Successful Blog

6 Types of Fundraising for Small Businesses

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By Kayla Matthews

Is your small business ready for some significant growth? If your funds are limited, there are plenty of funding resources available to small businesses. Whether you want to unleash a newly designed product or open a second location, the six types of fundraising below will help you achieve your goal.

1. Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a way for small businesses to reach out to individual consumers. Pitch your business idea, whether brand new or growing, and raise money in exchange for rewards, future repayment or equity.

The best crowdfunding websites for small businesses include:

  • Patreon
  • GoFundMe
  • Indiegogo
  • Kickstarter

Look for a crowdfunding site with a broad audience, offering as much exposure to potential investors as possible. And read testimonials from businesses who previously used the site.

2. Business Incubators

If you’re a small business in the early stages of growth, consider joining a business incubator. Some business incubators operate online while others are physical spaces where entrepreneurs can network. The goal is to speed up business development and success.

Instead of an incubator, some programs are called accelerators, meant to boost more developed businesses. These types of organizations have funds or funding sources to raise capital. They also offer access to invaluable resources like accountants, lawyers, coaches and more.

3. Grant Competitions

Enter a competition aimed at small businesses to win grants, exposure and new customers. If you’re a woman-owned company invested in environmental change, check out the Eileen Fisher Foundation. The organization gives out $200,000 annually to up to 10 businesses.

Other grants to apply for include:

  • Etsy Maker Cities Grant
  • Visa Everywhere Initiative
  • Sam’s Club Grant Program
  • FedEx Small Business Grant

Always read the requirements of a grant before starting an application. And keep a calendar of deadlines to ensure you submit documents on time.

4. Angel Investors

As a small business, your development team is likely made up of just a few people. Team members will need to take on multiple roles to cover all aspects of fundraising, including account, event planner and social media manager. They’ll also need to be adept at creating relationships with potential donors, like angel investors.

If you’ve ever watched the TV show Shark Tank, you know that angel investors are well-to-do individuals who provide business capital in return for equity. The percentage of equity is based on a business’s profits and expected growth. Some of the most prolific angel investors include Fabrice Grinda, Paul Buchheit and Wei Guo.

5. Product Pre-Sales

If your business is product-based, consider using pre-sales as a way to gain funding. By pre-selling goods, you can obtain the capital to get started while ensuring your stock will be sold out come launch day. It also means consumers rely on you to maintain deadlines and follow through on orders.

If you want to raise funds through pre-sales, set up a sales page on your website outlining your product and the basic features. Call attention to your target audience and tell them how your product will help them. Include the benefits your product has over competitors. And don’t forget to remind everyone that purchases are a pre-sale and the product has not yet been created.

6. Venture Capitalists

Venture capitalists, similar to angel investors, offer to fund start-ups and growing businesses in exchange for a share of the equity. The goal of a venture capitalist is to invest in a business that will provide high rates of return. Capital investments typically last five to eight years with an expected return of 25% or higher.

Some businesses seek venture capitalists when in need of expertise. For example, Bill Gates convinced Dave Marquardt, co-founder of the firm August Capital, to invest in Microsoft in 1981. He was on the company’s board of directors for more than 30 years.

Are you a start-up looking to expand? The six funding options above can help you meet your business goals, even when resources are limited. Look into a crowdfunding website like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. Meet with interested angel investors who provide capital in exchange for equity. Or enter competitions to earn business-boosting grants.

 

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.

Featured Photo by Jakub Gorajek on Unsplash

4 Ways To Prevent Employee Turnover In Your Startup

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By Kayla Matthews

Keeping good talent is tough for any business, but when you’re an emerging startup, it can be a make-or-break matter. Losing the person who drives innovation or puts the whole team at ease can cripple a promising operation in its youth, and as a leader it’s your job to stop that.

So what can be done?

