Author: Steve Header

Content creation for entrepreneurs is about one thing, and one thing only

By Nicolas Cole

I am not your average writer.

My degree is in creative writing, but my background (and most formative mentorship) took place in advertising.

Between the ages of 22 and 26, I spent all day, every day, immersed in that world. Long gone were the afternoons spent studying Dostoevsky and Nabokov–those became reserved for late night reading sessions in my studio apartment. Instead, I replaced their spines with business books: Think and Grow Rich, for example.

I knew I would forever be a student to the craft of writing. What I wanted to learn (as quickly as possible) was the business side of things.

I wanted to know how to get people to read the things I had worked so hard to write.

This is what turned me into an entrepreneur.

Today, I am one of the most-read writers on the Internet with over 50 million views on all my work. I have had work published in just about every major publication. I speak and give workshops about writing and the importance of personal branding. I advise a number of companies on their messaging. And I am the founder of Digital Press, a writing agency that works exclusively with CEOs, consultants, keynote speakers, and entrepreneurs to extract their best insights and help turn them into thought provoking written pieces to be shared online.

I’m on a different podcast every week–and almost every single podcast I speak on starts with the statement, “Cole, clearly you’ve established yourself as a successful marketer.”

I correct them.

I’m not a marketer. I’m a writer, who spent years studying and refining how to write things people will want to read. 

To me, that’s very different than marketing.

That’s art.

See, marketing carries a certain tone. It’s encouraging you to do something–usually to buy something.

Except marketing isn’t what gets shared.

Marketing isn’t what goes viral. Because marketing isn’t interested in delivering real value to a reader or a viewer. It’s there to poke and prod you along until you perform the desired result.

My belief system is different than most marketers–and remember, I worked in advertising for four years. My mentor was an award-winning creative director.
I didn’t become a “successful entrepreneur” by being a clever marketer.
I became a “successful entrepreneur” by doing the opposite of marketing.

What makes a good book?

A good book comes with all sorts of things: plot lines, characters, moments of tension, conflict, resolution, emotion.

These are the things that keep the pages turning–and these are the things that cause someone to put the book down and immediately want to tell someone else about it.

When I speak on podcasts, or at events, or I find myself in a room full of marketers, I feel like I’m in the wrong room.

People want to know what my “strategy” is.

People want to know how I got so good at “targeting my audience.”

People want to know how much I spend on ads, how I drive traffic, how I “growth hack my following.”

Can I be fully transparent with you?

I don’t think about any of those things.

What I think about is what holds the qualities of a good book.

I didn’t become one of Quora’s most popular writers by “growth hacking” the platform.
I attracted readers because I told stories that revealed who I am as a human being–things that I feel, moments I didn’t know what was going to happen next, opportunities I chased, goals I fell on my face for.

I didn’t become one of Medium’s most popular writers by being a “talented marketer.”
All I did was share what my journey as a writer and entrepreneur has been like. What I felt the moment I convinced one of my closest friends to quit his job and go all-in with me. What was going through my head as I paid our overhead so we could work on building our first project. What it was like for that project to fail, and for us to sit on his couch for 2 days, depressed, wondering if we should start applying for new jobs. How we came up with the idea for Digital Press. How we got our first client–what a funny story that was.

And I didn’t get my work republished by every major publication on the Internet because I was “good at networking” or because I had paid to be part of some “mastermind group.”

My work has been republished because I’ve invested the time in not only learning what it is people want to read, but practicing the skill of opening up and extracting value from my own personal experiences–and then being able to express those lessons learned through written content.

And I’m telling you, it works.

At 27 years old, I am living my dream–a dream every single person in my life told me was impossible.

“Nobody makes a living as a writer these days.”

As an entrepreneur, this is the ONLY type of content you should be investing in–and if you’re not creating this way, you’re going to lose.

Marketing is dying.

Take that however you will, but I believe that to the core. The Internet has changed us. Our expectations have heightened. We don’t tolerate ads and monotonous messages like we did back in 2001 (or even 2011). Too much is free. Too much is readily available. Attention spans are shortening by the day. If we’re not getting what we’re looking for right now, we’ll gladly move along and try to find it somewhere else.

If you think throwing money at advertising is going to build your business, you’ve already lost. Close up shop. You’re done. And if you’re not done soon, you’ll be done within the next 3-5 years.

It’s not advertising people want. It’s not marketing. It’s not “growth hacks” and mastermind groups and all these things people claim will get you the Ferrari result for the price of a Honda.

I’ll tell you exactly what people want–because I did it myself, by myself, without spending a single dollar on advertising.

People want you.

They want to experience your content the same way they would experience grabbing a cup of coffee with you at a local coffee shop.

They want you to loosen up that tie for a second and just talk to them. They don’t just want to know what you do, but how you do it. How did you first get into doing what you’re doing now? How did you learn some of those early lessons? Did you have a mentor? What was he or she like? Did you always have this plan, or did it take a while for you to figure out what you wanted to do? Did you have any moments of failure? What were those like? How did you handle it?

The entrepreneurs that understand how to communicate as people are the ones who build audiences and ultimately win.

If you’re an entrepreneur, of any kind, you need to realize the single greatest investment you will ever make in yourself is in telling your personal story through the content you share.

People want to work with people they trust.

People buy from people they can relate to.

People seek out people they share things in common with.

Those things are never genuinely communicated through “clever marketing.”
But they’re communicated perfectly the moment an entrepreneur starts speaking from the heart.

As appeared in Inc.com

Confident people strive for excellence. Insecure people fixate on perfection

By Amyk Hutchens

Quite a few mixed messages bombard my computer screen every day. Tweets announce “good enough is better than nothing,” “your body needs a break” and “don’t do anything that makes you miserable.” These collide with Facebook and LinkedIn posts that “true warriors never quit” and “great achievement requires great sacrifice.” And then there’s the motivational email that wormed its way into my inbox just this morning: “Your level of success is determined by your level of discipline and perseverance.”

Is Voltaire’s warning that “perfect is the enemy of the good” my mantra today? Or should I scroll down to the stock inspirational message, superimposed in a myriad of fonts atop photos of people climbing really big mountains? “Only extraordinary efforts yield extraordinary results,” indeed. Ugh. And that’s typed by a girl who loves to hike!

So many entrepreneurs are burned out, exhausted and plain-old weary and leery of being told to down another energy drink, get off their butts and play harder. Rah-rah! Guzzle! Grunt!

