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33% of Small Business Owners Lack the Motivation They Had When Business Was New

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Small Business Motivation Statistics

Do you still have the same passion for your business as when you first started? A new study from Vistaprint has revealed 33% of small business owners in the US say they don’t have the same motivation as in those early days of their entrepreneurial journey.

In the study, more than a third or 36% said they experience this lack of motivation several times a year. The reason, of course, will vary from owner to owner, but Vistaprint says they can get their mojo back and get excited about what led them on this path in the first place.

For small business owners, the high level of stress which goes along with running a company is one of the biggest reasons for losing their enthusiasm. In the study, stress is identified as one of the primary contributors for losing one’s motivation.

In an emailed press release, Vistaprint Customer Strategy and Insights Director Simon Braier compared starting a business to starting a relationship. Braier said,  “There is the honeymoon phase that carries you through for a while, but long-lasting relationships and businesses both require a lot of work and can come with a few rough patches.”

And as anyone who has been in a relationship knows, you have to be on top of things if you want it to succeed. Braier added, “By consistently reminding yourself why you started your business and seizing new opportunities you can avoid slumps in motivation and keep the spark alive.”

Small Business Motivation Statistics

The study comes from a survey which was carried out in February 2019 with the participation of 365 small businesses owners with 0 to 10 employees.

The survey was also administered in Canada with 371 respondents, and the UK with 294 respondents.

In the US, the top reasons for losing motivation was high levels of stress at number one, followed by lack of regular/stable salary, and lack of work-life balance.

The respondents in the UK gave a lack of regular/stable salary as their number one cause followed by stress, and lower than expected potential. In Canada the lack of regular/stable salary was on top, followed by stress and lack of work-life balance.

The fact all three countries identify high levels of stress as the top two reason highlights the role stress plays in one’s motivation to continue to do what they are doing.

As to how they were able to identify their lack or loss of motivation, respondents in the US gave procrastinating on necessary business projects as their primary reason. The other reasons were not posting on social media and not updating the website as often.

Running a small business means staying on top and any procrastination will eventually be responsible for the downfall of the company. With more small business now online with e-commerce, not updating a website or posting on social media is also a recipe for failure.

Respondents in Canada and the UK also said procrastination was their top reason for identifying their lack of motivation.

Keeping the Passion Burning

In the survey, Vistaprint also asked the participants in all three countries how they keep their passion alive over the years and if they could offer some tips for small business owners.

The first tip is a great one. They said, “Remind yourself why you started your business in the first place.” You might think you will never forget why you started your business, but as the survey points out high-level stress and other issues can make you forget.

Some of the other tips are: seek new challenges and set new goals, refresh your brand, create partnerships with other businesses/brands, hit the “reset” button by taking time away from your business and more.

Image: Depositphotos.com

This article, “33% of Small Business Owners Lack the Motivation They Had When Business Was New” was first published on Small Business Trends



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How to Drive Traffic to Your Amazon Business with Instagram

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Instagram for Amazon

Are you looking to give the presence of your Amazon store a jumpstart on social media? Are you tired of relying on Amazon search for new sales and want to establish a presence outside of the platform? Instagram is the perfect social media platform for eCommerce companies, giving them the ability to showcase their products, connect with their target audience, and develop a broader presence that keeps their brand top-of-mind with their ideal customers

Often, brands that sell on Amazon become too reliant on internal mechanisms to generate sales. Particularly brands that don’t operate a separate eCommerce property and rely on the platform for the majority of their sales. They too often focus on what they can do on Amazon, without putting enough thought into how they can grow their sales by promoting on outside channels and establishing brand credibility that differentiates their listings.

But identifying the right platform can be tough. There are so many social media platforms to choose from, and knowing where your demographic spends their time requires that you dig in and conduct some research. Even so — there are few platforms that perform as well as Instagram does for eCommerce companies and Amazon sellers. Instagram provides a visual medium, engaged audience, and a user-base with demographics that put them among the most frequent online shoppers.

But how do amazon sellers market their products on Instagram to build a real community without expensive ads? Vizns social media management is a new product that allows Amazon sellers the ability to target niche audience and then reach out to them using anti-fake follower technology. This allows brand to create a fanbase of real followers that convert to sales in an environment that is normally notorious for bot traffic. The best part is that their algorithms help boost you to the top of the explore page which repeatedly makes your posts viral. We will talk about e-commerce features shortly but first let’s talk about why Instagram is the best platform for these strategies.

Why Instagram for Amazon and Not Another Social Platform?

Instagram is often cited as the best platform for eCommerce companies to establish a presence. While Facebook and Twitter can be helpful and viable choices for eCommerce companies, Instagram typically stands heads and shoulders above the competition in terms of ROI produced.

First, it is important to understand that when you establish a presence on Instagram, you are securing your position on a rapidly growing platform.  After their acquisition by Facebook in 2012, the company has seen sustained growth each year and grew to more than 1 billion users worldwide in 2018.

