Nick Fehr is co-founder of The Bosco. Nick is mostly responsible for overseeing high-level internal operations, finance, strategy and big-picture vision. Follow him @nickfehr. Who is your hero? (In business, life, or both.) My parents, for hustling and giving me opportunities they never had. What’s the single best piece of business advice (unorthodox tips welcome!) that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why? Learn how to delegate! Once you figure out how to let go and allow other people to help you, you unlock so much more valuable time to steer the ship, which is why you’re an entrepreneur in the first place. Delegating can be really hard for some people, but make an active effort to improve on it and you will find an increase in productivity. What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too? Getting complacent, even for a minute. Complacency is the enemy of business/entrepreneurship. You can’t grow personally or professionally unless you’re challenged. Dialing your motivation back can have a lasting negative impact, and whenever I’ve found myself in phases of it, I’ve always looked back with regret. What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why? I catch up on emails and check out for the first hour. Since I work primarily on the West Coast and have an East Coast company, my meetings start right away, so my day is often too full to craft meaningful responses later in the day. What’s your best financial/cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started? Put yourself through a “For Dummies” crash course or similar. You need to know how to read basic financial statements and understand core simple accounting concepts (cash versus accrual basis). The rest falls into place once you have the vocabulary. Trusting your intuition combined with financial literacy can take you a long way in the beginning, but past a certain point, you want to employ professionals to figure out these details for you. At least you’ll be able to speak their language. Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level? Financial literacy is very important. I really think that understanding the numbers is vital to being successful at business, and if you pair that with a solid, well-articulated and inspiring vision, you will be unstoppable. What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business? When it can survive beyond me! Like I said, delegating is super important, but if I can create something that will exist and thrive even without my involvement, then that would be a successful business. from https://businesscollective.com/meet-nick-fehr-co-founder-of-the-bosco/
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Question: What's a good field for first time entrepreneurs looking to get into business?Whatever Capitalizes on Your Existing Skills"As a first time entrepreneur, start with something you have some background in already that you are excited to learn more about. You will need to dive deeply into this topic so starting out with a grounding in it is a big advantage. It will also help you make the venture less risky. Whatever field you pick, get ready to learn daily and hustle. If you are not ready to work hard, keep your day job." @arroyolabs An Industry That Can Help You Scratch Your Own Itch"The advantage of being your own target audience is priceless. It'll save you countless hours researching for product development and sales and marketing. It also helps because you'll be passionate and knowledgeable. Building a business is HARD. If you are passionate about it and already have an idea of what you're doing, it will make those long nights and early mornings easier to push through." @tresnicmedia Online Retail"You’ve probably heard about how e-commerce is a cutthroat field, and that there are way too many digital storefronts. And all that is true. I’m not talking about hosting your own storefront; I’m talking about establishing yourself as a merchant on a site like Etsy or eBay. Doing this is cost-effective but also teaches you a ton about marketing, customer interaction and research." @steven_buchwald Whatever You Know Best"When you are getting into business, it's important to know about the industry that you are entering. That gives you a head start comparing to the ones that don't know it, simply because you are more familiar with the problems and you know how things work. Building your network will also be much easier because you'd very likely know some of the people who are your potential customers." @milansteskal A Field You Are Naturally Interested In"Our company was built on staying true to yourself. As such you will attract the right people to you. While there is no specific field per-say, it is important to do some inflection on what you find yourself drawn to and figure out what your dreams and passion are. Then, make that the field that you work towards. Finding something you are naturally interested in will move your business forward." @ALIGNEDSIGNS from https://businesscollective.com/5-fields-recommended-for-first-time-entrepreneurs/ Question: What is one warning sign that a deal with a partner or vendor is not going to pan out?There Are Long Wait Times Between Communications"I find that when a partner or vendor takes a long time to respond to our calls or emails, it's not going to work out. I want to work with companies who are eager to work together, and a lack of responsiveness tells me that they are either too busy to work together or they don't have their act together, and I will constantly be frustrated/underwhelmed by them and their performance." @dianamgoodwin You Have a Hunch"It's easy to overlook something so small as what your instincts tell you. But if you look back at many of the past deals that didn't pan out, I'd venture to guess that if you really thought about it, your gut was telling you it was