It all leaves me with some flummoxing questions: Should this be a five-hour work week or an 85-hour one? Is my effort this week good enough? “Good enough?” is the question we find ourselves asking a lot lately. There are several facets to this question — personal and professional, deep and shallow. Is this relationship good enough, or am I settling? Is this solution good enough to get us by, or are we under-delivering and underserving our clients? Are these gifts good enough, or am I being cheap?

Do I give a rat’s derriere? When you peel back all the layers, two core questions drive all the self doubt:

What’s my level of commitment?

What’s the level of import?

1. What’s my level of commitment? 
Let’s start with a low dose of devotion. Did you say yes to a task when you wanted to say no? So many people agree externally even while they’re inwardly hesitant (and maybe even cringing at the thought). Are you so tired of all the nitpicky changes that you’re mentally and emotionally over this project and hear yourself whining instead of celebrating the mini-wins along the way? If you were rich enough, you might delegate or hire away the tasks that make you miserable. In other words, are you a lazy sloth, a resentful toad or a pain in the ass?

A matter of devotion.

When you’re not passionate about certain tasks or initiatives, you must stop saying yes. You need to either beg off in the first place or seek out someone who can bring more expertise and passion for the project. Making a match with someone who’s more eager to go beyond “good enough” is a very kind act indeed — for everyone involved.

On the other hand, a deep dose of devotion brings its own danger: a quest for an unreachable standard of perfection. Suppose you and your team have made a series of changes and tweaks to prepare for a product launch, but your crazy-high standards make you believe it still isn’t good enough. Do you obsess over the fact that if you don’t give 150 percent of your soul, you’ll fail the world and everyone in it? Probably. And this level of dissatisfaction is dangerous.

Unhealthy standards.

When “good enough” is still not good enough — even after the eighth round of edits — and everyone on your team is threatening to walk out, you need to ask some hard questions. Is your criteria aligned with your deepest beliefs and values? Does it reflect truly healthy standards?

If you answer yes, then trust your gut. Re-commit and put one last, good-faith effort into the task. But if you’re chasing an unhealthy, perfect ideal, you must reassess why excellence itself falls short. Not good enough, you say. For whom? A critical caretaker in your primary years? An overinflated ego and sense of self? Or perhaps an insecurity left over from endless comparisons to others?

Ulterior motives.

More pointedly and personally, are you putting forth considerably more effort into a task than is rationally justified? If you can admit to this, try to find the why. Are you super passionate because it’s a joy to produce a superior result, or is your internalized critical parent harping at you over your shoulder? When we stop and ask, “What’s driving my obsession to get this just right?” we can more honestly evaluate if the project is good enough.

2. What’s the level of import?
Neurosurgeons can’t settle for mediocrity, construction crews can’t build structures that crumble, and accountants can’t pass off “good enough” calculations in budget. Winging it or giving less than their best isn’t an option, and the brain-surgery patient really appreciates the physician’s precision.

Perceptions of value.

The standards above don’t apply to the slide-deck visual you’ve swapped out eight times. Good enough! (Perfectionists are squirming right now.) To better discern import, ask yourself this powerful question: “Will today’s level of effort matter tomorrow?” Then expand it. What about two months from now? One or even 10 years from now? Consistent parenting and follow-through on punishments truly matters to your teen’s long-term development, but experienced parents let go of the more trivial matters of the day.

There’s an inverse to this gut check too, and it concerns the risks when too many things lack import. Have you become arrogant about a project’s level of importance in your life compared to how other people perceive its worth? Are you feeling or acting defensive about putting forth a less-than-par effort?  And why, exactly, are you no longer giving this task more intellectual, physical and emotional energy?

Perhaps you are rebelling against an external authority figure or internal critical dictator. Maybe your values truly don’t align with others’ perspectives on the importance of this task. Or maybe you’re just now realizing the job at hand isn’t so important in the bigger scheme of life. Therein lies your power to see clearly if “good enough” in this moment is indeed good enough.

Feelings of resentment.

When an initiative consumes too much of your time, energy and resources, it creates resentment. Sometimes a project insidiously invades your life, and you no longer can feel grateful for the opportunity to contribute. When this happens, you need to invest in some serious inner reflection. You might feel resentful because you’re actually lazy and bit off more than you anticipated, only to have it impact your playdates. Perhaps you’re suddenly understanding that you’ve been fixated on less important matters and now you know it’s time to move on to your true priorities. It’s quite possible you’ve discovered this project doesn’t align with your values, or it could really be good enough in its current state.

Entrepreneurs know too well that mediocrity is one of the most subversive elements in business. When team members, direct reports and bosses operate on autopilot, it’s certainly not good enough. It’s damaging to productivity, partnerships, progress and profitability. On the flip side of the coin, perfectionism is another subversive component. If “good enough” will get you to market faster but you or your colleagues establish perfection as the goal, you’ll be outpaced and outplayed by competitors.
Related: The Perfect Product Is a Myth. Here’s How to Scale the Almost-Perfect Product.

Clarity of purpose.

Last but not least, the most destabilizing not-good-enough of all: “Am I good enough?”
Do you believe you’re skilled enough to lead this startup? Strong enough to lead this team? Smart enough to get another round of funding or savvy enough to make it all work? If you’re doubting your own abilities to make a difference and produce a tangible, profitable outcome, remember this: Giving 100 percent is designed around delivering excellence, not perfection.

At the end of the day, “good enough” is about clarity — clarity in your values, clarity in your beliefs and clarity in your standards of excellence. Committing to excellence for truly important matters allows you to shine and live out your most brilliant potential. And that is definitely good enough!

The allure of being your own boss is strong, but the reality of running a high-growth startup is that the company is your boss.

I agree with each of these 5 mistakes mentioned in the article. I also believe want-to-be entrepreneurs know it will be a time consuming mission, it will be hard work, it will be long hours, there will be set-backs – but if you love what you are doing, then it is not work! If its your passion, who wouldn’t want to put in 10-12 hours or more everyday to have fun and enjoyment, while serving your stakehoulders! Steve Header

By Deep Patel

The world we live in has glamorized the idea of starting one’s own business, to the point that children now dream of becoming celebrity entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. As a result, engineers, designers and marketers are diving headfirst into the world of entrepreneurship from a young age.

While young founders have all the poise and promise needed to start a company, there are some experiences and information you simply cannot replace with hustle. First-time founders often have to spend a great deal of time overcoming their naivety, as they overestimate their likelihood of success while underestimating the amount of work ahead of them.

