Rosemary, Author at Successful Blog Page

Seven Easy Ways to Fundraise for Your Startup

June 21, 2018 by Rosemary Leave a Comment

By Kayla Matthews

You have an amazing idea for a new startup. However, there might be a slight problem. You don’t have the funds to get your idea off the ground or the money to do a lot of advertising. Enter fundraising as a good solution to get you where you need to be.

About 28 million small businesses reside in the United States, and about 543,000 new ones start every month, though not all of them survive. The average cost to get a new business going is sometimes daunting. Startup costs vary widely by industry and can run anywhere from $10,000 to $80,000 on average. Here are some easy ways to fundraise for your startup.

1. Enter Competitions

Large corporations sometimes hold competitions to help small business startups. Set up a Google alert to notify you of any “startup competition” or “new business contest” posts. What contests are available varies from month to month and year to year. Seek out competitions that will provide a big chunk of your startup money.

2. Find an Angel

The amount of angel investment is on the rise in recent years, and the tendency is to invest more money into startups rather than constantly adding new companies. If you can find an angel investor, they’re likely to stick with you for the long haul.

3. Sell Stuff

No matter who invests in your startup, they’ll want to know what you’re contributing. If you need only a small amount of seed money, you might even be able to raise it all on your own. First, look around at what you own that you aren’t using or could downsize.

For example, do you really need that car with the $700 per month payment and high insurance rates? Or can you sell it and buy a more modest one, freeing up a few hundred dollars a month? That might not sound like a lot of money, but over the course of six months, it’s a couple thousand dollars extra to put toward your business.

4. Pre-Sale Your Product

If you want to avoid venture capital (VC) funding, because of the restrictions and demands involved, you have to think outside the box. Crowdfunding is one way to achieve this goal and is often done in the form of pre-saling a product to a captive audience. For example, Pebble E-Paper Watch raised over $10 million on Kickstarter in just over a month with the promise of an affordable smartwatch in the future.

5. Talk to Universities

Universities sometimes fund business startups, particularly for former students and the local community. If you have a product that you believe changes the world, reach out to universities in your area to see what grants they offer. For example, Stanford provides funding for non-profit startups that are in some way affiliated with the university.

6. Throw a Party

Do you have a big family or wide network of friends? Throw a business startup party, and ask the guests to pay $100 a head to attend. Of course, you’ll need to invest a bit in a meal, but you can easily feed each person for under $20 and keep the rest for your business. Even better, ask your closest family to pitch in with their favorite dish, and keep the entire $100 for your business fund. You could raise $10,000 with only 100 guests.

7. Rent a Room

Do you and your co-founders have extra rooms in your home, a small guest cottage out back or a mini apartment over the garage? Rent out extra rooms — especially if you live in a city that’s hosting a big event — through sites like Airbnb or VRBO.

If you don’t mind a long-term situation, you might rent out a room to a local college student during the school year and know you’ll have that monthly amount coming in. If every co-founder does the same, you could easily earn $1,000 or more every month toward your startup.

Get Creative

These are just a few ideas for ways to quickly and easily raise money for your new business. Pay attention to how other startups raise money, and watch the online trends. You’ll likely come up with additional fundraising ideas and ways to reach your goals. Together, these tips just may lead you to the biggest success of your life.

About the Author: Kayla Matthews writes about communication and workplace productivity on her blog, Productivity Theory. Her work has also appeared on Talent Culture, MakeUseOf, The Muse and Fast Company.

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

How Collaborative Tech Can Help Businesses Escape a Growth Rut

May 24, 2018 by Rosemary Leave a Comment

By Kayla Matthews

While the rapid advance of technology is a boon to most business owners, others find it overwhelming, confusing and unnecessary. Adding to the confusion are workers who voice concerns over increasing automation, the increase of threats like viruses and malware, and next-gen systems that are too costly during their initial launch.

To ease the transition for these business owners, IT teams are turning to collaborative technology.

