Category: Marketing

Billionaire Vision: How To Capitalize On Opportunity

With so many entrepreneurs out there, I decided to write this post sharing a variety of different tactics on how you can capitalize on opportunity. Millionaire and billionaire entrepreneurs have capitalized on opportunities using these methods for years.

 

Most billionaires are so wealthy and successful because they learned the art of capitalizing on opportunities. Whether we know it or not, opportunities are constantly presented to us. Some of us take them while most of us pass them up.

 

 

The problem actually stems a lot deeper than that. Most people passing up those opportunities don’t really know it’s an opportunity because they aren’t looking for one. Entrepreneurs usually keep their eyes open for opportunities.

 

 

In this article, I’m going to share insight on how to capitalize on opportunity by having vision.

 

 

Scratch Your Itch 

 

Ever since the age of 17, I have written down every single problem I have ever faced. I write down the date it happened, what would be the best possible solution for it and whether it exists or not.

 

 

My iPhone notepad has over 250 entries in just 3 years. That means I have over 250 different business opportunities in my phone simply because I took 5 minutes to write down every problem I faced.

 

 

Many billion dollar companies were formed around problems the founder once faced. Instead of cussing out their situation and forgetting about it, they used that opportunity to create a solution. If you want to capitalize as an entrepreneur, seek out solutions to your problems and see how many others are dealing with the same issues.

 

 

Jump Into Hot Markets

 

Successful entrepreneurs have vision. This means that they can look ahead and see what people want or are going to want in the future. They use that vision to capitalize by building  products or services for tomorrow.

 

 

When the bitcoin began gaining huge popularity, some entrepreneurs decided to take advantage of it. Sites started allowing you to create bitcoin payment gateways and bitcoin wallets started coming out. They saw an opportunity and struck while the iron was still hot.

 

 

As a result, many of these sites have processed transactions worth millions of dollars or have made tons of money during a short period of time. People always ask me what I think is the next big market to capitalize on right now. My answer to that is apps for the Google Glass.

 

 

The Google Glass has been very well-marketed and I truly believe a lot of consumers will buy the product when it is released. If you can get your hands on a pair and start developing high performance apps for it, you have the potential to make a LOT of money.

 

 

Listen

 

Lot of people have the poor tendency to talk too much. As an entrepreneur, I quickly found out that I learned the most when I kept my mouth shut and listened to others. If you’re really seeking out opportunities, listen to what others are saying.

 

 

You may hear about opportunities directly from them or you may learn about problems/issues they are facing. The smartest people in the room aren’t usually the ones talking, but rather the ones who silently sit there and take note of everything happening.

 

 

Some of the greatest opportunities go missing simply because people spend too much time talking. Seek out successful people in industries that interest you and see what they have to say. Most people miss out on great opportunities because they’re too busy to listen.

 

 

Imitate and Improve 

 

Many businesses have become extremely successful because they have taken an existing concept while making dramatic improvements to it. As an entrepreneur, you can capitalize on opportunity by looking for ways to make things better.

 

 

My startup StatFuse allows students to calculate their odds of admission. Whether you’re in high school or community college, we find out your chances of getting accepted and analyze your college applications.

 

 

We were definitely not the first website to calculate a students odds of admission. We started learning about the way other sites did it and realized they had huge flaws. While other sites were using crowd sourced data to provide such an important result, we decided to aggregate our data directly from the University admission offices to maintain a high level of accuracy.

 

 

A year and a half later we have been able to triumph over most of our competitors and make a huge impact in the college admissions space. Instead of getting discouraged by our competitors, we studied them carefully and improved upon their flaws.

 

 

Simplify

 

Apple is such an amazing company and brand because they simplify everything. You know you’re going to get something clean, simple and beautiful when you purchase Apple products. Simplicity is truly bliss.

 

 

As an entrepreneur, you can really build a solid business by simplifying something that is generally complicated. What are things people hate to do because it’s complicated? Going to the doctor, commuting from place A to B, finding an apartment, making coffee and so many other tough tasks exist.