Showing no signs of slowing down, we can expect to see more rapid growth from the platform in 2019. But the importance of Instagram as a network is about more than just the total number of users. Understanding who those users are and how they use the internet in their buying decisions helps to paint the picture of how useful Instagram can be to eCommerce companies.

Instagram’s Demographics Benefit eCommerce Companies

Instagram is used by more than 35% of all U.S. adults. Their users are very engaged, with more than 500 million (of the 1 billion total) using the platform on a daily basis. They are slightly more popular with women with 39% of online women using the platform vs. 30% of online men.

Their users skew young and engaged — very young. More than 70% of all 13-17 year olds are on the platform. But their young user-base doesn’t mean that they aren’t popular with the prime buying ages. A whopping 40% of U.S.-based 30-49 year olds use Instagram as well.

U.S. Instagram User Reach by Age

  • 72 percent of 13-17 year olds.
  • 64 percent of 18-29 year olds.
  • 40 percent of 30-49 year olds.
  • 21 percent of 50-64 year olds.
  • 10 percent of 65+ year olds.

The upside of Instagram having the audience it does it that it can help eCommerce companies to reach a younger audience without missing out on individuals within the prime buying age bracket of 30-49.

Instagram users also tend to be educated, with 42 percent of adults who graduated college using the platform. They earn more than the user bases of other platforms. 32% of adults that make between $50,000-$74,999 use Instagram, and 42 percent of adults who make over $75,000 use the platform. In other words — Instagram users have money to spend.

Instagram has Embraced eCommerce with New Features

Beyond the fact that Instagram’s demographics closely align with what any eCommerce business would like to have access to, the platform is also a great choice for Amazon sellers because they have gone out of their way to embrace eCommerce companies using their platform to generate sales. Instagram recognizes how helpful their platform can be for both buyers and sellers and have provided numerous features and tools to facilitate both crowds.

The most prominent example of their commitment to eCommerce on their platform comes from their shopping on Instagram features. While it isn’t a requirement that you use Shopping on Instagram if you would like to promote your products on there, it certainly could be the right idea for some companies.

Shopping on Instagram allows you to tap into the more than 90 million people that engage with shopping posts to learn more about products on Instagram every month. It provides eCommerce companies with a visual way to provide more information about products contained within their posts to their followings, rather than simply linking to their store on the post. Using this system, companies can invite users to learn more on their website, show the prices of products in the image content and direct users to their product pages, and reach an audience of active shoppers.

These features represent an extension of the company’s first dabble in supporting eCommerce brands on the platform. In 2016, the company first launched their “Shop Now” button, allowing users to be redirected to outside websites. The button showed up right underneath Instagram posts and was immediately a big hit with eCommerce brands.

Instagram also announced in September 2018 that they were launching a new “Shopping” section in the “Explore” category on their app. This provided a huge boost to their “Shopping on Instagram” program because more than 200 million accounts visit the “Explore” section of the app on a daily basis. That’s a lot of exposure for Amazon sellers!

Instagram has also made it possible to tag products in Instagram Stories as well. Instagram Stories now features more than 400 million daily users — more than double that of Snapchat.

These features all taken together make one thing clear — Instagram understands the power that their platform has for driving eCommerce sales and appears to be wholly committed to furthering that bond in the coming years.

Now that we know how important Amazon is to eCommerce companies and Amazon sellers, now we’ll dive into why. What benefits does the platform bring to Amazon sellers to make it rise into such a powerful tool in the last ten years?

Benefits of Instagram to Amazon Sellers

Instagram can provide a number of benefits to Amazon sellers. 60 percent of users learn about new products through Instagram. More than 200 million users visit a business profile on the platform at least once per day. By creating a reliable presence on the platform, you position your products to be the one that Instagram users are learning about.

Some of the benefits that Amazon sellers will find in maintaining and growing a presence on Instagram include:

A Visual Platform

The fact that Instagram is a visual-first platform makes it ideal for Amazon sellers. You want to make sure that you are getting your products in front of interested parties, and nothing can do that better than a picture. Shoppers want to see what they are buying. They want to see the product image, and if you can, images that show how the product works to the benefit of your buyers, either in its usefulness or in the lifestyle that it helps to create.

Get Your Products In Front of Your Intended Audience

Instagram has become a giant in the social networking space. With more than one billion users, you can rest assured that a healthy portion of your audience uses the platform. Additionally, Instagram allows for unfettered access to audiences. Facebook compels companies to pay for their advertising services. They restrict the reach of organic business pages, pushing companies to pay for ads.

Instagram, on the other hand, doesn’t have those sorts of limitations in place. All of your followers will be able to fully access all of your posts. While Instagram does offer advertisement placements it is best to build an organic audience simultaneously.

