April
19, 2019

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Green Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

For seven years, Igor Yakovlev made a living as an urban beekeeper selling his honey at local farmer’s markets and independent stores in New York and New Jersey. “I got into the business because I was always interested in honeybees and helping people and the environment,” he says, noting that, “seventy-percent of our ecosystem is pollinated by honeybees” and touting the health benefits of honey.

Related: Call Them Canna-Bees. How Cannabis Helps Bees and Vice Versa.

In recent years, Yakovlev, like many, began hearing about the medicinal properties of CBD. “I started doing research,” he says, adding that he was inspired to find a way to up the healing properties of his products by infusing them with cannabidiol oil. “I thought, what if I could make my honey a super, super food?” he says.

Here’s how he got the business out of the hive and into the market.

Know your strengths and weaknesses

Yakovlev knew he wanted to branch out, but he also knew that he was not a businessperson. So, he sought out childhood friends Sam and Boris Savransky, who both had lucrative backgrounds in e-commerce. The brothers came on board bringing the funds needed to get the company off the ground. In 2018, Hempme was born.

Each partner in the company has a different role. “I do the production, Sam does the marketing, and Boris does all the logistics,” Yakovlev explains.

Find the best source

Yakovlev began searching for CBD partners and came across several industry hemp growers in Colorado, Oregon, and New York. “I ordered samples of different oils to play around with, to see what tasted better, what looked better, what was the best type of oil for the honey,” he recalls.

The founders started with a CBD isolate, generally accepted as the easiest to blend with a food product, but they quickly realized the formulation wouldn’t offer the benefits they were going for. “We wanted people to experience the full entourage effect so we started doing a full CBD full spectrum, a whole plant,” Yakovlev explains.

Get the process down

Next, Yakovlev had to master the process of getting the honey just right and making their product stand out from competitors. “Hempme is special because we use a special process where we cream the honey, which many other companies do not do,” Yakovlev says. This is a combination of liquid and crystalized honey placed into a machine and spun for two days before the extract is added. This process, according to Boris, also helps to ensure that consumers are getting an even distribution of CBD with each use.
In addition to its cinnamon-flavored Creamed Honey, Hempme also offers a CBD honeycomb “straight from the hive,” as well as pain-relieving Hemp Balm.

“We use our own harvested honey for those. They are our staple,” Yakovlev says, the latter of which has been popular among athletes and UFC fighters. Floyd Mayweather’s personal bodyguards, for instance, have written in to rave about reduced joint pain and deeper sleep as a result of the products. HempMe’s catalog also includes full spectrum lip balm, and water-soluble full spectrum oil tinctures.

Image Credit: HempMe

Get yourself to market

Once the inventory was ready and third-party lab approved, the team dove headfirst into the task of preparing for retail in the spring of 2018. But it took a full nine months before they were able to secure an online merchant account and the founders were sitting on product with no way to legally sell it.

This delayed Hempme’s initial batch of sales until December 2018. “That was our first gut check,” Yakovlev adds. This threw their sales off course but the founders say if everything continues to go as planned; they should be fully profitable in 2020.

The second hurdle came in the form of realizing that mainstream platforms, like Facebook and Google, wouldn’t allow them to advertise in the traditional sense so they developed work-around strategies. For example, an ad for CBD honey would simply invite Facebook users to check out a new honey product that people are raving about. The ad wouldn’t mention CBD at all. The viewer would learn the secret ingredient is CBD later in their customer journey. 

Related: How to Finesse FDA Regulations and Successfully Market Your CBD Business

Word of mouth is also important. “We reach out to people online organically who are basically sharing that they are dealing with specific ailments and we get in touch, telling them about our product, and explaining how it can help,” Yakovlev says.

Gather research to back your case

Another challenge is the lack of research on the science behind CBD. For the time being, the team is referencing studies that highlight the antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties of honey and plugging the benefits of CBD though antidotal evidence and feedback they have. Many of their users, for instance, have claimed to be able to have improved sleep and reduced anxiety after taking a spoonful of their trademark CBD-infused honey.

