Tags: entrepreneurial mindset

.CO Exclusive

SXSW Insights – From Our Startup to Yours

03.23.12 By Linda Koritkoski

.CO Exclusive Linda Koritkoski is the Director of Marketing for .CO Internet

In 2011, .CO had barely just launched, and our marketing team (myself included) assumed SXSW would be just another sponsored event. We set up some unique activities and sent a few of our team members to attend. Boy, did we underestimate the power of SXSW! While what we did was still amazing, we came back knowing that the SXSW monster needed far greater firepower if we were to battle it again. So this year, nearly our whole team was sent to Austin, and this time we were armed and ready to squeeze every last drop of opportunity out of SXSW. You can learn a little bit more about what we did here and here. Read more from Linda Koritkoski

How To

5 Common Social Media Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

02.22.12 From Open Forum

Most small-business owners feel strongly about social media. They either love it, hate it or both. If they love it, it’s because its tools can create tremendous brand awareness. If they hate it, it’s because it’s a massive time suck. Regardless of where you stand and how proficient you are at each tool, there is always something new to learn. Here are a few common social media mistakes and tips on how to fix them.

Expecting ROI right away

Ashley Ranger sees this often. As founder of /excelamktg, a social media marketing company based in Los Angeles, potential clients frequently voice frustrations when not attracting a target number of followers or sales captures. Ranger’s advice is always the same: It takes time. Read more from Open Forum

Startups

PAUL SINGH ON VENTURE CAPITALISTS AND RAISING MONEY

02.21.12 From Tech Cocktail

Last week I got a chance to listen to Paul Singh from 500 Startups talk about raising money at The Fort. First of all, I have to say that almost every sentence Paul uttered could have been used as a quote on its own. Below are the best ones, which I broke down into 3 basic steps for raising capital for your startup.

Step 1 – When you are ready to start approaching investors, do not run around knocking on every door. Have a targeted approach.

“Think of investing as phases. Create a hit list of investors and sort them by ranking. Take the people on the bottom and test your pitch on them first. Pay attention to the questions they ask you, because there is a 90% chance you will get those questions again.” Read more from Tech Cocktail

Startups

How to Start Up in the New Year

01.19.12 Posted from Fox Small Business Center

Is your New Year’s resolution to start a business? If so, don’t wave goodbye to the security of a steady paycheck so fast.

In workshops with prospective entrepreneurs, I preach the “slow go” approach to start up a business organization. My preference for first-time entrepreneurs is to wait to quit a salaried job as long as possible to preserve personal savings.

Too often eager entrepreneurs leave salaried positions with only a vague notion of their business goals. They quit to start a business but haven’t really thought through what might work with customers in the marketplace. With each passing month, their savings and confidence drop. This is why so many startup businesses fold early – they start from a point of weakness rather than strength. Read more from Fox Small Business Center

Get Inspired

The entrepreneurial lure — should you bite?

01.12.12 Posted from CBS MoneyWatch

Entrepreneurship is all the rage these days. What with the breakout success of social media, the coming of age of Gen Y, and corporate America not hiring, it’s not surprising that the question of whether to start your own company or join someone else’s startup is a hot topic.

What is surprising are all the popular myths, obvious platitudes, and downright bad advice from people who have no idea what they’re talking about because they’ve never walked the talk in the real world. So let me shed a little light on the subject. Read more from CBS MoneyWatch

.CO Exclusive

5 Steps to Make 2012 Your Best Year for Your Business By Learning from 2011

01.05.12 By Raj Malik

.CO ExclusiveRaj Malik is CEO & Co-Founder of KikScore, an exciting startup that helps small online businesses use their own track record of reliability and trustworthiness to increase sales and close more leads. Raj is a contributor to his company’s blog at blog.kikscore.com, a past speaker at SXSW and is passionate about helping small business and entrepreneurs succeed.

It is early January and 2011 is just behind us in the rearview mirror.  The economy is still making it hard for many businesses to grow and build momentum.  As we start January and the new year we can do two things for our business planning for 2012: You can yet again try to create a brand new strategy for the new year or you can pause, look back and do some serious reflecting.  Reflect on what?  There is a massive amount of data, feedback and information from the operations of your business from 2011.  How about you take that information and create a plan for 2012 based on the good, bad and hard lessons learned from 2011? Read more from Raj Malik

Startups

Startup CEO New Years Resolution: Five Things I’ll Stop Doing Next Year

01.01.12 Posted from Tech Cocktail

1. I’m going to stop waiting till next year.  I’m not waiting till next week, next month, next year.  The next time I look at an item on my to-do list for the 2nd or 3rd time, instead of putting it off again for another indefinite future execution date that I won’t meet, I’m taking it off my list or getting it done now.  If every time I come to this to-do item, I push it back, it’s either not important so I’ll drop it or I’m avoiding it for the wrong reason’s and I’m going to stop avoiding it. Read more from Tech Cocktail

.CO Exclusive

Do You Make These 4 Mistakes Out of Fear?

12.22.11 By Jessica Kupferman

.CO ExclusiveJessica Kupferman is blogger, designer and social media consultant at Badass Biz. Feel free to connect on Twitter, on Facebook or on her website.

As entrepreneurs, one of the worst things we can do is work from a place of fear. The problem is, owning a business is very scary! So much is riding on every decision. Owning a business brings out our fears – according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, our very basics include sustenance, shelter, employment, security – all the things your business provides.

Here are some very common mistakes entrepreneurs are making – purely out of fear. Read more from Jessica Kupferman

.CO Exclusive

Inventory versus Dropshipping

12.12.11 Posted by Rebecca Malik

.CO ExclusiveRebecca Malik is the President at 17th and Riggs, an online source for contemporary furniture and lighting, where she helps you create a fresh, modern space.  Her site has been featured in well-known publications such as Southern Living and online with sites such as the popular Daily Candy. She is a blogger for WomenGrowBusiness.com, where she shares ecommerce and small business management tips.

As an ecommerce site that depends on dropshipping (shipping products directly from the manufacturer to the end user) and keeps few products in storage, inventory management might seem as if it’s someone else’s problem.  After all, dropshipping is all about not handling inventory, right? Read more from Rebecca Malik

Get Inspired

Vanquishing Entrepreneurial, Politically Correct Boogeypersons

12.08.11 Posted from Tech Cocktail

“I’m not good enough.” “I need to be perfect.” “I need to be in control.” “I will avoid confrontation at all costs.”

We all have them.  They’re still there haunting us from our childhood nightmares.  They are the boogeymen (or boogeypersons if you prefer) of our youth.  They are self-limiting beliefs. We all have them, and as adults we continue to confront them every day.

They show up all the time, and we pretend that they are not there.  They frequently appear as the important tasks that we constantly avoid.  They are the item on the top of our to-do list that rolls over each day to the next without ever being completed. They are the product we keep talking about building that never goes farther than talk.  They are the difficult conversation we avoid with an employee, a friend, or a spouse. They are the great idea we know is a winner but are scared to pursue.  They are the boogeymen of our youth and they cost us dearly. Read more at Tech Cocktail

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