Contributed by Ofer Tirosh, founder and CEO of Tomedes, As entrepreneurs, we tend to be focused on our products, services and regional growth. We don’t often pay enough attention to the business potential of secondary, foreign markets. But the fact is that foreign markets may end up being a substantial or even majority source of growth and revenue. An essential part of foreign growth is foreign languages. And the relative cost of translating and localizing content is far less than the cost of creating original content. Therefore it is logical, and imperative, that entrepreneurs think early, and often, about globalizing their products and services. Translate and adapt your valuable content into additional languages and set up multilingual marketing, sales and support infrastructure. Best Practices for Going Global Cost-EffectivelyAs the founder of a translation company back in 2007, I am an entrepreneur. I freely admit that I underestimated the need for translation and its offshoot, localization, early on. My initial focus was on the low-hanging fruit of translating from Hebrew to English for the many startups in Israel. These organizations weren’t thinking of Spanish or French, let alone Arabic, Hindi and Chinese. They just wanted business translation of their marketing and technical documentation into the lingua franca of the business world. Since that time, however, my company and I have seen an explosion of interest in translation and localization services. Globalization, Internationalization, Localization and Translation: Getting the Terms StraightThis initiative is part of a megatrend called globalization. Localization and globalization. You globalize by creating multiple local versions of your website, your software, your social media, your marketing and technical materials. A global website or app is one that lets visitors get your content in the language, formatting and standards to which they are most comfortable. It does not impose on them. Internationalization is another term bandied about. It’s really an intermediate process of preparing software and websites to be localized, mostly by inserting variables in all places where numbers and words need to be adapted according to locale and language. The terms translation and localization are sometimes used interchangeably, and it’s important to know the difference. Translation is a subset of localization. Localization includes not just converting the language but also number and date formats, measurement and currency units. It also takes into account cultural preferences and cultural no-nos. Finding Help in Translation and Localization Services: Companies, Freelancers or Machines?A localization company takes care of all these aspects of your localization project, usually in the context of website localization services and software localization services. Translation services are an important part of the package—but just one part of the whole. Localizing your website is probably your priority. Naturally, if you are a company in France, you will want to translate French to English first. But startups should also think in the other direction. For example, there are 275 million French speakers, so a French translation could reach a population almost equal in size to the United States. How do you go about getting a language translator? A webpage translator? It’s not rocket science to translate a web page. Website translators are offered as software packages as well, some of them free resources. These days, there are several ways to get your website and software globalized. If you just translate a few languages, you can also find resources in freelance marketplaces like Upwork, Freelancer.com or Fiverr. The advantage with these is cost: You will be able to pick your translator or solicit bids for your project, then select from the bidders. You can compare ratings, rates and reviews, as well as view portfolios and resumes. Typically, freelance translators cost from one-half to one-third of translation companies. Both typically charge by the number of words in the source document. Freelance translators in “cheap” regions like India or southeast Asia can be had for cents per word, whereas global agencies will start at US$0.10 or even US$0.20 and up for certain language pairs. However, you’ll get what you pay for. Working with freelancers also requires significant time in management. Working with a translation or localization company is less demanding: Most will provide a free quote upfront along with a timetable. These companies also offer a single point of contact for your projects, even if they span multiple languages. But you will pay a premium for that convenience. The One-Stop-Shop Advantage of Working with a Localization CompanyA translation company may suffice just for a website with a few languages and a few locations. If you are just going after a handful of target markets, then you could make do with translation, using templates or plug-ins (especially if you have a WordPress site) to manage language switches and format changes. If you need more than a handful of languages and you plan to build out your website, go with a company that provides full localization services. This usually entails adding a substantial technical component to the translation process. Your localization strategy should include incorporating localization and/or translation management software. This is something that your localization agency can do, but if your own company develops software, then your development team may be able to go it alone. Welcome to the Machine! Is Free Online Translation Software a Viable Option?Among entrepreneurs comfortable with technology and especially software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, there’s a temptation to rely on translation algorithms such as Google Translate, DeepL or Microsoft Translator. There has been a dramatic improvement in translation quality of such services in recent years, but don’t be mislead. Machines still can’t match the quality of a skilled human linguist. Machine translation may be useful for social media conversations and brief email correspondence. Just don’t rely on machines to do anything exposed to the public in a language that has not been reviewed by a human. The risk for error and embarrassment does not justify the cost savings. Ofer Tirosh is the founder and CEO of Tomedes, a translation company and language service provider that offers translation in more than 100 languages and 1,000 language pairs for more than 50,000 business clients. The post Translation or Localization: Best Practices for Growing Globally appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/2Uf2nmg
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Contributed by Dr. Gleb Tsipursky. One of the biggest dangers for entrepreneurs comes when their enterprise grows from being a small shop of 10 people to a midsized company of 100 or more. Entrepreneurial decision-making must change to account for this growth, but it often doesn’t due to our desire to avoid losses. To illustrate why, let me tell you a story. It’s your lucky day! You meet a kind stranger who offers you something for nothing. No tricks, really: You’re getting a free lunch. She gives you US$45. Then she asks if you want to keep that money or give it to her in exchange for a coin flip. If it lands heads up, she’ll give you $100. If it’s tails, you get nothing. Which do you choose? Do you want US$45 cash in your pocket or are you willing to take a chance with the coin flip? Decide before reading further. When I present this scenario in my speeches to business audiences, about 80 percent say they’ll take the money from the kind stranger. I made that choice when I first learned about this scenario and so do most people in studies of similar choices. After all, the US$45 is a sure thing. Wouldn’t I feel foolish if I took a risk and lost it all for just a chance at getting US$100? My gut reaction was to avoid losing out. After all, who wants to be a loser, right? Well, let’s run the numbers. The chance of getting heads is 50 percent, so in half of all cases you’ll win US$100 and in the rest, you won’t win anything. That’s equivalent to US$50 on average, versus US$45. Imagine you flipped a coin 10 times, 100 times, 1,000 times, 10,000 times, and then 100,000 times. At 100,000, on average you would get US$5 million if you chose the coin flip for US$100 each time, versus US$4.5 million if you chose US$45 each time. The difference? A cool US$500,000. Thus, unfortunately, choosing US$45 as my gift ultimately results in losing out. The right choice—the one most likely to not cause me to be a loser—is to choose the coin flip as the gift. Otherwise, over multiple coin flips, you’re pretty much guaranteed to lose.
