Running a Marathon vs Running a Business

It’s marathon season again and that means seeing runners around the world competing to win races, but also to beat their personal bests. Running a business is a lot like running a marathon: it’s a long journey to success. These are some things that the business world can learn from marathoners this season.

Planning and Preparation are Key

Running a marathon takes months of practice and planning, and running a business is no different. You must think about what the steps for success are and then put them into place and see if they work. If unsuccessful, you can always re-evaluate. Marathon training is rigorous and it’s easy to make mistakes or choose the wrong way of doing things, but the key is to not get discouraged and find what works for you.

Define Your Own Success

Speaking of success, it is important to remember that only you as a business owner can define your business’ success. Whether it’s financial stability, breaking even within a set amount of time, or even just getting one customer; you define what your success looks like.

Work Through the Pain

Marathons are notorious for being painful, and because it’s a 26.2 mile run it’s no wonder why. Growing a business can also be painful, be it because of financial trouble, bad press, slow or no growth or anything that causes you to be worried, just keep pushing through. It is easy to get discouraged, but remembering the end goal will keep you moving towards that finish line.

Slow and Steady

Growth is a process. It takes time to get to the place you want to be, just like it takes time to get to the finish line. Start with what is truly important and then move on later to the small details. Taking your time to do things the right way keeps big mistakes from being made, keeps you accountable, and ensures that you are aware of everything happening with your business.

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Entrepreneur vs. Business Owner

Popular culture has really taken a liking to business and entrepreneurship lately and it’s shining a light on the diverse career options. Along the lines of my blog “Small Business vs. Startup” the next logical step would be to look into the two types of leaders in each type of business venture.

Entrepreneur

Definition: A person who brings his unique idea to run a startup company, a market leader the first to start such a kind of enterprise.

Key Characteristics:

• Rapid Growth
• Passion
• Innovation
• Market disruption

Business Owner

Definition: A person who starts a business on an old concept or idea, a market player.

Key Characteristics:

• Profit
• Existing
• Longevity
• Market share

Entrepreneur vs Business Owner

In layman’s terms, an entrepreneur is an evolved form of a business owner. Generally, entrepreneurs are much more interested in the actual business side and market disruption as they are looking at the big picture, whereas a business owner tends to have more of an emotional attachment to not only the business but what the business provides to them (work/life balance, freedom to choose the work they find important). The ideas coming from business owners tend to be specialized, very to the point and highly specific.

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Minnesota Tech Businesses To Watch

Headquartering 17 Fortune 500 companies, Minnesota is already full of recognizable names in the business world, but there is a movement happening that is bringing more and more to the Twin Cities.

Technology companies are found all over in large cities, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, New York City only begin to make up the list and now Minneapolis and Saint Paul are facing recognition. Home to these great tech startups, five Minnesota companies have also been included in Deloitte Technology’s 2016 Fast 500 list.

Code42

Software company Code42, founded in 2001 works with huge names in business, education and more, backing up data with their CrashPlan solution. Every file is backed up to a secure platform and protected, which limits risk, heightens privacy and prevents data loss.

Deloitte Ranking: 335

FireFly Computers

Founded in 2011, FireFly Computers specializes in bringing great hardware and technology solutions to businesses of any size and with any budget that are easy to use and help you to get all the parts of your business on the same page.

Deloitte Ranking: 187

JAMF Software

Promoting the idea of a better experience for Apple products in businesses and schools, Jamf works to bring IT solutions to empower Apple users. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Jamf is growing at an exponential rate, with offices in nine countries, and managing more than 7 million devices.

Deloitte Ranking: 396

Qumu Corporations

Qumu sells technology that focuses on video management and publication for business. Qumu allows you to create, distribute, edit and protect your video content.

Deloitte Ranking: 303

Stratasys Ltd.

3D printing company Stratasys works to not only innovate, but also to simplify design issues. Stratasys works on all levels; from single part design and manufacturing to building your company an entire lab of 3D printers.

Deloitte Ranking: 331

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The eSports Revolution

eSports are taking the world by storm, and it’s great for gamers, fans and marketers. But what are eSports and why do we need to be paying attention to the growth of this emerging market?