Here are five lessons I’ve learned from building my own company at 18, including what you should avoid doing as a young entrepreneur:

1. Losing focus.
One of the hardest parts about building a business is identifying where and how to invest your team’s scarce resources (time, money and talent). It can be easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of different channels you have at your disposal. Making a decision and sticking to it can be challenging.

Without a clear objective, founders can inadvertently drift away from their initial company vision. First-time entrepreneurs often become distracted by flashy ideas, whether they come from inside or outside the company. Mature entrepreneurs, however, learn to say no to 99 percent of ideas that are likely to steer their team off course. Overworking your employees by chasing too many opportunities and spreading your resources too thinly is a recipe for disaster.

As the founder, you are the filter responsible for blocking out all of the noise from the outside world that could take your team off course. Many opportunities will inevitably come up that look promising in the short run, but that can damage your long-term ceiling.

2. Raising too much capital.
As a wide-eyed first-time founder, it can be easy to say yes to any investor (or wannabe angel) who offers you a large, enticing check for a portion of your fledgling business. Raising capital, when it is easily available, generally feels like the right thing to do. And it makes sense intuitively: additional funds can translate to more growth and opportunity for your company. But, the reality is that raising money at the wrong time or from the wrong people can do serious damage to your company’s long-term value ceiling.

Finding the right group of venture capitalists to raise from is arguably just as important as the size of the check and the specific terms of the deal. Loud, poisonous investors can erode your company’s culture, terrorize board meetings and take your team in the wrong direction.

Saturating your cap table with “negative-value” investors will hurt your chances of raising funds down the road. No one wants to work in a toxic environment. However, working with competent venture capitalists can be incredibly valuable, as they are able to provide access to mentorship and share years of learnings and observations.

Timing is important, too. Fundraising when your company is still trying to find product market fit can give your team false validation. At the end of the day, what is important is that you are building a product that solves real user pain points, not one that does what the investors think it should do. Detaching your ego from your choices can help you make clearer decisions on the best time and place to raise money.

3. Dealing with imperfection.
Startups often beat out incumbent players because they are able to ideate and iterate more quickly. Because of this, founders must learn to be comfortable shipping products that they know are imperfect. While makers tend to be product and design perfectionists at heart, shipping an unfinished product for the sole sake of testing an assumption is one of the best ways to accelerate learnings.

At a high level, this is the core philosophy behind the “lean startup model” now implemented by thousands of entrepreneurs across the globe.
Startups that subscribe to “lean sprints” apply the concept by quickly shipping minimum viable products (also known as MVPs). An MVP, according to its inventor Eric Ries, is “that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least input of effort.” Unlike big enterprises, startups can fail often and cyclically test ideas to learn about their customers more quickly.

4. Trying to do everything alone.
Many first-time founders fail to realize that starting a company is not a single-player game. To be successful, you must learn how to be a leader and empower others to help you achieve your company’s mission.

Instead of trying to be a jack of all trades, invest in a great team that will scale as your business grows. You can try to diversify your talent pool by employing people who can do jobs you cannot. Your early hires will shape your team’s culture for years to come, and will be influential in determining the fate of your business.

Young entrepreneurs, who may be used to coming up with projects on their own, tend to be micromanagers. Micromanagers ruin their team’s chemistry when they step over boundaries, frustrate workflows and over-exercise their powerful position. As a founder, you need to find a balance between paying attention to small details and giving your employees the autonomy they need to feel important and be responsible.

5. Impatience.
Reaching any level of success in the business world takes a degree of luck and, more controllably, lots of hard work. There are no shortcuts you can leverage to accelerate past the years of hustle, failure and persistence that are usually necessary if an entrepreneur wants to be successful. In a world marked by immense competition and market challenges, the only way to differentiate is to outwork the rest of the players in the space.

Some people start a company for the allure of being their own boss and setting their own hours. While this may be true for a stable company, the reality of running a high-growth startup is that the company is really your boss. You are at the mercy of the company’s needs. Whether that is a two a.m., Friday-night fire you have to put out or dealing with a customer complaint, you have to be there for your team whenever necessary. Be prepared for a long journey, because the overnight success story is a myth made up by “wantrapreneurs.”

 

By Sam Campbell

Small Business Saturday was started by American Express in 2010 with the hopes of grabbing consumer attention between the shopping blowout days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The Saturday effort has been a success; in 2015, Small Business Saturday brought in $16.2 billion. That’s a lot of local dollars.

There’s no question that small businesses should want a piece of that pie, but how do you prepare for Small Business Saturday so that it’s as big a success as it can be?

Understand What You’re Selling
Small Business Saturday is sandwiched between big box store sales and online shopping. There’s a message in that sandwich: small businesses are selling more than just the same things you can buy at a big box store or online.

Small businesses are selling an experience, a product wrapped in service. That experience may be trustworthy sales help that make a customer confident that they’ve made the right purchase, or the promise to back up the sale through warranty or easy returns or exchanges. It’s personal, friendly, and hyperlocal.

As a business owner, it’s easy to get focused on the product, which puts you in a competition you can’t win with larger stores and online competitors. Once you realize the full spectrum of what you’re selling, it’s less about price and more about the in-store experience and other personal service that larger stores and online competitors can’t match.

Remember: it’s also about experience, not just product.

Make Sure Your Staff Is Prepared
No offense, but the thought of lots of customers crowding into your store and mucking about in your inventory might not bring tears of joy to your employee’s faces. There’s a lot of work behind those sales. Your staff has to be prepared for Small Business Saturday in every way possible, both mentally and in preparation.

Encourage a right attitude. Your staff’s attitude must be one of excitement, not drudgery. On the floor, the day of the event, make sure each employee has enough break time, even letting them alternate their duties so they don’t get bored.

Have enough staff to do the job. All hands on deck, even if that means hiring temporary help. Plan ahead and watch for vacation or day-off requests.

Review customer service best practices. Service is part of what you’re selling, so you have to excel in this area. Go further than simply reminding employees what you expect of them. Be sure they’re well-versed in the promotions, specials, and go so far as to give them the power to make on-the-spot decisions regarding customer situations that might arise.

Incentivize the day. Find a way to reward or treat your employees during the hectic day. Whether you offer increased commissions or treat the whole crew to a meal or some other reward after, help them see the day as positive for them, too.

