05 Almost Effortless Ways to Become a Morning Person

Do you have a "love-hate" relationship with the morning? Yeah, yeah, you already know that getting up early can make you more productive, focused and motivated -- which is why successful entrepreneurs like Sir Richard Branson and CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies like Tory Burch and Indra Nooyi (CEO of PepsiCo) wake up before the sun rises.

The only problem is . . . you absolutely hate getting out of bed any earlier than you have to. Sound familiar?

If you love the idea of creating a success-propelling morning routine but hate the thought of facing the day once your alarm clock sounds, don’t worry. Here are simple strategies you can follow that will make climbing out from under the covers and starting your morning much easier . . . and even somewhat fun.

1. Start the night before.

Many studies have linked motivation levels with REM sleep (which stands for rapid eye movement and is the part of sleep when you dream). If you’re not getting high-quality rest, with several REM cycles, your motivation and energy will lag when it’s time to get up in the morning.

One way to overcome this is to develop a pre-sleep routine that sets you up for quality rest. Here are some strategies entrepreneurs use to fall (and stay) asleep:

• Limit your caffeine intake. Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, admits that he used to drink caffeine all day long, but he now limits consumption to one-to-two drinks, max, so he'll feel less “wired” and sleep better.
• Step away from the electronics. The brightness of your phone, tablet or laptop screen right before bedtime can negatively affect your body’s sleep patterns, which is why Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Huffington Post, keeps her cellphone in another room . . . a habit she started after “passing out from exhaustion.”
• Read a book. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates reads an hour nightly (mainly biographies, historical books and intellectual periodicals) to help him fall asleep easier.

It’s also beneficial to create a sleep-inducing environment. Make your bedroom as dark as possible, turn the face of the alarm clock away from you and use a white noise machine or fan if you live in a loud neighborhood.

2: Figure out why becoming a morning person is important to you.

It’s difficult to make any type of change without first knowing why that particular change is important to you. Why is getting up early important to you? Why do you want to be more productive in the morning? Do you believe that establishing the perfect morning routine will finally help you lose weight and get into shape, giving you more confidence and energy throughout the day?

Or, maybe you view getting out of bed before the crack of dawn as the way to find time for things that make you feel good, like reading, writing, or meditating?

Once you know why you want to get up early, you'll find that that change is easier to do 

3: Don’t hit the snooze button.

How many times do you hit the snooze button on a typical morning? Once? Twice? Five times? More?

Although it might seem that getting a few additional minutes of sleep every time the alarm goes off is a good thing, the opposite is actually true. Hitting the snooze button makes you feel more tired. It screws up your sleep cycles, so you wind up dragging your feet all day long.

On top of that, when hitting the button is the first action you take in the morning, you are starting your day off by procrastinating. This sends a message to your subconscious mind that you don’t even have the self-discipline to get out of bed in the morning. Not a great way to start your day. 

So, how do you get out of the snooze button habit? Consider placing your clock (or phone) away from the bed so you actually have to get up to turn it off. Another suggestion from the Sleep Junkies is to glue your snooze button so it no longer works. That will certainly stop you from using it!

4: Change your morning routine slowly.

Trying to completely overhaul your mornings, by (for example) getting out of bed at 4 a.m. when you normally sleep until noon, can make it difficult if not impossible to stick to your new routine.

Instead, work at making small changes that you can build upon. Taking this route makes you more mindful and gives you higher levels of enthusiasm. It also increases your focus, makes you feel calmer and helps you learn the right way to go about making changes that stick.

For instance, if you normally wake up at 7 a.m., then aim to get up at 6:45 tomorrow. Once you master that, get up at 6:30. Move your getting-up time back only 15 minutes at a time, and before you know it, you’ll be an early morning person…almost effortlessly.

5: Choose morning activities you enjoy so you'll stick with it.

It’s hard enough to get out of bed at the crack of dawn and when you wake up to do activities you don’t enjoy . . . your new regimen can feel like torture.

That’s why you should create a morning routine that is filled with activities you actually like, those things that make you feel better about yourself and improve your direction in life.

A few of the activities that I get the most out of in the early morning hours include stretching, meditation, writing Morning Pages and gratitude lists and spending quality time with my family. Create your own list of things that you look forward to when you pop out of bed to make it easier for you to get up and face the day.

There you have it: five ways to make your mornings easier and more productive. Now, all you have to do is try one (or all) of them. Who knows? Your love-hate relationship may turn out to be 100 percent true love, as you realize that you’ve finally found “the one” . . . the perfect morning routine for you!

10 Mistakes Intelligent People Never Make Twice

Everybody makes mistakes—that’s a given—but not everyone learns from them. Some people make the same mistakes over and over again, fail to make any real progress, and can’t figure out why.

“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.” – Bruce Lee

When we make mistakes, it can be hard to admit them because doing so feels like an attack on our self-worth. This tendency poses a huge problem because new research proves something that commonsense has told us for a very long time—fully acknowledging and embracing errors is the only way to avoid repeating them.

Yet, many of us still struggle with this.

Researchers from the Clinical Psychophysiology Lab at Michigan State University found that people fall into one of two camps when it comes to mistakes: those who have a fixed mind-set (“Forget this; I’ll never be good at it”) and those who have a growth mind-set (“What a wake-up call! Let’s see what I did wrong so I won’t do it again”).

“By paying attention to mistakes, we invest more time and effort to correct them,” says study author Jason Moser. “The result is that you make the mistake work for you.”

Those with a growth mind-set land on their feet because they acknowledge their mistakes and use them to get better. Those with a fixed mind-set are bound to repeat their mistakes because they try their best to ignore them.

Smart, successful people are by no means immune to making mistakes; they simply have the tools in place to learn from their errors. In other words, they recognize the roots of their mix-ups quickly and never make the same mistake twice.

“When you repeat a mistake it is not a mistake anymore: it is a decision.” – Paulo Coelho

Some mistakes are so tempting that we all make them at one point or another. Smart people learn from these mistakes and never make them twice.

1. Believing in someone or something that’s too good to be true

Some people are so charismatic and so confident that it can be tempting to follow anything they say. They speak endlessly of how successful their businesses are, how well liked they are, who they know, and how many opportunities they can offer you. While it’s, of course, true that some people really are successful and really want to help you, smart people only need to be tricked once before they start to think twice about a deal that sounds too good to be true. The results of naivety and a lack of due diligence can be catastrophic. Smart people ask serious questions before getting involved because they realize that no one, themselves included, are as good as they look.

2. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result

Albert Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Despite his popularity and cutting insight, there are a lot of people who seem determined that two plus two will eventually equal five. Smart people, on the other hand, need only experience this frustration once. The fact is simple: if you keep the same approach, you’ll keep getting the same results, no matter how much you hope for the opposite. Smart people know that if they want a different result, they need to change their approach, even when it’s painful to do so.

3. Failing to delay gratification

We live in a world where books instantly appear on our e-readers, news travels far and wide, and just about anything can show up at our doorsteps in as little as a day. Smart people know that gratification doesn’t come quickly and hard work comes long before the reward. They also know how to use this as motivation through every step of the arduous process that amounts to success because they’ve felt the pain and disappointment that come with selling themselves short.

4. Operating without a budget

You can’t experience financial freedom until you operate under the constraint of a budget. Sticking to a budget, personally and professionally, forces us to make thoughtful choices about what we want and need. Smart people only have to face that insurmountable pile of bills once before getting their act together, starting with a thorough reckoning as to where their money is going. They realize that once you understand how much you’re spending and what you’re spending it on, the right choices become clear. A morning latte is a lot less tempting when you’re aware of the cost: $1,000 on average per year. Having a budget isn’t only about making sure that you have enough to pay the bills; smart people know that making and sticking to a strict budget means never having to pass up an opportunity because they’ve blown their precious capital on discretionary expenditures. Budgets establish discipline, and discipline is the foundation of quality work.

5. Losing sight of the big picture

It’s so easy to become head-down busy, working so hard on what’s right in front of you that you lose sight of the big picture. But smart people learn how to keep this in check by weighing their daily priorities against a carefully calculated goal. It’s not that they don’t care about small-scale work, they just have the discipline and perspective to adjust their course as necessary. Life is all about the big picture, and when you lose sight of it, everything suffers.

6. Not doing your homework

Everybody’s taken a shortcut at some point, whether it was copying a friend’s biology assignment or strolling into an important meeting unprepared. Smart people realize that while they may occasionally get lucky, that approach will hold them back from achieving their full potential. They don’t take chances, and they understand that there’s no substitute for hard work and due diligence. They know that if they don’t do their homework, they’ll never learn anything?and that’s a surefire way to bring your career to a screeching halt.