Promote a Trusted Name

One benefit that Amazon sellers are keenly aware of is the fact that promoting products that are sold on Amazon are generally much easier than trying to promote products on your own website. Amazon is a name that packs a lot of built-in trust with any audience. The trust is inherent. That makes for fewer objections and more conversions on Instagram and other social traffic sources.

Stay Top-of-Mind

For Amazon sellers, it’s so important to stay top-of-mind with your audience. Amazon is a big site and users can quickly lose interest in your product, stumble across a competitor, or forgot to come back and buy after initially discovering your item. Instagram provides you with the ability to consistently drip-feed information about and images of your products to your audience.

Your ability to engage in real-world conversations and develop connections with your ideal customers and industry influencers can put you in a position to reach a wide cross-section of your audience, driving targeted traffic to your Amazon product pages regularly.

Instagram for Amazon Sellers Best Practices

Even though Instagram is often the right choice of social platform for Amazon sellers, it can still be a tough nut to crack. There are still best practices that must be followed to ensure that you are continually growing your presence and getting your posts in front of your intended audience.

As you start the journey of establishing your brand on Amazon and promoting your Amazon products, keep these best practices in mind:

Consistency is Key

Consistency matters when it comes to Instagram. You need to find the happy medium between posting often enough to stay on the radar of your intended audience without letting the quality of your posts dip. Brands see engagement rates that are 10x on Instagram than they are on Facebook. Instagram images in particular receive an average of 23 percent more engagement than Facebook images. But brands work hard to drive that engagement, with the average brand posting an average of 27+ times per month. Aim to post consistently but not sacrifice quality in the process.

Create Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are perhaps the hottest feature on Instagram. With more than 400 million daily active Instagram Stories users, the video-centric feature produces high levels of engagement and helps you to stand out from the competition because Instagram Stories show up in a different section of the app than typical postings. Creating regular Instagram stories can be a great way to stay top-of-mind with your customers and grow awareness over time.

Additionally, Instagram stories help to create more reach for your standard posts as well. The more that a user interacts with your Instagram Stories, the more likely your posts are to show up on their feed.

Quality over Quantity

While it is important to ensure that you are posting enough to keep your audience engaged and aware of your presence, you do not want to sacrifice the quality of your posts in the process. Ultimately, the amount that your audience engages with your content affects how often your posts will show up in their feed. Accounts that generate higher levels of engagement have their posts show up more often than accounts that don’t.

Here are a few facts about the Instagram algorithm that all Amazon sellers need to know:

  • The Instagram algorithm looks at total engagement when deciding what content will be displayed on your follower’s feeds. This means the total number of likes, comments, views, and profile click-throughs all have an effect on your overall score.
  • Instagram doesn’t just look at overall engagement, they also look at how quickly your audience engaged with the posts as well. Posts that get a lot of comments and likes shortly after posting signal that you’ve posted quality content and Instagram places more priority on displaying it.
  • The length that a user views your post also plays a role. This is why writing a good caption is so important. You want to give your audience every reason to continue interacting with the content that you share for as long as you possibly can.

Quality is more important than quantity when it comes to maximizing the reach of each post that you make.

Share User-Generated Content

Don’t just share product images with your audience! When your users share a picture of themselves with your product, reach out to them and ask if you can post it on your official page. You can even go a step farther and find ways to encourage your users to share user-generated content through contests or similar strategies.

Here’s an example from Wayfair, who invited their users to share pictures with their products only to find out that they’re shelving unit doubled as a pretty effective cat tree:

Optimize Your Profile

As an Amazon seller on Instagram, your goal is to increase awareness for your brand and direct Instagram users toward your Amazon product pages. If you don’t explain who you are and where they can find your products, you won’t be doing your brand much good. Make sure that you provide at least a link to your brand page, along with a short description of your company.

Engage Regularly with Followers

Conversations are a two-way street. One of the biggest mistakes that eCommerce brands continually make is treating their Instagram presence like it were a bullhorn. They constantly post new product images and updates but fail to consistently engage with their audience. The thing that they don’t understand is that engagement is the whole point of establishing a presence on Instagram or any social media property.

Talk to your fans. Jump into conversations. Answer questions that they might have. While it’s alright to automate a portion of your overall presence on a platform, you have to make sure that you are genuinely engaging and developing connections with your customers, or else you are diminishing the returns you receive for your efforts.

Seek Out Cross-Promotion Opportunities

Being mentioned by other accounts can expose your brand to new audiences. Working out deals with similar brands and Amazon sellers to cross-promote each other’s products will not only help you to secure more sales, but it will also help you to grow your following as well. This business development aspect of growing your social presence does require some effort and acuity to navigate but can pay off for brands of any size.