 

 

Find pain points people have and create solutions for them. If you make something easier, you will always have a market for yourself.

 

 

Conclusion

 

In this article, I shared different points on how to capitalize on opportunity. Share some of the ways you have successfully capitalized on opportunity through the years in the comments below!

 

 

photo credit: Philipp Lücke via photopin cc

 

How I Closed My Biggest Deal Using A Burrito Analogy

In this article, I share a story from years ago where I used a burrito analogy to close my biggest deal. It’s a valuable lesson I learned that I share with you through this article about sales.

 

When I started my first multimedia business in high school, we mainly sold websites. However, I was intrigued by the idea of search engine optimization and how it could help my customers since so many of them inquired about it.

 

 

I spent some time learning how to do SEO myself and eventually got really good at it. Even though I didn’t do the actual SEO myself, I knew a lot about it. I really wanted to integrate search engine optimization as a service within my business because we would have the opportunity to charge our customers on a monthly basis.

 

 

In this article, I’m going to share some mistakes I made selling SEO, how I overcame it with one simple trick and the valuable lesson I learned through this experience.

 

 

The Mistakes 

 

As a note, I do not run this multimedia agency anymore. I sold it over a year and a half ago so this story and lesson comes directly from my past.

 

 

After learning SEO, I was eager to acquire clients. I could easily make anywhere from $500-$2,500 a month by offering these services to my customers. I was great at selling websites, but I quickly found out that I was terrible at selling SEO.

 

 

I didn’t know what it was. I could close website deals left and right, but I couldn’t get a single customers to sign up for our search engine optimization services. I tried different pitches, prices and plans but nothing seemed to work.

 

 

One day, I was in my room practicing my pitch when my little brother walked in. He was only 5 or 6 at the time. I told him to sit and listen in on my pitch so he could tell me what he thought. After about 45 seconds, he got up and said he was bored.

 

 

My younger brother finally made me realize why every single pitch had gone so horribly wrong. My clients just like my brother didn’t understand anything I was saying. What did my pitch consist of?

 

 

Well a bunch of mumbo jumbo technical stuff. I would start by sharing a bit about our SEO team before jumping into our optimization plan. I would tell our customers about how we increase their page rank, create a high authority back links, article submissions and everything else that goes into ranking a keyword.

 

 

My clients didn’t care about all this. They wanted to pay me to get their keywords on the top of the search engines. As long as that happened and they got a ROI, they would be satisfied.

 

 

The Burrito

 

I knew clients wanted to know how we did SEO, but they didn’t want to hear about it from a technical standpoint. They really wanted to know what we would be doing in words they could understand.

 

 

The best example I could think of was a burrito. I had a mortgage company that was highly interested in our SEO services so I decided to try the burrito analogy. If you’re wondering how SEO and the making of a burrito are similar, let me explain.

 

 

In order to rank a keyword on the search engines, you need to do a ton of different on-page and off-page optimization techniques to make things happen. You optimize the code, add tags, re-write content, and do a lot of other stuff inside their website. On the outside of the website, you create back-links, press-releases, article submissions, forum posts and other things.

 

 

I told them that SEO was just like making a burrito. There are a ton of elements that go into a successful campaign. If you want to make a good burrito, you need to have all the following ingredients:

 

– Cheese

 

– Rice

 

– Sour Cream

 

– Salsa

 

– Lettuce

 

– Corn

 

– Meat

 

– Beans

 

– Guacamole

 

– Peppers

 

– Tortilla

 

 

SEO was just the same way. If we took just 1 of the many things crucial to a campaign, it would fail. If we just grabbed a piece of tortilla and stuffed it with some corn, you’d have a really shitty burrito.

 

 

The owner laughed at the analogy and said to me, “I don’t get why all the other guys confused the hell out of me and you come in and make it so crystal clear.” As you can imagine, I got him as a client.

