate blogger who loves to blog about business, entrepreneurship, finance, health and lifestyle trends. When in leisure time, she prefers to spend time in traveling with friends and family.
Categories
Entrepreneurs

5 Reasons Why Veterans Make Great Entrepreneurs

The men and women of the armed forces who put their lives on the line to keep our country safe — and who spend extended periods of time away from their families and loved ones in living conditions that are somewhere between difficult and dreadful — are certainly deserving of our gratitude, regardless of where we are on the political spectrum. Remember: we’re talking about military personnel here, not politicians!

What’s more, there is another way that these men and women, upon transitioning back into their civilian lives, are making a valued and vital contribution: they’re launching businesses with a well above-average success rate. Here are the five key reasons why Veterans make great entrepreneurs:

  1. Discipline

While the media loves covering attention-grabbing, “lightning-in-a-bottle” entrepreneurial stories (almost as much as it enjoys covering when some of these businesses crash and burn!), the truth is that succeeding as an entrepreneur is a lot less about glamour, and a lot more about grind. Veterans have the discipline required to stay the course — and remain focused — as opportunities and challenges emerge.

  1. Teamwork

The most successful entrepreneurs aren’t virtuosos. They’re conductors who know how to build strong relationships and delegate accordingly. Veterans have well-honed teamwork skills and know, without a doubt, that success can’t and won’t happen if leaders are working in silos or on an island.

  1. Sacrifice

Virtually all entrepreneurs know (or will discover) that for at least the first few years – and sometimes longer – it’s not about cashing in and surging up a few income brackets. It’s about putting your head down, rolling up your sleeves, and building equity. This typically means working 60+ hours a week, and taking care of tasks and activities when the rest of the employed world is enjoying a holiday, taking a vacation, or sleeping late on the weekends. Veterans could write a book (and some have) on the importance of sacrifice, and how to “get going when the going gets tough.”

  1. Pressure

Many Veterans have faced extreme pressure situations, and are therefore well-equipped to deal with the fact that being an entrepreneur is a high-stress job that involves wearing many different hats.

  1. Reliability

Veterans have proven – often under dire and dangerous conditions – that they’re reliable, dedicated and follow-through on their commitments. All of these qualities are essential for success as an entrepreneur. Indeed, their well-earned reputation for integrity is a big reason why many lending firms offer small business loans for Veterans that have favorable terms, interest rates, and other benefits.

The Bottom Line

These are just some of the key strengths, abilities and talents that many Veterans bring to the entrepreneurial world, and help support their success on the journey from dynamic startup, to established enterprise.

Categories
Social Marketing

How to Create an Epic Video Presentation for Your Business Website

Article Contributed by Hannah Whittenly

The website that you create for your business is the first impression that viewers will have of the products and services that you offer. Many websites are simple in design while still offering beauty, insight to the company and images that are strategically placed and stunning in design. However, if you want your site to stand out from others that are online, consider adding a video or two that will capture the attention of those who are watching.

Story Telling

Don’t ramble in the video. Write out a few ideas that you want to use, but overall, the video should tell a brief story about who you are and about how the company was founded. You can talk about the people who work for the business, the hours of operation and any goals for the future. A call to action should be included at the end of the video to get more customers in the door.

Professional Help

When you look on social media, you probably see videos that people post about their daily lives. While this is sufficient if you want to connect on a fun and personable level with the customer, you want to upgrade a bit to a professional approach. Use the best cameras possible along with color grading techniques, such as those you can do with Color Grading Central, when applicable. There are companies that can help with tutoring you about how to hold the camera and colors that work well in videos so that you offer the best presentation possible.

Multiple Channels

Many people who make videos post them to YouTube. It’s an easy way to get your name in the public eye. If you want to grow your business, you need to make sure the videos that you make are posted on multiple channels instead of just one or two. There are codes that you might need to include, which is where professional help can come into play, along with ways to track the number of people who view your videos to determine where you need to put more effort in placing them.

In the Effects

Sound and visual effects are good to use, but you don’t want to go overboard with what’s included. Background music that blends with the story that you tell and a few props that are placed in the background that are from the company or that give an idea about what the company offers can be used in the video. Consider effects like swiping from one screen to another to keep the attention of the viewer.

A video on your website is an effective way to gain more customers if it’s done in the right way. Create a plan before filming. Go through a rough draft before putting the video on the site so that you can see what it will look like and what needs to be adjusted.

About the Author

Hannah Whittenly is a freelance writer and mother of two from Sacramento, CA. She enjoys kayaking and reading books by the lake. For your video editing needs, Hannah recommends Color Grading Central.

