Company growth is a principal concern in establishing any business venture. Nevertheless, not all business leaders know how to foster this effectively.

Growth involves much more than just speed and momentum. It is about creating a firm footing upon which to support the business to come. Not everyone is successful in this. Even savvy entrepreneurs can struggle.

Mitra Mahdavian, a partner at McKinsey, recently spoke on the key differences between high-growth companies and their slow-growing peers. She outlined two strategies that are particularly important in driving growth: focussing on people and investing in sales engines.

Through a series of interviews and surveys, McKinsey discovered that almost 50% of fast-growing companies invest significantly in training sales teams, compared with 29% of slow-growing companies. Smart business leaders recognise that their company can only grow as fast as its sales department can sell its products. They recognise that the best way to increase sales is to invest in the people that drive them.

Increasing sales is about more than just hiring more personnel. It involves analysing an existing sales team and making it more effective. Simply throwing money the problem is inefficient; the key to faster, better growth is understanding what internal investments are necessary to help the company grow.

In this digital age, big data is a vital tool in helping companies get ahead of the competition. The most successful sales teams are three times more likely to rely on analytics than their under-performing counterparts.

Simply throwing data at a sales team is not the answer. The key is to develop a new, data-driven sales team from the ground up. Diving in at the deep end is unlikely to be effective, but organisations can reap huge gains by transitioning to data-driven sales via a series of incremental steps:

• Promoting Cohesion: It is important to be specific about overall company goals. Sales teams need to know their role in achieving these objectives. Key performance indicators serve a critical role in letting them know they are on the right track.
• Assessing the Sales Process: This is an important opportunity to correct any sales process flaws; streamlining processes in line with prioritised sales goals, implementing changes slowly and monitoring them closely to minimise disruption.
• Utilise Existing Data: Before gathering new types of data, it is vital to analyse information already gathered. According to Forbes, one Harley Davidson dealership increased sales leads by 3,000% simply by acting on data they already had.
• Consider Data Quality: Not all data is good, or even reliable. Data that is riddled with mistakes or lacks integrity actually sets sales teams back.
• Automation: Automating certain tasks can be of vast benefit. Automating aspects such as data entry and other mundane tasks frees up sales teams to focus on what they should really be doing: selling the product or service.
• Analytics: With all of the previous steps in place, it is much easier to track sales progress and analyse conversion rates. Effective analytics helps companies pinpoint where they are doing well, facilitating replication of successful sales cycles and flagging up any potential issues.

Where implemented and utilised properly, predictive analytics technology can have a transformative effect on sales. Nevertheless, the first step in upscaling sales efforts is investing in sales staff.

As the founder of FDH Bank, Dr Thomson Mpinganjira is one of the most prominent Malawian business leaders of his generation. With a keen eye on sustainable growth in all of his operations, Thomson Mpinganjira devotes much of his time to thought leadership, inspiring aspiring entrepreneurs across Malawi by providing the next generation of homegrown business leaders with practical advice, tips, and motivation.

Launching a business is hard. Launching a business before you’ve done the legwork to determine your market and identify your challenges is nearly impossible. Similarly, if you’re becoming the head honcho without mastering some important skills first, you may find success harder to come by.

Here are some of the most important skills any entrepreneur should know, and where to learn them. All these courses are on sale for Memorial Day, so make the savvy business decision and take advantage.

1. Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is one of the most important programs in business today. It’s far more than just a spreadsheet software (although that’s a valuable use case, as well). Excel helps you with data analysis, financial forecasting, and many more things that are essential to running a data-driven, solutions-oriented business.

Get The Complete 2020 Microsoft Excel Expert Bundle for $24 with promo code SUMMERSAVE20

2. Public Speaking

Entrepreneurs must be able to sell their product or service to others. Whether you’re pitching to investors, employees, or potential customers, public speaking will be a significant asset. With great public speaking skills, you’re more likely to inspire people to see your vision and get on board with your company.

