Author: Min Tang

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Entrepreneurship

Things To Know For Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Nothing can fully prepare you for starting your own business—but you can learn from others who’ve been there. We asked eight founders and Advisors in The Oracles what they wish they’d known when they were starting out. Here’s what they said.

1. Realize entrepreneurship is a marathon.

The Nasdaq crashed one year after we started Bluemercury. For a year and a half, there was no way to raise venture capital and we had to figure out how to build our business with revenue and cash flow. Now the company has been through two recessions.

Many entrepreneurs focus on how they can exit their business in a few years. But things are always changing, and life rarely works out like you plan. Instead, focus on building a great company for the long term. Remember, entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint. —Marla Beck, co-founder and CEO of Bluemercury, which was acquired by Macy’s for $210 million; creator of M-61 Skincare and Lune+Astercosmetics

2. Ensure there is a demand for your product or service.

Entrepreneurship requires working harder and learning more about yourself than you can imagine. It has lucrative rewards — but no guarantees. When things get intense, you’re running out of cash, and you want to quit, remember that sales may not cure all issues, but you can’t cure the issues without sales.

Companies that thrive focus on being consistently profitable so they can withstand unforeseen events like economic downturns. Before you start a business, do your research, know your numbers, and be certain there’s a market and demand for your product or service. Every sale should be profitable, ideally by 50 percent. Then you’ll have money to hire A-list players so you can focus on the work you want to do. Document everything and build systems as you go, so anyone could do your job tomorrow. But first, learn how to sell! —Matt Mead, founder and CEO of Mead Technology Group, EpekData, and BrandLync

3. Know you won’t get it right the first time.

Don’t dwell in information-gathering mode. The only way to progress is to actually do it — take action immediately. Then you must be quick on your feet, analyze the results, and make changes if needed. You’re probably not going to get it right the first time — or even the second or third. But if you’re nimble, you can pivot.

Avoid heavy overhead. Look for ways to make cash quickly and get paid upfront. The more cash you have, the more you’re able to take calculated risks — which you need to do. You can’t have an upside without a downside. Invest in yourself and have confidence that you will deliver. When you “fail,” consider it feedback. Each time you test a theory in the real world, you’ll get feedback that shows you how to improve. The only way you’ll actually fail is if you give up. —Joshua Harris, founder of Agency

4. Be patient and make sure you have adequate funding.

Anyone starting a new business should fully understand the timeline and funding needed to survive the startup phase. I wish I had understood how long it would take to get to a revenue level that would allow my business to thrive and grow.

Nearly half of all small businesses that fail didn’t have adequate funding. Plan on it taking longer than expected to generate a profit, and make sure you have a backup funding source. Every startup’s timeline to profitability is different, and failure is always a possibility. But if you have adequate funding, you dramatically reduce the chances of failure. —Guy Sheetrit, CEO of Over The Top SEO, who provides customized SEO marketing solutions for e-commerce, local, and Fortune 500 companies

5. Forget about what you want to sell.

Many entrepreneurs focus so much on marketing and selling that they neglect to deeply understand exactly what their clients want to achieve or solve. Profitable companies know their customers better than they know themselves. They sell the value, impact, and results their customers want to buy.

Become a student of the game. Don’t wing it or assume you already know the answers. Plan a listening campaign to understand your target audience’s problems and dreams. It’s never too late to pivot, expand, or adjust what you sell to exactly what your clients desire and demand. When you do that, you become that rare company whose products don’t need to be sold — they’re just bought. —David Newman, best-selling author of “Do It! Marketing” and creator of the Speaker Profit Formula; host of the iTunes Top 50 business podcast “The Speaking Show”; connect with David on Facebook

8 Things You Need to Know Before Starting a Business [Entrepreneur]

Categories
Business Trends

Diversity & Inclusion For Workplaces

Greater diversity and inclusiveness will play a leading role in creating a more harmonious society. In such a society people of all genders, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion will be equal partners. While such a society may seem a utopian paradise, holding the vision and dedicatedly working toward it is the key. During the previous century, hundreds of millions died in two scathing world wars while the majority of humanity was under colonial subjugation to European powers. Institutions such as the UN, whose success as a keeper of peace is considered debatable by many, have had success in creating a global narrative on the most important global issues. No such institution existed in prior centuries. The UN Human Rights Council has been created explicitly to protect human rights, while its success may well also be questioned. That there is today a definition of human rights, which was absent in centuries prior certainly bodes well for the realization of a more peaceful society.