But wait, you might be thinking, I presented this as a one-time deal, not a repeating opportunity. Maybe if I told you it was a repeating scenario, you’d have thought about it differently. Here’s the problem. Research shows that our gut treats each individual scenario we see as a one-off. In reality, we face a multitude of such choices daily. Our intuition is to treat each one as a separate situation. Yet, these choices form part of a broader repeating pattern where our intuition tends to steer us toward losing money. This gut reaction is called loss aversion, one of the many dangerous judgment errors that result from how our brains are wired, what scholars in cognitive neuroscience and behavioral economics call cognitive biases. Fortunately, recent research in these fields shows how you can use pragmatic strategies to address these dangerous judgment errors in your professional life. First, evaluate where cognitive biases are hurting you and others in your team and organization. Then, you can use structured decision-making methods to make “good enough” daily decisions quickly and more thorough ones for important choices, and formulate truly effective long-term strategic plans. In addition, you can develop mental habits and skills to notice cognitive biases and prevent yourself from slipping into them. Your professional life—anyone’s professional life—is made of 100,000 coin flips. The stranger’s gift represents the series of opportunities we face in our work, and we can either win US$5 million or US$4.5 million, depending on the choices we make for each one. The same applies at an organizational level. Let’s say your enterprise has an annual revenue of US$5 million and a healthy profit of US$750 thousand. Regardless of the choices you’re making, if other employees in your organization are going with their gut to avoid losses and the company loses 10 percent of its revenue or US$500 thousand per year, then two-thirds of your profit will be wiped out, leaving only US$250 thousand. As an entrepreneur, you need to account for the choices of others in your enterprise as your company grows. They are likely to be much less entrepreneurial than you and may make poor choices. To prevent your— and their—intuition from leading the company astray, adopt a policy of letting the data lead you, instead of relying on intuitions. For each decision the company faces, prompt your team to envision it as a repeating pattern, instead of a one-time decision: Run the numbers, account for the role of uncertainty and take the course most likely to lead to the biggest profit. Treating each choice as part of a broader pattern might feel counterintuitive, uncomfortable or unsafe. Yet the course that feels most safe—avoiding losses—is actually much more dangerous for your bottom line. Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is on a mission to protect leaders from dangerous judgment errors known as cognitive biases by developing the most effective decision-making strategies. With over 20 years of experience as CEO of the training, coaching, and consulting firm Disaster Avoidance Experts, he also spent over 15 years in academia as a cognitive neuroscientist and behavioral economist. He’s an EO speaker, a recent EO 360° podcast guest and author of Never Go With Your Gut (2019), The Blindspots Between Us (2020) and The Truth Seeker’s Handbook (2017). The post How to Avoid Losing When Your Enterprise Grows appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/2U6g4UD Contributed by Bethany Seton. Our mental health clearly affects all aspects of our daily life—including the way we do business and conduct ourselves in the workplace. However, due to the nature of conditions such as anxiety, addiction, depression and the like, problems can go undetected for lengthy periods of time, even as they damage relationships with family and coworkers. Unfortunately, mental health is not a topic people typically discuss openly. Some employees may worry that revealing their depression or anxiety makes them appear unfit for the job. Others may not even be aware that they are experiencing mental health problems. To help improve the mental health in your workplace—and thus improve productivity—follow these steps. Acknowledge the problemThe first step toward healing is facing the problem. This includes not only the person experiencing symptoms of a mental health issue, but the people close to them as well. In the workplace, those people are coworkers and the employer. Raising awareness is essential. One way to do this is to give employees access to education and resources from competent organizations. Once educated on the possible tell-tale signs of mental illness, they will be able to reach out to colleagues in need or even recognize the need in themselves. Provide adequate psychotherapy optionsOnce the problem has been detected, it’s time to take the bull by the horns. In order to ensure a healthy working environment, many employers have opted for workplace counseling. This is usually a short-term solution meant to encourage employees to work on acute issues. When all employees have access to free, confidential workplace counseling services, it not only helps improve the overall efficiency of the company, but also shows the commitment and care of the employer. On the other hand, in today’s modern world, online or remote psychotherapy is also an option. You are now able to reap all the benefits of virtual psychology, meaning, you can now have access to sessions online. Teleconferencing and instant messaging counseling services provided by trained professionals have been slowly incorporating themselves into the field of psychotherapy. While it’s not completely accepted in every culture, many find that remote counseling is both effective and timesaving. Also, the field is further developing in terms of perfecting, adapting and using artificial intelligence chatbots so they can perform cognitive analysis of patients.