 

 

Not only that, but that deal would be the biggest one I closed throughout my tenure with my multimedia company.

 

 

The Lesson

 

It’s amazing how making my pitch simple allowed me to achieve better results. Turns out, I learned a valuable lesson in sales. It doesn’t matter what you sell, it matters how you sell it.

 

 

From that experience, I learned two very important things. Look for the benefits of your customers and explain it in terms that a five-year old can understand.

 

 

The benefits of doing SEO with me was that I would get them on the top of the search engines quickly and provide them with a ROI each month. In terms of simplifying what SEO was, well even my five-year old brother knows how to make a burrito, which made that analogy the perfect one to use.

 

 

People don’t want to be confused and overwhelmed by technicalities. Keep things simple and show people how your products or services fulfill their needs and wants. As long as you do that, you’ll have the ability to sell just about anything!

 

 

photo credit: barron via photopin cc

 

Social Media Psychology: How To Create Content People Share

I quickly learned from marketing early on that you can bring more traffic in two ways. You can spend more money or you can find a way to get your existing traffic to tell more of their friends. In this article, I share social media psychology tricks and how to get people share your content.

 

As I’ve learned more and more about marketing, I quickly noted that the quickest way to scale your marketing plan is through your existing users/customers. What if you could bring 1 person to the site who would then bring 3 of his/her friends?

 

 

That would increase the power of your marketing campaign by 3 because you now have the ability to bring 3x as much traffic as you did before. I quickly learned that pouring more money into online marketing wasn’t the answer to getting more traffic.

 

 

Sure you can get more traffic that way, but you pay way more than you should. I learned that you need to create content and material that will prompt others to share, talk about with their friends and eventually refer to their social circles.

 

 

In this article, I’m going to discuss the 5 reasons why people share content so you can learn how to create content people share:

 

 

1. Boost My Ego 

 

Social media has turned into a game these last few years. Your reputation can thrive or die on social media solely based on the things you post on your feed. Thus, more and more people are becoming careful on the types of things they do post.

 

 

If you can help people feel special or gain the respect of their peers by posting something, they will be glad to do it. Not only that, but they will tell all their friends and boast about it to get more of a reputation boost.

 

 

What can you do to your content or material that will promote your brand while simultaneously giving others a boost in their authority? This is one of the best ways to get people to share your content because they get a huge benefit out of it.

 

 

2. Boost My Humor

 

People absolutely love to share things they find funny. Not only that, but they love to share humorous content through social media channels because they hope that their friends will find it funny as well.

 

 

Some of the most popular videos on Vine or images on Instagram have received millions of hits. Why? They were simply so funny that people had to share it with others and it had people talking about them afterwards.

 

 

If you can find a way to create content that is humorous to your audience, they will inevitably share it with others. Give people a laugh and create entertaining content that they will be itching to share.

 

 

3. Boost My Intelligence

 

Another reason why people share is to show others how intelligent they really are. If you can make me feel intelligent, interesting or both, I’m more likely to share your content.

 

 

If you have a stunning fact or some thought provoking material that allows me to provide some insight on, I would love to share that through social media. It will not only make me look intelligent for starting a discussion on this topic, but it will get people talking about your content.

 

 

When the government shut down the other night, there were posts all over my social media feeds about it. Everyone thought that they were the first one to post about it and each person was trying to post unique remarks about it.

 

 

4. Boost My Sweetness

 

Another reason why people share is when they feel like they are a better person for sharing something through social media. A while ago, there was a campaign (where there were many reports of it being fake) known as KONY 2012.

 

 

Millions of people shared this campaign simply because they wanted to feel sweet and that they were making a difference. The campaign went viral in just a few nights and people found out weeks later that it was possibly fake.

 

 

If you can do something with your content or material to make people feel like they’re doing something meaningful, people will share it. You have to make sure that somehow through someone else sharing your content, they will look like they are a better person.