Diversity Is the Key to Wealth

It was the economist David Ricardo who revealed the secret that makes countries rich. He showed to the world that rich countries were those which traded most with one another. A simple reason for this is that countries have a comparative advantage over other countries in the production of goods. Similarly, diversity in the workplace allows people who have different strengths to contribute to the success of the organization. It is no coincidence that some of the leading minds in technology are Indian despite relatively low standards of education in India when compared to those in developed countries. The benefits that Indian IT workers and leaders in the sphere of technology bring are understood by recruiters in the west. Indians, David Ricardo would say, have a comparative advantage in the development of software.

How Diversity Benefits Organizations

One of the reasons to have a diverse workforce is that it allows the sharing of a wide range of viewpoints. Such a wide range of viewpoints are more likely to allow companies to foresee challenges and take advantage of new opportunities.

A company that has a diverse workforce will be better able to identify new trends because it will have a workforce that represents its customers. A representative workforce will allow a company to understand what kind of products or marketing strategies will work with certain segments of consumers. Such a head start in identifying new trends and in understanding consumers makes diverse organizations more profitable.

Greater diversity is also proven to motivate staff and leads to lower absenteeism and to greater productivity as well. Hence, an inclusive environment that values diversity will create stronger organizations that are more likely to remain successful.

Role of Leaders

Leaders plays a key role in managing diversity by creating within an organization a culture that is respectful and inclusive and in which employees have an opportunity to learn, contribute, and grow. To make a workplace more diverse organizations should perform annual monitoring and diversity audits. Diversity ratios and hiring should be part of Leadership KPIs. Doing so allows an organization to not only understand the ethnic makeup of its employees but allows it to create a more diverse workforce in the future.

How To be Diverse

To make themselves more diverse, organizations can create partnerships with colleges and other organizations in different parts of the country. Some companies have succeeded by making their companies more diverse by offering well-paying summer internships to people from a background from which few work in the company.

Companies can also use mentoring as a tool to ensure that people from diverse backgrounds are recruited and suitably promoted to all levels within the organization. A mentor plays an important part in aiding the progression of minority candidates to leadership roles in an organization. Such initiatives are needed to ensure that all employees in an organization are allowed to flourish and progress in the corporate hierarchy. Greater participation by all employees, including those from diverse backgrounds, ensures that talent is recognized and harnessed allowing everyone to reach their full potential.

Diversity and Inclusion are Driving Force of Future of Businesses [Entreprenuer]

Categories
Operations

Know The Time To Sell Your Business

John West is a serial entrepreneur in the truest sense. Prior to his latest startup, he had already built and sold two companies in very different industries. And he says that while developing an idea to start a business takes time, selling that same business is just as complicated.

West started building Whistle Sports Network in 2008 after selling his second company, Silver Oak. After the Silver Oak sale, he decided to spend time with his children. As his children started watching sports, he started to notice that the media coverage, content and delivery weren’t geared toward younger generations. West started to research the media industry and decided to launch a linear cable network. Today, Whistle Sports has 315 channels and 115 million aggregate fans and followers.

During a sale, business owners have key financial and emotional considerations, like figuring out what to do once they don’t own that business and developing a personal financial plan. While the lump sum from a sale can be life-changing money, it’s secondary to the work as an entrepreneur, according to West.

“I’ve never believed you should start a company to sell it,” says West. “You start a company to solve a problem and do something cool. You sell it based on how the markets are doing and how the industry is doing — you can’t plan this.”

Nadia Allaudin, senior vice president of Wealth Management at Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management in Century City, agrees and says that “there needs to be an understanding for the impetus for the sale or walking away. There needs to be a lot of conversations about how you’re going to handle this.”

Once a business owner receives an offer, whether expected or not, that’s when the planning begins.

Buyers can be anywhere.