7. Trying to be someone you’re not

It’s tempting to try to please people by being whom they want you to be, but no one likes a fake, and trying to be someone you’re not never ends well. Smart people figure that out the first time they get called out for being a phony, forget their lines, or drop out of character. Other people never seem to realize that everyone else can see right through their act. They don’t recognize the relationships they’ve damaged, the jobs they’ve lost, and the opportunities they’ve missed as a result of trying to be someone they’re not. Smart people, on the other hand, make that connection right away and realize that happiness and success demand authenticity.

8. Trying to please everyone

Almost everyone makes this mistake at some point, but smart people realize quickly that it’s simply impossible to please everybody and trying to please everyone pleases no one. Smart people know that in order to be effective, you have to develop the courage to call the shots and to make the choices that you feel are right (not the choices that everyone will like).

9. Playing the victim

News reports and our social media feeds are filled with stories of people who seem to get ahead by playing the victim. Smart people may try it once, but they realize quickly that it’s a form of manipulation and that any benefits will come to a screeching halt as soon as people see that it’s a game. But there’s a more subtle aspect of this strategy that only truly smart people grasp: to play the victim, you have to give up your power, and you can’t put a price on that.

10. Trying to change someone

The only way that people change is through the desire and wherewithal to change themselves. Still, it’s tempting to try to change someone who doesn’t want to change, as if your sheer will and desire for them to improve will change them (as it has you). Some even actively choose people with problems, thinking that they can “fix” them. Smart people may make that mistake once, but then they realize that they’ll never be able to change anyone but themselves. Instead, they build their lives around genuine, positive people and work to avoid problematic people that bring them down.

Bringing it all together

Emotionally intelligent people are successful because they never stop learning. They learn from their mistakes, they learn from their successes, and they’re always changing themselves for the better.

15 Qualities of Smart Business People

What exactly is "smart"? Being smart is more than having a high IQ. It has been proven time and again that IQ is fixed. The way we learn at 15 is the same way we learn at 50. To be smart one has to bring more to the table than intelligence alone. At the core of smart people is an acute and ever expanding self-awareness. Smart people tend to be quick and prompt, mentally ready, shrewd, clever, effective, neat or trim in their appearance, socially elegant, sophisticated, current and charismatic. Smart is the sum total of many character traits expressing itself globally through a person’s impact on their world.   

1. Intuitive.

Smart people do not just rely on facts, they listen to and follow their intuition. They are aware of when and how their intuitions and insights come to them. They are internally tuned-in to make wise decisions. Smart people are able to clearly see the reasons and motivations of other people. Because of this, they can selectively choose when, what and with whom to align themselves. They use their intuition in decision making, to chart new paths and in being diligent in surrounding themselves with only the highest quality people, programs and customers.

 2. Conscious.

Smart people know who they are and are conscious of their emotional and behavioral tendencies across situations. They know their strengths, weaknesses, personality traits, values, morals and beliefs. Smart people are wise to others but know that self-awareness is the ticket to their personal enlightenment and business advancement. They show the deepest commitment to themselves and to their own development. They are keen in knowing that the more conscious they are of themselves, the better they are able to know and predict others.

3. Reflective.

Smart people look back on, and learn from, experiences. They do not get stuck in the past but know they must look in the review mirror to properly navigate the front window. As they look back they take inventory on what they can learn from their experiences. They either perfect and repeat past efforts or abolish strategies that clearly did not work. They take the time to think about decisions before jumping in, and afterward, actively reflect to gain deeper insight into what worked and what didn’t.

 4. Creative.

Smart people are never satisfied with one level of advancement of their product, themselves or their business. They are drawn to new ideas, radical thoughts and innovative ways of changing and doing things. Smart people desire to chart new paths and crave progressive thinking, concepts and people. Their natural thought process is out-of-the-box. Stepping outside their comfort zone is something they see as imperative to their success.

 5. Open-minded.

Smart people welcome different perspectives and see opportunities where most do not. They see the mind as a parachute -- it works best when open. Smart people are comfortable in paradoxical situations and have a passion for problem solving and fixing things in new and inventive ways. They are willing to listen to different points of view on how to strategize in problem solving situations. They let go of having things be their way when they come across more effective solutions.

 6. Timely.

Smart people recognize and respond immediately to opportunities and people. They act and react quickly, taking care of what needs to be done well ahead of schedule. Procrastination is not their habit, as losing opportunities is not an option. All opportunities, along with mutually respectful relationships, develop from promptness and dependability.

 7. Resourceful.

Smart people know where to get whatever information, resources, supplies, training and education they need when they need it. They have copious resources. They are well-networked and have many people to call on for referrals. This type of resourcefulness makes them successful as they are never short of ways to get to their goals

 8. Independent.

Smart people habitually question authority. They do not blindly accept what so-call experts preach. They ask deeper questions others do not so as to discover their own truths. It is only through the discovery of their own truths that they can validate implementing new strategies.  

 9. Lifelong learners.

Smart people use their minds to the fullest. They are consummate learners. They are not lazy in their thinking and see the discovery of all new information as upgrades to their skills, knowledge, cutting edge information, attitudes and beliefs. Smart people crave and gather the collective brain power of others by reading books, magazines and articles that assist their own development. Learning is never a drag or a bore because for smart people learning is intrinsically rewarding.

 10. Lighthearted.

Smart people do not take life or themselves too seriously. They have a sense of humor about things and recognize the importance of finding the joy in the irony and comedy of everyday life. Smart people find blessings in the bummers, silver linings in challenges and solutions in the problems. It is through this that they continue to be successful and personally satisfied in life.

11. Explorers.

Smart people are willing to try new things, knowing that if what they try at first doesn’t work out as they had hoped, it is no harm, no foul. They accept their failures as cleverly disguised learning opportunities. They take risks often. They are curious and adventurous in their business pursuits. They are willing to leap in to the unknown. Their risks usually pay off.  

 12. Believe in themselves.

Smart people, knowing who they are, believe and trust in themselves first foremost. They do not need the validation of others to make decisions. They instinctively know what is right for them and they go after it. They do not want or wait for change. Being in the holding patterns of waiting or wanting doesn’t fit their style.They take action and create change. They know the only person they can count on completely is themselves.

 13. Write goals on paper.

Smart people have well-developed life strategies that include writing of goals, visions, desires and dreams they want to achieve. They tend to be avid journalers, list makers and dreamers. Writing is their first step in making their dreams a reality.

 14. Pay it forward.

Smart people are the generously give success, knowledge and information to others. They are teachers, guides, mentors and helpers. They put themselves out here so the rest of us can benefit. Smart people share. They uplift and make others better. In exchange, their own learning grows and develops because they are actively talking about, researching, understanding and expanding their own field of knowledge.

 15. Reinvent themselves.

Smart people abhor status quo and cannot stand being stagnated. They crave growth and development and are willing to shift their image, brand, logo, company name or change their direction entirely if necessary. To stay current or ahead of the game. They know exactly with whom to collaborate and are known to reinvent themselves over and over again.

Smart people are always adding to their knowledge and network base, while at the same time removing relationships, customers or strategies that no longer serve them. Experience, intelligence, class, wisdom and self-awareness are what set the smart apart from the average.

05 Antidotes to Overwhelm In Your Life And Business

If I could sum up every day of the first year of building and running my start-up, I would condense the feeling into one single word -- overwhelmed. I am sure you can relate. Some women experience frequent chest pains, nausea, hair loss, dizziness and other symptoms from being engaged in stressful work.

Leaving an old job for a new career building a thriving business and transitioning into leadership for the first time can lead to high anxiety and overwhelm, especially if you are the perfectionist type. So, I am here to tell you, from one ambitious person to another, that there are ways to eliminate this feeling from your life so that you can lead from a place of peace, joy and calm in every area of your life.

I mean, we all know that, if you are not well taken care of... there is no way that you can take care of anyone else -- clients, students, family, friends and customers. Right?

Are you wondering what you have to do to get through the storm?

1. Delegate yourself out of the weeds.

The art of delegation is a necessary trait for every kind of leader on every level. You cannot do it all. Quite frankly, when done right "leading" is a job unto itself. Assign small, tedious tasks that take up massive amounts to your support team so you can focus on high level partnerships, organizational growth, leadership and strategy.

Getting caught in the details when you have a capable team is not the best use of your time. Make a list of everything for the day that needs to get done and highlight the things that your team can take care of. (If you don't have a team yet... this is the perfect time to bring on an hourly Virtual Assistant (VA) to lend a helping hand).

Examine your list and ask yourself, "What are the key decisions that I can make today that will either make everything on this list irrelevant or no longer my immediate concern?"

A high level analysis of your to-do's will keep you focused on looking at the bigger strategic picture, making your life much easier and your organization a well-oiled machine.