Categories
Business Ideas

How Modern Restaurants Are Born

When most people think about selling their signature dishes, they often envision the daunting process of getting a business loan, renting or purchasing property to make into their restaurant or café, and then worrying to death over if they can pay their bills and employees. Not to mention worrying about if they will have customers! However, there is a growing movement to change how a restaurant is born.

It Starts in the Kitchen

Because of the growing number of financial issues that result in difficulties in trying to get those much-needed loans to open an eatery. Most cannot save the money needed for a startup or struggle to find investors. Many people just want to find a way to make extra cash for home repairs or holiday celebrations. So, they turn to their own kitchens and begin shelling out catered meals or baked goods to fulfill their dreams and goals.

How Do They Do It?

So how do they manage to make their dishes and build a business? Quite a few folks use blogging and various forms of social media to advertise beyond just friends and family about their services. While it does begin with a bit of word of mouth, posting to your local connections on a Facebook group will put yourself out there as a serious contender in the food business.

Isn’t the Home Kitchen Too Small?

It can be. Many start out using their home equipment and ingredients from the grocery store. As orders start racking up, they can then save up and get some equipment from a restaurant supply store. Grabbing a mixer from a restaurant supplier will translate into bigger batches and bigger batches means more money made in a smaller amount of time.

When to Transition

Ultimately, when you transition from home based business to commercial is up to you. Some gradually grow into renting commercial kitchens before plunging into an actual restaurant or café space. Some choose to bottle or package their product and sell to local restaurants and grocery stores. Many famous people (Jimmy Dean and Paul Newman come to mind!) start out of their kitchens and move to a production line!

Ideally if you notice that your kitchen can’t keep up with your orders and if you are unable to work your regular job and this side job, it’s time to move. Using healthy money habits as you go will allow for you to take your business to the next level.

Is it Legal?

For a long time, many states did not allow for the sale of homemade foods. Fortunately, many states have now changed their minds and have passed laws and ordinances around what is called the cottage food industry. You should first check with your state to make sure it’s legal and that you are following health and safety inspections. There may also be ordinances about which ingredients can be used in your items for health purposes.

Starting a food business from home is really one of the easiest ways to make extra cash on the side. Building a reputation by word of mouth, social networking sites, maintaining a food blog, and ethical practices are sure ways to increase business. Eventually those businesses can grow into catering companies, food trucks, bakeries, cafes, and traditional restaurants!

Categories
Branding

3 Reasons Why Car Wraps are a Smart Business Investment

Whether you’re trying to generate foot traffic, web traffic or plenty of both, the fact remains that on today’s hyper-competitive business landscape getting — and staying — on your prospective customers’ radar screens is not just necessary for your success: your survival depends on it. Indeed, each year hundreds of thousands of startups and small businesses with excellent products, competitive prices and strong value propositions nevertheless shut down, because they couldn’t escape being the best kept secret in their marketplace.

Of course, that’s not to say you should (or could) run a Super Bowl ad, or spend 5-figures a month on PPC, print ads, and other types of advertising and marketing. Maybe that will be viable on day down the road when you’re at the helm of a multinational enterprise, but for now “low-cost, high impact” is the only investment formula that makes sense. And that brings us to car wraps.

For a fraction of the cost of single billboard, radio or TV ad — all of which many frustrated business owners have soundly concluded fail to deliver worthwhile ROI — car wraps help you make a lasting impression on your target market, and stand out for all of the right reasons. Here are the three key reasons why:

  1. Mobility

Whereas conventional “interrupt” advertising depends on having an ad show up at the right time in front of the right people – which is often the exception rather than the norm – car wraps are inherently mobile, which means you can literally position your ad in front of your target market. Where they go, you go.

  1. Reach

According to research by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), mobile advertising reaches more prospective customers at a lower cost per thousand impressions (CPM) than any other kind of outdoor advertising. What’s more, over 95% of people are reached by media that targets drivers and passengers, and a single car wrap can generate between 30,000 and 70,000 impressions per day.

  1. Impact

While the above is impressive, the big, booming question is: do car wraps work? The answer is a definitive yes. Prospective customers are highly influenced by advertising that they see; especially when it’s non-invasive and they aren’t resisting (i.e. they aren’t saying to themselves as their favorite TV show fades into a commercial “ugh, someone’s going to try and sell me something for the next two minutes, I’m tuning out until the show starts up again”). The OAAA also found that 30% prospects said they make buying decisions based on ads they see while driving or as a passenger, and fleet vehicle advertising boosts brand recognition 1500% more than any other form of advertising.

A Word of Caution

While car wraps are proving to be a smart business investment – which is why they’re skyrocketing in popularity, especially among small businesses and startups – it’s vital not to take the DIY route, or cut corners on quality. Whether you decide to wrap a single car or a fleet, ensure that you have the wrap professionally designed and installed. Otherwise instead of working for your business, a faded, peeling and poor-designed car wrap will work against it.