3 Steps to Building Your Own Successful and Engaged Business Network
3 Steps to Building Your Own Successful and Engaged Business Network.
The right introductions can help catapult a new startup from a roughshod patchwork of ideas and execution in a garage or studio apartment to a fully operational, well-funded machine.
Here’s what I learned: Understand that you’re in the people business.
Gerber is the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invitation-only networking group for entrepreneurs that Entrepreneur magazine called “one of America’s most successful communities for business.
“I think many people try to build communities with a business plan mentality,” Gerber said, but “communities don’t work that way.
“You must create individual value for every startup founder that joined the network,” he said.
It’s about connecting [entrepreneurs and startups] with the people who can help them.
So, if you’re starting such a network, look for that problem shared by those you anticipate will join.
“When building a network, you must identify a real need shared by the community,” Franklin said.
“For example, if you intend to do an offline community or organization, invite a few of the people whom you wish to connect with one another for a dinner or some other type of low-key activity to test your thesis about the potential value of the community.
Sean Spicer May Have Just Tweeted His Password to His 214,000 Followers
Sean Spicer May Have Just Tweeted His Password to His 214,000 Followers.
It only took five days into 2017 for a major company to embarrass itself on social media.
On Jan. 5, Yahoo Finance accidentally posted a tweet containing a racial slur — and it took the company nearly an hour to take it down.
When discussing Donald Trump’s plans to expand the Navy and make it “bigger,” the company accidentally typed an “n” instead of a “b.” And just today, White House Press Secretary had a big oops moment when he tweeted what could be his password.
This is only the beginning, though.
As we found last year, when it comes to marketing and social media, many companies are not doing quite enough due diligence before launching campaigns or posting updates.
Check out the major social media fails of 2017 — so far.
Flush with funds, fintech startups look to explore new markets
NEW DELHI: While the past year saw more than a dozen fintech companies get millions of dollars in funding, this year will likely see these companies expand contours of their playing ground in terms of expansion to new markets by getting into new product lines and developing new technology.
The move cuts across both young startups in this space as well as older players.
Loan Tap for instance, which started operations only last year offering unsecured personal loans to salaried professionals, plans to get into two-wheeler and four-wheeler vehicle loans starting February this year. “The long-term plan is to become a full service NBFC,” said Satyam Kumar, CEO of LoanTap, which last year raised $3 million from HNIs.
The company, which disburses about 45 loans a month, claims to want to take its disbursal rate to 200 to 250 a month by the start of the next fiscal. “Machine learning can reduce the cost of disbursing credit over the long run for banks as we as can eliminate mistakes in the process,” said Puru Vashishtha, advisor at Deal4Loans, which raised $15 million from Franklin Templeton last year.
Now the startup is planning to expand beyond loans to other financial products like mutual funds and insurance. “We have been into standard products such as financing working capital requirements of SMEs but now we plan to get into complex products such as commercial vehicle loans and loans for funding healthcare equipment for small diagnostic centres,” said Manavjeet Singh, CEO at Rubique which does around Rs 600 crore worth of disbursements per month.
Stay updated on the go with Times of India News App.
Click here to download it for your device.
Who’s Managing Your Online Reviews?
Who’s Managing Your Online Reviews?.
Since the whole world can read those reviews, you need to keep a sharp eye on them and act quickly if you see something damaging.
90 percent of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business.
Consumers are likely to spend 31 percent more on a business with “excellent” reviews.
72 percent say that positive reviews make them trust a business more.
Most consumers will read at least four online reviews before they fully trust a business.
Managing your online reputation So, how do you manage your online reputation?
That plan requires keeping track of each and every online review and responding to 99 percent of them in some way.
Generally, your response should come within a day or two.
If your company is big enough, you might even want to hire a professional communications staff member to manage this increasingly important part of your business.
Pain-Free Performance Reviews? Possible. Here are 5 Tips for Getting There.
Pain-Free Performance Reviews?
According to our research, 10 percent of employees and 17 percent of managers surveyed believe that manager bias is the most significant problem with performance reviews.
That’s no surprise: Constant criticism is likely to make employees feel defeated.
Instead, a performance review that focuses on praise and contains a couple of well-defined criticisms will help you achieve a balance.