heading in this direction. It's not everyone's style, but listening to your instincts is a powerful tool in navigating decisions." @DarrahB You Get Inconsistent Information"When a story or terms change after the first communication, it's a strong signal that you should walk away and not waste more time pursuing the relationship. Forget a three-strikes policy. With me, it's one strike and you're out. There are plenty of potential partners and vendors. Don't waste your time with ones who aren't 100 percent honest and upfront from the beginning." @long They Can't Take Responsibility"When performance is lacking, they are quick to blame everyone else and take no personal responsibility. It's next to impossible to change people and should be a major red flag if they can't take responsibility for their own actions. This usually shows up relatively quickly in the relationship and needs to be handled immediately. Consider replacing rather than trying to change behavior." @drewgurley They Squabble Over Minor Details"The easiest way to predict a failed partnership is by the interest and trust emanating from the person representing the other business. When they don’t trust you, and insist on detailed explanations, nitpick contract details, or make a large number of small changes to a fairly simple agreement, you know your partnership is in trouble." @jrdorkin They Bait and Switch"You have had a great conversation and feel things are going well. You ask to have the other person write everything that was agreed upon and send it to you for further mutual discussion. When this person sends you over the written details of the conversation, it looks nothing like what was agreed on. This means one of two things: a bad listener, or untrustworthy person. Neither are good options." @JayAlanJohnson They Don't Have Any Questions or Concerns"When quality business leaders look at a deal and like what they see, they pull out a microscope and look for blind-spots that may negatively impact their business. Sometimes they mull it over and follow up with questions later, but such due diligence is expected of anyone worthy of partnering with. The only type of deal that doesn't raise questions or concerns is the kind that won't happen." @MSinghCFA They Argue Against Non-Disclosure Terms"Depending on what type of company or individual we may be working out a deal with, there will often be mutual non-disclosure/non-circumvention provisions. They're mutual, and hold my company to the same expectation. So if a potential partner starts arguing the term of NDNCA down to less than 24 months, I get concerned that their heart isn't in the right place." You Have Conflicting Values"One of the biggest indicators of a successful deal that most people don't know about is value alignment. The first discussions that ultimately decide if both parties will make the deal cover the financials, plan and strategy, but the real sign of a good deal is the values that they hold. These values determine the way they work and, in turn, their compatibility to work with your business." @davidtomas from https://businesscollective.com/9-warning-signs-that-a-deal-is-not-going-to-work-out/ When you write a book about letting go of control, you have to expect that you’ll learn a few lessons on the topic along the way. My book writing definitely didn’t go according to schedule. I did turn my manuscript in on time. I didn’t lose any sleep or really stress about its completion, but I planned to finish the initial draft of the book before Christmas. In reality, that didn’t happen until January 17. The stomach flu, some difficult situations in my personal life and the length of my final two chapters got in the way. What’s a time management coach to do when she isn’t exactly on target? Here are a few ways I coped: Don’t Self-CriticizeWhen I lost the feeling of being completely “in control” or “on top” of things with the book writing schedule, I chose the way of self-compassion instead of self-criticism. In the process of writing my most recent book, I’ve been reminded of the importance of gentleness with myself and others. I’ve also been reminded of how I need to value myself as a human being, not simply a mode of production. When you find yourself in a situation where you get off schedule, for whatever reason, decide to accept yourself for where you are in the moment and then move into action based on the current reality. Self-criticism is a complete waste of time and energy. Remember the MarginThis project served as an excellent case in point that the larger the project, the bigger the margin you should include. In my original plan, I aimed to finish four-to-five weeks ahead of the deadline to give myself plenty of time for a final read-through. In reality, I finished two weeks ahead of the deadline. It was still enough time to do the read-through, but tighter than I had originally hoped. I started out strong but given the unexpected issues that came up, I had to slow down in December. When you’re doing any large project, I highly recommend that you pad the schedule. In some cases, that will just need to be by a few days. In other cases, particularly with ambiguous projects, it’s good to give yourself weeks or even months of extra time. This is probably one of the biggest keys to not stressing out about deadlines. Adjust to RealityI initially thought that I could accomplish my writing objectives by blocking out my Wednesdays as book writing days. But when I realized that I was behind, I didn’t adamantly stick to my plan. I adjusted to reality. For me, that meant blocking out both Tuesdays and Wednesdays over the last few weeks of the project. I also spent some Saturday afternoons in coffee shops. I typically don’t work on the weekends, but I recognized I needed the time for this particular project and gave it to myself. Don’t get upset about reality, but