Sometimes you have to think outside the box when you can’t throw money at people. It won’t surprise you to hear that the world of startups relies heavily on flexibility and the attraction of new ideas to retain talented people who value their stake in the company. Here’s how you can realize these ideas at your own startup.

1. Be Choosy About Management

When you’re a startup, every member of your team is critical, but for you to do the job of leading the company you can’t always spend your time overseeing each individual. Stressors are high in this environment, and while many startups enjoy a high-energy culture that lends itself to breakthroughs and rapid growth, that takes a toll on employees. This is why you need excellent management.

Managers who know how to motivate and encourage their direct reports are essential for your company to succeed. Think of them as an extension of your own role and empower them as your direct reports. A strong management team will go to any length to shape procedures and policies in a way that lends itself to productivity by listening to their employees, understanding what works and acting when change is needed.

2. Encourage Personal Growth

Speaking of listening to employees, a startup is often attractive because of the opportunity for growth that a startup presents. Workers have to push themselves and wear multiple hats. In doing so, they pick up valuable resume builders. If you’re not careful, they’ll take those new skills and walk right out the door.

But many people don’t. Startups that succeed in keeping good people understand why their people are learning these new skills, how they plan to use them in their career and what the next challenge is after an employee has advanced.

If your management team can stay one step ahead and continue to provide learning opportunities other places can’t, employees will remain engaged. Run out of new skills in one area? Throw a rockstar employee into something a little foreign to them and watch them thrive on new challenges.

3. Be Social

The company that hangs together, stays together. And in a startup environment you might just be hanging together working twelve hours into the day because the team is small and things need to get done. We’re not saying that should be an all-the-time thing, but the flexibility of a startup environment should allow you to make the workplace fun and less rigid.

That means you need to spend some time putting work down, too. Get the team out on the town, or even have a gathering at someone’s home if it’s small enough. The opportunity to create strong bonds that a startup presents is unique to this size and type of business. Don’t waste that opportunity. Build strong relationships with your team.

4. Incentivize with Vesting

Vested options are perhaps the most drastic, but also very effective means of ensuring that people stick around. Many startups offer stock options as part of their compensation package. If the options mature too quickly, people are encouraged to take their money and run. So create a plan wherein their shares increase across multiple years and employees can only keep them if they stay with the company.

Companies in the San Francisco area where tech startups abound have been said to use a four-year strategy that vests after the fourth year and then restarts at a higher quantity of stock.

However you choose to do it, the only way you can go wrong is by not realizing the importance of your employees in a startup. Hiring the wrong people can completely sink your operation, so you’ve got to choose wisely. The best selected employees can’t help you if they all leave, so give them every reason to stay with cool workplace perks, a friendly culture that embraces productivity and some exciting alternative compensation!

 

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.

Featured Photo by Shridhar Gupta on Unsplash

4 Ways to Market Your Business’ Job Opening

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By Kayla Matthews

It’s hiring season and there are so many qualified candidates out there ready to work for your company. Filling a job opening can take months and you want to make sure you hired the right candidate who is committed to your business’s future. Today’s economy is raising candidate expectations and recruiting challenges.

According to a recent study, 74% of recruiters believe that hiring will become more competitive in the next 12 months. Therefore, it is essential to market your company’s job openings to the right audience to capture the attention of a future employee. To hire top talent, HR teams need to stay on top of modern recruitment strategies.

If your business is serious about adding and attracting the right candidate, we have suggested four ways to market your job listings.

1. Stand Out From The Crowd

Let’s start with the most important way to market your company’s job listings. You need to stand out from the other tens of thousands of job openings. Drop the boring description that sounds like any other job listing. Create a tone that is unique and resonates with the reader. This way they can feel like you are speaking directly to them.

When writing your job post, include future plans for the position so candidates are aware of the potential growth they have with your company. This will target motivated job seekers who are looking to stay with the same company for an extended time.

Don’t forget to sell yourself. If there is something unique or awesome about your company, include it on the job description page so applicants are aware of your company’s culture. As you are writing the job advertisement think, “Why should they want to work for us?” Job seekers will also want to know what sort of benefits the job will have or potential salaries.