2. Build your support team.

Having a coach or mentor is part of your own self care. We all need human connection. Having someone who is there just for us makes ordinary leaders into phenomenal and highly effective leaders. Start to grow your support system and use a part of your coaching sessions for a clearing -- a time for you to really get some things off of your chest. It works wonders!

3. Exercise daily.

There is something about moving that just makes everything better. Don't believe me -- do some research. It has now been proven that exercise is a natural stress reliever. The blood pumping quickly through your body in a workout can increase your clarity, help you let off some necessary "steam" and improves your breathing.

4. Meditate, reflect and/or pray daily.

The power of journaling, reflecting, strengthening your spirituality and meditating on a daily basis cannot be understated. This work helps you to become more self aware of your actions resulting in greater opportunities to generate positive relationships with those that you interact with in your daily work. It is not easy to get into this routine and stick with it, but scheduling it first thing in the morning or right before bed will ensure that you start your day strong and in a positive light.

5. Change your mindset.

Look for the positive in what you are faced with on a daily basis. If your website crashed, look at it as an opportunity to redesign better. If you lost your job, look at it as an opportunity to finally build your business.

When you believe things will work out for your best interest, positivity and joy will follow.

14 Tips for Turning Your Team Into Their Own Best Fans

I love the passion of sports fans. The sports fanatic in the midst of an exuberant conversation will often use "we" and "our" when referring to a favorite team. "We play well on the road" or "our rookies are playing great." Everyone realizes the fan doesn't throw a pass, catch a ball or hit a home run. However, the sense of investment that fan has is real and powerful.

Interestingly, that same passionate fan often will possess a far more disconnected investment with their other team: the workplace. In the hallways of "Corporation X," for instance, you might hear, "the company is unrolling a new product" or "the company isn't what it used to be" – minus the "we" and "our."

I understand that work is something people do because they must, and sports are a recreational pastime; so it's not an apples to apples comparison. At work, though, one has a direct influence on results by way of individual effort. In sports, this is not always the case.

Imagine an organization full of team members as passionate about their workplace as they are for their favorite sports teams. The results would be extraordinary. Here are 14 ways to create a workplace full of the type of fanatics you want:

1. Recruit passionate people.

In the interview process, weed out those people who are there for a job only. Look for candidates who exude excitement about the prospect of working for your company, as well as for the role they will play.

2. Re-evaluate your onboarding process.

Training for the required technical skills is important, but don't neglect educating your new hires about your culture. There's no better time than the beginning of a career to teach a new team member about what makes your company and culture special.

3. Leave room for your culture to naturally evolve.

Company culture should be a blend of company values and the personalities that work there. When upper management orchestrates culture too carefully, it will lack a feel of genuineness. Allow teams and team members to express their own personalities.

4. Emphasize consistency and transparency.

Teams want to know both what’s happening and what to expect. Treating employees consistently will help create a calm, versus volatile, environment. And transparency helps to avoid guessing or speculation, which also sets a more positive mood.

5. Hold frequent team updates and meetings.

Every meeting should highlight an employee or team that is "living" your company's mission and culture. Team members will take culture only as seriously as the degree of attention it receives; the more the better.

6. Get the wrong people off the bus.

Team members who aren't emotionally invested in your company culture have a detrimental effect on those around them. It's important to surround each employee with co-workers who are just as invested.

7. It's OK to be weird… if it's authentic.

Some of the companies most renowned for their culture do things a competitor might consider silly. If wearing bold clothes, adopting a goofy mascot or singing at your meetings fits the personality of your team, go for it.

8. Promote from within whenever possible.

Team members will be more motivated if they believe their hard work can lead somewhere. Even if they aren't eyeing the corner office, knowing it's a possibility is a driver.

9. Thank your team regularly.

Plainly put, an appreciated team is a happy team.

10 Own your mistakes.

When the organization screws up, everyone on the team knows. Don't try to hide it. Own it, learn from it and move on.

11. Don't be a cheap imitation of another company's culture.

Strive for an authentic culture that fits your values. People are drawn to authenticity.

12. Encourage outside of work.

The employee that works 12-hour days, even if they love it, will encounter resentment at home. If your team is unhappy at home, it will eventually seep into the office.

13. Give personalized rewards and gifts.

Give a superstar on your team tickets to the concert they're dying to see, or get them a copy of a book you know they want to read.

14. Talk often about the company's vision.

People want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

5 Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Should Get Serious About Online Education

The Internet these days is full of cat videos, bad lip readings and hilarious memes. All good things, of course. But, believe it or not, there’s some useful stuff there, too. And that proposes a legitimate opportunity for the smart entrepreneur.

When I set out to start my own online course, I didn’t know much about education. All I knew was that I wanted to deliver a quality learning experience to readers that went beyond the scope of my blog. That was about it. 

Then, I heard entrepreneur Ramit Sethi say in an interview that before you can charge a certain amount for an information product, you had better be willing to pay that much yourself. In other words, he was saying, “Don’t charge $2,000 for a course until you spend $2,000 and see what a $2,000 product looks like.”

So, I took that advice. I started signing up for online courses, and, boy, did I learn some things.

Options for Education

Education on the Internet has changed, mostly for the better. This is not like what I experienced in college, when a particular professor I had would give out a long, complicated URL to remember. And it’s not like those foreign language correspondence classes you may have taken in high school to get around the fact that no one in your small town taught Latin. At least that was the case in my farm town of 1,100 people.

So, yes, things have changed -- big time. Now, an online course can be comparable to a real-life educational experience. In fact, sometimes it can be even better.

Let’s say you didn’t go to college, or maybe like a lot of people you got a degree in one field of study and then figured out that what you actually wanted to do was something different. What, now? you probably asked yourself. In the past, you had two options: 

Option 1: Go back to school and get your degree. 

Option 2: Go the Good Will Hunting route and teach yourself by reading a lot of books.

Number one is the standard decision for many middle-class people who don’t know what they want to do with their lives, or else realize that college has not prepared them for the real world. Going back to school is not necessarily a bad choice, but if college didn’t work for you in the first place, why return to the institution that failed you? Not to mention that it’s expensive and doesn’t guarantee you success in the marketplace. 

Number two is just simply hard. Nor does it work for those of us who need a teacher, someone to walk us through the process -- and that means most of us.

So, what is there left to do? Until a few years ago, nothing.

Related: LinkedIn Inks $1.5 Billion Deal for Online Education Company Lynda

Time to get serious about online courses

Today, we have a third option: the Internet. The Web is exploding with legitimate online education opportunities that are literally changing people’s lives. But, you may wonder, how can I trust this whole Internet thing -- with all its cat videos and memes? Good question. I was skeptical, too, until I finally understood why online courses work.

Here are five reasons why you should now take online education more seriously:

1. Online courses are less expensive. 

For a fraction of the cost, you can now get a university-level learning experience taught by an industry expert. That is, you can if you take the right kind of classes (more about that below).

2. Online courses are results-oriented. 

Since you’re likely giving money to someone you’ve never met, online educators are motivated to help you get the results you want (instead of simply teaching dry theory). Their reputations are on the line (literally), after all.

3. Technology makes the experience of an online course more exciting. 

Instead of attending a couple of 45-minute lectures per week, you'll now have worksheets, discussion forums and interactive presentation at your fingertips.

4. The classrooms are cooler. 

You no longer have to grab a sack lunch and spend a half-day at your local community college, sitting in a cold, dimly lit room. You can attend class right in your living room -- whenever you want.

5. You get to keep the course. 

This might be my favorite reason for online education. In contrast to traditional education, where the only keepsakes you get are the overpriced textbook and a three-ring notebook full of illegible scribbles, many online courses let you keep a lot of the course material (including the lessons).

If you haven’t considered taking an online course, then, you should. But, and this is important, don’t sign up for just any class that comes along. There are a lot of swindlers out there (who probably made those cat videos -- no offense intended, of course, to Grumpy Cat).

Here's what to look for in a good online course:

• Solid credentials. Has the teacher achieved the expertise he or she claims? In other words, if you’re taking a course on how to get published, is a published author teaching it? Or is the teacher at least someone with real-life experience in that industry? If other marks of legitimacy (i.e., licenses and such) are needed for what you want to learn, make sure the instructor has those, too.
• Trustworthy testimonials. What do previous students say about the course? Don’t read just the landing page copy; find people who have gone through the class and will give you their honest opinion.
• Legitimate access to the teacher. This is up to you, but I recommend taking a course that gives you some potential live access to a teacher or facilitator. That may mean live video chats or conference calls with other students. Or it could be personal email access when you get stuck. It really depends on the teacher and the material. But having someone to guide you is essential.
• Discussion opportunities. One of the best parts of an online course is the opportunity to connect with other students who are going through the same experience as you (this is the best part of any educational experience). Does the course have a forum or Facebook group, a place to ask questions and get help from your peers?
• Good refund policy. Just as with college, there should be an initial period of time in which you have the freedom to drop the class, if it isn’t what you’d hoped. A 30- to 60-day money-back guarantee is pretty standard in the online business world, and you shouldn’t take a course that doesn't offer something similar.