also don’t ignore it. Reality always wins. If you notice that you won’t complete your project on time, start giving it more time, making cuts to other areas or getting help. Give Yourself BreaksEven though I worked some extra hours, I still made sure to integrate fun into the process. I took off Sundays completely. I tried to do social activities even if I couldn’t stay for a long time. Even an hour or hour and a half on a weekend night of something I enjoyed did wonders for my energy and kept me from resenting the process. I also made time to do things like text people or take the occasional call. I’m half introvert and half extrovert, so entire days of book writing without any coaching calls was actually pretty difficult for me. I needed the connection and encouragement along the way to keep going. Even when you need to work harder, take time for things that give you joy so you don’t burn out and lose motivation. Try to keep sleep, exercise and social activities part of the agenda whether it’s getting outside, getting together with friends or reading a book. Leisure still matters. Celebrate and RecalibrateI’ve been working on this book project for over a year and the manuscript for the past five months. Once I turned it in, it was time to celebrate! I had multiple celebration dinners and was sure to take time to share the joy with my friends and family. It is so important to stop and savor a major milestone to help make all the work feel worth it. It’s also important to recalibrate. There’s always more work to do, but I chose to go back to my normal schedule of not working on the weekends as soon as I turned in my book. I didn’t want a time-limited situation to turn into a bad habit. Don’t get so stuck in focus mode that you miss out on the joys of your accomplishment. Stop, savor, do what feels like celebration to you and try to get back to what you want to be your normal as quickly as possible. For some, that will mean taking a little time off to regain perspective. For others, like me, it will simply mean reminding yourself of how you want to live on a normal basis and resisting the urge to stay in overdrive mode. I hope that these lessons help you with whatever big projects you encounter in 2017. You can accomplish great things (with minimal stress) with the right strategies. from https://businesscollective.com/working-on-a-big-project-heres-how-to-power-ahead-even-when-you-get-off-track/ With most industries, customers tend to gravitate toward their preferred brands, but not with air travel. In fact, loyalty doesn’t hold much sway with travelers: Only 22 percent of fliers even care if a preferred airline shows up in their booking options. As the CEO of a successful marketing agency, I fly a lot. And it doesn’t matter to me, either. Maybe that’s because airlines haven’t shown much loyalty to their customers. An All-Too-Familiar StoryTake a recent flight I had on Virgin Airlines, for example. I was already on a tight schedule, as I had to be home in time for surgery. Then came the dreaded delay announcement. Bad weather? Of course not. They’d forgotten to flush the water system. Then, it would be another 45 minutes because they also forgot to load the drink carts. After a two-hour delay, all Virgin could offer for compensation was a lousy $25 voucher. Or, how about when my business partner recently flew American Airlines? He showed up to the airport only to find that his flight had been canceled because it wasn’t full. The only other flight getting to Austin in time for our event was, so he had to fly into San Antonio instead, rent a car and drive. I could go on with stories like these, but I don’t have to. I recently posted on Facebook about my bad experiences, and the commiseration poured in. From lengthy sits on the tarmac and broken seats on a U.S. Airways flight to lost baggage and a cancellation just 10 minutes before an American flight, it seems virtually no airline is innocent of screwing over frequent fliers. Where Airlines Fall ShortAirlines (or any business) could minimize the impact of these issues, but they don’t. For instance, they don’t adequately compensate you when they make a mistake. Airlines must have missed the memo we’ve all read: If you fail to deliver a service, you don’t get to keep the money a customer shelled out. Compensation is in order, and a $25 voucher doesn’t offset the cost of a $400 flight. Take a look at Virgin Air’s Facebook, and you’ll see a slew of apologies for bad service. But notice, you never see any mention of compensation. Airlines also fail to be proactive in dealing with problems. When things go wrong and a flight is delayed, an airline should accept responsibility and attempt to rectify the issue in some way before complaints start streaming in. Finally, this is all even more maddening because flying is expensive and airlines don’t pass savings on to customers. Ostensibly, tickets are costly because of oil prices. But then we see American, Delta, United and Southwest all hitting record net profits while the price of oil has plummeted from $150 per barrel to $30 per in the past eight years. Those savings should be reducing ticket prices, but they’re not. Learning From the Mistakes of OthersThese airlines provide great examples of what not to do when service falls short. As a response to problems like these, more and more customers are turning to outside parties like Service, a new app that offers consumers on-demand assistance in resolving customer service issues with just about any company. According to Service’s data, between June 2015 and the first quarter of 2016, Service has compensated people $779 for canceled flights, $209 for delayed flights, and $3,024 for lost items, on average. If you want to retain your hard-won customers, build their loyalty by making the following best practices part of your company’s core values.