Consider Influencer Marketing

Sometimes eCommerce brands and Amazon sellers don’t have the time and patience to build an organic following on Instagram — but they do have the budget. Paying for mentions, posts, or stories from an influencer with an audience that closely matches your own can help to generate immediate sales and jumpstart awareness within your industry. Influencer marketing can be expensive, with influencers charging brands between $75 and $3,000 per post — but they do provide you with a shortcut to generating sales and awareness.

A Can’t-Miss Opportunity

For Amazon sellers, Instagram is an opportunity that you can’t let pass you by. It’s best to begin establishing a reliable presence on the platform now, while it is still experiencing rapid growth. Through consistent, high-quality updates, you’ll grow awareness within your industry, sell more products on Amazon, and develop close-knit connections with your customers and prospects.

Image: Depositphotos.com

This article, “How to Drive Traffic to Your Amazon Business with Instagram” was first published on Small Business Trends



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In the News, 90% of Retail Businesses Fail to Account for Lost Sales

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The budgeting you did at the end of last year for 2019 was really important work.

We, of course, assume you did some budgeting at some point before the start of this year. As we said, it’s really important work.

But new data that we got in this week suggests you may want to go back and look at your figures. Make sure you’re accounting for everything.

In one report from Neogrid, we learn that 90% of retail businesses are not accounting for lost sales when doing sales forecasts. If you’re not tracking your lost sales, you probably should. These could be sales lost online in abandoned carts or people who walked out the door without making a purchase.

You need to determine how lost sales apply to your business but then track them. When you’re doing sales projections for the upcoming year or any time period, consider those lost sales.

Another survey released this week shows how IT professionals say they’re limited in their abilities by a company’s budget. Namely, they’re talking about cyber security. About half the IT pros surveyed by BAE Systems Applied Intelligence say a company’s IT and cyber security budget limits the protections they can offer.

Check out what other stories were making headlines this week in our news and information roundup below:

Employment

AI Among Latest Trends in Employee Expense Reimbursements

Small Businesses implementing AI to make employee reimbursement decisions achieve 100 percent visibility, contrasting with 2-10 percent for businesses that don’t have this ability. Those are just two of the findings from AppZen’s,  “The State of AI in Business Spend” report.

Franchise

Can Dunkin Donuts Franchises Create Their Own Middle Class Economy?

The Daily Caller News Foundation Editor-in-Chief Chris Bedford appeared on “Making Money with Charles Payne” on Fox Business Thursday to discuss how Dunkin’ Donuts’s business model was more beneficial to business owners and the middle class. “If you look at the Dunkin’ Donuts model, that’s a franchise, Bedford said.

Social Media

Facebook’s Messenger, Instagram and Whatsapp Integration Isn’t Complicated, 8 Things to Know

If you haven’t heard, Facebook announced that it’s working to integrate three major chat platforms — Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp — in order to allow cross-communication for users. This is a huge development. Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, making this power move possible.

Startup

How to Deal with Seasonal Affective Disorder in Your Small Business

Do you feel happier in spring and summer times? For most people the answer is probably a definite yes. Asking that question in the middle of winter might be a bit harsh, but there is a good reason for it. According to a new infographic created by NowSourcing, and presented by BestHealthDegrees.

Only 1 in 10 Federal Employees Turn to Side Business During Government Shutdown

The last government shutdown showed how vulnerable we all can be when the paychecks we rely on to survive suddenly stop. For the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who didn’t have a paycheck during the shutdown, it meant finding an alternative source of income until it opened.

Technology Trends

39% of Businesses Use Texting to Talk to Customers – How Can Yours?

A new study from Zipwhip underlines the importance texts have on making your small business a success.  In fact, their 2019 State of Texting Report  says that 39% of businesses use some kind of texting to communicate with clients.

One Million New People Come Online Daily, Is Your Business Reaping the Benefits?

Did you know a staggering one million new people are online every day? Hootsuite and We Are Social’s Digital Trends 2019 Report uncovered this staggering statistic in analyses of digital trends and use of social media across 230 different countries and territories.

Image: DepositPhotos.com

This article, “In the News, 90% of Retail Businesses Fail to Account for Lost Sales” was first published on Small Business Trends



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His Dog Days Over, Wilfred Star Gets Into The Pre-Roll Business

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Aussie comedian, Jason Gann, searched extensively the for the perfect outdoor flower. Now he wants to share it with you.


6 min read

Opinions expressed by Green Entrepreneur contributors are their own.


Jason Gann is either the least likely — or perhaps most likely — candidate to start a cannabis company.  

As the creator and titular character of the comedy Wilfred, which won awards in his native Australia before being reimagined for a healthy run on American TV, Gann has spent a good part of his adult life walking around in a dog suit. On the other hand, as the bong-ripping lead of a quintessential “stoner comedy,” it was almost preordained that he make his mark in the industry.  

Related: 23 Celebrities in the Cannabiz

In an exclusive interview with Green Entrepreneur, Gann talks about why he got into the business, what weed means to him, and the origin story of that canine costume. 

