5 Ways to Pivot Your Business Under a Looming Second Lockdown

Posted on by Mike Jordan

With the threat of a second lockdown at any moment, we are all concerned about what steps we should take next. Many businesses have already taken new steps to keep afloat — by moving to e-commerce, changing their business strategies, and offering new services.

Mike Jordan, the CEO of Summit Defence, has put together five tips to help your business survive and thrive during the ongoing pandemic.

1. Re-evaluate your strategy

A solid strategy is a foundation for each business to be fruitful. Yet, amid COVID, it’s more important to know precisely what keeps your clients returning, regardless of what the pandemic brings. Have a critical look at your product and clientele. Engage with your target audience online and offline to find out what they need and value, and adjust accordingly. Running a business is about solving problems. Pinpoint the ‘problem’ your clients have and how you can offer them a pandemic-proof solution.

2. It’s not failure

First and foremost, don’t accept defeat. Be proactive! Having to change doesn’t equal failure. Change can bring a lot of positive things, so aim to both preserve and improve your brand. Take on the challenge and allow your business thrive with a fresh start.

3. Join the digital age

Now that we’re this far into the 21st century, you can’t ignore the significant advantages of the web anymore. A robust online identity has always been important, but even more so when millions of people are confined to their homes. How can your business keep running and provide products and services over the internet? Start delivering your goods and services, open a shop online, or shift to a streaming service. The internet is the first place people will look when they need something, especially with many of us working from home. Your online existence can also be a great tool to keep your target audience informed about any changes, promotions, and new opening times.

4. Safety first

Many businesses have been forced to close their doors and send staff home because of their inability to provide a safe workspace. If you have no choice but to keep your physical business location open with visiting customers, you should assess where the risks lie and protect yourself, your staff, and your customers. Some solutions include a contactless checkout, enforcing social distancing, installing safety screens, and clear communication around the rules to both staff and clients. If people are reassured about a safe environment, they will return regardless of where this pandemic is heading.

5. Be creative

Adapt your products, services, and business strategies to the new health rules we have been subjected to without losing your business flair. Utilize what you already have, creatively. What aspects of your business or products could be slightly adapted to provide essential products or services, and provide national aid? Look for gaps in the market and how your business can play into them, while improving along the way for a more robust future.

5 Ways to Pivot Your Business Under a Looming Second Lockdown

Posted on by Jim Antonopoulos

With the threat of a second lockdown at any moment, we are all concerned about what steps we should take next. Many businesses have already taken new steps to keep afloat — by moving to e-commerce, changing their business strategies, and offering new services.

Mike Jordan, the CEO of Summit Defence, has put together five tips to help your business survive and thrive during the ongoing pandemic.

1. Re-evaluate your strategy

A solid strategy is a foundation for each business to be fruitful. Yet, amid COVID, it’s more important to know precisely what keeps your clients returning, regardless of what the pandemic brings. Have a critical look at your product and clientele. Engage with your target audience online and offline to find out what they need and value, and adjust accordingly. Running a business is about solving problems. Pinpoint the ‘problem’ your clients have and how you can offer them a pandemic-proof solution.

2. It’s not failure

First and foremost, don’t accept defeat. Be proactive! Having to change doesn’t equal failure. Change can bring a lot of positive things, so aim to both preserve and improve your brand. Take on the challenge and allow your business thrive with a fresh start.

3. Join the digital age

Now that we’re this far into the 21st century, you can’t ignore the significant advantages of the web anymore. A robust online identity has always been important, but even more so when millions of people are confined to their homes. How can your business keep running and provide products and services over the internet? Start delivering your goods and services, open a shop online, or shift to a streaming service. The internet is the first place people will look when they need something, especially with many of us working from home. Your online existence can also be a great tool to keep your target audience informed about any changes, promotions, and new opening times.

4. Safety first

Many businesses have been forced to close their doors and send staff home because of their inability to provide a safe workspace. If you have no choice but to keep your physical business location open with visiting customers, you should assess where the risks lie and protect yourself, your staff, and your customers. Some solutions include a contactless checkout, enforcing social distancing, installing safety screens, and clear communication around the rules to both staff and clients. If people are reassured about a safe environment, they will return regardless of where this pandemic is heading.

5. Be creative

Adapt your products, services, and business strategies to the new health rules we have been subjected to without losing your business flair. Utilize what you already have, creatively. What aspects of your business or products could be slightly adapted to provide essential products or services, and provide national aid? Look for gaps in the market and how your business can play into them, while improving along the way for a more robust future.

The Ultimate Entrepreneurs Guide to Free Internet Tools

Posted on by Mike Michalowicz

Becoming an entrepreneur is, by definition, risky business. Becoming a successful entrepreneur takes time, commitment, patience, guts, and – most importantly – passion. Another thing it takes: money. Depending on the type of business you’re planning you may need a lot of cash to get started or maybe just a little. One thing is certain: you’re going to have to watch how you spend it very carefully.

Fortunately, there are plenty of excellent resources available online to help entrepreneurs organize and manage their business activities, improve their communication skills, and promote their brand without laying out a lot of cash. And many companies offer their products and services without you having to pay a penny for them.

Below you’ll find our list of online tools that are incredibly helpful to new and experienced entrepreneurs alike. Some of these tools are available to anyone and everyone completely free of charge. Most, however, offer only basic versions of their products for free, along with a scheme of priced versions, each with its own set of expanded and additional features. The idea is to help new entrepreneurs get going in hopes that they’ll find the fee-based versions of those products worth the extra cost once their businesses are off and running.

You probably already know this, but it’s important to keep in mind that the online market for business applications and services is a huge one, and it’s expanding every day. So, think of this list as only a starting point. Try out these tools and see if they work for you, but also explore the countless other online tools available. With a little time and effort, you’re bound to find the right ones to help power your entrepreneurial success.

One more thing: We’ve also included below an excellent interview with entrepreneur and author Mike Michalowicz, who offers a wealth of excellent insight and advice on starting a business and finding real success as an entrepreneur.

Accounting

Zipbooks

Zipbooks is best described as a small business accounting platform, which means that it provides a number of accounting tools and services fundamental to keeping track of all your business’s basic income and expense activities. Zipbooks is arranged in four modules: Accounting, Expense Management, Intelligence, and Invoicing & Billing.

The key selling point here is simplicity. Zipbooks offers an excellent user experience, even for the most inexperienced money manager. Tools and services are offered on four price tiers beginning the with the free-of-charge Starter level. Starter features include unlimited invoicing, vendors and customers, as well as acceptance of PayPal and all major credit cards. There are, of course, fees charged for credit card and PayPal processing. The other three tiers offer a range of additional features, all at reasonable prices.

GnuCash

GnuCash started off as a personal finance management tool similar to Intuit’s Quicken application, but has expanded to include small business accounting capabilities as well. GnuCash’s main features include double entry accounting, a checkbook-style register, scheduled transactions, statement reconciliation, standard and customizable reports, and more.

Small business accounting specific features include customer and vendor tracking, jobs, invoicing, and bill payment, tax and billing terms, payroll management, and a budget management tool. GnuCash is entirely free-of-charge, and available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, BSD, and Solaris.

Communication

Boomerang for Gmail

Looking like a professional business is important, especially when you’re starting out and no one knows who you are. Boomerang for Gmail offers a number of clever tools that allow you to better manage your email activities and keep your outbound messages looking as professional as possible. Notable features include Send Later, which allows you to write an email at anytime of the day or night and schedule the time it will be sent. Your email will automatically go out at the scheduled time. Not a morning person? Now you can write an email late at night, but your recipient will receive it (and think you sent it) bright and early in the morning – while you sleep in.

Slack

Think of Slack as a cloud-based “hub” for all of your team’s communications needs. Slack allows users to communicate by creating “channels” in which team members can chat with one another on a given project or topic. Team members can join or leave channels as needed. Users can also integrate third-party or their own customized apps into channels for streamlined productivity between team members. Slack’s free version allows for creation of an unlimited number of public and private channels, access to up to 10,000 indexed and searchable archived messages, and integration of up to 10 third-party or customized apps. Members can also instantly go from typing to talking with one-to-one voice and video calls within Slack itself.

Streak

Streak is one of the best and easiest to use CRM tools out there. Everything is done within your existing Gmail account, so you won’t be constantly switching between your email inbox and other applications. The free version of Streak offers a number of basic CRM features such as email tracking for up to 200 emails per month, mail merge/mass email, email scheduling, tasks/reminders with Google Calendar integration, mobile access with iOS and Android, and more. Streak calls its free version “Personal,” and it’s recommended for personal use, but you’ll likely find it works well for your new business. Tiered versions with more features and expanded capacity are available for a price, something you’ll want to check out once your business takes off.

Skype

Skype is the extremely popular telecommunications application that provides a host of video chat and voice call services utilizing a wide range of devices, including computers, tablets, mobile and wearable devices, and even Xbox. Most basic Skype services are available free of charge, although a subscription or purchase of Skype Credit is necessary to connect with landlines and mobile phones. In addition to the basic Skype, there’s Skype Meetings that allows HD web conferencing for up to three team members (up to 10 team members for the first 60 days) from any operating system or device. Skype Meeting is currently limited to users located in the United States, and you’ll have to use a work (as opposed to personal) email address, but the service is free. There’s also Skype for Business that allows users to include up to 250 people in an online meeting, among other additional services, but you’ll have to pay for it.