Hempme is currently sold online. Going forward, the company hopes to broaden its reach and land in retailers like Whole Foods, CVS, and Walgreens but right now, the main goal is to educate the community on the benefits of their CBD products. “We offer a free dosing guide on our website to help clear up any confusion about this,” says Yakovlev. And new and improved products are always on the docket. Yakovlev, for instance, is currently experimenting with an ultrasonic homogenizer, which he says hopes will double the absorbability of topical CBD products.

Related: How Cannabis Ecommerce Challenges Are Driving Web Innovation

April
19, 2019

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

To run a fruitful online business, you first need a solid online target audience to cater to. Without those people, there’s no one to see or care about your products and services, much less purchase them. That’s why expanding your reach and visibility is essential to reach your growth objectives.

Related: 5 Digital Marketing Trends to Keep Your Audience Hooked

How do you achieve this? Let’s assume you already know your target audience. You know their pain points, what problems they need solved and the questions they want answered. You’re determined to get them to trust you as a brand. So, you create quality content you know they’ll eat up. But … there’s a problem: You can’t seem to get enough shares, likes or comments.

If this is your dilemma, it’s likely you need a revamped online strategy to get the results you want.

Here are three essential strategies to put into practice to successfully reach your target audience this year.

1. Optimize for search.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is what webmasters use so that their website can rank higher in search engine result pages, or SERPs. SEO categorizes your content and investigates its value and other elements like engagement and unique visitors and ranks your website accordingly. The more steps you’ve taken to optimize your content, the greater the chance you’ll have of reaching your target market.

Related: 5 Essentials for Connecting With Your Ideal Target Market on Social Media

There are several ways to optimize for SEO:

• Optimize for mobile. Google prioritizes sites that use mobile-first indexing, meaning that their site is optimized across all devices, especially mobile. Statista found that in 2018, 52 percent of website traffic worldwide was generated through mobile phones. If you aren’t optimizing for mobile, you’re missing out on half of your potential traffic and leads.

Image Source: Backlinko

• Use relevant keywords. Google processes more than 40,000 search queries every second. The only way your content is going to show up for users is if you conduct keyword research based on what your audience wants and center your content around it.

• Build quality backlinks. You want authoritative, respected blogs linking to your content because it shows those bloggers trust you as a reliable, credible source of information. One strategy is to guest-post on others’ blogs. When their readers see this, they’ll view you in the same light and gain interest in your brand. This strategy takes effort and time since not just any popular site is going to give you backlinks, but it’s possible to meet that goal, given enough persistence.

2. Engage on social media.

With Statista reporting more than three billion active social media users worldwide, it’d be a waste not to utilize social media to reach your target market. You know they’re there; all you have to do is find them and interact.

Most social mediums let you set up polls, surveys and questionnaires to gather feedback from followers, which is a great way to get their opinion and form a personal connection. It shows that you care what your audience thinks and it encourages them to check you out.

Image source: Twitter.com

You should regularly post updates on your brand and its content through your social channels, using relevant hashtags so that people searching for those keywords can find your posts. Scour these hashtags to find out what questions they have that you can respond to. Add social sharing buttons on your website so your posts can be shared across multiple platforms.

3. Use visual content.

The Harvard Business Review has said that to improve your content marketing, you need to create visual content and avoid heavy blocks of text. Images, videos and other visual content spark and keep the interest of readers because they want skimmable content that’s easy to digest.

A study by Nielsen found that users scan content in different patterns, one of them being a spotted pattern. This means they skip chunks of text and heavily scan the page, searching for something specific like links or keywords.

If you want to catch the attention of your audience, spruce up the content they’re consuming by inserting images, videos and other media elements to make things more appealing and exciting. From there, use the same visual content to post to social media, and entice users to check out your brand.

Take customer stories, experiences and reviews and turn them into videos you can feature on your website and social platforms. Turn your blog posts into videos and infographics that make your content sparkle, and break the monotony. The more users who see this quality content, the more visibility it will attract through shares, likes and engagement.

Related: Is Digital Marketing a Key to Success For Growth of Your Business?

Wrapping up.

