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After attending the 2014 New York Start-Up Conference Events, I realized that the entrepreneurs in this computer age are luckier than those who have started doing business decades ago. The reason is that practically everyone has access now to new and mostly free promotional tools that can reach people no matter where they may be across the globe. Say, you may post blogs on a website or upload images or videos on your social media channels. Alice Boyes, Ph.D. explains, “Sometimes we mentally attribute responding quickly to an opportunity as part of the reason we were successful. For instance, you see an email about an item that’s on sale and immediately buy that item, but actually it was on sale and available all week.”

Continue reading “Realizing The Importance Of Using E-Mail For Business Through 2014 New York Start Up Conference Events”

Many employees decide to start their own business. When they were still employees, they had supervisors or managers who would be the ones to specify their deadlines and their goals. These individuals were their motivators. Now that they started their own business, they are now their boss. They now have to motivate themselves. Below are ten tips on how entrepreneurs can become motivated.

Tip #1: Create A Mission Statement For Yourself

Every company has a vision or mission statement. The vision or mission statement describes the fundamental core values, the culture, and the overall goals of the business organization. It is mainly used to specify the direction of the business organization. It is also used to motivate all of the company’s stakeholders. Having your mission statement can do the same thing for you.

You should write down the mission statement. You should carry a copy with you. You should read it regularly. You should memorize it. It is a reminder of the reasons behind your decision to become an entrepreneur. Julie Goldstein, PhD, wrote, “Pinpointing a vision statement and a mission statement requires not only a deep connection to your work, but also creativity. You may find a profound sense of purpose in your new venture, but if you lack the ability to articulate your goals or the ability to put your passion into practice, your business will likely have a difficult time getting off the ground.”

Tip #2: Create A Personal Plan

A business organization’s vision or mission statement is worthless unless a plan is created to carry out the vision or mission. You should also create a plan for yourself both professionally and personally. It should include your goals in the long term and the short term. Unlike the mission statement, it is not necessary to keep a hard copy of your professional and personal plans. Your professional and personal situation will change as time passes, and you will need to adjust your professional and personal plans accordingly. The goal of creating a personal plan is to know what you wish to achieve and how you intend to accomplish this.

Tip #3: Establish A Routine

Motivating yourself is all about starting yourself. Because of this, the new entrepreneur should begin each day with a great routine in the morning. This routine should help the new entrepreneur’s body and mind be focused and alert for the rest of the day. The daily routine each morning should include some time spent in refining and reviewing your plan. Dan Ariely, PhD, wrote, “It’s all about opportunity cost, what you’re giving up. Calendars help us see the opportunity cost of our decisions.”

Tip #4: Allocate Some Personal Time

New entrepreneurs tend to become completely immersed in their business. You must allocate some personal time for yourself each day. You can spend this time to exercise, to meditate or to take a stroll through the park. You can also use this time to develop the habit of drinking water and to eat healthy food.

Tip #5: List Down Reminders

It is usually challenging to stay on track. Create reminders for each of the goals and important tasks you have specified for the day. Use an alarm to remind you of these goals and tasks.

Tip #6: Look Forward To Incentives

Kendra Cherry, MS, wrote, “According to one theory of human motivation, our actions are often inspired by a desire to gain outside reinforcement. The incentive theory is one of the major theories of motivation and suggests that behavior is motivated by a desire for reinforcement or incentives.” People work best when a reward or incentive is involved. Create a reward or an incentive for achieving a task or a goal.

Tip #7: Seek Assistance From Friends Or Pros

Peer pressure is sometimes the ideal motivator. Ask your colleagues and friends to assist you in motivating you as you try to achieve your goals. Similarly, mental health professionals (try BetterHelp) may give you the support and advice that you need.

Tip #8: Look For Inspiration

Sometimes you need to find inspiration elsewhere. You could watch again a movie that inspired you. Or you could watch an inspirational video on YouTube.

Tip #9: Be Positive

Staying positive throughout the day is very important. You could prepare a technique or a routine for times when you are feeling down. You could listen to inspiring music to lift your spirits. Or you could make a cheerful or uplifting mantra that you would chant to yourself.

Tip #10: Get Enough Sleep

Getting sufficient sleep is also very important. It is okay to miss a goal or to leave a task unfinished to get enough sleep. And these goals or tasks will be much easier to achieve after a good night’s rest.