For some customers, this may be the first time they experience your store. Make sure they have a great experience with your staff.

Make Sure Your Store Is Prepared
Your actual store is a key part of Small Business Saturday. It’s what makes it stand out from Cyber Monday (where there’s no store) and Black Friday (where the stores are huge). How do you prepare your store for an influx of customers?

Clean up your website. Before you publicize any Small Business Saturday events, be sure your online presence is ready. Your contact information, hours, location, and any specials should be accurate. If you’re running any online promotions, be sure they are working correctly with your system. It might be worthwhile to have someone not on staff use your site to make sure that it’s user-friendly. Remember, 78% of people do online research before making shopping decisions. If your website is ready for these researches, it helps bring them to your shop.

Optimize for local search. Whether your a search engine optimization novice or pro, you need to pay attention to local search. You can start with a couple of easy things to make sure that you show up in local search results. Start by using MozLocal to set up a business listing and they will make sure that it populates correctly in any listing site making it more like Google and your customers will find you.

Clean up your store. If the products or decor in your shop don’t have anything to do with Small Business Saturday, get rid of them. First impressions matter, and just as you don’t want a confusing and cluttered website, you want to avoid the same in your actual store.

Consider extending hours and services at your store. Making your store hours a bit longer, into the evening, gives customers more of a chance to shop. Check your neighborhood or events happening where you’re located. Consider keeping your store open in conjunction with events that your target customers might be sticking around for anyway.

For Small Business Saturday, your store is your ace in the hole. Give it its rightful attention.

Plan Your Promotions And Marketing Materials
There are so many promotional approaches you could take for Small Business Saturday. For starters, you’ll definitely want to check out what American Express, who started Small Business Saturday, makes freely available for anyone to use. But then what?
Contact customers personally and directly. Items such as “Save The Date” cards can be mailed to customers, or texts/emails to let customers know ahead of time about the event.

Update any online advertising you’re currently using. It’s easy to forget about your targeted settings on adwords or social media ads. For any special event, including this one, you want to make sure you are getting the word out.

Use promotional materials and services. You’ll probably want your own promotional materials depending on what specials, themes, or approaches you are taking to the day.

Use social media hashtags advantageously. Small Business Saturday has its own hashtags, and you may even have additional hashtags that your local business organizations have agreed on using. Be sure to prime the pump with social posts in the weeks leading up to the day. Find ways to get customers to creatively spread the word through social media (e.g. selfie photo booths). Talk about the special in-store events or enticements to get people excited for the day.

Consistency with your brand and your theme is important. You’re not trying to look like a gaudy sales flyer from a big box store, but are tying together a complete event narrative.

Get People In The Door
An event where no people come isn’t much of an event. So how do you get people in the door?

Choose a select promotion or two. Build a theme and a marketing campaign around a cornerstone promotion. Too many promotions or gimmicks can make for confusion for customers both in how they experience your marketing materials and your store.

Get community leaders on board. Politicians and community leaders have proven to be supportive of Small Business Saturday. Be in contact with them, and other organizations such as your local Chamber of Commerce, to see how they can help you promote the day.
Encourage staff, friends, and family to spread the word. Word-of-mouth is the best advertising.

Find warm bodies. Consider a restaurant that looks empty versus one that is full. Which one will people choose to eat at? Customers take the presence of other customers as a signal to come in. The presence of a crowd encourages a crowd. Having events that keep people in the store (but not too crowded) is a way to avoid a painful empty showroom.

Partner With Other Small Business
When it comes to Small Business Saturday, other local businesses are your friend. Partner with them through:

Promotions that reward customers who visit each store.
Marketing ads and materials, helping to save cost and get greater publicity.

In-store events and themes that are related.
Walking guides to help customers find the “next store” on the shopping route.
Rewards punch cards that can be used in different stores.
This creates an atmosphere of community and that’s a huge selling point for this kind of event.

Create In-Store Excitement
Make the day about more than shopping. Get a local musician, serve hors d’oeuvres, have wine sampling—make the day special. Or, think of the day as a timeline, starting it off with a kickoff event and having mini-events periodically through the day.

Write Your Own Narrative
There’s a narrative naturally at work on Small Business Saturday. It’s one of mom and pop stores, of supporting locally owned businesses, of connecting with community. Your customers are well aware of this and it’s one of the reasons many make the effort to participate.

Tell your story. What makes your small business story unique? How have you participated in Small Business Saturday in the past?
The story around you and what you do is no doubt unique. Make sure you share your business’s personal story to make a genuine connection and impact with your customers.

Pay It Forward
Part of the push for Small Business Saturday is to encourage people to shop locally. In today’s culture, consumers like to see that their dollars also go to help others or do good in the world. Why not connect with a local charity so that customers know that day’s sales are doing good?

You can do this in so many ways—a percentage of net profits, customers bringing in a canned good for a food shelf get a discount—think creatively and don’t be shy about telling customers all the good their dollars are doing when they spend them in your store.

Sharing the love can be the most rewarding part of the event.

And Finally…What About Monday?
Saturday is the big day, but why waste all the energy you spent to get customers in your store on just one day? You have the whole holiday season ahead of you. Capitalize on it. Promote additional events and sales to each customer who comes in your door. Gather email addresses, contact information, or make rewards cards available.

Small Business Saturday is less about a single day than it is a mindset that you’re trying to encourage in regular and potential customers. You want to show personal and caring service that can’t be matched online or in large stores. Use Small Business Saturday as a way to reach new people and build regular customers for the upcoming year.

Full article at https://wheniwork.com/blog/10-ways-to-prepare-for-small-business-saturday/

 

Earning a salary, investing wisely and living below your means is enough to become a millionaire, eventually.

By  John Rampton

I’ll be honest. There were definitely several times throughout my life when I never dreamed of becoming a millionaire. I didn’t feel like I deserved it. I felt like that was meant for much smarter people than myself.

The first was when I was working construction and suffered an accident that almost prevented me from walking again. The second was when one of my business ventures was killed overnight by Amazon.

After years of perseverance and changing my habits, I was able to start a successful company and worked my way towards that millionaire statues. The thing is, I’m not an exception. Those thoughts of self-doubt that I had are very common. There are plenty of people just like each one of us that have become multi-millionaires.

Here are a few habits that I’ve noticed that average people like you and me do on a daily basis to change away from negative thoughts to positive thoughts and become millionaires.