Train your managing staffManagers greatly benefit from relevant training designed to support staff with mental health problems. Every employee is unique, and managers should be able to recognize specific features that define their staff’s behavior. Some people will need just a little support and guidance, while others will require significantly more attention and encouragement. Confidence building is essential to good performance, as well as motivation and acknowledgement of achievement. All employees should feel valued and appreciated when they perform well, and when they encounter obstacles including sensitive topics such as their mental wellbeing. Prevent stressYou have control over the working environment of your company, and you should try to make it as pleasant as possible for your workforce. For instance, encouraging work-life balance will greatly help reduce stress and prevent burnout. Flexible hours are a perk many will appreciate since they’ll have more control over their day, manage traffic better and have time for medical appointments. Furthermore, offering flexibility shows your employees that you trust them to be independent and creative, and thus they will surely be motivated to do their tasks without that stressful feeling of you hovering over them. Assertive communication and constructive criticism will show your employees that you appreciate all the effort they put in, and have an understanding of their potential mishaps. Offer healthy perksActivities such as lunchtime yoga or gym memberships are well worth the investment. There is a myriad of options an employer can choose from. Offering a healthy lunch in the staff kitchen is an excellent way to start. Or, educate staff about maintaining a healthy lifestyle in a company-sponsored workshop led by a health professional. Psychological health must never be taboo in a well-organized and success-oriented company. There are many things employers can do to improve their staff’s wellbeing, which undoubtedly leads to better work performance. After all, it is the people that make the company thrive and a happy worker equals a profitable business. Bethany Seton is passionate about traveling and writing, and contributes to various online content outlets. The post How Employers Can Support Workplace Mental Health appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/30WcIVw Adrienne Palmer, an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) member in Dallas, Texas, embodies the qualities that make EO entrepreneurs truly special. After 20 years managing the digital agency she founded, Adrienne now pursues opportunities to share her knowledge with other entrepreneurs, to grow alongside her peers, and to meaningfully explore the world. Adrienne recently participated in an incredible adventure in Zimbabwe as part of a MyEO trip. MyEO, one of EO’s most loved benefits, is a platform that makes it easy to connect with other members based on shared passions and interests. We asked Adrienne to tell us more about the MyEO Tasimba leadership experience. Here’s what she shared: When I stare at the wooden carved elephant I brought home from Zimbabwe, I can hear her say, in her low rumbling voice, “Don’t forget who you are.” She reminds me daily to stay connected to all I learned about myself and the world during our MyEO trip into the Tasimba leadership experience. It was a week fully immersed, a week disconnected, and a week exposed to all that Zimbabwe and the wilderness have to teach us. Of course, being EO members, we already share a bond of aligned values, similar life challenges and experiences, and a common language, all of which provided fertile ground for connection. Taking that connection into such a transformational environment created a bond among our clan that will be a part of us forever. More than a safari, Tasimba provides a unique immersion into the African wilderness. (This video from Tasimba captures the spirit of the program.) It is no easy feat, getting a group of EO members to let go of control, and step away from their businesses and technology. In the midst of wilderness and raw environment, we were supported by a team that removed any distraction or worry and took care of our every need. The Tasimba team arranged for the private flights to the remote camp, hired the most knowledgeable and accommodating professional guides, reserved an exclusive five-star camp, and organized meetings with people that truly understand our entrepreneurial way of thinking. Our clan embraced the opportunity to disconnect and slow down. We accepted the invitation to think about our own lives, our goals, and what we can learn from the natural order of things. There were plenty of breathtaking (and a few heart-stopping) wildlife encounters as well as scenery burned into our forever memories. But this was also a deep exploration into the heart of Africa, and into our own hearts. We were challenged to consider the impact of our lives on the planet. What brought us here? That question was about more than the geography of Zimbabwe and this trip, but what brought us here to this place in our lives and to this clan. We immersed ourselves in the culture and the community. We spent a week getting to know the land, studying the animals and their behaviors, being awestruck and amazed at every turn. We were captivated by the opportunity to tap into the knowledge and perspectives of our guides—who seemed to be able to answer any question and make connections to enhance our understanding of nature. We soaked in all we could learn from special guests—who are taking a stand to address the biggest challenges the country is facing. We visited the leader of the nearest village and talked with his family, discussed leadership and decision making, and spent time in his home. We went to the local school to talk with seventh- and eighth-grade children to learn their perspective on life. Every day, we stopped for Indabas (similar to EO Forum meetings) in the wilderness in order to reflect on what we were seeing and experiencing and how our perspectives were shifting.