Notice that I didn’t include price in this list of criteria, and there’s a reason for that. There is no set standard for what an online course should cost. Many four-week courses are $200 to $500, but then others go on for six to 12 months and may cost thousands of dollars. It depends on your field and what kind of value you place on the information. Just know that taking most any course online is typically going to be cheaper than attending in person.

Think you could do better? Then, do it.

If you’ve ever taken an online course, you may have noticed some skunks out there. 

One thing I noticed in my research is that certain classes I took weren’t worth the money. There was a lot of hype at the front end, but when it came to the class itself, the quality was sub-par. This disappointed and frustrated me. It seemed like some people were using their marketing savvy to take advantage of people who really wanted to learn. I kept saying to myself, “I could do better.” 

So one day, I did.

If you find yourself saying the same thing, maybe you should "do better," too. Because it’s not enough to simply say things should be better. Sometimes, we have to be the change we want to see in the world (someone wise already said that, I think). Sometimes, our deepest frustrations are a sign of the problems we ought to be solving.

So, if you have something the world needs, some knowledge that can help other people, you have a responsibility to share it. And it just so happens that that can be a very profitable venture these days.

5 questions to avoid while interviewing for a startup position

After clinching your undergrad degree, you would often hear hordes of relatives doling out unwarranted but seemingly career illuminating advice.

It would usually be about joining a secure, salaried job with plenty of government holidays with fixed time frames. Suggestions to ally with a startup brings along long looks of despair.

This is fairly justified, considering the hardships they have had to face to make ends meet. However, what they overlook are the exponential and technological advancements in league with financial growth towards which the nation is galloping.

A recent news piece about Qualcomm investing $150 million in Indian startups, after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, portrays an optimistic future.

Firstly, we know something interesting is happening in the entrepreneurial world when the leader of one of the fastest growing economies, is pitching the Indian Startup Ecosystem to global investors!

Secondly, international firms are readily showing confidence in Indian entrepreneurs, and in turn motivate and encourage holistic mindsets.

Unlike previous decades where only the ‘business class’ would enter into new ventures, founding your own startup or expanding it is now becoming much more of a prevalent practice.

So joining a startup to further hone your skills, learn and earn, has turned out to be a doubly-sure maxim.

At Bizongo, we resorted to expand our team by holding campus placement drives to find a perfect cocktail of skills, mindsets and passions. It was our first time being on the other side of the dais but the overwhelming response of the final year students reprimed the entire process.

A set of confused questions being asked repeatedly turned out to be an amusing experience!

This was probably because of the reputation a startup, somewhat in a doddering manner, attains. We realised that it is necessary to enlist a few things that are implied once you choose to enter the domain.

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions:

1 …so, what about the work hours?

No, beginners don’t work for 18 hours a day. Having said that, we do not set a time limit to push boundaries; it is our passion that drives us! Also, there are no fixed ‘work hours’ because technically you are always working; be it reading a news article, surfing through social media portals or merely listening to songs. How? You source every activity back to your work and find innovative ways to incorporate them.

2. Do my contributions mean anything?

If you are unsure that nurturing a coconut plant every day will ensure its towering growth, you are in the wrong interview room! Every drop of water to the process of nurturing is paramount.

And, be rest assured that the most miniscule of your effort goes a long way in creating a seismic impact for the company’s growth.

A line of code, a touch of photoshop, a business deal or a blog article in total builds a company.

Concept of teamwork and individuality is engrained in the work culture at an initial level.

3. What is an appraisal system?

You do not get yearly ratings so no yearly appraisal system as a consequence. If you are responsible and exceptional, you will automatically become an indispensable member of the company leading to a monetary growth.

Also, startups famously offer ESOPs to their employees, which have an additional value over the basic salary. Thus, when you help a startup grow, it takes care of your financial growth at the same time. Exciting paradox, isn’t it?

4. If I fail, will I be fired?

In a startup, you can build things from scratch and see your hard work to fruition. There are days when you fail but such people are welcomed because they took that plunge. Showing proactiveness and failing is preferred over going by the rulebook. Thinking out of the box is not just appreciated but is a necessity.

5. I have an idea. How quickly can it become a project?

Approaching the founding team to discuss your idea is an effortless task. Post approval, the only paperwork involved is penning down details of this idea. Request mails are for work delegation to various departments and use their expertise for project transformation! You instantly get to manage the technology, marketing and business aspects in order to execute it perfectly. There is no hierarchy in a startup. You work with the founding team. Furthermore, you can even ping them round the clock for the same.

If you want to make every moment of your life count and work passionately on something that you love, joining a startup is a great move. There is never a dull day in office. You start setting targets for yourself which are slightly more ambitious than the day before. So, the next time you want to hack a startup interview, avoid asking these questions! Rather focus on convincing them that your skillset combined with your passion can richly contribute to their product, expansion plans, operations and work culture. 

10 Behaviours of Real Leaders

There’s usually a pecking order in the animal kingdom. There are queen bees, alpha gorillas, and male-female wolf pairs that dominate the pack. Humans are no different.

This may come as a shock, but organizational constructs like tribes, societies, and companies are not the result of high-level intelligence but of primitive survival impulses reinforced by neurotransmitters in the brain’s ancient limbic system.

To say that leadership and organizational behavior has been successful in the animal kingdom is a gross understatement. The planet is fully populated by millions of animal species that all exhibit the same sort of behavior.

The point is, leadership is not so much a thought process as it is instinctive behavior. It’s evolutionary. It’s to a great extent responsible for our survival on earth. And that’s why we do it. As survival imperatives go, it’s right up there with eating and breeding. No kidding.

So when I say, “Leaders lead. Followers follow. You can’t do both,” in my upcoming book, Real Leaders Don’t Follow, I’m not making this stuff up. It’s biology. Granted, you can behave any way you like by overriding your survival instincts, but neither you nor I get to change how the species behaves. Evolution’s got that covered.

I know you didn’t click on the headline to get a biology lesson, but it’s important to understand that leadership is not really about traits or habits. It’s primarily a behavioral phenomenon. So let’s be practical for a moment and discuss the sort of behavior we consistently value in our most cherished leaders.    

They teach.

Apple CEO Tim Cook credits the company’s success in no small part to Steve Jobs’s role as a teacher. The way Apple’s unique culture continues to flourish and scale, even as the company grows to enormous size and valuation, is a testament to the way Jobs taught his team what matters most, so they could teach their teams, and so on.   

If they hear you, they will listen.

Whether it’s politics, business, or non-profit, there are great demands on leaders’ time. That comes with the territory. So there are physical, organizational, and mental barriers they put up to block out the noise. Nevertheless, their success depends on being open to new and different perspectives. So, if they hear you, they will listen.

They challenge themselves.

Great leaders are never satisfied with the status quo and that goes for their own status quo, as well. They may recognize the success of the team, especially after a long hard effort, but you’ll rarely see them patting themselves on the back. Their own accomplishments don’t excite them; the next challenge does.

They don’t follow.

All leaders learn from experience and mentors. All leaders serve their stakeholders. But learning and serving are not the same as following. Real leaders serve and learn from others, but they still carve their own path. They have their own unique ways of doing things. And, when it comes to key decisions, they trust only their own judgment and their own gut.

They solve big problems.

Real leaders don’t play small ball. Whether it’s a customer problem, a constituent problem, or a societal problem, they live to come up with innovative solutions to big, tough problems. Real leaders are great troubleshooters.

Related: Twitter: What Went Wrong

Their vision inspires others to act.

I’ll never understand the endless debates over what leadership is and isn’t. It’s simple, really. Leaders are those who others follow. And leadership behavior causes others to act. Whether they have a vision for a product, an organization, a people, or a future, that’s what inspires them to lead and their followers to action.

They don’t whine.

Most great leaders grew up with adversity, so they learned at an early age that complaining gets them nowhere. Instead, they set out to prove something to themselves and others – that they’re special, unique, worthy, capable – and that’s often a self-fulfilling prophecy.

They don’t overindulge their egos.

Even if it’s not self-evident, most successful leaders have healthy egos – a strong sense of self. There are exceptions, but they’re rare. In any case, when our egos write checks that reality can’t cash, that’s self-limiting behavior. Some leaders learn from those mistakes and gain wisdom and humility. Others don’t, and that’s unfortunate.

They do only what matters.