Any criticism should be offered in the spirit of improvement.
This way, the employee won’t feel threatened and will be more likely to improve their performance.
Nobody wants to be surprised in a performance review.
And fixing the system isn’t easy: We’re still learning about how to best approach performance reviews.
We know, for instance, that frequent, objective feedback is better for both managers and employees.
By focusing on praising employees for good work and coaching them in needed areas of improvement, you can transform the process into an opportunity to build stronger relationships with employees.
Skype Founder Backs FinTech Chatbot Cleo
Skype Founder Backs FinTech Chatbot Cleo.
Cleo, the London-based FinTech startup, got a recent boost in its angel investing round from Skype Founder Niklas Zennström.
Cleo has created an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot program that works with users to manage their finances.
Users seeking financial advice can currently access Cleo via multiple channels, including the chatbot’s mobile app, Facebook Messenger, as well as through AI-assistant integrations with Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home.
Barney Hussey-Yeo, Cleo’s cofounder and CEO, was quoted by TechCrunch as saying: “We’re trying to reduce the complexity and increase the transparency of financial services for our generation.
Cleo’s an AI financial assistant that makes managing your money incredibly simple.
Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, you can ask Cleo nearly anything about your finances.” Users can ask Cleo to keep track of bank data, including current balance and spending, to help them budget.
Additionally, users can set payment reminders and alerts with Cleo.
“There’s a clear arms race going on to become the financial interface for this generation,” Hussey-Yeo told TechCrunch.
“Taking the ownership and control away from banks will be amazing for the consumer but will also create oversized returns.
Top 8 Proven Strategies to Become a Periscope Celebrity
Thanks to smartphone apps like Periscope, you can become a “broadcaster” that can record live video streams and share them with your network.
Sometimes on streams, I give away something like a free coaching call—priceless to any entrepreneur—to one of maybe 7,000 viewers watching.
With Facebook and Periscope streaming, people can go back and watch the video later.
Deliver engaging content.
Know your audience.
Scheduling As mentioned earlier, one way to build an audience is to work on delivering a stream at the same time each day.
The people at Meerkat reached out to me because they loved that I delivered regular streams of content, as that made their network even more substantial—until Twitter took Periscope and everyone switched over to Periscope.
When you use Periscope, you’ll have the option to do a private broadcast to a specific group of followers, or share the broadcast on Twitter to anyone and everyone.
Periscope is a bit different being a live stream where you see the comments as you broadcast in real time.
Start slow What I mean by that is when you begin a broadcast, it takes 30 seconds, maybe a minute for people to start to come in and watch.
9 Sales and Marketing Tips for Startups
9 Sales and Marketing Tips for Startups.
Because small business owners have to be whatever their small business needs — all the time — it can be difficult to master all the nuances that go into sales or marketing.
Cost (you know how to price a product better than the competition) Quality (you’re better) A combination thereof (you offer the better value) But how you sell yourself is different than how you market yourself.
Listen to your customer.
Some businesses wait until their product is perfect before they do any marketing or awareness campaigning.
Sure, you may spend money to do some advertisement, and you may even see an uptick in sales around the same time you ran the ads.
If you’re going to commit time and money to a marketing campaign, make sure you can measure the results.
As mentioned above, it’s good to test multiple marketing channels and ideas to see what works best.
Good PR can do a lot for your credibility and brand awareness.
So, I continuously reward customers with competitive pricing, incredible customer support and automatic updates to enhance the software.
Entering a Small Business Funding Contest
A seemingly infinite number of local and business-school competitions offer small-change awards of $5,000 to $15,000; meanwhile, Rice University doles out six-figure prizes annually, as do accelerators MassChallenge and Techstars.
So which competitions should you enter?
And how can you walk away a winner even if you don’t place?
“Pitching to people in the industry is going to help you hone the pitch that much faster,” Medbery says.
“You’re then much better prepared when you talk to venture capital and angel investors.” Tim Faley, former managing director of the Zell Lurie Institute at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and current Sokoloff Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Thomas, agrees.
Medbery capitalized on both: She won $25,000 in 2010 from the Milken-Penn GSE Business Plan Competition, offered by the University of Pennsylvania, and nabbed two of the contest’s judges as close business advisors.
