Category: Entrepreneurship

Pitch Perfect: 5 Tips For Pitching To Investors

In this article, guest blogger Eric Santos shares 5 tips for pitching to investors. If you want to make your pitch perfect, this article is a must-read to be get raise capital successfully.

 

This is a guest post by Eric Santos. 

 

 

You can say I have a little experience about pitching investors, as I raised a seed round of funding for my first start-up right out of college. I have pitched to a number of different types of investors and groups ranging from local small time angel investors all the way to successful venture capital investors.

 

 

I learned many lessons along the way, including things I did right when raising funding successfully from Angel Investors, and things I did wrong when failing to raise money from Venture Capital Investors. Regardless of the type of investors you are pitching too, or whether you are asking for a hundred dollars or a million dollars, there are some fundamental lessons of pitching that are pretty much universal for any scenario.

 

 

I would like to share with 5 tips for pitching to investors.

 

 

Paint a picture

 

The best way to start a pitch is to begin with the problem your product solves. If done correctly, this is a great way to get the investors interested even before you start speaking about your product, especially if they can relate to the problem.

 

 

When speaking about the problem, it’s best to give a real world example or scenario that the investors can relate too. Paint a picture and tell a story about how a customer is experiencing a certain pain, and then go on to illustrate how your product alleviates this pain. You will have on average about 10 minutes to keep your investor’s attention during your presentation, so it’s very important that you start with a very compelling customer pain that captures their attention.

 

 

Be confident

 

Within the first 30 seconds of your pitch most investors can get a good read of how confident you are in your pitch, your company, and yourself. Investors like investing into confident people.

 

 

Confidence is usually a good indicator of competency and investors want to know the company they are about to invest their money in is ran by competent people. Displaying your confidence during your pitch also shows you have a great understanding of your business and market.

 

 

This lets the investor know not only is your concept great, but that you are the right person to execute it successfully. One of the easiest ways to develop this confidence while presenting is to learn your business inside and out, not necessarily just your presentation.

 

 

Brag when necessary

 

No one likes a bragger, but when you are the CEO of your company, sometimes a little bragging can become necessary. What I mean by bragging is, if you and your team do something exceptionally well, highlight this and bring it to the attention of your investors.

 

 

If you got a team full of bad asses that have 10 years of related experience, brag about it. If some of your users say that your app is the most used app in their phone, brag about it. It’s always better to say too many good things you’re doing than not enough. I learned this lesson first hand from talking to an investor who was judging a startup pitch competition I partook in (I didn’t win).

 

 

We talked casually after the competition and I told telling him about how strong our advisory board was and other things which I failed to mention in my presentation. He let me know I should have bragged about those things during my presentation as it could have strengthened my chances to win.

 

 

Know your technology

 

This tip is more applicable to the non-technical co-founders our there since it’s usually our jobs to deliver these types of presentations. You may not need to know how to write code, but you should definitely learn your product’s stack and technical aspects.

 

 

Become your product’s product manager. The more sophisticated the investor, the most sophisticated their questions. So although they may ask you a business question such as your cost per acquisition, they also make ask what modules you are using and why you choose those specific ones.

 

 

This is also applicable if you are giving a demo of your product during your presentation. Your product may still be rough and in its early stages, but if you know everything about your product, you should be able to know how to deliver a demo that highlights your product’s strengths and smooth out its rough areas.

 

 

Numbers talk

 

The most important advice I can give is that numbers talk, and if you’re lucky enough to be generating revenue, money talks. Investors love metrics. When I am talking about metrics, I am talking about email signups, visitors, active users, growth rates, customers, revenue, numbers of followers on twitter, etc.

 

 

The more metrics you can provide the better. Even if you only have 100 users but the majority of them use your app every day, this metric shows that people find real value in your application. Regardless if you’re product isn’t developed and you have no users, you should already began marketing your product and have an email list of individuals who will sign up once you launch.

 

 

It’s not uncommon for startups to get a couple of hundred to a thousand email signups even before their prototype is finished. When you have metrics and growth rates to reference, it’s much easier creating accurate growth and financial projections for your presentation.

 

 

photo credit: photosteve101 via photopin cc

 

 

Author Biography: Eric Santos is a blogger, social media guru, and entrepreneur. Eric is the co-founder and Business Guy at WishBooklet, a gift crowdfunding web-app that makes getting the gifts you really want easy. Eric is the current CEO of Dwibbles and former founder and CEO of Soshowise Inc. Eric received a B.S in Entrepreneurship from CSUF.

Hustlin’ 101: An Entrepreneur’s Guide To Getting What They Need

The word hustle is used in so many positive and negative situations. In entrepreneurship, it’s all positive. In this article, I share tips and tricks on how to hustle and get what you need as an entrepreneur.

 

The word hustle is used commonly with a negative connotation. If you’ve ever watched television, you must have seen an episode where a nerdy guy enters a pool hall and pretends like he sucks.

 

 

Minutes later, he bets a large amount of money and suddenly has amazing talent. His opponent is furious because he’s been hustled. 

 

 

The word hustle in entrepreneurship doesn’t mean anything along those lines. Have you ever heard the word hustle used in sports? Example: Lebron James hustled to the loose ball as it went out of bounds.

 

 

Hustle in entrepreneurship is defined as doing what is necessary (legally) to get what you need so that your business can be successful. In this article, I’m going to share what hustling means and how entrepreneurs can hustle.

 

 

Outwork Everyone Else

 

If you really want to hustle, you have to outwork everyone else. While others are sleeping, you should be awake working relentlessly ensuring that your business is going to be successful.