 

 

5. Boost My Wallet

 

The only other proven reason why people are willing to share content through their social media channels is if they are directly rewarded for their effort. Often times, businesses have run sweepstakes, giveaways and other contests to promote sharing.

 

 

If you really want to make your content and materials go viral, you can try incentivizing your audience to share. Give them an entry into a big sweepstakes or give them a small reward for taking the time to share it.

 

 

One of the most successful social media campaigns I ran for a client of mine a few years ago involved incentivizing users. Each time a user shared his products, they received a FREE bottle of cologne with their next purchase on his site. This campaign generated over 1,950 shares in 30 days and quadrupled his sales for the month.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Forcing people to share your content or material will never work. You must understand the social media psychology or the mindset behind the user that prompts them to share. If you can make people feel one of the five benefits mentioned above, you will instantly create content that people will want to share. 

 

 

photo credit: kdonovangaddy 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.

 

 

photo credit: ecstaticist via photopin cc

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!

 

 

photo credit: suburbandollar via photopin cc

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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4 Networking Strategies to Boost Your Online Presence

In this article, guest author – Bernardo de la Vega shares his top 4 networking strategies to boost your online presence. If you’re looking to build a brand online, these tips are very important to know.

 

This is a guest post by Bernardo de la Vega. 

 

 

What is the one secret to success when networking in business? In order to be successful in building relationships that will lead to business referrals and opportunities, there are four things you need to focus on:

 

 

1. Continuously add people to your network.

 

Use Facebook and Twitter strategies to add people to your networks. On twitter, find a leader in your niche and follow around 300 of his/her followers. After a couple of days you will get about a 25% follow back, then you can just unfollow the rest.

 

 

On Facebook, find people who are doing well and are well connected and send a friend request to their friends. The bottom line is that the greater the number of connections you have (based on quality relationships of course), the more referrals you can generate. The math is pretty easy.

 

 

2. Seek engagement.

 

This is the most Important thing you need to do. I run into fan pages all the time with several hundred likes or nicely designed blogs that have no engagement . Don’t expect people to come to you, you must go to them. Go out and comment on other people’s fan pages, blogs, twitter updates.

 

 

Posting smart and relevant comments will get people interested in you. Remember having a lot of likes and followers means nothing if you don’t engage people.

 

 

3. Help others

 

Approach people with a genuine mindset of helping them, people can sense right away when you just want to get something from them. Think of ways you can provide value to people as you approach them. It can be something as simple as sharing a website, a tip or a technique that you use that will help them. For example you can tell them about:

 

• http://www.similarweb.com/ – a free site to find out what your competition is doing about traffic

 

• http://www.fanpagekarma.com/ – a great site that gives you amazing stats and ways to improve your following for your FB fan page.

 

 

4. Share stories.

 

If you want to build your network in order to generate more referrals, place story-telling at the top of your efforts. Facts tell, but stories sell. Tell a story about things you are doing right and things you did wrong and what you learned from that experience. Being honest is the best way to go.

 

 

Using stories is a great way to connect with other people as well. When someone has a very powerful story you can share their story as well. I always hear the top leaders say something like “ someone I know had a terrible thing happened to them and then they had a breakthrough”. People love stories so even if you don’t have the best story you can always find one by talking to people.

 

 

Conclusion

 

It’s crucial to connect with others beyond the superficial meet and greet! Numbers alone don’t really do much. In order to be good at engaging people, lead with value and really try to help others. Finally use stories to really connect with people.

 

 

Bernardo de la Vega is the Creator and Founder of Creative Growth Marketing. He specializes in traffic strategies, improving conversions and copywriting. He has an email open rate of about 40% because of the value he provides.

 

 

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How To Take Over A New Market: Jay Z Style

In this blog article, I share a piece on how to take over a new market: Jay-Z style. Jay-Z came to the sports agency world and took it by storm, which is something anyone can do in a new industry.

 

Lately, all the buzz in the sports world has been about Jay Z. He has started a new sports agency, Roc Nation, which has made quite a splash in the sports world.

