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Someone holds the elevator for you. No “thank you”? You end up waiting in the lobby next time. You spend all weekend helping a friend move and at the end of it, all they say is, “Well, I’ll see you around.” Looks like someone just made your Nixon-esque enemy list.

Those two simple words could be the difference between a functioning society and an admittedly exaggerated chaos, but even if that chaos is exaggerated, there are plenty of reasons to remember to say “thank you.” Here are just a few.

You’ll Make More Money

It’s true. There are economic benefits to be gained by merely expressing gratitude. Don’t buy it? Check out this study about how waiters who write “thank you” and personalized messages on receipts get larger tips than their less...

I recently had coffee with a startup founder (let’s call him Ben) that has been working at his startup for the past year or so. His vision for his product and company had developed quite nicely since we first met, when his concept wasn’t much more than some rough sketches and guesses at what it could become. In the past year, Ben and his partner had bootstrapped their way to launching an MVP and signing up some initial Beta customers. He’s now at the point where he’s fine tuning his product to understand if it’s really serving his customers right. While the venture has been self-funded to this point, Ben plans on soon talking to investors in anticipation of later raising seed capital.

There’s just one problem: Ben has no idea how to value h...

I am swamped. Requests from colleagues, friends and family leave me with no time to do any actual work. I can’t ignore any of the aforementioned things and it’s impossible to cram them all into an eight-hour day.

But time management isn’t about taking shortcuts in your thinking time, it’s about finding shortcuts for the mundane, administrative and repetitive, in order to make way for the creative, strategic and dare I say… fun? As a busy carpooling mom of three boys (two of them teens!), a CEO of a company that grows 500 percent year over year and a happily married lady with lots of extended family, here are the time savers that allow me to make the most of every hour of every day.

Email Templates and Autoresponders

The Issue: Email is a hu...

You could be a video marketing rockstar. Just imagine it. Using a combination of animated brand overview videos, live-action vlog posts, high-quality screencast tutorials—and much more—you regularly deliver visual content that educates and entertains your potential customers and keeps them coming back for more.

Doesn’t sound half bad, does it?

But let’s be realistic. You’re more likely the “one hit wonder” equivalent of video marketing. Maybe you’ve got that sweet animated explainer video on your landing page, or perhaps you’ve got a handful of live-action client interviews collecting dust on your testimonials page. And that’s it. You stopped there.

Don’t get me wrong – these are good things, and even if you did stop with just one killer la...

In today’s world, you’re likely going to pitch far more investors through an initial email than you will in person. A great email pitch won’t necessarily get you a meeting but a bad one will definitely prevent one. Therefore creating the perfect email pitch is essential.

The perfect email pitch is a little longer than a commercial, but not anywhere near as long as an infomercial. Your goal is to pique the investors’ interest by tapping into each of the key areas they are interested in.

Key Ingredients

Investors hear hundreds of pitches per month, but in each case they are looking for a few key ingredients that make them lean in and ask for more.

The key ingredients for an email pitch can best be described by what the investor is trying to a...

If you want to compete in the world of high growth startups, you better know how to play the marketing game. Marketing has become a big stakes game where companies are betting fortunes on the success of their products. Nowadays, if you can’t play the big marketing game you may not even get the attention of the customers you need to grow your business.

So how do you compete if you don’t have the cash to run with the big dogs? The answer lies in growing your marketing budget by doubling up on your marketing investments quickly. Chances are the capital you need to compete in this game is right under your nose, you just need to know where to look for it.

Make marketing an investment

The first step to growing your marketing budget is thinking ab...

Your typical angel investor is going to have been a successful businessperson or entrepreneur that is looking to put some of their earnings to work in an investment they really feel passionate about.

Since angel investors were often successful in their own careers, having access to their experience and rolodex is sometimes even more valuable than the capital they invest.

Make no mistake, the business of an angel investor is to make money. But there is a very personal attraction to each deal that makes working with an angel investor different than going to a nameless, faceless bank.

High Net Worth Individuals

The typical angel investor is someone who’s net worth is likely in excess of $1 million or who earns over $200,000 per year. Incidenta...

Whether you’re a freelancer or small business owner, invoicing is essential. After all, if you aren’t getting paid, how can you expect to keep your business afloat or keep up with your bills? However, if you’re new to invoicing, you may feel a bit overwhelmed because there’s a lot more to it than just sending out an email that says “You Owe Me $1,000.”

To help you better understand the invoicing process, here are some useful tips you should implement the next time you send out an invoice.

Invoicing Basics

Before sending out an invoice, you’ll want to make sure you have the following key elements covered:

• Date – When are you sending out the invoice and when do you expect it to be paid? It’s not uncommon for clients to pay an invoice 30, 60,...

Throughout our schooling and mentoring, we entrepreneurs are constantly urged to be a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. But is this advice really viable? Does it truly apply to us? In my opinion, the answer to both questions is “yes.”

The best entrepreneurs are steadfast generalists — especially in today’s world, where knowing a little about a lot is increasingly important. They are persistently curious and have a deep, abiding interest in learning. They see opportunities where others see challenges, and they’re often natural leaders with strong problem-solving skills.

The Specialist’s Dilemma

A society of specialists is rich in data and poor in meaning. How valuable is all that knowledge without any context? As strategic thinkers, gen...

Some people dream of starting a successful startup so they can strike it rich, sell the company, and retire on a beach sipping mojitos. Others entrepreneurs nurture their one big idea and dream of creating a stable company that they guide through its growth for many years to come.

But the serial entrepreneur is a person with dozens, hundreds, even thousands of business ideas, who relishes the challenges and excitement of starting a new venture. Many serial entrepreneurs start one company after another, waiting just a couple of years for it to become stable before passing on the reins and diving headfirst into another startup.

The popularity of serial entrepreneurship has spawned a new business trend: the startup factory, or startup studio.