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You are here: Home / 2019 / Archives for April 2019

Archives for April 2019

‘Leftover Women’ Documentary Chronicles the Story of China’s Attack on Unmarried Professional Women

April 30, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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China’s gender imbalance — 30 million more men than women — is the reason why being single and older than 27 has become a social crisis.


April
30, 2019

5 min read


Most Americans are aware of China’s one-child policy, the population-control rule that from 1979 to 2013 sharply limited the number of Chinese births. Less well known outside China is an offshoot campaign currently being run by the government that targets and shames sheng nu (leftover women) for the “crime” of being an unmarried educated professional woman older than 27. 

The systematic disparagement and discrimination these women face is the subject of Leftover Women, an affecting new documentary by Israeli filmmakers Shosh Schlam and Hilla Medalia which had its New York premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival this week.

Related: 4 Mistakes We All Make to Perpetuate Gender Bias

Due to its one-child policy, China today has 30 million more men than women of marriageable age. The government views this gender imbalance as a threat to the social order. In an interview with Entrepreneur, the filmmakers detailed its effects. “One side effect is women trafficking,” said Shosh Schlam. “Another side effect is that more men will not have the traditional role of head of the family,” meaning the opportunity to father children and continue the family name. The government, Schlam said, fears that a glut of unmarried men could cause violence or, worse, that these men might “turn” gay — which is illegal in China and subject to harsh penalties.

Whatever the government’s motive, sheng nu is stigmatizing urban professional women who want to start businesses or pursue careers in law, media and academia as being selfish.

“When these women [from China’s educated class] are growing up, they have a lot of pressure to succeed — to be the best in their class,” said Hilla Medalia. “And their parents really push; the whole society pushes them to succeed and go to university. Then they start their career. But then they have to stop everything and get married. Their entire value is based on this one thing.”

Related: Sexist Job Ads Discriminate Against Women in China — Even Specifying Applicants’ Required Height, Weight and Facial Structure

To document the impact, Shlam and Medalia returned to China, site of their first, 2014, collaboration, Web Junkie. They conducted a lengthy search for single women using Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. Dozens of women came forward, the filmmakers said, but the vast majority wanted only to discuss their woes with sheng nu off camera, for fear of bringing shame to their families. Ultimately, the filmmakers found and focused on three ambitious and brave Beijing women:

Qiu Hua Mei, age 34, is a lawyer who faces an uphill battle for finding an educated mate given her (socially lower) rural village roots. She is cruelly criticized by her family (“Schooling makes you dumb,” her illiterate father says, expressing regret for having paid her university tuition). In another disturbing scene, a dating counselor tells her, “You’re not beautiful in the traditional sense. You have a tough personality and need to soften yourself.” A prospective match, meanwhile, who’s similarly well educated and similarly from a rural village, announces that once he marries, he intends to be the “dominant” spouse.

Xu Min, 28, is a radio talk show host who lives with an overbearing mother who tells her, “You’re not old. You’re not a ‘leftover woman’ yet.”

Gai Qi, 36, is an assistant professor of film. She does marry and has a daughter during the course of the film, with a husband the filmmakers call “extraordinary” for his social faux pas — marrying a woman older than himself — and for his willingness to follow her to a better job in Guangzhou.

Over the span of three years, Hua Mei and Xu Min are individually followed by cameras as they attend a massive government-sponsored “annual blind date event,” check out a Valentine’s Day dating party and visit a gynecologist’s office (where Hua Mei is told it’s illegal to freeze her eggs). Then there’s the “relationship expert” Xu Min consults, who ends up delving deeply into her emotions. Breaking into tears, she admits that she is so obedient to her mother, she can’t actually date a man her mom dislikes.

A happier note is the joyful wedding of Gai Qi, who tells the filmmakers she was so worried her marriage might threaten her career that, “I was not planning on a happy ending.” That happy ending, however, is short-lived; later in the film, Gai Qi admits she finds marriage boring.

Hua Mei, meanwhile, is the polar opposite. She wants to date, but not marry, she tells her parents back home in their impoverished village. But, after months of sitting alone in desolate bars and getting the third degree from mothers of sons in public parks advertising their sons’ eligibility, Hua Mei gives up: She abandons her home country altogether to study in far-off France: “There are voices all around me,” she tells the filmmakers. “I want to have a life without those voices, just to live my life.

“I could live a wonderful life,” Hua Mei continues. “All this [grief occurs] because I’m not getting married. I live in a constant fight, a life of exile.” She even compares sheng nu to China’s infamous practice of foot-binding: “I have big feet,” she sighs, describing herself and her ambition, borne out by the fact that she has recently moved to Munich to start a business.

Related: China Considers Law Against Sexual Harassment at Workplace

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4 Creative Ways To Save Money for your Small Business

April 29, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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4 Creative Ways To Save Money

You may call me “Captain Obvious.” But I will point out one of the most important factors in growing a small business. Make sure you are saving as much as possible when purchasing goods and services for your company. Now you may think everyone should know this. But many entrepreneurs aren’t sure how to maximize their spend. And don’t know how to ensure they are buying the type of resources their companies require.

Creative Ways To Save Money

This article will give you some easy tips that will help you save money. When you follow these guidelines, you will have a better cash flow that you can use to invest in other areas of your business.