Be extremely clear on what your expectations are. Is it a part-time or full-time position? Employee or freelance? According to Indeed, jobs with descriptions between 700 and 2,000 words get on average 30 percent more applications. Make your posting easy on the eye with bullet points, listing responsibilities and qualifications.

2. Target The Right Audience

One of the most important aspects of the hiring process is hiring the right person for the job who also fits the culture of the company. In order to find the right fit, be sure that your job description expresses your company’s brand to attract the perfect candidate.

When job seekers are job hunting, it is important for them to know who the organization is. Give a brief backstory of your company and explain what your business does. If there is more information about your open position, then the right candidate will want to apply because they know what the company stands for and what they are expected to do.

Extend your outreach for a prospective employer. When you only post on job boards, you are only attracting those searching for immediate placement, which means you are getting people who:

  • Usually do not have a job
  • Usually do not like their job
  • Are actively seeking employment
  • See a lot of other jobs just like yours available

It may seem obvious, but in order to reach your target audience, you must know who they are and what their needs are. Talking to your target audience is a great way to connect your job position with a potential candidate. The tone of your job advertisement should connect with them on a personal level and use a conversational, rather than a lecturing tone.

Your audience will want to feel that you understand their needs and are going to provide them opportunities to make their lives better. People tend to work harder for companies that will take care of them in return.

Take your job campaigning a step further and expand your audience to anyone- even those currently employed. The next section will cover how to reach a larger audience.

3. Use Current Jobs Sites

There are so many platforms to submit a job posting, but it is important to stay on top of current job search trends. People no longer have the mentality to just “get any job.” They look for reviews, people they know who enjoy their job, and employee satisfaction.

  • LinkedIn – LinkedIn allows you to look specifically at candidates profiles. It is a digital resume platform, where either they can respond to your job listing, or a company can even reach out to a prospective candidate. This is also a great way for employers to look for credibility in a candidate as they can see how many people have “endorsed” the candidate to prove that they do have that knowledge and skills that they claim to possess. Many companies use LinkedIn to try to steal talent, and you should consider being a part of that.
  • Glassdoor – Glassdoor is becoming extremely popular among millennials because they have the opportunity to read reviews from current and past employees. Job seekers also have better insight on the salary range to expect as this is displayed on Glassdoor. Another reason why so many candidates utilize Glassdoor is that they can get tips and insights on the interview process so they are better prepared.
  • Colleges & Universities – Using college and university job search boards is another great way to get a truly motivated employee. Usually, as students start to finish off their degree they start searching for the right job through their alumni job portal or job board. Some colleges even let employees post their job opportunities and internships for free.

4. Get Your Employees Involved

One of the best ways to make your brand more appealing is through your employees. People will be more attracted to your company if the employees can vouch for it. Many people have watched their parents come home unhappy from a job they hated, so candidates are now looking for a job that won’t be dreadful. When current employers can express their job satisfaction through social media, LinkedIn, Glassdoor or other public platforms then more people will want to work for you.

This shows transparency between the employer and the employees. Reviews are beneficial not just for potential job seekers, but for the employer as they have the opportunity to respond to feedback and get additional insights on where things are going within your company. When an employer responds on social platforms it shows that they actually care about their team, which is an attractive quality for job seekers.

Another great way to recruit top talent is to implement an employee referral program. If you currently have great talent on your team it is likely that they are connected to others with great talents- such as friends, previous coworkers or university alumni.

Since your current employees are satisfied with their jobs, they are walking advertisements and will attract more qualified candidates to work with them. Referral hires tend to have greater job satisfaction and stay longer at companies.

Don’t Forget The Essentials

Being a trustworthy company is an attractive quality for serious job seekers. So invest in your employees’ happiness to attract top quality talent. After all the time and effort you have put into constructing a job post that stands out from the crowd, attracts your targeted audience, and is up to date in job promotion trends, don’t forget the essentials. Be sure to clearly state your location, contact information, and what the applicant should submit to the job post- resumes, cover letters, referrals.