1. They read for self-improvement.
I’ve always been an avid reader. I’ve noticed, however, that reading wasn’t just something I enjoyed. It was probably one of the biggest influences on why I became successful.

For example, as an entrepreneur, my reading habits helped me become a stronger and more effective business owner and leader. For the average millionaire, reading can help them grow and learn. In fact, according to research from Thomas Crowley, 85 percent of self-made millionaires read two or more books per month.

While there’s a time and place for leisurely reading, millionaires read books that encourage self-improvement. This includes topics like how-tos, biographies, self-help, leadership, or current events.

2. They create multiple streams of income.
The average millionaire doesn’t just rely on one source of income. They have multiple streams of income. This way they can handle any economic downturns, as well as make even more money.
In most cases, this involves having a passive income. This could be in the form of interest from loans, dividends from investments, capital gains, royalties, or rental income. Other types of multiple sources of income could be from starting a side business that doesn’t involve active work, such as running a website or selling information products.

3. They live on a monthly written budget.
Millionaires didn’t earn their money by luck. They’ve taken the time to understand what’s coming in and what’s leaving their bank account every month. In other words, they create and stick to a monthly written budget.

Budgets can eliminate unnecessary expenses and keep full-control of their financial future. Additionally, monthly budgets prevent overspending allow millionaires to achieve financial goals that they’ve established.

4. The don’t leave money on the table.
You can’t accumulate wealth by “leaving money on the table.” That’s why millionaires, no matter what their salary is, are aware of tax-avoidance strategies. As explained by Philip Van Doorn on MarketWatch, “If you work for a company or organization with a 401(k) or similar tax-deferred retirement plan, chances are your employer makes matching contributions.”

So “if the employer matches up to five percent, it means that if you contribute five percent of your pretax salary to your retirement account, the employer will also put in five percent. Boom — you just realized a 100 percent gain on your investment during the first year, and set aside the equivalent of 10 percent of your salary.”
“It’s not enough — 20 percent total savings per year is more like it — but it’s a start, and if you don’t make a contribution of at least the maximum match, you’re simply losing a lot of money. Over time, you should also work to maximize the annual 401(k) contribution.”

The IRS allows for a basic limit of contributions of $18,000 a year, with an additional $6,000 once you reach the age of 50.

5. They avoid debt.
The wealthy avoid debt at all costs. They live a frugal lifestyle and only make purchases for items that they can actually pay for. They don’t book a vacation and use their credit card to pay for the entire trip. This way they’re not paying those hefty interest rates. They prefer paying with cash because it has zero percent interest.
If they do use a credit card to make a purchase, they’re certain that they have enough money to pay off that bill when their statement arrives.

6. They set daily goals.
Whether they’re setting financial projections, planning weekly tasks, or looking for ways to have multiple streams of income, millionaires are known for setting daily goals. This helps keep them focused and build momentum.

When establishing daily goals, make sure that you prioritize. This means doing the most important thing first. For example, if you want to make more money, then you should pursue activities that can make you thousands, instead of chasing actions that earn you hundreds.

7. They don’t act rich.
Thomas Stanley, author of “Stop Acting Rich: …And Start Living Like A Real Millionaire,” says “that most prestige makes of cars — 86 percent — are driven by nonmillionaires. Yes, people with very high incomes, high levels of wealth are more likely to drive status automobiles. But in sheer numbers, the largest consumer segment for pricey cars, vodkas and homes is not the millionaire population, it is the aspirationals.”
Stanley adds, “These are people who think they are acting rich via their adoption of prestige brands, but in most cases they are only acting like each other.”
Researchers from Experian Automotive found that “61 percent of people who earn $250,000 or more aren’t buying luxury brands at all. They’re buying the same Toyotas, Hondas and Fords as the rest of us.”

The reason? They’re not willing to spend the money on a premium vehicle that is going to drop up to 70 percent in value within the first four years. It’s also why they avoid leasing cars because it ultimately costs more money. Instead, they invest in items that increase in value.

8. They’re entrepreneurs.
According to the “Millionaire Next Door”:
“Twenty percent of the affluent households in America are headed by retirees. Of the remaining 80 percent, more than two-thirds are headed by self-employed owners of businesses. In America, fewer than one in five households, or about 18 percent, is headed by a self-employed business owner or professional. But these self-employed people are four times more likely to be millionaires than those who work for others.”
Even though it’s completely possible to become a millionaire working for someone else, millionaires would rather earn their wealth doing something they love. After all, life’s too short.

I can attest to this fact. Even though I had some great gigs previously, I wasn’t able bring-in the money that I am as an entrepreneur. It was risky, and there were times I stumbled, but it’s been worth it both financially and personally.

9. They’re patient.
Even though we hear those stories of the person why became a millionaire overnight, the reality is that that’s few and far between. The average millionaire lives by the motto that patience is a virtue. That’s why the millionaire next door doesn’t achieve that status until they’re 50 years old. They earn a modest salary, invest wisely and focus on living below their means instead of searching for get rich schemes.

 

 

By JumpStart Team

 

Every small business is different. However, there are some basic principles that stay the same no matter who you are or what kind of business you’re trying to grow.

In this episode of the JumpStart Podcast, Larry Fulton, Owner of LEFCO Worthington, Constance Hill-Johnson, MPA, Owner and Managing Director of Visiting Angels Living Assistance Services, Lamont Mackley, Principal of Entrepreneurial Services and Investing at JumpStart and Mike Marchetti, Venture Partner at JumpStart reveal their secrets to small business success.

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Recorded live at JumpStart on November 1, 2017 with support from the KeyBank Business Boost and Build program, the Cleveland Foundation and the City of Cleveland.

Here is a recap of the 17 secrets the panelists discussed during the session:

1. Surround yourself with the right team and people
As the saying goes, hire slow, fire fast. Hire people you want to work with every day and who will have your back. Let these individuals do what they’re good at while you focus on the core business growth.

2. Hire an accountant, lawyer and business advisor who specialize in small businesses
You need partners who are invested in helping small businesses, as the challenges you face and milestones you hope to achieve will greatly differ from a large corporation. In addition, these individuals should be accessible and willing to educate you when needed.

3. Know your numbers (sales, margins, profitability, EBITDA)
It is absolutely essential that you become an expert on your numbers—this is what drives the sustainability of your business.

4. Understand and appreciate a line of credit
Get credit before you actually need it, so it will be available when the time comes. Be sure to use your credit, and manage your debt, appropriately.