The Rise of Cobots

You’ve been hearing about robots for decades, but what about cobots? Instead of replacing human workers with AI-driven, fully autonomous machines, many business owners are embracing the modern cobot. Instead of working in opposition to your current staff or taking over their jobs entirely, cobots have one clear goal: to work with their human counterparts and strengthen productivity across the board.

It’s a winning situation for everyone involved. The majority of your roster will likely keep their jobs while your company benefits from the heightened productivity and efficiency that is only available through advanced hardware like cobots.

Next-Gen Software

Software solutions are a dime-a-dozen, especially in the business sector. It’s sometimes difficult to separate legitimate apps and utilities from viruses or malware — but there are some highly useful programs available to today’s business owners.

One such program, Encircle, is meant specifically for modern enterprises and highly collaborative environments. According to recent case studies, organizations that use Encircle boast a 65 percent reduction in administration tasks, a 160 percent increase in reporting accuracy, a 250 percent increase in workplace efficiency and more.

There are plenty of applications to choose from, depending on your software needs. Other popular collaboration tools include Skype, SharePoint, Office 365, Yammer, OneDrive and many more.

The Internet of Things

Both the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) are gaining a lot of momentum in the 21st century. While the latter is relevant in industrial professions — like manufacturing, construction, mining and fossil fuel production — the generalized IoT has tremendous potential to transform how business owners run their enterprises in the future.

According to top experts in the field, the IoT has four potential benefits for modern businesses, including:

Greater operational efficiency
Better customer service and an improved customer experience
Decreased risk in everyday operations
More business value through new services and programs

Business owners who want to make the most of the IoT will need to collaborate with a knowledgeable and experienced IT team, because the scope of the IoT is too large, complex and involved for one person.

New Marketing Initiatives

The newfound emphasis on collaborative tech is creating some new marketing initiatives, too. Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are two methods that draw increased traffic to your website. In this case, SEO ensures your website is accessible via today’s search engines while SEM gives your site a higher rank in any search results.

For even greater effect, business owners turn to social media marketing. Today’s social media portals — including Facebook, LinkedIn and more — are the ideal platforms for testing out new marketing strategies, collaborating with partners and strengthening the overall customer experience.

How Collaborative Tech Benefits Everyone

Although the most obvious benefits of collaborative tech come to those on the frontlines, including IT officials, business owners and the modern workforce, greater collaboration on a professional level ultimately benefits us all.

Today’s customers can demand a level of personalization that wasn’t available five or 10 years ago, and owners can conduct business with their partners through high-definition video conferencing. It truly is a system that trickles down to benefit everyone involved.

Featured image: Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Overcoming Writer’s Block: How to Just Start Writing

May 3, 2018 by Rosemary 1 Comment

Snoopy always started with the infamous phrase, “it was a dark and stormy night.” Perched at a typewriter on top of his iconic doghouse, he never had a blank page.

However, for most of us, that blank page looms every once in a while. You’re writing copy on a deadline, you’re embarking on your own book project, or even writing a blog post like this one, and your brain refuses to communicate words to your fingers. Writer’s block has smacked you in the face. What do you do?

This article will offer some fresh ideas to help you overcome writer’s block and start writing.

Do most of the work before you sit down.

Your brain is a wondrous tool, and it can work out problems best when you’re not actively thinking about them. According to a Carnegie Mellon research project, having a “distractor task” actually helps your brain solve the primary problem. If you’re trying to write on a specific subject, looking for a hook or theme, discipline yourself to think about the assignment before you go to bed (or before you jump in the shower). Then go about your business. If your mind rolls over the assignment, let it, but don’t fixate. Using this method, half of your writing could be done before you type a word!

Take care of the first sentence.

Like Snoopy, you could use a jumping off point that takes the edge off of that empty space. You can even use “it was a dark and stormy night” if you like. Or go to your bookshelf and “borrow” an interesting first sentence (just be sure to replace it once your writer’s block is resolved). Sometimes having the first sentence out of the way is all you need to get going. Another idea is to use an overheard sentence as your creative spark. After all, many of us do our best writing in a coffee shop, right?