Leaders are by definition people of consequence. They’re driven by their vision, their obsession, a problem they must solve, whatever, but they’re usually driven by one thing and that’s what matters to them. They move heaven and earth to make it happen and ignore pretty much everything else, although there’s usually an exception or two.

They’re effective, not efficient.

Since they’re consumed by a passion of some sort, that’s what they’re all about. Minutiae like optimizing, fine-tuning, efficiency, and productivity are completely off their radar screen, unless of course it just happens to be their specific focus. I suppose there have been leaders of the Toyoda (yes, that’s how it’s spelled, not Toyota) family obsessed with Kaizen – continuous improvement – but that’s an unusual circumstance.

The important thing to keep in mind is that leaders are defined by their behavior. What they do and don’t do. How they act and don’t act. They come in all shapes and sizes. They are extraverts and introverts. They’re morning people and night owls. They’re healthy and completely out of shape. They have neat desks and workspaces that look like a tornado ripped through it.

One thing’s for certain. Real leaders don’t follow. It’s biology.

10 Tips to Make Your Customer Support More, Well, Personal

Business should be personal, even when it's conducted online. So, when you offer support, don't treat queries as mere "tickets"; that's just wrong. Customers should never feel like a number in a long list. Instead, they should feel as if they're involved in a one-on-one conversation.

This means that your customer support staff will have to respond quickly, personally and pro-actively, even though these actions may feel difficult for your company. Here are some tips to help.

1. Respond immediately, even if you don't have the solution.

When you receive a request for support and know you can't provide a solution right away, write a quick, personalized response acknowledging the request and saying that you're working on it. An immediate, automated response from your ticketing system is not good enough here; we all know how those feel: “Great! I’m now a number in a long list!”

Auto-generated responses can actually reduce our confidence that a human is looking after our issue. In contrast, a quick reply takes 20 seconds to write and buys you time as well as your customers’ confidence.

2. You're human and so are your customers. So, talk like one.

You want to sound friendly, natural and personal. This means addressing customers by their first names, asking how they are and perhaps commenting on something outside the issue -- like the weather in their city, for example. The great thing is, your customers will more than likely mirror your tone.

If you're being friendly and reasonable, your customers will, too. If you maintain this tone all the time, even after the issue is resolved, your customers will feel more comfortable asking for help or providing feedback in the future. Talking like a human will even help you retain customers.

3. Always personalize your response.

Every situation is different, so each customer needs a message individually tailored just for him or her. Stock answers, in contrast, are easy to spot and make you look bad. And using saved replies makes sense only when you find that you're answering the same questions again and again. Instead, always personalize your response, even slightly, to the specific customer and occasion.

4. Explain things in multiple ways.

Different things resonate with different people. So, be prepared to explain the same thing in a number of different ways, such as, with a list; or with a .gif; or with a reference to your documentation; or even a chat via Skype or the phone. Then, keep trying until you've solved the problem. As we’ve said before, "Stop wasting time telling people where to click and start showing them."

5. Communicate using emoji.

Communicating via emoji and stickers is often faster, richer and more expressive than via text. Use emoji in your support activities where appropriate. Your customers will be familiar with them and will appreciate that the conversation isn’t too formal.

6. Never assume anything.

One of the main challenges of modern support is talking tech with non-tech people. When you're replying to a customer, never assume anyone is tech savvy. Likewise, never assume anyone knows nothing at all. Either assumption can come across as disrespectful or arrogant. You need to strike the right balance and pitch your reply at the right level.

7. Be realistic. Don't overpromise. 

Always be honest about what you can and can't do for your customers. Overpromising will lead to your under-delivering, which makes you look bad and makes your customers unhappy. If a feature on your product is broken, acknowledge that and apologize. If you screw up, admit it and work toward making things right. This kind of transparency feels real. And over time it will lead to solid trust and respect from your customers -- that's invaluable. It also leaves you in a position to surprise and delight when you've got something great to share.

8. It's never the customer's fault . . . ever!

If your customer can't use the product you built, it's your fault -- always. That's the attitude you need to take when you're dealing with someone who finds a particular feature confusing. You should apologize that it's confusing, explain what you think might help and ask the person's opinion on how to make it better.

9. Think like the customer -- be proactive with your response

When a customer asks you a question like, "Where do I go to set up a new email to my customers?" you have to appreciate that that question actually lives inside a workflow of questions. It's going to be followed by questions like, "Can I use my own theme or templates?"; "Can I change the 'from' address?"; "How will I see my results?"; and many other questions.

So, when you answer the customer's initial question, don't answer the question that's been asked. Also include answers to some of the follow-up questions you know are inevitably going to come next.

10. Offer an 'invitational' exit.

Always end support messages by inviting your customers to ask more questions and to let you know if they feel their issues haven't been resolved. The last thing you want them to feel is that they're being shut down and that you don't have time for them.

Hopefully, these tips will help you be more personal in your customer support interactions, and develop better long-term customer relationships. If this concept appeals to you, dive down the rabbit hole and check out how we support our customers at Intercom.

05 Marketing Strategies That Don't Involve Social Media

When coming up with marketing plans for your business, social media has become a given. When we create our marketing plans for Headbands of Hope, it’s not if we’re going to put it on Instagram, it’s when and how. But because social media has become tremendously infused in every corner of our lives, it’s easy for your marketing campaigns to get lost in such a saturated market.

What else can a business do to reach people? Here are some ideas that don’t involve likes, shares or tweets:

1. Ambassador programs

I started my business in college. To get the word out, I recruited some of my college friends at other schools to be campus ambassadors for Headbands of Hope. An ambassador serves as representation for the brand and can help spread the word in his or her immediate community (in this case, campuses). We implemented a point-reward system where students can complete activities, such as giving a presentation on Headbands of Hope at a sorority chapter meeting, in exchange for points that they can cash in for headbands at the end of the month.

Our campus programs have been so successful, that we’re expanding in 2016 to have nursing ambassadors and community ambassadors. Figure out if there are particular communities that use your product (and will be vocal about it!) and create an ambassador program to help spread the word about your business.

2. Trade shows

Trade shows can get pricey depending on which ones you attend, but the return can be totally worth it. The biggest advantage to trade shows is relationships. It’s one of the few scenarios where you can shake the hands of your consumers and also build relationships with other brands. 

As a fashion company, we do wholesale trade shows such as Accessories the Show and America’s Mart to meet representatives of stores and write orders.

Find out if your industry hosts any conferences or trade shows you can attend as an exhibitor. If that’s too much of an expense, just come as an attendee and network as much as you can. Introduce yourself to the show administration and see if there are any “first timer” specials you can get as an exhibitor for next time. 

3. Bloggers

You could link blogging to social media, but I choose to separate them. I truly mean when I say bloggers are how we got our first real customers (meaning they weren’t my friends or family). Think about who your target audience is and what kind of blogs they would read.

Parenting? Fashion? Nutrition? Business? Find blogs that match your audience and send them a pitch for a collaboration. Understand that you may have to give them a freebie of your product and/or a fee to be featured or reviewed.

Take it a step further and ask the blogger if they’d be willing to host a giveaway on his or her site by collecting email entries you can add to your newsletter.

4. Contribute

Do you have an industry-related topic you could talk about for hours? Maybe you have the secret to designing the perfect product packaging? Or how to develop a board of advisors? Put it on paper and send it off to blogs and websites that are looking for content. Ask them to include your bio and hyperlink it to your business site.

Most of the time you’ll have to contribute content for free, but if you gain at least one new customer from an article (but hopefully you’ll get lots more), I’d say it’s worth it. It will also help your credentials and SEO.

5. Speak

Those same topics you can write about, can you give a presentation on them? Businesses, schools, conferences and organizations are always looking for speakers to energize and inspire their audiences. Don’t make your whole talk a sales pitch, but you can talk about your business as an example of a greater lesson or motivation.

Reach out to your local chamber of commerce or even high schools, depending on your target audience. Don’t forget to bring something with your business information on it that attendees can walk away with at the end of your program. 

Call me old fashioned, but any time you can get in front of people and build relationships around your business, it's always a good opportunity.

07 Caffeine-Free Energy Boosters for More Productive Days

As a long-time television producer, I'm used to having to work long hours with little or no time to eat. However, when my energy is running low, I am always on the hunt for ways to get an energy boost. These days, I am off my favorite drink, coffee, and other forms of caffeine, so I need a substitute to pick me up.

So I turned to Elisette Carlson, founder of SMACK! Media, a marketing and PR firm focused on innovative and authentic brands in sports, health and fitness. Over the last decade, Carlson has worked with several nutritionists and nutrition companies and has some handy insight. Below Carlson has outlined a few healthy and caffeine-free ways for anyone to increase their energy to be more productive through the work day.