Document Management

Google Docs

Who hasn’t heard of Google Docs? Maybe a better question is: who hasn’t used Google Docs? For those few who haven’t, Google Docs is the very popular web-based suite of document management applications that allows its users to access and work on documents, spreadsheets, and more at anytime from practically anywhere. Google Docs applications include Google Sheets (spreadsheet creator), Google Slides (for creating, formatting, and editing visual presentations), Google Forms (for creating questionnaires and surveys with user-friendly templates), and Google Docs itself (a full-featured word processor). Google Docs applications make inter-organizational collaboration on documents about as simple as one could hope for. And best of all, it’s completely free-of-charge. Google Docs is the perfect example of an important point: Sometimes the best online tools available for entrepreneurs are the most obvious.

Dropbox

Dropbox is a popular and powerful document sharing and collaboration tool that puts all of your files together in one place for access by you and your team members across all of your devices, including computers, tablets, and smartphones. Dropbox’s cost-free Basic account comes with 2GB of storage, along with anywhere access, document scanning, camera upload, file requests, web previews and comments, and email and self support. It also comes with Dropbox Paper, a collaborative workspace platform that allows team members to access and edit documents, and to review designs, manage tasks, and run meetings. Basic users can “earn” more storage space by referring family and friends, contributing to the Dropbox Community forum, and/or completing the Dropbox getting started guide. Additional storage space and features are also available at reasonable monthly rates.

Genius Scan

Entrepreneurs are always on the go: traveling the country, meeting with clients and customers, attending business events and sales conventions, and more. And along the way, they’re running into documents of all kinds, such as contracts, invoices, expense receipts, and a whole lot more. Keeping track of all those documents can be a real problem. That’s where Genius Scan comes in. With the Genius Scan app, you simply take a photo of a document and it’s instantly converted into a JPEG or multi-page PDF file. Genius Scan’s scanning technology enhances legibility, removes unwanted backgrounds, and corrects for perspective, meaning that you don’t have to take a perfect picture to make a perfect copy. Genius Scan also offers batch scanning and import, and organizes your documents with tags, titles, and search. Available through both the Apple Store and Google Play.

HelloSign

One thing all entrepreneurs have in common regarding documents is that they’ll be signing a lot of them, and since we’ve already established that entrepreneurs are always on the go, receiving, signing and returning signed docs isn’t always convenient. HelloSign allows users to download a document (Excel, PDF, Word, etc.) from Google Docs or a Gmail account, sign it, and send it on its way, all without ever having to deal with a hard copy version. Users can also upload documents they need others to sign, add an assigned signature field, and send them off for a legally-binding signature. The free version of HelloSign is admittedly rather limited (three documents a month from a single sender), but a reasonably-priced second tier offers unlimited documents per month from a single sender.

Marketing

Google Marketing Platform for Small Businesses

Google products come up on this list several times, mainly because Google offers such a wide range of applications and services that are both geared toward small businesses and available for free. The Google Marketing Platform is a prime example. Introduced in June of 2018, the Google Marketing Platform for Small Businesses brings a number of Google products under one roof, so to speak, including its well-known Google Analytics that tracks and reports on your business’s website traffic. Also included: Data Studio that turns your analytics data into informative, good looking reports; Optimize, a platform for website experimentation and testing; Surveys, a market research tool that collects survey data to provide insight to targeted audiences quickly and efficiently; and Tag Manager, that allows users to easily update tags and code snippets on their websites and mobile apps. For bigger businesses, there’s the Google Marketing Platform for Enterprises, but that’s for later.

HubSpot

HubSpot offers a wide range of marketing automation tools designed to help businesses set up and manage their marketing and sales processes, many of which are available free-of-charge. HubSpot’s free version is designed for solopreneurs and beginning marketers, and includes its lead analytics dashboard, contact management, contact and company insights, Facebook and Instagram lead ads, team email, and live chat. Limited versions of HubSpot’s forms, contact activity, conversations inbox, and conversational bots features are also included. Free CRM hub features are accessible by an unlimited number of team members and you can store up to one million contacts and companies.

MailChimp

MailChimp bills itself as “the world’s leading marketing platform for small business.” Whether it’s the right platform for your small business is for you to decide, but if email marketing is a major part of your business plan, MailChimp may be for you. MailChimp employs a number of marketing automation tools that allow users to target their email messaging to customers based on their preferences and behavior, as well as your previous sales. Other tools allow users to create email campaigns and landing pages, take advantage of ads on Google, Facebook and Instagram, analyze and test your marketing strategies, and more. Users of MailChimp’s free version are limited to a maximum of 2,000 contacts and 12,000 emails per month. Paid versions are available with additional and expanded services.

HARO

OK, not exactly a marketing tool in the strictest sense. In fact, it’s not really a tool at all. But HARO – which stands for “Help a Reporter Out” – is a great way for entrepreneurs to get the word out on both their businesses and their personal expertise. The HARO website is where journalists and bloggers of every stripe can go to find an expert/source to interview on just about any subject, which is where you come in. Once you register on HARO as an expert, you’ve made yourself available as a source for journalists, thus providing you the opportunity to talk about your business to a solid, possibly substantial audience of potential customers. It’s essentially free advertising, and free advertising is the best advertising.

Project Management

Trello

Trello is a web-based project management application that can be used by almost any type of business or organization. Trello users create customized “boards” which consist of lists filled with cards that are accessible to all team members. One board might be used specifically for sales, one for social media, one for your business calendar, etc. The purpose of each board is up to you. Users can add “power-ups” which are add-ons that bring additional features to boards and provide for integration of the user’s favorite apps. The key is visualization. Trello is highly visual in its presentation which offers flexibility in adding to, deleting from and modifying project elements resulting in easier project management. Trello’s free option allows the user to create an unlimited number of boards, lists, cards, checklists, and attachments that can be accessed by an unlimited number of team members. However, file attachments are limited to a total of 10MB and one power-up per board.

Asana

Asana, as any yoga enthusiast can tell you, is the Sanskrit word for posture or seat. In the digital world, Asana is a great web and mobile business application whose purpose is to help team members organize, manage and monitor their work more easily. As with Trello, users create “boards” for each task or project, through which team members develop, edit, and comment on projects, assign work to teammates, establish and meet deadlines, and more. Asana offers a basic version of its application free-of-charge that provides for an unlimited number of projects, tasks, and conversations, as well as basic dashboards and search functions to a maximum of 15 team members.

Social Media Management

Hootsuite

Successful businesses today maintain a robust presence on a wide range of social media platforms. Coordinating your messaging across all of these resources can be a big problem, however. That’s where Hootsuite comes in. Hootsuite is a very popular social media management platform that allows users to manage, schedule, and monitor their posts from Hootsuite dashboards to all of their social media profiles, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, You Tube, Instagram, and more (up to 250 apps in all). Hootsuite’s free option is limited to one user, three social profiles, and 30 scheduled messages. A variety of priced options provide for more users, messages, and profiles, as well as additional features.

SumAll

SumAll is a social media analytics and management tool that allows users to control when and how they wish to post to their various social media, eCommerce, and advertising accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Instagram, and others). SumAll’s platform is completely free-of-charge and requires no subscriptions, which means that everyone has access to all of its features, including automation tools that allow users to engage their customers, and analytics tools that monitor all of their social media accounts, advertising, sales data, etc., from anywhere at any time.

Website Building and Hosting

Let’s face it. Most popular website builders are pretty similar, at least when comes to basic features like hosting, design templates, security, storage, etc. It’s really just up to you to find the one that best suits your business’s needs and personal tastes. And, as is the case with most website builders, you can build a basic website and receive hosting for a very small monthly or yearly fee, or even free-of-charge. Given the title of this guide, the website builders listed below all offer a cost-free, basic entry-level service.

Realistically speaking, however, once your business is up and running, you’ll likely need the expanded storage and additional features only available for a price (albeit a reasonable one). With that in mind, here are a few well-known website builders to consider. And remember, there are plenty more where these came from.

Weebly

A good place to start your search for a website builder for your new business is the well-established and popular Weebly. Weebly is simple to use for beginners, with excellent functionality and flexibility. Building a website is done by dragging and dropping various elements, like text and images. Features for its free version include 500MB of storage, SSL security, search engine optimization, chat and email support, and a community forum. Users have to put up with Weebly ads, and are limited to the Weebly subdomain. If you want connect with your own domain, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid version. Nevertheless, with its incredible ease of use, Weebly is a solid option for new entrepreneurs.

Wix

Wix is another extremely popular website builder, and its features are very similar to Weebly’s, particularly when it comes to its free version (500MB of storage, limited to its own subdomain, etc.) If there’s any real advantage to Wix over Weebly, it may be the much wider variety of templates to choose from. The bottom line is that if you’re trying to decide between Wix and Weebly (or any other service, for that matter) to build and host your free website, the determining factor should probably be the features and options offered on their priced tiers, since you’ll likely be moving to one pretty quickly.

WordPress

Sure, Weebly and Wix are pretty big players in the hosting field, but no one is bigger than WordPress. WordPress has reasonably-priced tiers that are labeled “best” for entrepreneurs and small businesses, but novices may find the platform’s free version plenty sufficient as a starting point. As with Wix and Weebly, there are lots of limitations with the free version, including WordPress advertising and banners, and a WordPress.com subdomain, but free users will still have access to dozens of customizable templates, and a comparatively robust 3GB of storage.