I’m not saying airlines never try. When I posted on Facebook about a bad experience, an executive from Delta actually called me to apologize and offered to serve as our “bat phone” to take care of us moving forward. He was genuinely interested in improving the company’s customer experience. But you can do a few fairly easy things to provide the kind of service many airlines aren’t. When you address issues in an upfront, honest way, customer loyalty comes naturally — and you make it harder for the “Ubers” of your industry to pop up and gun for your customers. from https://businesscollective.com/minimizing-the-impact-of-business-mistakes-and-common-issues/ Oprah Winfrey has achieved an unprecedented level of success in business. Not only has her work as a media proprietor and talk show host propelled her to a net worth of over $3 billion, but she is currently cited as one of the greatest philanthropists and most influential people in the world. President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and both Duke and Harvard Universities have awarded her honorary doctoral degrees—a long way away from her impoverished youth in rural Mississippi and inner-city Milwaukee. As entrepreneurs, there is undoubtedly a wealth of information to be learned from her. Here are five valuable takeaways from Oprah’s life and success: Don’t Imitate: Listen To Your Own VoiceYour uniqueness is something competitors can’t imitate. Oprah didn’t dominate as a talk show host by imitating Phil Donahue — she did so by doing it her way.
In business, success has many different paths. By copying where others are excelling, you’re bringing little value to the market and providing no reason for people to choose to do business with you as opposed to someone else. Additionally, focusing too much on the competition takes time and energy away from you. Oprah is quoted as saying: “You can’t control the other guy. You only have control over yourself.” Oprah has competed with over 100 talk shows from Ricki Lake to Geraldo Rivera to Sally Jessy Raphael. She persevered and outperformed all these shows because she focused on providing quality content that she and her viewers wanted to see — and less so on ratings and competition. Believe In Yourself And Invest In YourselfOprah didn’t become a communications mogul who inspires millions by taking the easy route or following a traditional career path. Oprah intentionally and strategically made decisions that would have the greatest benefits for her in the long term.
In 1988, Oprah’s talk show went national. At this time she was faced with a choice: owning the show herself or drawing a salary. On the advice of her attorney she chose the former and acquired “The Oprah Winfrey Show” from Cap Cities/ABC and founded Harpo Productions, Inc. She now states that this was one of the best decisions of her life — if someone else owned her show, it would have limited her creative freedom and, ultimately, her success. As you probably know, Harpo Productions now includes film, radio, retail, a magazine and a cable network. Make a plan that you feel passionate about and strive towards it. Don’t make choices that give you the immediate reward. Aggressively pursue the path that will lead you to your ultimate end goal. Do Something You Love And Do Your Best Work AlwaysThere’s no doubt that when you’re doing something you love, you’re going to do a better job. Oprah discusses how passion is energy and the strength you receive from something you feel strongly about will propel to do much better work than something you have lukewarm feelings about.
Another Oprah quote: “When you do your best, people notice.” Whether you’re a chef or a businessperson, if you put out incredible work, others will be drawn to you. The world is filled with mediocrity and the majority works just hard enough to get their paycheck and get by. If you provide excellence consistently, you will be rewarded. Don’t Believe In FailureWhat many would consider as a failure, Oprah would consider as a new perspective, lesson or stepping stone on the path to success. For many of us, the fear of failure can be absolutely paralyzing, and therefore this frame of mind can’t be undervalued. Mistakes and setbacks are what shape us into great success. Succumbing to thinking you’ve failed is the only real failure.
Oprah has had a number of obstacles and embarrassing moments. When she was co-anchor of the evening news in Baltimore, she was left bald by a botched hair treatment that ruined her hair. As appearance is essential to someone on TV, she was devastated, but that didn’t stop her. She laughs about the situation now saying: “You learn a lot about yourself when you’re bald.” Position Yourself For LuckToo often, we think that people achieve success by being born into the right family, living in the right city or other random factors that we have no control over. The reality is that luck isn’t as arbitrary as many people think.