Use Comparison Sites

Choosing which products and services to purchase for your business can be tough. Depending on your industry, there are likely many different resources you might need to keep your business running efficiently, and each of these items come with different pricing, quality, and service levels. Determining which one is right for your business can be quite taxing at times.

One of the ways small business owners can streamline the process is to use comparison sites that do much of the work for you. They gather the data and the relevant facts of each product and packages them in a way that is easy to understand. In this way, entrepreneurs can take advantage of better pricing and quality without having to spend an inordinate amount of time to discover the right products.

Barter With Other Businesses

As a growing business, bartering is both a fantastic skill to utilize and a great way to save on cash. Other local small businesses are in the same position you are—trying to scrimp and save at every corner. Bartering services is a great way to assist both organizations.

For example, if you are a mechanic and you require plumbing repairs in your office, you could offer auto or appliance services in exchange for them. When you are in need of a service, always try to barter before offering to pay—you may not always succeed, but there’s no harm in trying!

Don’t Buy New Office Equipment

When you’re in need of office materials, there’s no shame in exploring your options. It makes sense to buy gently used equipment when you have the option and bandwidth to do so. New technology, printers, desks, and other daily-use supplies are perfect items to purchase used.

Look at your local newspaper or neighborhood Facebook pages for going out of business sales — these will often have all the furnishings you’ll need to stock your entire office on a budget. In many cases, the used equipment may be just as serviceable as if you had purchased it brand new.

Outsource As Much As Possible

Employees are essential to getting work done, but employee costs—from salaries to office space to insurance—can be the biggest chunk of a small business’s budget. Georgette Pascale, owner of PR Firm Pascale Communications, chooses to keep her full-time staff to a minimum and outsources work to independent contractors for the work that her staff cannot cover as needed.

Deborah Sweeney, CEO of My Corporation Business Services, Inc., uses the same method by hiring consultants as needed; Sweeney maintains that she can not only negotiate a lower rate with consultants, but that her business benefits from their more varied experience in their fields of expertise.

Money Saved Is Money Earned

Making sure that your business is being smart with the way it spends its money is essential to your success. The better you are at preventing unnecessary spend, the easier it will be to grow your business and earn more profit.

Image: Depositphotos.com

This article, “4 Creative Ways To Save Money for your Small Business” was first published on Small Business Trends



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Mark Zuckerberg Made a ‘Sleep Box’ for His Wife

April 29, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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The simple device allows his wife to sleep all night without the distraction of a phone or the stress of knowing what time it is.


April
29, 2019

2 min read


This story originally appeared on PCMag

Mark Zuckerberg will forever be associated with Facebook and social networks, but we can’t forget he’s also an engineer and he just put his talent to good use helping his wife get a good night’s sleep.

Posting on Instagram, Zuckerberg explained how he spent some time recently building a light-emitting wooden box. It sounds strange until you hear why he created such an unusual object.

His wife Priscilla knows that their children usually wake up between 6-7am, so she got into the habit during the night of checking her phone to see what time it is and whether she needed to get up. The problem is, knowing the time “stresses her out and she can’t fall back asleep.”

The solution, as Zuckerberg viewed it, was to create a new device that indicates when it’s the right time to get up for the kids, but isn’t a distraction at any other time. The end result is a “sleep box.” It’s a very simple wooden box that emits a faint light focused downwards, but only turns the light on between 6-7am each morning. If Priscilla wakes up and the light isn’t on, she knows to go right back to sleep, where as the light being on won’t wake her, but if she wakes and sees it she knows it’s time to get up.

By solving the problem in this way, the time never needs to be known and the physical process of interacting with a phone (and its very bright display) is no longer required. It’s true that Priscilla could oversleep, but the same was true of checking the phone. It’s also easy to avoid oversleeping by simply setting an alarm that goes off at some point after 7am each morning as a last resort.

With the experiment deemed a success, Zuckerberg has responded to his friends wanting their own version by putting the idea out there for “another entrepreneur” in case they want to run with it. It seems likely the sleep box will be turned into a product now, although I suspect it may get a few smart home feature upgrades in the process.



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These 12 Employee Perks Can Keep Morale High and Improve Retention

April 28, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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12 Employee Perk Ideas
The best employee perks are those that serve a strong purpose within the company, such as building camaraderie, providing better ways to take care of family or improving people’s lives. To find out some specifics, we asked entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following:

“Which employee perk has proved to be particularly effective at keeping morale high and improving retention?”

Employee Perk Ideas

Here’s what YEC community members had to say:

1. Remote Work

“With the right parameters to avoid abuse, people are more refreshed and appreciate the trust given to be able to work effectively within the comforts of their choosing. Remember, this can be as simple as work time flexibility or limited to a few days a week that would benefit the employee most. Respect their personal time and they will respect company time more.” ~ Patrick Barnhill, Specialist ID

2. Health-Related Perks

“We offer a perk designed to offset the cost of any health or wellness-related expense. The flexibility here is purposeful. Some folks use their allocated budget to pay for a gym where they can get physical. Others use the perk for emotional wellness or expert nutritional services. Explicitly dedicating money to keeping your team happy and healthy goes a long way to prove you care.” ~ Ryan Wilson, FiveFifty