All of the conversations fed our entrepreneurial curiosity and our insatiable desire to learn and understand. Our worlds and our business success were put into perspective. What difference will our businesses, and our lives, make when all is said and done? A keystone species is defined as “a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend, such that if it were removed, the ecosystem would change drastically.” We, as humans, are generally not a keystone species. But can we be keystone individuals? We were challenged to consider how our time on this planet could matter. The search—and living the answers—will be a continuous journey. We left Africa knowing we have been deeply transformed. A few days after my return, I received a postcard from our new friends, with this quote: Africa Smiled Africa smiled a little when you left. “We know you,” Africa said. –Bridget Dore It is true. Africa is alive in my soul. I still hear the sounds of the bush, smell the rain, and feel the energy of excitement and wonder. And I know I will be back with her again soon. Adrienne Palmer is the founder of Insite, a digital agency based in Dallas, Texas. Since transitioning from an active management role at the firm, she continues to serve as a board member. She also shares her experiences as an entrepreneur at speaking engagements and embraces her love for adventure and exploration by swimming with sharks, diving off cliffs and, of course, traveling in Africa. Connect with Adrienne at this year’s Startup Grind Global in Silicon Valley, where she will be a panelist at an EO-moderated event. The post The Value of Letting Go to Gain Perspective appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/2RohgRu Contributed by Bill Lyons, CEO and president of Griffin Funding. Along with the excitement that comes with a new decade, 2020 brings a lot of speculation on the economy, including a focus on what we call recession proofing. While business owners don’t know for sure if a recession will hit in the near future, the need for ensuring your business can weather the storm is real and growing. Bill Lyons from Griffin Funding, says, “Make financial moves to stay nimble.”The more nimble your ship is, the quicker you can make decisions and implement change throughout the culture and organization. If you want to recession-proof your business, ensure that you are nimble. Here are my recommendations: Be proactive about taxes.One of the biggest expenses a business owner can incur are taxes. It’s best to be prepared and have a plan in place to minimize what you’ll end up owing. If you don’t have an internal CFO who is forecasting, budgeting, managing lines of credit and managing cash flow, consider hiring an outsourced part-time CFO or working with a proactive CPA (not reactive) who can help you plan throughout the year. I also recommend getting your CPA financials quarterly and sitting down to plan and strategize. Finance to keep you recession-proof.In addition to building cash up on your balance sheet, apply for a low-interest line of credit with your local community bank so you can utilize it for growth, acquisitions or for a period when you need to pivot to a new marketing plan or a new product. A line of credit and cash together will put you in a position of strength and provide you the fuel you need to navigate through a recession. Don’t wait to apply for a bank loan until you need it because more often than not you won’t get approved. Banks most often will lend you money only when you don’t need it. Navigate a recession.If you’re a giant cruise ship you could be a sitting duck if a recession comes. By the time you turn the wheel, a year may pass before the rudder starts to turn the ship in the new direction it needs to go. If you are a big fat cruise ship with lots of overhead, put a plan in place to be able to transform it into a nimble ship quickly that can execute. If that isn’t an option then put some nimble ships around you (small independent ancillary businesses) that can either protect you or diversify you. Do this especially if you are in a business that is sensitive to the market and outside forces. Ryan Shortill from Positive Adventures, suggests, “Build a strong team and make adjustments to increase flexibility.”Not knowing how much longer the economy will march on, we see the potential for a challenging year ahead. Examine your overhead and make changes as needed.Here are some questions to get you started:
Strengthen your team and ensure employee retention.
Lauren Zerweck, marketing consultant, advises, “Get creative with your communications and marketing.”Keep up on your marketing efforts.When a business is feeling pressure to cut their spending, they often start by reducing the marketing budget. Business owners may think, “Did this campaign bring in sales?” The issue here is sales and marketing are measured with different metrics, so to deem marketing activities unsuccessful based on sales, doesn’t actually make sense. If your budget is tight, however, it does make sense to be more creative and cut back in areas based on marketing metrics such as web traffic and social reach. There are low-cost options and there are smart and creative ways to pair down as long as you continue to track progress and adjust. Focus on customer communications.This is no time to lose out on your regular customers, it’s time to strengthen your relationships.
The post Experts Share Ways to Recession-Proof Your Business appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/37nj82w Tim Hamilton, an EO member in Austin, is founder and CEO of Praxent, a custom software and web app development firm that has been named for three consecutive years to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the US, most recently as #2,118 on the 2019 list. In part 1 of this article, Tim discussed the false assumptions driving B2B innovations that fail. In this post, Tim offers B2B companies a strategy for creating digital products around customer experience gaps in their industries: B2B companies today have a strong desire to create better digital solutions for their buyers, recognizing innovative customer experience (CX) as a key ingredient to success in current markets. While the desire and intention to create disruptive digital customer experiences grows, however, the majority of B2B companies struggle to deliver. According to Accenture, 80 percent of B2B companies try to innovate around CX, but fail to generate a satisfactory return on investment. In all, billions of dollars are wasted on research and development of innovative ideas that never win new business. What does it take to design innovative digital customer experiences that predictably win? The key is uncovering the false assumptions driving the failure of B2B innovation experiments. Find the truth behind what motivates customers to make purchases in a given industry, then innovate around those foundational realities. Opportunities to Innovate: Addressing Challenging B2B Customer Experiences through Digital ProductsWhen companies focus innovation primarily around the product or primarily around the customer, they end up creating customer experiences that fail to make much of a difference in people’s lives. Understanding customers only provides a certain amount of value to the innovation process. While demographics, personas and psychographics may provide helpful information about customer preference, those things alone won’t point to the best opportunities for innovation. Likewise, simply improving a product for the sake of improvement does not lead to any strategic, industry-altering innovation. The only way to create new products or product improvements that offer customers new and formerly unavailable value is to identify the “job to be done,” then remove friction from the customer experiences surrounding that “job to be done.”