There are more than fifteen high school million students in the USA. Many of these students will decide to start their own business. Becoming an entrepreneur is dynamic and fun. It is also a respected career path. Below are eight tips for students in high school who want to become an entrepreneur.

Tip #1: Start Now

“To improve your own creative practice, you might develop your own list or set of reminder prompts,” suggests Wilma Koutstaal, Ph.D., who is a psychology professor at the University of Minnesota. “What are some verbs or action words that you could bring to mind to help you ignite –– or to perceive and notice –– new possible directions for experimentation and trial-and-error in your creative process?”  The best time to start is right now. Write down the ideas in a notebook that has been swimming inside that mind of yours. From that list, select the best idea. Determine first what makes it the best idea. Discuss the idea with your peers. Get comments from your potential customers and your teachers, parents, and friends.

You could start with a simple business such as dog walking, yard work, or babysitting. Then make your business as legitimate as possible. You could register your business, get a business license, and obtain a tax identification number.

Tip #2: Look For Business Mentors

Finding a mentor is extremely important. And it is not that hard to get a mentor. Many successful people in business are very willing to share their knowledge and experience. You might feel intimidated by the idea of approaching someone. However, you should go and ask a local businessman if they can assist and mentor you in your business endeavor. “By far, the most important role of a mentor is to support and encourage young people, particularly as they struggle to overcome obstacles and solve problems,” notes Marilyn Price-Mitchell, Ph.D., Fellow at the Institute for Social Innovation at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara. She explains, “Knowing they are not being judged helps young people think through decisions critically, sifting through the deeper values that will inform the adults they become.”

Tip #3: Find A Job

Finding a job might be contradictory to the notion of starting your own business. However, working for a company allows you to gain experience in interacting with customers and people. Gaining experience in this is very useful in creating a successful company. You can start gaining this type of experience by working at a local supermarket or a fast-food restaurant.

Tip #4: Learn To Accept Failure And View It As A Lesson

Everybody experiences failure. What is important is that you learn from your failures. The knowledge you gain from your failures can help you become successful. The most significant hindrance you will encounter is the fear of failing. Because of this fear, you might not even try. Try. And, if you fail, learn from the experience. And then try again using the lessons you have learned.

Tip #5: Leave Your Comfort Zone

Be true to yourself. Participate in an academic or sports club. Run for class president. Join the school paper. You have to learn how to market yourself. Becoming a leader and learning to market yourself is basically what being an entrepreneur is all about. You will gain valuable lessons from working with others on a team. “[I]n shying away from the challenges that would enable them to do so, they end up feeling frustrated and dissatisfied—not only with themselves but with their lives in general,” says clinical psychologist Leon F Seltzer, Ph.D., “But without being proactive in breaking through the barriers that are keeping them stuck, the pursuits that could lead to their greater happiness and fulfillment remain unexamined.”

Tip #6: Join A Theater Group

Joining a theater group helps you develop many useful skills. You learn to work with people. You learn to overcome your shyness, and you need this if you want to start your own business.

Tip #7: Take Your Math and English Classes Seriously

Math and English lessons are fundamental. With proper knowledge in Mathematics, you will not depend on a bookkeeper or an accountant when you are starting your own business. When your business succeeds, and you can afford a bookkeeper and an accountant, you will still need to be able to keep track of your finances.

English is also vital. You will need to be able to communicate appropriately. You will need to be able to persuade your potential customers.

Tip #8: Learn To Spot Opportunities

Look around your neighborhood and your community for opportunities. You could look for a problem that your neighborhood is experiencing. You could then try to come up with a business idea that will provide a solution to the problem.

 

 

 

Source: daughtersofafrica.org

 

Building a business has a lot of benefits. You are your own boss, you are doing something that you love, and you work on your own time. It’s quite great to be calling the shots, although it’s also a big responsibility to take. Business is not all pleasure. It does include anxiety, stress, worry, and physical and mental fatigue. Michael A. Freeman, MD, wrote that “that 49 per cent of entrepreneurs will suffer from at least one mental health condition in their lifetime compared to 25 per cent of the general adult population who will struggle with mental health concerns.” That is why it is essential that entrepreneurs must take care of their physical and emotional health. Both of these aspects need attention, as being fit physically and emotionally are vital in becoming a strong leader, an industrious worker, and a happy individual as a whole. Below is a list of psychologist-approved tips on how businessmen and women can remember to take care of their overall health.