3. Flexible Hours

“Fixed work hours can feel like a corporate prison. When running an agency full of marketers, developers and creatives, you shouldn’t have a strict nine-to-five policy. If your team is responsible, meets deadlines and gets work done, there is no need to stress about what time they arrived, how long they eat lunch, or how early they may leave. Being present isn’t as important as being productive.” ~ Duran Inci, Optimum7

4. Ongoing Personal Development and Education

“As a learning management system company, we all value education and self-directed learning. So, when we rolled out an education budget for each employee along with the time to pursue learning during work hours, it really opened up the possibilities for everyone on the team. The biggest benefit is that it’s something people want anyway; now it’s not an additional cost or time drain for them to do.” ~ Nathalie Lussier, AccessAlly

5. Multiple Bonuses

“We have a lot of bonus policies in our company that reward good performance, good relationship with customers and permanence within the company. This is a win-win relationship both for the company as well as for the employees.” ~ Alfredo Atanacio, Uassist.ME

6. Help With Student Loans

“So many talented individuals are carrying huge student loans. If you can provide a way to contribute toward payments, it can be a real source of relief for the talent, plus they may be more likely to stay.” ~ John Hall, Calendar.com

7. Unlimited Time Off

“At our company, we give our employees unlimited time off. So, whenever an employee needs a day off to take care of something, or just needs a day to rest, they know they can take that day off work without a problem. This relieves a lot of stress that limited time off brings and really boosts morale.” ~ Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights

8. Yearly Retreats

“Having a company retreat is a huge thing. This is something that many of the senior employees really learn to appreciate and the junior employees get to aspire to. You’ll find that it’s a fun and good time for the entire office.” ~ Nicole Munoz, Nicole Munoz Consulting

9. Company Outings

“One of my favorite employee perks that work well for my company is hosting fun and creative company outings. In the past, we’ve done team-building activities like paintball and escape rooms. We also have company dinners and happy hours as a reward for good team performance. Letting the team bond outside of work where people can let loose often creates more camaraderie than when in the office.” ~ Jared Weitz, United Capital Source

10. Free Company Swag

“Free company swag is a great little perk that really boosts morale. Not only does it build morale, but it also helps all of the employees form a better connection with each other and the company; it makes it feel more like a team. Recently at our company, everyone was sent a branded T-shirt and sticker in the mail. Not matter who you are, everyone loves getting a free gift.” ~ Blair Williams, MemberPress

11. Pizza Wednesdays

“Having one day a week which is dedicated to a team lunch has proved to be effective at keeping morale high and improving retention. Even if it’s only 60 minutes, this creates a positive workplace environment, and feeling part of a team keeps retention high. This time also allows employees to create friendly relationships while enjoying their lunch.” ~ Michael Hsu, DeepSky

12. Holistic Wellness Programs

“Our team appreciates the perks of our holistic wellness program, which include a weekly yoga class, gym reimbursement and access to company bicycles, as well as our well-loved zen room and game room. Our wellness program also includes Days of Purpose, providing every team member the opportunity to volunteer for a charity of their choice, up to one day per month.” ~ Michael Kurland, Branded Group

Image: Depositphotos.com

This article, “These 12 Employee Perks Can Keep Morale High and Improve Retention” was first published on Small Business Trends



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4 Home Massage Products to Keep You Pain-Free at Your Desk

April 28, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Four different portable massagers will work out every knot after a stressful day.


April
28, 2019

2 min read

Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.


Stress is inevitable when you’re starting your own business. Long hours at your desk, lengthy drives to meet new clients and high-energy brainstorming sessions in front of a whiteboard can leave you with sore, overextended muscles.

Regular massages can cure your muscular woes, but it’s tough to find an hour (and the budget) to spend on a masseuse when you’re getting your feet wet with a new venture. These four personal massagers will relax you from head to toe at home, so you’ll be at your best at work. Plus, they’re all on sale.

Shiatsu Portable Back Massager with Heat – $56.99 (56% off)

This massager targets the stress points in your shoulders and neck. It fits in most office chairs and car seats. Three speed levels, a heating element and a convenient remote help you tailor this massage to your needs. It also has a 15-minute auto-shutoff to prevent over-stimulation.

Belmint Heated Shiatsu Foot Massager – $99.99 (28% off)

Chronic foot pain and aggravation from stiff shoes and long days of walking don’t stand a chance against this heated Shiatsu foot massager. It’s engineered with powerful massage nodes for a deep tissue foot massage that dissolves knots and promotes circulation. It’s easy to choose your mode with the built-in toe control panel.

10-Motor Full-Body Massage Mat with Heat – $59.99 (14% off)

This luxury massage mat can beat any knot or tension. It’s perfect for fighting aches and pains throughout your body after a long day. The flexible plush mat comes equipped with 10 massage motors, targeting all of your pain points from your neck to your legs. The built-in heater and interactive controller give this mat a spa vibe every time you unroll it.

Full Body Stretch Massage Mat – $109.99 (26% off)

Combine the health-boosting effects of yoga with soothing vibrations with this full body massage mat. After you’ve finished your invigorating yoga session, just lie back and let precision-controlled air chambers help you emulate yoga-style stretches. It’s pre-programmed with four relaxing functions that target acupuncture points. Use it to relieve fatigue and improve circulation as part of your self-care routine.

