How Your Startup Can Master the Art of Emailing

With the amount of emails flooding in every day, it can be difficult to stand out, especially for a new business. Whether your startup needs more clients, partners, customers, or publicity, it’s important to create high quality content for your email campaigns. Here are three ways to get your startup’s email marketing campaign off on the right foot:

(Curated from Entrepreneur)

Get Personal

If copy writing isn’t really your thing, don’t sweat it -- this will probably make your emails sound like they’re from an actual person instead of a sales robot.

“Let your personality show. It will make your message more engaging for readers -- unless that message is self-centered, long-winded or confusing. Your emails should be clear, concise and focused on your audience’s needs.”

Think Small

Rather than treating email like a dating app and taking the “swipe right on everyone” approach, focus on sending the right content to the right people.

“Even though we’ve compiled a big media list, we spend most of our time researching the right journalists to pitch to for each new study we publish. We don’t automatically email everyone in our database just because we have their contact info or we’ve emailed them before. Instead, the story has to be a relevant and potentially valuable resource for the reporter(s) targeted. Creating small, targeted email lists has helped increase our open and response rates, as well as build relationships and credibility with our audience.”

Analyze Your Data

Looking at your email data and making some adjustments to your next campaign is easy, but what about comparing multiple campaigns or targeting high-priority people over time? One way to keep improving results is to manually track key data. If you don’t use email software, you may already do this. If not, then consider creating a simple Excel spreadsheet or another format for record keeping.

“Decide what info is most useful to you and how much detail to include. Having your data in one place will save you time by making it easier to collaborate, analyze behavior and ensure appropriate follow-ups. Ideally, you’ll begin to notice patterns and gaps beyond the typically reported stats, and you can continuously optimize your email strategy.”

Have any great email marketing tips of your own? Share them in the comments below!

How Entrepreneurs Can Rediscover Their Motivation

As an entrepreneur, you’re often faced with difficult challenges on a day-to-day basis, and it can be easy to lose the motivation to keep going. If you feel like you’re losing your drive, here are some easy ways to keep yourself motivated, even when you’ve got other things on your mind:

(Curated from Tech.Co)

Focus on One Task at a Time

When your to-do list has been building up for a while, it can be difficult knowing where to begin and how to get started. The key is to just sit down and focus on one task at a time.

“Telling yourself that you have to sit down and accomplish an hour or two of work is much easier than chaining yourself to a desk for the entire day. You’ll probably find that when you view your tasks individually, you’re able to effectively push yourself through the day without breaking a sweat.”

Don’t Forget Your Goals

What’s the big-picture strategy for your company? What exactly did you set out to accomplish? Are you trying to get a foothold in a competitive market, or were you seeking financial freedom?

“Motivation comes from an emotional desire for something. If you can reconnect with the reason you undertook your responsibilities, you can often find the inner drive to push yourself.”

Surround Yourself with Supportive People

If you’re a one man or woman show, it may be helpful to surround yourself with like minded people while you work to accomplish your goals. Surrounding yourself with negative people will make doing so much more difficult.

“Consider heading down to a coworking space. These places are often full of other freelancers and entrepreneurs who live a very similar lifestyle to you. It can be inspiring to be surrounded by people who have accomplished your goals, or who are starting out just like you once did. If you prefer to work in a solitary environment, you can always spruce up your desk a little bit. De-cluttering your workspace can be almost like de-cluttering your mind, creating room for you to focus on your responsibilities.”

Push Yourself, but Not Too Hard

Setting big goals is important when running a business, but you can’t build a successful career if you’re constantly demanding too much from yourself. If you don’t feel like accomplishing much, you’ll want to set the bar a little lower.

“Try pushing yourself to complete two hours of uninterrupted work. Anyone can find the motivation to push themselves when it’s only for an hour or two. When you’re having a better day, you can stretch yourself a little more. Remember, it’s not always about being the best. Sometimes, it’s just about being a little better than you were the day before.”

What are your tips for staying motivated? Share them in the comments below!