Entrepreneurial stress can originate from one’s desire to make money, job conflicts, or from fear of failing (but it can be a result of anything, actually, if you’re an entrepreneur). This is harmful to an entrepreneur’s emotional and physical health, which is why he must find ways to fight it.

Psychologist-Approved Tips

1. Be Mindful Of Your Emotional Well-Being. Be conscious of your emotions so that you are ready to protect them. If most of your friends think you’re as hard as steel, perhaps it’s time for an emotional check. Emily Griffiths, MA, LPC, wrote, “The more you slow down and experience what you’re feeling and thinking, the more access you have to your intuition, the better decisions you make, the better the flow of your life.”

Be mindful of your mood for the day. Did you wake up feeling peaceful and happy, with only nice things in mind? Or did you feel that you looked grumpy, tired, and depressed? Are you inspired to work today, or do you still feel like a failure, just the way you felt the day before? If so, think of changing your mindset even when you’re still in bed. Fill yourself with positivity by creating fresh ideas in your mind on how to improve your business. When you get an idea of your overall mood for the week, you will get a hint of what you need to do and how to do it right.

2. Break Away From Your Schedule. If you’ve gotten used to eating pancakes for breakfast and getting a cup of brewed coffee on your break, perhaps you might want to break away from that routine once in a while. As an entrepreneur, good habits are powerful tools for productivity, but small routines can sometimes be a cause for diminishing emotional health. Sherrie Campbell, PhD, wrote, “It is easy to be passionate when you are starting out, but successful entrepreneurs commit to keeping their energy levels high when they hit the inevitable, frustrating roadblocks. To be successful you have to care for yourself physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.”

Source: pixabay.com

If you’re used to working in your home office because it’s quiet and hassle-free, it can also ignite feelings of isolation. Try going to the workplace tomorrow, share a space with your employees, and listen to what they have to say. This may remind you that you’re not alone in the business world and you don’t have to do all the work on your own. Get out of that stressful space and get inside a refreshing atmosphere where you can refuel your energy and interest.

3. Create A Warm And Relaxing Space. If you’re not so much of a creative thinker yourself, you can always scan through the pages of Pinterest and find images of a workspace that would suit your taste. Make it colorful if you think you can focus more on a multicolored office. Place some scented candles, those that can help you focus and relax at the same time. Most of all, keep it clean and organized. A messy space usually clutters the mind too.

Whatever design or style you choose, think of it as something that is a haven for your body, mind, and spirit. This space is where you will spend most of your day so you must create an environment that will positively affect you.

4. Turn Stressors And Anxieties Into Challenges. This can be difficult to do, but once you try it and succeed at your first attempt, you’ll be sure to emerge stronger and better. Using your weaknesses as weapons for helping you improve as an entrepreneur may be one of the most useful techniques available to you. Maybe these stressors will shake you a bit, and you can allow it. It’s okay to feel bad. But don’t stay down. If you’re feeling like your stress and anxiety levels have hit the rooftop, take a deep breath and back up a few steps so you can see the problem from afar. And then focus on using these negativities to empower yourself.

Source: flickr.com

Also, be sure that you are certain of what you need to do for the rest of the day. You should have a daily to-do list, and by mid-afternoon, you should have crushed most of the things on this list. Commit to do everything that’s on the list, and do it right.

Protecting your emotional health as an entrepreneur is not wrong at all. In fact, you do not need to feel so drained, depressed, and overworked just to prove that you are successful with your business. Confidence, happiness, and efficiency will look great on you!

If you are seeking emotional help, you can get it from BetterHelp. They have great psychologists who can give you tips on what to do whenever your career messes you up internally.