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10 Adjustments You Can Make to Improve Your Chances of Business Success

April 27, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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SEO and content marketing are always changing. So you need to make constant adjustments in order to be successful long term. In SEO and in other areas of business, some of these small changes can help you make a big impact. Here’s more from members of the online small business community.

Bookmark These Free Stock Photography Sites

Visuals can help your business get people’s attention and make your content more effective. If you don’t have the time or ability to take quality photos on your own, you might consider stock photography. The sites in this Crowdspring post by Katie Lundin may be able to help.

Do Your Research Before Hiring an SEO Company

Hiring an SEO company can help your business gain visibility online. But many businesses have had negative SEO experiences because they didn’t take the necessary steps before making this move. Gary Shouldis explains in this blog post and video from 3Bug Media.

Appear in Local Search Listings on Google Assistant and Google Home

Tons of consumers are using Google Assistant and Google Home to find relevant service providers and other businesses. So if your company isn’t included, you could really be missing out. In this Search Engine Land post, Greg Sterling details how Google selects these businesses and how to get yours included.

Optimize Your Blog Content for Google Rankings

Your company’s blog can also be a major help when it comes to SEO. To really make the most of it, you need to optimize that content for Google Rankings. Jasmine Demeester shares tips for doing so in this Pixel Productions post. And BizSugar members shared thoughts on the post here.

Refresh Your Marketing Content

Constantly creating fresh content can benefit your business — but it can also be time consuming. Save time by refreshing old content in a new way for your audience. Anne Leuman examines how B2B brands can do this in this TopRank Marketing post.

Reengineer Your Company’s Processes

It’s important to create processes for your business and stick with them. But if you notice less-than-stellar results over a long period of time, you may need to reexamine those processes. Ben Mulholland offers some reengineering tips in this Process Street post.

Decide Whether to Have a Boss or Be the Boss

Business ownership isn’t right for everyone. Your success in business may depend on whether or not you’re actually well suited for the job. Learn more in this post by Joel Libava on The Franchise King blog.

Invest in Website Testing

Your website can make a major impact on the success of your business. So if it’s not functioning correctly or not giving customers a positive experience, you could really be missing out. Ivan Widjaya explains why user testing can help you solve these issues in this Noobpreneur post.

Win Your SEO Battles

Mastering SEO requires a constant battle. You need to regularly make changes and adjustments to improve your rankings and bring in new traffic, as Enstine Muki discusses in this Inspire to Thrive post. You can also see comments from the BizSugar community here.

Don’t Try to Rank #1 on Google

Improving your search rankings is a worthwhile goal for any business. But a lot of businesses seem to get sidetracked and focus on the wrong things. Neil Patel goes into detail and offers some helpful insights for businesses in this post.

If you’d like to suggest your favorite small business content to be considered for an upcoming community roundup, please send your news tips to: sbtips@gmail.com.

Image: Depositphotos.com

This article, “10 Adjustments You Can Make to Improve Your Chances of Business Success” was first published on Small Business Trends



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These Sisters Left Dream Jobs to Pursue Their Love of Dumplings. Now They’re Cooking up a Delicious NYC Restaurant Empire.

April 26, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Hannah and Marian Cheng of Mimi Cheng’s NYC restaurants share the ups and downs of their first five years in business.


April
26, 2019

7 min read


Five years ago this July, Hannah and Marian Cheng took a big leap and opened the first location of Mimi Cheng’s in New York City’s East Village.

The pair had decided to open a restaurant dedicated to the delicacy they most loved, growing up: handmade Taiwanese dumplings. They missed their mom’s cooking terribly and figured that if they were hungry for those dumplings — and couldn’t find them — others might share that culinary plight.

But their parents, who had been the inspiration for their choice of cuisine, weren’t exactly thrilled. Hannah and Marian told Entrepreneur, their parents were “horrified”  at the prospect of their girls leaving solid jobs — Hannah was a VP at JPMorgan Chase, and Marian, an account executive at the luxury fashion brand Burberry — to jump into the food world, an industry fraught with uncertainty. 

“You both have your dream jobs; you worked so hard to get there; and now you’re leaving to open a takeout restaurant?” Hannah recalled her parents saying. “You didn’t have to go to college to do that.” But with the conviction of their vision, they forged ahead, and named the restaurant Mimi Cheng’s, after their mom Shirley’s nickname, Mimi. 

After about a year, seeing that their daughters were serious and committed to making their business happen, Mom and Dad came on board, too.

Related: What’s the Biggest Challenge of Starting a Restaurant?

The learning curve

With their family in their corner, the next big hurdle was the steep learning curve the sisters needed to master for actually opening and running an operational restaurant. The Chengs say tht it took about three years to get a handle on the process, right up to the point they were poised to open their second location, in Nolita, in 2016.

Mimi Cheng’s Dumpling Making

Image credit Nicole Franzen

Flash-forward to today: The sisters now manage both locations and oversee a team of 40 but say there are always new surprises and challenges to deal with. “When we were opening our second location, it’s like you have a newborn and you have to pay attention to the newborn a lot, so it’s trying to balance both of them,” said Marian. “And when we were opening up the first location, [we tried] to get insight from other restaurateurs and others in the industry about things like  contracting, licenses and permits. Everyone says it’s a nightmare dealing with the city and stuff — but you have to go through it yourself and learn what the nuances are.”

