Planning and the Importance of "Why" Top 11 Reasons Startups Succeed. How to become someone worth talking to, or even better, worth talking about — Actionable Learning For Startup Founders. Hello, my name is Matthew Capala. I lived in Lodz, Poland, until the age of 23. I moved to New York 10 years ago, where I’ve led several lives: construction worker, scaffold operator, waiter, office manager, digital marketer, consultant, trainer, entrepreneur, pro speaker, professor, and executive. In that order. Being interesting isn’t just about learning how to become a good conversationalist. You need stories to tell. I realized it early in life.
In every job and at every stage of my life I had unique content that gave me an edge, and eventually propelled me ahead of the pack. How do you become someone worth talking to, or even better, worth talking about? You need to tell stories through native content. Now, Google your name. Your content is your work portfolio. It shows you’re interested and involved in the world around you.
It’s the message that will make your personal brand stand out, attracting others to become part of your network. Content involves a specialized knowledge. How to write a business plan that works. When Raegan Moya-Jones first came up with the idea for her $46 million baby clothing company, Aden + Anais, she didn’t have a business plan. “That was quite the conversation I had to have with my husband,” she says.
“He said ‘Where is your business plan?’ And I said, ‘I don’t have one. I just know that it will work’.” But bringing a venture capital firm on board and taking Aden + Anais worldwide means Moya-Jones is now firmly in the “pro” business plan camp. “Now that we have investors, me walking in and saying ‘I have a gut feeling about this’ doesn’t fly with investors,” she says. “Now we have very clear strategic plans for the next four years.” As Moya-Jones’ experience shows, business plans aren’t just for startups.
A good business plan helps you obtain financing, arrange strategic alliances, attract key employees, and grow your business. Why you need a business plan “If you are going for investors it is crucial and it helps you communicate with staff,” Price says. Be the Best – Prepare for the Worst. Be the Best – Prepare for the Worst The thing that keeps you up at night is the crisis you can’t see coming. Successful leaders anticipate, identify, and solve crisis before it’s too late. Leaders become the best by preparing for the worst. Where does crisis come from? The worst: “Crisis is the result of mistaken assumption,” Derek Lidow, author of, “Startup Leadership.” 8 assumptions that result in crisis: Working harder will produce better results.The current team will always be in place.Financing is stable.Supply chains will be consistent and reliable.Our customers will love our new product.A new program will solve our problem.Believing you know what the real problem is.Current knowledge and skill-sets will take you there.
Derek explains the source of crisis (2:01): Preparation: Spot crisis before it’s too late. Leaders tend to pour more energy into making things work rather than asking why they aren’t. Courageously ask, What is disappointing? Derek on spotting crisis (1:11): Dealing: Like this: The One Thing That Successful Business Leaders Have in Common. There are people who rely on you: employees, customers, partners, suppliers, family. If you make wrong decisions or go out of business, they will suffer. They are expecting you to make the right decisions so that your company succeeds and their livelihoods are intact. You’re the CEO, the president, the general manager, the business owner. This is why you make the big bucks, right? Related: The Keys to Becoming a Better Business Leader Of course, the immediate problems of running your business need to be addressed. But these are just tasks. Being smart, having capital, getting along with people, buying low, selling high -- these are all important things that every good manager does.
Related: 9 Ways to Become a Better Leader Are you looking at new technology? Are you aware of future tax increases or government spending decreases and what are you doing about that? Over the past 10 years I’ve worked with, interviewed and spoken to thousand of business owners. 5 Ways to Slay the Enemy of Entrepreneurs: Fear. Entrepreneurs find themselves pulled in multiple directions to put out fires, raise capital, increase their customer base and build brand awareness. It’s easy to get distracted.
Fears surrounding success are common. While entrepreneurs are often leaders who inherently crave change, uncertainty, doubt and low cash reserves can intrude. Fear is a powerful enemy. Your ability to slay this giant begins with deciding to embrace an experience. Decide that you want to achieve the goal more than you’re afraid of the obstacles. Winston Churchill said, "When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened. " Here are five ways to help you face your fears, stay focused and win the weekly battles that nearly every entrepreneur faces: Related: 11 Lessons I Learned at Startups That Keep Me Up at Night 1.
Instead of focusing on frustration, think of inspiration. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6 CEO Productivity Tips to Steal for Yourself. Everyone knows that leading a company one of the toughest gigs around. Whether running a small business or a multi-national corporation, CEOs have to manage time, resources, and multiple demands while finding the time and head space to make decisions and plot strategies that will determine the course of their business.
Which means that they’ve developed some master systems and tricks to maximize their productivity. So, why can’t we steal a few moves from their playbooks? Whether you aspire to run your own business or want to be more productive at your current job, check out this list of CEO-proven tips that you can apply to any facet of your life. 1. Tony Schwartz, president of the Energy Project, suggests taking breaks every 90 minutes to maximize your productivity. The counterintuitive secret to sustainable great performance is to live like a sprinter. 2. I use the cone of silence when I'm working on a complex project that I need to concentrate on. 3. 4. 5. 6. The 3 Attributes to Look for in Top Talent. One of the things that great companies do is they hire the best people.
These successful companies aren’t afraid to recruit the best candidates from other organizations or pull talented people from other industries. There are three attributes that are most important to an organization when hiring: attitude, competency and mindset. Attitude. An employee has a passion for the organization and what it is trying to accomplish and is excited about being a part of the organization. Competency. Mindset. Related: Want to Avoid a Hiring Crisis? See the visual below of my ACM Model that shows the perfect intersection of those three attributes: Here are the issues if your candidate doesn't fall into the sweet spot in the center: 1. 2. 3. Related: 5 Attributes to Look for in High-Performing Employees 4.
You’ll notice that I didn’t mention experience, and that is for good reason. Even if you don’t have a specific role in mind, when you find someone who has all three attributes, hire them. Why companies are moving away from advertising and focusing on sponsorships. These 4 Words Really Matter To Your Business Strategy. 4 Mobile Commerce Trends You Need to Know.
A Multi-Factor Analysis Of Startups. Editor’s note: Matt Oguz is managing director of Palo Alto Venture Science. Every decision we make from what to wear to whom to hire requires a balance of multiple factors. Sometimes we decide quickly and other times with deliberate consideration. Either way, we do this every day. Picking what to wear, for instance, depends on a number of variables: what we have in the closet, what we’ll be doing that day, what the weather’s like, etc. Often we pick something to wear but later question our judgment. This happens for a number of reasons: We haven’t reviewed all of our clothes.We haven’t reviewed all aspects of what we’ll be doing.When we start that activity we realize there was more to it than what we assumed, such as attending a party where everyone is in a cocktail dress except you because you didn’t know the context of the party.
Selecting a startup to invest in isn’t much different. We also anchor our valuations to recent events. So let’s dig deeper now. Lots of competition.