Category: Tools and Information

9 Apps Entrepreneurs Love That You’ve Probably Never Heard Of | All Business

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Certain apps — from Mailbox to LinkedIn — are a given for entrepreneurs on the go. But with thousands of apps out there, it’s easy to overlook something that could make your life easier or, in some cases, just brighten your day.

With that in mind, we asked nine founders from YEC the following:

Q: What relatively unknown app do you open first thing in the morning to help you start your workday?

1. Slacker Radio

Slacker streams ABC News and is updated every 30 minutes to an hour. I love it; I’ve been using it to listen to news in the morning while getting ready and while walking or taking the bus to the office. NPR One is a new contender, but I still feel Slacker’s stream is more news than audio documentary or interview. – Chuck Reynolds, Levers

Read More.

10 Steps to Learning Your Customers’ Behaviors | Inc.com

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

getty_200464106-001_43942In many endeavors, let alone product development, there’s a gap between knowing what’s best and actually doing it.

Gaining behavioral insights about your potential customers usually falls into one of these gaps. The reason? It can be awkward and exceedingly time-consuming observing and recording the behavior of people you’ve never met as they use or struggle to use your product.

“A conversation with a stranger can be a little, well, strange,” writes Jon Kolko, Vice President of Consumer Design at Blackboard and the Founder and Director of Austin Center for Design, in his new book.

But founders, even shy ones, should take heart. For one thing, there are ways to overcome the social challenge of ethnographic research. For another, the insights you’ll gain about your customers’ behaviors will drastically supercede anything you’d learn from focus groups or online surveys.

Read More.

To Franchise or Not to Franchise | Lydia Mehit

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

So, you want to start a business and you’ve decided a franchise is for you.  There are a number of advantages to selecting a franchise.  Here are several of them.

  • It is a proven business model.
  • You have a pre-defined target market.
  • You have brand recognition because the product or service is already known.
  • The business methods and systems are already in place, all you have to do is follow them.
  • Training is provided for you and your management team.
  • Operations manual that details all of the job descriptions, processes, procedures, rules and requirements for operating the business is provided.
  • You receive on-the-job training at a working franchise.
  • The franchise team helps you open the business and gets you started on the right foot.

Continue reading “To Franchise or Not to Franchise | Lydia Mehit” →

Smartlation Smart Translation Services | Cool Business Ideas

~ knjohn ~ 3 Comments

Using a patent-pending algorithm that analyses translator data from a vast pool of registered translators, Smartlation promises to give users the freedom to select the translation services that best meet their requirements and budget.

What does this mean for users? Let’s say you need a legal document translated from English into Farsi and Portuguese. Smartlation lets you specify not only languages but also specific areas of expertise so you find translators who are experienced and knowledgeable. The platform also makes the procedure simple by managing both jobs i.e. Farsi and Portuguese in one place. Transactions also go through the platform simplifying the payment process.

Read More.

How to improve your mailing list before everyone unsubscribes | Mashable

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Reply-all disasters are so common, they have their own Wikipedia page.They’re so ubiquitous, even, that the bad manners of reply-all offenders overshadow the bad manners of those who make and distribute mailing lists in the first place. While the listservs that dominated the 2000s may not be as common anymore, mailing lists are still central to the operation and social functioning of companies, universities and other associations. For the record, “listserv” refers to a software used to send mass emails; “mailing list” is the colloquial term.

We’ve compiled 11 tips that will help you improve your mailing list etiquette — and maximize effectiveness, while you’re at it.

1. Repeat to yourself: Listservs are public.

Think about what you’re sending before you send it — if it belongs in a private email or makes more sense to send to an individual, you shouldn’t send it through a mailing list. Also check the recipient of the email before you send it. This year, the University of Virginia’s top-ranked law school sent admissions stats of more than 100 people who applied for clerkships to a listserv of all those applicants, and then sent another email with subject line “PLEAE DELETE IMMEDIATELY.” But we all know email doesn’t work like that.

Read More.

Learn Better through Variation: A Case for Getting Away from Your Desk | Page19

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You might really like your office, but getting away from it can help you learn better and remember more. Here’s why.

Routine can be very helpful when it comes to building a framework for creative work. But if you want to learn something new, shaking up the standard will serve you better.

According to How We Learn, varying your workspace is much better for your learning than sitting down in the same place to toil. Why? Because of how our brains store memories.

Imagine it’s Tuesday and you’re listening to your favorite jazz album while working through a few pages of notes on a seminar you just attended. A few days later, you’re at a friend’s house and she puts on the exact same jazz album. The areas of the brain that hold the memories of what you learned on Tuesday while listening to jazz will be activated, making it easier for you to retrieve that information.

Read More.

What Entrepreneurs Should Know Before Starting a Business | Business News Daily

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When you’re getting ready to start a business, you may think all you need is a great idea and the cash to make it happen. This is a good place to start, but there are so many other elements to startup success that entrepreneurs tend to overlook when they’re caught up in the excitement of a launch. Ten successful startup founders and executives shared the best tips they believe every aspiring entrepreneur should know before starting a business.

“Commit to mastery, to becoming a learning machine.You don’t need only one tool or skill to build a house or building. You don’t need to be the best at all of them, but you need to understand them.” — Ney Torres, CEO of CarFootprints.com

Read More.

How Can Small Businesses Afford to Grow? | All Business

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Growth is a very important part of any business. In order to keep the business going and reach all the goals that the business is capable of, business owners need to supply the tools that their business needs to grow and succeed. Necessary growth for businesses can range from adding on more staff to the payroll or buying a new piece of equipment to make their production process go faster. No matter what is needed for the growth that the business needs, it is never an inexpensive investment.

This dilemma causes an all too common issue for many businesses, especially for small businesses. The business owners need to invest in something in order to grow and keep their business going, but they cannot afford to make the investments that they need with the business’s current revenue. This is a problem that seems impossible to overcome, but with a little assistance and the right planning, any business can overcome this obstacle and grow enough to achieve all the goals that the business owner has set for it. Here are some ways that small businesses can afford to grow and how any business owner can make it happen for their business.

Read More.

You are Your Own Supercomputer | Peter Mehit

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

computers1Many times when people think about starting a business, they cherish the idea of the freedom and control it would bring, but are often overcome by fear. ‘How will I find customers?’, ‘How do I find the money I need?’, ‘Will anyone really buy what I’m selling?’ are typical of the questions we run through our minds as a wave of fear spills over us leaving us grateful for the job we loathe.

Many of us believe ‘it takes money to make money’, yet many of the greatest success stories are people that had little or no money at the beginning of their journey. We convince ourselves that we need ever increasing amounts of education, but Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, didn’t complete college, Sir Richard Branson never went. Many of the businesses you pass by L.A. freeways are owned by people who possess only high school diplomas.

So what is it? What makes some people successful and others not? We believe it boils down to three main things:

They have a clear idea what they want to make or do to start their business.

They believe they can figure out anything.

They understand, actually or intuitively, how the mind works.

Continue reading “You are Your Own Supercomputer | Peter Mehit” →