Along the way, the sisters knew they couldn’t do it alone, given their lack of restaurant experience. So, they worked with a city organization, the NYC New Business Acceleration Team (NBAT), an initiative that helps new restaurants and bars get up and running. Before launching Mimi Cheng’s, Marian also took a detour of her own, leaving the fashion world to gain direct experience in hospitality by joining salad chain Sweetgreen’s opening team.

Opening up

The sisters say that one of the biggest early challenges of opening that first location was, quite literally, keeping the lights on.

They were set to open in May of 2014 but actually opened the doors in July. The reason? Not enough electricity to power everything. Their wait for a promised electrical upgrade stretched from weeks into months. They were frustrated. But then came help: their community of fellow restaurateurs advised them to end the waiting game by contacting their local representatives, who connected them with the right Con Edison supervisor who made the upgrade happen.

Mimi Cheng’s Dumplings

Image credit Nicole Franzen

In the weeks leading up to opening day, sleep was in short supply, the sisters remember. They also remember the mixed benefit that a teaser write-up in the New York Times gave them — the day before they opened.

“It was very exciting. But we also didn’t know what that meant,” Hannah recalled. “And what that meant was hundreds of people showing up at our door the first day of opening. It was amazing, but also terrifying. We could not wrap dumplings or cook dumplings fast enough to meet the demand. We actually had to close in the middle of the day, because we knew that there were going to be more people coming in at night.

“We said to ourselves, ‘If we keep selling at this pace, we’re going to be sold out before everybody shows up.’ So we had to close in the middle of the day to restock everything. We are so thankful to the people who still came after they had been there the first day. There is no way that was a good experience, and no way did everything meet our expectations.”

Hitting their stride

At this point, with Mimi Cheng’s having been on the books now nearly five years, the Cheng sisters say that their main advice for entrepreneurs feeling discouragement in their own early stages is to “listen to your gut” and then do the due diligence to back it up — no matter what advice you hear from your support system, no matter what the naysayers believe.

“If it’s something that you can’t stop thinking about, then you also have to realize that these people are speaking from their own point of view. And nobody’s in your shoes, with your experience, with your dream, with your passion,” Hannah said. “So nobody will ever be able to speak to that.

Related: There Are 2,000 Empty Restaurants During the Day in New York — and This Startup Is Doing Something About It

“You have to also realize that they care about you, but they are only speaking from their perspective. We’ve had so many people tell us, ‘Don’t open a restaurant, you have no idea what you’re doing.’ — which is all true. But at the end of the day, it was something that we couldn’t stop thinking about. And I’m glad we did it without that knowledge because it would have been scary. Once you’re in, you realize, ‘Crap, I don’t know anything.’ But once you’re in it, you’ve figured out how to do it.”

That philosophy extends to their hiring approach: they don’t feel beholden to bring on only those with two to five years’ restaurant experience under their belts. “It’s the same with hiring some of our team members,” Marian explained. “Some of them don’t have experience in the food industry. But we give them a chance if they seem like they’re very quick to learn and they have great personalities — because you have to start somewhere.”

The sisters say that their partnership works because they each bring different skills to the table — Hannah often focuses on scheduling, finances and payroll; Marian’s specialties are inventory and ordering. The two, meanwhile, handle day-to-day operations and recipe development together.

The key ingredient, they say, is implicit trust.

“I wouldn’t recommend every sibling [duo] work together; it really depends on the kind of relationship you have. But even growing up we were never competitive,” Hannah said. “We’ve always been on the same team.

“And because of that, and also because we’re siblings, we trust each other inherently. So we always know that we have each other’s best interests in mind. And I think, when you’re starting a business with somebody, that is the hardest part: finding a business partner you can trust completely.”

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5 Mind Hacks You Need to Know Before Starting a Business

April 26, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Ever use the Pomodoro Technique? You work in short bursts of extreme productivity, then take a break. Try it.


April
26, 2019

6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.


Starting a new business is both an exciting and daunting experience. The typical entrepreneur is racing toward the goal of being successful, but the truth is,he or she will likely struggle to get there. If you consider yourself an entrepreneur, you need to understand your customers’ psychological profile, as well as how you can manage, even manipulate, your own psychological state to become a more productive business owner.

Related: 5 Brain Hacks to Boost Your Motivation

Below are some of the ways you can start your business on the right foot by delving into some excellent brain hacks to improve your chances of creating a worldwide recognized brand.

These hacks are gaining ground owing to the scientific research surrounding them. When you combine more than one of these methods together, you have the chance to drastically improve your odds in what today are so many overpopulated industry segments — with so much noise.

Now, here’s how to dive in to those hacks:

1.Use your brand’s colors to your advantage.

Color plays an important role in the way we perceive companies and their functionality. A revealing study by the University of Winnipeg found that 62 to 90 percent of buyers surveyed said they make up their minds whether they are interested in a brand, or its offerings, based on the colors used in the brand’s design.

Related: Neuroscience Tells Us How to Hack Our Brains for Success

How can you use colors to convince your customers that your product is the right choice? Here is a chart that shows colors and what kinds of emotions they evoke.

