Jeet Banerjee is a 24 year old serial entrepreneur, author, digital marketing consultant, and public speaker. In his young career, Jeet has launched several different companies, written two books, and has helped many businesses make more money from the internet. He strives to create the next big tech company and give back to the world in the best way possible.
Struggling to come up with a business idea that works? In this article, I share 5 ways to come up with great business ideas that significantly increase your chances of success.
With more entrepreneurs than ever in the world, it is no better time to start a business than now! However, a business can only be born once a proven idea has been developed.
Finding business ideas to start are often a struggle for many new entrepreneurs. In this article, I will share 5 strategic ways to come up with great business ideas to start:
1. Take Your Problems and Turn Them Into Solutions
On a daily basis, we all come across a problem or two that we typically overlook. However, the easiest way to come up with business ideas is to look for problems you or people you know may be dealing with.
Next time you face a problem, don’t just disregard it. Find a creative solution to that problem and see if many other people are dealing with the same issue. The best business ideas come from personal experiences.
Example – When graduating from high school, my partner & I had big aspirations to attend the best colleges. However, we didn’t know our chances of getting in and getting help from counselors was extremely difficult. We immediately saw this problem and reached out to all our classmates to see if they dealt with the same problem. Before I knew it, my second startup company – StatFuse, was born.
2. Imitate and Improve
There are so many companies and business models that are thriving out there in the world. Find a business model that may have flaws and see what you can do to improve it. Often times, you can read reviews/ratings on companies to see common complaints of customers.
If the problem is big enough, you can imitate their model while improving the things that don’t work so well. This is an easy, but effective way to get a proven concept into market.
Example – Have you heard of CrazyEgg? They revolutionized analytics by improving on Google Analytics greatly. Google analytics tells you how many people come to your website, but nothing about what they do on your site. CrazyEgg solved that problem by showing you exactly what people were clicking on your site to help you increase conversions.
3. Make Something Hard To Get Accessible For Everyone
There are many products that are wanted by many, but affordable or available to a limited number of people. The greatest business ideas are often ones that disrupt an existing market by doing the unthinkable.
In order to so, you need to find highly limited items that interest a specific niche. Find out why it is not easily accessible to most people (usually price) and see if there is a way to make it available to the masses. Not only will you be able to disrupt a market, but you can also build something huge.
Example – Storing files somewhere outside of your computer was a huge pain before DropBox came into the picture. Buying cloud servers was expensive and portable storage devices were just a hassle. DropBox solved that problem by making cloud servers accessible to everyone.
4. Take Something That Works And Use It Elsewhere
Many business models over the years have been imitated and used exactly as is for different industries/markets. Look for successful business models that can work in different niches to solve different problems.
Example – A friend of mine saw that the hookah culture was growing tremendously here in California. He lived in Colorado and quickly noticed that people knew about hookah, but couldn’t dive into the culture without driving hundreds of miles. He quickly launched numerous hookah bars around universities in Colorado and has done extremely well.
5. Jump Into Trends
Often times, the best business ideas are the ones that are built around popular trends or hot markets. You can find out which markets are hot or not through different websites like TechCrunch or VentureBeat.
Example – When PSY’s image and music went viral, my friend capitalized on him immediately. He launched a mobile app for iOs and Android that was a game revolving around PSY that also went viral!
Conclusion
This article shares 5 strategic ways to come up with business ideas that have a higher chance of succeeding. With entrepreneurship and startups, it’s a well known fact that many companies fail.
By creating ideas that have a more natural fit in your industry, you significantly lower your chances of failure. Do you have any other ways you come up with business ideas? Feel free to share below.
In this article, I will share 5 tips on how to find a technical co-founder. Finding a technical co-founder isn’t easy, but is often extremely crucial to your startup success.
With technology and the internet becoming the easiest place for entrepreneurs to start businesses, more tech startups are being launched than ever before. With tech startups, you need someone who can manage the technical side of your business.
One of the biggest struggles many business-minded entrepreneurs have is finding the perfect technical co-founder to help them execute their vision. Starting out, I dealt with the same issues and learned some many valuable lessons along the way.
In this article, I will share 5 tips on how to find a technical co-founder:
1. Pitch Different
Technical people are constantly getting pitches from hundreds of people with business ideas just like you to join their startup. There’s a reason why they haven’t joined their startup and that’s probably because their tired of hearing the same pitch.
When pitching to technical co-founders, you have to really convince them on numerous factors:
– Your idea is not only better, but has a higher chance of succeeding.
– You’re the right guy to execute the idea.
– You have something that none of the other people pitching them have.
– You value their technical knowledge and expertise enough to give them the equity they want.
Realistically, technical founders are in high demand. However, business ideas are in high supply. That means that for every 50 or 60 ideas that a technical founder hears about, he/she buys into 1 of them.