1. Start your day with some exercise.

It's a "kickstart" to the day, a natural energy booster and endorphin. Exercise delivers great benefits for achieving clarity, calm, happiness and most important, gets the heart pumping and delivers rich oxygenated blood throughout the body, which in turn means energy.

2. Carefully choose the first food of the day.

Good fuel is key to good energy. Think of it as gas in a car. Instead of sweet pastries, cereals or lattes, eat a large bowl or plate with greens (spinach, arugula, kale), add veggies (mushrooms, beets, brussel sprouts) and top it with two eggs, complete with the yolk. Add fun toppings such as hummus, tahini, a natural fat-based dressing or sriracha sauce (my favorite). Personally, I also have a piece of toasted sprouted-grain bread, such as ezekiel, and spread that with coconut oil or coconut butter.

If a “salad” is too much of a stretch, try avocado toast (sprouted-grain toast) with an egg or two. If you’re on the go, prep the night before (except for the eggs) or try a protein smoothie, but keep the sugar content low. Too much fruit and too little fat can be calorie overload and will not hold you over and leave you hungry for more sugar. Skip the flavored stuff and sugars.

A good protein shake includes almond milk, plant-based protein powder, raw cacao powder, a sprinkle of chia seeds or raw cacao nibs, two big spoons of raw nut butter or coconut butter (or coconut oil), a big handful of spinach and ice. You can add a quarter avocado to the smoothie for a thick and creamy treat loaded with good omega-3. This has lower glycemic levels than adding an entire banana.

3. Go into the light. 

They call sunlight energy for a reason. Create an office environment with natural light. If you are unable to find natural light in your office environment, simulate it with specific lighting created for this purpose.

4. Invest in a standing desk or treadmill desk.

By standing while you work, you have better posture, take in more oxygen and feel more confident. A study by RebelDesk , a treadmill-desk company, shows that those who work at a standing desk are 10 percent more productive and have a 60 percent boost in creativity. Seventy one percent of users reported feeling more focused. Standing naturally drives more confidence than sitting, and the usual back or hip pain from sitting is minimized. You are also burning more calories while you stand.

5. Take a walk during a conference call.

If I am not working on a spreadsheet during a call, I step outside and walk as I talk. It keeps you active. The fresh air is energizing, and it is healthy for your body to move. What’s more? It ends up making for a more productive call as you will be less tempted to answer emails or multitask.

6. Stop, breathe and meditate.

Yes, it sounds counter-productive, but try it. Take that lunch hour away from your desk if you can. In a January 2015 study that appeared in this year's Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, led by Harvard-affiliated researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), it was revealed that meditation improves learning and memory by increasing gray matter in the hippocampus, which leads to happiness. 

Clear the “chatter of the mind” and visualize things that make you smile.Take a five- to 10-minute break and go outside or even at your desk, close your eyes and breathe slowly and focus only on your breath. An alternative is to sneak out for a noon yoga or meditation class.

7. Instead of caffeine, go natural.

Why? Because, the average energy drink contains nearly four times the amount of caffeine found in commercial soda beverages and several of the most popular brands contain the caffeine equivalent of 14 Cokes. Alternative and healthier sources include matcha (try a matcha-tea latte) or a kombucha-probiotic drink. Better yet, try a fruity antioxidant beverage made from coffee fruit such as bai, green tea or even adding some maca powder to oatmeal or a smoothie.

Combine these healthy energy-boosting tips with a good night's sleep and you're sure to see a change in how productive your work day is and how energetic and efficient your body feels.

10 Entrepreneurial Land Mines to Avoid

Every entrepreneur will make mistakes. Nobody is perfect, and most business owners are constantly sailing in uncharted waters, learning as they go. 

While completely avoiding all mistakes is impossible, there are some that I see entrepreneurs make over and over -- errors that shouldn’t be as common as they are. In no particular order, here are 10 entrepreneurial land mines to avoid.

1. Being cheap when it comes to marketing.

You might have the best product or service and provide the most value, but if nobody sees it, how do you plan to stay above water and grow? Everyone is “plugged in” these days -- a strong online presence is key and you have to be prepared to spend money to make money. Rather than looking for the cheapest SEO and online marketing solution, seek out a marketing partner that can deliver the kind of results that will lead to explosive growth.

2. Paying huge salaries from the start.

You should be focused on cutting personal expenses in the beginning and not worrying about drawing a large salary. Many startups receive funding and operate without paying close attention to their burn rates and the next thing they know the funds run dry. Current investors would rather cut their losses and walk away rather than put more money into a failure and very few venture capitalists want to throw money at a sinking ship.

If you’re bootstrapping your business, attempt to live off your savings, or if you need to draw a salary, take the bare minimum needed for survival.

3. Not having a solid monetization plan in place.

A business needs to generate revenue. There are some instances when huge valuations come out in the media, such as Tinder being valued at more than $5 billion after 20 months and not generating a single cent of revenue. For every Tinder, there are tens of thousands of businesses that are failing because they aren’t generating enough revenue to keep their doors open. You have the best chance of surviving if you have a monetization plan in place from day one.

4. Selecting the wrong co-founder(s).

A co-founder relationship is a lot like a marriage. You need to be on the same page and be willing to work through differences and rough times. You wouldn’t meet someone and immediately head to the wedding chapel, right? (Crazy Vegas weekend stories don’t apply.) You need to make sure you and your potential co-founder(s) are on the same page and will be able to stay on the same path, regardless of how bumpy the ride becomes.

5. Trying to do everything yourself and not delegating.

One of the biggest mistakes I made in the beginning was thinking I could do it all. It wasn’t an ego play -- it was more of a lack of trust. I didn’t think anyone could do something with the same level of commitment that I could. This caused too much responsibility to pile on my shoulders. Don’t be afraid to fully trust your team members -- learn to delegate and let them do the job you hired them for.

6. Not focusing enough on your customers.

You might think you know what your customers want, but you will never be 100 percent certain unless you ask them. Ignoring your customers is the quickest way to lose momentum and stall your growth. Engage with them through online surveys and face-to-face communication. Ask them what they like, what they don’t like and what is one thing they would change if they were in your shoes. Your best feedback will always come directly from the people actually using your product or service.

7. Not paying for proper legal advice.

I recently had a consultation call with a startup team and we were reviewing their marketing budget. They are self funded, and while they don’t have millions in VC funding, they do have a healthy sum of money to work with. The founder mentioned to me that the company just made some changes to its privacy policy and “saved $400 by matching it up with a similar one” rather than having their attorney review it.

Don’t suddenly become frugal when it comes to legal advice. While the cost might seem like a lot in the beginning, it could potentially save you thousands of dollars and prevent future headaches.

8. Spending money on unnecessary things.

While a nice modern office in the booming part of the city might be appealing, is it really necessary? Someone forwarded me an eBay listing a while back that included a half-dozen vintage arcade machines. They were part of the assets being liquidated that once belonged to a startup.

Allocate your money to areas of your business that will help you grow, ensuring your company will be around in the future. Want to add a ping-pong table to your office? Set a goal to hit and use the ping-pong table as a reward. Reckless spending will sink your ship quickly.

9. Waiting to launch until everything is perfect.

News flash: there is no such thing as perfect. If you spend too much time trying to perfect everything you could miss your window of opportunity. The quicker you launch, the quicker you can get the user and market feedback required to adjust, scale and grow your business. In fact, there have been several software-as-a-service startups that launched before their products were even ready. The companies wanted to gauge interest and see if their target markets were going to sign up at their price points.

10. Being afraid to ask for advice and help.

Never be afraid to ask for help -- no matter what type of obstacle is standing in your way. There is a good chance another entrepreneur has faced the same challenge in some capacity. I’ve learned that the entrepreneurial community is a very tight circle, and almost everyone is willing to offer help in the form of advice and suggestions to one another. All you have to do is ask. I’ve improved my business tremendously simply by asking for advice when I needed it from the circle of entrepreneurs that I communicate with on a regular basis.

05 Ways to Create Engaging Content Your Audience Will Share

Content comes in all shapes, sizes, and topics. The best content is interesting, informative and awe inspiring, the rest you wonder how it ever got published. It’s easy to look at the work others have done and judge it, saying, "that’s great," or "that’s horrible," but, it’s another thing to have to create your own content.

You want people to like your content enough that they share it and trust your your product or service. Sounds great. Here’s five ways to do it.

1. Dream up a challenge or contest.

The desire to compete seems to be part of our DNA. Dream up some type of challenge or contest where people compete against each other for a prize - they will like it. I've used apps like Challenged or the contest generator on Facebook to add a social cause component, as well as link participants to celebrities, companies or their friends to deepen the engagement. What you create needs to be clear, within reach and reflects what your audience likes.