Get The 2020 Public Speaking Bundle for $16 with promo code SUMMERSAVE20

3. Developing Business Plans

Naturally, every entrepreneur needs a business plan. This course is led by an award-winning business school professor and offers a 13-step methodology to creating a business plan. It even comes with 50 business plan templates and 25 business presentations made specifically for startups.

Get The 2020 Complete Business Plan in One Course for $12 with promo code SUMMERSAVE20

4. Data Science

Data drives everything in business. As an entrepreneur, if you can successfully model and understand data, you’re already a few steps ahead of the pack. Not only will you save money by not having to hire analysts, but you’ll also have the skills to make informed business decisions right out of the gate.

Get The 2020 All-in-One Data Scientist Mega Bundle for $32 with promo code SUMMERSAVE20

5. Facebook Marketing

Facebook is the second-largest advertising platform on the planet, meaning it’s a key tool for any entrepreneur starting out. In this course, you’ll learn how to reach and engage with new audiences on Facebook. Hitting the ground running with a Facebook marketing strategy can go a long way for your business.

Get The 2020 Complete Certified Facebook Marketing Masterclass for $12 with promo code SUMMERSAVE20

6. Search Engine Optimziation

If you don’t have a ton of capital to work with when you’re just starting out, paid advertising may not be for you. Search engine optimization (SEO), however, is often free and just requires a technical understanding of how to make content stand out online. This course will show you how to get your web pages to the top of Google’s search pages.

Get The Pro Google SEO & SERP Certification Bundle for $24 with promo code SUMMERSAVE20

7. Copywriting

Great copywriting sells products. You can outsource your marketing and sales content to third-parties, or you can handle it yourself. This guide will teach you how to write copy that sells so you can save money and generate more income from the get-go.

Get The 2020 Complete Digital Copywriting Master Class Bundle for $32 with promo code SUMMERSAVE20

8. Quickbooks

QuickBooks is the top accounting software on the market. When you can use QuickBooks effectively, you can handle all of your business’s financial and bookkeeping needs, thereby saving money on accounting services. It’ll also help you track inventory, vendor payments, invoices, and much more.

Get The QuickBooks 2020 Essentials Bundle: Beginner to Bookkeeper for $24 with promo code SUMMERSAVE20

9. Generalist Skills

The best entrepreneurs never stop learning. With that in mind, check out Big Think Edge. This library is filled with lectures from Ivy League professors and world-renowned experts like Elon Musk and Malcolm Gladwell, covering some of today’s most important topics.

Get Big Think Edge Expert-Taught Lectures: 1-Yr Subscription for $24 with promo code SUMMERSAVE20

10. Project Management

Project management is all about finding the most efficient and least wasteful way of doing something. For entrepreneurs who are likely strapped for cash after launch, that’s extremely important. This training will introduce you to several top project management methodologies, including Scrum, Agile, and PMP.

10 Skills to Master Before Launching a New Business [Entrepreneur]

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]

How different are entrepreneurs? Can anyone be like them? This trend is becoming more and more popular today. Less than ten percent of people create ninety percent of the world’s wealth. Sixty-five percent of them are self-made.

However, successful entrepreneurs are a minority. Twenty-five percent of businesses fail within the first year. After half a decade, ninety percent of them close. Of course, nobody starts a project expecting it to fail. That’s why it’s vital to learn how to make it the right way.

5 Things Only Real Entrepreneurs Do

Although the journey can be hard, starting a business is simple. Most of their actions fall into one of these five principles.

They Invest Their Money, They Don’t Save It

Many people get into this game because of financial freedom. However, what’s the point of making more money when you cannot keep it? Prices are higher than before. Every year, the value of our money reduces. That’s why over eighty million Americans invest instead of saving it in the bank.

If you invest in real estate, the risk is much lower because it’s a physical property. When entrepreneurs invest in REIT stocks, they get a return. Although sometimes it may not be much, it scales with your income level. It definitely counters inflation and increases your savings.