2. Don’t Worry About Skill, Worry About Ambition
Often times, the best techies are already working for other startups or are getting paid ridiculous amounts of money. This can make it extremely difficult for you to find a very good techie to join your business.
Depending on the technology you’re building, sometimes it’s a smarter idea to hire the techie who may not have all the answers, but has ambition. If you find a techie that’s willing to learn and do whatever it takes to build your product, you may be on to something.
3. You Never Know Where You’ll Find Your Techie
Look everywhere! It’s not easy finding the right technical piece for your startup, but hard work pays off in the end. Here are a list of places you can try searching for your technical co-founder:
– Do some research on techies who have built cool things, connect with them (email them talking about something they don’t expect you to know about them), and try building a relationship.
– Find techies who are passionate in an industry or market you’re working in.
– Go to tech events such as Hackathons, StartupWeekend, and any conferences where techies may be present.
– Post advertisements in college newspapers/bulletin boards.
– Reach out to Computer Science professors to see if they can promote your project to students for you.
4. Prove Something
When you can’t build your product, there are other things that you can do in the meantime to figure out some data for your startup. You don’t need a product to go out and survey customers to get their feedback on what you’re building.
You can even pay someone a couple hundred bucks to throw up a landing page with information about your idea and a “Buy Now” or “Sign Up” button that doesn’t work. Test how many clicks those buttons generate and figure out your conversion rate.
These are things all great entrepreneurs do. For the techie who hears hundreds of pitches, think about how many of them have actual statistics to back up their assumptions?
5. Your Friends Know Friends Who Know Friends
The biggest part of being an entrepreneur is that you have to leverage everything you have. Sometimes, the most unlikely people end up being the biggest part of your business.
If you aren’t having any luck with some of the other techniques mentioned in this article, you might want to try networking. Talk to anyone and everyone you meet about your project and what you need, you never know who they can connect you to.
Conclusion
Finding a technical co-founder is never easy, but great things are worth waiting for. Patience is key when searching for one of the biggest parts of your startup!
In this article, I discuss 10 common characteristics of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs everywhere share specific qualities that translate to their successes. Find out how many of these qualities you share!
After I became an entrepreneur, I started spotting them everywhere. Most of these people didn’t even know that they were entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs often share many common characteristics that really separate them from non-entrepreneurs. In this article, I’m going to share 10 common characteristics of entrepreneurs:
1. You Can’t Keep Them In A Box
Entrepreneurs are extremely creative. Give them a job in a cubicle or something that’s repetitive and they will rebel. The reason I became an entrepreneur was because I worked in a cubicle as a project manager and the whole experience became very mundane.
I knew I couldn’t do this for the rest of my life and I simply quit. After trying a little bit of everything, I somehow stumbled upon entrepreneurship and have fallen in love since.
2. They’re Believers
People are who confident, positive thinkers, and always believe are usually great entrepreneurs.
They believe heavily in the projects and things they do, which usually leads to success in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs must believe and do everything possible to achieve in order to succeed.
3. They’re Risk Takers
Entrepreneurs are daring individuals that are willing to calculated risks when necessary. As a high school senior, quitting my job without any plan in mind was a pretty big risk.
However, it was one of the best risks I took because it opened up my eyes to a whole new career. Typically individuals who are willing to take a leap of faith often stumble upon entrepreneurship.
4. A Burning Desire To Be More
I work with a lot of startups as a consultant, advisor, and an investor. The biggest thing I look for in a founding team is the ambition that they have.
Successful entrepreneurs have a burning desire to succeed and achieve their purpose. If you strive to be the greatest in something, you’re definitely thinking like an entrepreneur.
5. They Don’t Take NO For An Answer
As an entrepreneur, the difference between success and failure is how you react to the answer NO. Most people take the answer NO and live with it, while others refuse to accept it.
Successful entrepreneurs never live with the answer NO. They will do whatever it takes to get what they need.
6. They’re Not Scared To Fail
For some reason many people are extremely scared of failure. Entrepreneurs on the other hand understand that everyone fails and it’s part of the process.
As long as the failure leads to growth in some way, you’re on the right path. I personally believe failure doesn’t define you or your business. It’s rather an event (something that happens on a certain day). If you don’t get back up and try again, then failure will define you.
7. Work Hard, Sleep Less
Entrepreneurs are hard-working individuals. Many of them can be found working long across the night because they’re truly passionate about what they’re doing.
People who are willing to put in a 110% into everything they do make the best entrepreneurs!
8. Love What You Do
The best entrepreneurs are the ones who are driven by passion. If you’re passionate about the work you do, your chances of success dramatically increase.
Entrepreneurs love what they do and are extremely passionate about seeing their ideas succeed on a grand scale.