 

 

The harder you work, the luckier you will get. If you’re trying to catch up to the competition, you don’t have a choice but to work harder and smarter than everyone else.

 

 

Embrace The Word ‘NO’

 

When I start out as an entrepreneur, I heard the word NO everywhere. I loved every minute of it because each rejection made me hungrier. A true hustler is one who keeps going until they get what they need, it’s real persistence.

 

 

Each time you receive a NO, figure out why you didn’t get what you needed. Go back to the drawing board making changes and try again. Whatever it is that you’re looking for, keep trying until you get it. You cannot let the word NO stop you.

 

 

Knock Down Doors

 

As an entrepreneur, you literally have to leverage every single resource you possibly have. If you need help from a family or friend, don’t shy away from asking them. If you need more business, start cold-calling.

 

 

You cannot be fearful of going into an uncomfortable environment. Entrepreneurship is all about doing the things you don’t to do to get the results you can’t wait to have. Hustlers aren’t scared of cold-calling, walking into an office to sell or to leverage their connections to move their business forward.

 

 

Think Outside The Box

 

If running a million-dollar business or becoming a successful entrepreneur was easy, everyone would be doing it. There’s a reason why only a select few people dare to try and only a small percentage of those people succeed.

 

 

It’s not easy. If you’re traditional methods aren’t working, change them. Growing up, my basketball coach would always tell me, “If your shot is broke, fix it.” In entrepreneurship, it translates to “If your shit is broken, fix it.”

 

 

Don’t be scared of change as an entrepreneur. Hustlers aren’t fearful of doing what it takes to be successful. Set a goal and promise yourself you will do everything possible to get there.

 

 

Get Help

 

Some of the best ideas that I have ever implemented in my businesses have come from talking to other people. Whether it’s someone I look up to in the industry or even my customers, they have a lot of insight to offer.

 

 

If you’re stuck with something in your business, get the opinions of others. I’m not saying that you should jump at the first words of advice you get, but you should keep an open mind to hear what others have to say.

 

 

Take all this feedback and decide whether or not this is something you thought of. If you haven’t, it never hurts to try and see if it solves your problem.

 

 

Drive To Succeed

 

What is your motivation to succeed? Is it just because you saw a beautiful car in a magazine you want or is it because you’re having trouble scraping up money for meals?

 

 

The driving force behind your success is extremely important. Find purpose. The stronger your purpose is, the harder you will be willing to hustle. Hustling as an entrepreneur really consists of three things.

 

 

Working hard, staying persistent and doing things others aren’t willing to do.

 

 

Conclusion

 

In entrepreneurship, you have to hustle. It’s really simple – disregard what others have to say and do whatever it takes to make your business successful.

 

 

photo credit: nateluzod via photopin cc

8 Things You Can Do Now To Change The World

Whether you help 1 person or millions, you are still creating value in the world. In this article, I share 8 things you can do now to change the world.

 

Believe it or not, you don’t have to necessarily impact millions of people every day to change the world. You can really do it on a small scale and that’s where you should start.

 

 

We hear more and more stories about how society is in a strong decline. Pollution, war, heinous crime, and other atrocities are always shown around us.

 

 

However, instead of thinking of all the bad that goes on in the world, we should focus on the good. How can we make a difference? What can you do every day to make the world a better place?

 

 

In this article, I’m going to share 8 things you can do now to change the world.

 

 

1. Share Your Passion

 

I didn’t know I was changing the world until someone sent me a very thoughtful email. They said that due to me being so passionate about entrepreneurship and doing everything I do, they were going to change their lives.

 

 

That feeling where I knew I was going to change someones lives just because of my actions was a great feeling. You don’t have to do anything aside from just being you sometimes.

 

 

Share positivity with others and share your passion for why you love life. You don’t know who it will end up resonating well with.

 

 

2. Take Massive Action

 

Visionaries who have changed the world forever were those who took action. Is there something in the world that you don’t like? Is there a problem with no fix to it?

 

 

Speak up and challenge the thoughts in the world that make you unhappy. Take massive action and create a fix to the problem you dread facing. If you can create value or help make peoples lives better in any way, you’re already changing the world.

 

 

3. Help Others

 

I’m extremely blessed to have the ability to help other people every single day. I get people that email me or message me asking me for help and advice. I love helping other people by giving them advice and guidance on things they need help with.

 

 

Everyone is an expert at something. Instead of worrying about sharing your ‘secrets’ with others, be willing to help others. The more you give, the more you receive.

 

 

The reason I spend 5-6 hours a week writing blog articles is because it gives me the ability to genuinely share information with others. I don’t get paid to write these blog articles or produce content that is meaningful for others, I do it because I want to help others.

 

 

4. Teach

 

I may not be the biggest fan of college or learning in a classroom setting, but I do think teachers have a tremendous value to society. Not only have they mastered a certain topic, but they’re willing to share it with others.

 

 

If you reach a point in your life where you have been able to master a certain domain, take the opportunity to share it with others. You can truly change the world by sharing knowledge. Knowledge is powerful because it gives others the ability to do amazing things with it!

 

 

5. Invest

 

If people like Bill Gates made a ton of money and spent it on fancy cars, the world wouldn’t be a better place. Bill Gates has made a ton of money from Microsoft, but he’s such an amazing person because he invests.

 

 

It’s true that he even donates some of it, but the point is that he gives back. You don’t always need to donate your money to give back. You can invest in things like people, companies, cities, and other things to really help change the world.

 

 

You don’t necessarily have to be the one carrying out the grand plan, but you can put the power in someone else’s hands by investing in them. Some of the biggest investors have helped change the world solely through their wise investments.