You must also develop a system for jotting down those brilliant thoughts when they occur to you (regardless of whether they’re immediately usable). Use Evernote, a paper journal, or your phone’s Notes app to retain phrases, sentences, or topics that inevitably assail you as soon as you’re not trying to write.They can then become jump-off points for your next writing session. I often have 3 or 4 articles in progress at any time, and I use Google docs to organize and flesh out these “article stubs.”

Try a change of scenery or equipment.

Just like an insomniac shouldn’t toss and turn in bed, the blocked writer shouldn’t force herself to sit at the computer screen waiting for an idea. If you typically write at your kitchen table, try going out to a coffee shop. Stuck at home? Listen to coffitivity while you work.

If you always write longhand, try using a computer instead. You need to drastically disrupt the blocked pattern, so do something out of the box. Take your laptop to the beach, record some voice notes, switch up the music you are listening to (or turn off the music completely).

Another way to approach this disruption technique is to change the format of what you’re writing. If it’s supposed to be a blog post, try developing it as a video instead. If it’s a report of some kind, consider creating it as a slide deck. Often we get trapped in writer’s block because the expected structure is too constricting.

Read (and practice) “the Artist’s Way.”

There’s a reason why Julia Cameron’s book has been a global phenomenon for the last 25+ years. One of the key practices outlined in the book is the “morning pages,” three longhand written pages of freeform writing. This is not a journal or a diary, it is intended to be a “mind-decluttering” project. It will teach you to stop censoring your thoughts, which flow to your writing. This self-censoring is yet another reason we get “writer’s block.”. We think “it won’t be good enough,” “I don’t have anything to say,” or “my ideas aren’t special.” Committing to the morning pages routine will help you get out of your own way and get the words flowing again.

For the blocked writer, the most important thing is to stop the mental processes that cause the block itself. Since every person is unique, the solution to each person’s block will be unique as well. Try each of the ideas above, and one of them just may help you get momentum and complete your writing project.

Please share your own ideas in the comments as well!

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who is CEO of Narrative, a new social content platform coming in beta in Q4 of 2018. You can find Rosemary on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Featured image: Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

The Five Habits You Need to Be a Successful Business Owner

April 19, 2018 by Rosemary Leave a Comment

By Kayla Matthews

Success as a business owner entails developing great habits that promote efficiency and productivity, as well as an ability to fairly and effectively communicate. Acquiring these traits is easier said than done, but entirely possible for a motivated business owner seeking success.

Efficient, professional business owners share several habits and traits that contribute to their success, including:

1. Enthusiasm for Local Partnerships

Business owners should play a strong role when partnering with local establishments, which can build local buzz and attract loyal customers. It’s a good idea to strive for exposure that fosters word of mouth exposure, which is what partnerships can accomplish. For example, a Nielsen report found that consumers are 90 percent more likely to trust a brand recommended by a friend.

Local partnerships and engagement can provide personal recommendations, both by using opportunities to connect with new customers and showing a genuine passion for the local community. Owners seeking to have a more prominent presence locally should work on their habits relating to community involvement, specifically outgoingness and openness to partnerships.

2. Learn When to Move On

Stubbornness is not a good trait for business owners to have, especially when it comes to sticking with a particular business strategy that’s not working for too long. A good business owner works on their habits of prudence, especially if they identify key performance indicators and conclude that a specific strategy is not working well.

Similarly, a savvy business owner adjusts with trends in their industry, instead of stubbornly clinging onto relics of the past. Business owners should be progressive and quick-thinking while embracing the learning experience aspect of failure instead of lingering too long on that failure.

3. Opportunistic Drive

Being opportunistic is another habit you need to be a successful business owner. A great way to work on this habit is to set aside time each week to educate yourself on new technologies, in addition to examining emerging trends in your industry.