9. They Don’t Need To Be Babied
The best thing about entrepreneurs is that they are self-starters. They don’t need a motherly figure in their life who will constantly tell them what they need to do.
They are free-spirits who embrace the freedom to do whatever they want. Through their freedom and creative spirit, they are able to create amazing things.
10. They’re Hungry
Entrepreneurs are hungry for a better life. Whether they’re trying to change the world, achieve financial freedom, or simply do what they love, entrepreneurs have a deeper motivation to succeed.
If you’re determined to succeed and achieve your goals, you eventually will! The best entrepreneurs are the ones who want to accomplish something more than anything else.
Conclusion
In this article, I share 10 common characteristics of entrepreneurs. Do you have some characteristics that make you more of an entrepreneur? Share them below!
Do you have a new business idea or startup? Instead of writing a business plan, you should be putting it into action. In this article, I will discuss 6 reasons why you shouldn’t write a business plan for your new startup or idea.
In recent months, I’ve taken an active role in the startup community. I’ve joined the board of numerous startups as consultants/advisers with hopes of guiding them to a more successful path.
The first thing almost every entrepreneur brings me is a business plan. These business plans have ranged from 1 to 85 pages. Some business plans did projections for 3 to 30 years while I even got a business plan that predicted an acquisition by Facebook.
I only look through these business plans for fun, but I never make a decision based off of the business plan. In fact, I tell entrepreneurs to throw their business plans away because you simply can’t build a startup based off of a document.
I used to write business plans when I first got started in business, but I quickly found out that they were a waste of time and have never written one since. In this article, I’m going to share 6 reasons why you shouldn’t write a business plan:
1. Investors Buy Into You & The Business
Investors could care less about a paper that claims how many millions you will make. I’ve had tons of friends who have raised funding, but I don’t know a single one who ever used their business plan once throughout the whole process.
They made presentations with important figures and executive summaries, but the business plan was never included. Investors could care less about what your papers say, they’re interested in seeing what your business can do.
2. Adapt or Die
Business plans make it very tough on entrepreneurs to adapt. Once you have a plan in writing, many startup founders argue about the direction that a business should take.
In business, you can adapt to what your customers or market demands otherwise you will die. It’s sad, but it’s the truth. Business plans can never predict what your customers or market will want in the future.
3. Spend That Time Doing Something More Valuable
On average, entrepreneurs have told me that they have spent around 40-50 man hours creating a business plan. To me, that is an EPIC waste of time!
Instead of spending all that time creating a business plan, you can utilize that time trying to prove your concept or doing something that will help your business now.
4. Business Plans Don’t Account For Emotions
Creating a successful business requires a team of individuals who are on the same page. Often times, startups struggle to have their team agree and believe in a common vision.
Emotions and attitudes play a huge role in whether or not you will be successful. The situations of people vary from time to time and this is something no business plan in the world can predict.
5. They Set Limitations For You Before You Begin
Often times, business plans dictate the success you have planned for yourself. If your projections are to make $1 million in 3 years, then your fixated on meeting that goal.
When you create a business, you shouldn’t have any limitations on how far and how fast you can grow. Instead of creating a quota that you have to meet, try to achieve as much as possible.
6. Speed To Market Is Essential
If 2 people have the same startup idea and decide to launch a business, who will win? Is it the guy who writes his ideas down on paper or the guy who goes out and launches something to the market?
Most likely the guy who goes out and launches something to the market. From launching his startup, he will be quicker to market and will learn far more about his industry, customers, and idea than the guy who spends his time writing it all out.
Conclusion
From my personal experiences, business plans haven’t been as important as they have been portrayed in the business world. Work on a business plan only when there’s a reason to do so!
What do Victoria Beckham, Justin Timberlake, and Kanye West have in common? In this article, I will share 10 celebrities passionate about entrepreneurship that have been quite successful with their business ventures.
There are many celebrities out there who in recent years have shown a strong liking for entrepreneurship. Whether they have invested in others or started their own ventures, they are all passionate about entrepreneurship.
In this article, I will share 10 celebrities passionate about entrepreneurship:
1. Kanye West
With Yeezus coming to the world very soon, Kanye West is making quite a splash as of late. After calling himself the Steve Jobs of culture, it is evident that Kanye West is a genius marketeer.
On the entrepreneurial side, Kanye West has designed numerous fashion lines for companies like Nike and Louis Vuitton. In addition to that, he has bought the franchising rights in Chicago for Fat Burger and plans to open over 10 chains throughout the area.
2. Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher is currently one of the most successful celebrity investors and entrepreneurs. He is an adviser and investor for numerous internet and social media startups.
Ashton got in early in companies like Air BnB and Skype and cashed in big since these companies are worth over $1 billion. He continues to find more startups interested in investments and helps elevate them to the next level.
3. Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake is personally one of my favorite celebrities. He’s a successful actor, musician, entrepreneur, and investor.
The social network actor has done quite a bit of investing and entrepreneurial ventures himself. He has invested in a few mobile development platforms, applications, and companies. On the entrepreneurial side, he has launched his own record label, clothing line, and restaurant to name a few.
4. Jessica Alba
Jessica Alba hasn’t done much investing, but she did catch the entrepreneurial bug very recently. Instead of investing in other entrepreneurs, she decided to go all out and launch her own business.
Her newly launched business is called The Honest Company. They provide an array of products that are infant-safe, which is a topic she is extremely passionate about after having children of her own. In March, the company raised over $27 million in venture capital.
5. Will.i.am
Best known for being one of the founders of The Black Eyed Peas, Will.i.am is working on numerous projects that will be beneficial to the greater half of society.
In his latest project, he teams up with Bill Gates to bring coding to everyone. He’s working on a platform that will help kids as early as 8 years old learn to read and write code. His project can be seen at Code.org!
6. Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga has been revolutionizing the music industry with her unique styles and musical talents. She was the first artist to garner 1 billion YouTube views and continues to grow her “empire”.
Most recently, she has dived into entrepreneurship head on by launching perfume lines, headphones, comic books, and a cosmetic line. As crazy at it seems, she’s had a lot of success to date with her venture.
7. Jessica Simpson
Many people have forgotten about how big Jessica Simpson really was during the peak of her career. Even though she isn’t performing singles or on the screen as much, she’s found a way to keep herself busy.
Her clothing and beauty ventures have been extremely successful with reports saying she generated over $750 million of sales in 2010. Her empire consists of denim, swimsuits, maternity wear, fragrance lines, shoes, purses, and more.
8. Robert De Niro
Many people say that Robert De Niro does not really fit the ‘entrepreneur’ profile so to speak. However, his actions definitely show otherwise.
Robert De Niro is the co-owner of the sushi giant Nobu, which has more than 24 locations across the world. He is also the co-owner of an Italian eatery and continues to grow his empire around his passion of restaurants.
9. Sandra Bullock
This one came as a real surprise to me! The natural funny-woman on television has a very high business acumen.
Sandra Bullock owns restaurants, bakeries, and flower shops in her hometown of Austin, Texas. She has also mentioned that she plans to add more businesses to her portfolio once she retires from the screen.
10. Victoria Beckham
Victoria Beckham is an international style icon and has done a lot to escape the shadow of her soccer superstar husband, David Beckham. Many people even remember her as one of the members of The Spice Girls, the popular British group from the 90’s.
On the entrepreneurial side, Victoria Beckham is working hard on her fashionable clothing line. Her fashion line has received praise from celebrities, large publications, and department stores.
Conclusion
While most celebrities are most notably known for their successes as actors/actresses, athletes and musicians, many of them have been just as successful launching businesses of their own.
In this blog article, I share 7 things we must stop doing every day to be happier and more productive in our lives each day.
Habits are defined as tendencies that are hard to give up or break. We have good habits that we don’t need to give up and we also have bad habits that we need to break.
I myself have a fair share of bad habits that I’m constantly working on improving. Ever since diving into the world of entrepreneurship, I’ve learned a lot about business but I’ve also grown as a person.
This growth has come in many different forms. One of the best ways I’ve grown is that I’ve been able to break a lot of bad habits.
Stop doing these 7 things and you will find yourself more productive than ever before:
1. Being In Meetings All Day
When I got my first ever meeting, I was very excited. I walked into that meeting at 12 PM and walked out at 2:30 PM. Not only that, but it took me 1 hour to get there and 1 hour to get back to my house.
My first ever meeting took 4 hours and 30 minutes and led to nothing. That was one of the first lessons I learned about time management. Any time you take a meeting, make sure you let the other person know how long you want to spend. I try not to take any meetings longer than 1 hour.
2. Checking Your Phone While Someone Is Talking To You
With technology beeping all over the place, it’s really hard to stay focused on one thing or person. However, it’s extremely rude and disrespectful when someone looks at their phone or seems distracted amidst a conversation.
Unless it’s an emergency, you can live without your phone for 5 minutes. Learn the value of a good conversation and check your phone later. The other person will be grateful for your undivided attention.
3. Multitasking
I used to be a huge fan of multitasking because it felt like I was getting a lot done. I would have a huge list of things to do so I thought if I did them all simultaneously, I’d be more efficient.
Boy, was I wrong! Multitasking actually made me spend more time completing everything while I made more mistakes because I wasn’t focused. Stop multitasking and focus on each task individually, even if you have a long list of things to do.
4. Say Yes Because You Have To
How often do we get asked something by someone that we don’t really want to do? I know this happens to me very often. However, I’ve learned that you must value your own time by making the best decision for YOU.