If you are well-prepared, you open yourself up to the opportunities that will cross your path. Every entrepreneur hopes to get a huge spike in traffic or land a high-roller client, but if they spend their only time hoping, those favorable circumstances are unlikely to arrive. Here are three questions to get yourself in the correct mindset: What opportunity would I most like to receive in my life? If this opportunity came today, am I completely prepared to make the most of it? What can I do to be more prepared? Oprah’s success as a talk show host and businesswoman wasn’t left to chance. She has continuously offered something unique and valuable to millions of people. She has worked passionately on something she loved, kept creative control in her hands and delivered a product that was true to herself. Because of her persevering uniqueness, she opened herself up to the opportunities that made her the wealthy and influential woman she is today.
This article was originally published on Linkedin. from https://businesscollective.com/5-valuable-takeaways-from-oprah-winfreys-success-as-an-entrepreneur/ Chris Gronkowski is a former NFL player turned entrepreneur. He now owns and runs Ice Shaker and Everything Decorated. Follow him @ChrisGronkowski. Who is your hero? (In business, life, or both.) My parents are my heroes. They raised five boys and did an amazing job. All five of their kids made it to the pros, four playing for the NFL. Now that I’m a father, I couldn’t imagine how hard it was to raise five oversized, energetic boys. What’s the single best piece of business advice (unorthodox tips welcome!) that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why? Take care of the people who work for you. It’s hard to find good workers, and the last thing you want to deal with is turnover. If you have a good employee, it’s worth it to pay them more than the going rate. Make sure you keep them around! What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too? My biggest mistake was thinking that I could do everything myself. I was afraid to hire others to take over certain roles in the business. I felt that no one could ever run every aspect of my business as well as I could. But this was preventing the company from growing since I was spending time in the books or on social media instead of finding new revenue streams. What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why? I spend the first hour of my business day at the gym. Working out reduces my stress, increases my patience, energizes me and gives me a clear mind. I think of some of my best ideas while I’m exercising. I also have a chance to run through my game plan for the day in my head — in between sets and during cardio. What’s your best financial/cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started? You don’t have to spend a lot of money to start a business. My wife and I started our first company for less than $1,000. If you have an idea, just make sure it’s a great one before you pump a lot of money into it. Start small and crawl before you run. Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level? If you want to take your business to the next level, you have to build your network. By joining networking groups or clubs, you can share ideas and learn what other entrepreneurs are finding success in. At first, this was hard for me to understand because I always had the mentality that I could take on the world by myself. But having this mentality was actually preventing me from learning from others. What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business? My definition of success would be walking into a completely random gym one day and seeing multiple people using the Ice Shaker and enjoying my product as much as I do. That would be the greatest feeling in the world. from https://businesscollective.com/chris-gronkowski-ice-shaker/ Businesses spend thousands (sometimes tens of thousands) of dollars to market themselves by looking to outside avenues like social media, ad platforms, email marketing and search engine optimization. A far more effective investment is creating a well-equipped internal marketing team — a team of satisfied, educated staff members who are happy to share information about your business. According to SiriusDecisions vice president, Marisa Kopec, up to 80 percent of the content made available by marketing agencies isn’t viewed or downloaded. The problem isn’t the content being produced. It’s a lack of understanding about how individuals make decisions when purchasing. For instance, in my business, that means understanding the details of the patient’s life that led to them to seek physical therapy in the first place. The good news is that when your prospects talk freely with staff, they share information that can help you remove the obstacles that are preventing them from making a commitment to your business. Here’s how to remove those obstacles and increase sales in the process. Understand the Client JourneyUnderstanding the client’s journey is an important factor in marketing. Your client may have a limited view of your business for several reasons. There are times when prospects simply don’t understand the full range of services offered by your business and how they can benefit. Your staff can help dispel misconceptions and fallacies, educate and share success stories. As a founder, it’s also important to understand the problems and limitations that clients face every day. Everyone utilizes their own unique internal emotional value system when choosing how to spend their money. Successful client-engagement mechanisms marketing must address those emotional factors. A meaningful exchange between client and staff helps create a blueprint to educate and empower individuals. This leads to more confidence and eventually more buyers for your product or service. Sell Benefits and Value, Not ProductsFocus on communicating the benefits and value to