6 Major Branding Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Branding, a commonly used term throughout the business world, essentially means to create an identifiable entity that makes a promise of value. While branding is not an easy task, it’s one that should be taken very seriously. Numerous startups try, but many fail at creating a successful brand. Here’s how to avoid some common pitfalls and branding mistakes.

(Curated from Tech.Co)

1. Don’t Forget to Trademark

Have you registered your brand’s trademark yet? If not, you’re not alone -- many brand owners fail to do so. However, as soon as you create a brand, it’s important to file a record of the trademark itself under your name with the right government offices.

“Deal with every single infraction of your brand use guidelines and any possible violation of your trademark. If you don’t, you may lose the chance to take any action at all. The point of your trademark is to protect your brand reputation, and keep the competition from copying your work or diluting your brand value. Make sure it does that by addressing infractions.”

2. Do Your Research

Before you choose a name, logo, look, and voice for your brand, do thorough research online. Not only will this help you make the right choices, it could also help protect you against infringing on the intellectual property rights of others.

“Use Google for your research, and when it comes to choosing names, domains, and other branding elements, also search visitcopyright.gov before you make permanent branding decisions.”

3. Choose a Good Domain Name

One of the most important elements of your branding is the right choice of domain name. You want something that reflects your company’s name, but nothing that’s too long, too confusing, or too irrelevant.

“First, make sure you get a good domain name extension. The most popular right now are “.com” and “.co” for general business. But there are many new options out there. There is nothing wrong with picking an industry-specific or even country-specific domain. In general, avoid dashes or numbers in your domain name, and make sure it’s easy to spell. You can also check for similar social media profile URLs.”

4. Pick a Unique Name

Choosing the right name for your business seems simple enough, but before you even start brainstorming names, you need figure out what your company is really about. Also, be careful not to pick a name that’s already popular or has some seriously negative online history.

“Don’t forget, a name that’s too close for comfort may be infringing. Imagine building up your business for 10 years only to find out that you are no longer able to use that name.”

5. Carefully Choose Style Features

Before choosing your brand’s colors, it’s a good idea to know the meaning of them. Have a consistent visual picture and logo that comes to represent your company. The graphics and visuals that represent your brand evoke an emotional response in clients and potential customers.

“Choosing colors, images and other visuals that just don’t work with what you’re doing can dead-end your branding strategy. For example, pink may be your favorite color, but it may work against your new software brand.”

6. Check Cultural Significance of the Name

Your name says a lot about your startup. Be sure to check every reiteration, reference, stigma, or foreign swear word that could be associated with your name, or else you could end up in hot water with another country.

“Content can go viral in hours, so don’t set yourself up for an embarrassing failure in the cultural awareness department. Make sure to review how your name is interpreted in all the major countries you will be doing business in.”

What are some of your top branding tips for startups? Let us know in the comments below!

How to Know If Entrepreneurship Is Right for You

Many people dream of opening their own business, but not everyone has what it takes. How do you know if you’re cut out for the job? While there is no simple way of gauging whether you are or not, there are certain traits and characteristics that come as red flags for someone looking to start a business. Here are some signs that you are not cut out for the entrepreneurial life:

(Curated from Tech.Co)

You Get Along with Everyone

People-pleasers make great salesmen and customer service reps because they are empathetic and shy away from confrontation; however, these are not good traits to have as an aspiring entrepreneur.

“Startup founders and business owners need to be able to put their foot down and demand the things they need. Whether it’s funding, employees, or the right influencer, an entrepreneurs need to be able to stake their claim, regardless of the people that need pleasing.”

You Follow Orders

The world is made of followers and leaders. Which one are you? If you’re comfortable with being an order-taker for the rest of your life, perhaps entrepreneurship is not for you. If, on the other hand, you thrive at making tough decisions and giving some orders, that may be the spark of entrepreneurship.