 

 

After signing Robinson Cano, one of the biggest baseball superstars in the game right now, Jay Z and company made many crucial signings for their agency.

 

 

Roc Nation sports was founded in early 2013. From there, Jay Z & company have been able to sign the following superstars:

 

 

– Kevin Durant

 

– Robinson Cano

 

– Victor Cruz

 

– Geno Smith

 

– Skylar Diggins

 

 

That’s quite an impressive entrance to a new market if you ask me. In this blog article, I’m going to talk about how to take over a new market: Jay Z style.

 

 

Create a brand people can’t say “NO” to

 

Jay Z has one of the biggest brands in the world. Compared to the other sports agents in the industry, his background and brand left others in the dust.

 

 

If you’re trying to conquer a new market fast, you need to build up your credibility. By having credibility and a brand around you, people are more open to buy into what you have in the early stages.

 

Remember, people buy into you more than they buy into the product or service that you’re offering. 

 

 

 

Leverage your connections

 

Jay Z didn’t just wake up one morning and build relationships with all these superstars. The music industry and sports industry connect very closely with one another. Jay Z built relationships with these athletes years before he ever created his sports agency.

 

 

When entering a new market, you must plan & prepare very carefully. Start building connections in the industry long before you get started. Not only that, but you should partner up with people that know the industry well enough.

 

 

Put the competition on blast 

 

Jay Z stepped into the sports agency world and immediately put his competitors on blast. He said that the other agents were lazy and did half-assed work that didn’t always look out for the best interest of their clients.

 

 

Athletes would be getting the same experience by going with the other agents instead of Jay Z. By saying this, Jay Z exposed a problem of his competitors that he was solving. He quickly began delivering his value proposition that made many athletes intrigued by his offerings.

 

 

If you want to take over a new market quickly, you have to separate yourself from the competitors quickly. Give your customers a reason to choose you over the competitors who’ve been there for years.

 

 

Hustle your ass off 

 

Jay Z is one of the hardest working individuals in the business and that is why we has been able to take over this market so well. You can’t just jump into a new market and expect things to fall in your lap.

 

 

You have to get up and take what you want. Jay Z hustled to get meetings with athletes who were looking re-negotiate contracts with their existing sports agents. He wooed them by creating amazing sales pitches and using himself as a negotiation piece.

 

 

If you’re entering a new market, you have to do something to get known. Create unique sales pitches that your competitors don’t use (even if it’s more costly at first). People buy because they have a great experience during the selling process.

 

 

Conclusion

 

As you can see, Jay Z did ample things to slowly begin his take-over in the sports agency world. These are a few tips you can learn from Jay Z to take over a new market.

 

 

 

Twitter Tactics: How To Get Retweeted

With over 40,000 followers and many of my tweets getting over 100+ retweets, I have learned a lot about Twitter marketing. In this article, I share my best twitter tactics to get more retweets and strategies on how to increase your social influence.

 

Twitter is one of the most active and popular social networks on the internet right now. This social network also holds tremendous value for businesses and bloggers because of how quickly content can spread.

 

 

One of the best ways to acquire followers or spread content is by getting retweeted by others. If you’re not familiar with retweets, it’s just like a “share” button that takes your messages and posts it on someone else’s Twitter page.

 

 

I have over 40,000 followers on Twitter (don’t worry they’re real) and have had many tweets been retweeted by 100 or more people at a time.

 

 

In this blog article, I’m going to share how to get retweeted:

 

 

1. Great Content Goes A Long Ways

 

Whether you’re looking for retweets on your blog articles, quotes, or opinions……great content goes very far. You have 140 characters to be creative.

 

 

Understand who your followers and audience on Twitter are and content that is meaningful to them. If you can appeal to your Twitter audience, you will get more retweets.

 

 

2. Time & Day Matter

 

Are you tweeting in the wee hours of the morning? If you’re sending tweets at 3 or 4 AM tweets, here’s why you aren’t getting retweeted.