An Interview with Author and Entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz:

Mike Michalowicz is the entrepreneur behind three multi-million dollar companies and the author of several books on entrepreneurship, including Profit First, The Pumpkin Plan, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, and his latest, Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself. Mike is also a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal and former business makeover specialist on MSNBC.

How is the business environment right now for entrepreneurs?

I think it’s ripe for opportunity. The ability to get up to speed as an entrepreneur is the easiest it’s ever been due to technology and the tools available. You can be a wildly successful solopreneur without needing to hire assistance and support because of all the technology that’s out there. And with the virtualization of support, you can bring on people from anywhere in the world to help you out. So, it’s just a ripe, great environment.

Is this a good time for starting a business?

Yes, with the caveat that you need to be selective. There’s so many new businesses starting that there can be an overwhelm in the market. The old formula is always the same. You need customers that want your offering. If there’s a saturation of an offering from other venders it’s very difficult to get into that space. So be selective and pick a niche.

Are there any types of businesses you would particularly recommend or advise people to stay away from?

You know, it’s ironic. I think right now the opportunity is more in the traditional business space, but with the advantage of using new technology. So, to go in and be an app developer or something like that – there’s opportunity there for sure, but it’s overwhelmed. I think it’s the modernization of traditional business now. A coffee shop down the street is wildly successful because they’ve made it modern. They’ve integrated tools so that people can walk in with their smartphones and show coupons displayed there. They’re active on social media. So, I think that traditional business is actually the greater opportunity if you bring modernization to it.

How does someone know if he or she is ready to start a new business?

I don’t think anyone ever knows. But I do believe if you’re enthusiastic, you’re excited about it, and you also clearly understand the challenges you’re going to go through – that you will not be an overnight success, that this will require extraordinary effort – if you appreciate that, you’re ready. I think the mistake [people] make is trying to get all the information and knowledge that they can accumulate, and then get started. And that’s a mistake because you’ll never have enough information. Most of the learning in a new business happens with the doing. So, go in with passion and purpose, and also knowing that you’re in for the long haul.

What are the biggest misconceptions you’ve found that new entrepreneurs have when it comes to starting a new business?

Hands down, it is the financial projections. They’re inevitably wrong and inherently can’t be right. Think about it. If someone could predict the financials for their own business – something they’ve never had before, something that’s not even invented or created yet – and they can predict their revenue for the next three or five years? I see such misconceptions, and the greatest irony of all is when people write their projections, they typically write them pessimistically. They say, “Well, this is the worst case scenario,” and they’re actually so overly optimistic on it that the financials have very little credibility. I say that people speak the truth not through their words but through their wallets. It’s only as you have customer acquisition happening – actual customers paying you – that you can really predict what the market’s going to be like.

So, start off small, start off by testing the market, and see if there’s consumption of your offering. Ideally, if you’re in the right kind of market, see if you can customers coming back to you repeatedly. That is a determinant of where your future will be. The second common misconception is the market needs. We just assume that the customer base will need what we have to offer. And then we have to go in and explain what we have and convince them. The most common competitor we have is actually indecisiveness or lack of awareness. That’s a bigger threat than any competitor down the street. It’s always better to go into a market where there’s already established awareness and you’re providing a solution as opposed to trying to make awareness.

Let’s say that someone has gotten their new business up and running, and are beginning to enjoy some success. Do you have any advice to help him/her keep from sabotaging that success moving forward?

Success is often determined by revenue, so people look at their revenue numbers and say, “Well, based upon our revenue, we’re successful.” That, in my experience, is not the definition of success. It’s profitability and sustainability, and those are both overlooked. So businesses that are “successful” keep trying to grow their revenue, and then they’re under the burden of cash flow and their business collapses. They’re making more money, but they’re not keeping more money. They’re spending more, and the cash flow kills them. So, to prevent the sabotage of success, set up a reserve for profit. Every time you have a sale – from day one of opening your business – take a predetermined percentage and allocate it toward profit.

Reserve that money, hide it away from yourself, and do not run your business off of that. That money is there for three reasons: First is to support you as an owner, to reward you; Second, by taking profit first, it forces the business to be lean and mean. That’s what you want; And third, by reserving profit you also have an emergency reserve should problems happen. And that brings about sustainability.

What’s the single best piece of business advice you’ve ever received?

I had a mentor that said, “Don’t listen to me. I am a third party observer from the outside. I am not the consumer.” Always listen to the consumer demand, and if you’re asking mentors or observers or experts about how the market will behave, they have no clue compared to the customers themselves. And quite frankly, don’t even ask the customer, observe the customer. It’s their behavior that dictates what their true feelings are.

I know that you probably have dozens of great tips to help entrepreneurs get started and be successful. Can you share one or two that readers might find surprising?

Lack of knowledge is often your advantage. People want to go in with an established skill set, but there are two problems with that. If you go in with experience, that means you’re the one who knows how to do the work. And then you’ll be trapped into doing the work, which actually prevents the growth of your business. It’s the lack of the ability to do something but the ability to observe it, that positions you to hire people or put resources in place that do the work. That allows you to be a true entrepreneur, which is the manager of resources and moving those resources and people toward a specific vision. So, the lack of knowledge is to your advantage.

The second thing is that the lack of knowledge positions you to challenge industry norms. You don’t understand how the industry works, therefore you don’t behave like the rest of the industry. And that’s powerful.

You’ve written several books aimed at helping entrepreneurs be successful. Your latest is Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself. Can you tell us a little about it?

Clockwork is about designing a business to give you the freedom to use your time as you want. Most entrepreneurs are trapped within their businesses, doing everything for their businesses. Many start to resent their businesses and they compromise the use of their time to do the things they love in their businesses or in their lives. Clockwork is about how to make your business run effectively on automatic, how to have other resources and other people drive the business forward, allowing you to be what I define as a true entrepreneur – overseeing the business, thinking strategically, and moving the business in the direction you want to take it.

I put this in the book, and I think it kind of speaks to the mentality of the true entrepreneur. There is a statue dedicated to the greatest entrepreneurial behavior. It’s not the guy hustling and doing work, it’s the world famous statue “The Thinker.” It’s contemplating the strategy of the business and then moving the resources to align with where you want the business to go. That, I believe, is the greatest accomplishment an entrepreneur can achieve.

The Ultimate Entrepreneurs Guide to Free Internet Tools

Posted on by T Shobajo

Becoming an entrepreneur is, by definition, risky business. Becoming a successful entrepreneur takes time, commitment, patience, guts, and – most importantly – passion. Another thing it takes: money. Depending on the type of business you’re planning you may need a lot of cash to get started or maybe just a little. One thing is certain: you’re going to have to watch how you spend it very carefully.

Fortunately, there are plenty of excellent resources available online to help entrepreneurs organize and manage their business activities, improve their communication skills, and promote their brand without laying out a lot of cash. And many companies offer their products and services without you having to pay a penny for them.

Below you’ll find our list of online tools that are incredibly helpful to new and experienced entrepreneurs alike. Some of these tools are available to anyone and everyone completely free of charge. Most, however, offer only basic versions of their products for free, along with a scheme of priced versions, each with its own set of expanded and additional features. The idea is to help new entrepreneurs get going in hopes that they’ll find the fee-based versions of those products worth the extra cost once their businesses are off and running.

You probably already know this, but it’s important to keep in mind that the online market for business applications and services is a huge one, and it’s expanding every day. So, think of this list as only a starting point. Try out these tools and see if they work for you, but also explore the countless other online tools available. With a little time and effort, you’re bound to find the right ones to help power your entrepreneurial success.

One more thing: We’ve also included below an excellent interview with entrepreneur and author Mike Michalowicz, who offers a wealth of excellent insight and advice on starting a business and finding real success as an entrepreneur.

Accounting

Zipbooks

Zipbooks is best described as a small business accounting platform, which means that it provides a number of accounting tools and services fundamental to keeping track of all your business’s basic income and expense activities. Zipbooks is arranged in four modules: Accounting, Expense Management, Intelligence, and Invoicing & Billing.

The key selling point here is simplicity. Zipbooks offers an excellent user experience, even for the most inexperienced money manager. Tools and services are offered on four price tiers beginning the with the free-of-charge Starter level. Starter features include unlimited invoicing, vendors and customers, as well as acceptance of PayPal and all major credit cards. There are, of course, fees charged for credit card and PayPal processing. The other three tiers offer a range of additional features, all at reasonable prices.

GnuCash

GnuCash started off as a personal finance management tool similar to Intuit’s Quicken application, but has expanded to include small business accounting capabilities as well. GnuCash’s main features include double entry accounting, a checkbook-style register, scheduled transactions, statement reconciliation, standard and customizable reports, and more.

Small business accounting specific features include customer and vendor tracking, jobs, invoicing, and bill payment, tax and billing terms, payroll management, and a budget management tool. GnuCash is entirely free-of-charge, and available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, BSD, and Solaris.