The hardest part about starting a business is getting your content into the right hands when there’s so much competition out there. If you have a strategy, however, you’ll be able to get the likes and interactions you want. Take into consideration how your audience could benefit from your brand and integrate those points into your strategy for improved lead generation.

How will you reach your audience in 2019?

April
18, 2019

9 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.

For many entrepreneurs, figuring out how to increase productivity at work is a task that’s both formidable and frustrating. It’s sort of like you’re Indiana Jones, but instead of dodging booby traps on your quest to find the Holy Grail, you’re trying to avoid working unnecessarily hard in your pursuit of total efficiency.

Spoiler: There’s no panacea when it comes to hacking your productivity; if there was, we’d all be doing it. Rather, you should strive to find simple, practical ways to fine-tune your day-to-day routine while establishing a healthy, comfortable, and distraction-free work environment.

If that sounds like a lot to handle, allow us to assist: Below, we’ve rounded up 10 different products that can help successful entrepreneurs tweak their lifestyle to increase productivity on just about any budget. 

1. Cushion 

Image Credit: Purple

Few things kill productivity faster than lower back and sciatic pain, which makes a good workplace seating situation (and good posture) a must. 

You’ve probably heard of their mattresses, but did you know that Purple makes a quality Seat Cushion, too? Available in a variety of different sizes and shapes, the popular bed-in-a-box brand’s “cushy for your tushy” comes with a one-year warranty and a 30-day trial period. 

A customer favorite that’s ideal for offices, you can get Purple’s Royal Seat Cushion model for just $79.

If you’re on a budget:

2. Standing Desk

Image Credit: Amazon

Research has indicated that standing desks do wonders for one’s productivity, with workers reporting increased energy levels, improved mental focus, and fewer aches and pains when they stayed upright. This impact isn’t insignificant, either: A study conducted by Texas A&M University’s Health Science Center School of Public Health found that call center employees who used standing desks were almost 50 percent more productive than their seated counterparts. 

Designed to keep your body moving, the modern Jarvis Standing Desk is made from sustainable bamboo and features an award-winning desk frame that adjusts from 23.23 inches to nearly 50 inches with the included push-button handset. Each unit is easy to assemble, strong enough to support up to 350 pounds, and comes with an industry-leading, seven-year warranty on all frame, mechanical, and electrical parts. 

You can get the Jarvis for only $534 and take your pick from four different finishes. 

If you’re on a budget:

3. Supplements 

Image Credit: TruBrain

Nootropics are a buzzy genre of nutritional supplements that are billed as “bio-hacks” to improve your cognitive function, creativity, and focus. Many Silicon Valley bigwigs swear by them despite the fact that, as with most other dietary supplements, they aren’t regulated by the Federal Drug Administration, touting them as jitter-free coffee substitutes that make it easier to see difficult tasks through to completion.

TruBrain aims to help you “carpe more diem” with its popular line of nootropics, available in drink and bar form. Featuring nootropics such as caffeine, L-Theanine, and noopept, both products were created by UCLA-trained neuroscientists for the purpose of helping you overcome mental blocks and increase your mental output. 

Score a month’s supply of 1-ounce TruBrain nootropic shots for $65, or grab a 12-pack of their chocolate and peanut butter snack bars for $49.

4. Noise-Canceling Headphones

Image Credit: Amazon

This one’s pretty obvious: A good pair of noise-cancelling headphones tunes out unwanted distractions in your surroundings, whether you’re at home, in the office, in an airport, or on the subway. The less you struggle with environmental diversions and interruptions, the more focused you can be on the task at hand.

The Sony Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphones utilize industry-leading noise-cancellation and smart listening technology to create a crystal-clear listening experience that adjusts to your surroundings. Each pair comes equipped with the Amazon Alexa smart assistant for hands-free voice control as well as a built-in microphone that lets you take calls on the go. And with up to 30 hours of battery life on a single charge, they’re designed to keep up with you and your busy schedule.

Snag a pair of the Sony Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphones in Black or Silver for only $348.

If you’re on a budget:

5. Portable Scanner

Image Credit: Amazon

Pro tip: The more you utilize the convenience of portable devices and eliminate detours to the office, the better for you and your personal productivity. 