your prospects and how it can alleviate their specific issues. You’re still selling a product/service, but you should be selling how that product/service benefits the patient or customer. When selling value, begin with the goal the client wants to achieve and tie it to a specific benefit a particular feature creates. For our business, an example would be therapeutic massage. Pain relief is the patient’s goal. The benefit is less pain and easier movement, and the “feature” is therapeutic massage. This is a very important distinction. Potential patients must know how a specific service will meet their needs. Create and Distribute Powerful, Personalized ContentNext, meet with your employees and ensure they understand this distinction and are able to communicate it clearly when they are speaking with potential new clients. Beware of being too technical when providing information. Beware of being too technical; clients want information that’s easy to understand and can be quickly assimilated. Business owners should ensure that all staff members have quick and easy access to the content they’re providing. Staff should have printable take-and-go customizable handouts that they can give to potential clients. Measure, Monitor and ImproveUsing analytics is essential for understanding which strategies produce results. They provide valuable insight into the impact that content is having, where potential clients are accessing it, and which staff members are generating the greatest number of new clients. Business owners can see what content is most often viewed and downloaded, providing a better understanding of the content that resonates best with potential clients. Invest in a content creation strategy and empower your staff to use that content to grow your business. Businesses that provide content that addresses specific client needs and makes that content available to staff are effectively creating a powerful engine for referrals. They are better able to understand the client or customer’s journey. from https://businesscollective.com/how-an-internal-marketing-team-can-be-an-effective-investment/ I have hired hundreds of incredible employees over the past 13 years. During my various mentoring sessions, I am regularly asked how I got to where I am and what advice I have for millennials as they begin their careers. I tell them that it all comes down to your interview. You may have the best resume and the most experience, but if you do not place the same importance and focus on the interview process, you likely will not get the job. Do Your HomeworkYou likely have not left your undergraduate institution without hearing at least once that you should do your research before applying for a job opportunity. It may seem obvious, but too many candidates have a beautiful resume and a boatload of experience but fail at giving the time and attention to the organization and role for which they are applying. Show your potential employer that you care and understand what they are trying to build and how you can best fit that unique role. For example, my best developers shared how they would solve some of my current companies’ technical problems with wireframes and prototypes. Taking the time and initiative in showing how their unique skill sets and experience could be utilized at my company made them stand out from the other candidates. If you do not fully understand the role or specific responsibilities from the job description, do your homework. Find individuals connected to the company or founders and ask them those questions. If you are being actively recruited, ask the recruiter questions specific to the role and company so you can go into the first step of the hiring process fully understanding your potential position. It is not enough to understand the company and its mission: Showcase how you can strategically and uniquely benefit the business as a hire. Ask the Right Questions at the Right TimeRecently, I didn’t hire a candidate because their second question in their first interview with my company was “How would you describe work/life balance for this position?” When I was interviewing for my first job, I made sure never to ask about vacation days or salary in my initial interviews. Wait until after you receive an offer and negotiate all you want. If you are a recent graduate, work/life balance should be your last priority. I truly can’t stress that enough. Work/life balance is something we value greatly as a culture, but I want to see that you are hungry, fully committed and invested in growing at my company. Asking about work/life balance at the start of the hiring process makes the interviewer think you are more focused on your personal life than the potential role. That may not be the case, but your inquiry is a huge red flag. Don’t take yourself out of the race before you need to. Some of the best questions an entrepreneur can hear deal with getting to the root problems we are trying to solve by filling the open position. Showing you care about the work you will be doing at the company and the ways in which you can add value will set you apart from the other candidates. Show You Work With Diligence and ExcellenceWe recently loved a potential candidate for a tech role within our company. This person had a good interview and exceptional experience, and was well-liked and respected by our team. We asked them to complete a tech-focused assignment to see how we would work together and how they think about a problem before we hired them. The candidate completed the project quickly, but the product was so confusing and half-finished that we figured they didn’t understand what we requested. We went back for a second try; again, it seemed like they simply didn’t care. In everything you do, do it with diligence and excellence. Ensure that your cover letter is free of typos and is tailored to the specific role for which you applying. If you need to include portfolio