Communication

Boomerang for Gmail

Looking like a professional business is important, especially when you’re starting out and no one knows who you are. Boomerang for Gmail offers a number of clever tools that allow you to better manage your email activities and keep your outbound messages looking as professional as possible. Notable features include Send Later, which allows you to write an email at anytime of the day or night and schedule the time it will be sent. Your email will automatically go out at the scheduled time. Not a morning person? Now you can write an email late at night, but your recipient will receive it (and think you sent it) bright and early in the morning – while you sleep in.

Slack

Think of Slack as a cloud-based “hub” for all of your team’s communications needs. Slack allows users to communicate by creating “channels” in which team members can chat with one another on a given project or topic. Team members can join or leave channels as needed. Users can also integrate third-party or their own customized apps into channels for streamlined productivity between team members. Slack’s free version allows for creation of an unlimited number of public and private channels, access to up to 10,000 indexed and searchable archived messages, and integration of up to 10 third-party or customized apps. Members can also instantly go from typing to talking with one-to-one voice and video calls within Slack itself.

Streak

Streak is one of the best and easiest to use CRM tools out there. Everything is done within your existing Gmail account, so you won’t be constantly switching between your email inbox and other applications. The free version of Streak offers a number of basic CRM features such as email tracking for up to 200 emails per month, mail merge/mass email, email scheduling, tasks/reminders with Google Calendar integration, mobile access with iOS and Android, and more. Streak calls its free version “Personal,” and it’s recommended for personal use, but you’ll likely find it works well for your new business. Tiered versions with more features and expanded capacity are available for a price, something you’ll want to check out once your business takes off.

Skype

Skype is the extremely popular telecommunications application that provides a host of video chat and voice call services utilizing a wide range of devices, including computers, tablets, mobile and wearable devices, and even Xbox. Most basic Skype services are available free of charge, although a subscription or purchase of Skype Credit is necessary to connect with landlines and mobile phones. In addition to the basic Skype, there’s Skype Meetings that allows HD web conferencing for up to three team members (up to 10 team members for the first 60 days) from any operating system or device. Skype Meeting is currently limited to users located in the United States, and you’ll have to use a work (as opposed to personal) email address, but the service is free. There’s also Skype for Business that allows users to include up to 250 people in an online meeting, among other additional services, but you’ll have to pay for it.

Document Management

Google Docs

Who hasn’t heard of Google Docs? Maybe a better question is: who hasn’t used Google Docs? For those few who haven’t, Google Docs is the very popular web-based suite of document management applications that allows its users to access and work on documents, spreadsheets, and more at anytime from practically anywhere. Google Docs applications include Google Sheets (spreadsheet creator), Google Slides (for creating, formatting, and editing visual presentations), Google Forms (for creating questionnaires and surveys with user-friendly templates), and Google Docs itself (a full-featured word processor). Google Docs applications make inter-organizational collaboration on documents about as simple as one could hope for. And best of all, it’s completely free-of-charge. Google Docs is the perfect example of an important point: Sometimes the best online tools available for entrepreneurs are the most obvious.

Dropbox

Dropbox is a popular and powerful document sharing and collaboration tool that puts all of your files together in one place for access by you and your team members across all of your devices, including computers, tablets, and smartphones. Dropbox’s cost-free Basic account comes with 2GB of storage, along with anywhere access, document scanning, camera upload, file requests, web previews and comments, and email and self support. It also comes with Dropbox Paper, a collaborative workspace platform that allows team members to access and edit documents, and to review designs, manage tasks, and run meetings. Basic users can “earn” more storage space by referring family and friends, contributing to the Dropbox Community forum, and/or completing the Dropbox getting started guide. Additional storage space and features are also available at reasonable monthly rates.

Genius Scan

Entrepreneurs are always on the go: traveling the country, meeting with clients and customers, attending business events and sales conventions, and more. And along the way, they’re running into documents of all kinds, such as contracts, invoices, expense receipts, and a whole lot more. Keeping track of all those documents can be a real problem. That’s where Genius Scan comes in. With the Genius Scan app, you simply take a photo of a document and it’s instantly converted into a JPEG or multi-page PDF file. Genius Scan’s scanning technology enhances legibility, removes unwanted backgrounds, and corrects for perspective, meaning that you don’t have to take a perfect picture to make a perfect copy. Genius Scan also offers batch scanning and import, and organizes your documents with tags, titles, and search. Available through both the Apple Store and Google Play.

HelloSign

One thing all entrepreneurs have in common regarding documents is that they’ll be signing a lot of them, and since we’ve already established that entrepreneurs are always on the go, receiving, signing and returning signed docs isn’t always convenient. HelloSign allows users to download a document (Excel, PDF, Word, etc.) from Google Docs or a Gmail account, sign it, and send it on its way, all without ever having to deal with a hard copy version. Users can also upload documents they need others to sign, add an assigned signature field, and send them off for a legally-binding signature. The free version of HelloSign is admittedly rather limited (three documents a month from a single sender), but a reasonably-priced second tier offers unlimited documents per month from a single sender.

Marketing

Google Marketing Platform for Small Businesses

Google products come up on this list several times, mainly because Google offers such a wide range of applications and services that are both geared toward small businesses and available for free. The Google Marketing Platform is a prime example. Introduced in June of 2018, the Google Marketing Platform for Small Businesses brings a number of Google products under one roof, so to speak, including its well-known Google Analytics that tracks and reports on your business’s website traffic. Also included: Data Studio that turns your analytics data into informative, good looking reports; Optimize, a platform for website experimentation and testing; Surveys, a market research tool that collects survey data to provide insight to targeted audiences quickly and efficiently; and Tag Manager, that allows users to easily update tags and code snippets on their websites and mobile apps. For bigger businesses, there’s the Google Marketing Platform for Enterprises, but that’s for later.

HubSpot

HubSpot offers a wide range of marketing automation tools designed to help businesses set up and manage their marketing and sales processes, many of which are available free-of-charge. HubSpot’s free version is designed for solopreneurs and beginning marketers, and includes its lead analytics dashboard, contact management, contact and company insights, Facebook and Instagram lead ads, team email, and live chat. Limited versions of HubSpot’s forms, contact activity, conversations inbox, and conversational bots features are also included. Free CRM hub features are accessible by an unlimited number of team members and you can store up to one million contacts and companies.

MailChimp

MailChimp bills itself as “the world’s leading marketing platform for small business.” Whether it’s the right platform for your small business is for you to decide, but if email marketing is a major part of your business plan, MailChimp may be for you. MailChimp employs a number of marketing automation tools that allow users to target their email messaging to customers based on their preferences and behavior, as well as your previous sales. Other tools allow users to create email campaigns and landing pages, take advantage of ads on Google, Facebook and Instagram, analyze and test your marketing strategies, and more. Users of MailChimp’s free version are limited to a maximum of 2,000 contacts and 12,000 emails per month. Paid versions are available with additional and expanded services.

HARO

OK, not exactly a marketing tool in the strictest sense. In fact, it’s not really a tool at all. But HARO – which stands for “Help a Reporter Out” – is a great way for entrepreneurs to get the word out on both their businesses and their personal expertise. The HARO website is where journalists and bloggers of every stripe can go to find an expert/source to interview on just about any subject, which is where you come in. Once you register on HARO as an expert, you’ve made yourself available as a source for journalists, thus providing you the opportunity to talk about your business to a solid, possibly substantial audience of potential customers. It’s essentially free advertising, and free advertising is the best advertising.

Project Management

Trello

Trello is a web-based project management application that can be used by almost any type of business or organization. Trello users create customized “boards” which consist of lists filled with cards that are accessible to all team members. One board might be used specifically for sales, one for social media, one for your business calendar, etc. The purpose of each board is up to you. Users can add “power-ups” which are add-ons that bring additional features to boards and provide for integration of the user’s favorite apps. The key is visualization. Trello is highly visual in its presentation which offers flexibility in adding to, deleting from and modifying project elements resulting in easier project management. Trello’s free option allows the user to create an unlimited number of boards, lists, cards, checklists, and attachments that can be accessed by an unlimited number of team members. However, file attachments are limited to a total of 10MB and one power-up per board.

Asana

Asana, as any yoga enthusiast can tell you, is the Sanskrit word for posture or seat. In the digital world, Asana is a great web and mobile business application whose purpose is to help team members organize, manage and monitor their work more easily. As with Trello, users create “boards” for each task or project, through which team members develop, edit, and comment on projects, assign work to teammates, establish and meet deadlines, and more. Asana offers a basic version of its application free-of-charge that provides for an unlimited number of projects, tasks, and conversations, as well as basic dashboards and search functions to a maximum of 15 team members.

Social Media Management

Hootsuite

Successful businesses today maintain a robust presence on a wide range of social media platforms. Coordinating your messaging across all of these resources can be a big problem, however. That’s where Hootsuite comes in. Hootsuite is a very popular social media management platform that allows users to manage, schedule, and monitor their posts from Hootsuite dashboards to all of their social media profiles, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, You Tube, Instagram, and more (up to 250 apps in all). Hootsuite’s free option is limited to one user, three social profiles, and 30 scheduled messages. A variety of priced options provide for more users, messages, and profiles, as well as additional features.

SumAll

SumAll is a social media analytics and management tool that allows users to control when and how they wish to post to their various social media, eCommerce, and advertising accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Instagram, and others). SumAll’s platform is completely free-of-charge and requires no subscriptions, which means that everyone has access to all of its features, including automation tools that allow users to engage their customers, and analytics tools that monitor all of their social media accounts, advertising, sales data, etc., from anywhere at any time.