“Entrepreneurs don’t follow orders. They make their own path and create the circumstances needed to succeed. Even if experts advise otherwise, an entrepreneur acts on well-informed instinct, and those instincts are usually right. Following orders gets in the way of the creative process, and an entrepreneur without creativity might as well start greeting people at Walmart.”

You Love the Status Quo

The status quo helps regulate the business world in many ways -- It lets potential candidates know what it takes to get hired, it keeps employees informed on how to keep their jobs, and it makes it easier for managers to keep track of their team. However, true entrepreneurs are always challenging the status quo.

“Entrepreneurs have no business in the status quo. They’re all about mixing things up, innovating new technologies, and revolutionizing the standard way things get done. As far as entrepreneurs are concerned, “status quo” is a curse word that should never leave their lips. Unless, of course it’s in the sentence, “to hell with the status quo!”

So, based on the above: are you cut out for the entrepreneurial life?

Major Challenges Startups Face and How to Overcome Them

Startups deal with a number of growing pains, but knowing and anticipating the roadblocks you may encounter in your startup journey could help you prepare beforehand, and possibly avoid common pitfalls. Here are four major challenges startups face and how to overcome them:

(Curated from Tech.Co)

1. Rapid Growth

It may seem like a dream come true to see your startup grow at an enormous rate; however, many startups fail because their owners aren’t prepared for rapid growth and don’t know how to handle it.

“Experienced entrepreneurs consider this kind of phase to be one of the best opportunities for their startup, though, and not an obstacle. By realizing that this is the right time to move out of the startup mode and leap into the scale-up mode, startup owners can start hiring the right kind of talent and carry out the organizational changes that are required to handle this massive shift in their paradigm.”

2. Financial Management

What exactly goes wrong to cause a startup to run out of money? Often, it’s because they fail to achieve the next set milestone before they run out of funds.

“The real issue is that it becomes tough to secure more funding in such a scenario since the results don’t match the expected growth. Even though it’s still possible for startups to raise more funds and keep the ball rolling, the valuation would be much lower.”

3. Competition

Competition is fierce and poses as one of the biggest challenges for the survival of startup businesses, especially if your business operates online. The competitive environment keeps startups on their toes, as there is no margin of error available. But if startups can find a niche market and differentiate themselves from their competitors, the reward is great.

“Though many businesses can choose to offer rock bottom prices for specific products or services to lure in potential customers, implementing this could be tricky if the associated industry or manufacturer has specified a MAP Policy,” says Daniel Relich, CEO and co-founder of Tradevitality, a MAP monitoring software.”

4. Tough Market

The current market is always changing, which can make it difficult for startups to keep up.

“Although a vast majority of startups across the globe strive for innovation, they are highly likely to get easily distracted by starting multiple projects, trying to penetrate new markets or adopting latest technologies. This often makes them lose sight of their niche market and core projects.”

Another reason why startups fail is because they don’t create a product or service that meets the market’s current needs. This could either point towards an issue with basic execution or a bigger strategic problem. The solution is to build something which truly adds value to the market and has a large audience that needs it.

What are some of your suggestions and ideas for startups to find success? Let us know!

How Startups Can Prevent Cyber Attacks

As a startup owner, your main priority is probably the growth of your company. You are dealing with long working hours, payroll, and the many hassles that come with building your own business. Most likely, cyber security is not on top of your mind­, but it should be. According to security firm ThreatMetrix, startups are considered to be an especially easy prey for hackers: in 2014, 85% of all data breaches were directed at small businesses and startups. Here are some of the best ways to protect your startup from cyber attacks:

(Curated from Tech.Co)

First, make sure all of your business passwords are protected, and don’t share them with other people. Doing so gives anyone and everyone unlimited access to your startup’s documents, which would be very bad for business. Create strong passwords by using lower and upper case letters, numbers, and symbols.

“Also, periodically changing passwords keeps your device safe from intruders who are out there predicting your easy to guess code.”

It’s also a good idea to back up all of your files in order to prevent damage to important information, which can cost proportional loss to your company. Making copies of important data periodically can protect your files from natural calamities, device failures, theft, and loss due to technical glitches.