work or a writing sample, ensure it is your best work. Do everything well and follow every direction. If an application packet is missing any item requested, they are usually looked over. Don’t let these simple mistakes prevent you from your dream job. As a startup founder, it’s your job to ask the right questions and follow your intuition when you hear answers or receive questions out of line with your company ethos or culture. The candidate may have the best resume and the most experience, but if they don’t fit in with your culture or understand your vision, no one will be happy. If this next step doesn’t land you your dream job but is a place where you think you can learn or grow, give nothing less than your best in the interview process. Landing this job may be the critical step you need to reach your destination. from https://businesscollective.com/landing-a-job-comes-down-to-the-interview-here-are-3-ways-to-ace-your-next-one/ Do I have your attention? Good. The idea that our attention spans are increasingly shrinking is one we hear all the time. Blame it on the mobile revolution, but we can guarantee that you have likely questioned the state of your attention span at some point. There being so much content to consume online, along with so many interruptions during the day, we often find ourselves reacting from one beep to the next ding without even knowing it. We’ve had to keep this mind when developing our own content here at Yocale, for both our sales pages as well as our blog content. We need to ensure that we get right to the point in a lot of our messaging to ensure people know quickly why our solution is a great one. Since we cater to multiple online bookings and scheduling verticals, the demographics adds another dimension for consideration. Here are actionable steps you can take right now to create the most effective content for shrinking attention spans. An Eye-Catching Headline (and Useful Content) With our increasingly shrinking attention spans, we need to create eye-catching headlines that demand immediate attention. There is a lot that goes into creating a headline, perhaps even more than you realized. But above all, make your headline useful; whether you offer tips, tricks or secrets, if you can provide value in your headline, you will get clicks. Starting Out With a Bang: Make It Personal or Use Humor You need to come out with a bang in each and every blog post. How? By connecting with your audience. Tell a brief story or make it personal in some way. Add a bit of personality; crack a joke. If you can get away with less of a stiff tone, you will also connect with your readers by showing yourself to be relatable. Here’s a look at how to make your copy more engaging. Making Your Content Digestible Just because our attention spans are shrinking, doesn’t mean you have to create goldfish-approved content that isn’t longer than nine seconds. In fact, your content strategy should include a mixture of both short-form and long-form content. The key is to make longer content more digestible and/or easily scannable. Consider that 43 percent of internet users skim blog posts and you begin to see why. Research from Pew shows that while shorter content is more common and receives more traffic, people read long-form content nearly just as much as they read short-form content. It also gets more shares. Provide fast answers by making your content easily digestible and scannable. This is the key to a positive user experience. You can do that with:
Include Visual Elements Whether you use high-quality images like screenshots or infographics, every piece of content that you produce should include visual elements. Images shouldn’t just be added for the sake of it, but rather, to enhance the content in some way. Infographics are particularly great because they are a compelling way to present data while also being memorable. Interactivity The question has always been how to create engaging content, but in today’s landscape with so many things vying for our attention at once, and perhaps because of our limited attention spans, the need to keep readers engaged becomes even more of a pressing concern. One answer is to use interactive content, which is a highly engaging form of content because it involves the user in a personalized way. Interactive content takes a variety of forms, from trivia to polls and surveys. Diversify Your Content Content is quickly diversifying and it looks like video is increasingly leading the way. According to YouTube, almost a third of the people on the internet watch YouTube videos, and they spend hundreds of millions of hours watching these videos every single day. Live video is also receiving more and more attention (cue Facebook Live) and is relatively cheap and quick to produce. It’s a great tool for businesses to connect with their customers in a structured way, all while doing so in real-time. Design Elements You’ve got the headline. You’ve formatted it with headings and bolded relevant sections. Perhaps you’ve even included an infographic. All that is left to do is to think about the design elements. Here’s quick checklist to make your content as effective as possible:
Are you with us, fellow goldfish? Thought so. In wrapping all of this up, hook your readers with an engaging headline and an entertaining first few sentences. Make your content digestible, include visual and interactive elements and ensure that you’ve nailed the design element. A version of this post originally appeared here. from https://businesscollective.com/creating-effective-content-for-shrinking-attention-spans/ |
ABOUT MEHi I am Brenda Feaster from New York city. Recently completed my business studies. I always helps others in my area specially the entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses this also increases my own abilities as well. I also recently started my own food business and its going well. ArchivesNo Archives Categories |