2. Add visuals.

Numerous statistics suggest that all types of visual content, including video content, is a sure-fire way to make an audience fall in love with your content. An article in The Guardian noted many of these findings, including Cisco’s research that suggests that video will account for 69 percent of all consumer internet traffic by 2017, while YouTube already receives more than one billion unique visitors each month.

Tools that can help you create and/or embed video content in your website and social media platforms include WeVideo, Dripbook, CarbonMade and Powtoon just to name a few. Infographics are a popular way to make complex information easily digestible. Numerous tools are available to assist the graphically challenged create infographics.

3. Provide takeaways.

People like to get something more than they paid for, so offer some type of content takeaway. Serve up something useful to your audience for free and you will win fans. Offer these takeaways as a download to get data on each person who takes that free content. You will learn more about them and market to them better in the future.

Depending on your audience and business niche, these takeaways might include a white paper, ebook, slide presentation, video, an app or software tool, or research material. These freebies also may make your target audience more amenable to your messages or to trying your product or service.

4. Include influencers.

Social media works because people tend to trust their circle more than companies. Social media stars have more influence on what people buy than traditional marketing tactics. People will be drawn to your content when Internet stars such as Wesley Stromberg, Tanner Patrick and Kenny Hamilton share it.

These respected voices add instant credibility to your work and information. You can tag these people in the content to get their attention, then write about something that these influencers personally enjoy or often share. Social sharing buttons make it easy for these influencers to share your valuable information.

5. Report on current trends.

Following a trend is human nature. Research suggests that there are many reasons why people follow trends, from "keeping up with the Joneses” to peer acceptance. Whatever the reason, people crave information on what is current, “hot,” and popular. Even better are cutting-edge insights about what is just around the corner to keep your audience ahead of the game and admired by their peers. Provide this information and your audience will devour your content and advocate your brand.

We share more than ever (sometimes too much). Specific triggers get more people to share our content, spreading our message, gaining traction, winning customers and beating the competition.

10 Tips That Will Help Launch Your Startup Faster

The startup culture is full of people who want to, and try to, but just can’t get their business off the ground. Why is this the case? Much of the reason has to do with the fact that many entrepreneurs don’t know how to take their business from point A to B. Point A is that brilliant idea in the mind of the entrepreneur. B is that subsequent, hoped-for state where the business is secure, established and making money.

"In between" is tough.

In terms of strategies, one of the best ways to build your business is to take that idea in your head to market as soon as possible. Because delays kill. Speed saves. Here are ten tips on how you can launch your startup faster.

1. Just start.

In my experience, it’s more important to start than to start right. Think about it. If you don’t start your business, nothing will happen. Whatever it is that’s keeping you from launching is the very thing you either need to ignore or tackle head-on. So . . .

• Write the first line of code.
• Register the domain.
• Sketch the product.
• Design the prototype.

There is nothing standing in the way of your starting your business except yourself. Do the first thing that needs to be done.

2. Sell anything.

There are some entrepreneurs who know exactly what they want to sell. There are other entrepreneurs who have no idea what they’re going to sell. They just want to sell something. Here’s my advice: Sell anything.

Many of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs aren’t selling anything new. They are selling it different or better:

• Sam Walton (Wal-Mart) sold the same thing that you could find at any five-and-dime or corner convenience store.
• Ted Turner simply sold television broadcasting and advertising.
• Howard Schultz sold coffee.
• Warren Buffett bought and sold other people’s stock.

Entrepreneurs aren’t always innovators. You can take someone else’s product and sell it. Richard Branson, after all, launched Virgin Airlines in desperation. He was headed to the Virgin Islands for an, um, romantic interlude. But his flight was cancelled. So, he chartered a private flight, despite his lack of money to pay for it. Here’s how he described what happened next:

I picked up a small blackboard, wrote “Virgin Airlines. $29” on it and went over to the group of people who had been on the flight that was cancelled. I sold tickets for the rest of the seats on the plane, used their money to pay for the chartered plane and we all went to the Virgin Islands that night.

Got the message? Go ahead and sell something. Anything.

3. Ask someone for advice, then ask him/her to do it.

When you start a business, you will most definitely not have all the answers. For example, you’ll need to get incorporated, but how? S-Corp, C-Corp or LLC?

To get these answers, ask a competent attorney. The attorney will provide advice -- say it's to start an S-Corp. But, then what? Ask the attorney to do it for you. Instantly, you will have gained an expert who is implementing his/her own advice for your money. Payment? You can reward the attorney with stocks or deferred payment.

When an issue arises, and you don’t have the answer, find someone who does. Then, when this expert gives you advice -- whether business best practice, manufacturing locations, logo design, accounting, whatever -- ask that person to do it.

Your business needs more help, knowledge and professional skills than you have time for. Get people to work for you.

4. Hire remote workers.

If you want to find the best and most affordable talent, you may not find it next door. Be willing to hire remote workers to get great work done.

5. Hire contract workers.

Becoming an employer carries with it a lot of baggage. It may, in fact, form such a barrier that it slows down the process of your startup. Besides, few people will be willing to take the plunge to become the employee of a tenuous startup.

Instead of hiring employees, hire on a contract basis. The point is, you need to find a way to get the talent to provide their services. Don’t let the specific arrangement get in the way of getting stuff done.

6. Find a cofounder.

I couldn’t have founded my businesses without my cofounder Hiten Shah. For me, starting a business took more than just hard work and passion. It took the inspiration and skills of a cofounder. VCs are more likely to invest in a startup that has a founding team, not a founding individual. Even having three cofounders isn’t too many, assuming you have a clear decision-making hierarchy.

Cofounders can provide the skills you lack, and take you further than you ever expected you’d go.

7. Work with someone who pushes you to the extreme.

One of the reasons why Steve Jobs was able to grow Apple into one of the world’s most innovative and valuable brands was because he pushed people. Here’s how he described his management approach.

My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better. My job is to pull things together from different parts of the company and clear the ways and get the resources for the key projects. And to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better, coming up with more aggressive visions of how it could be.

Sure, Jobs could be aggressive and unkind, but he could also draw out from people better than they thought their best could ever be. You can find the same qualities in a cofounder, a partner, a friend, a mentor or an employee. More importantly, you can provide the same level of expectation for your own team members. As Jobs said, “By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things."

8. Don't focus on money.

Creative Bloq has this gem of advice regarding startups: “Don't necessarily worry about where an income will come from. A good product/service will always find a way to make money."

This is true. A myopic focus on money can pull your business off track. Whether it’s funding, capital, business loans or the perfect pricing model, back off and let things evolve. Growth doesn’t equal funding. Growth means hacking, straining, selling and doing things other than asking for money.

9. Spend time and money on marketing.

Marketing is one of the best things that you can do for your business. When you market your product or service, you are getting it in front of the people who will actually buy it. Marketing is not a waste of time. It’s one of the best early investments that you can make in your business.

10. Talk to your potential customers.

A startup does not exist in the entrepreneur’s mind alone. A startup exists in the landscape of customers and potential customers.

If there will be people buying or using your product, you need to learn all you can about these people, from these people and for these people. Your business will live or die based on their receptivity to the product or service.

The sooner you learn about your customers, the faster you’ll be able to pivot and serve them better.

Conclusion

Starting fast doesn’t mean that you should force scaling. Scaling is something that happens carefully, in a measured cadence.

Starting fast means that you leverage all possible resources to focus on one thing -- getting started. Getting started is the main thing. Once your business is up and running, anything else is possible.

A startup is a race. The faster you are, the more likely you are to win big.

05 Tips for Developing a Winning Employee Incentive System

There are incentives that go beyond compensation. The possibility of promotion or expanded responsibility can be a strong incentive. The desire for continued employment can also be a motivator. The hope for recognition drives some to perform.

However, in many cases, we find that incentive compensation, such as bonuses and stock options, is a wonderful motivator for employees. Further, if you design the system well, when the employees earn large incentives, the company has also done well. Therefore, you’ll have the money to pay the incentives.

We are strong proponents of incentive-compensation systems. We’ve used them successfully both in companies we have run and with our clients many times. People generally do what you incent them to do -- they will act in their own best interest.

While we believe in the power of incentive compensation, a word of caution is in order. There is little in business that carries more weight than affecting an employee’s pay. A well-designed system can be very positive, but a poorly designed system will do more harm than good. When setting up your system, these five tips will be helpful:

1. Make it easy to understand.

To be effective, an incentive-compensation program must be easy to understand.

We worked with a brilliant manger -- one of the smartest people we’ve ever known. He designed an incentive-compensation system for his company’s sales force that paid them for doing exactly what he wanted them to do. It was a very precise system. Unfortunately, the sales force couldn’t figure out how to maximize their income. The overly complex system just frustrated the employees. Ultimately, he scrapped it in favor of one that was less precise, but much easier to understand.