Website Building and Hosting

Let’s face it. Most popular website builders are pretty similar, at least when comes to basic features like hosting, design templates, security, storage, etc. It’s really just up to you to find the one that best suits your business’s needs and personal tastes. And, as is the case with most website builders, you can build a basic website and receive hosting for a very small monthly or yearly fee, or even free-of-charge. Given the title of this guide, the website builders listed below all offer a cost-free, basic entry-level service.

Realistically speaking, however, once your business is up and running, you’ll likely need the expanded storage and additional features only available for a price (albeit a reasonable one). With that in mind, here are a few well-known website builders to consider. And remember, there are plenty more where these came from.

Weebly

A good place to start your search for a website builder for your new business is the well-established and popular Weebly. Weebly is simple to use for beginners, with excellent functionality and flexibility. Building a website is done by dragging and dropping various elements, like text and images. Features for its free version include 500MB of storage, SSL security, search engine optimization, chat and email support, and a community forum. Users have to put up with Weebly ads, and are limited to the Weebly subdomain. If you want connect with your own domain, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid version. Nevertheless, with its incredible ease of use, Weebly is a solid option for new entrepreneurs.

Wix

Wix is another extremely popular website builder, and its features are very similar to Weebly’s, particularly when it comes to its free version (500MB of storage, limited to its own subdomain, etc.) If there’s any real advantage to Wix over Weebly, it may be the much wider variety of templates to choose from. The bottom line is that if you’re trying to decide between Wix and Weebly (or any other service, for that matter) to build and host your free website, the determining factor should probably be the features and options offered on their priced tiers, since you’ll likely be moving to one pretty quickly.

WordPress

Sure, Weebly and Wix are pretty big players in the hosting field, but no one is bigger than WordPress. WordPress has reasonably-priced tiers that are labeled “best” for entrepreneurs and small businesses, but novices may find the platform’s free version plenty sufficient as a starting point. As with Wix and Weebly, there are lots of limitations with the free version, including WordPress advertising and banners, and a WordPress.com subdomain, but free users will still have access to dozens of customizable templates, and a comparatively robust 3GB of storage.

An Interview with Author and Entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz:

Mike Michalowicz is the entrepreneur behind three multi-million dollar companies and the author of several books on entrepreneurship, including Profit First, The Pumpkin Plan, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, and his latest, Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself. Mike is also a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal and former business makeover specialist on MSNBC.

How is the business environment right now for entrepreneurs?

I think it’s ripe for opportunity. The ability to get up to speed as an entrepreneur is the easiest it’s ever been due to technology and the tools available. You can be a wildly successful solopreneur without needing to hire assistance and support because of all the technology that’s out there. And with the virtualization of support, you can bring on people from anywhere in the world to help you out. So, it’s just a ripe, great environment.

Is this a good time for starting a business?

Yes, with the caveat that you need to be selective. There’s so many new businesses starting that there can be an overwhelm in the market. The old formula is always the same. You need customers that want your offering. If there’s a saturation of an offering from other venders it’s very difficult to get into that space. So be selective and pick a niche.

Are there any types of businesses you would particularly recommend or advise people to stay away from?

You know, it’s ironic. I think right now the opportunity is more in the traditional business space, but with the advantage of using new technology. So, to go in and be an app developer or something like that – there’s opportunity there for sure, but it’s overwhelmed. I think it’s the modernization of traditional business now. A coffee shop down the street is wildly successful because they’ve made it modern. They’ve integrated tools so that people can walk in with their smartphones and show coupons displayed there. They’re active on social media. So, I think that traditional business is actually the greater opportunity if you bring modernization to it.

How does someone know if he or she is ready to start a new business?

I don’t think anyone ever knows. But I do believe if you’re enthusiastic, you’re excited about it, and you also clearly understand the challenges you’re going to go through – that you will not be an overnight success, that this will require extraordinary effort – if you appreciate that, you’re ready. I think the mistake [people] make is trying to get all the information and knowledge that they can accumulate, and then get started. And that’s a mistake because you’ll never have enough information. Most of the learning in a new business happens with the doing. So, go in with passion and purpose, and also knowing that you’re in for the long haul.

What are the biggest misconceptions you’ve found that new entrepreneurs have when it comes to starting a new business?

Hands down, it is the financial projections. They’re inevitably wrong and inherently can’t be right. Think about it. If someone could predict the financials for their own business – something they’ve never had before, something that’s not even invented or created yet – and they can predict their revenue for the next three or five years? I see such misconceptions, and the greatest irony of all is when people write their projections, they typically write them pessimistically. They say, “Well, this is the worst case scenario,” and they’re actually so overly optimistic on it that the financials have very little credibility. I say that people speak the truth not through their words but through their wallets. It’s only as you have customer acquisition happening – actual customers paying you – that you can really predict what the market’s going to be like.

So, start off small, start off by testing the market, and see if there’s consumption of your offering. Ideally, if you’re in the right kind of market, see if you can customers coming back to you repeatedly. That is a determinant of where your future will be. The second common misconception is the market needs. We just assume that the customer base will need what we have to offer. And then we have to go in and explain what we have and convince them. The most common competitor we have is actually indecisiveness or lack of awareness. That’s a bigger threat than any competitor down the street. It’s always better to go into a market where there’s already established awareness and you’re providing a solution as opposed to trying to make awareness.

Let’s say that someone has gotten their new business up and running, and are beginning to enjoy some success. Do you have any advice to help him/her keep from sabotaging that success moving forward?

Success is often determined by revenue, so people look at their revenue numbers and say, “Well, based upon our revenue, we’re successful.” That, in my experience, is not the definition of success. It’s profitability and sustainability, and those are both overlooked. So businesses that are “successful” keep trying to grow their revenue, and then they’re under the burden of cash flow and their business collapses. They’re making more money, but they’re not keeping more money. They’re spending more, and the cash flow kills them. So, to prevent the sabotage of success, set up a reserve for profit. Every time you have a sale – from day one of opening your business – take a predetermined percentage and allocate it toward profit.

Reserve that money, hide it away from yourself, and do not run your business off of that. That money is there for three reasons: First is to support you as an owner, to reward you; Second, by taking profit first, it forces the business to be lean and mean. That’s what you want; And third, by reserving profit you also have an emergency reserve should problems happen. And that brings about sustainability.

What’s the single best piece of business advice you’ve ever received?

I had a mentor that said, “Don’t listen to me. I am a third party observer from the outside. I am not the consumer.” Always listen to the consumer demand, and if you’re asking mentors or observers or experts about how the market will behave, they have no clue compared to the customers themselves. And quite frankly, don’t even ask the customer, observe the customer. It’s their behavior that dictates what their true feelings are.

I know that you probably have dozens of great tips to help entrepreneurs get started and be successful. Can you share one or two that readers might find surprising?

Lack of knowledge is often your advantage. People want to go in with an established skill set, but there are two problems with that. If you go in with experience, that means you’re the one who knows how to do the work. And then you’ll be trapped into doing the work, which actually prevents the growth of your business. It’s the lack of the ability to do something but the ability to observe it, that positions you to hire people or put resources in place that do the work. That allows you to be a true entrepreneur, which is the manager of resources and moving those resources and people toward a specific vision. So, the lack of knowledge is to your advantage.

The second thing is that the lack of knowledge positions you to challenge industry norms. You don’t understand how the industry works, therefore you don’t behave like the rest of the industry. And that’s powerful.

You’ve written several books aimed at helping entrepreneurs be successful. Your latest is Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself. Can you tell us a little about it?

Clockwork is about designing a business to give you the freedom to use your time as you want. Most entrepreneurs are trapped within their businesses, doing everything for their businesses. Many start to resent their businesses and they compromise the use of their time to do the things they love in their businesses or in their lives. Clockwork is about how to make your business run effectively on automatic, how to have other resources and other people drive the business forward, allowing you to be what I define as a true entrepreneur – overseeing the business, thinking strategically, and moving the business in the direction you want to take it.

I put this in the book, and I think it kind of speaks to the mentality of the true entrepreneur. There is a statue dedicated to the greatest entrepreneurial behavior. It’s not the guy hustling and doing work, it’s the world famous statue “The Thinker.” It’s contemplating the strategy of the business and then moving the resources to align with where you want the business to go. That, I believe, is the greatest accomplishment an entrepreneur can achieve.

To Earn Love from Digital Customers, Follow This 5-Step Formula

Posted on by Howard Tiersky

Today’s customer is “digitally driven.” So, if your brand is going to thrive, digital must be at the core of what you do. Add-ons and tweaks aren’t good enough. To earn and keep customer love, you’re going to have to make sure they can access your products and services quickly and seamlessly.

For most legacy companies, this requires total transformation. In the new book, Winning Digital Customers, I lay out a five-step process to help you make the shift.

Step 1: Understand Your Customer

Customer centricity is essential. You must understand your customer on a deep level if you are to create the kinds of experiences that will move their behavior in the right direction. This requires several types of research, such as:

Indirect Customer Research. You probably already have a wealth of customer insight tucked away in various, disparate places within your enterprise, from databases to PDFs to the knowledge in the brains of your customer-facing teams. Start analyzing it to understand what it means and how it relates to the research questions you defined earlier.