5 Steps to Create a Digital Product Strategy for B2B CX InnovationCreating a digital product strategy for innovative B2B customer experiences starts with understanding the “jobs to be done” by your product. From there, analysis will reveal the best opportunities for investing in innovative solutions that pay off both for you and your customers. Step 1. Identify the Jobs to Be DoneTo get started, conduct user interviews to dig deep into the “jobs” customers expect a product to complete. Don’t trust your assumptions about what motivates purchases. Make a list of what characterizes the customer situation before using the product and what would characterize success as a result of using the product. This gaps analysis will reveal one or more “jobs to be done.” Step 2. List Customer Experience GapsOnce you know the “jobs to be done,” you are one step closer to defining an innovative product concept that will predictably win. The next step is to create an exhaustive list of customer experience challenges people face as they seek help accomplishing the “job to be done.” Customers “hire” products to complete jobs for them—their satisfaction is driven by how well the product completes that job, and how easily it does so. Successful CX innovations not only get customers from Point A to Point B, they also remove challenges B2B customers would otherwise experience. Each “job to be done” from your gaps analysis will usually have three customer experience aspects: functional, emotional and social. Consciously or not, customers will measure satisfaction based on a product’s performance in each of these areas. For instance, the amount of effort and time customers have to invest in using a product are considerable challenges associated with the functional aspects of a job. Fear of failure may accompany customers as they “hire” products–as may social constraints, such as meeting the expectations of others through the use of the product. These are both examples of emotional and social challenges that can represent friction between customers and the progress they wish to make by hiring a product. Here are four questions to ask as you create your list of customer experience gaps: 1. What about the current product experience is holding customers back from making the progress they need to make? Step 3. Create a Buyer Utility MapThe next step is to identify the innovation opportunities which exist behind every customer experience challenge on your list. We recommend plotting obstacles and points of friction in a buyer utility map to visually track innovation opportunities along the buyer experience cycle. Simply enter each functional, emotional and social pain point under the stage where it falls in the buyer experience cycle: ● Purchase As you create your buyer utility map, remember to take into account the various types of target customers your B2B company does business with. Each type of customer will have completely different pain points, so you’ll want to create unique buyer utility maps for each. An area for innovation may lie with one type of customer or both. Step 3. Choose Your FocusThere are usually multiple pain points along a buyer experience cycle, which translate into multiple opportunities for investment. To create an innovative product that generates a high return on investment, B2B companies will need to make strategic choices on where to focus their energy. This means making the harder choice of where to underperform their competitors. Avoid being decent at addressing all pain points, yet failing to be a market leader. There may be countless CX challenges your product or service can address. But not all of them represent the best business opportunities. It’s essential to choose where to focus your energy, resources and budget. Ask yourself: ● Which areas are you most capable of addressing? Assess the results of your buyer utility map, and compare how your industry as a whole is investing in innovation to solve each of the pain points. If most competitors are already addressing certain pain points, it may behoove your company to focus on an opportunity that’s currently being ignored. Change the B2B Game with Low-Risk InnovationInnovation is often risky, but it doesn’t have to be. Join the 20 percent of B2B companies that successfully and predictably innovate to create customer experience value. Discover your distinct advantage through “jobs to be done” research, challenge-opportunity analysis, and plenty of first-hand market and user research to validate the concept before sinking money into a development project. Tim Hamilton is the founder and CEO of Praxent, a custom software and web app development firm. Praxent has been named for three consecutive years to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the US. Tim has been an EO member since 2011. Learn why industry leaders like Tim choose EO for their entrepreneurship network. The post B2B Game Changers: How to Discover a Distinct Advantage and Become a Market Leader appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/3ayLybF By Shawn Johal, an entrepreneur, business growth coach and member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) in Montreal, Canada. What is mentorship, really?The mentor-mentee connection is a unique one—one that I never really understood before. The company I had co-founded in 2009, DALS Lighting, was thriving and we would soon have over 40 members on the team. I felt lucky that employees mentioned they “looked up” to me, but was I mentoring them? I had never been mentored by anybody in my life, and I didn’t know what it looked like. Meeting Warren RustandIn 2016, during my time as president of the EO Montreal chapter, I was accepted into the Global Leadership Academy (GLA), an incredible leadership program. The program leader was Warren Rustand (pictured at right). Everyone in EO across the globe seemed to know Warren, a world-class entrepreneur. The five full days spent with Warren at GLA were a game-changer for me: I felt myself growing—as a leader, but even simply as a person. I knew this was it: I needed Warren Rustand to be my mentor. The big askBy the end of the five-day leadership training, I had mustered up the courage to walk up to Warren and ask him point-blank. “Warren, these last five days have been inspiring for me. You don’t know me, but we have a ton in common: ideologies, methodologies, values. I’d like to know if you would be my mentor.” It felt like a full minute until he answered, but in reality, his answer came within two seconds of my question. He smiled. “No. I’m really busy, Shawn, but thank you.” Rejecting rejectionThe thing is: I am an entrepreneur. I am incredibly optimistic, I do not give up, and my stubbornness was not a new quality. I had decided Warren would be my mentor, and I refused to accept the rejection. I had to ask Warren again. Three or four hours later, I spotted him in the hotel lobby