Look for creative ways to express why your company is a great place to work. Take the time to explain why your company is unique when writing the job listing. If you follow these tools you will attract better talent and also receive more job acceptances from your top-choice candidates.

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.

Featured Image: Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

5 Ideas for Gamification in the Workplace

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By Kayla Matthews

Gamification is a tool used by businesses to achieve new goals. However, with the emphasis on fresh new technology, many small companies are hesitant to adopt the strategy.

Implementing gamification is easier than you think and can lead to significant results. That’s why many large brands, including Microsoft, Target and Nike, have already undertaken the challenge.

What Is Gamification?

Gamification is a tool that implements game design and content elements into non-game applications to motivate participation, engagement and loyalty. It doesn’t have to be digital, relegated to your website, apps or social media. It can also be analog and relate to day-to-day operations.

The elements of gamification are referred to as game mechanics, covering competition, challenges, collaboration, levels, badges, instant feedback and more. These elements can be used in various combinations to achieve your desired goal.

While some businesses use gamification as a way to connect with customers, many have already realized the benefits of bringing the tool into the workplace.

How to Gamify Your Workplace

For gamification to be successful, it has to be well-planned, executed and maintained. If done right, it can increase engagement and motivation in employees.

When considering how to gamify the workplace, ask yourself the following questions:

  • What goal or objective do you wish to achieve?
  • What is your target employee behavior?
  • How do you think gamification will help?
  • What motivates your employees?
  • What tech will employees be comfortable with?

The gamification process isn’t an instant one. It’s a method you should test and tweak each time you implement a new idea.

  1. Train New Hires

Training new hires can be tedious, especially when there’s a lot of information to cover in a short amount of time. At the end of orientation, it’s not uncommon for trainees to feel they learned very little. By implementing gamification into the new hire training process, you can create a system that promotes learning through gaming mechanics.

One example of this is using badges as a user progresses. Samsung developed a similar program dubbed Samsung Nation, which rewards users with badges as they create content, watch videos, review products and engage with the community. Other companies are using a similar gamification process where new hires can gain achievements as they train.

  1. Boost Employee Performance

Outside of new hire training, gamification is used as a tool to enhance employee job performance, with 90 percent of employees rated more productive when using gamification. It can add a fresh and healthy competitive air to your office space, spurring employees to have fun as they work harder.

One example of using gamification to boost performance is Salesforce, which introduced its Big Game Hunter program to entice sales representatives to use the customer relationship management (CRM) system. Each team member started at the first level as a chicken hunter. As they became more aware of the CRM features, they could work their way up in status.

  1. Implement Team Goals

To make gamification work, you need to understand what your employees want. Once you have a goal in mind, create a path with actionable tasks to achieve it. By creating a clear objective, using a focus both you and your employees can agree on, you can use gamification to align employee goals with your own.

One example of a goal that can benefit both employees and management is a new R&R space, which can easily be added with an office pod. While you may think napping during work hours can’t possibly be beneficial, research shows there’s a strong correlation between rest and recovery and workplace productivity.

  1. Use Clear Communication

From new hires to top-tier managers, employees need clear communication and feedback to perform well. This can be a major issue employers face, especially those with a large workforce. Without open and clear communication, workers often feel disconnected and unpassionate about the work they do.

One way to combat this is to learn from Target, which wanted to connect with front-of-the-line staff — cashiers. Target decided to create a game they could play when checking out items for customers, providing real-time feedback in the form of red and green blinking lights. Before this method, cashiers had no way of knowing if their methods were effective.

  1. Improve Workplace Efficiency

Employees may be knowledgeable and hardworking, but that doesn’t mean they’re being as efficient as possible. One method businesses have used to evoke leaner practices is to introduce gamification in the form of challenges, achievements, rewards and recognition.