 

 

6. Ask

 

Sometimes, all you have to do is ask. Ask someone who seems to be troubled what they need help with. You’ll be amazed by everything that they may tell you.

 

 

You don’t always have to impact millions of people instantly to change the world. It all starts with 1. I’m a strong believer of starting small and scaling up with anything you do. Whether it’s a business or solely making a difference in the lives of others, start small and scale up as you make an impact and create value.

 

 

7. Lead

 

Sometimes change-makers are people who are just great leaders. The world has been missing great leaders for quite a while now and mastering your leadership skills is vital.

 

 

Leaders don’t tell you what to do, they do it with you. Great leaders have the uncanny ability to make you feel good about everything you do. Leaders have the ability to change the way you think and great leaders can change the world with their talent.

 

 

8. Do Something

 

If you don’t know what to do or how to do it, just do something. Take the first idea you have to help others and run with it!

 

 

There is no better time to start than now. The longer you wait, the longer the world has to wait. Do you really want to hold back change any longer?

 

 

Conclusion

 

In this article, I shared 8 things you can do now to change the world. Regardless of who you are or what you do, you have the power to change the world right now!

 

 

photo credit: chalo84 via photopin cc

How To Tell Your Parents You Have Other Career Plans

My parents always wanted me to be a doctor or lawyer. However, I had other plans. In this article, I share how to tell your parents you have other career plans.

 

Most parents have amazing career plans for their children. They want them to be doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other high profile jobs. Being that my parents come from an Asian background, my parents were the same way as I really only had two career options in their eyes.

 

 

Doctor or lawyer. Those were literally the 2 choices I had regardless of whether I liked those career paths or not. I not only had to tell my parents I didn’t want to do either, but I also had to convince them to let me take time off from college to pursue my dreams as an entrepreneur.

 

 

That conversation wasn’t easy. Especially when I started the conversation, my parents weren’t willing to budge from their views. They were hoping my passion for entrepreneurship was just a ‘phase’ and that it would eventually go away.

 

 

Well, they were wrong. I couldn’t continue pursuing a career I didn’t enjoy so I had to convince my parents. It took months of effort and even today they aren’t fully convinced, but they’ve given me the opportunity to pursue my dreams.

 

 

I get emails from many young entrepreneurs who are in a similar position as me so I thought I’d write a blog article sharing how I told my parents I had other plans.

 

 

Showing Them Is Better Than Telling Them

 

In the beginning, I kept telling my parents that I wanted to be an entrepreneur and that I could make it happen. However, they kept saying that it was risky and wasn’t the best route.

 

 

The reason why their argument kept winning was because I was only telling them, but I hadn’t shown them enough. If you want your parents to support your decision to be an entrepreneur, you need to show them that you can support yourself doing just that.

 

 

It wasn’t until about 1-2 years later once I had sold my first company that they actually believed I could make it happen as an entrepreneur. It was proof. I built something myself and I showed them that I could do it.

 

 

If you have big dreams but haven’t done anything to pursue them, it’s all talk. No parent or investor will ever sign off on someone who tells them about the great things they plan to do but hasn’t done them yet.

 

 

Stay silent for a while if you have to and make things happen. Once you have proof and have proven your skills as an entrepreneur, you have a better argument with your parents.

 

 

Let Your Passion Show

 

This one is easy. If you’re really passionate about the new career path that you want to take, let your passion show to your parents.

 

 

As I said earlier, my parents thought my love for entrepreneurship would be a short-term thing that would eventually fizzle out. However, they saw for 1-2 years that I was consistently working 24/7 to be successful as an entrepreneur.

 

 

If you want to be an artist, you’re going to be the happiest when you’re painting and that’s what will take up your life. If you’re a singer, you’re going to be in the studio recording like an addict.

 

 

Letting your passion show is easy, but sometimes it takes time. Not only do you need to prove it to yourself, but you need to show your parents that you really love what you want to do.

 

 

Use Examples

 

Parents want to make sure that you are successful and play it safe. That’s just how society expects them to think and that’s how most people end up thinking. You’re one of the few people who think differently.

 

 

My parents kept making cases that being an entrepreneur wasn’t necessarily safe because so many people fail at it. While it was true, I decided to dig deep to find examples of people who were successful.

 

 

I showed them many different people who were successful as an entrepreneur and tried to show them as many parallels as possible. When I wanted to take a semester off, I made a compelling case to my parents which got them to say YES.

 

 

I told them that while college is important, it’s something that will never go away. Opportunities on the other hand can disappear a lot quicker due to competition, technology and other things.

 

 

No matter what happened, I could always go back to college and get my degree. I could take the path that they wanted me to take, I would just be a few years behind. However, I couldn’t always go back to those same opportunities after college.

 

 

This was the case I used to convince my parents to allow me to take time off from college. Show your parents examples of people who found success when they were in a similar position as you.

 

 

Don’t Give Up

 

Parents don’t always see eye to eye with everything you do right away. For me, it took me about 1-2 years before I could just get some time off from college to focus on my businesses.

 

 

The biggest thing I learned was that you have to stay persistent with your family. Take small steps and slowly gain their trust. You can’t convince your parents overnight and I realized that after some time.

 

 

Even though I really wanted my parents to see my side right away, I knew that it was going to take a lot longer. It was a really big decision on their part and they needed to build that trust with me to allow me to take such a big leap of faith.

 

 

Conclusion

 

I know it can be a struggle to get your parents to allow you to chase your dreams, but it’s something you cannot shy away from. If you or someone you know may be struggling with this, please have them contact me as I’d love to help them out!