If someone asks you to do something that you don’t want to do, don’t do it. You don’t have to be mean about it, but you can nicely tell someone that you’re not interested in what they’re offering you. Saying NO can feel really good.
5. Being Dishonest
Honesty is the best policy in every situation. As someone who used to have a knack for lying, I really understood the damage and negativity lying had on other people.
Whether you’re being dishonest for your business or yourself, stop lying to people. You’ll feel a lot better about yourself while doing the right thing for others.
6. Doing Work That Doesn’t Make You Happy
Are you stuck in a job that you really hate? In a recent survey, only 30% of employees actually liked their job. That number is extremely low to me.
When asked why they didn’t like their job, most of them said that they didn’t feel like they were adding any value to society. If you really hate the job you have, change it.
7. Hitting The Snooze Button On Your Alarm Clock
I never hit the snooze button on my alarm clock. I’m so experienced at it that I just sleep right through all the alarms in my room. However, it’s a really bad habit.
If you need to wake up at 7 AM to get work done, you NEED to wake up at 7 AM. Every precious minute you waste in the morning sleeping in bed can be used productively doing something else. Stop hitting the snooze button and start jumping right out of bed.
Conclusion
These are 7 simple things that anyone can stop doing to become a better person while increasing productivity. Share any things you recommend people to stop every day below in the comments.
Scotty James is a musician with a big dream. After being featured on the billboard top charts, he did not get the deal he needed to take his career to the next level. This blog article interview Scotty, shares why he didn’t get the deal, and what he’s going to do to change his fate.
Today, I’m doing an inspirational interview with a musician named Scotty James. Entrepreneurs and musicians have a lot in common, mainly that they have to hustle to achieve success in their industries. After hearing Scotty’s struggles and story, I knew I had to interview him to share his perspective with the world.
Without further ado, here is the interview:
1. Tell us a little about yourself, who you are, and what you do.
So my name is Scotty James and I am an unsigned musician from Waterloo, ON. My music is pop/acoustic/rnb somewhere along the lines of Justin Timberlake meets Rihanna, meets John Mayer.
2. You told me you made it on the billboard charts, which is an amazing accomplishment! Tell us more about how you achieved that and what the experience was like.
Getting on the Billboard charts was no easy task. In fact it is a goal that seems almost impossible for most unsigned artists. But I wasn’t about to let that get in the way of me achieving this goal. I had no money, no fans. Just a beat up old guitar and a dream. I knew I had to get money somehow to work with a producer and release my first album.
So I thought of this random idea to go serenading people door to door. I would arrive on their porch with my guitar and sing them a song or two for 10 bucks per song. People loved it and I was making money doing this. It was hard work but I knew that If i kept going I would find some kind of opportunity that would launch my career. After going door to door pounding the pavements for weeks and weeks, I happened to knock on the door of a music manager. I played him my song “Wanna be loved” he paid me the 10 bucks and after talking, we signed a management agreement and he funded my first release. So I then set out with my Manager Johnny to achieve or first goal which was to hit the billboard charts unsigned.
We promised ourselves that there would be no possibility of failure. If you want something bad enough you will make it happen one way or another. So we thought, if we can concentrate on getting one major radio station playing my song “Wanna be loved” then everyone else will see that and they will also start to pick up the song. So that’s the first thing we did. We did whatever we possibly could to get onto that first station (91.5 The Beat Kitchener). We called them, e-mailed them multiple times, we physically went into the station to play them our song. They said yeah It’s a great song, but on one wants to take the risk of playing a new song that nobody has heard of yet. So we said ok… back to the drawing board. We knew we had to show them this song had potential in order for them to start playing it. So we decided that we would ask 91.5 The beat if we could shoot the music video for the song at their station and use one of their DJs (Mike Devine) to be the main character. They agreed and we shot the music video there. A couple weeks later we released the video onto youtube and the first day of its release we got somewhere around 5 thousand views. The radio station saw this and finally agreed to start playing the song.
After that other stations slowly started to pick up the song and in the process I ended up winning the “Bell Emerging Artists Initiative” which is a program in Canada that supports great new songs and if you win it you get launched over night onto Bell stations all across the country. Soon after winning that I hit the billboard charts nationally. It felt unreal to have finally achieved that goal that most thought I couldn’t achieve without a label.
3. With all this great success, what is your current goal and what are you trying to do next?
So just because we hit the billboard charts doesn’t mean we are financially successful just yet. In fact our team is tapped out. We have no more money to make another album or for marketing and we have met with every major record label in the US and in Canada. They all say I have great marketability, great songs, but not enough traction yet.