Direct Customer Research. Reach out directly to your customers using best-practices techniques, such as customer interviews, observational research (observe them buying or using your product), standardized measures (like the Net Promoter Score), and surveys.

Synthesis of Research into Customer Personas. The final step of understanding your customer is synthesizing the research and creating generalized composites of specific types of customers.

Step 2: Map the Customer Journey

After you complete Step 1, you’ll have the insights needed to draft a vision of a future experience that will inspire customer love and trigger the desired thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. You can draft this vision in the form of a “customer journey map”—an infographic communicating the end-to-end customer experience you intend to create.

You’ll need to map your current state journey. This process visualizes the “real-world” experience customers and prospects encounter today as they try to purchase and utilize the products or services your company offers. This is important, because in most companies, nobody understands the whole customer experience. This helps you understand a) what’s good in your customer’s current journey (so you don’t “mess it up”) and b) those areas where customers are having to exert a lot of effort or are experiencing “pain” in their current journeys.

Then, you’ll need to compose your future state journey. Future state journey maps document the vision you want to move toward—a “North Star” ambition of the way the future customer should experience your brand through all the stages of your journey lifecycle. Customer journeys are tools for storytelling, and this is your chance to write the story the way it should be.

Step 3: Build the Future

Once you have the overall customer journey defined, it’s time to start driving the transformation necessary to build the future.

You’ll need to implement transformation of four supporting elements to achieve an excellent customer experience: technical architecture, robust and secure data, business operations, and the organization’s economic business model.

Use Design Thinking 2.0 to build the future. Next, it’s time to embark on a more detailed product development process so you can document their exact features and interfaces with enough detail to implement them. In this updated version of Design Thinking, you’ll build upon the existing framework of the process by incorporating new steps that will take your customer journey map and make it a reality.

Step 4: Optimize the Short Term

Building the future can take quite a while. But there are usually some areas where you are currently “letting the customer down” that you can fix quickly. By focusing on “low-hanging fruit,” you can get quick results within your current reality—no matter how far along you are within your overall transformation.

Doing this work gives you quick, measurable, sustainable financial benefits that can help fund larger transformation as well as demonstrate to key executives that they have a “reason to believe” that your overall transformation program is capable of driving tangible business impact. Second, you improve your customer’s experience, which improves brand perception and demonstrates progress.

Step 5: Lead the Change

Perhaps most importantly, digital transformation requires bold, courageous, and determined leadership. Here are the steps transformational leaders can do:

  1. Overcome enterprise resistance to change. Most people actively resist change, often to their detriment. Leaders of transformation need to become experts at the various flavors of “resistance to change” and tactics to overcome them. To achieve this, you can create a burning platform for change, define clear goals and celebrate signs of success, sustain conviction even when things go wrong, and much more.
  2. Assemble transformational leaders and teams. Begin by finding your “innovation hero,” someone who has the vision and tenacity to make it their personal 24/7 mission to drag their enterprise toward digital excellence no matter how challenging or how much resistance they face. (This will be the person with the “superpowers” of super vision, courage and strength, speed, time travel, and other qualities you’ll learn more about in Winning Digital Customers.) But no superhero does it alone. As a leader, a key part of your job is assembling a leadership team of superheroes, all of whom embody core characteristics, but each of whom brings a special area of strength to the team. Some of the types of specialization you’ll need include: the business leader, the product leader, the user experience leader, the technical leader, and more.
  3. Look to the road ahead. Choosing where to start depends on your situation. The good news is that there are many “right” answers. You might start by assembling an informal digital transformation leadership team. Or start by commissioning research to map out the current customer journey and use that to start building your platform for change. Or start with a specific new product that needs innovation and apply the principles of Design Thinking 2.0 to prove that it can work. Starting any place is better than waiting.

“If you’re a legacy brand, you already have the talent, assets, and history you need to thrive, but lack the customer love. These steps will set you on the path to adapting to meet your customers’ modern needs and stay relevant in the Digital Age.

To Earn Love from Digital Customers, Follow This 5-Step Formula

Posted on by Howard Tiersky

Today’s customer is “digitally driven.” So, if your brand is going to thrive, digital must be at the core of what you do. Add-ons and tweaks aren’t good enough. To earn and keep customer love, you’re going to have to make sure they can access your products and services quickly and seamlessly.

For most legacy companies, this requires total transformation. In the new book, Winning Digital Customers, I lay out a five-step process to help you make the shift.

Step 1: Understand Your Customer

Customer centricity is essential. You must understand your customer on a deep level if you are to create the kinds of experiences that will move their behavior in the right direction. This requires several types of research, such as:

Indirect Customer Research. You probably already have a wealth of customer insight tucked away in various, disparate places within your enterprise, from databases to PDFs to the knowledge in the brains of your customer-facing teams. Start analyzing it to understand what it means and how it relates to the research questions you defined earlier.

Direct Customer Research. Reach out directly to your customers using best-practices techniques, such as customer interviews, observational research (observe them buying or using your product), standardized measures (like the Net Promoter Score), and surveys.

Synthesis of Research into Customer Personas. The final step of understanding your customer is synthesizing the research and creating generalized composites of specific types of customers.

Step 2: Map the Customer Journey

After you complete Step 1, you’ll have the insights needed to draft a vision of a future experience that will inspire customer love and trigger the desired thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. You can draft this vision in the form of a “customer journey map”—an infographic communicating the end-to-end customer experience you intend to create.

You’ll need to map your current state journey. This process visualizes the “real-world” experience customers and prospects encounter today as they try to purchase and utilize the products or services your company offers. This is important, because in most companies, nobody understands the whole customer experience. This helps you understand a) what’s good in your customer’s current journey (so you don’t “mess it up”) and b) those areas where customers are having to exert a lot of effort or are experiencing “pain” in their current journeys.

Then, you’ll need to compose your future state journey. Future state journey maps document the vision you want to move toward—a “North Star” ambition of the way the future customer should experience your brand through all the stages of your journey lifecycle. Customer journeys are tools for storytelling, and this is your chance to write the story the way it should be.

Step 3: Build the Future

Once you have the overall customer journey defined, it’s time to start driving the transformation necessary to build the future.

You’ll need to implement transformation of four supporting elements to achieve an excellent customer experience: technical architecture, robust and secure data, business operations, and the organization’s economic business model.

Use Design Thinking 2.0 to build the future. Next, it’s time to embark on a more detailed product development process so you can document their exact features and interfaces with enough detail to implement them. In this updated version of Design Thinking, you’ll build upon the existing framework of the process by incorporating new steps that will take your customer journey map and make it a reality.

Step 4: Optimize the Short Term

Building the future can take quite a while. But there are usually some areas where you are currently “letting the customer down” that you can fix quickly. By focusing on “low-hanging fruit,” you can get quick results within your current reality—no matter how far along you are within your overall transformation.

Doing this work gives you quick, measurable, sustainable financial benefits that can help fund larger transformation as well as demonstrate to key executives that they have a “reason to believe” that your overall transformation program is capable of driving tangible business impact. Second, you improve your customer’s experience, which improves brand perception and demonstrates progress.

Step 5: Lead the Change

Perhaps most importantly, digital transformation requires bold, courageous, and determined leadership. Here are the steps transformational leaders can do:

  1. Overcome enterprise resistance to change. Most people actively resist change, often to their detriment. Leaders of transformation need to become experts at the various flavors of “resistance to change” and tactics to overcome them. To achieve this, you can create a burning platform for change, define clear goals and celebrate signs of success, sustain conviction even when things go wrong, and much more.
  2. Assemble transformational leaders and teams. Begin by finding your “innovation hero,” someone who has the vision and tenacity to make it their personal 24/7 mission to drag their enterprise toward digital excellence no matter how challenging or how much resistance they face. (This will be the person with the “superpowers” of super vision, courage and strength, speed, time travel, and other qualities you’ll learn more about in Winning Digital Customers.) But no superhero does it alone. As a leader, a key part of your job is assembling a leadership team of superheroes, all of whom embody core characteristics, but each of whom brings a special area of strength to the team. Some of the types of specialization you’ll need include: the business leader, the product leader, the user experience leader, the technical leader, and more.
  3. Look to the road ahead. Choosing where to start depends on your situation. The good news is that there are many “right” answers. You might start by assembling an informal digital transformation leadership team. Or start by commissioning research to map out the current customer journey and use that to start building your platform for change. Or start with a specific new product that needs innovation and apply the principles of Design Thinking 2.0 to prove that it can work. Starting any place is better than waiting.

“If you’re a legacy brand, you already have the talent, assets, and history you need to thrive, but lack the customer love. These steps will set you on the path to adapting to meet your customers’ modern needs and stay relevant in the Digital Age.

If You’re Not Digitally Transforming, You’re Dying. (6 Reasons to Do It Now)

Posted on by Howard Tiersky

This isn’t your father’s customer base. It takes more than tweaks to meet their needs; it takes a complete overhaul. A new book Winning Digital Customers, lays out six big reasons why you need to transform — starting yesterday.

The world is changing rapidly, and once-loved “legacy” brands are falling out of favor. The reason is painfully simple. At one time these brands exceeded customers’ needs and stood for something they cared about. (That’s how you earn love.) But today’s customers are different. Very different. The vast majority are living a lifestyle that has digital at the center…and many companies haven’t transformed to meet them there.