Weighing in at less than one pound, the USB-powered Mobile Color Page Scanner from Brother is one such way to streamline your workflow. Simply slip it inside your backpack or briefcase — it’s just under 11.5 inches — and you’ll be able to take high-resolution scans of receipts, IDs, business cards, invoices, and other documents on the go in both color and black-and-white.

A $129.99 value, you can get one today for just $81.77.

6. A Second Monitor

Image Credit: Amazon

From swiftly switching between applications to comparing files and segmenting tasks, the productivity-boosting benefits of a multi-monitor setup are manifold — and quantifiable. According to a 2017

study conducted by the IT statistics firm Jon Peddie Research, workers achieved up to a 42 percent increase in productivity upon switching to a multi-display configuration.

If you’d like to add another monitor to your own lineup, we recommend looking into the BenQ 28” 4K HDR10 Monitor. Brandishing more than 700 five-star reviews on Amazon, it’s equipped with 4K resolution for ridiculously clear and vibrant graphics; Brightness Intelligence Plus Technology that tweaks the display settings in accordance with the brightness of your work environment; and a unique “Smart Focus” feature that highlights a selected viewing area to reduce background distractions. 

Normally $499.99, you can get the BenQ 28” monitor for just $386.98.

If you’re on a budget:

• The Asus 23” HD LED Monitor offers pristine image quality and sharpness, and comes with a mountable, detachable base ($128.09)

7. Journal 

Image Credit: Amazon

Journaling is one of the most popular methods of practicing mindfulness, or the state of being completely tuned into the present moment — physically, mentally, emotionally, etcetera. It’s a proven way to reduce stress, but as productivity coach Ciara Conlon notes in a blog post for Lifehack, a personal development site, mindfulness is also a great way to hone one’s focus and organizational skills: “Mindfulness jumps in the way of all [life’s] distractions of the mind and says ‘Hey, come back to the present moment, get what needs to be done, done!’” she writes.

Lots of Amazon reviewers have found the Morning Sidekick Journal helpful on their personal mindfulness journeys. Made by Habit Nest, this non-dated routine planner and habit tracker aims to help you start each day with an actionable tidbit of content — such as a tip or inspiring anecdote — and goal strategy to help you more effectively reach your true potential and stay motivated. Get it in Sunrise Red for only $29.90.

Another solid pick is The SELF Journal from BestSelf Co., a non-dated, highly detailed journal whose purpose is to help you better structure and organize your life in accordance with your goals. It typically retails for $37.99, but it’s yours today for only $31.99.

8. Storage

Image Credit: Amazon

Whether it’s a jumble of files on your desktop or a forgotten library of old albums sitting in your “Downloads” folder, digital clutter can be a huge barrier to an efficient workflow. Not only is it distracting, but it can seriously slow down your device’s performance.

The SanDisk Cruzer USB 2.0 Flash Drive ups your storage game with 32GB of space for your movies, music, files, photos, and more. Once you’ve finished transferring your documents to its memory, you can take your content with you everywhere — and no more having to lug your laptop around. Plus, you get additional peace of mind in the form of one SecureAccess software download (included with every purchase), which lets you password-protect your most important files.

This portable storage solution normally retails for $23.99, but you can get it for only $7.99.

9. Meals

Image Credit: Home Chef

As a successful entrepreneur, you don’t have time to throw together an elaborate, home-cooked meal every day. Fortunately, you’ve got a couple of healthy alternatives to takeout that’ll suit your busy schedule, the first being Home Chef, a meal delivery service that promises to take you “from doorstep to dinner in about 30 minutes.” Just take your pick of a dozen or so delicious, easy-to-follow recipes each week and set a delivery date; Home Chef will then ship the ingredients right to your front door and walk you through the process of crafting your tasty dishes.

For a limited time, you can take $30 off your first Home Chef order and $10 off your second. Click here to learn more.

If your ultra-busy schedule requires an even more practical, no-frills mealtime solution, take Soylent’s shakes for a test drive. Each bottle of its plant-based, 400-calorie meal alternative contains 20 percent of your daily vitamins and minerals, making them great breakfast or lunch replacements or post-workout meals. 