They basically want you to do all the work, create the army of fans on your own before they sign any deal with you. It’s just too big of a risk for them in todays world where no one is buying CDs anymore. So we decided that we aren’t going to let that stop us. So we are going to create our own marketing machine using no money. We are going to set out to gain 1 million true fans in only 99 days using zero dollars and with the very little resources that we have. We are going to prove that this is possible and people are going to be able to watch my trial and error towards this goal from scratch.
Having a fan base of that size will then allow us to work with major producers, tour the world, continue to release songs to radio, hit the top of the iTunes charts and then if there happens to be a great offer from a record label then at that point we will consider that avenue.
4. What motivates you to continue pushing forward even when you struggle or are met with obstacles?
I am met with many, many struggles and obstacles. I just have to remind myself during those times that everything I am doing now is a sacrifice for what I will become. I may be working out of my moms basement now with barely any money to even get a coffee, and myself and my team are putting endless amounts of effort and all nighters in to make this a reality and it’s not easy. It’s a constant battle with our minds. But at the end of the day you have to want this so bad that you are willing to die for it. You have to be willing to sacrifice everything to be able to live the life of your dreams.
5. Tell us some of the lessons you have learned on your journey thus far.
One of the biggest things I have learned is how to take constant rejection. If you can learn how to take rejection on a daily basis and still be able to keep getting back up and fighting, then you will be ok in this business.
6. What is your proudest accomplishment to date?
I would say my proudest accomplishment would be winning a CRMA (canadian radio music award).
7. How have haters or people who have brought you down fueled your success?
I have learned to love haters. I have realized that most people will tell you that you can’t accomplish something even though they haven’t tried it themselves. Or they have tried and they gave up, and because of the fact that they gave up they don’t believe anyone else can do it. That doesn’t make sense to me. So I just laugh it off and do everything I can to prove them wrong.
8. As an entrepreneur myself, I know all about chasing the dream. Share your perspective of chasing dreams and what it means. Why are you pursuing a career in the music industry?
Chasing your dream is so important. If you aren’t chasing your passion then what are you doing? Why live a life stuck in a situation you don’t want to be in. It makes absolutely no sense. You should be spending ALL of your time trying to figure out how you can make a living doing what you love to do. I am pursuing music because that’s my passion, it has always been in my heart and every morning I get up excited to do what I do. I barely sleep because that’s how excited I am about what I am doing. That’s how it should be. That’s what i am put on this earth for.
9. How many hours a day do you work?
Right now myself and my team are working about 18-20 hours/day on our campaign.
10. I know you mentioned you went door to door serenading people, tell us about other things you have done to really go out and hustle. How successful was the door to door serenading?
Other then the door to door serenades I would go in public and randomly serenade people. On the bus, at a restaurant, poolside, wherever. You really never know who you are going to run into. I have also gone door to door selling my cds and have sold close to 4000 copies door to door. The door to door serenading was very successful. Hard work but it was actually a lot of fun. People would invite me into their homes all the time. I met a a lot of cool, amazing people along the way!
11. Any advice or last words for other dream chasers out there?
I would say just to decide what you want as soon as possible. Then do whatever it takes to get it. You will have to try and fail maybe 100 times before you get it. But eventually you will achieve your success.
12. Share links to your social networks, websites, and anywhere else people can hear your music/find out more about you.
So to follow my challenge we are directing everyone to my Facebook page Facebook.com/scottyjamesmusic from there you will find my website, YouTube and twitter links.
Lastly, I will share a YouTube video showcasing Scotty’s music and just how talented he is.
Have goals of losing weight, building big businesses, and traveling the world? In this article, I will share 10 motivational tips to get what you want in life.
Do you have big things you’ve wanted to accomplish? Have you struggled in accomplishing these things because you lacked the motivation necessary to get them done?
Sometimes, a lack of motivation and a lack of belief can be result in you not getting what you want. Whether you want to lose some weight, build the next million-dollar company, or travel the world…it’s all possible as long as you take the right steps necessary!
I journeyed into the entrepreneurial world at the age of 17. I had no experience, no degree, and no cash when I got started. The one thing I did have was the motivation and commitment to succeed.
Using that motivation, I navigated my way through obstacles, mistakes, and failures to find my own successes in the entrepreneurial world. I was 19 years old when I saw my first company get acquired and this was all possible because of my drive.
In this blog article, I’m going to share with you 10 motivational tips to get what you want.
Tip #1: Believe to Achieve
Knowing what you want is the easy part, but believing that you will have it no matter what is the tough part. A very famous documentary (available on Netflix) known as “The Secret” shares interviews from successful people who illustrate the importance of strong belief.
Before you can accomplish anything, you need to believe that you will get the job done no matter what. Having a consistent belief is extremely important to be successful.
Tip #2: Do What Others Aren’t Willing To Do
Earning things in life are not easy. If they were easy, then everyone would achieve those things. Before trying to get what you want, think about if you’re willing to do what most others won’t do.
