Posts

We asked ten entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question: If I’m new to marketing automation, how can I start slowly and ensure I’m making a worthwhile investment? Check out their answers below: Put Relationships at the Forefront Using marketing automation, you can say “hi” to every new follower on Twitter or post a regular update to your Facebook group every Thursday. What good is any of that if you aren’t actually connecting with people?...

That’s why we took a look at San Diego’s startup community to find out how the lesser-known destination for entrepreneurship operates and what startup founders there think of it. Turns out, it’s a pretty awesome place for startups. Well, that’s if you’re ready for the San Diego experience. If you think the money meetings are happening in boardrooms and coffee shops, think again, as a margarita might be in your future....

Today, three years later, McElrath is announcing seed funding led by Fortify.vc for a startup called Hallway, which aims to change the way students share information. It started when McElrath, a self-proclaimed “techie” who follows startup blogs, signed up for a few business clubs at his school, the selective Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Unfortunately, they didn’t talk much about entrepreneurship. “I felt like they weren’t really getting a lot done,” he recalls....

A recent study by Halo, which surveyed 500 Americans about the industries they find most and least trustworthy, has found some pretty enlightening trends. For one, despite all the political discussions that may have you believing the contrary, Americans still believe the scientific community is the most trustworthy industry out there. This is quite impressive considering trust in corporate, government, and media institutions has been falling steadily in recent years....

Here’s a quick rundown of the top 20 things you must not overlook before launching that new website. 1. Will the user understand the purpose of each page in under 5 seconds? Users today are notorious for their teeny-tiny attention spans. Most website visitors read just 20% of the words on a page on average. Does your website communicate loud and clear to time-starved visitors? Do your copy and images come together to communicate your core message(s)?...

When it comes to sleeping under your desk, living on a diet of red bull and ramen, and losing the distinction between “work” and “awake” (awork?), there are but two ways to cope: laugh or cry. This post attempts to bring about the former. In the spirt of Jeff Foxworthy’s ”You Might Be A Redneck If“, I asked a few entrepreneurs to share some symptoms – or warning signs – of the entrepreneurial lifestyle....

Build Relationships With Your Suppliers We all know that treating customers with respect is very important, but having a good working relationship with your suppliers is just as important. One has to remember that suppliers are your customer’s too and treating them with respect is always a wise move. This will allow you to get the best deals on your goods and when there is a problem, suppliers will be happy to work with you....

During this session, Ryan covered 3 key tips to prioritizing growth for startups. Take a look at what he said below and get on track to make your startup the most important thing in your life: Produce Content Growth and customer development can be the same thing. Content marketing can be used as a tool to experiment with both and is relatively cheap. You might ask yourself, “How can I produce content for cheap?...

Since online marketing is constantly evolving, you could spend all your time reading about changes and current best practices. Instead, I’ve compiled the essential three ways for you to improve the traffic to your site. Improving Your SEO Search engine optimization helps your website gain visibility in search results and draw in more traffic. But SEO includes so many different practices that it can be a full-time job trying to keep up with all the changes and making sure your site is properly optimized....

Knowing your limitations is just as important as knowing your strengths in the world of entrepreneurship. And if you want to make sure you aren’t harboring an Achilles heel when it comes to your startup goals, check out a few traits that will let you know if you aren’t cut out for entrepreneurship: Getting Along With Everyone People-pleasers are great salesmen and customer service reps. They’re empathetic and they’re always focused on helping people get what they want....

Marketing strategies should be based on a business’s strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats – every business is unique. And there are various useful tools you can use to execute marketing plans smoothly and on schedule. Here are some beneficial tools that you can use for your marketing projects and plans: 1. Google Analytics This enterprise tool helps measure visitor traffic to your website. It helps identify any inconsistencies in your website, like slow loading of pages, poor content, and crashes, and provides solutions for fixing them....

But even with the rise of startup popularity and the number of accelerators across the country dedicated to assisting early-stage startups prosper, choosing the right accelerator for yourself can be one of the most impactful business decisions you can make. Not all accelerators are created equal – and choosing the wrong one can be detrimental to the success of your business. In a recently-published blog post, angel investor and Hyde Park Angels cofounder Jeffrey Carter lays out the many different things you need to consider before applying to an accelerator....

Since every business is moving towards the online market, the demand for high-quality content in text or multimedia format is growing exponentially. Naturally, that opened up plenty of space for content marketing professionals to cash in on their skills. If you have the knowledge and experience, the following ideas could help you capitalize on the current state of the market for services of this type: Create Your Own Blog The fastest way to get noticed around the web is to start a blog where you can upload your own content....

We’ve put together some items that your teen or tween will enjoy no matter what chores they’re refusing to do. Not even a teenager could eye roll at these gadgets. KontrolFreek For the teen who enjoys video games, these thumbsticks are designed to improved performance, accuracy and comfort. The Call of Duty Revive is for younger gamers with smaller hands and the Call of Duty Modern Warfare is a high-rise thumbstick designed for first-person shooters and increases accuracy and aim....

However, there’s a lot of misinformation floating around about this new means of working remotely, preventing employees and founders alike from realizing their full potential. Fortunately, you’ve got us to dispel any myths of coworking that are plaguing your company’s productivity. Just for Freelancers Coworking may feel like it’s only for those of us who are our own boss. After all, the freedom to come and go as you please is only for budding entrepreneurs and startup founders, right?...

1. Guaranteed Rankings There are many companies claiming to offer any number of page one guaranteed rankings on Google or similar search engines. This is an SEO scam because: There is no such thing as guaranteed rankings, despite all the hard work of company staff. Moreover, every website out there has specific keywords that are unique to it in that order and page/ paragraph proximity; these will make your website rank on page one, so you are there already....

The most important thing you can know when starting a blog in 2016, is how the playing field is changing. Staying ahead of the curve is how a no-name blog becomes a superstar. Since you’re considering joining the ranks of those who telecommute and work from home, you’ll have your own set of challenges to deal with on that front. To make your life easier on the digital world, let’s take a look at some big changes coming to blogging in 2016 and how you can design your blog to prepare for them now....

1. Design the Workspace to Promote Creativity The cubicle drones so perfectly captured in Dilbert demonstrate the real-world manner in which stale and spiritless work environments suck any sense of creativity out of the office and its inhabitants. In contrast, an engaging and well-designed workspace can help foster creative thinking. Specifically, a well-lit, well ventilated, comfortable, and visually appealing work environment can do wonders for a team’s creative output, while open floor plans and “open door” policies can promote collaborative thinking....

– Rob Fulton of Rob Fulton Accelerator – Dan Golden of BeFoundOnline – Nanxi Liu of Enplug – David Thomas of CyberClick No Fixed Policy – Dave Nevogt of HubStaff – Hesam Meshkat of Guzu

Billings Touch This app provides an efficient way of tracking, offering invoicing in an efficient manner. Billings touch is specially designed for the purpose of following and identifying all the billable time and services. IMargin Professional IMargin Professional is useful for selling and marketing your products or services. This app is quite helpful in calculating the profits that could be attained. Tax calculation, as well as support in different currencies can support small businesses in their additional efforts....