Wilfred was always considered a stoner comedy. In fact, your character smoked quite a bit on the show. So, Wilfred pre-rolls seems like a natural next step. When did you come up with the idea for the business, and what made you think you could succeed?

Wilfred was a stoner comedy because I was a stoner when I did the comedy. I never set out to do a stoner comedy. I wasn’t even aware that it was a genre. It was just that I was high when (co-creator) Adam Zwar told me about getting cock-blocked by his date’s dog. It’s a true story: He was on a date, they went back to her house, and there was a dog on the couch looking at him like, “What do you think you’re doing?” I thought it was really funny, and we figured it had to be a short film or something. I wasn’t trying to wave a banner for cannabis, though I’ve been using it and singing its praises for many years. But now, to live in a place where you have legal marijuana [California], I couldn’t even imagine that. And then to be able to enter the industry, it feels like I’ve gotta do it. I mean, who gets famous putting on a dog suit? But doing the pre-rolls makes perfect sense. And win, lose or draw, I’ve already won, just by getting to do it.

Image credit: Eric Weinberg

What differentiates Wilfred pre-rolls from whatever specials any local dispensary is offering this week?

For starters, it’s a sun-grown, outdoor flower, and it’s grown in the richest soil in Yolo County, California. When you think about the origins of pot growing, they had to go into the mountains to avoid being seen. But now we’re in the richest farming regions, and they’re fourth-generation vegetable farmers. I mean, there are cannabis-based religions that think plants have souls and they’re our partners, and I definitely believe that there’s such a thing as happy plants — so having an outdoor flower is very important to me. And I searched extensively to find the right flower.  I’ve been in analytics, in budgets, in sales… because I love it.

Why did you focus on pre-rolls?

You know, I didn’t really plan on doing pre-rolls. I was looking at vapes, edibles, pet CBD products.  But I did a lot of research — I’m a big fan of Lowell Smokes, they’ve got a great history, great packaging — and I ended up on pre-rolls, which in California are only 6% of the overall market.

When did you first start smoking weed?

When I was about 17, and I just loved it. I was in a rock band in Brisbane in the early ’90s, and I’d go to these musical festivals, and everybody was smoking, and making out, and you’d never see fights. There was such a great vibe everywhere. I’m a highly-functioning stoner, but too much of anything can be a problem. That’s why I think the introduction of CBD is fantastic, where you can enjoy the medicinal value without the psychoactive experience.

Related: This Week in Weed: High-End Hemp!

Has cannabis remained a part of your creative process?

I, 100 percent, don’t believe my creativity comes from weed, because there have been times when I’ve thought my writing is better when I’m not high. But my writing is definitely different when I’m high. I’d just say my relationship to creative writing and my relationship to cannabis are two different things. If I’ve got a deadline, I can’t go off on tangents, I’ve gotta stay fairly structured. But my relationship with cannabis is spiritual; I step outside of myself, it’s still me but it’s like another me, and sometimes when I haven’t smoked in a while, I feel the need to reconnect with myself and contemplate life in a different way. 

Image credit: FX Networks

​​​​​​Do you see more celebrity cannabis products coming out, like with all the boutique tequila brands?

We won’t really know until it becomes federally legal.  hen it’s gonna be very difficult to enter this business, as it is for tequila. If I didn’t believe I had a brand here, I’d get out.  Licenses are too expensive, you have to jump through too many hoops. Unless you’re a vertically integrated company, where you’re doing it all yourself, the margins just aren’t there. And anyway, Wilfred is the celebrity, not Jason Gann.

What would you say has been the most challenging part of being a cannabis entrepreneur?

Turning words into actions. To turn an idea into something physical, that’s a great feeling.

Any thoughts about expanding into other cannabis products?

I just want to offer the best pre-rolls, and at a more affordable price than they are now. Wilfred aired in 35 countries, so I could see expanding internationally, but I’d rather create an international cannabis brand than try to do, say, edibles or drinks; I’d have to spend another year studying just those. I want to do one thing well.

Related: 9 Business Ideas for People Looking to Cash in on the Marijuana Boom

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How to Prime Your Home-Based Office Space for Productivity

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Working from home can be both a blessing and a curse. This is especially the case when it comes to optimizing productivity in your home-based office.

Of course, there is a certain sense of freedom that comes when you escape from your old corporate cubicle. For a while, that sense of freedom can boost your creative mojo. However, familiar distractions can soon interfere with your intention to buckle down to uninterrupted hard work.

Therefore, whether you’re a freelance SEO marketer or an interior design blogger, setting up your home-based office for success is one of the most crucial pieces of putting together a dynamic workspace. With that in mind, the following methods of priming your home-based office will transform your productivity level in a few easy steps.