and approached him a second time. “Warren, listen, I know you said you wouldn’t be my mentor earlier, but I need to reiterate how much it would mean to me. Determination is everything—I wanted to show you that I am determined to work with you as a mentee.” Warren took another pause and smiled again. “Shawn, I appreciate the persistence, but no. I can’t afford to take on any new mentees at this time, but I’m sure you’ll find another excellent mentor.” Rejected twice in the same day. I went back to my hotel room, checked out the next morning, and caught my flight home. Rejecting rejection—for goodI spent the next few days thinking over the situation. It had been one week since the training event with Warren. I sat down at my laptop and punched out an email to him. “Dear Warren, I know you rejected me twice in person, but I could not shake how important having you as mentor would be. I care about leadership development, and I want us to inspire others together. I hope you will reconsider my offer, but if this comes with a third rejection, please also know it gets easier each time.” Another week went by. Zero response. Eventually, I got an email back! It came from Warren’s assistant. She asked me to complete a document which all of Warren’s potential mentees complete. Never did an email make me so genuinely excited. Warren’s document was a list of six one-line questions: They all seemed simple but were ultimately complex. I spent the next day working on a 15-page document filled with my answers. Another month passed before I heard back–finally–with an email from Warren himself. He accepted me as a mentee, and was glad I was persistent. It was official: Warren Rustand was my mentor. Crazy optimismThe years after were transformational for me on many different levels, and Warren was a huge part of that. My business tripled in revenue and scaled up fast. I launched Elevation, my private coaching practice focusing on leadership development, learning heavily from Warren directly. It felt like I had gained a superpower that nobody else had. I felt invincible. Is there a lesson for other entrepreneurs in this story? I was overly-optimistic and followed what felt right despite being openly rejected several times. What seemed impossible somehow became more than possible: It became real, and it changed the course of my professional life. On the path to what we believe we can be, obstacles and rejection will always be present. How we respond to the obstacles is what separates the entrepreneurs from the rest of the world. I responded with doses of crazy optimism. How will you respond? Shawn Johal is an entrepreneur, business growth coach and speaker. He founded Elevation, a Scaling Up-based coaching and leadership development practice, and co-founded DALS Lighting, a manufacturer of lighting technology. Shawn was a finalist for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award and former chapter president of EO Montreal. The post “How I Got Warren Rustand to Be My Mentor” appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/366PZa9 The statistics on small business survival are daunting: Only 50 percent of new companies will survive for more than five years in the U.S. marketplace. Before diving into entrepreneurship, wouldn’t it be ideal to tap into the knowledge of experienced, thriving business owners for advice on failure-proofing a new business? We asked members of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), a global, peer-to-peer network of 14,000-plus influential business owners, what lessons they wish they’d known to ensure ongoing success before starting their companies. Linger before launching your small business“So much of an entrepreneur’s success relies on figuring out your true target prospect, the right pricing, and the winning product mix. We didn’t realize how much of this we could accomplish before launching,” says Heidi Rasmussen, EO Dallas member and co-founder and COO of freshbenies. “If we had kept our full-time, paying jobs longer, we could’ve done all of that in addition to growing our network of prospects, creating a social media following, and articulating the problem our company solves.” Validate product-market fit“Do whatever legwork is possible to validate your product-market fit before investing everything in your concept. The more confident you are, the clearer your path becomes – and the lower your risk,” says Chris Cardinal, EO Arizona member and principal at Synapse Studios. “Go beyond just asking friends and family what they think: They won’t be honest, and they’re probably not your customer base.” Leverage others’ experiences“Join an executive group: It empowers you to develop leadership skills and knowledge, which is nearly impossible to do alone. Learn from the successes and failures of others. Leverage their experiences instead of reinventing the wheel,” says Nicolle Cannon, EO San Francisco member and CEO of Cannon Quality Group. Fail fast“Experiment frequently, fail fast, and learn from it. It’s okay to put bold ideas into action as long as you’re not afraid to jump ship quickly on experiments that aren’t producing results. Just move on to the next experiment,” says Marcia Zaruba O’Connor, EO Philadelphia member and CEO of The O’Connor Group. Beware of overbuilding“Don’t overbuild your product. Get to revenue as fast as possible. Often, this means identifying the single-most effective problem you can solve, solving it, and selling into it to drive revenue,” says David Finkelstein, EO South Florida member and CEO of BDEX. “You can always add features and solutions later, which customers will love, but if you try to solve too many problems at once, it can become overwhelming. Simple solutions are much easier to sell.” Hire the best“Hire the best employees you can afford, then take care of them to develop loyalty and make them essential parts of the team. Listen to their needs and ideas. Then take chances on the ideas that make sense, so that they will feel more invested,” says Tina Hamilton, EO Philadelphia member and CEO of myHR Partner. “The more invested they are, the more they will give you when you need it most. It takes a team effort to expand and evolve. A strong core of dedicated, invested employees is essential for growth. You can’t do it alone.” Implement automation“I’ve seen businesses fail because they couldn’t reconcile the costs that come with hiring staff, inefficiencies, and time spent on manual labor. A small team is capable of accomplishing a lot with the right combination of technology and tools. Still, automation always seems to be an afterthought,” says Chad Rubin, EO New York member and CEO of Skubana and Think Crucial. “A good inventory management and fulfillment software can give a business the platform to scale at an unprecedented rate.” Listen to the market“Listen to the market and be flexible. When we launched, we thought we knew exactly what our