West started his first company, Enstrat, an environmental consulting firm, out of college in 1989. Soon after graduating Harvard Business School, he sold the firm to a member of his managerial team in 1996 because he wanted to make a change.

“The business was profitable, so we were able to finance the sale through debt,” says West.

Many companies are sold to key employees since these people know and understand the business and have a passion for it.

“Entrepreneurs should think about that when they’re hiring people and consider grooming employees, since they may be the people to take over your business in a few years,” says Tim Sabol, private wealth advisor at Ameriprise Financial in Philadelphia.

In 1999, West went on to build Silver Oak, a company that helped state governments save money. His company created a niche and was earning about $23 million in revenues. After eight years, he accepted an offer from CGI in 2005. Three years later, he started Whistle Sports. Deals can take up to a year or two to close, which can be used to plan for what’s next.

“Most of the time, how long [a sale] takes hinges on who the buyer is — if it’s an internal candidate or a competitor down the street — and it always seems to take longer than people expect,” says Sabol.

Prepare for the exit.

Leaving a business requires understanding the business’s value and worth. You may need multiple valuations depending on the buyer, nature of the business and the deal. Having clear books and records helps a buyer with due diligence, and you want to have years of financials readily available so you’re prepared for that unexpected offer.

“There are a lot of different business valuations companies, and you want to find one that’s reputable and specific to your industry, so they know your business and the cash flow,” says Laurie Barry, wealth advisor at UBS Financial Services in Chicago.

Negotiate your responsibilities.

As part of the Silver Oak sale to CGI, West stayed with the company for 18 months to manage the integration of Silver Oak into the bigger business and work on special projects.

“A lot of times, the company wants you there to shepherd your old employees into the new system,” says Sabol.

If you’re asked to stay, inquire about the length of the commitment and the expectations of that position since this will affect your future plans.

“Make sure you understand what those parameters are,” says Barry. “If you don’t want to stay on, what are the ramifications of those as well. That’s really important for the business owner.”

Create a plan for your finances and time.

What you plan to do with your time and how your life will look is as important as the financial aspect of leaving your business. After selling Enstrat, West moved to New York to work as a management consultant. When that firm was sold, he then started Silver Oak.

“I knew I wanted to do something on my own, so I came up with the idea for Silver Oak on napkins and planned the budget for the company,” says West.

After selling Silver Oak, since he had started a family, he put half of the sale proceeds towards college funds and his retirement. Once he started Whistle Sports, he invested the rest into the seed round. He also had to budget for the years that he didn’t take a salary along the way. For many serial entrepreneurs, what’s next isn’t to just go sit on the porch, at least not for a long time. And it’s tempting to use the entire lump sum for a new business.

“Do some analysis to figure out how much of the proceeds you should set aside for retirement, and with the balance of the proceeds, think about how much you can risk for the next deal,” says Sabol.

While some business owners have a vision for what to do next, others may decide to take some time to figure out next steps. If you don’t have a plan, rediscover strengths and build your network to make a transition into something new easier. Be sure to budget for these expenses, since just rolling with it often doesn’t work.

“When you’re an entrepreneur, it defines a big piece of your identity, and when that goes away, it’s definitely a transition,” says West. “I didn’t appreciate that after selling the first company, but you have to find something else to focus on.”

Don’t ever go it alone.

“Find a good set of advisors who you work well with and can give you great advice,” says West.

Corporate accountants, lawyers and investment bankers can help shepherd your company through a sale, and a personal accountant and attorney can assist with your personal financial planning when you do receive that lump sum. Build a team of people who commit to your business like you do because as an entrepreneur, these people will help determine your success.

“If you surround yourself with capable people with different strengths and weaknesses, you can get around any obstacle,” says West. “That sounds sort of cliché, but it’s the absolute difference.”

Know When and How to Sell Your Business [Entrepreneur]

Categories
Entrepreneurs

Future Of Female Entrepreneurship In Asia

Asia is referred to as the powerhouse of growth in the modern-day global economy. In the last few years, the continent has witnessed a robust economic growth, driven by market-focused economic reforms favouring entrepreneurship. With an increasingly significant role of women in the current political and socio-economic scenario and higher regard for and legitimacy of them pursuing business activities, there has been an exponential growth in the number of female entrepreneurs.