To deliver ‘digital’ at the increasingly elegant level today’s customers expect, most of today’s large companies need to reinvent themselves in a variety of ways, and quickly. Unfortunately, many aren’t designed for this kind of rapid change. They might lack an aligned vision, or encounter resistance, or have the wrong technology. Maybe they’re entrenched in a way of thinking that just isn’t customer-centric. And so despite their best efforts, they fail.

Let’s say your organization is already using digital for marketing and e-commerce, but you are not truly “digitally driven.” Maybe you provide customers with a good app—but it’s really just an add-on. You’re not aggressively creating products and experiences that take full advantage of the potential of digital. You can’t honestly say you’re digital at the core. If this describes you, is it truly necessary to change? 

Most likely yes. Here are just a few reasons why.

REASON 1: You Need to Remain Relevant to the Customer

Customers today demand a superior digital experience. A Salesforce study found that 80 percent of customers view “the experience” a company provides as equally important as its products and services. But across industries, most experiences offered today are simply not up to customers’ expectations. PwC found that 49 percent of U.S. consumers say that companies are providing a “good” customer experience today. 

Brands also spent a lot of energy on online content about their brand and products. But market research shows that consumers today have massive cynicism today about what brands “say” about themselves. As Trinity Mirror and Ipsos Connect found in a study, almost half of consumers have a general distrust of brand and 69 percent specifically distrust their advertising. 

So how do consumers evaluate your brand and products if they assume most of what you say is a lie? Mostly, from their own digital experiences. If your website is confusing and disorganized, that is the message people will take away. If your signup process is cumbersome, they assume that your product will be as well.

REASON 2: You Need to Gain the Efficiencies to Be Cost-Competitive

Companies that are winning in the digital economy are delivering a dramatically improved value proposition—offering customers more for less. It helps to have investors who are patient about whether the company operates at a profit. But more long-term, these companies are able to operate in a different way—harnessing tools like crowdsourcing, AI, and process automation. 

If you don’t have access to these types of opportunities to increase efficiency, it’s difficult or even impossible to be price-competitive with those that do.

REASON 3: You Need to Attract and Retain Talent in the Organization

Millennials want to be a part of companies that are digitally savvy. This might be the most important reason of all to ensure that your company has a high level of digital effectiveness.

A study by the market research firm Penn, Schoen, & Berland found that 82 percent of millennials can be swayed in their career decisions by a digitally equipped office, while 42 percent would leave a company due to “substandard technology.” Similarly, Microsoft found in a study that 93 percent of millennials polled cited modern and up-to-date technology as one of the most important aspects of a workplace. 

REASON 4: Digitally Driven Companies Have Greater Revenue Growth 

A study by the Aberdeen Group found that the top 20 percent of companies as measured by their “quality of digital customer experience” enjoyed an average year-over-year increase in revenue of over 35 percent, compared to a 7.7 percent average for the rest. 

“Digitally advanced” companies create 9 percent more revenue than their industry competitors, as reported in a study conducted by MIT. And digitally “mature” companies are almost three times likelier than lower-maturity organizations to report annual revenue growth significantly greater than their industry average, according to yet another study, this one by Deloitte. 

REASON 5: Digitally Driven Companies Have Better Profit Margins

Despite the investments they need to make to transform, studies show that digitally driven companies deliver better returns. A Harvard Business School study found that the three-year average profit for “digitally centric companies” was 5 percent more than that of those companies “behind the curve.” A different study at MIT concluded that “digitally mature companies” are 26 percent more profitable than competitors. 

What’s more, digitally effective companies tend to be highly customer-centric. A KPMG study showed that “customer-centric” companies saw a projected profit growth rate that was 3.6 percent greater than “non-customer-centric” companies. 

REASON 6: Digitally Driven Companies Have Higher Valuations

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, digitally driven companies have consistently higher valuations. According to MIT, more digitally “mature” companies achieve market valuations 12 percent higher than competitors. Forrester calculated that in recent years, the stock price of “leaders in digital customer experience” grew by nearly 30 percent more than that of lagging brands. 

Bottom line? It’s a new era. There have been many periods of time when businesses could operate in more or less the same manner for decades, updating their advertising campaign periodically, creating marginally “new and improved” products every few years, and making small incremental changes to keep cutting costs and drive profits higher. 

Whether your business is window washing, restaurant supplies, maritime navigation, or podiatry, your customers’ expectations are digital. Your competitors are leveraging digital to drive better customer experiences and increased operational efficiencies—enabling them to offer more compelling value propositions to customers. If you aren’t doing the same, it’s going to be tough to remain relevant and price competitive.

If You’re Not Digitally Transforming, You’re Dying. (6 Reasons to Do It Now)

Posted on by Howard Tiersky

This isn’t your father’s customer base. It takes more than tweaks to meet their needs; it takes a complete overhaul. A new book Winning Digital Customers, lays out six big reasons why you need to transform — starting yesterday.

The world is changing rapidly, and once-loved “legacy” brands are falling out of favor. The reason is painfully simple. At one time these brands exceeded customers’ needs and stood for something they cared about. (That’s how you earn love.) But today’s customers are different. Very different. The vast majority are living a lifestyle that has digital at the center…and many companies haven’t transformed to meet them there.

To deliver ‘digital’ at the increasingly elegant level today’s customers expect, most of today’s large companies need to reinvent themselves in a variety of ways, and quickly. Unfortunately, many aren’t designed for this kind of rapid change. They might lack an aligned vision, or encounter resistance, or have the wrong technology. Maybe they’re entrenched in a way of thinking that just isn’t customer-centric. And so despite their best efforts, they fail.

Let’s say your organization is already using digital for marketing and e-commerce, but you are not truly “digitally driven.” Maybe you provide customers with a good app—but it’s really just an add-on. You’re not aggressively creating products and experiences that take full advantage of the potential of digital. You can’t honestly say you’re digital at the core. If this describes you, is it truly necessary to change? 

Most likely yes. Here are just a few reasons why.

REASON 1: You Need to Remain Relevant to the Customer

Customers today demand a superior digital experience. A Salesforce study found that 80 percent of customers view “the experience” a company provides as equally important as its products and services. But across industries, most experiences offered today are simply not up to customers’ expectations. PwC found that 49 percent of U.S. consumers say that companies are providing a “good” customer experience today. 

Brands also spent a lot of energy on online content about their brand and products. But market research shows that consumers today have massive cynicism today about what brands “say” about themselves. As Trinity Mirror and Ipsos Connect found in a study, almost half of consumers have a general distrust of brand and 69 percent specifically distrust their advertising. 

So how do consumers evaluate your brand and products if they assume most of what you say is a lie? Mostly, from their own digital experiences. If your website is confusing and disorganized, that is the message people will take away. If your signup process is cumbersome, they assume that your product will be as well.

REASON 2: You Need to Gain the Efficiencies to Be Cost-Competitive

Companies that are winning in the digital economy are delivering a dramatically improved value proposition—offering customers more for less. It helps to have investors who are patient about whether the company operates at a profit. But more long-term, these companies are able to operate in a different way—harnessing tools like crowdsourcing, AI, and process automation. 

If you don’t have access to these types of opportunities to increase efficiency, it’s difficult or even impossible to be price-competitive with those that do.

REASON 3: You Need to Attract and Retain Talent in the Organization

Millennials want to be a part of companies that are digitally savvy. This might be the most important reason of all to ensure that your company has a high level of digital effectiveness.

A study by the market research firm Penn, Schoen, & Berland found that 82 percent of millennials can be swayed in their career decisions by a digitally equipped office, while 42 percent would leave a company due to “substandard technology.” Similarly, Microsoft found in a study that 93 percent of millennials polled cited modern and up-to-date technology as one of the most important aspects of a workplace. 

REASON 4: Digitally Driven Companies Have Greater Revenue Growth 

A study by the Aberdeen Group found that the top 20 percent of companies as measured by their “quality of digital customer experience” enjoyed an average year-over-year increase in revenue of over 35 percent, compared to a 7.7 percent average for the rest. 

“Digitally advanced” companies create 9 percent more revenue than their industry competitors, as reported in a study conducted by MIT. And digitally “mature” companies are almost three times likelier than lower-maturity organizations to report annual revenue growth significantly greater than their industry average, according to yet another study, this one by Deloitte. 

REASON 5: Digitally Driven Companies Have Better Profit Margins

Despite the investments they need to make to transform, studies show that digitally driven companies deliver better returns. A Harvard Business School study found that the three-year average profit for “digitally centric companies” was 5 percent more than that of those companies “behind the curve.” A different study at MIT concluded that “digitally mature companies” are 26 percent more profitable than competitors. 

What’s more, digitally effective companies tend to be highly customer-centric. A KPMG study showed that “customer-centric” companies saw a projected profit growth rate that was 3.6 percent greater than “non-customer-centric” companies. 

REASON 6: Digitally Driven Companies Have Higher Valuations

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, digitally driven companies have consistently higher valuations. According to MIT, more digitally “mature” companies achieve market valuations 12 percent higher than competitors. Forrester calculated that in recent years, the stock price of “leaders in digital customer experience” grew by nearly 30 percent more than that of lagging brands. 