Image Source: CoSchedule blog

You should think about the kind of product you’re creating, and how you expect customers to feel when they see your brand. In the example above, the brands that promote creativity or have products designed to increase creativity have used the color purple. The SyFy channel, which thrives on creative (and sometimes hilarious) ideas, uses purple to create a brand that is instantly recognizable.

2. Make complicated topics easy to understand.

One of the best ways to win over your audience is by explaining a process or idea in terms that virtually everyone can understand. Think about the last time you had a question about a topic, looked up what other people were saying and found some articles that left you scratching your head even more than when you started.

You never, ever want to leave potential customers more confused than they were before. Use the power of storytelling in combination with simple language to make complicated topics easy to understand.

If the topic you’re covering requires multiple pieces of content, don’t forget to intertwine the content as it comes out. If readers come to your business site and get an answer to their question bolstered by facts and confidence, they are more likely to convert — because they trust your brand.

3. Make an impression, using imagery.

We have all heard about how first impressions are everything. This rule applies to your business, too! According to a study titled Behaviour and Information Technology, most users decide whether or not they are going to stay on a website in 50 milliseconds! In other words, you have to let potential customers know exactly what your product does when they land on your website.

Along with the first impressions advice, we’re also told throughout life that a picture is worth a 1,000 words. It turns out that this is true! You can tell your customers more about what your product or service does, how it will make them feel and what problems your product will solve — using just your imagery.

Quick, check out the following image.

Image Source: Crazy Egg blog

What did you think when you merely glanced at this Coca-Cola ad?

As it happens, the color red encourages feelings of excitement. But this imagery manages to do so much more than that. At first glance, the image is of two happy people. At the same time, the word “happiness” is right next to the Coca-Cola logo. If someone, for whatever reason, has never heard of Coca-Cola, his or her first experience with this ad will promote positive emotions and, hopefully, create a positive customer.

4. Keep your inner monologue in check

As someone who wants to start a business, you’re probably feeling confident and excited. Sadly, however, more of us struggle with feelings of self-doubt, even if we are doing something well. You need to learn to hack your mind and keep your inner monologue in check when it starts hampering your progress as an entrepreneur.

The best way to keep your self-doubt in check is by focusing on the positive outcome you hope to achieve. It’s a difficult process, to be honest. But here’s the thing. When you start focusing on positive things, you train your brain to push out negative feelings and emotions.

Obviously, we are only human and sometimes have doubts and negative emotions. But learning to control our thinking and focusing on productive, positive thoughts can breed positivity and increase our chances of success.

5. Hack your time-management abilities

Time management is one of the most challenging, but important, aspects of any business. You’re going to have a million things going on at once and you’ll need to learn to manage your time properly.

One great way to manage your time is by using The Pomodoro Technique. Basically, the Pomodoro technique involves your managing your time by working in short bursts of extreme productivity, followed by a short break.

Related: Science-Backed Brain Hacks to Crush Your Goals

When you use this schedule over time, you’ll hack your brain into entering productivity mode when the timer is going; and then you can relax on your breaks. The Pomodoro method helps you build discipline and use your time wisely, which helps you get things done in a timely manner.

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History of Viral Marketing

April 25, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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History of Viral Marketing

We’ve all seen those advertisements or images on Facebook that seem to reach thousands, if not millions, of people and result in hundreds of comments, likes, and shares. Your friend shares the post, then you do, and then your friends do. Those posts that spread like wildfire across social media networks are part of viral promotion, a form of content marketing that can be extremely successful for brands of all sizes. How did viral marketing come about? How exactly does it work? And what are some of its common aspects?

What Does It Mean to “Go Viral”?

Consider this: There are 2.5 billion people worldwide using social media opens in new window, according to Statista, and an article in Forbes by Robert Wynne reports about 5 billion pieces of content are posted to Facebook and more than 500,000 tweets are sent on a daily basis.

Even though the chances of a tweet going viral are about one in a million, another Forbes article by Jason DeMers says that sharable content is key to successful content marketing opens in new window. Of course, it depends on how and when the content is shared in order to increase its chances of becoming viral. Sometimes, a post can gain traction significantly, but only for a few days before losing momentum. The content needs to be something that the audience would want to share with their friends.

According to Entrepreneur opens in new window, you should “think of virality as an exponential curve. If two people directly related to the brand share a piece of content, and if that number doubles 30 times, it means that over a billion people will have shared the content.”

The more shares a promotion gets, the greater the opportunity that it “snowballs into something huge opens in new window.” A company needs to share its content in as many ways and in as many places as possible. If the company makes it easy for its audience to share content — through tagging, embedding, or downloading — then the chance of it going viral increases opens in new window, according to Hubspot

However, content that appears to have gone viral may not produce the brand’s desired results. Much of the time, consumers barely read the content after clicking on it. In fact, 55 percent of readers actively spend less than 15 seconds on a page, according to Forbes.

Where Did Viral Marketing Originate?

Viral marketing’s roots date back to 1996 opens in new window, when a small startup company called Hotline needed a budget-friendly way to promote its new email service, Hotmail. Hotline’s team decided to insert the line “Get your own free Hotmail at www.hotmail.com” in all emails. The result? The number of Hotmail users grew from 20,000 to 1 million within a year. By 2001, Hotmail had 30 percent of the email market with 86 million active users. This is an example of one of the most important aspects of viral marketing: every customer involuntarily promotes a service just by using it.