A Different Approach to Work Ethics

Everybody knows success requires hard work. The difference is the way people look at work. Employees use to look at it as a price to get something they want. The entrepreneurs, however, think of work as a way to challenge themselves. Would you keep working hard, even if you get paid nothing for years? Most businesses require work upfront before making any profit.

Although money is vital, work serves as a challenge to be a better person. That’s why most successful entrepreneurs keep working after winning in business.

They Know How To Make Decisions

Success is the product of our choices. From product creation to research, entrepreneurs take calculated risks to grow. It requires perspective and analysis skills to ask the right questions.

What is the upside and downside of my decision?

If it’s wrong, how easy is it to undo my mistakes?

Who has the information or skills we need?

How can we scale our business model?

What will competition not do?

Are we solving a market need?

If our product becomes unavailable, how disappointed would people feel? How much do they care?

Here are the habits that help them make good decisions. They take fewer of them to reduce decision fatigue. Remove everything that’s not unessential so that you save mental energy. Also, some decisions are made daily. You can solve that problem by removing or delegating them.

Regardless of popular trends, they do their research to think independently. Entrepreneurs don’t limit themselves to one answer for a problem. They are open-minded and use the right thinking patterns. Some of them require to think long term, set goals, or study the consequences of their actions.

They Read To Reach New Heights

Visionaries know how to change the world with new ideas. But entrepreneurs aren’t innate forward-thinkers. They learn from other people’s mistakes so that they can save time. Once you start reading the right books, you gain perspective. You start finding new paths to reach your goals. Also, you will be more aware of your actions.

How much reading is enough? What should you read? The average executive reads 60 books a year, but employees read less than one. Look at reading as a habit with indirect benefits in your life.

Now, each book is different. When it comes to your niche, you should learn as much as possible to keep everything updated.

For books in general, look for timeless topics such as learning skills, studying biographies, or changing your mindset.

Bounce Back From Failure Quickly

In business, there’s always something that will go wrong. If you stay for the long term, these events will happen. Then, what does makes them different? After bad events, it can take months for average workers to recover. The best ones can get back up within weeks. Entrepreneurs bounce back within days, if not immediately.

How is that possible?

Entrepreneurs expect failure. They have the right expectations, so they can recover and barely be affected.

The penny stock trading market is typically a zero-sum game. It’s highly speculative nature often yields a situation where every trading gain is correlated with a trading loss by a counterparty. Many people find it hard to believe that you can trade penny stocks profitably and consistently. This negativity is a stock-in-trade (pun intended) among traditional stock traders on Wall Street who tend to look down on people trading penny stocks as speculative gamblers.

This piece outlines my personal experience with Timothy Sykes, one of the top penny stock traders and entrepreneurs in the market. I’ll deliver my opinion on whether Timothy Sykes is a scam or legitimate based on my research and experience after signing up for his training programs.

Here’s why the Timothy Sykes scam stories can’t seem to end

There’s a vocally negative sentiment about penny stock on Wall Street. The negative sentiment of Wall Street also seems to be confirmed by a report from the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) of the SEC, which suggests that a sample of over 10,000 OTC stocks from 2001 to 2010 returned an average and median annual returns of –27% and –37% respectively. Hence, many people steeped in traditional stock investing will have a hard time believing that anyone can trade penny stocks profitably.

Secondly, Timothy Sykes maintains a lavish lifestyle that contrasts with the rather conservative lifestyle of traditional Wall Street traders. A cardinal rule on Wall Street is the important rule of preservation of capital; hence, Wall Street veterans tend to be mostly risk-averse even though some of them might make a show of being aggressive in their risk-to-return calculations. Timothy lives a successful lifestyle and he has no inhibitions about showing off his fast cars, posh mansions, and sometimes, wads of cash. Many people are averse to public displays of wealth and they tend to think that people with such a lavish lifestyle can’t have earned their money through “hard work”.