One company utilizing gamification is Omnicare, which created a series of achievements sales representatives could work toward, starting with a challenge at the beginning of each shift. As workers progress through the day’s problems, they can earn rewards. This led to less wait time for customers, an increase in customer satisfaction and a reduction in employee turnover.

Utilizing Gamification in the Workplace

When implementing gamification in your workplace, the key to success is understanding precisely what you wish to achieve. Listen to your employees to better understand their wants and motivations. Try to come up with a rewards or achievement system that works with their unique desires and limitations.

Once you’ve used this tool, be sure to assess if it’s effective and what areas can use improvement. You should always be searching for new ways to optimize and improve results, even when you’ve already achieved your desired goal.

 

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.

Featured image: Eric Tompkins on Unsplash

Is the Personal Development Trend Killing Teamwork?

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By Wendy Dessler

In this day and age, it’s all about focusing on your own growth. How can you improve your career outlook? How can you push farther in your personal life? You have to put yourself first, but is this really the best mentality when it comes to success?

At least in the western world, things are increasingly built “for one.” It’s not uncommon to see solo-travelers, solo-workers, solo-diners, and so on. While, in the past, doing things alone might not have been seen as normal, recent trends are skewing in the opposite direction.

It turns out this might not be bad thing. There are a lot of benefits to wanting alone time. This isn’t just personal observations, but actually science-backed evidence. For example, there’s ample evidence supporting the idea that being surrounded by people actually reduces productivity. So is personal development really killing teamwork?

Let’s take a closer look at this trend to see what it means for the workforce today.

man sitting at desk

Image via Pexels

The Rise of Solo-Living

First, let’s take a look at this rise of solo-living culture. What exactly is solo-living culture? Basically, there’s a push for people to take more control of their lives and more control of their future. This spans both professional and personal life. It’s no longer uncommon to see workers cutting ties with their 9-5 and starting their own business. Similarly, you might see people dining alone at a restaurant or just going through lives on their own.

This is seen most acutely in solo travel. While solo travel would have been too expensive and intimidating for most people in the past, the world is smaller than ever. A study from the Solo Traveler Blog reveals that 80% of respondents prefer independent solo travel. Independent travel is empowering, and it might lead people to make more solo-decisions throughout the rest of their lives.

Solo-living is also seen in people choosing to hold off on marriage and other coupling milestones. The average age of married couples is getting older and older, and many people are putting big life decisions on hold until they’re later in life. As you can see, there are a lot of solo-living changes that are affecting the way we live today. These stem from the personal development movement. We all want to live better, but does that mean we have to do things alone?

woman at laptop

Image via Pexels

A New World of Solo-Businesses

One of the biggest professional trends in this solo-living landscape is the new world of solo-businesses. What do we mean by solo-businesses? We mean businesses that are intended to be run by a single person. Usually, these include freelancing and consulting businesses. In the digital age, these are more popular and accessible than ever before.

People are becoming increasingly unhappy in “traditional” office jobs. They want their freedom to set their own hours, work from anywhere, and be their own boss. Basically, people are thriving on their own without the structure of a team.

One potential challenge to this trend is the concern over health insurance, but even that is being overcome. Many people were afraid to leave their employer because it would leave them without health insurance benefits. However, it’s now possible to find full group health insurance for self-employed individuals. While health insurance might still be complicated for the self-employed, new legislation and changes are making it more affordable and accessible.

Ultimately, all of these changes in the professional workforce are making it easier for people to strike out on their own. While a full team might have been needed in the past to run a business successfully, the internet makes tools and networking easier than ever. All of these changes are continuing to impact business as we know it.

The Evolution of Teamwork

To answer the original question: is personal development killing teamwork? In short, no. However, teamwork is changing. On the surface it might seem like teamwork is becoming less and less needed as more people focus on themselves both in their personal and professional lives. While this might be true on some level, teamwork is popping up in new ways.