Female entrepreneurship is progressively being regarded as one of the key drivers of economic growth and sustainable development, along with women’s economic empowerment.

The Growth Story

Over the past few years, Asia Pacific has been witnessing a rapid bridging of the gap in gender disparities amid economic opportunities, with a contribution amount of $4.5 trillion projected to supplement its gross domestic growth by 2025. This signifies the phenomenal growth that has recently been observed in female entrepreneurship, with more and more women pursuing their career in this direction. For instance, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) hold a high significance in Asia. More than 95 per cent of all firms in all sectors belong to SMEs on an average per country, providing livelihood to over 90 per cent of each country’s workforce.

With such rapid growth, the continent is gradually paving its way towards achieving one of the cornerstones of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—that is, women’s economic empowerment. Furthermore, women have been breaking the myth about being good only in the verticals of designing, fashion, handicraft, and kitchen industries by creating ripples in almost all industries. For example in India, there are approximately 8 million women who have ventured on their own entrepreneurial journey, establishing a sturdy ground for themselves amid the massive count of 126 million worldwide.

While a phenomenal growth has been witnessed over the past few years, there are some key challenges constraining female entrepreneurship from sustenance and further expansion in Asia. By effectively addressing the need-gaps and all the demographic, social, economic, political and legal constraints along with leveraging all the opportunities, the prospects for growth and prosperity amid female entrepreneurship in Asia are endless.

Key Challenges

Women in Asia can still not completely exercise their rights to decent work and productive employment, with as much as 23 per cent gender gap in labour-force participation in certain regions. Moreover, they have limited or no access to quality education and skill development, financial resources or social capital, when compared to their male contemporaries. These barriers are further supplemented by persistent and discriminatory social and cultural norms.

In developing countries, where economic growth is still at its initial stages, women are more likely to remain underrepresented in the manufacturing sector and are pushed more towards agriculture and services. There is limited access to markets and segments, depending upon not just a female’s education but also her family situation and state of the economy. While a rise in the establishment and operating of MSMEs has been observed of late, women face issues such as limited access to technology, finance, formal credit and networks, lesser options for mobility and physical access, insufficient business know-how, and subsequently a lower confidence level, when compared with their male counterparts. Women tend to not have traditional forms of collateral like land, house, cash and other such assets to their name in most of these countries, and this leads to disadvantages when seeking a loan or a lack of formal credit and thereby, limited financial avenues to venture into entrepreneurship.

Furthermore, there are several legal and regulatory barriers across the continent that impede a woman’s ability to start businesses. Even where laws guarantee equal rights, conventional social norms that are discriminatory in nature may prevent women from enjoying their entrepreneurial rights. World Bank’s research, “The World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behaviour”, which emphasized on how an “unconscious bias” may also affect people’s decisions regarding female entrepreneurship.

These key challenges need to be addressed in order to bring about a transformative change in the significance and development of female entrepreneurship.

Opportunities for Future Entrepreneurial Endeavours

In order to combat the challenges faced and leverage opportunities in the female entrepreneurial segment, businesses, governments and civil societies in Asia need to ensure better education and technical know-how, and support and influence a comprehensive development of women. There have been several key developments across the continent in this regard, which have reflected in development indices. For instance, according to Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs, Singapore and the Philippines are among the top 10 markets with the strongest supporting conditions and the best opportunities for women to thrive as entrepreneurs. Moreover, Vietnam is among the top 10 markets, with the highest percentage of women business owners. Korea has also been observed to have the biggest improvement in the index score, driven by a surge in entrepreneurial practices and a positive growth of female business landscape. Even in India, it has been observed that about 58 per cent of women entrepreneurs have started their business between the ages of 20 to 30, with about 25 per cent of them starting a business even before they turned 25.

While a lot of these developing countries deem women in the market as necessity-driven entrepreneurs impelled by a need for survival, how women across Asia have progressively been marking their strong presence amid the pool of entrepreneurs cannot be denied. Therefore, fostering female entrepreneurship will therefore not just empower women, but will also impact all lives around by making the continent politically cohesive, socially responsible and economically integrated on a holistic level.