“Because these aren’t the kind of people where you could just send them an email.” Think beyond the money Contests aren’t just for newbies seeking seed funding, professional services and free advice.
After winning first place in the 2012 U.S.
In 2009, VanDen Heuvel and his business partner entered the Northeast Wisconsin Business Plan Contest but didn’t make the short list of potential winners.
Entrepreneurs working on solving global problems such as hunger, poverty, energy and education now have a smorgasbord of contests from which to choose, including the Hult Prize, which awards a $1 million prize annually.
3 Ways Building Your Personal Brand Boosts Your Career
3 Ways Building Your Personal Brand Boosts Your Career.
For instance, is personal branding about fame?
Instead, personal branding is about influence.
To make my case, I have a short list of ways your personal brand will positively impact your career.
People who have taken the time to build a personal brand become the face of a topic.
This immediately increases your opportunities, because now you are faced with new experiences that you may not have known about.
An issue that many people face working internally at a large company or corporation is that they are rarely given an opportunity to prove that they are capable of doing more.
Start with trying to get published in an online publication or speaking at an event about a certain topic.
When you have a personal brand, your value in the mind of the person making decisions on your salary increases, because they will know that other people are looking at you.
Tip: Remember that a salary discussion usually only happens once a year.
Why Arizona real estate is a burden and blessing for the tech sector
Why Arizona real estate is a burden and blessing for the tech sector.
Already a subscriber?
Sign in Subscribe to get the full story.
Digital $99.00 Digital $1.90/week one year subscription Subscribe Now Subscribe Now Digital $99.00 Digital $1.90/week one year subscription Subscribe Now Subscribe Now Print & Digital $99.00 Print & Digital $1.90/week one year subscription Subscribe Now Subscribe Now Print & Digital $99.00 Print & Digital $1.90/week one year subscription Subscribe Now Subscribe Now Weekly Edition Filled with “must read” stories, industry news and reporter insights, exclusive interviews with local business leaders, and expanded Top 25 Lists.
Arizona is often a blip when it comes to venture capital funding.
“We don’t have venture capital firms in Arizona, and the reason we don’t have venture capital firms in Arizona is that the angel investment network and the friends and family early-stage seed money is not conditioned to invest in software in Arizona.
It’s conditioned to invest in real estate in Arizona,” said Clate Mask, CEO of InfusionSoft, a Chandler-based tech company.
“And it’s decades and generations deep.” Mask said it is a difficult task for tech firms to convince real estate investors to take the risk on a startup.
Mat Sorenson, a real estate investor, investment adviser and attorney with Kyler Kohler Ostermiller & Sorensen LLP in Phoenix, said tech investors are different from real estate investors.
“These clients have a little different background than your average business investor,” Sorenson said of tech investors.
7 Ways to Better Networking
I listed roughly 20 different characteristics and asked respondents to pick the behaviors they’d most like to see in a great networker.
At the top of the list is being a good listener.
Our success in networking depends on how well we can listen and learn.
Helping people puts that care into action so others can see it at work.
Several respondents commented they didn’t want to network with people who are “in it for themselves.”
A willingness to collaborate is essential to building trust and establishing strong relationships.
You can offer the help, the thanks and the listening ear, but if you aren’t sincerely interested in another person, she or he will know it!
If you offer opportunities to someone who consistently fails to follow up, you’ll soon stop wasting your time with this person.
One respondent said it best: “It doesn’t matter how successful the person is, if I don’t trust them, I don’t work with them.” When you give a personal reference, you’re putting your reputation on the line.
Effective networking starts with approachability — and while this characteristic appears last on the list, everything flows from this manner of thought and action.
The 6 HealthTech Startups in NYC From Digital Health Accelerator Demo Day
The 6 HealthTech Startups in NYC From Digital Health Accelerator Demo Day.
The New York Digital Health Accelerator recently held its demo day for its fourth batch of HealthTech startups in NYC after an intense five-month program.
During the program, six growth-stage companies worked with a number of world class health organizations such as Aetna, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Northwell Health, and NYU Langone Medical Center to validate their product offerings that are focused on improving patient outcomes, reducing costs, and improving healthcare delivery.