RELATED ARTICLE: HOW TO CREATE A BLOG: A SIMPLE GUIDE FOR BEGINNING BLOGGERS

Go Minimalist

Going minimalist takes a great deal of decluttering. In order to do that, you’ll need to assess what you need and what you don’t to an extreme. If you’re the distractible type, for example, ridding your workspace of temptation in its many forms is the first step to going minimalist.

Any tech you don’t need should be the first to go. For example, there’s probably no need for a 65-inch TV or an iPad if you don’t use either for work. Additionally, keep decorations to a minimum. For those who tend to let their minds wander, analyzing photos or intricate pieces of art will only result in wasting time. Therefore, pick a only couple of pictures or a couple of pieces of art on Etsy for aesthetic effect.

Declutter Your Desk

As we mentioned earlier, decluttering is part of the minimalist movement. What’s more, your desk is the easiest place to run wild. This is especially true given the amount of paperwork, bookkeeping, and note-taking you need to complete for an effective day’s work.

However, swimming in an abyss of pens and papers gives more room for distraction and less room for focus. Therefore, equip your office space with a multi-drawer storage stack to give a home to those loose materials. Also, invest in a wall calendar to keep track of important timelines. Use sticky notes for reminders. The more available space, the better. Do yourself a favor and clean that desk up!

Pick a Productive Space

Select a room in your house that has plenty of natural light, an operable window, and enough space to foster your big ideas. That’s because tiny, cramped, closet-sized offices can feel claustrophobic after a few hours. Therefore, be sure to pick a room that you can stand to be in for long eight-hour days.

Additionally, if you’re running a business out of your home and expect to have clients over from time to time, be sure the space is one you are proud to show.

Add a Splash of Greenery

Plants will brighten the space. What’s more, they will also improve the air quality in your office.

So consider buying a spider plant or a dracaena plant. Both are easy to care for and look gorgeous in any space. However, be wary of plants that may attract nasty insects. This can compromise the integrity and cleanliness of your office space. Though Housecall Pro’s pest control software makes finding a solution simple, you’re better off avoiding plants that attract pests in the first place.

home-based office 2

Light up Your Space with Warmer Tones

Use warm colors rather than cooler ones. This could put your brain in the mood for learning and creating.

It’s interesting to note that studies over the years have shown that extended exposure to fluorescent lights has a number of negative effects on stress and anxiety levels. So instead of fluorescent lighting, use lights with yellow tones. This can make your space feel warmer and more conducive to work production. You are, after all, looking to make your home-based office feel productive. You might as well invest in things that make it sustainable, too.

Use a Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant could be the hands-free help you need for small tasks that would otherwise distract you. The Sonos One and Google Home Hub are both excellent options for voice-recognition commanding. If you need a reminder or simply want to know what traffic is like to the local print shop, your virtual assistant can let you know in seconds. All you have to do is ask! What’s more, their compact and sleek style fit into a minimalist setup without any extra clunk or distraction.

Apply These Tips to Make Your Home-Based Office More Productive

Having a career based out of your home is becoming more common. Further, telecommuting seems to be the next big move in the job world.

However, instead of falling into the trap of being too comfortable to work effectively from home, change up the pace of your workspace. Boost your productivity in your home-based office with these metamorphic changes.

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How Smart Is It to Play Your Money in Online Casinos?

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Photo by Carl Raw on Unsplash

Experts warn that because of its easy availability, online gambling can be even more addictive than gambling in brick-and-mortar casinos.

However, if you do decide to indulge in online gambling, perhaps to take a quick break from the never-ending stress of running your business, remember that playing games in online casinos should be fun. And they are even more fun if you can improve your chances of winning. 

There are ways to make sure you don’t lose your bankroll within a few minutes of starting to play. Moreover, many online games players have become wise to these tips.

So if you want to take a break from the pressure cooker of running your business by playing games in online casinos, do so with caution, applying the wisdom you’ll find in this post.

Take Advantage of Incentives in Online Casinos

Most online casinos offer incentives both to new players and their existing customer base. This is one big advantage online platforms have over physical casinos. That’s because there is no way the latter are going to hand you some cash to play with as you walk in. On the other hand, online casinos offer free games. What’s more, they sometimes even offer a cash incentive. This is intended to encourage you to either join them or stay loyal to their site.

RELATED ARTICLE: HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT PAYMENT METHOD FOR YOUR BUSINESS

There is such a huge variety of online casino games to choose from. Therefore, this very competitive market offers some great opportunities to enjoy some fun without spending a lot of your own dollars. Just be certain to check the rules attached to any bonuses. That’s because sometimes you will need to play a certain amount before you can withdraw your winnings. This is called a “playthrough” requirement. It is in place to keep players and operators safe from abuse.

Blackjack – Thanks to Taxrebate.org.uk on Flickr for the image

Bet a Bit at a Time

If you have a budget of $50, don’t bet $10 at a time. You are likely to run out of money if you do that. In order to be more likely to win some and have fun for longer, you would be better off with making wagers of $1 a time.