Get a 12-pack of Soylent in your choice of four flavors — Original, Cacao, Strawberry, or Vanilla — for only $39.

10. Blue Light Frames

Image Credit: Amazon

Much ado has been made about blue light, or the short-wavelength, high-energy glow from your devices’ screens that contributes to digital eye strain. In some studies, long-term exposure to it has been linked to retinal damage and the delayed release of melatonin (the hormone that regulates your sleep-wake cycle). It goes without saying that these effects can make productivity quite difficult, if not impossible.

For premium protection from your screens’ eye-straining glow at a very reasonable price point, look no further than the ANRRI Blue Light-Blocking Glasses. They’re capable of eliminating up to 90 percent of blue light, which dramatically reduces eye fatigue, blurriness, dryness, and premature aging. What’s more, you’ll sleep better and more deeply at night with less exposure to blue light’s disruptive wavelengths. 

Blue light frames can run upwards of $75, which makes ANRRI’s glasses a steal at just $19.95.

April
17, 2019

3 min read

This story originally appeared on Business Insider

Carl’s Jr. is making history this 4/20.

On Saturday, Carl’s Jr. will debut the CBD-infused “Rocky Mountain High: CheeseBurger Delight” at a single location in Denver. The CBD burger will be available for $4.20 during the one-day test, fittingly held on April 20, a weed-filled celebration for many Americans.

With the test, Carl’s Jr. would become the first major fast-food chain to roll out a cannabis-infused menu item — even if just for a one-location, one-day event.

The CheeseBurger Delight consists of two beef patties, topped with pickled jalapenos, pepper jack cheese, fries, and CBD-infused “Santa Fe Sauce.”

The rise of the CBD-infused burger

Carl’s Jr.

Image credit: Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

Carl’s Jr. has been working on the CBD burger since its vegan Beyond Meat burger launch in early January, according to Patty Trevino, Carl’s Jr.’s senior vice president of brand marketing.

Unlike with most menu tests, one of Trevino’s earliest conversations about Carl’s Jr.’s decision to make a CBD-infused burger was with the company’s legal team. The Denver restaurant was picked as the 4/20 test spot in part because Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2014.

Trevino said the test is more than a one-day 4/20 stunt. Carl’s Jr. will be monitoring sales and customer and franchisee responses, and if all goes well, Trevino said, expanding the test remains an option — with the possibility of one day rolling out a CBD-infused burger across the U.S.

“If anyone is going to do it, I would want Carl’s Jr. to do it,” Trevino said of the prospect of launching a CBD-infused menu item nationally.

While navigating state-by-state regulations could prove challenging, Trevino said Carl’s Jr. had an advantage as a West Coast chain, operating in more states that have fully legalized marijuana. In total, Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, its sister brand that dominates the South and Midwest, have 3,800 locations in 44 states and internationally.

CBD, which has been celebrated for its potential health benefits, is the nonpsychoactive component of marijuana — meaning that eating a CBD burger will not get you high. With the passage of last year’s farm bill, CBD is becoming mainstream, despite reports of dangerous ingredients and misleading labels.

By Chloe’s CBD-infused desserts.

Image credit: By Chloe/Leslie Kirchoff

Retailers and restaurants are increasingly intrigued by CBD — Walgreens and CVS have signed deals to sell CBD topicals, and the trendy restaurant chain By Chloe serves up CBD-infused sweets, for example. A team of analysts at the investment bank Cowen recently estimated that the US market for CBD could skyrocket to $16 billion by 2025 from roughly $1 billion to $2 billion now.

Carl’s Jr. is sourcing its hemp-derived CBD oil from BlueBird Botanicals, a Colorado company.

Trevino said that a few years ago, it didn’t seem as if CBD and legal weed would ever be something national restaurants could explore.

“If you were to ask me when I was at Burger King back in the mid-2000s, I would have been like, no way,” Trevino said. “But today, this is a huge trend with consumers.”

The “Rocky Mountain High: CheeseBurger Delight” will be sold at the Carl’s Jr. at 4050 Colorado Blvd. in Denver starting at 6 a.m. on Saturday, while supplies last.