However, it’s unclear where the exact phrase originated. In 1996, Jeffrey Rayport, a Harvard Business School professor, authored an article for Fast Company titled “The Virus of Marketing,” in which the term “viral marketing” appeared. However, venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson claims that it coined the term in a 1997 Netscape newsletter, using inspiration from Hotmail’s marketing strategy. In 2000, Fast Company published “Unleash Your Ideavirus,” an article focusing on the idea economy and how the “ideas that spread the fastest win.”

Regardless of its exact origin, there is no doubt that viral marketing could not survive without social networking today. During the 2000s, the major social networks launched. Facebook came to existence in 2000, and YouTube and Twitter launched in 2005 and 2006, respectively.

What Makes Viral Promotion Ideal?

As viral promotion is one of the most effective marketing tactics today, it offers many benefits for both small businesses and large corporations. One of the major advantages is that viral marketing doesn’t require a large budget. In fact, Hubspot reported that some of the most successful viral content was created with a very low budget, especially given the ability to shoot high-quality photos and videos with a smartphone.

Another considerable benefit is that when a viral marketing campaign is successful, a brand’s product or service is put in front of a new, larger audience. As the content reaches thousands of people, not only does the brand have the potential to make more money, but it can also gain a large amount of new followers, referral traffic, and even permanent links to help with its website’s search engine rankings.

A genuine viral promotion can also create loyal customer relationships. Through all the shares, likes, and tags on various social media networks, viral marketing campaigns are not considered as invasive. It’s the consumers and fans who decide to share the content, and the perception of the brand ends up being better than it would via other marketing tactics opens in new window.

On the other hand, sometimes content going viral doesn’t lead to more loyal followers. The most important thing for a business’ success is loyalty, not how viral content becomes. A brand must work to build authentic connections with its audience, as loyal customers are the ones who want to stay updated on the brand’s latest news.

Successful Viral Marketing Examples

In November 2017, filmmaker Max Lanman created a commercial to advertise his girlfriend’s 1996 Honda Accord. The ad, which showed Lanman’s girlfriend drinking coffee and holding her cat in the car while driving, included some witty fine print such as “Cat and coffee pot not included” and “0% APR for qualified buyers with eBay accounts in good standing.” The video promptly went viral and has since achieved more than 6.8 million views on YouTube. While the video advertised the car for a sale price of $499 opens in new window, the car’s eBay auction quickly went up to $150,000 before being pulled off the site. Later, CarMax created a response video, offering the couple $20,000 for the Honda, which the couple accepted. CarMax’s own video topped 400,000 views, performing better than any of its other videos.

Another example of viral marketing is BlendTec’s “Will It Blend” campaign. In 2006, the blender company had very low brand awareness, and it created a series of videos showing the company’s CEO placing random objects into one if its blenders opens in new window. Items such as an iPhone, a rake handle, a video game, and credit cards were destroyed in the blender. Within five days of being posted on YouTube, the videos had more than 6 million views, and BlendTec went from being an unknown brand to world renowned. Additionally, their sales increased by eight times after the campaign launched.

What Many Viral Marketing Campaigns Have in Common

While there’s no guaranteed formula to make a marketing campaign go viral, there are some traits that the most successful campaigns have in common. They’re relatable to their target audience, making them feel strongly enough about the content to share it. The content may evoke emotion, be entertaining or inspirational, provide an element of surprise, or contain information that is deemed helpful. Hubspot also suggests viral marketing campaigns also have good visual strategies that tell a story and are innovative.

Content that is easy for the audience to digest also increases the chances of it becoming viral. Even though they tend to earn fewer links, the article in Forbes by Jayson DeMers opens in new windowmentioned earlier states, “Videos, quizzes, and list-based articles tend to get more shares than other types of content, possibly because they’re relatively quick and easy to digest.” Meanwhile, as 85 percent of content has 1,000 words or less, the remaining 15 percent, which contains more than 1,000 words, seems to earn more shares and links.

Interested in Digital Marketing Trends?

With the world becoming more digital by the day, marketers must be able to adapt to effectively utilize technology for their marketing strategies. With the right program, you can become familiar with important skills such as content, influencer, and social media marketing and analytics.

Rivier University’s online MBA with a concentration in marketing will give you the marketing skills required to help brands flourish. The affordable two-year program focuses on digital marketing and analytics, sales management, strategic brand management, and other cutting-edge marketing techniques. As you specialize your education in this dynamic field, you will have the flexibility to study at your own pace at a place of your choosing.

Republished by permission. Original here.

Photo via Rivier University Online

This article, “History of Viral Marketing” was first published on Small Business Trends



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How to Advocate for — and Implement — a ‘Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day’

April 25, 2019 by Asif Nazeer Leave a Comment

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Parent advocate Sarah Johal outlines the steps for making your company truly ‘child-friendly.’


April
25, 2019

7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.


Today, April 25, is national Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day for 2109. Created 26 years ago by the Ms. Foundation, the event (slightly retooled from its former name Take Our Children to Work Day) is designed for girls and boys ages 8 to 18 to learn new lessons about the workplace, then take those lessons back to school the following day.