“Though cyber attacks are often associated with hi-tech infiltrations carried out from an external location, don’t fall into the trap of letting important information walk out the door on a USB stick or compact disc.”

Make sure that your employees are properly educated -- if they don’t comply with IT best practices, they may unintentionally cause safety issues in your organization.

“Because employees provide such an open pathway to your business, it is recommended to conduct training about the importance of information security and the dos and don’ts. Security threats like phishing and social engineering can easily be prevented when everyone is aware and alert.”

Protect your computers and networks by installing a good anti-virus software. Did you know that it’s illegal to use free anti-virus software for business purposes? A free anti-virus software comes with no guarantee and is seldom or never updated to catch latest viruses and malware.

“The price paid for enterprise anti-virus software is far less when measured against the value it delivers. It is updated periodically to prevent your business against the latest threats.”

Always use a secure internet connection. These days, public and free internet access can be found virtually everywhere. However, a device with crucial information like credit card numbers, usernames and passwords, business data, or anything else important should not be used in conjunction with public Wi-Fi.

“Intruders may get access to your device and ultimately all your information once while your device belongs to a public network. A secure connection is set up with a username and password, and only authorized users can enter that system, this way we can easily trace back in case of any discrepancies”

What other cyber security tips do you have for startups? Let us know!

Here’s What to Consider When Managing Millennials

As more and more baby boomers retire, millennials are becoming the majority of the workforce. What does this mean for business owners? Well, before hiring a millennial, it’s important to consider that this generation’s upbringing has been entirely different from the generations before them. With exposure to technology at a young age, their skill-sets and the expectations placed on them may differ from those that were placed on someone who entered the workforce 20 years ago. When it comes to managing millennials in the workplace, here are some important things to consider:

(Curated from Pittsburgh Business Times)

Provide Exposure

It’s important to millennials that they be exposed to all areas of a business. They want to learn the ins and outs and gain a deeper understanding of the way the business operates.

“One way to do this is by offering internships or hiring college students part-time. It also serves as a prime opportunity to vet a potential future full-time employee’s work style. Doing so also benefits the business greatly as the millennial's unique perspective may provide some guidance on new ways to reach their generation that you may not have otherwise learned.”

Be Flexible

Millennials by nature don't really like rules. If you press too hard on them to comply with the company's position on things like hours, attire, or workspace, you could very easily find yourself losing a good employee.

“Allowing millennials to create their own hours means they’re happier and working more efficiently. Rather than setting hours based on face-time, moving to task-oriented or project-based work and evaluating performance in real time fosters improved happiness in the workplace. As far as the physical workplace, the setup of the office should be evaluated as well. Creating a space that is a collaborative working environment means removing the cubicle walls and eliminating private offices. Having an open office with different workspaces for teams creates a sense of camaraderie, rather than a feeling of being isolated in cubicles.”

Stay Tech Savvy

Millennials are a generation that was exposed to technology from day one, so they will expect their employer to have the most up-to-date technology. They’re also used to being able to work any time of the day or night while having access to what they need at their fingertips.

“Taking advantage of this knowledge will prove beneficial to a small business when it comes to knowing how to select, use and learn software. A great way to get them more involved with the business is to consider getting millennials involved with your social media presence, as it’s generally a strong suit of theirs.”

Give Feedback

Millennials want feedback on how they are doing, they want that feedback often, and they want it right now. Remember to coach and provide a learning opportunity for millennial workers when developing a leadership and feedback style for them.

“Developing a structured feedback style where check-ins are done on a regular basis — perhaps weekly — creates an understanding of what is expected and provides the necessary space for exploration and learning as well. Coupling this with a rewards or recognition program and aligning benefits with the company’s core values and beliefs provides millennials with motivation and the right tools to succeed.”

Though managing millennials can certainly be challenging—particularly for managers who have no experience in this area—it can yield many benefits as they are smart, creative, tech-savvy, and resourceful workers. What other tips do you have for managing Millennials?