Bottom line? It’s a new era. There have been many periods of time when businesses could operate in more or less the same manner for decades, updating their advertising campaign periodically, creating marginally “new and improved” products every few years, and making small incremental changes to keep cutting costs and drive profits higher. 

Whether your business is window washing, restaurant supplies, maritime navigation, or podiatry, your customers’ expectations are digital. Your competitors are leveraging digital to drive better customer experiences and increased operational efficiencies—enabling them to offer more compelling value propositions to customers. If you aren’t doing the same, it’s going to be tough to remain relevant and price competitive.

5 Reasons Why Brand Activism is Here to Stay

Posted on by Heidi Schoeneck and Phil White

Brand Activism is when a brand takes a stand to help drive change towards the most urgent problems facing society, based on its own beliefs, purpose and values. As Phiip Kotler and Christian Sarkar suggest in their book Brand Activism: From Purpose to Action, it is “how progressive businesses are taking stands to create a better world.” 

And lately we’ve seen many good examples, such as  Ben & Jerry’s efforts to end racism; the Penzey Spice company looting their own store in support of #BlackLivesMatter;  Burger King and McDonald’s sharing a kiss (pictured above) in support of gay pride; And Patagonia closing their stores so employees could join the Climate Strike. 

You could almost claim 2020 as the year of Brand Activism.

The 2020 factor

With COVID-19 taking hold in early March and then George Floyd’s murder by a police officer in Minneapolis — starting a series of riots, violence and civil unrest around the world — many feel we have reached a tipping point where the economic and social inequality that has plagued the nation for centuries must be driven out. And public pressure is starting to mount up and hold business and brands to account. 

According to Forbes, over 28 million Instagram users participated in #BlackoutTuesday, posting empty black tiles in silent (and some might say, empty) solidarity. More recently, shareholders worth a collective $620 billion, pressured Nike, FedEx and PepsiCo to terminate their business relationships with the Redskins unless the team agreed to change its name. On Facebook, more than 200 big-brand spenders boycotted the platform  over its handling of hate speech. One could say 2020 has been a wake-up call for brands and businesses to step up to drive change where the government has been unsuccessful.

Brand Activism is here to Stay

Some groups dismiss Brand Activism and things like the temporary withdrawals from Facebook as little more than PR stunts. As founders of a social innovation and brand activation consultancy, we strongly believe Brand Activism is much deeper here to stay:

 And here are 5 reasons why: 

  1. Gen Z isn’t stopping: As Dr. Arlo Brady, CEO of Freuds, comments; “The recent rise of backyard activism is vital and it can often act as a ‘gateway drug’ for action on the Global Goals. Gen Z gets hooked on impact, much like a gondola-end BOGO deal in the supermarket that you spy from the street, it pulls you in”. Gen Z also has tremendous buying power—an estimated $143 billion in the United States alone. And let’s face it — buying power is power. 
  1. Activism moves the PR machine: As Adam Fetcher in Fast Company points out; “There are a lot of organizations that desire to emulate Ben & Jerry’s but lack a serious history of working on behalf of causes larger than their own success. There’s no manual, and there are no shortcuts to credibility. It requires a willingness to build a foundation that’s not driven by PR. If you can focus on impact over attention, the press will cover your efforts with the depth it merits — at a time when you actually deserve it.”  
  1. People expect Brands to fill the gap: “By choosing brands that align with their values, shoppers are voting with their wallets for the kinds of businesses they want in the world — and paving the way toward a more sustainable and just economy. We’re in an unfortunate time where Governments and Institutions provide less and less moral leadership and we now expect to see it from the brands we buy,” says Bthechange. Edelman’s Trust Barometer finds 81% of consumers say they expect brands to do the right thing and 71% say that placing profit before people will lose their trust forever. 
  1. Purpose-driven brands perform better: According to Deloitte, Purpose-driven companies witness higher market share gains and grow three times faster on average than their competitors, all while achieving higher workforce and customer satisfaction. “This trend is only set to strengthen as young people around the world are growing up with a deeper sense of purpose than previous generations and are seeking out products that directly support causes about which they care.”
  1. Brand Activism is the road to Growth: The Deloitte report goes on to say, “By leading with purpose, being authentic in how they tell stories and articulate their impact, focusing on all humans, and imbibing empathy, many of these companies are outpacing their competitors and leaving an impact on everyone they touch.” So if you are looking to buy into a brand that will grow in value and also help to make the world a better place –  choose an activist brand. 

As a B-corp that helps brands, retailers and non-profits activate purpose at retail, we wholeheartedly agree. Activism starts from the inside out. There is no rule book. There is no relief from responsibility and things aren’t always going to go to plan… and do you know what? That’s OK. Be authentic. Understand your unique purpose then connect the ‘why’ of your purpose with the ‘way’ of profit. Then, if the engine of commerce, fueled by social innovation and kept in check by an ever more conscious consumer can create sustainable, scalable solutions for what the world needs and what people want, then brands can and should become the most powerful instruments for change the world has ever seen.

Now that’s activism done right in our book.

5 Reasons Why Brand Activism is Here to Stay

Posted on by Heidi Schoeneck and Phil White

Brand Activism is when a brand takes a stand to help drive change towards the most urgent problems facing society, based on its own beliefs, purpose and values. As Phiip Kotler and Christian Sarkar suggest in their book Brand Activism: From Purpose to Action, it is “how progressive businesses are taking stands to create a better world.” 

And lately we’ve seen many good examples, such as  Ben & Jerry’s efforts to end racism; the Penzey Spice company looting their own store in support of #BlackLivesMatter;  Burger King and McDonald’s sharing a kiss (pictured above) in support of gay pride; And Patagonia closing their stores so employees could join the Climate Strike. 

You could almost claim 2020 as the year of Brand Activism.

The 2020 factor

With COVID-19 taking hold in early March and then George Floyd’s murder by a police officer in Minneapolis — starting a series of riots, violence and civil unrest around the world — many feel we have reached a tipping point where the economic and social inequality that has plagued the nation for centuries must be driven out. And public pressure is starting to mount up and hold business and brands to account. 

According to Forbes, over 28 million Instagram users participated in #BlackoutTuesday, posting empty black tiles in silent (and some might say, empty) solidarity. More recently, shareholders worth a collective $620 billion, pressured Nike, FedEx and PepsiCo to terminate their business relationships with the Redskins unless the team agreed to change its name. On Facebook, more than 200 big-brand spenders boycotted the platform  over its handling of hate speech. One could say 2020 has been a wake-up call for brands and businesses to step up to drive change where the government has been unsuccessful.

Brand Activism is here to Stay

Some groups dismiss Brand Activism and things like the temporary withdrawals from Facebook as little more than PR stunts. As founders of a social innovation and brand activation consultancy, we strongly believe Brand Activism is much deeper here to stay:

 And here are 5 reasons why: 

  1. Gen Z isn’t stopping: As Dr. Arlo Brady, CEO of Freuds, comments; “The recent rise of backyard activism is vital and it can often act as a ‘gateway drug’ for action on the Global Goals. Gen Z gets hooked on impact, much like a gondola-end BOGO deal in the supermarket that you spy from the street, it pulls you in”. Gen Z also has tremendous buying power—an estimated $143 billion in the United States alone. And let’s face it — buying power is power. 
  1. Activism moves the PR machine: As Adam Fetcher in Fast Company points out; “There are a lot of organizations that desire to emulate Ben & Jerry’s but lack a serious history of working on behalf of causes larger than their own success. There’s no manual, and there are no shortcuts to credibility. It requires a willingness to build a foundation that’s not driven by PR. If you can focus on impact over attention, the press will cover your efforts with the depth it merits — at a time when you actually deserve it.”  
  1. People expect Brands to fill the gap: “By choosing brands that align with their values, shoppers are voting with their wallets for the kinds of businesses they want in the world — and paving the way toward a more sustainable and just economy. We’re in an unfortunate time where Governments and Institutions provide less and less moral leadership and we now expect to see it from the brands we buy,” says Bthechange. Edelman’s Trust Barometer finds 81% of consumers say they expect brands to do the right thing and 71% say that placing profit before people will lose their trust forever. 
  1. Purpose-driven brands perform better: According to Deloitte, Purpose-driven companies witness higher market share gains and grow three times faster on average than their competitors, all while achieving higher workforce and customer satisfaction. “This trend is only set to strengthen as young people around the world are growing up with a deeper sense of purpose than previous generations and are seeking out products that directly support causes about which they care.”
  1. Brand Activism is the road to Growth: The Deloitte report goes on to say, “By leading with purpose, being authentic in how they tell stories and articulate their impact, focusing on all humans, and imbibing empathy, many of these companies are outpacing their competitors and leaving an impact on everyone they touch.” So if you are looking to buy into a brand that will grow in value and also help to make the world a better place –  choose an activist brand. 

As a B-corp that helps brands, retailers and non-profits activate purpose at retail, we wholeheartedly agree. Activism starts from the inside out. There is no rule book. There is no relief from responsibility and things aren’t always going to go to plan… and do you know what? That’s OK. Be authentic. Understand your unique purpose then connect the ‘why’ of your purpose with the ‘way’ of profit. Then, if the engine of commerce, fueled by social innovation and kept in check by an ever more conscious consumer can create sustainable, scalable solutions for what the world needs and what people want, then brands can and should become the most powerful instruments for change the world has ever seen.

Now that’s activism done right in our book.

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