The observance “focuses on expanding future opportunities for all our children, in both their work and family lives,” according to the website.

But what if your particular company dismisses the whole idea of welcoming kids into the workplace to observe what Mom and Dad or some other adult in their lives actually does all day? For answers, I turned to Sarah Johal.

Related: Bring Your Child to Work Day Is Too Valuable to Limit to Once a Year

Johal is a mother and marketing professional with experience advocating for parent-friendly programs and activities at high-profile organizations. She’s built brand experiences for Pandora Radio, Lyft and Workday and is the current editor of the weekly newsletter exploring parenthood in media and tech, Underbelly.

In our conversation, Johal recalled her experience three years ago as a marketing manager at Lyft, and the rideshare company’s lack at that time of a parenting employee resource group.

“I had a pretty toxic experience when I returned to work after maternity leave,” Johal began, referring to a previous job. “A few months later, I decided to join Lyft, which seemed to provide a way healthier support system for all workers.”

Even though some women within that organization were pregnant, Johal said, she saw signs that Lyft hadn’t created an inclusive culture for working parents.

Evidence for that statement? “All-hands meetings started at 5:30 pm.,” Johal remembered. “I’d see other parents get ‘stink eyes’ when they had to bring their kids in for the day, but no one batted an eye when a colleague brought in their dog.”

Ever the workplace volunteer, Johal decided to turn her pain into progress and voluntarily formed an employee resource group, or ERG, for parents and caregivers within the company.

Related: To Raise Exceptional Children, Teach Them These 7 Values

She’d assumed the organization would be concerned enough to at least listen to the needs and perspectives of caregiver employees. But working parents at Lyft at the time had no ERG to call home.

One reason might have been Lyft’s then still-recent startup status. (It was founded in 2012.). But support for working parents was one goal that needed to be accommodated, Johal told me. She cited the value for both the organization and the employees who join ERGs, illustrated in a study by the Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion.

“I also wanted to ensure no one else experienced biases — conscious or unconscious — simply because of their parent identity and ways of working,” Johal said. Under the branding #UpLyft, Lyft had already adopted a framework for creating ERGs, she said. At the time, the company also had other diversity and inclusion resource groups such as #UpLyftWomen for women in tech.

Sarah Johal and her daughter

Image Credit: Courtesy of Sarah Johal

So Johal made her move; she founded #UpLyftParents in February 2016, and under her leadership, the company hosted its first “Take Our Kids to Work Day” across all domestic Lyft offices and changed its paid leave policy for all employees. Johal transitioned from Lyft to the marketing company Workday early last year, but Lyft still benefited from the effects of her hard work after her departure.

Just two months later, Lyft ranked 12th on Father.ly’s “Best Places for Dads” to work. Though Johal and her ERG corrected the course of operations at Lyft, the group never would have happened had she not striven for incremental, quick wins. “Take Our Kids to Work Day” (Lyft’s name for the event) was one of those wins.

Google, Facebook and Visa are just a few of the organizations that have received praise from their employees and the media for their Take Your Child To Work Day activities. Unfortunately, however, due to a lack of proper event planning, budget or liability fears, many companies don’t encourage employees to bring their children into the workplace n– even just for one day.

This year ‘s observance has the theme “Workforce Development for All.” And in this regard, Johal offers advice to organizations on how they can explore launching a local observance of their own in just under three weeks and develop inspiration and skill sets for tomorrow’s leaders. The tips she offers include:

Communication is key.

“Regardless if your company only has two parents or 2,000, it’s worth expressing how your company embraces working families,” Johal says.

For companies, communicating that employees can bring their children in for the day is key. Employees, meanwhile, should remember to express their interest in that event to their company’s human resources department or employee resource group, as one or both may already have programming plans. If not, employees can volunteer to serve as consultants, volunteer for various tasks and provide additional programming.

Assess the landscape.

“Audit [whether] it makes sense to celebrate the actual national holiday in April, or if it’s easier to execute in summer when more kids can likely visit on a weekday,” Johal advises, noting some parents’ reluctance to take their children out of school.

Also, if the first year’s celebration is limited just to a communique to employees, assess participation levels and feedback, determining if a larger, grander event would be well received.

Money isn’t everything.

“Zero-budget ideas are endless,” Johal says. One could be launching your organization’s first official parents’ ERG to mark the date, she says. Another could be a parent-buddy mentorship program to foster relationships between non-caregivers and parents. A third could involve posting a group selfie with leadership on your social handles.

Simply participate and share your authentic stories (internally and externally)! Just remember to use release forms for families to approve the use of their likeness and especially that of their minor-age children for any captured content.

Consider what innovative programming looks like for all ages.

“If you have the budget, have a variety of programming that expresses your core values,” Johal says. “At Lyft, we created career development and time-management panels for parents with newborns, led by executive sponsors. For older kids, we hosted themed Lego engineering workshops where families could design and build their visions of ‘future cities’ and autonomous car designs. 

“We also ensured temporary onsite child care was available in case parents needed to step away for an important meeting or phone call, and still enjoy the celebration.”

Related: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Explaining Your Job to Your Kids

As to what benefits might result through steps like those Johal advises, worker satisfaction might be one, and increased productivity, another. Then, increased employee retention might be a third — geared to giving the phrase “child-friendly” new meaning.

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