The accelerator run by the New York eHealth Collaborative and the Partnership Fund for New York City counts startups such as Noom, Allazo Health, Wellth, Sense Health, and Clinigence as previous graduates.
Dreamit Health, the nation’s 2nd most active digital health investor and a top-10 ranked accelerator program is officially accepting applications for their Spring 2017 cohort through February 10th.
Apply here.
Top 21 Superfoods to Jumpstart Your 2017 Weight Loss
Add these to your meals; eat them as snacks; or replace those junk food habits with these great alternatives and you’ll be looking and feeling better in no time!
Black beans Why I like it: These guys are packed full of fiber, potassium, folate and Vitamin B6, to support heart and digestive health.
Now you can eat pasta and get your protein in all at once.
Try oat bran in the morning or a few hours before your workout, so you can utilize the carbohydrates throughout the day.
Try these as a great addition to a healthy smoothie!
In addition, there are a high number of antioxidants in wine which will help to aid against the presence of free radicals.
This is great for those with a big appetite or a sweet tooth!
The high amount of Vitamin A has even been shown to give you healthier-looking skin and hair, and the presence of beta-carotene has been known to lower the risk of cancer.
Its healthy fats aid in weight loss by helping your body to metabolize fat.
Incorporating these foods into your diet along with an easy and efficient workout plan, you’ll be well on your way to a successful weight loss journey in 2017!
BRIEF-ObsEva SA announces pricing of initial public offering
BRIEF-ObsEva SA announces pricing of initial public offering.
Jan 26 ObsEva SA * Announces pricing of initial public offering * Announced pricing of its initial public offering of 6.45 million common shares at initial public offering price of $15 per share Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
The entrepreneurship myth, and why you should not take it too seriously
Indeed, the ideas the Internet feeds us and that are passed from entrepreneur to entrepreneur have very little to do with what goes on in a startup.
Today, our culture is much more accepting of entrepreneurship and jobs in startups, and, as a result, there are far more startups these days.
And just as entrepreneurship and startup jobs have become more widely accepted, so has the idea of people freelancing and moonlighting.
The entrepreneurship taboo In today’s politically correct society, it’s not just casual entrepreneurship that’s acceptable.
In fact, according to this myth, the real taboo these days is to suggest that there are unacceptable startup acts.
One example of a current entrepreneurship taboo is external equity funding, which only started being regarded as a problem recently.
Early on, these guys started joining startups, and their successes reinforced their confidence, making them even more attractive to other startups.
After all, startup opportunities greatly depend on the society you live in.
The funding myth If the societal norm is to get funding in the first year of starting a venture, then a startup that hasn’t got funding in five years may be perceived unattractive or uptight.
The good entrepreneurial journey myth These days, a ‘good’ startup is supposed to be many things.
10 Money Habits That Will Help You Get Serious About Prosperity
Rather than create 2017 resolutions that may not stick, a good alternative is to develop positive habits this year.
So, make it your goal to form new habits that will take your financial life to the next level.
Be clear about your financial goals.
Develop a positive attitude toward money this year by overcoming any guilt you feel about money.
The best way to improve your financial life this year is to use your free time to earn an extra income.
Make saving a habit in 2017.
See money as a means, not an end.
See money as what it is and what it’s meant to be — a tool, a means to an end.
When you make a habit of seeking financial advice, you’ll be less likely to take financial risks that could hurt your lifestyle.
And that’s what good money habits are all about.
One Day, You’ll Be 50 or 60 or 70, and You’ll Either Have Achieved Your Dreams — or Not
One Day, You’ll Be 50 or 60 or 70, and You’ll Either Have Achieved Your Dreams — or Not.
Today, I am a successful doctor, entrepreneur, public speaker and author.
When the plan didn’t work, I renewed it at age 24.
“What if I failed?” I knew once I switched my major and made the announcement, there would be no turning back.
I worked hard for three years and graduated at the top of my class.
I wasn’t ready to give up on my dream, so I put myself through the yearlong application process again.
People change careers all the time — sometimes out of choice, and sometimes because they are forced out of their comfort zone.
I graduated from medical school at 39, opened a business at 50 and wrote a book at 63.
Your goal needs to be more important than your feelings.
I made it through medical school with a baby and no husband, because I wouldn’t give up.