 

 

Why Most Entrepreneurs Fail (A Therapist Self-Awareness Guide)

If you are someone who starts a business that goes from becoming an employee to an entrepreneur, you need to take risks. There is a need for understanding the number one outcome of surviving the whole frustrating and exhausting parts of entrepreneurship. As you already know, the system is jam-packed with billions of people who didn’t make it. That is enough reason to make you feel disheartened and worried about your business future too. Perhaps you often tell your family, friends, therapist, or other people that you are incapable of handling business failure. According to Kimberly Key PhD, “The inherent and pervasive fear from kicking off an entrepreneurial venture can activate your primal brain to protect you and make you abandon your venture (either through procrastination of a needed but dreaded task, overwhelmed helplessness, poor relational functioning, etc.).” But why is that? Well, that’s what we are going to talk about.

Survive The Business

The primary goal of a business is surviving. Everyone knows that handling it means everything is in a shot-clock. It means there’s this consideration of resources and of how much money you have saved in the bank. That also includes the calculation of how those financial resources can cover your expenses for quite some time. But that’s not the entire focus of the whole progress of the business. We will elaborate things on that so spare some time to read carefully.

Front And Back End Of The Business

The first one is front-end or the process of focusing on getting customers. The other one is the back-end. It caters the system, support, business growth, and entrepreneurial skills.

In most cases, people often come through the back-end because they want to find a way to make the company better. They often think that it’s the primary reason for entrepreneurial survival. With that, they begin to work on their skills. They gather a lot of information on how to run the business smoothly. However, these individuals don’t realize that efficiency becomes irrelevant when you are just starting up a business. The truth is, the skills and effort don’t always matter. That’s because you can do everything you can to find short-cuts. There’s no right or wrong process of handling the skills in the business because all will fall into the categories of perseverance, motivation, and willingness to stay on the particular entrepreneurial state.

The business front-end, on the other hand, stands for the types of customers you want in the business. These are the potential and existing customers. The sooner you can identify the types of customers you want in your business, the sooner you can scale it. Robert Rosenthal, PsyD, a psychologist, notes “The vast majority of marketers aren’t psychologists. But many successful marketers regularly employ psychology in appealing to consumers. Smart, skillful, honest marketers use psychology legally, ethically and respectfully to attract and engage consumers, and compel them to buy.” Potential customers are those people you keep on adding into your list that could outgrow your system. It could be fifty, a hundred, two hundred names of people, and so on. However, you need to be mindful. The problem with too much focus on potential customers is the unnoticeable treatment you give to those existing ones. That includes maintenance, referrals, and upselling. The people that fall into the “existing” category are genuinely the ones who bring your business to the next level. It is the business face, advertisement, and reliable quality proof. So when these people don’t receive twice as much attention that you provide for the potential customers, you are entirely losing the business’ grip.

So as you can see, there is a considerable difference to front-end and back-end when it comes to business survival. As a business owner, you need to look at these two more separately. You need to understand that business front-end is as much as necessary as the back-end. That explains why most businesses have some subscribership and user base social media platform. It is their way of knowing how many people are into the market, how many are buying, and how much they are selling. With that, they begin to incorporate ways to improve their services.

So regardless of what types of business you are going to venture out, you have to always focus on these two things. Yes, your business silks are not perfect, so you need to spend time developing it. But it does not mean you have to compromise and set aside your customers because of your business developmental issues. You can always work on it in both ways. As long as you know the importance of getting new customers as well as keeping the old ones, your business will make it even without spending too much effort on entrepreneurial skills. As stated by Utpal Dholakia PhD, “You cannot provide extraordinary customer experiences if you think strictly in terms of nickels and dimes.” He also notes “Utterly motivated employees are necessary; those who are driven by purposes far greater and nobler than simply satisfying a customer and ensuring their repeat patronage.”

Assuming the business starts to consume you mental-wise, feel free to contact a BetterHelp psychologist. One can undoubtedly help you get your bearings back in a safe environment.

LinkedIn is a platform founded in the last quarter of 2002 as a practical means for businesses, either family- or company-owned, to make their brand message and services known to more people. Though it began as a small project, the determination of the folks behind it allowed the website to become the ultimate networking space for professionals. In truth, their hard work has been significantly rewarded as it now has over 100 million active users and a market value of approximately 26 billion dollars.