 

 

photo credit: kevin dooley via photopin cc

How I Went From Businessman To Entrepreneur

After spending 2 years running a business, I realized I wasn’t satisfied and overjoyed with what I was doing. In this article, I talk about how to go from a businessman to entrepreneur.

Tutor, coach, salesman, project manager, billing manager, assistant, receptionist, and customer support manager. Those are the different jobs I held between the ages of 15 to 17.

 

 

In 2 years, I had tried a ton of jobs and I left every single one of them. I simply wasn’t happy. I needed to find a career path that would make me happy and provide me the joy I was looking for.

 

 

I began looking into different career paths. I came across the idea of being a businessman and an owner. I would be able to run my own business and dictate my own laws. I read a ton of books, blogs and other resources and quickly decided to create my first business.

 

 

Most people don’t know that there is a huge difference between businessman and entrepreneur. I sure didn’t. In fact, when I 17 and first got started, I didn’t even know that the word entrepreneur existed.

 

 

I wasn’t even close to understanding what a businessman was and what an entrepreneur was. I was lost in my own world and it wasn’t until 2 years after starting my business, I was able to figure it all out.

 

 

In this article, I’m going to share my story on how I went from businessman to entrepreneur.

 

 

Businessman vs Entrepreneur

 

Most people look at these 2 words as the same. When I finally found out about what an entrepreneur was, I thought it was the same thing. While I was running my first company, I wasn’t an entrepreneur, I was a businessman.

 

 

Here’s how I define the two terms:

 

 

Businessman – A person who gets into business for making money.

 

 

Entrepreneur – A person who gets into business for solving problems, creating value and changing the way things work.

 

 

I felt like a businessman because anyone could start a multimedia agency and offer the services I was providing. While these services were valuable, it was really just a great way to make money.

 

 

There was a high demand for the services I was offering, however regardless of my existence, people would still have their needs solved. They would just have to find someone else.

 

 

The Discovery

 

At 17 years old, starting my own company and seeing legitimate revenue come in was a great feeling. However, it wasn’t the ultimate satisfaction I was looking for.

 

 

In the beginning, I ignored it thinking I was crazy but the unsatisfactory feeling would not disappear. It took me almost a year and a half to figure out that I wasn’t happy enough because I didn’t feel like I made a difference or served a purpose.

 

 

That’s when I made the realization of what an entrepreneur was and what I was, a businessman. I saw entrepreneurs making tons of money, but they weren’t driven by that. They were driven by the idea of making a difference and so many of them truly were.

 

 

I wanted to be able to do the same thing because entrepreneurship would give me the opportunity to help people while allowing me to make money simultaneously. It was the best of both worlds.

 

 

The Decision To Switch

 

When I told the people closest to me that I was going to move on from my first business by selling it and focus solely on StatFuse (my next venture), people thought I was very foolish!

 

 

They said it was the biggest mistake that I would make and that I shouldn’t leave a good thing behind. However, I had convinced myself that I didn’t want to be a slave to the money. That’s the whole reason why I escaped a life of corporate hell.

 

 

StatFuse was different, we actually made a difference and solved a problem that I went through not too long ago. It was time to flip the switch and become the entrepreneur I really wanted to be.

 

 

I put up my first business for sale and started working relentlessly on StatFuse. Within 3-4 months, I found a buyer for my first company and I was able to wipe my hands clean.

 

 

It was time for a new future and I immediately felt the difference. I wasn’t making any money, but I still felt better than I did when I was running JB Media Force.

 

 

The Lesson

 

Opportunities are great, but don’t jump at the first money you see. There are a lot of opportunities in the world and the whole reason why we become entrepreneurs is to avoid being a slave to the money.

 

 

If you build a business focused around being a cash cow, you eventually end up being a slave to the money one way or another.

 

 

How They Differ

 

Below are a list of 10 significant ways entrepreneurs differ from business-people:

 

 

1. Entrepreneurs take risks, businessmen play it safe.

 

 

2. Entrepreneurs innovate, businessmen recreate.

 

 

3. Entrepreneurs think with their minds, businessmen think with their wallets.

 

 

4. Entrepreneurs love what they do, businessmen don’t always.

 

 

5. Entrepreneurs focus on cooperation, businessmen focus on competition.

 

6. An entrepreneurs rival is himself, a businessman has many rivals.

 

 

7. Entrepreneurs are always busy on something new, businessmen are busy with the same things.

 

 

8. Entrepreneurs are usually excited, while businessmen are usually worried.

 

 

9. Entrepreneurs are market leaders, businessmen are market players.

 

 

10. Entrepreneurs focus on value, businessmen focus on profit.

 

 

Conclusion

 

In this article, I shared my story of how I went from businessman to entrepreneur in the last few years. Entrepreneurs make a difference, while businessman run businesses that are aimed at generating tons of revenue. What do you want to be known for?

 

 

photo credit: Jon_Tucker via photopin cc

The Jeet Banerjee Guide To Building An Empire

In this blog article, I share the Jeet Banerjee guide to building an empire. On my 18th birthday, I decided I was going to build an empire and have began on an amazing journey ever since that time.

 

Empire. That’s a big word that’s attached to an even bigger dream. It wasn’t until my 18th birthday that I realized I wanted to build an empire.

 

 

Everyone has their reasons for trying to build an empire, but mine was fairly simple. I was passionate about a ton of different things and I wanted to create as much value in the world as possible.

 

 

Ever since that moment, I knew I was going to build an empire and deliver on that promise. I’m just in the toddler stages of building my empire, but I’ve already learned a lot about it.

 

 

In this guide, I’m going to share my guide on how to build an empire along with sharing insight on where my empire stands today!