target market needed. It turns out, the market found a different – but far more valuable – use for our skills,” says Justin Lake, EO Dallas member and CEO of Venado Technologies. “What makes a business successful is finding those customer challenges that they want to solve, which may not be what you originally set out to do. Your chances of success grow exponentially when you listen to your prospects’ needs and are willing to adapt and apply your skills to the solutions for which they’re willing to pay.” Monitor cash flow“Watch your cash flow. You have to be aware of it, monitor fluctuations, and never count on future income until it’s in the bank,” Cannon says. Find your mentor“Learn from entrepreneurs both in your immediate market and outside of it. Find mentors who have successfully grown a new business, have made mistakes, and know how to advise you to navigate your company’s challenges,” Hamilton says. Embrace vulnerability“I wish I had known the importance of being willing to seek help. Entrepreneurs are often prideful, which can hinder us from seeking the advice needed to succeed,” Finkelstein says. “I have learned over time to be more willing to seek help when I need it and to be vulnerable enough to say, ‘I don’t know what to do’ to the people who may be in a position to help me solve the situation.” This article originally appeared in the USA Today Small Business Insert that ran on 31 December 2019. The post EO Entrepreneurs Share Strategies for Failure-Proofing Small Business appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/2NtCdZ4 Contributed by Angela Fernandez, vice president of community engagement, GS1 US. Today, maintaining steady revenue growth can be difficult without the right help and mindset. GS1 US, an information standards organization that helps brands identify their products for commerce, recently surveyed more than 500 entrepreneurs to identify best practices to achieve sustained success. The results are presented in “Charting the Growth Journey: From Product to Profitable Business.” Respondents were classified as “leaders,” those who achieved sales growth of more than 25 percent in the last year, or “laggards,” those whose sales declined in the past year. Explore the results to determine if your brand will lead the pack or stay in a holding pattern. 1. Are you prepared to think big?In the early stages, an entrepreneur’s energy may be sustained by the excitement of sharing their new product with the world. In fact, 51 percent of the business owners surveyed said that pursuing a passion, ambition or skill is the biggest motivator for starting their own companies. However, small brands would benefit from taking a broad perspective and diversifying their sales channel strategy to position them for future growth. The research found that leaders use an average of three sales channels, compared with laggards, who typically sell through just one channel. While traditional brick-and-mortar retail channels are still relevant, leaders are more digitally savvy—73 percent of leaders sell through their own website, compared with just 44 percent of laggards, and 57 percent of leaders work with an online marketplace, compared to just 16 percent of laggards. 2. Do you have what retailers and online marketplaces want?Prioritizing accurate product information to support these channels is also critical to long-term growth. Comprehensive product content enhances customer trust in your brand and makes products easier to find and buy. It also fulfills an important retailer requirement, as product information has become an essential part of creating a seamless and consistent shopping experience. The study revealed that leaders recognize the value of providing more than just basic product information in their online product listings. They’re much more likely to include product images (65 percent of leaders versus 46 percent of laggards) and more than twice as likely as laggard brands to include extended product details, such as organic or GMO-free claims (59 percent of leaders versus 22 percent of laggards). In general, 59 percent of leaders have seen a direct correlation between complete product information and the number of products sold, compared with 36 percent of laggards. Also, leaders are almost three times more likely to use UPC barcodes on their products than laggard brands, which shows they recognize how this can help the company achieve greater credibility with retailer partners, as most require authentic UPCs as a basic part of their vendor onboarding process. 3. Can a consultant or solution provider help you grow?As an entrepreneur, you wear many hats but you don’t have to wear all of them. Leveraging partners can help your business scale. Leaders believe in the value of partnerships, according to the study, and are enlisting outside help including business advisors, consultants, retail brokers and software providers to grow. In fact, 55 percent of leaders said external partnerships are critical to understanding what it takes to grow, compared with 26 percent of laggards. Additionally, 51 percent of leaders said an external partner has improved their understanding of product listings and the business impact, versus 30 percent of laggards. Partnerships can help reduce the burden on small business owners and help them close any knowledge gaps in their expertise. Ultimately, the study indicated that creating a viable product is just the beginning of a brand’s journey, and new brands can hit a plateau when they fail to think strategically. Retail-focused small businesses can thrive in a rapidly-evolving industry when they master their channel mix, work to present consumers with robust product content, and collaborate with partners to expand their capabilities. EO is the only global network exclusively for entrepreneurs. EO helps leading entrepreneurs learn and grow through peer-to-peer learning, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and connections to experts. Angela Fernandez is the vice president of Community Engagement at GS1 US, where she oversees programs designed to support growth for companies of all sizes. With more than 20 years of retail supply chain experience, she is an expert in helping companies understand retailer requirements and achieve source to store supply chain visibility. The post Are You a Leader or a Laggard? appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/2TjMuus Marcus Lethlean is the owner of Mediport, GoodBarTrade, 4Degrees Celcius, A2b Solutions and OneSevenOne. And with several businesses under his belt, you might think he’d mastered the entrepreneurial journey. Not so! Like many Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) members, he believes in continuous learning and improvement in order to take his businesses further and better serve the people that benefit from his services. He recently shared his story with EO Melbourne. When asked