Nevertheless, the success of the platform to attract companies and professionals, young and old, to maintain an account on the site does not lie on such facts. A growing number of individuals continue to use LinkedIn for:

Social Media Exposure

These days, you can no longer rely on old forms of advertising like prints, brochures, and flyers. If you aim to have one of the most successful businesses in the world, it is imperative to use the internet to get the word out about the brand. This way, you will have higher chances of getting noticed by your target market anywhere compared to hanging banners or sending product promoters on the streets. “Social media can do a lot of good if we’re smart enough to use it well,” Pamela B. Rutledge Ph.D., M.B.A. wrote.

When you start a campaign on LinkedIn, it is as if you have a PR agency of your own. You have to think of the content, photos, and videos that you’d like to share with the audience. After a few clicks on the website, it can spread your posts to users in an instant. The amount of exposure that the platform can provide is a third of the reasons why LinkedIn is among the most powerful advertising tools in the 21st century.

Possible Joint Ventures

The website is an impressive space to look for companies or executives you may want to do business with someday. Remember that LinkedIn’s popularity and integrity have soared high in the past years, to the extent that some of its users are members of the Fortune 500. At the same time, there are small- and medium-sized firms registered to it. With a broad range of individuals you can strike a partnership with, it is possible for you to meet key entrepreneurs in a short period.

The importance of finding business partners through LinkedIn is that they can recommend your brand to their customers and vice versa. Your profits will then grow as your connections grow.

Better Client Reach

Of course, if you can get companies with different numbers of employees on the site as associates, you are also entitled to turn them – and many others – into your clients. No one has seen an enterprise expand by merely sticking to their core resources. Whenever you need help from staffing agencies, suppliers, or marketers, you only have to look for those whose credentials match your requirements. Martin Graff Ph.D. enumerates the motivations  of using social media and one of which was, “To build and maintain relationships.”

How To Increase Your LinkedIn Account’s Credibility?

1. Build An Extensive Profile Description

Once you have registered and confirmed everything, LinkedIn lets you key in all your educational and occupational details that will appear on your profile. What is even more helpful about the website is that you get to place them in chronological order. For instance, when you mention the companies that you have previously worked for, you may arrange them from the latest to the oldest. You can also talk about the kind of job that you have done for each of them. This way, the folks who check your profile will notice your good points immediately.

2. Become Associated To Related Groups

LinkedIn has a lot of groups for diverse niches. When you type a keyword on their Search box, you will be able to find hundreds – if not thousands – of clusters where people with similar interests or profession often commune.  “Much of human behavior, thought, and emotion stems from our psychological need to belong,” Marianna Pogosyan Ph.D. says. Some of them are public, so it won’t be difficult to join them. Others, however, are private; that’s why you have to receive an invitation or contact their administrator first before entering the group. Nonetheless, there’s no limit to the number of groups that you can become a part of in LinkedIn.

3. Publish Posts Often

Post images, videos, links, and regular articles regularly not only on your personal or company profile but also to the groups you are associated with. It is not a necessity to make a unique one for each, especially if they almost the same with one another. It is merely essential to do it often so that your name will always appear on top of your connections’ feeds. That tends to help folks realize that you are active on the platform and that they are likely to get a reply from you when they send a message.

Final Thoughts

Marketing through LinkedIn can be a smart strategy for entrepreneurs, especially if your company can benefit from business-to-business (B2B) transactions exponentially. There are CEOs, directors, and other high-profile individuals using the platform even to this day, after all. Should you be able to strike a deal with any of them, then you may not have a problem with keeping your business afloat for a long time.

Good luck!

Creative people never run out of ideas, but not all their ideas come to reality. Sometimes, these creative ideas inspire them to start a new business venture.  It may sound easy for those who have been in the business for long, but not for startups.

Continue reading “How Thinking Too Little Or Thinking Too Much Can Lead To Depression”

Many businesses are not into the idea of educating their customers for fear of losing prospective buyers.  They think that customers who get so much information would search other suppliers, and would eventually lose them.  But actually, it’s the other way around if you believe that your product is what your customer is looking for.

Continue reading “How To Educate Your Customers (Grow Your Business)”

I thought that starting a business is not a problem as long as I got my capital.  But my failures proved me wrong.  I’d put up quite a number of businesses since I got out of college with the idea that I would make it big in a year.   That was my goal.  I was so enthusiastic and optimistic.  I can feel that it was the right business for me.  But in just three months, I closed it down for I got no client.

Continue reading “Five Reasons Why Your Business Venture Might Fail”