 

 

Stage #1: Build A Plan 

 

Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Jay-Z, Oprah and so many other amazing phenomenon’s have built their own empires. As famous as their businesses may be, their empire is most-well known for the person behind it.

 

 

Before you start building your empire, you need to make a promise to yourself. You need to tell yourself that you will be the brand behind this empire and you will have a deeper purpose than money.

 

 

In the early stages, you need to take a piece of paper and outline the following things:

 

 

– Your passions

 

– Your purpose

 

– Your time limitations

 

– Your income

 

– Your short term & long-term goals

 

 

When you build an empire, it becomes your work for the rest of your life. By writing out your passions, you can spawn a great idea to start with while ensuring that you work on things you truly enjoy.

 

 

If you want to make a lot of money, build a business. Empires truly succeed when the passion is far deeper than money. My purpose is to change the lives of people by creating value and leaving the world with something that lives on without me.

 

 

Empires are long-term projects that take up all of your time in the short-term. Figure out how much time you can truly spend so you can plan accordingly. Lastly, empires don’t necessarily generate revenue from day 1. Figure out how much money you need to be making in order to focus all your time on your empire.

 

 

Stage #2: Build Income 

 

With your piece of paper, you should have figured out how much money (the bare minimum) you need to survive. I know the focus of your empire isn’t to make money, but money buys freedom.

 

 

You need to be making money (the more the better) so that you can buy freedom to continue working on your business. The best income streams to create for yourself are those that are passive.

 

 

Imagine a world where you can work on any aspect of your empire while getting paid at the end of each month to pay off all your expenses. You must start by building passive income streams.

 

 

I made the big mistake of focusing on the big idea instead of creating a passive income stream for myself. In the beginning, that was tough because I wasn’t make any money. I took a reverse route because I built my first big piece to my empire before creating the passive income streams (which I’m working on right now).

 

 

Here are a couple ideas on how to generate passive income:

 

 

– eBooks

 

– Apps

 

– Niche websites

 

– Product Automation

 

– Affiliate Marketing

 

– Digital Products

 

– Investments

 

– And More

 

 

I look at passive income as anything that requires a ton of work upfront, but requires very minimal efforts afterwards. It must have the ability to generate you the income you need to live month to month without you spending much time. From there, it’s time to focus on the big picture.

 

 

Stage #3: Build A Brand 

 

Once your month to month expenses are taken care of, it’s really time to focus on that big value builder. Richard Branson’s big-time company was Virgin Records. My big-time company so far has been StatFuse.

 

 

You need to find that big idea that you want to dedicate the majority of your time on. These business ideas usually take months to foster and my course on building startups dives deeply into this topic.

 

 

Your goal with this stage of the empire is to build something amazing. By amazing, I mean something that has the ability to impact millions of people, is extremely unique and at the end of the day is a company/brand.

 

 

While you build this business simultaneously, it’s time to start building a brand out of yourself. I have mentioned this many times in my blog because it’s extremely important to understand that people love to buy from another person, not a company.

 

 

Some easy ways to build your brand up are:

 

 

– Dominate social media by connecting with as many people as you can (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn).

 

– Share your expertise through speaking gigs, videos, blogging, books, etc.

 

– Get others to talk about you by drawing press coverage to yourself.

 

– Connect with influencers/important people and have them start talking about you.

 

 

As you begin building your primetime business, it is imperative that you start building your brand. This is the best time to showcase who you are, what your expertise is and why you matter.

 

 

Stage #4: Impact, Scale & Diversify 

 

When you build an amazing company, you’re looking for that big moment. The big moment to some people is when the company gets acquired while others consider it the big moment when they land a million dollar investment.

 

 

Regardless of what it is, you’ll know it’s your big moment because people won’t stop talking about it. Millions of dollars in revenue, raising tons of money or getting acquired are all amazing accomplishments that will get people talking.

 

 

When any of these things happen, it’s now time to scale your empire slowly. I would start with investments in other technologies, companies and people that share a common vision with me. In addition to these investments, I would start working on the things I couldn’t do when money was an issue.

 

 

Most people like Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Jay-Z and others have worked on creating more businesses with high impact value. At this point, they would have the money to scale their future projects rather rapidly.

 

 

They continued to make an impact with a few different projects before they really started focusing on the things that they were the most passionate about. These things didn’t necessarily have a revenue model behind it.

 

 

Elon Musk has been fascinated with the idea of building hyperloop trains while Jay-Z has shown his passion about sports. These things make a difference, but don’t necessarily offer the greatest ROI for them.

 

 

Update On My Empire

 

Many people love to hear about where I’m at with my own empire. In this section, I’ll outline a key mistake I made, how I bounced back from that mistake and more information about where I’m at with my empire.

 

 

I started out by launching StatFuse, which was my first primetime project. I made a mistake because I wasn’t generating any revenue aside from that project at the time and had completely skipped the foundational stage.

 

 

While this mistake did end up costing me time, I have managed to regroup in the last 6 months. I learned a very valuable lesson from this and began focusing on building passive income streams simultaneously. Money isn’t the end goal, but it’s a catalyst to buy you the freedom you need.

 

 

With that said, I’m focused on currently building a passive income stream with my partner that can go upwards of $20,000/monthly that gives us the ability to have our expenses paid for while giving us some extra cash to invest others/fund our own projects.

 

 

While I work on that, I simultaneously plan to grow StatFuse and am currently in the process of taking it to the penultimate stage of impacting millions. My empire currently sits somewhere in the middle of stages 2, 3, & 4.

 

 

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The $0 Startup – Building A Business With No Money

In this article, I talk about the $0 startup. I share the art of building a business with no money filled with secrets and tricks on how to make this possible.