5. Have a board of advisors
A board of advisors/directors brings expertise, fresh ideas and will help drive business strategy. Choosing a board that deeply understands your company and its goals can be a challenge. To start, consider inviting your banker, lawyer and accountant to sit on your board.

6. Serve on boards in the community
By joining a community board, you’ll become connected to other business owners and professionals in the area. You’ll also have the opportunity to help support your community.

7. Pay yourself first
As a business owner, you don’t want to be a financial burden to your business, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t place yourself on payroll. In the early stages of growth, figure out what you can realistically live on and pay yourself that amount. This decision should make financial sense for you and your business.

8. Choose the right bank
Your banker should act as a trusted financial advisor—one that can provide expert financial advice and find solutions to financial problems. For this reason, it is important that you cultivate a strong relationship with this individual. If they aren’t providing what you need, don’t hesitate to leave and go to another institution that better supports you.

9. A CEO should focus on the core of the business and growth, utilizing other’s talents
Your primary role as CEO should be to focus on the core growth of your company. Simply put—don’t try to do everything yourself. Trust your team as experts in their field and leverage their unique talents to move your business forward.

10. Focus on specific prospects and use a “sniper” approach
The key to successful selling is not about getting more prospects; it’s about focusing on the right ones. Do your homework and research your prospects before approaching them to better frame a conversation.

11. Customers are key to scaling your business
In most cases, your customer is much closer to the problem you aim to solve than you are. Enlisting them as a partner in developing the solution to that problem is more important than anything else for the growth of a very young startup—even revenue.

12. Retain customers for at least three years
Know your churn rate and have a clear understanding of what it takes to retain customers. You should aim to retain customers for at least three years if the relationship is mutually beneficial. When relationships become a burden to your business, let them go.

13. Don’t perfect your product without a go-to-market strategy
This is a common mistake many business owners make. It is very important to start by figuring out who your customers actually are and why they buy your product. With that information, you can work to balance product/service development with a solid go-to-market strategy early on.

14. Beware of growing too fast; marginal gains are instrumental successes
Backlogs, quality issues and manpower are problems that can arise from growing too fast. Aim for consistent gains over time in order to avoid these types of hang-ups.

15. For home-based businesses: move your office far away from your bedroom
To increase productivity while working from home, treat “going to work” as you would if you were headed to a traditional office. Get up, get fully dressed, and avoid working from your bedroom if you can.

16. Avoid commingling your business funds with your personal funds
When there is not a distinct separation between your business and personal funds, you run the risk of encountering tax and legal consequences. If you were to undergo an audit, it would be your responsibility to establish proof of valid business expenses, which can be difficult with comingled funds.

17. Ask for referrals for bankers, accountants and lawyers
Choosing the right partners is key, and you should assess bankers, accountants and lawyers with the same scrutiny you would give a prospective employee. Interview these individuals before engaging to get a feel for whether they are a fit for you and your business.

These secrets are just a starting point. For more personalized assistance, we encourage you to schedule a one-on-one business assistance consultation with one of our Core City: Cleveland business assistance experts. To get started, email corecity@jumpstartinc.org or call 216.456.2670.

 

 

 

By David Norris

There are those who build and maintain professional networks expertly … then there are those so full of B.S., every time you run into them, you feel the urge to wipe your shoes.

Unfortunately, the world is filled with terrible networkers, people who equate “networking” with spamming a near-anonymous email list every time they need a job. I get pinged every day by strangers who want to “connect” with me on LinkedIn, AngelList or other social media sites. They’ll send an invitation without a note explaining who they are or why I should bother to care.

That’s not building a network, that’s being a nuisance. I delete almost all of these requests.

On the other hand, when people send an invite with something personal (“I love that you’re a cyclist. Let’s ride sometime.”), it makes me take notice. The barrage of good, bad and ugly requests hitting my phone serve as daily reminders that effective networking follows a few simple rules:

Be Genuine

Networking is about building relationships. This means recognizing that the “contact” on the other end of a LinkedIn request is actually a human. Just as you wouldn’t walk across a room and kiss a stranger, you shouldn’t bombard someone you don’t know with a five-page missive about your accomplishments. You need an introduction, a point of human connection.

Find a relevant reason to be chatting (“Hey, your profile picture looks as though it was taken in Nepal. I was there two years ago – it was transformative.”). This begins a dialogue, some reason to start a relationship.

Be Personal

As useful as social media is, nothing beats face-to-face meetings. While I am not a big fan of “networking events” (small rooms thick with anxiety and business cards), I do advise researching key industry conferences that you can attend to elevate your company’s profile.

Also, as an entrepreneur you likely meet with many potential investors. Most of those people will not end up investing, but if you take the time to build and nurture these relationships, every one who turns you down today could become a valuable part of your network into the future. Maybe they’ll invest in your next company. Or connect you to your future CFO. That 15-minute in-person “failure” could turn into a lifelong relationship of trading insights and game-changing ideas.

Once you’ve made a contact, maintain it. I will often jot down notes after speaking with someone (“Remodeling house. Wife had knee surgery.”), and I’ll send myself reminders to get back in touch with them. This keeps the person top of mind and the relationship alive.

If this sounds like a lot of work, it is. To build a strong network, you have to put some muscle into it. Spamming strangers won’t cut it.

Be Interesting

If you have a passion, find another CEO or an investor who shares that passion, and go nuts. My personal kryptonite is cycling. My fiber-deep love of the sport has allowed me to invite CEOs I never met to cycling events. If they’re as enthusiastic as I am (and cyclists tend to be an enthusiastic crew) they often accept.

In fact, cycling has proven such a powerful connector, that several years ago I began putting together cycling events for companies and tradeshows around the country.

But again, be genuine. I don’t cold-call marathoners because I don’t run marathons. If your hobbies don’t lend themselves to big group activities, host a “curated party” instead.

Ask your guests to each bring one senior executive that they know who is really interesting. You will end up with the most entertaining party you’ve ever had, and a great incubator for real and lasting connections.

Be Useful

My friend Keith Ferrazzi, former Chief Marketing Officer at Starwood Hotels, synthesized his networking experience into a bestselling book, “Never Eat Lunch Alone.” In it he talks about how every meal is an opportunity to reinforce a relationship.

I like to take that a step further and have lunch with key contacts not only to see how they’re doing, but what I can do for them. Everybody knows someone who only calls when he needs a favor. That’s annoying.

Relationships take nurturing, and some of that nurturing requires you to be completely and altruistically useful. Try offering some help.