 

 

The time and day that you choose to Tweet matters greatly. The charts below will show you the best times to Tweet to get the most retweets from your audience.

 

 

 

 

As you can see from the charts above, certain days & times show the most activity on Twitter. Tweeting your best content during those times can vastly increase your chances of getting retweeted.

 

 

3. Use Link Shorteners

 

If you’re uploading links along with your Twitter posts, that’s great! Content with links posted on Twitter get retweeted more often, but you need to be shrinking your links.

 

 

People tend to retweet content that features shorter links way more than un-shortened links. I personally use https://bitly.com to shorten my Twitter links because of the data and metrics it provides me.

 

 

4. Less is More

 

Believe it or not, your Twitter audience will appreciate you more if you do something known as selective tweeting. Instead of posting every tweet that comes to mind, save the best for Twitter and the rest for your friends.

 

 

Post less on Twitter, but make sure your every post on Twitter is magnificent. Focus on posting the content that’s your best so that you get more retweets from your audience.

 

 

5. Be Quotacious

 

My most popular tweets have been quotes or proverbs that I have shared with my audience. For some reason, users cannot pass up a great quote and always have the urge to retweet it.

 

 

If you’re looking to use retweets to increase your social media influence and build up a larger following, you can start by quoting things your audience will be interested in.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Getting retweeted on Twitter is an art that takes time and experimentation to master. Keep experimenting with different ideas and tweets to create more influence through Twitter.

 

 

 

 

What I Learned From Cold Calling 300 People Out of a Directory

Entrepreneurs have to hustle at all costs. Yesterday, the hustle got real. Here’s what I learned from cold calling 300 people out of a directory selling my products and services.

 

Many people think the art of cold calling is dead. I still think cold calling is alive, but there are just a lack of people willing to give it a shot.

 

 

When the hustle gets serious enough in entrepreneurship, you should try cold calling. Cold calling is an easy way to test your market, validate a product, and generate sales for your business.

 

 

Yesterday, I picked up the yellow pages and started calling random individuals who I felt would be prospective customers for my product.

 

 

This was the first time I had really ever cold called a mass group of people, but I learned a lot from the experience. Here’s what I learned from cold calling 300 people out of a directory:

 

 

1. Write Your Pitch Down

 

Before I began pitching, I took some time to craft a well-writen pitch. Every time I picked up the phone, I had my pitch sitting right in front of me to limit any mistakes I could be making.

 

 

If you write your pitch down, you’re much more organized and calm on the phone. Being organized and prepared are extremely important to successfully cold call.

 

 

2. They Just Hang Up…..

 

If people weren’t into my pitch or the product I was selling, they would simply hang up. It’s really not as bad as people think!

 

 

The worst thing someone can do is just hang up on the phone or say a few mean words. Once I realized that, I was far more confident.

 

 

3. Don’t Stop Calling

 

I got a lot of voicemails when I started, but that didn’t stop me from continuing. I left voicemails and kept calling. I spent over 4 hours cold calling person after person through the directory.

 

 

Cold calling is truly a numbers game. The more numbers you call, the higher chances of conversion you have for your product or service. Never stop calling!

 

 

4. Experiment 

 

Test and experiment pitches with different people. See which pitches have the highest success rates and which ones don’t.

 

 

Once you figure that out, you can consistently use one pitch that you know has the best chance of working.

 

 

5. Analyze Your Audience 

 

I quickly found out that a certain ethnic group wasn’t going for the product. I was also able to isolate an ethnic group that was far more interested in the product and decided to focus on them.

 

 

Before cold calling, it’s very important to analyze who you’re calling and how they’re reacting. If you can figure out a more targeted audience to call, your closure rate dramatically increases.

 

 

Conclusion

 

No matter what anyone says, cold calling is not dead! It just takes the right mindset and attitude to successfully cold call individuals. Share your best tips for cold calling success below.

 

 

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