 

Many people have been encouraged to pursue entrepreneurship with books like the $100 startup and many other great reads. While these books are great reads, I believed that I could build a successful business without investing a single dollar to start.

 

 

Rewinding back 3 and a half years ago, I had a business idea. I believed that I could build a successful multimedia agency and deliver websites, videos, mobile applications, and online marketing services to companies everywhere.

 

 

I was 17 at the time and I began looking at the expenses of getting started the ‘right’ way. I read and researched online and people made lists of essential things you must have to start your business.

 

 

The sad thing was, I had nothing and I couldn’t afford to put any money in. Thus, I decided not to put a single dollar in and give it a shot regardless. I did alright.

 

 

I grew the business to about 15-16 employees at its peak. I had my own team of designers/developers, online marketers and sales people on my payroll. I ran it for 2 years and ended up selling it before moving on to my next venture.

 

 

This was really the $0 startup. I started with nothing, I came out with something. I came out with a profit and some amazing experience which would help me later on.

 

 

In this blog article, I’m going to share how to build a business with no money aka the $0 startup.

 

 

Compete, But Don’t Compare

 

I was in competition with thousands of other multimedia agencies in the world fighting for the same business. I knew they were better than me starting off, but I refused to compare myself to them.

 

 

I didn’t stop myself from competing though. I couldn’t compare with them because I just didn’t have the resources and tools necessary to fight them head on when I had just started.

 

 

I went out selling websites to companies when I myself didn’t have a website for my own business. Most people would find this embarrassing or as an excuse to not pursue their business, but I frankly didn’t care.

 

 

I knew there was one customer somewhere that would give me a shot even with my lack of anything. After 40-50 NO’s, I finally got my first yes weeks later. I got my first website project.

 

 

I found a team in India to outsource the project to and weeks later, I delivered my very first project. My investment was $0 but I had just collected a check for $850. I took every dollar and invested it back into the business to build my own website. Game on!

 

 

Think Outside The Box

 

Most people would deem it rather difficult to portray yourself as a competent agency without having any portfolio or experience in your field. It was very difficult, but it wasn’t going to stop me from doing what I wanted.

 

 

When clients asked me where my portfolio was and why I had no website, I simply told them that I was flooded in so much work that I didn’t have time to upload these things. Most people didn’t believe it for a second, but when someone finally did – I got my first sale.

 

 

Unless you inherit a shit ton of money, starting off is the toughest part of all. You have nothing to begin with and in order to create something, you have to hustle and be creative. Find a way to get paid upfront!

 

 

I had lots of hustle and tons of creativity, which helped me out. You’re not going to have everything handed to you in a silver platter, so you have to solve problems and think logically on how you can break out of your constraints.

 

 

Stay Persistent 

 

After my first 10 NO’s, I could have said it was a stupid idea and given up. However, my passion and determination for this project was not going to stop me. I knew that everyone would say NO because I myself would have probably said NO.

 

 

However, I knew that if I stayed persistent and kept trying – someone would bite. Weeks later it happened just as I had planned. I changed my pitch each meeting and I did everything I possibly could to close these customers.

 

 

The hardest part of starting off is believing that your idea is gold. We start off falling in love with our ideas but as the NO’s pile up, we lose faith rather quickly.

 

 

There is a formula to building successful businesses, which most people don’t know. This lack of knowledge attributes to over 9/10 startup businesses failing but having the right formula can be the difference between success or fail. I recently published a course sharing my secrets to building a business.

 

 

When times get tough, think about why you started. Use your initial passion and motivation to keep pushing until you get your first customers. You don’t always need a product or experience to get a customer.

 

 

Think Team

 

Even though I never ended up putting people in my company for equity, I probably could have grown faster and achieved more had I done so. When you’re bootstrapped, you need to get all the help you can.

 

 

Trading equity for help is one of the best things you can do early on. You’re essentially getting free labor in exchange for money later on (if it comes).

 

 

If you decide to build your startup with no money, the only thing you have to give out is equity. Use it carefully and value it like it’s the only money the business has so that you don’t get careless with it.

 

 

Closing Tips

 

Below are a list of more tips on how you can start your business with no money invested:

 

 

– Barter. Trading resources and tools is an extremely smart way of building your business.

 

– Network. Meet as many people in your industry as you can because sometimes it just takes one connection to change the game.

 

– Fake it. Everyone says to fake it till you make it, but initially as a startup you have to look bigger than you really are to bring in the big fish.

 

– Discount. I gave my first website out for $850 because I knew any revenue was better than no revenue.

 

– No office. You don’t need an office, use your garage or whatever space you have to make it work. Meet people at their place.

 

– Scale slowly. I could have added my own team of employees the moment I got my first website, but I didn’t. I outsourced for months until I had steady cash flow before bringing my first employees on board. Scale carefully.

 

– Find the free version. No matter what you need, there is almost always a free alternative. Spend some time searching and you will eventually find what you need.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Building a business with no money is definitely possible. The tips shared above will help you build your own $0 startup!

 

 

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How To Surround Yourself With The People You Want To Become

In this blog article, I talk about how to surround yourself with the people you want to become. Your surroundings are extremely important to your success and I talk about where to find successful people and how to build relationships with them.

 

Early on as an entrepreneur, I didn’t really understand or believe the concept that my surroundings played a role on my success. I always thought that if I worked hard, I wouldn’t have any problems reaching my goals regardless of who I was around.

 

 

Thus, I spent my first year or so in a box because I didn’t go out and make the effort to connect with others. Recently, I made a post on Facebook asking people to tell me what types of articles they wanted me to blog about.