You could have a hand in blackjack, for example, that you are certain will win. However, you can never be sure what the dealer will have. Therefore, do not bet all your pot in one go. Any win is better than no win. And if your hand is as good as you think, you will be able to have more games with this strategy.

Learn
the Rules

With such a large choice of games, you may be tempted to play something new. Before you do, however, learn the rules of whatever it is you have chosen to play for the first time.

Just as an example, craps is a really fun game. However, if you have never played it before you might not understand what is happening. This could mean you bet the wrong amounts at the wrong time. That could cost you money. If you want to play craps, learn the rules first. Also, take advantage of some of the free games that will allow you to practice.

Craps – With thanks to Mark Hesseltine on Flickr for the image

Choose Games with
a Lower House
Advantage

Knowing the house advantage on your choice of game will let you know what the odds are of winning. The lower the house advantage the greater your chances are. So pick games with a low house advantage. This can make your betting pot stretch further.

Generally, blackjack is one of the best, followed by craps. But of course this can change from casino to casino. The good thing is that with none of the overheads that physical casinos have to stand, online casinos usually offer you a better chance of being a winner.

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Inspiring Quotes to Help You Get Through Your Work Day

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Re-energize your day or week with these inspiring quotes from some of the world’s greatest thinkers.


5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.


LinkedIn Influencer, Bernard Marr, published this post originally on LinkedIn. 

If you find yourself in a little mid-week or mid-day slump, take a few moments to re-energize yourself with these inspiring quotes from some of the world’s greatest thinkers. Sometimes, all it takes is a little reminder to boost your spirits and refocus your day.

“Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.”

— Carlos Castaneda

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.”

— Helen Keller

Inspiring Quotes to Help You Get Through Your Work Day

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.”

— Dr. Seuss

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

— Steve Jobs

“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from.”

— Seth Godin

“The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.”

— Lily Tomlin

“A man should never neglect his family for business.”

— Walt Disney

Inspiring Quotes to Help You Get Through Your Work Day

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”

— H. Jackson Brown Jr.

“Someone once told me that ‘time’ is a predator that stalks us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment because it will never come again.”

— Jean-Luc Picard

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

— Charles Darwin

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

— Thomas Edison

“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”

— Wayne Gretzky

“Do or do not. There is no try.”

— Yoda

Related: Big Data For Small Business – Why It Matters! (LinkedIn)

“Those who say it can not be done, should not interrupt those doing it.”

— Chinese Proverb

Inspiring Quotes to Help You Get Through Your Work Day

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. Thoughts are things! And powerful things at that, when mixed with definiteness of purpose, and burning desire, can be translated into riches.”

— Napoleon Hill

“You are not your resume, you are your work.”

— Seth Godin

“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

— Will Rogers

“Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.”

— Babe Ruth

“If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.”

— Ray Kroc

“When writing the story of your life, don’t let anyone else hold the pen.”

— Harley Davidson

Inspiring Quotes to Help You Get Through Your Work Day

“A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn’t feel like it.”

— Alistair Cook

Related: 10 Signs You Have (Or Are) A Great Boss (LinkedIn)

“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.”

— Jim Rohn

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”

— Thomas Jefferson

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

— Michael Jordan

“People inspire you or they drain you — pick them wisely.”

— Hans F. Hansen

Inspiring Quotes to Help You Get Through Your Work Day

“The Pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.”

— John Maxwell

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right!”

— Henry Ford

“When you change your thoughts, you change your world.”

— Norman Vincent Peale

“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.”

— Denis Waitley

I hope you find these quotes as inspiring as I find them. Let me know your thoughts and also please share your favorite inspirational quote in the comments below.

I have also put together this slide deck for you to share and download:

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‘If You Created it, You Should Be the Best at Everything in Your Company,’ Says the Co-Founder of Lenny & Larry’s Complete Cookies

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Barry Turner, who along with his co-founder created the protein category, has evolved from hustler to creative ‘mad scientist.’


7 min read


Not many entrepreneurs can boast of not only staying with their company for 25 years, but creating an entire product category. Barry Turner has done both.

Turner is the co-founder of Lenny & Larry’s, which introduced the protein-packed cookie in 1993, years before eating protein-packed anything was mainstream. He and his co-founder, Benny Graham (they thought their names with L’s would be funnier on the label), hustled to convince stores to carry their nutritional treats for years, until they sold the brand in 2001. But Turner never left his brand fully behind, buying half of it back in 2007. He and his new partner, Don Crouch, then sold majority control of the brand to investors in 2017 “to reward ourselves for a job well done,” said Turner, who remains at the company as a shareholder and to focus on new products, PR and marketing.

Image credit: Lenny & Larry’s

Lenny & Larry’s continues to innovate; its latest product is Complete Crunchy Cookies — protein-packed vegan treats that come in chocolate chip, double chocolate and cinnamon sugar flavors. Their impressive retail door count is approximately 50,000 to 75,000 doors, per latest company figures.

