Business Beginner

          Shark Tank has been a hit show now for years and I've enjoyed every episode. The six main investor Sharks have very diverse backgrounds, skill sets, and investment perspectives.While most people usually think of Mark Cuban as the biggest (and wealthiest) shark, I've always focused more on the miserly "Mr. Wonderful" Kevin O'Leary . This Canadian turned Bostonian is "the only disciplined investor in the Shark Tank" as he likes to say. He's almost the antithesis of QVC Queen Lori Greiner who is most often very encouraging and passionate about the presenting entrepreneurs.            He's usually the harshest critic and can be quite brutal and offensive when evaluating entrepreneurs, products, and businesses. He tells it like it is, no sugar coating, like a real life Gordon Gekko . When he was a young aspiring entrepreneur, a big moment in his life was the harsh advice of his step-father telling him that he needed to stop h...

How do you get the word out about your new website or digital business? Once you've identified the niche of your digital media business, you'll need to get the ball rolling. In addition to being able to create high quality and unique content that adds value for your audience (a tall order on its own), you need to build an initial content distribution system. You can create the best articles, videos, ebooks, presentations, etc but if nobody views them they are essentially worthless. Most larger businesses will get a new media property going by paying for traditional advertising, spending lavishly on digital advertising , paying Influencers with enormous existing followings, or leveraging plentiful existing assets they already own. If you're frugal like me and don't plan on spending much or any money you'll obviously need a different game plan.  In the beginning a frugal entrepreneur really needs to use every free resource you have available. People don't know abo...

Having an online business is one of the most popular ideas of the 21st century. The notion of internet has opened a whole new world of possibilities for both small businesses and individuals with great ambitions in their minds. This not only allows them to work from home, cooperate with people all over the world and operate globally, but also makes it a lot more lucrative. Unfortunately, even here it is not all milk and honey. Some people still fear doing business online for more than obvious reasons. However, by applying a proper strategy you can secure your online business .  Keep Your Data Safe  First of all your website as well as your business data will contain a lot of sensitive information that simply cannot fall into the wrong hands. Even some of the world’s largest conglomerates have a hard time recovering from this kind of security breach. For a startup or SMB a failure of this kind can be absolutely devastating. Take care of where you leave sensitive data online,...

One of the best definitions of startup businesses was coined by Paul Graham. He said that startups are companies designed to grow fast, and that’s the only characteristic that makes them different from other newly incorporated businesses.  Fast growth requires a clever growth strategy. Creating a viable strategy is not easy, but it is still the only way to avoid ending up in the 92% of startups that fail in the first three years of their existence. That’s why I've taken the business lessons I've learned and made this step-by-step guide that will make growth planning much less complicated and .  Step 1: Company & Market Evaluation  Before you start with growth planning, you need to do a lot of homework. Read about new market trends and study growth plans of rival companies that turn out successful . Although each growth plan is company-specific and unique, you should make use of all and applicable ideas you find during this research.  Researching your own busine...

Neil Patel is known as many things: digital marketing guru, entrepreneur, startup founder, world-renown blogger, Google search engine optimization expert, podcaster, YouTuber, consultant, business hustler (cut from a similar cloth as marketer Gary Vaynerchuk ), and controversial marketer. Regardless of what you think of Neil Patel, his business prowess has made him successful, somewhat famous, and relatively wealthy. He's now even a New York Times Bestselling author with his recent book " Hustle ". And did I mention he's only 32 years old?! I don't subscribe to all of his perspectives or advertising techniques, but I do find him to be an inspirational figure overall. And you can't dispute his long list of impressive accomplishments. Here are some of my favorite Neil Patel motivational business quotes : 1)  "Don't make excuses, make improvements." 2)  "Often times in order to capture your dreams, it will require you to chase your fears ....

Jim Koch is an inspirational figure that left a lucrative consulting career to start the world's most successful microbrewery: Sam Adams. Here are some of my favorite motivational entrepreneur quotes from Jim Koch, founder and CEO of Boston Beer Company aka Sam Adams: 1)  "The value of a company depends on elements that contribute to the creation of real value—things like providing superior products at fair prices." 2)  "Selling is applied communication and vastly underrated in business education. If you want to know how viable your business is, go try to sell your product to some potential customers." 3)  "I love disruption. To me, disruption means that you see the way things are, and you're able to see a better way and see a path from where we are now to this better way." 4)  "I try not to manage, because most people know how to do their job better than I know." 5)  "You need to be learning and innovating, giving your people inte...

Achieving a work-life balance is hard enough for any person, but it’s even harder when you’re putting in long hours. A recent survey asked entrepreneurs what they would spend their time doing if they could work fewer hours, and the top three responses were: spend more time with family and friends, travel for fun, and improve their personal health. Although it may be more difficult to accomplish a work-life balance as an entrepreneur , you can successfully balance your career, family, and leisure time.  Amount of Work  The survey found that an astounding 82 percent of entrepreneurs worked more than 40 hours per week . Specifically, 33 percent worked 40-49 hours, 30 percent worked 50-59 hours, and 19 percent worked more than 60 hours. Obviously, if you’re working that many hours, you’re probably working weekends.  The study found that an astonishing 97 percent of small business owners worked weekends, with 40 percent saying they “always” or “often” work weekends. Additiona...

There is a common misconception that Leadership and Entrepreneurship can be separated. Entrepreneurs are leaders . Not all leaders are entrepreneurs but every entrepreneur is a leader.  Entrepreneurship is about selling. Selling is about influence . An entrepreneur must have sway. Once you have influenced someone to the point of action such as making a purchase. You have become a leader in some way. Some may choose to follow your advice.  So what makes people decide to buy ? Benefits. How do they benefit from your product or service? If the reward does not outweigh the price then people will not buy. In other words: What is the overall value of what you are selling?  Entrepreneurs are masters at adding value. This is what propels businesses from start-ups to multi-million dollar enterprises. Value. The more you can add value to someone else's life the easier they will part with their money for you. A true leader is someone that can add value to your life, while saving you...