The New Entrepreneur

Trust isn’t easy to come by in today’s marketplace, where most consumers conduct online research before making a purchase. Thought leadership is one of the most worthwhile marketing strategies for attaining consumer trust and boosting brand value. Not only does this marketing strategy keep your content well from running dry, but it also helps your business attract website visitors, talented employees, potential partnerships and new customers. Despite its lofty title, thought leadership is essentially the sharing of industry expertise with the goal of establishing your business as an authoritative leader in the field. Successful thought leadership marketing is about harnessing your existing knowledge and sharing it to inform and inspire others, without specifically promoting your products/services (although you will undoubtedly see an increase in sales). So how is it done? Read on to learn the who, what, where, when and why of turning your brand into a trusted source that consumers turn to.

Dr. Mik Kersten, CEO of Tasktop, recently published a book titled Project to Product: How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of Digital Disruption with the Flow Framework. In his book Dr. Kersten discusses The Flow Framework - a new approach for connecting the business to technology, which bridges the gap between business strategy and technology delivery. Dr. Kersten discusses three vital epiphanies he had that revolutionized how he thinks about software delivery. In this excerpt, he discusses these epiphanies and how his revised angle of attack benefited his business.

We're excited about the progress women leaders in the workplace have been making this year with news of GM's C-suite leadership and other announcements like Pepsi's charge to have women constitute 40% of its management team. Aspiring women leaders may still be discouraged by poor statistics, however. Less than 5% of Fortune 500 companies listed female CEOs in 2018 (source).  Under-representation of women in the business world can mean continued wage inequality, poor company policies on health and maternal care, and an inability to reach female customers effectively. Luckily, companies like Toptal are making strides to change those numbers and help smart, talented women earn the roles they deserve. Toptal, an exclusive network of top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, and project managers, has a scholarship program for aspiring women leaders in 2018-19. Aspiring women leaders are eligible to apply for a $10,000 grant and a year of mentorship from a Toptal expert. 

If you started an online retail business from scratch, or first ventured in selling products from your brick-and-mortar store, it will have been a daunting challenge. The choices are overwhelming in setting up an e-commerce website ranging from do-it-yourself solutions, seemingly low-price website builders, and pricey developers, to full-service companies. The quotes you will get will range from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars. All these suppliers will tell you that their e-commerce website solution is precisely what you need, and in most cases, will scale fully when your business takes off.

It’s hard to build a loyal client base for any business, but new businesses definitely have a long road ahead of them. Without a long-standing reputation, it can be hard to gain the trust of potential clients. That’s why it’s so important to build solid relationships with every single customer you receive so as to ensure that they stick around and improve the overall reputation of your business. Let’s talk about some smart client retention techniques. Solve a problem in the industry. The world of business can be brutally competitive. You can either stand back and let rival companies overtake your business, or you can be brave enough to take the lead in your industry. There are only so many potential customers to go around in your specific market, so you need to attract consumers who are currently buying similar goods to yours from your competitors. That’s the key to client base growth. But the only way you’re going to achieve this is by solving a problem that consumers face when they buy goods or services from your competitors. Perhaps the price is too high, or perhaps they’re not getting a completely ethical service.

America is the land of opportunity and nothing proves that more than the entrepreneurial spirit of small business owners. But as any business owner can tell you, the path to a successful business is long and not without its share of difficulties. Small business owners often dedicate their lives to their businesses. While big corporations are still asleep in their beds, small business owners are already tolling away to meet their sales goals for the day. The demands of running a small business often require owners to stretch their resources, like time, money, and manpower. So, having resources to show them just how to do that are essential. Resources for Success Small business owners often walk a tightrope in allocating resources and trying to find the right formula to keep their business profitable. Those resources aren’t always obvious. With over 50% of businesses in the U.S., the small business world is a competitive one, so finding the right information to help make your business a success critical. Fit Small Business was designed with the small business owner in mind. Their site is an encyclopedia of information for business owners that answers questions about everything from how to start a small business to how to expand their brand. Owning a small business can feel like you are navigating the open sea alone. That’s why Fit Small Business has real tips from small business owners included in all their content, giving business owners the guidance they need from others that are on the same journey.

A lot of business owners are still really intimidated by SEO and the general difficulty of it. They just don’t understand all of the technical mumbo-jumbo and they also don’t have the time to devote to it either. The truth is that SEO is now no longer difficult. It’s really easy and if you have the right mentality and the right commitment then there is absolutely no reason why you can’t go on to experience a huge amount of success. Any business owner can become a master of SEO, and this is especially the case when you have the right tools at your disposal. Is SEO That Hard? Those who are not familiar with website development may hear the words “Google algorithm” and instantly feel uneasy. Sure, the algorithm is complex and it is really difficult, but there is no reason why you can’t go on to be successful with it. The truth is that sophisticated algorithms don’t actually need a sophisticated strategy, and it’s really easy for you to go out there and achieve positive results. Google wants to provide the best online experience and if everything was as hard as you think it is then they wouldn’t be able to do that - purely because nobody would have a clue how to get started.

There are three important factors that come together when determining the success of a project. These are, of course, quality, budget, and time. In this post, we are going to deal with the latter. After all, time management is one of the most difficult things that for any project manager, especially when scope creep kicks in and things go wrong during the project lifecycle. After all, it is difficult, if not impossible, for a project to run exactly as you expected it to when you finalised your project plan. With that in mind, read on to discover some of the best time management tips that will help any project manager, no matter what type of project they are working on. Achieve scheduling success There was only one place to begin, and this is with scheduling effectively and creating plans. One of the main reasons why project teams fall behind is because they are not working efficiently. If you did not create a schedule for your entire project team, then it is impossible to work efficiently because people will be working on the wrong tasks. Even worse, there are occasions where two people end up working on the same thing because there is a lack of direction and clarity regarding who does what. You can find templates for this online, which will make this incredibly easy for you. You should make the most of these templates because once everybody knows what they are supposed to be doing and when it will be a lot easier for you to stay on track.