Successful people have often attributed their success to pushing past all known limits. Are you willing to go on a strict diet? Are you willing to work 18 hours a day? Are you willing to stay in the gym even after everyone else leaves? These are all questions you should ask yourself before getting started.
Tip #3: Failure Isn’t An Option
To get what you want in life, you must know that failure isn’t an option. The only way you can fail is if you give up on your goals. Early on, I learned that embracing failure and using it to work harder is the only way to truly achieve success.
Failure does not define you or what you’re doing, unless you let it. By giving up, you let failure be the last man standing. To succeed and accomplish anything, you must be willing to get back up and try again no matter what happens.
Tip #4: Start Starting
Many people begin fantasizing about the outcome, but never actually get started. Just thinking about the outcome alone will not help you reach your goals. You have to get started and the sooner you do, the faster you will succeed.
Tip #5: Go For It All
Aim for the moon because even if you fail, you’ll end up in the stars. If you have a goal of losing 25 pounds of weight by the end of the year, push yourself to the limit. Tell yourself that you will lose 30 pounds of weight in 6 months because even if you don’t make your initial goal happen, you will still be way ahead of your original plan.
Tip #6: Work Smarter, Not Harder
When trying to achieve great things, you don’t always need to work harder than the rest of the world. Sometimes, you can just work smarter and achieve just as much or more than others. Always map out your goals and create a plan to see what the most efficient way of achieving it is.
Tip #7: Surround Yourself With Motivators
A popular saying goes that if you can’t change your friends, you should change your friends. In order to be successful at anything, you need a group of people who are willing to support you and motivate you towards your goals. There is no better source of motivation than your friends and family pushing you to success.
Tip #8: Enjoy The Challenge
Life is all about enjoying all the things you do. If you’re not passionate or excited about achieving your goals, it’s going to be a long and treacherous journey. Whether it’s the outcome or the progression that excites you, find some way of making the whole experience fun.
Tip #9: Find Great Mentors
Sometimes you need an extra push from a great mentor. If you have plans of achieving big things, find someone who you wouldn’t mind being. If you’re looking to lose weight, find personal trainers that have accomplished a similar feat. If you want to build a multi-million dollar business, find successful entrepreneurs who have already done that.
Tip #10: Do It For You
Don’t take on a challenge that isn’t for you. When achieving goals, always do things that you want to do. Don’t let a friend who constantly makes fat jokes be the only reason why you want to hit the gym. Be sure that you yourself want to do this.
Conclusion
These 10 tips and strategies should help you get one step closer to your goals. These motivational tips work best when practiced regularly, so be sure to look back to this list as much as possible!
Starting a blog has been the most popular thing on the internet recently. In this article, I share 8 things you should know before starting a blog that will save you headaches later.
With more bloggers than ever producing content on the internet, blogging has become extremely popular. While blogging may seem like an attractive thing to do, there are a lot of things you should know about it before getting started.
Many bloggers think that success and traffic will come easy, but they’re in for something else. While blogging is easy to set up, it’s extremely difficult to consistently write great content while bringing relevant traffic to your site.
In this blog article, I will share with you 8 things you should know before starting a blog.
1. Focus Your Content
Before writing your content, you need to focus on one specific topic. Typically, your topic choice should reflect your skills, expertise, and passions.
Once you have focused in on the type of content you want to write, make sure all your articles somehow revolve around the general topic you choose. The quickest way to lose traffic and readership is to write about things that your audience doesn’t care about.
2. Consistency Is Key
Bloggers rarely know the huge responsibility they’re getting themselves into. By blogging, you vow to write great content on a consistent basis. If you promise your readers that you will post every 3 days, you HAVE to post every 3 days.
Many blogs disintegrate quickly because the blogger loses interest or cannot keep up with the posting schedule he/she started with. It seems like lots of fun when you get started, but you HAVE to be consistent.
3. Traffic Has To Come From Somewhere
Many bloggers start a blog and get extremely frustrated when they cannot bring in much traffic. On paper, bringing in traffic to a blog seems easy since most people don’t know what struggles bloggers go through.
Just opening up a blog alone will not get you much (if any) traffic. You need to spend 25% of your time writing great content and the other 75% of your time finding ways to bring free or paid traffic to your website.
4. Don’t Lie In Your Titles
Many people think a great way to promote their articles and get a lot of readers is to write amazing titles. Typically, these amazing titles end up being fake or cannot deliver on the promise.
When you write a title and someone sees it, they are expecting you to deliver on the title that you have promised them. Always make sure your title backs up the content in your article!
5. 6 Figure Incomes, 4 Hour Work Days, and Vacations Don’t Come Easy
The blogging world has been corrupted by many individuals who have sold people on false hopes and dreams. While it’s definitely possible to live a great life by making passive income from running a blog, the chances of it happening are very low.