Asia has a vast, dynamic and highly impactful potential driver of development that remains largely untapped—the women. Therefore, by effectively addressing all the challenges through deeper government involvement, strengthening of regional cooperation, easier access to advanced connectivity and resources, financial cooperation, and better market integration, the continent can effectively deliver on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. And subsequently, these solutions will progressively help shape the prosperous future of female entrepreneurship in Asia.

The Future of Female Entrepreneurship in Asia [Entrepreneur]

Categories
Business Trends

Business Trends To Leverage In 2020

If you have a small business, it’s essential to keep up with the latest trends in technology, marketing, customer service and other areas that affect your business. Each business is unique, so every trend doesn’t necessarily impact you equally. However, all major trends do influence your customers’ expectations, so it’s good to be up to date.

Here are some of the most significant trends I’m currently seeing that will impact small businesses in 2020 and beyond.

1. Customers prefer businesses that are green and socially responsible.

Customers are increasingly looking to patronize businesses that follow sustainable, green and socially responsible practices. As Gallup reported earlier this year, younger customers of the millennial and Gen Z generations are especially concerned about such values.

Some of the ways you can demonstrate your commitment in these areas include:

  • Use local products as much as possible. For example, restaurants and food-based businesses can source foods from local farms.
  • Minimize packaging. Stores should encourage customers to use their own bags. Use recyclable materials for packaging.
  • Use green cleaning products.
  • Patronize green vendors and services.

2. Customer reviews will be more important than ever.

Online reviews are not a new trend, but they are becoming more crucial all the time. Customers trust reviews over ads or any other content businesses create themselves. It’s absolutely essential to have your business listed on sites such as Google My Business, Yelp and others that are relevant to your business.

The best way to get positive reviews is to provide great products and customer service. Beyond that, it helps to nudge your customers and gently remind them to leave reviews — whether you do this in person or via email or social media.

3. Traditional businesses are learning to leverage e-commerce.

When you think of e-commerce, you probably think of Amazon and other online retailers. The fact is, however, that many brick-and-mortar businesses are learning to profit from the e-commerce revolution. This can be a way to expand your business without the need for more physical space. Here are a few examples of how traditional businesses can expand online.

If you have a restaurant, you might bottle your signature salsa, curry sauce or salad dressing. You could write an e-book of recipes or the history of a certain type of food. Salons can sell beauty and haircare products. A gym might sell supplements and workout gear.

If you don’t create your own product, you could sell your favorite products as an affiliate. Affiliate marketing is an option for many businesses. No matter what type of business you have, you can either sell your own products or find products on Amazon (or another platform) to sell to your customers.

4. Businesses will use mobile marketing in several creative ways.

Mobile is one trend that will surely grow in 2020 and well into the future. Small businesses can take advantage of the popularity of mobile in a number of ways. For example:

  • Use geo-targeting to provide targeted ads to customers who are close to your business.
  • Create an app for your business. You can then send out promotions and the latest news to everyone who has the app.
  • Leverage SMS or text message marketing to stay in touch with customers. With permission, you can send texts with your latest offers.
  • Accept mobile payments. Many customers appreciate the convenience of being able to pay via mobile using platforms such as Google Wallet, Apple Pay, Visa Checkout and others.

5. Stories and livestream will dominate social media.

If you haven’t been using Facebook or Instagram stories and livestream video, you’re missing a couple of the major social media trends of the last few years. On sites such as Facebook, the main challenge is getting seen by your audience.

Rather than simply posting on your news feed, share stories on Facebook and Instagram. Livestreaming on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube is a powerful tactic for more visibility and engagement. When you post this type of ephemeral content, you can connect with your audience in a spontaneous and authentic manner.

You don’t need to create long presentations. The best strategy is to check in frequently and provide the latest news so you consistently touch base with your customers.

Stay current with these key small business trends.

All of these trends have one thing in common: They require businesses to pay close attention to the current needs and preferences of today’s consumers.

A customer in 2020 is likely to be someone who uses mobile devices, orders many products online, is environmentally aware, enjoys social media and reads customer reviews before making decisions. If you want these customers to choose your business, you have to understand how they think.

5 Small Business Trends to Leverage in 2020 [Inc]