Although the day-to-day tasks of a business can drain an owner into focusing on the now instead of future opportunities, savvy business owners always take some time to examine new technologies with the potential to save time, reduce operating costs and take the business to the next level.

4. Willingness to Hear Advice

Even very successful business owners can learn something new by speaking to others, from fellow business owners to younger consumers who may provide insight regarding a specific demographic of which the business owner may be unaware.

Business owners that close themselves off to new knowledge and rely fully on their own experiences are likelier to fall behind in their industry. Embracing advice or a mentor figure, in the form of a local mentor or business advisor, can provide additional perspectives that help aid important business decisions.

5. Boost Your Mental Health

Business owners often have a whirlwind of tasks and obligations, which can cause long-term stress that impacts both physical and mental health. It’s a good idea to develop habits that help in boosting mental health.

Eating breakfast is a habit that many overlook, despite breakfast being great for mental and physical health, resulting in improved concentration, enhanced memory and advanced cognitive abilities. Only 33 to 48 percent of Americans regularly eat breakfast, so business owners should strive to ensure they are part of that group by eating a healthy breakfast.

Help Yourself and Your Business

Business owners that aspire to greater success should work on these five habits, which promote quality exposure for their business, in addition to greater opportunities and a better foundation for mental and physical health. The result will be someone running the business who is equipped to handle anything that comes their way.

Featured image: Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

Q&A with Debra Ruh, Author of Inclusion Branding

April 12, 2018 by Rosemary Leave a Comment

I have a special treat this week! I’m happy to share an interview I conducted with Debra Ruh, whose new book, Inclusion Branding, will be released this week. Her latest book is about how brands can learn to engage with the Community of Persons with Disabilities and other minorities to create solid ROI and Positive Social Impact.

The book shows what it means and why it matters to develop inclusive marketing and branding, as well as how to humanize brands and manage community expectations. The book also touches on how to manage the risks associated and how to understand the communities. I was able to read an advance copy of the book, and I found it a huge eye-opener.

Enjoy our Q&A below.

Q: You dedicated the book to your mother. How did your mother inspire this mission and work?

Debra: Great question Rosemary. My mother passed away suddenly the last day of 2017. My mother was a strong influence in my life. She was a hard worker, she had a great work ethic and was dedicated to her family. However, my mother also struggled with a mental illness most of her life. She was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder later in life and probably also suffered from Bipolar. My mother moved to Virginia from her beloved Florida after my father passed away and she never got over my father’s passing. My mother taught me a lot about resilience and taking care of yourself. She also struggled with negativity and often saw the glass as half full.

When my daughter Sara, named after my mother was diagnosed with Down syndrome, my mother was scared and could often only see the scary aspect of a life with Down syndrome. She also taught me sometimes by being a challenging role model to decide how I was going to live my life and contribute to society. She also had diabetes and that negatively impacted her mental health. Diabetes is an ugly disease in my family and has taken other members like my grandfather. My grandfather lost both of his legs due to diabetes. Early on in life, I was determined to see life from a different perspective. My mother and I were linked in a way that is hard to explain. Of course, she was my mother but she challenged me to make a difference. I am still walking the grief process after losing my mother but I know she is in a better place. I also believe my mother is still a big part of my life and the lessons she taught me, will continue to be with me for the rest of my life.

Q: What is the biggest misconception about disability inclusion efforts within the corporate world?

Debra: That persons with disabilities are not qualified to do the jobs available in the workforce. Also, that the disability is a liability instead of a strength. I interviewed a successful entrepreneur, John Little, Successful Resume (www.successfulresume.com.au) from Australia on my Show (Human Potential at Work) the other day. John said “I succeeded with these businesses because of my disability not despite my disability”. Corporate brands are starting to understand the value that persons with disabilities bring to the workforce.

