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For those of us who attend conferences, workshops and industry events regularly, it becomes easy to spot the different ‘networker’ profiles.

There’s always the ‘straight out of college’ marketing intern who fires out business cards at light-speed and performs the same pitch to every person. The quiet developer who slinks in the background avoiding eye-contact. And the somewhat creepy terminator-esque sales whizz who scans the crowd for his next target, then pounces.

Conferences and B2B networking events offer a great means of extending your network, meeting new clients, hires, partners or investors. But when dealing with experienced Business-to-Business networkers, you need to be prepared to work the room in the right way, and show the bes...

Ever struggled to properly measure productivity within your business? You’re not alone.

A lot of growth-driven business owners have a hard time pinning down the productivity (and efficiency, for that matter) of their team members and of general operations.

As managers, we all care about productivity and the impact it has on the stability and success of our businesses. That’s why we often find ourselves thinking hard about questions like, “What is the monetary value of an employee working at maximum capacity?” and, “What processes are negatively impacting our bottom line because they’re inefficient?”

We all know how to identify productive and unproductive behavior, but the problem is, we don’t all inherently know how to best measure product...

Never before has “fake” been such a household word. But not all “fake” is bad. For entrepreneurs starting out, the right version of “fake it until you make it” is exactly what they should be doing.

An entrepreneur who “fakes it” is someone who takes on challenges even if he has no idea how he’ll solve them, such as accepting an order from a large client without knowing how he’ll get the shipments from China.

That’s the purest form of “faking it,” because it’s aligning his mindset with what he desires while still operating within his means. It’s also biting off more than he can chew but always following through and delivering in the end.

Ultimately, entrepreneurs who don’t push themselves and “fake it” are the ones who aren’t going to make ...

Need some PR for your project? When you’re launching a new business or product, or simply need a bit of a boost, PR can be helpful. Assuming you’ve done the due diligence (read the publication first, make sure you’re a good fit, look up the editor etc etc), actually writing the pitch is the hardest part.

Here’s a template style list of questions to answer (actually write these down!)

1. What do I want?

I want to increase sales.

2. What do I want from the publication?

I want one online article, one Instagram shout out, published in print.

3. What does the publication want?

Stories of business owners, content to fill pages.

4. What can I give the publication?

A giveaway, thought leadership, something else.

5. What is the value of my offering...

We’ve spent a lot of time on the blog talking about the early stages of planning a company, so let’s flash forward a bit. Say you’ve built out your product. You’ve validated your idea to death, formulated your pricing strategy, built out social channels and put out press releases.

You flip the switch, launch your product, and… crickets. Not a customer in the pipeline, not a signup on your website. Nothing.

So what now? Is that it? Do you throw in the towel, pack up and go home? Not by a long shot.

“If you build it, they will come,” is great and all, but sometimes in the startup world, if you want customers, you have to go out and get them yourself. So grab your email lists and your spreadsheets, folks, because we’re going sales prospecting....

When you’re figuring out how much a startup CEO's salary should be, there are a lot of factors to consider.

How much can the company afford to pay? What stage are you in? How much runway do you have? If you already have investors, what are their thoughts on the issue? How much do you need to support yourself and your family?

Those are just some of the questions that are probably rolling around in your head, whether you’re trying to figure out your salary as the CEO, you’re trying to figure out your co-founder’s salary as they take on the CEO position, or you’re thinking of bringing in an outside hire. Add on location, marital status, age, savings… and the list goes on and on and on.

So how do you determine what an average startup CEO salary sh...

It’s one of the oldest truths in marketing: in order to get customers’ attention, you have to live where your customers live. And today more than ever before, where customers live is on social media.

According to a study by marketing firm MediaKix, the average person spends 2 hours per day on social platforms. As the post helpfully points out, that amounts to 5 years and 4 months over a lifetime – enough time to fly to the moon and back 32 times or run 10,000 marathons.

With numbers like that, it’s no wonder that paid social media advertising has supplanted radio and possibly even television as the new darling of the advertising world. Mediakix predicts that social media advertising spend will hit close to $36 billion globally in 2017, and ...

The acquisition of new donors is important, but you can’t neglect past donors and the support they bring. While the retention rate of first-year donors is only 23.7%, the retention rate of multi-year donors jumps to just over 58%.

Build a relationship with those supporters and keep them engaged outside of fundraising. That will keep your retention rates up and they’ll be more likely to respond when you call on them.

Email marketing is a great, non-invasive, and non-interruptive way to stay in front of supporters while also providing value. Even better, the ROI is significant. As your list grows, a single email to your supporters could trigger an influx of donations, greatly reducing the time it takes to hit fundraising targets.

Here’s how ...

Don’t miss out! Check out the previous chapters here:
–Chapter One
–Chapter Two
–Chapter Three
–Chapter Four
–Chapter Five

CHAPTER SIX (Bonus): Leverage Your Email Footer

In This Chapter:

• Leverage every inch of the emails you send
• Use your footer as a way to share important details

Before we bid adieu—We would love to share something that could really help you and it takes literally 15 minutes to implement, and will save you countless hours of time in the future.

Email footers are generally one of the most poorly utilized pieces of daily communication. Think about it for a second. How many emails have you sent and received? Of the received emails, how many footers have you paid attention to?

None, right?

That’s because most people eith...

Do you know all of the possible types of business your startup could be? It’s probably not at the top of the list — but it should be. The legal formation of your business — or, in other words, the type of business you form — affects everything from the structure of your company to your personal and professional liability to how you pay taxes. It’s a lot — we know.

And when you’re setting up a startup, you have a lot going on. You have to figure out your market. You have to determine what you’re going to sell them. You have to create a website, social media presence, a blog. You have to pitch and find investment and, and, and…

The list is so long that it can be overwhelming. But if you’re committed to getting a startup going, then you’re com...