For instance, more people are working together digitally than ever before. Remote work is on the rise, and while freelancers, contractors, and self-employed professionals might not physically work together in the same office space, they’re still contributing to the same projects, helping others, and working in a cohesive way.

Ultimately, teamwork is evolving to fit our new way of life. Yes, it’s true the work is changing. People are choosing to focus on themselves in different ways than we’ve seen in the past, and some of this is due to the way technology gives us other ways to connect with people from around the world. Only time will tell how this personal development trend affects us as a community. As of now, teamwork is still very much alive and well, though it’s taking a new shape that we’ve never seen before.

 

About the Author: Wendy Dessler frequently writes about the latest advancements in tech and digital marketing. She currently focuses on helping SaaS businesses create a better world for our kids.

Why All Employees Should Take a Sabbatical Leave from Work

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By Kayla Matthews

Asking the boss for time off can be tricky. Unless you’re one of the lucky minority who hasn’t spent most of their life reporting to a 9-to-5 type job, you’ve probably tried a few different methods to get some “me time.” You might request a day off ahead of time, or you could take a not-so-sick day.

What if you need more than a day or two, though? What if you need more than a few weeks? You might be surprised at how willing many employers are to allow someone to take a sabbatical leave. Although you will miss work, there are substantial benefits to taking a sabbatical. Here’s why it’s a good idea to give yourself the green light for some time away, and why your employer should, too.

What is a Sabbatical Leave from Work?

The word sabbatical goes back to biblical texts, which refer to farmers allowing their fields to go fallow once every seven years. This ancient idea has, like so many, been modernized. It has taken on a different meaning than it had when a sabbatical was just an opium pipe short of a mystical vision quest.

Not long ago, you really could disconnect by staying out of the office for a little while. These days, things are more complicated. We have smartphones.

Our ever-shrinking sphere of private life has become the motivator for many people to take what we think of as a sabbatical leave in the modern era. In general, it’s six or more weeks of leave that may not be paid, with the intent of fulfilling some life goal or pursuing a great understanding of self. You might consider it an active pursuit of purpose, which can easily become lost in the chaos of the modern workplace.

The Things You’ll Bring Back

Millennials are often over-categorized and talked about prescriptively. Employers obsess over advice the media or their social circle gives about how this new generation values experiences over things — as if that was such a new concept. The value of life experience has never been in question — just consider what you put on your resume. Is work experience not life experience in another form?

You don’t have to have been born after 1986 to get value from a sabbatical. Not every employer is going to see it your way, but if you and your company share the same values, it’s easy to make the connection between the importance of getting some out-of-work time to experience life and performing when you’re in the office.

For many people who take breaks, their trip is a way to purge the mind of noise and cruft that accumulate in the modern workplace. A sabbatical from work eliminates the symptoms of burnout and anxiety that are so widely experienced in our 24/7-connected reality.

Even if you don’t come back with authentic trinkets from a faraway land, you’ll return to the job with a clear head and a renewed vigor for what you do. Taking some time to remind yourself of your purpose and goals will make you a more effective asset for the business, and could even lead you to take the next step forward in your career, within or outside of your current company.

Making the Pitch

Of course, you can’t just get up and leave one day. Proposing to your employer that you want to take a significant amount of time off is difficult. What if they don’t see it your way? Will you still be looked at as a loyal employee after you suggest this?

These are real risks, and ones you should weigh. However, if your sabbatical plans don’t align with your employer’s values, that might be a red flag. A good idea is to organize your reasons for going and present them in an articulate way. Draw parallels for your employer to see where a refreshed version of you will bring new wins to the company and how your time off can inform your further development. Remember, you are a valuable asset. The business wants to send a positive message to its employees in how they treat your request.

You might be surprised at how many employers are willing to endorse a well-planned sabbatical. If you believe this is what’s needed to take your life and your career further, start taking those steps today.

Featured photo by Dino Reichmuth on Unsplash

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.