Timothy Sykes; Scam or Legitimate? Here’s what I found out

I started trading penny stocks earlier this year and it was an unpleasant experience. It’s either I bought a trending stock, only for it to start crashing the next day or I sold a seemingly dead stock only for it to start rallying. I never did figure out exactly how to apply the “buy low, sell high principle”. I was mostly buying high because I read news about how the stock has made double-digit gains and then being forced to sell low after the price starts falling uncontrollably.

After losing almost half of my initial trading capital, I figured I needed help, and that was how my search led me to Timothy Sykes’ penny stock trading program. Timothy Sykes’ deserves a place in the penny stock trading hall of fame for turning his $12,415 Bar Mitzvah gift money into a multimillion-dollar penny stock trading empire.

Now, Timothy Sykes spends most of his time teaching other people how to succeed as penny stock traders. I was initially skeptical of Tim, but the more I dug into his videos available on YouTube, the more I was convinced that I owed it to myself to give it a trial. Tim offers three levels of stock trading education namely; Tim’s Alert, Pennystocking, and Tim’s Challenge via Profitly.

Tim’s Alert

Tim’s Alert was the cheapest option – it has a price tag of $74.95 per month and there’s a 24% discount if you sign up for the annual plan. Tim’s Alert gives users daily access to the chatroom where you can follow the trading commentaries of Tim and other experienced traders. Subscribers also get a daily watchlist of 5 to 10 stocks – the watchlist is especially important in helping to narrow your focus instead of being paralyzed by the paradox of choice over thousands of stocks. A Tim’s Alert subscription also gives you realtime ProfitDing Trade Alerts that could nudge you about the timing of your trading decisions.

Pennystocking Silver

I upgraded my membership to Pennystocking Silver after using Tim’s Alerts for one month. While Tim’s Alert gives you information about what Tim is doing with penny stocks, Pennystocking Silver educates you. Pennystocking Silver is designed to teach you how to identify winning stocks, set up a trading strategy, conduct technical analysis, and ultimately to make informed trading decisions. Pennystocking Silver costs $149.95 per month and the annual plan delivers a 28% discount. Pennystocking Silver membership gives access to all the features of Tim’s Alerts.

Also, you’ll access a video lesson library with more than 6000 videos. You’ll also benefit from weekly video lessons that Tim holds to share his thoughts on individual stocks and the general market.

Tim’s Challenge

Tim’s Challenge offers a more immersive learning experience with Timothy Sykes. The Challenge is also called Millionaire’s Challenge and it is designed to take you through a journey that will set you on the path to becoming one of Tim’s success stories. Some of Tim’s past students have crossed the $1 million thresholds, Tim Gritanni is widely celebrated for turning $1,500 into $1 million within three years all thanks to Tim’s tutelage.

Interestingly, some of Tim’s students have gone on to set career trading performances that beat Tim’s record as seen in the leaderboard above. Tim’s Challenge will give you exclusive access to the Millionaire’s Chatroom where you can have realtime conversations with Timothy Sykes, other students, and other gurus. You’ll also get a curated intro course of 60 specially selected videos, access to video lessons, and regular webinars.

Tim’s Challenge is an intensive program in which you’ll be forced to become a disciplined trader. However, if you are willing to put in the required hard work, you’ll find out that you’ll become much better at spotting trading opportunities and acting decisively.

Summary

Is Timothy Sykes a scam or a legitimate trading coach? The answer based on my experience is a solid YES, he is a legitimate coach. If you still have reasons to think otherwise, the best course of action would be to sign up for his programs to find out for yourself. Tim’s Alert is a good starting point at $74.95 per month. More importantly, though, you need to understand that penny stock trading is not a get rich scheme, contrary to what some gurus might want you to think. Your trading success is dependent on the size of your initial trading capital, the kind of risks you are willing to take, your skills in creating an informed trading strategy, and your ability to stick to your strategy when entering and exiting trades.