Even more than that, most of the successful bloggers who make 6 figure incomes and take vacations all around the world entered the blogging sphere in the early 2000’s. Don’t start a blog thinking this will happen to you in a few months because it takes years of hard work and great content to be on this path.
6. Quality Outweighs Quantity
Marketing a blog can be very challenging. You can spend $100 on a PPC campaign, bring 500 visitors, and get zero positive value out of it.
Bringing in a shit ton of traffic to your blog won’t make your website popular. Blogs need to have a community of loyal readers who return to the website on a regular basis. Instead of looking for ways to bring large amounts of visitors, find ways to bring a few visitors who you know will convert to long-term readers.
7. You’re On Your Own
Unless you have a budget to outsource design, development, or online marketing work to third party companies, you’re truly on your own with your blog.
You’re in charge of uploading pictures, editing/cleaning up the website, adding new information/content, and running your own marketing campaigns. Blogging isn’t for slackers and you have to be committed to your craft.
8. Do It For Anything But The Money
If you’re starting a blog, do it because you love writing about a specific topic. Don’t start a blog because you see someone living an amazing life as a professional blogger.
If you do it for the money, your content stinks and your judgment is clouded by your desire to make some cash. It’s great to make money off any website, but it shouldn’t be the main reason why you’re starting.
Conclusion
Blogging is a very exciting, but challenging thing for people to take on. It’s extremely fun and rewarding, but be sure to know these 8 things before starting a blog.
This article will discuss 10 reasons to launch a startup in college. Entrepreneurship is something fun, exciting, and difficult that everyone should experience at some point. See why I think it’s wisest to create a startup during college.
I launched my first business at the age of 17 while I was still a senior in high school. It was the final semester of high school and I was extremely motivated to do something big.
I was lucky to find this motivation at an early age, which is something that other people don’t find till later on in their lives. While most entrepreneurs debate whether a college degree is important or not, I want to discuss 10 reasons why students should build a startup during college.
1. Professors Are Helpful Resources
Many professors or faculty members at colleges can be valuable resources for students who are creating a new startup. I’ve met tons of business professors who have businesses on the side or built successful companies in the past.
Not only that, but you have access to professors who have expertise in all different fields. It’s an easy, but effective way to reach out to faculty members to get additional help for your startup.
2. It’s The Easiest Life Will Ever Be
While your college classes may seem hard, life could be a lot tougher. Launching a startup in college is the best timing for many students since it’s the easiest life will ever be.
As a college student, your expenses are low, frugal living is part of your DNA, and hopefully you don’t have any overwhelming responsibilities. This is the perfect recipe for building a successful startup.
3. Testers Everywhere
One of the greatest parts about starting a business in college is that you have beta testers and potential customers everywhere.
It’s as easy as reaching out to a professor or a club and asking them if they’d be willing to help you test your product or startup with a large group of students. This gives you a cost-effective way to get feedback and quality output from your classmates.
4. Endless Energy
Your 20’s are generally your prime years for getting things done. Even though most of us spend this time partying and having a blast with friends, it’s the time when you can be the most productive.
Utilizing your 20’s to build a startup company is great because you have the energy and drive to succeed. When your life has no direction, it’s the best time to create a startup because you can find that direction quickly.
5. History Repeats Itself
Popular startups that went on to become billion dollar companies have often times originated during college. Facebook, Microsoft, Dell, Apple, and many other successful businesses were started by entrepreneurs in college.
6. You Have A Backup Plan
You’re in college for a reason. You’ve created a plan on what you will do once you graduate from college. If your startup doesn’t go well and fails, nothing changes.
By creating a startup in college, you literally lose nothing besides some sleep. If everything fails, you get back to the grind in class and start working towards your degree or fall back plan.
7. Networking For Life
In business, it’s all about the people you know more than what you know yourself. Connections can have life-long implications that can be extremely beneficial to your business.
By starting a business in college, you can have many doors opened to you. Not only that, but you may end up meeting people who may change your life forever.
8. Get Access To Tools
Many colleges provide tools to students to utilize for free at a library or computer science building. Tools like Adobe Master Suite, Prezi, or Dreamspark can be acquired for free simply because you have a .edu email address.
9. Your Story Sells
Students that show a passion for building startups while in college tend to sell a lot more in the media/press. It’s always great to see someone young chasing their dreams and succeeding.
If all these reasons aren’t enough, just know that your startup will get more media coverage because you’re still in college.
10. College Is All About The Experiences
You attend college because you want to experience new things and moments that will last you a lifetime. What better way to experiment in college than to create a startup to learn more about what it takes to build a successful company.
Conclusion
Entrepreneurship is something that everyone should try at some point in their life. It’s fun, exciting, and can teach you a lot about business and life. These are 10 reasons why you should launch a startup while you’re in college.