“Hey, I know somebody who just had that same problem in her company – want me to connect you two?”

“I just met with an investor that is looking for companies like yours – want an introduction?”

Be genuine and proactive in building and maintaining your relationships, and you will find that when you do need to send out a plaintive email (“Hey, anyone out there know a good CTO candidate?”) it will be answered by a supportive network. Not deleted by irritated strangers.

So, who are you having lunch with today?

 

By nfib.com

The morning after Thanksgiving may be the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, but more and more shoppers are bypassing the malls to find unique gifts and support their friends and neighbors on Small Business Saturday.

“If you’re an independent merchant, you can’t afford to skip Small Business Saturday. Last year, shoppers spent $15.4 billion at locally-owned stores and restaurants on Small Business Saturday, which was a 13 percent increase over the previous year,” said Riley Johnson, Montana state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, citing statistics from a survey by NFIB and American Express. “It isn’t too late for small businesses to make the most of Small Business Saturday,” said Johnson, who offered six tips for doing so:

Remind shoppers that you sell merchandise they can’t find anyplace else. Sixty-one percent of shoppers say they shop at small businesses to find “unique products,” according to NFIB.

Showcase the merchandise that would make a great gift. Group items on a table with a sign saying it would be the perfect gift for Dad or a great gift for the grandparents. Restaurants can offer Small Business Saturday specials and gift cards.

Steal a page from the Black Friday playbook and offer doorbusters. Chain stores know a great way to drive shoppers to their stores is by offering special deals at different times of the day. There’s no reason a small business can’t do the same thing.

Stay on top of your social media. If you’re on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Pinterest, post often and promote any Small Business Saturday deals. Use the hashtags #ShopSmall and #SmallBizSaturday so shoppers can find you easily.

Partner with other merchants to buy advertising promoting the neighborhood as a shopping destination or team up with other businesses on in-store promotions. For example, if they buy a pair of shoes here, let them know they can save 10 percent on socks next door.

Promote the event to your regular customers. Put a sign in your shop and flyers in bags reminding folks to come back the Saturday after Thanksgiving for special deals. Download free “Shop Small” signs from American Express.

With 350,000 dues-paying members nationwide, including 5,200 in Montana, NFIB is the nation’s largest and leading small-business association. You can follow NFIB on Twitter, NFIB_MT, or on this webpage, http://www.nfib.com/montana.

 

 

Stick with appealing to a niche audience before building out. Here are three ways how

Per Bylund

College prices are perpetually on the rise — a report by the College Board indicated that the average student at a four-year public institution pays almost $21,000 annually, an increase of more than 3 percent since 2016.

Senators Dick Durbin, Al Franken and Angus King have placed the blame squarely on textbook prices in the legislation they dubbed the “Affordable College Textbook Act.” The lawmakers reported that, 2011 to 2016, new textbook prices increased about 38 percent, meaning that according to the most recent research, the average student was spending $1,200 annually on books and supplies.

While some people would argue that making textbooks cheaper would help fix this problem because it would lead consumers to buy more copies, the reality of economics is very different.

The target audience for academic books, after all, isn’t just any reader — it’s a very specific reader who values these books’ subject matter and format. Therefore, the market is incredibly narrow. So, arguing that these works would do better as lower-cost paperbacks marketed to wider swaths of customers makes no sense.

You might apply the same scenario to entrepreneurs. Far too often, entrepreneurs cater to too broad of a customer definition: Every entrepreneur, like every author, wants to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, but that’s not always realistic.

What is realistic is that business owners who embrace the power of a narrow focus can turn a significant profit while catering to a niche audience.

Narrowing your niche

The first thing that matters when you’re starting a business is to know your customer. Your target shouldn’t be something generic, like “men aged 25 to 40,” because there are too many differences among members of that category.

Value is always in the eyes of the customer, and not understanding your potential customers means you cannot possibly know what they value. You should know how they behave and how they might react to your offer.

Academic publishing again provides a great example, as the audience is quite different from readers of the latest Harry Potter installment. Researchers and graduate students undoubtedly find the academic material worthwhile, but the audience will typically stop there. Academic journals will never become New York Times bestsellers because the content — while incredibly valuable to university libraries and classrooms — doesn’t appeal to the average consumer.

As such, it makes no sense to lower the price of a book that is ultimately going to be purchased by an incredibly narrow audience. A lower price might marginally increase sales volume, but the small increase in the quantity sold will be unlikely to offset the massive decrease in total returns. All highly specific goods function in a similar manner.

Many entrepreneurs get into trouble by casting a wide net. It’s actually much more costly to cater to a larger audience and harder to make your offering uniquely valuable, thereby making it unnecessarily difficult to break even. Catering to an audience that’s too large and diverse will ultimately make it impossible to identify pain points and close a sale.

The more narrowly you can define your customer, the easier it will be to understand his or her needs and deliver relative value. If you offer enough value, you can charge a high enough price to cover your associated costs. In other words, narrow is lucrative when it comes to business.

Targeting the right customers

Even products that now have mass-market appeal started out with niche audiences. Most technologies start with small groups of passionate early adopters — look no further than the rise of virtual reality headsets — before ballooning beyond those boundaries to hit larger markets.

It’s certainly possible to enter an established market and sell a product that appeals to everyone, but it’s a tall order to compete against established actors selling massive quantities. A more reasonable formula for sustainable growth is to find a niche market you can dominate and slowly grow outward. Narrow in on your own niche with these three steps:

1. Identify your specific customer. I know I’m really drilling into this point, but it’s important to figure out what type of person you’re selling to and what makes him or her tick. The more information you have, the more realistically you can look at which product features your customers truly appreciate.

Identifying customers makes it easier to cater to this audience by proactively determining what these people value, how they behave and how they’ll react to your offer. In fact, 60 percent of successful innovations come directly from customers, according to an academic study by the Institute of Management Services.
Related: 4 Steps to Identifying — and Engaging — Your Core Customers

2. Connect with your customers. What someone says out loud or clicks on while using Facebook doesn’t tell you what that person actually cares about. That’s a misconception. The best way to get to know your customers is to spend time with them. If you make that investment of time and effort, they’ll reciprocate with invaluable feedback. Research from SurveyGizmo shows that nearly 75 percent of consumers in one survey were willing to offer feedback if companies simply asked for it.