What are eSports?

eSports refers to competitive videogame play. There are tournaments, live streams, big name players with sponsorships, teams and crowds of fans. Everything you would expect from a “real” or “normal” sport, with major differences in not only just activity level, but the fact that multiple games are played during the tournament. For instance: you don’t see a baseball game being played at the World Cup, but you may see players on League of Legends and on Call of Duty during the same eSports tournament.

The growth of eSports

Compared to most major sports, eSports are still in their infancy; but the rate of growth is so rapid that eSports will likely be able to catch up to major league basketball, baseball and football within the next few years. A big issue that eSports faces is making sure that the audience has a full understanding of what is happening on the screen. The changes of individual games and tactics is much faster than changing of decades, sometimes centuries old rules of other sports.

But this isn’t dissuading colleges and universities from moving into the future; in fact, the University of Utah recently announced that the school will sponsor a varsity eSports program, complete with scholarships. And the University of California, Irvine, opened an “eSports arena” that includes gaming computers and webcasting services.

eSports are currently poised to become a hugely influential financial market as well, in 2016, Goldman Sachs valued them at $500 million, growing into a $1 billion industry over the next 3 years. Even eSports platforms are benefitting. Twitch, an eSports streaming community was purchased by Amazon in 2014 for $970 million, and top gamers earning over $300,000 last year.

Marketing and eSports

Twitch streams were watched by over 2 million people in 2015, and the number has continued to grow, which makes this huge audience very appealing to marketers. However, marketing in this space is different than many other markets. Gamers want to see brands that do work to “benefit the space and not just the brand”, says Nathan Lindberg of Twitch. Brands that are loyal will receive loyalty in return. The majority of eSports advertising will also need to be digitally focused, as eSports haven’t majorly broken into TV yet. Marketing that feels natural and organic will do the best. See what eSports sponsor Coca-Cola has done for some excellent examples.

Get Involved With eSports

Want to see the eSports phenomenon for yourself? Check out Twitch, YouTube, and the all new FantasEsports to stream or play in a tournament.

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Hacks to Increase Sales

Sales can make or break a business, and every good salesperson knows that sales goals can sometimes be hard to reach. These 8 hacks can help you to not only reach your goals but allow you to exceed them as well. Give them a shot!

Use Social Media

Leverage your audience with high-quality posts on social media. Native ads are advertisements that look like regular content and are shown to work because of how much they blend in. People looking at a page don’t always want to be overtly sold to, but try a few methods and see what works for you specifically. Even if you only get a few leads from social media, it may be an untapped market that you can break into.

Shorten Meetings

By cutting meetings down to the bare minimum of time that needs to be sent you maximize the use of time in your day. Instead of 30-minute meetings try 20, and instead of hour long meetings try 45 and use the leftover time to prep,  write up notes both for you and your sales prospect and document those notes in a CRM or other sales tracking tool.

Think In Doubles

If your sales goal was double what it is what would you be doing? If you have a definitive answer to this question then start doing this to reach your current goal. You may even surpass it without even thinking.

Update Your Sales Toolbox

Analyze the tools you are using right now. Any CRMs, outreach tools, or even email templates may have better versions, updates or even cheaper alternatives available that can keep overhead lowered.

Phone/Contact Organization

Outline your contacts in order of how you know them in your personal cell phone to avoid confusion. If applicable, your office phone or Rolodex can be organized under the same rules.  Or, use the following ideas for email organization for other contact methods as well!

Email Organization

Organize your inbox. Whether you create tabs like “cold calls” and “pipeline” or tabs for each specific account or person you speak to, having an inbox that flows and makes sense can help you remember more, be more involved in your communications and also frees up a lot of your time.

Risk Taking

Don’t be afraid to reach out to contacts that you might think are “out of your league”. You may end up landing a bigger account this way, simply because many others in your field may also be hesitant to reach out to these potential customers. Sometimes you catch bigger fish just by trying.

Continued Education

Always keep learning. It doesn’t have to be a formal degree, but keep up with trends, watch influencers and see what others are doing to become successful. You can read blogs, books, or web resources; attend seminars and classes,  listen to podcasts, watch videos or even surf social media and the web to see what others are doing.