2. Employees should control the outcome. 

Ensure that the quality of the employee’s work will have a significant effect on the amount of incentive earned. The receptionist may not believe that his or her work will have an impact on the amount of profit the company makes. If that is the case, paying him or her a bonus based on company profit will not incent performance.

It’s OK to have a small portion of an employee’s bonus based on something they don’t directly control, but the preponderance of their incentive should be based on his or her performance.

3. Align the system with company objectives.

People will do what you pay them to do, so be careful to ensure that you incent the behavior you want. If you pay people for the number of widgets they produce, you are likely to get a lot of widgets. However, if volume is all you pay for, the quality may not be what you need.

Incentive systems must align closely with company objectives. We think it puts employees in an impossible position when doing something that will benefit the company reduces their compensation.

4. Bonuses have to be a good amount. 

Studies show that for incentive pay systems to have a meaningful impact on performance, they have to represent at least 10 percent of an employee’s compensation. Less is generally too little to matter.

5. Incentives must be paid out frequently.

Generally, systems that reward employees frequently, say with every paycheck, are more effective motivators than those that pay out only annually. However, for more senior executives or people engaged in longer term work, such as a big construction project, it may not be feasible to incent more frequently.

A well-designed incentive-compensation system can help you take your business to the next level. Following the tips above will start you on the right path.

10 Things That Stress Out Entrepreneurs More Than Anything

Entrepreneurship is a stressful role for anybody. You’ll be in charge of leading people, making decisions, and determining the fate of your business with your actions -- and to top it all off, you'll probably have a significant chunk of your personal savings invested in the project. All those stressful little situations you ran into as an employee seem far less important when you’re in charge of your own business; and at the same time, your perspectives on what constitutes a “challenge” or a “concern” will shift.

These 10 situations stress out entrepreneurs more than anything else:

1. Access to capital.

Capital is what keeps the business going. Even if the business is profitable on paper, you still need enough cash flow to pay your workers and pay your bills. Staying on top of this cash flow and getting capital from loans, lines of credit or investors is one of the top concerns -- and top stresses of being an entrepreneur.

2. Pending promises.

Entrepreneurs serve as the face of their respective companies. If they lie, cheat or steal, the reputation of the entire company can be compromised. Even minor offenses, like unintentionally broken promises, can cause damage to the brand. Whenever an entrepreneur makes a promise -- whether it’s to meet a deadline or achieve certain success metrics for a client or make a new hire for an overworked employee -- that promise becomes a source of stress until it’s fulfilled.

3. Being the bottleneck.

Similarly, when your team is waiting for you to make a decision, approve a deliverable or complete some other task before members can move forward with their responsibilities, the pressure rises rapidly until those duties are fulfilled. With so many responsibilities adding up, entrepreneurs start to feel like a bottleneck, which causes crippling stress.

4. Making decisions.

Over time, entrepreneurs get better about making decisions confidently. However, decision fatigue is a real phenomenon and can negatively interfere with your mental health. If sustained, even small decisions can fill you with stress -- even if you make them quickly and logically.

5. Staying strong as a leader.

As the leader of your organization, it’s your job to remain calm, positive and contained, even when your company is in crisis mode. Otherwise, others will get stressed and may perform less than optimally. Keeping up your “leader” persona is hard and stressful work, but must be done to protect the interests of the group.

6. Commitments.

There isn’t enough time in the day for an entrepreneur: The people you need to meet with, research you need to do, events you need to attend and tasks you need to complete can easily pile up. Even if you love the work you do, when your schedule is so packed there’s barely time to think, your stress levels will begin to skyrocket.

7. Clients.

The best way to sustain a business is to have multiple, reliable streams of revenue from multiple sources. Unfortunately in the early days of a business, most of your revenue might be tied up in one business (or partnership). If that’s the case, maintaining the relationship with that one client becomes an entrepreneur’s top priority (and accordingly, a top source of stress).

On the other hand, if you have many clients, at least one is bound to be a headache -- the one that keeps your mind occupied when you’re trying to enjoy a relaxing family dinner because of a nasty email or voicemail you received from this individual right before you left the office for the day -- the one who's doing this for the third time this month. Every entrepreneur knows this feeling, eventually.

8. Nailing a presentation.

Presentations hold many opportunities. You’ll be speaking at an event, so you’ll get name and brand exposure, and your presentation itself could impress dozens of important people, potentially bringing tons of new business to your company. Because you face the risk of failure threatening to compromise your reputation instead of improving it, upcoming presentations are a major stress for entrepreneurs.

9. Retaining great talent.

Most entrepreneurs realize that your team can make or break your business. If you have hired talent that you like, trust and appreciate (as well as expect to get their work done on time), one of your top stresses becomes doing what it takes to retain them on your team. Small businesses don’t tolerate departures well, and even one could trigger a cascade that could disrupt the entire operation.

10. The unknown.

No matter how much research you do or how much experience you have, there are countless unknown variables and unknowable situations that can (and will) affect your business over the years. Facing this great unknown is potentially the greatest stress of all. You never know when a new competitor, a new technology or some random event could change everything.

If you’re entering the world of entrepreneurship for the first time, keep an eye out for these stressful situations and try not to let them get to you. Know in advance what’s liable to shake you, and take precautions to keep your stress levels in check. Regular exercise, meditation and time away from the office (via breaks and vacation days) can all help you better manage the stresses of everyday entrepreneurial life.

05 Things Every Entrepreneur Should Invest In

We all know what the term "investment" represents: it typically revolves around taking an amount of money and buying bonds or shares of an index fund or a public or private company. But there are a number of time investments that every entrepreneur should make that, although they won’t put out an annual percent-based rate of return, will produce both personal and professional returns that will go well beyond the public financial markets.

Most of these concepts will seem fairly straightforward, but the reality is, many entrepreneurs -- particularly first timers -- will overlook them while burying their noses in 16-hour workdays with few breaks. It’s hard to express how mentally and physically unhealthy this can be, particularly if done over periods of weeks, months or years. Let’s take a look at five easy opportunities to invest time in your health and your sanity, which will no doubt have a tremendous affect on your business.

1. Meditation

Meditation can be something as simple as sitting in a chair for five minutes with headphones on and listening to your favorite relaxing music, with the intent to slow down your brain.

Yes, you can sit in a quiet room for 30 minutes per day and do a whole list of meditative and breathing exercises, but start simple while using apps such as Headspace, which will give you incredible instruction over just a 10-minute period that will leave you refreshed, clear headed and ready to go. It’s like hitting the "restart" button, allowing you to be considerably more focused.

2. Sleep

This is an example of a time investment that should really be non-negotiable -- you absolutely must get sufficient sleep to be as efficient, focused and productive as possible. If you feel like you don’t have time to sleep enough, you need to figure out how to make time. The more sleep deprived you become, the less effective you’ll be across nearly all parameters.

According to our friends at Harvard Business Review, “Insufficient sleep ... deeply impairs our ability to consolidate and stabilize learning that occurs during the waking day. In other words, it wreaks havoc on our memory.”

Sound like a good thing for your entrepreneurial mind? Of course not. The same article noted that just 2.5 percent of us require less than seven hours of sleep per night -- so do yourself an enormous favor and invest in at least seven hours of sleep per night. 3. A speed-reading class

Although this time investment also comes with a financial investment, it’s pretty small given the potential for a substantial return. For around $150 to $200 and six hours, you can take an in-person speed reading and memory class with a company such as Iris Reading. My lovely wife and I have taken the six-hour in-person course and both left the class reading more than twice as fast we when we entered, without compromising comprehension.

It’s important that you, if possible, take the class in-person because it forces you to disconnect and fully focus on the course material. This will increase your return from both the time and financial investment. Don’t live in an area that offers live courses? No need to fret, online courses are available too.

4. Exercise

This is another topic that, like sleep, is far too easy to just skip over while blaming a lack of time. Here’s the deal: you can’t focus in on your mental health, which is paramount to your success, until you’ve gained control of your physical health. You don’t need to train like you’re going to hike Mount Everest, but you do need to get your blood flowing and heart pumping for at least 15 minutes every day. Yes, every day.

Exercise can lead to the development of new ideas, clearer thoughts and a boost in endurance, which are all quite important for your business, so invest in exercise and don’t counteract it by following it up with a Big Mac.

5. Mentorship

One of the best ways to shortcut your decision-making "trial and error" is by investing time in finding and taking advice from a mentor. This isn’t a new concept but it is most certainly time-consuming to set up. It will require an investment of potentially weeks or even months but will allow you to easily seek out advice and guidance from someone that has been in your shoes, hopefully multiple times before, allowing you to make better decisions, faster.