why he started his businesses, Lethlean admits that he couldn’t see himself in the corporate setting. He likes to start something from scratch as it gives him the freedom to create, set his own directions and strategize his next steps. “I have worked inside the corporate environment and there are some aspects of the hierarchical chain that can blunt people of their creativity. At other times, the system can teach people not to go out on a limb. And yet, every entrepreneur who I know went out on a limb, particularly founders. You don’t even think of the risk because you just feel like it’s going to work.” Before he began his first business, Lethlean made several attempts at building a business, many of which faded away. When he was just 13 years old, he started selling door-to-door and, from there, went on to other business endeavors. Despite disappointments and low points, he persisted, eventually studying law and working at nights. “The biggest lesson I have learned is to follow the feeling. If an idea makes you feel excited, then turn it inside out,” he says. “That little buzz is a real call to action because it means you’ve got to find the next stepping stone that edifies the original feeling.” And in that journey, he found a beautiful loop of thoughts-action-effort-outcome that leads him to feel accomplishment. As to the challenges that he faced in starting and sustaining a business, Lethlean admits these obstacles provided important lessons. Here are six lessons from his journey as a business owner. THE ESSENCE OF A GOOD BUSINESS IS SIMPLE“Good businesses are identified where someone has a need and the other person can satisfy that need. And both parties want each other to stay inside the relationship, so they treat each other fairly. They price the product and the service accordingly,” Lethlean explains. In all his businesses, Lethlean ensures that they provide very good quality service to their clients, most of which are service-oriented businesses as well. They also use proprietary applications, software and systems that allow them to monitor and uphold the highest standards of service. With his company Mediport, which provides logistical support in transporting vaccines and pharmaceutical products, there is the potential to save lives using smart processes to ensure timely deliveries and well-maintained products. SAY “YES” AND BACK IT UP WITH ACTION“Say yes and then have an action that you have to follow through,” Lethlean says. He says he always finds ways to make sure that the customers get what they need from him. Even when there are bumps, he’ll look for alternatives to guarantee the promise they make to their clients. WIDEN YOUR KNOWLEDGEExperience has taught Lethlean how to handle adversity. He also credits his late father, who was his confidant and supporter. Still, he keeps on adding to his knowledge by reading books that sharpen his thoughts and perceptions of doing business well with others. These are the four books he says have contributed to his growth as a business owner. Johnathon Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach — A gift from his dad when he was 12 years old, this book offers many important insights about life. The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo – “He teaches you to follow your dreams and never turn your back on opportunities as you cannot be sure they will still be there when you turn around again,” explains Lethlean. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason – “It’s an incredibly powerful book about a slave that had an amazing work ethic. The richest merchant in Babylon bought the slave’s freedom and taught him the 10 rules for wealth so he too could become the wealthiest trader in Babylon.” Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill – “It’s a really good book because it allows you to tap into the mindset of the people who have been very successful.” MANAGE AND TRAIN PEOPLEWith several businesses to oversee and a huge scope of operations, Lethlean relies on the people who work with him. Naturally, there have been staff challenges, but he was able to tap in to the skills and passion of those on his team to help him bring his businesses forward. He stresses the need to make certain that people feel they are part of the team. “If people have it in their minds that the workplace is ‘them and us,’ it doesn’t work,” he says. “It’s a delicate balance every day to manage people and make sure that you are all on the same page and getting the best from each other.” A SERVICE-BASED MODEL THAT PEOPLE RESPECTLethlean highlights the difference between humble service and servitude. He explains, “Setting up the relationship for service means you have the opportunity to let people know how well you are wanting to help them. I think that it is most important to identify their needs and emphasize your understanding to the person for whom the service is being supplied.” “If people think that they are in a relationship where one party is taking advantage or in a relationship typified by servitude, it will dull their enthusiasm to provide outstanding service and, ultimately, it might fall apart.” He also adds that it takes two good ears to be able to serve others better. “Whether it’s listening to your market or to a new person in your business or to people who know more than you, you’ve got to be able to listen,” Lethlean emphasizes. Such a service-based model enables entrepreneurs to become part of a solution. It leaves no lingering feeling other than goodwill. TAKING THE WHEEL AND BRINGING IT FURTHERLethlean is the kind of business owner who is not afraid to take the wheel, literally and figuratively, and drive his businesses toward his goals. When he’s short on staff, he’s not above driving deliveries himself to fulfill his client’s needs. He acknowledges that he still has a long way to go to expand his ventures internationally, which is one reason he joined EO Melbourne. “I’ve never had a business mentor. As such, I think the structure of the learnings that occur with EO can fulfill that mentoring role incredibly well,” he says. Lethlean has started thinking of better skills to acquire in a managerial sense, a marketing sense, and strategizing sense. And with a young family, he hopes to see his kids grow up to become fine men. It’s something Marcus looks forward to in the future, including a better version of himself and several thriving businesses that will continue to serve his customers. EO is the only global network exclusively for entrepreneurs. EO helps leading entrepreneurs learn and grow through peer-to-peer learning, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and connections to experts. The post 6 Lessons From an Entrepreneur’s Journey appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/2Ncgftc |
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November 2020
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