Related: This Protein Drink Entrepreneur Was Able to Raise $8 Million — After Moving Across the Country

Entrepreneur spoke with Turner about his more than two decades in business, what he thinks of the current startup landscape and the strategy that almost never works.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

An entrepreneurial run with a company for 25 years is by any stretch an incredible accomplishment. How do you find ways to keep yourself excited and challenge yourself with this brand?

It’s a great question. The genesis of the brand was about fun. You can tell by the logo. I still attack this every day as if I’m just having fun and not working. It’s fun because of the category that we created, being protein fortified, fiber fortified baked nutrition. It’s easy just to be more of a mad scientist now and try to think of different ways to innovate.

You mentioned that Lenny & Larry’s created the category of protein packaged foods 25 years ago, and obviously now that’s a full-blown part of the food landscape. How does the company compete nowadays with all these upstarts?

It’s easy for us now because we did create the category, so we’re looked at as the leader. It’s OK that the upstarts come, but if they’re not different, if they’re only saying, “Hey, we’re better than Lenny & Larry’s because of this,” they don’t stay on shelves that long. I always live by this credo: you don’t make yourself look good by trying to make others look bad. Companies don’t last by employing that marketing strategy. Negativity is not a way to launch a brand or a product.

Are there any innovations that you see other brands doing that you say, OK that’s a great idea, here’s how we can absorb it into Lenny & Larry’s?

There’s some great innovation going on. I don’t know that the majority of it fits with how I see this brand, but I don’t feel like we’ve missed anything. The biggest reason we haven’t innovated even more is because when we got our hockey stick growth around 2014-15, our biggest issue was supply and demand. Everyone wanted our product and we could only sell about 70 percent of our demand. That really hurt us. You can’t be innovative when you’re just trying to keep up with demand.

How would you approach today’s market as a startup?

The main thing is just trying to be different. Don’t be a me-too product because they don’t last. Be innovative. I will admit it is harder because there is so much competition out there. You also have the advantage of what you have at your fingertips: access to capital if you need, all these amazing minds and groups out there and research. When we started in 1993, there was no internet or cell phones, we were doing it the old fashioned way of actually knocking on doors and talking to people.

Related: This High-Ranking Executive Quit Her Job to Reinvent Animal Crackers

Do you no longer see the approach of going into each store, trying to sell very slowly and then building up the brand as an effective strategy?

It is in the beginning, because you have to own your backyard. You can’t have national distribution until you actually have regional distribution. Retailers want you to prove yourself. So knocking on doors is a great way to get started, but you have to sprint these days because there will be people coming to knock you off and copy your success — even if it’s local success — if they’ve got the resources to take it to a whole different level.

So during your long career in entrepreneurship, have there been any challenges that vexed you that you’re still looking to solve today?

The biggest challenge was to educate the consumer on protein and the importance of protein. Now because it’s so mainstream people are putting protein in everything, even in water. I mean my gosh, it’s just crazy to think about that. But as a former bodybuilder and an athlete, we knew the importance of protein. The genesis of our brand was to educate people on protein — we didn’t know it would take two decades to do it. Fast forward to today, I don’t think we really have challenges today that we can’t meet, outside of the supply and demand issue in 2017.

What has been the most effective marketing tactic that you’ve employed?

For Lenny & Larry’s it was just organic or guerilla marketing. Our strategy back then was to get on shelf, but be on sale for a long time. What draws people to our product if they haven’t ever tried it is that the product is on sale. Plus we have the greatest logo in the history of logos so it made people want to try it.

What’s your goal for the business for the next three years?

To continue to build what I call a legacy brand. I always dreamed when I started this that it will be sitting between Oreo and Chips Ahoy, and that’s going to be taking place this year at a major retailer. We’re just going to be innovative and continue to be a legacy brand that people look to as a leader in a category that we created. We don’t have a dollar figure on where we want to hit sales wise. We want to continue to grow every year but we don’t have a clock ticking for us now because we have been successful over the past two decades.

Related: This Popular Cookie Company Was Started on a Whim by a Couple Out of Their Home

How does that affect your thinking now that you’re not in hustle mode?

What’s happened now that we have a good team in place, we have doubled our staff. When we did take on an equity partner we had less than 20 people and we were approaching $100 million in sales. We also had no investors and we had no debt. But what you had was entrepreneurial founders, my partner and I were actually the best salespeople. We did everything. We were very hands on. And a lot of times now brands say they’re going to hire people to do sales, etc.

If you can’t do it, no one can. If you created it, you should be the best at everything in your company. When you have a certain level of success, that’s when your team can start growing and you can start adding more proper pieces to it. We were in hustle mode for 20-plus years doing this. My hustle now is to try to come up with more and more products for our lineup and continue what we’ve built all those years ago.

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