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Everything You Need To Know About India’s Smartphone Market

India’s population currently stands at around 1.3 billion people. That number alone puts them in the perfect position to be one of the most sought-after markets, regardless of what the product or service in question may be. Now known as being a huge target audience for technology products, India has reached new levels of smartphone use over the last year, leading the country to become the second largest smartphone market in the world. This growing segment of smartphone users is being heavily documented, especially this year, as there have been many changes that have caused this market to expand. These are the essential facts for getting to know India’s smartphone market.

Rate of growth

In a slow moving global smartphone market, with shipments growing only 3% last year, India is blazing forward with an 18% shipment growth. India’s smartphone market slowed in growth in November when the country moved to change currency to prevent counterfeiters and slow corruption. Because of shortages at ATMs and large notes being taken out of service, spending large amounts of money on a smartphone is not convenient for many, so it is expected that growth will continue to be slow during early 2017.

Device Types

With over 300 million phones shipped in 2016, there is a wide distribution of device types. Android phones are favored, but Apple had a huge win in 2016, shipping 2.5 million iPhones, a staggering number that was enough to put the device giant in 10th place in the country. Indian smartphone companies had a less impressive year. Their devices are still popular, but for the first time ever, the final top five brands featured no domestic companies. Instead, the top brands for the end of 2016 were Samsung and multiple Chinese brands. iPhones continue to rise in popularity, and the iPhone 7 is a favorite in the premium space. The best selling iPhone however, isn’t the most recent model, but older models (iPhone 5s, iPhone SE, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus), sold  to give customers a wide range of prices to choose from. This is not surprising, given the fact that in India, 70% of phones used by the general population cost less than $150, and the iPhone 7 base model retails at $649.

Rise of Chinese Brands’ Popularity

There are over 65 smartphone brands that are used in India. In 2016,  Samsung remained the most popular brand used. With that being said, the saturation of the market with Chinese phones can’t be ignored. The end of the quarter showed total shipment numbers of 28.1 million phones from these four Chinese companies: Vivo, Xiaomi, Lenovo, and Oppo Electronics. Combined with other brands in the country, Chinese devices make up 51% of the Indian smartphone market.

For those that are trying to introduce products into India’s enormously saturated and competitive market remember that there is a huge market, and with that an untapped growth potential; meaning that many will try to navigate it and seek to establish themselves as the leader in a market that has a tremendous amount of sway over global statistics. Keeping watch on this smartphone market’s trends will be key to major growth in the technology field.

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Social Media For Business 2

ow that you’re familiar with the basic benefits of Social Media For Business, it’s time to dig even deeper into the question of “What can social media do to better your business?” See what else this multifaceted tool can do and start seeing results like:

1. IMPROVED CUSTOMER INSIGHTS

Monitoring customer insights gives you an unfiltered view of what people think of your business, and this is only one small facet of the kind of customer insights that can come with social media. Through social listening you can gain valuable first hand knowledge about what your customers like, are interested in, and how they behave.

2. BETTER SEO RANKINGS

Strong brands have strong social media. Long past are the days where an updated blog with optimized titles and meta descriptions are enough for high rankings, the requirements for Google (and other search engines) search success is ever changing. SEO is the best way to capture traffic, and being active on social media can play a significant factor in creating a brand signal to search engines proving brand legitimacy and relevance.

3. HIGHER BRAND AUTHORITY

Brand authority is nothing short of a commodity at this point in the social media game. When people want to compliment or complain about a business they often times turn to social media first. The more your brand name is talked about the more valuable it will seem to new and existing users. Interacting with your customers often, as well as reaching out to interacting with your industry’s influencers will help boost brand authority and create clout.

4. DECREASED MARKETING COSTS

Social media is by far one of the smaller investments of both time and money that you can make in your business to generate traffic. As little as an hour a day on content and strategy can yield noticeable results. Even paid advertising (now available on nearly all major channels) is relatively inexpensive. Start small, figure out what works,  adjust accordingly and you’ll never have to fear going over budget.

5. RICHER CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

The customer is always right. Right!? Well one thing for sure is that the customer always comes first. Every single customer interaction is a public display of your customer service skills. How efficiently do you deal with a customer tweeting their discontent? How gracefully do you thank a customer and hopefully interest them in another on of your products without coming off as greedy? Social media in its purest form is a communication channel, and has the ability to make your customers feel valued and appreciated not only because it’s good practice but also because prospective customers are watching!

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