 

 

I got someone who wanted to know more about how he could surround himself with more like-minded people and how we should reach out to these groups. I think this is a great concept to learn and as early as you can because it helps a lot. 

 

 

In this article, I’m going to share some tips on how to surround yourself with the people you want to become:

 

 

Look For Mastermind Groups

 

I have been lucky enough to be in a few different mastermind groups, which have helped me out tremendously. Whether you search online or look for them locally, you can find tons of groups that you can potentially join.

 

 

Mastermind groups are great because you get to stay close to a group of people who are usually trying to achieve similar goals in life. You not only get feedback, advice and strong relationships, but you have the opportunity to challenge one another to succeed.

 

 

Go To Local Business Events

 

Depending on your location, it may be tougher to find business events to go to. If you live in Silicon Valley, there’s probably an event every night whereas someone living in Toledo, Ohio may only be able to find them once a month.

 

 

From going to networking events, conferences and even StartupWeekend, I was able to build relationships with tons of great people. These friendships were amazing because I was now surrounding myself and constantly chatting with likeminded individuals that were pushing me to be my best.

 

 

Chase The Top

 

Sometimes, you simply cannot build a friendship or relationship with all the entrepreneurs you want. They may be too famous, too busy or just not interested. However, that doesn’t mean that you still cannot surround yourself with their presence.

 

 

Almost everyone nowadays has Facebook (Fan Pages), Twitters, Instagrams, Blogs, Newsletters, and other mediums where you can connect with them. Every morning when I wake up, I get tons of inspirational emails, articles and knowledge from a few different entrepreneurs I follow closely.

 

 

You don’t always have to maintain a direct relationship with someone to be influenced by their knowledge. If you can’t make friends with them, you can still surround yourself with their material.

 

 

Now I’m going to share some tips on what you do when you meet the person you want to surround yourself with:

 

 

Earn Mutual Respect

 

You first need to target select individuals that you really respect. Whether they are older or younger than you, you need to have respect for them and what they do.

 

 

However, it’s not just about looking up to them or having respect for them – it needs to be mutual. Most entrepreneurs forget that earning the respect of their peers is just as important as it is to dish it out.

 

 

Even if the other person has more credentials than you, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have something unique to offer. Don’t look up to people, find a way to see eye to eye with them. Give respect, and get some back.

 

 

Don’t Ask For Shit

 

Finding people you want to hangout with and surrounding yourself with them is easy. Getting them to accept you as part of their group is the hard part. The first mistake entrepreneurs make is that they start asking for things.

 

 

Nobody wants to give you anything. If you build a friendship and are doing it for the right reasons, then people may be open to sharing information or giving you things later on. Don’t just build a relationship because you need something from them.

 

 

Build a relationship with people because you value who they are and you want to spend time with them. You enjoy their company, wisdom and value.

 

 

This Isn’t A One-Way Street 

 

Friendships are two-way streets. Both individuals in the friendship must give just enough to get back. Don’t expect to enter into a friendship where it won’t require mutual work because you’ll lose friends quicker than you can count to 3.

 

 

Every entrepreneur (successful or not) typically needs the same things. They need people to bounce ideas off of, get motivation from and even help them in times of need. When you start building relationship with people you want to become, you need to do what you would expect them to do for you.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Surrounding yourself with extraordinary people in your life is a great thing to do, but you want to follow the tips mentioned above to maintain solid relationships. In this article, I talked about where you can find people to befriend and how you can continuously maintain that friendship.

 

 

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How To Build A Successful Business From Home

Creating a home business is not easy, otherwise everyone would be doing it. It takes a lot of intelligence, effort and dedication if you wish to successfully build your business from home. In this article, I share my tips on how to build a successful business from home.

 

Home businesses have been an extremely popular topic since 2009-2010. Everyone wants to have the luxury of staying at home, spending more time with their families and making money without ever leaving their house.

 

 

While this is a dream for most, it’s something that can become a reality with a bit of effort. When I started my first official business, I was 17 years old and still a senior in high school.

 

 

Most of my friends never knew anything about this business and I ran it solely from the comfort of my home. After 2 years of running the business, I had grown the company at its peak to a little over 15 employees and our biggest client was a Fortune 500 company.

 

 

I was able to do all this without ever leaving my house at the age of 17. If you’re wondering where/how I had employees, I had an office (that I had never visited) in another country that I set up as my back-office to deliver my services.

 

 

In this blog article, I’m going to share my tips and tricks on how to build a successful business from home:

 

 

Think Technology

 

While it’s not impossible to create a non-technology driven business from home, it’s extremely difficult. The beauty of technology and the internet is that you can operate your business with people from all around the world sitting anywhere.

 

 

If you want to create a business that you can operate from your house, find ways to leverage technology to do so. For my first business, I had virtual assistants and a system that allowed me to get clients who needed websites all through the internet.

 

 

I spent the first year of my business completely at home closing customers/deals through Skype and the telephone. I had a great way of generating leads (all online based) and my production was done through outsourcing which allowed me to literally use technology for every step of the way.

 

 

Regardless of what your business is, there’s always a way to leverage technology to assist you with streamlining it into a home business. The internet is a great resource and you should use it to your advantage.

 

 

Dedicate Space

 

When I ran my business from home, my bedroom was really my universe. I literally spent about 12-15 hours a day there. I only came out for food and sunlight, nothing else.

 

 

If you want to be successful in creating your home business, you need to create boundaries. Work and play cannot overlap for you to be successful. Find a space or bedroom in your house that you can dedicate to your office space. Treat it like you would an office.