My last book was called, Tapping into Hidden Human Capital: How Leading Global Companies Improve their Bottom Line by Employing Persons with Disabilities. That book explores this topic from the eyes of over 30 multi-national corporations. These corporate brands understand that hiring and retaining persons with disabilities is good for your bottom-line. We are your employees, your customers, your investors, your vendors, and partners. According to World Health Organization (WHO) 1 in 7 people in the world has a disability. According to National Organization of Disability (NOD) in the United States, 1 in 5 people identify as having a disability and that is 1 in 3 families in the US.

So many corporations still have a misconception that it is difficult to include persons with disabilities. I am hoping my book ‘Inclusion Branding’ will continue to break down some of these barriers and misconceptions. It is time for corporate brands to understand that persons with disabilities as a population, is a powerful and loyal market segment, with powerful buying attributes, and strong work ethic. Persons with disabilities also cover all other diversity segments including, age, gender, ethnicities, geographic areas, genders, and religious preferences. Many persons with disabilities are innovative problem solvers because the world is often not accessible. These talents add great value to the workforce.

Q: Do you think proponents of disability inclusion can tap into the desire of Millennials to deal with “socially responsible” brands?

Debra: Yes, this is an excellent point. Millennials expect corporate brands to be socially responsible according to many studies, including a few cited in my book ‘Inclusion Branding’. Other generations also expect brands to be socially responsible. Brands want consumers to do business with them because they believe in their products and services. Consumers want to trust the brands to which they show loyalty and believe that these brands are making a difference in their communities. Often the communities that brands are trying to attract do not know which brands to trust.

There are also growing expectations that brands have diverse workforces that include persons with disabilities. The workforce is changing, and so are employee values, thus, keeping employees satisfied has never been more important. Workers expect their employers to align business goals with positive social impact as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which should align with an impact agenda dedicated to the mission of the brand. The Nielsen June 2014 report “Doing Well by Doing Good”1 showed that 67% of millennials want to work for a socially responsible brand.

Q: How can a solo entrepreneur take steps to support disability inclusion (since they may not be doing a lot of hiring)?

Debra: Solo entrepreneurs can support the community of persons with disabilities by selecting us as vendors and partners. The USBLN has created a certification for businesses owned by persons with disabilities called The Disability Supplier Diversity Program (DSDP). DSDP is the leading third-party certifier of disability-owned business enterprises (DOBEs).

You can also welcome us as customers by assuring your business, your services and products are fully accessible. The good news about accessibility is that those efforts make your location, products and services accessible to everyone. Remember, as we age, over the age of 65, 46% of us will acquire disabilities. With 72 million baby boomers in the US alone, controlling 60% of the wealth –this is a market that no business including solo entrepreneurs should ignore.

Q: What are some ways a business can shift from seeing disability inclusion as a legal requirement, or charity, to seeing it as an ROI generator?

Debra: Understand that persons with disabilities are people first and that we are everywhere. We are your parents, your children, your friends, neighbors and maybe you are a person with disabilities (PwD). Take the time to understand why including PwD in your workforce, making your locations, products and services accessible and telling us that story, via advertisement, chatting about it via social media or on your website, will help drive in business and qualified applicants. Too often this community is viewed from a charitable or corporate social responsibility (CSR) standpoint as noted in the introduction of ‘Inclusion Branding’ by my chairman, Richard Schatzberg.

Corporate brands should work hard to create positive brand recognition. Brands who include persons with disabilities among their employees create an excellent way to enhance brand image. Persons with disabilities should be viewed as a viable pool of potential employees as well as an emerging market that, together with their friends, families, and caregivers, have trillions of dollars in disposable income. Stories of successful disability inclusion within a company should be included in marketing efforts, shareholder reports, and corporate social responsibility reports.

Thank you so much, Debra, for this insightful discussion!