You’re never too far up the corporate ladder to interact with your community. Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Richard Branson and other billionaire tech executives still keep an ear to the streets and listen to their customers. Musk even personally responds to customers on Twitter. If he can find the time to connect with customers, so can you.

3. Make their dreams come true. People such as Musk and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos succeed by making people’s dreams a reality. The best sale is the one the customer makes for you, and that’s done by offering a deal too good to resist. Amazon had 63 million Prime customers last year and accounted for 43 percent of all online retail sales in the United States. This wasn’t an accident.

Amazon offers Prime customers fast, free delivery of cheap products. With an Alexa-enabled device, you can place an order with your voice. With a Dash button, you don’t even need a computer. This convenience helped Amazon grow from a niche bookseller into a retail juggernaut worth more than all the department stores in the United States combined.

While I appreciate attempts by the federal government to make higher education more affordable, forcing a lower price for textbooks will only put a strain on the publishers and the academic writers generating them. It’s hard enough to gather credible information in today’s fast-paced world of social media and fake news; squeezing the margins of people trying to educate the world seems a bit counterintuitive.

Authors of academic texts must simply realize they’re never going to keep pace with Stephen King, so they had better price each copy accordingly. In the same way, entrepreneurs should resist the temptation to shoot for the moon and instead stick with a grounded approach of appealing to a niche audience before building out. How do you grow your business? Start small and scale up.

 

 

Teams often get tripped up by semantics as members interact. Here’s how to model clear, consistent messaging and foster a more respectful work environment

By Aviva Leebow Wolmer

Humans are great but imperfect creatures. To convey meaning, we must talk. While ants work consistently as part of their queen’s hivemind, we get tripped up by semantics as we deliver and receive messages. In the workplace, this can make the difference between a job well done and a total communication disaster.

If you’re an entrepreneur, a founder or a CEO, you might make the mistake of overlooking the role internal communications play in your business’ success. Good leaders must set the example and the standard for great communication.

They do this by paying attention to semantics at work and understanding how these nuances impact culture in ways both large and small.

James Humes, who’s written speeches for five presidents, knows a thing or two about driving home a message. As he so aptly put it, “The art of communication is the language of leadership.” Like presidents, CEOs need to think about message delivery and encourage effective communications to every associate. Baking good semantics into a company’s culture will enable leaders to build strong and capable workplaces whose people perform better and are happier, too.

Here are a few actionable strategies to help you approach workplace semantics from a leadership standpoint.

1. Define what’s appropriate.
Establishing what is and is not appropriate is the baseline for workplace communication. To what extent should communication be formal, and when? Is casual communication encouraged and permitted, or do you require a business-only approach across the board? What is the proper way to address superiors, associates and customers?

The same goes for humor in the workplace. Jokes between associates can make the days bright. But employees should know what is off-limits, when it’s OK to joke and when an earnest approach absolutely is required.

Some of this should be addressed in an employee manual or handbook, though much of its practice is learned and passed along through culture. For this reason, leadership should set an impeccable early example, pay attention to developing patterns and intervene if and when any lines are crossed.

2. Establish terminology.
It’s also a leader’s job to decide what terminology will be used at work. For example, calling team members “associates” instead of “employees” is a semantic difference that actually manifests in the day-to-day. It emphasizes their value as team members instead of implying they are replaceable parts in a corporate machine — which is absolutely not the case.

Put some thought into terminology you will foster. At minimum, think through these questions:

Are associates completing projects, deliverables or something else entirely?
Does your company adhere to a mission, values or a vision?
Are you your team’s superior, boss or supervisor?
Do you attend meetings, sessions or huddles?

Though it may seem arbitrary at first, terms with slight differences carry separate meanings. In aggregate, these speak volumes about your company’s culture and business model.

3. Eliminate weak language.
Weak language is the downfall of so many conversations, and most of us don’t even realize when we’re using it! It can take some self-training to develop awareness and alter our own speaking habits. It’s absolutely essential for leaders to effectively convey important points.

The use of “but” and “and” provides one case study. “But” is weak because it can be interpreted to invalidate others’ claims or ideas. Using “and” builds on others’ contributions instead of overriding them. Ultimately, this is a more positive and motivational approach. It explores territory without plowing down its trees, so to speak.

Like most shortcomings, weak language doubles as an opportunity for improvement. If you discover weaknesses in your vocabulary, you’ve just unlocked the next step to becoming a stronger, clearer communicator.

4. Realize clarity is king.
Ambiguous language can be another huge barrier in the workplace. It’s virtually impossible to set clear expectations when you use muddy language. Precise wording is the only way to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Some words can be interpreted multiple ways by different people. A “short” meeting, for example, could be any amount of time. Give a specific time frame instead, so team members can plan appropriately. The same goes for words such as “large,” “urgent” and “ASAP.” Remember, what’s urgent for you might not be urgent for someone else.

Clear communication also avoids over-complication. It boils down messages to raw facts, and the best leaders check in from time to time to make sure everything is understood. If emotional content needs to be communicated, do it it in person. Tone easily can be misinterpreted. Similarly, serious matters must be handled with the gravity they deserve. In these scenarios, email just won’t do the job.

5. Be intentional with digital communications.
As workplaces become more digitalized, associates increasingly are relying on email and using tools such as Slack and Skype. Leaders should set expectations here, too: What should and should not be communicated digitally? What is the proper way to converse online?

Important or sensitive matters are best dealt with in person or at least on a phone call. Unfortunately “important” and “sensitive” don’t mean the same thing to everyone. Slap a definition on these words so team members understand when email use is appropriate.

In general, it’s a good idea to send facts through email to create a written record of information and details that associates are unlikely to retain in person. Online messaging is great for casual, real-time work conversations to quickly get answers and move projects forward. When in doubt, use both methods: After all, it’s always better to over-communicate than to under-communicate.

6. Use body language.
Semantics go further than the written and spoken word. The way we behave, look and act on a daily basis sends messages we might not realize or intend.

Leadership can establish the bar by dressing and acting professionally. Instead of folding your arms, talk with your hands. Practice good posture, make eye contact, and don’t be afraid to take up space. Pay attention to the pitch of your voice, and avoid uptalk and vocal fry if you can. Perfect your handshake. Smile.

Together, these body-language cues will help solidify an air of authority and reinforce how gestures can add to or impede our meaning. Show team members how to behave around customers and train them so they’re prepared for those interactions. Encourage associates to dress to impress when the situation calls for it, and you’ll see the culture of confidence spread.