 

 

The great part about your home-office is that you’re just a few steps away from your kitchen or family. While that’s a great luxury to have, you don’t want to abuse it by mixing your home-life with your work-life.

 

 

Look Like You Don’t Work From Home

 

If my clients had known that my whole operation was from my bedroom, I probably would have never closed any customers. Thankfully, I did a great job of covering it up because I made sure that my business looked professional.

 

 

Here are a list of things you want to do professionally so that people won’t know where you’re working from:

 

– Do NOT use your home address for work. With Google Maps, you can find out what your office looks like in seconds. Buy a P.O. box or ask a friend if you can use their office address on your website/business cards.

 

– Get a professional website and domain name. If you’re running a business from home, you need to use some form of technology. You need to make the most out of your online presence by doing everything with high quality.

 

– There is nothing worst than your kids answering the office line. Separate your home and office lines. You can use tools like Google Voice or add a cellphone to your monthly contract for about $50/month.

 

– Use more than one email address for correspondence. I made my business look bigger than it was by creating fake aliases (email addresses with different names) that I used for client correspondence. I had one email address for handling billing, one for support, one for project management, and one for sales. Even though one person handled everything, it looked like there were 5-6 different people in the company.

 

 

These simple tricks above will help your home business look like a legitimate operation. You want to make sure that you working from home doesn’t change the professionalism of your business in any way.

 

 

Start Small, Scale Slowly

 

It would be amazing to work from home every single day of the year, but it’s very hard to make that actually happen. I was lucky enough to be able to achieve that since I planned my business around starting from home.

 

 

However, if you have an actual business that you’re trying to transform into a home-business, it may take some time to do so. Instead of trying to work every single day from home, try to create a schedule that gradually leads to that.

 

 

I would suggest working 2 days of the week from home for a few months and slowly working more from home as you maintain control and stability of the business.

 

 

Automate

 

In order to really successfully run a home business, you need to find ways to automate everything. Virtual assistants and other resources online can help you achieve automation for your business. You may also consider technology for automaton for all aspects of your business, this may include a software like Workday payroll solutions and other HR solutions.

 

 

Running a home business is tough and that’s why you should focus on the most important tasks surrounding your business. Things like data entry, customer support and other lower-level business activities can be automated.

 

 

Whether you use technology to automate it or you decide to get virtual help, it’s a great idea to focus your time on the things that will bring you the biggest ROI.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Creating a home business is not easy, otherwise everyone would be doing it. It takes a lot of intelligence, effort and dedication if you wish to successfully build your business from home. In this article, I shared my tips on how to build a successful business from home.

 

 

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5 Reasons To Work For A Startup

In this article, I share 5 reasons to work for a startup. Whether you’re graduating college or looking for a change in your jobbing situation, it’s great to consider the benefits of working at a startup.

 

 

The last few months have been a very exciting period for my startup company. Aside from potentially having the opportunity to hire some employees, we’ve been growing quite rapidly.

 

 

I recently had the opportunity to have discussions with numerous people who have had jobs in big companies and are looking to join a small startup. I asked them why they wanted to escape a big company like JP Morgan or Microsoft and I got some interesting answers.

 

 

Then, I realized that I had to create an environment at my startup that future employees would be interested in. I began doing a lot of research and figuring out the reasons why people want to work for a startup.

 

 

In this article, I share 5 reasons to work for a startup:

 

 

1. You Make A Difference

 

When you work at a big company, your input and feedback doesn’t always get valued as you wish it would. When there are hundreds of other employees, you may not feel as important or make as big of a difference as you wish you did.

 

 

However, it’s completely different in a startup. Your input, decisions, and work are valued very highly. The first hires at a startup are extremely crucial to their long-term success thus you are valued highly.

 

 

You were brought in as one of the first few employees because the startup needs you to grow to the next level. If you want to serve a purpose and feel valuable, a startup company is ideal for you.

 

 

2. You Don’t Work For Just A Paycheck

 

The great part about working at a startup is that you won’t always be working for a paycheck if you come in early enough. Many startup companies offer their first few employees a salary and equity.

 

 

Not only that, but if the startup does grow and become very successful, it’s quite an impressive feat to say that you were one of the very first employees at the company.

 

 

3. You Get To Work In A Relaxed Environment

 

Startup environments are definitely not for everyone. At our startup company, we’re making bets, playing paper basketball, and really loud. Some people may look at that and feel like they’d have a huge headache every day.

 

 

However, compared to a corporate environment, startup environments are great. You get to wear a t-shirt and jeans, work flexible hours, and join a family. Startups allow you to be a part of something bigger.

 

 

4. Learn From Innovators

 

When you work at a startup company, you get to learn directly from the founders/innovators. It’s not like a corporate job where you work with your colleagues and just imagine what it’s like working with your bosses/managers.

 

 

By working directly with the founding team, you get to learn a lot. Some of our interns have thanked my partner and I for the extremely valuable experiences they had working with us. They told us that they truly understood what it meant to run a business because they got to see us working together each day.

 

 

5. The Challenge

 

If you want a challenging job, working for a startup is perfect. Corporate jobs take individuals and turn them into a cog in the machine. However, working for a startup gives you the opportunity to do so many different things that you will be constantly challenged.

 

 

If you want more than the money that comes with a job, working for a startup is ideal. You not only get to constantly take on new tasks, but you’re going to do things that are outside of your comfort zone. If you want to grow individually as a person, getting a job at a startup might help.

 

 

Conclusion

 

If you’re just getting ready to graduate you from college or are simply looking for a new job, consider working for a startup. It’s not always the glamorous job when you first take it, but it can surely be a lot better than a corporate job.

 

 

 

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