About Debra Ruh:

Debra Ruh is a recognized market influencer and advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities, a leader, a published author, a successful entrepreneur and a fantastic mother. She has created a path to empowerment and success for those with disabilities. Debra is the co-founder of #AXSchat, the second largest Tweet Chat in the world and her podcast Human Potential at Work with weekly listeners in more than 84 countries. http://www.ruhglobal.com/our-story/

Debra is a global leader and has worked with countries, UN agencies, national and multi-national firms all over the world helping then create programs, strategies, and processes that fully include persons with disabilities. She is a contributor to the Huffington Post, and her catalyst for starting RGC was her daughter Sara born with Down syndrome. Her work has been featured on many news outlets, and she has been granted many awards. http://www.ruhglobal.com/media/

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Featured image:Photo by Kirstyn Paynter on Unsplash

Six Free Online Courses for Entrepreneurial Success

March 15, 2018 by Rosemary Leave a Comment

By Kayla Matthews

Whether you’re just starting out as an entrepreneur or have been one for years, the learning process never ends. Any opportunity to expand your skills and knowledge base makes you more competitive, adaptable to challenges, inquisitive and more able to stay abreast of developments in your sector.

Fortunately, becoming more educated — particularly focusing on the entrepreneurial realm — doesn’t have to be costly. In fact, all the online courses listed below are free to take.

1. How to Build a Startup

This course covers topics such as how to actively engage your customers and find out what they want from your products, calculating costs, conducting a market opportunity analysis and the various types of business partners.

After taking this start-up class, you should understand the basics of rapidly developing and testing different concepts, while getting guidance from your customers and the marketplace at large.

2. Critical Skills for Entrepreneurs

Maybe you’re in the tough position of wondering whether now is the time to quit your day job and pour everything you’ve got into a new business venture, or it’s better to play it safe.

This course goes over some of the most useful traits for entrepreneurs to have, so you can get prepared for what’s ahead. Furthermore, it discusses common mistakes, giving you the knowledge to hopefully steer clear of the same pitfalls.

3. Global Entrepreneurship

Taught by a professor who works in Malaysia as the dean of engineering at Taylor’s University, but who received training in the United Kingdom as well, this course goes beyond pure lecture material and requires you to interact with classmates for a group project.

The things you’ll learn include money management, defining your vision and mission, effective communications and the essentials of marketing.

Due to the geographical limitations, that could prove challenging at times, but you shouldn’t let that stop you from enrolling and missing out on the pros of online learning.

4. Nuts and Bolts of Business Plans

Did you know the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) makes a significant amount of course material freely available to anyone who wants to learn? This program about business plan basics, originally taught in 2014, is one of them. Inc. magazine ranked it one of the 10 best entrepreneur courses in America.

Also, some of the speakers that contributed to it were judges in MIT’s entrepreneurship competition, which offered a $100,000 prize.

You’ll learn about potential legal issues, business models and financial projections. You also have the option to read a text transcript or watch videos of the course.

Maybe you’ve found some productivity hacks that are useful when launching a startup. By applying those, plus the business plan tips you learn in this course, you could find you’re able to make the most of your time and effort.

5. Business Ethics for the Real World

In your entrepreneurial career, there will almost certainly be times when you encounter ethical dilemmas. They might involve doing personal business on company time, or even taking home a box of pens for your family’s use because you’re sure no one at the office will miss them.

This course, offered by Santa Clara University, goes into the impact of ethics on the business world and how to identify ethical issues when they arise. You’ll also discover how to analyze complex ethical choices and determine your responsibilities associated with them.

6. Thinking and Acting Like an Entrepreneur

If you study the habits of entrepreneurs you find most inspiring, they probably have some undeniable characteristics that set them apart in a crowd.

When you enroll in this course, you’ll learn more about the decision-making process successful entrepreneurs use, explore whether an entrepreneurial mindset is something you’re born with or can develop and profile entrepreneurs’ personality types.

No matter if you’re a new entrepreneur and want to get started on the right track, or have been in business for a while and are interested in improving your practices, these courses are worth checking out in the interest of continual education.

Although these are all free online courses, many offer a certificate you can pay for if you’d like physical proof of course completion to frame and put on your wall.

Happy learning!

Featured image: by Cathryn Lavery on Unsplash