• www.kblee007.blogspot.com •: 2018-09-16

Saturday, 22 September 2018

5 Steps of the New Model of Revenue Recognition for Franchisors

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The new rules around revenue recognition are lengthy and complex. Here's what you need to know.

September
21, 2018

6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Like businesses in most industries, the new revenue recognition rules put forth by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) -- and effective as of Jan. 1, 2018 for public companies and Jan. 1, 2019 for private companies -- have specific and significant implications for franchisors. These rules require the attention of franchisors and their accountants and attorneys now and will continue to necessitate consideration in years to come. This summary describes how specific areas of revenue recognition will impact franchisors.

Within the new standards there are five steps outlined for revenue recognition.

Step 1: Identify the contract with a customer.

This step will typically be straightforward for franchisors because they have a written franchise agreement in place that specifies the parties, each party's rights and obligations, and the payment terms. The agreement will also have "commercial substance," meaning the cash flows of both parties are expected to change as a result of the contract. Franchisors must take the additional step of determining collectability based on its credit underwriting of the franchisee.

Step 2: Identify the performance obligations in the contract.

Franchisors must determine if the services -- such as pre-opening activities, site selection and training -- it provides to the franchisee at the onset of the franchise agreement can be identified as "distinct" from the intellectual property that the franchisee is licensing. This determination should be made based on professional judgment and industry best practices. (In many areas, including this one, privately held franchisors can look at the filings of publicly held franchisors to see how those businesses handled a determination.)

One potential indicator that a service is distinct is that it is broken out separately, with a separate fee in the franchise disclosure document (FDD) and franchise agreement. Another indicator is whether a service is optional or a required component of service. For example, if a franchisor offers site selection as an option and a franchisee could alternatively use an outside vendor for this service, then it is likely the service is distinct.

Franchisors should note that some services will be more difficult to label as distinct, such as training that is specific to the brand and its processes. In the case of training, if the education is available from a third party, such as a business class at a university, then that portion of the training may be distinct. Generally, to be classified as distinct, the service would have to have value to the franchisee regardless if they were a franchisee of the system or not.

Step 3: Determine the transaction price.

For franchisors, this step involves listing all the revenue streams -- including those that will be received up front, and those that will be received over time -- it will collect from the franchisee, including the initial franchise fee, royalties, renewal fees, transfer fees, relocation fees and so on. All revenue streams should be outlined in the franchise agreement.

Franchisors may also need to note significant financing components in arrangements in which the timing of payment is extended or significantly later than when the goods or services are provided, such as area development rights or master franchise rights. Additionally, non-cash services must be valued as part of the transaction price at the inception of the agreement.

Step 4: Allocate the prices to the performance obligations

For this step, franchisors must take each distinct good or service determined in step 2 and assign a transaction price at the inception of the agreement. One or more approved methods may be used to make these determinations, including the adjusted market assessment approach, the expected cost plus a margin approach, and the residual approach. The outcome for each item must be a stand-alone value, meaning the value at which the good or service could be sold on its own.

Step 5: Recognize revenue.

For franchisors to recognize revenue for a particular good or service, that good or service must be transferred to the franchisee, either at a point in time, or over time (over the period of the franchise contract). Royalties have a carve-out exception as sales-based royalties; therefore the franchisor continues to recognize them as the underlying sales occur, and accrues for royalties earned but not yet received.

Another concept covered within this step is principal versus agent transactions, such as in the case of an advertising or national marketing fund. If the franchisor controls how the funds are to be spent, the monies collected for these funds are recognized as revenue in a manner similar to royalties and expenses are recognized as incurred.

Areas of note

In addition to those described above, franchisors should note several other areas specifically impacted by the new revenue standards:

Contract costs: Costs related to obtaining a contract, such as broker fees and commissions, should be capitalized and recognized over the period of the contract.
Disclosures: Under the new standards there are considerably more disclosures required in the audited financial statements included in Item 21 of the FDD. These requirements are meant to provide insight into management's judgments included in recognizing revenue.
Initial franchise fees: Franchisors should consider describing distinct pre-opening services, such as site selection, design assistance, project management and employee training in their FDD.
Renewal franchise fees: Franchisors will be far less likely to find distinct performance obligations connected with renewals of existing franchise agreements. The revenue from the renewal is expected to be recognized over the renewal term.
Financial impact on other agreements: Franchisors need to consider the impact on other financial arrangements held by the company.

The new rules around revenue recognition are lengthy and complex, and require judgment calls on management's part. Public companies have already been required to make some of these judgments and reveal them in their public filings. For private franchisor companies, the important thing is to begin thinking about the transition now. This process should start with franchisor companies and their accountants and attorneys. The judgment calls required by the new standards will not be easy, and the sooner franchisors and their accountants and attorneys begin tackling them, the better.

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This Military Pilot Pivoted From Fighting Wars to Creating Financial Tools for Struggling Americans

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Mark Greene started flying combat missions in Afghanistan soon after 9/11. Now, he's director of an innovation lab serving consumers who feel forgotten by their financial institutions.

September
21, 2018

9 min read

In this series, The Gambit, Entrepreneur associate editor Hayden Field explores extraordinary risk, speaking with successful people about how they overcame unusual obstacles to found a company or switched industries entirely in a "career 180."

Mark Greene started his path to the Air Force during a time of peace, but when the 22-year-old graduated, he was sent almost immediately to Afghanistan.

“I was the class that graduated right after the towers came down,” Greene said. “It was a really strange time to start a career as a military pilot.”

The new fighter pilot had just completed a training program in Mississippi, and he began his first day as a second lieutenant -- outranking 85 percent of the military. Greene said he remembers 19-year-old Marines being shot by snipers or running from roadside bombs, and from the air, it was Greene’s job to listen to what was happening on the ground and then respond accordingly.

Image credit: Alec Lloyd

“[There was] really no air battle in these fights -- it was more protecting people on the ground,” he said.

Whenever he returned home, Greene would hear news reports mention dead Americans in Mosul and other cities. He could imagine those places. It was difficult to come home, but Greene said it was also tough to go back. By 2008, he was spending as many as 220 days a year overseas.

In the following years, Greene went on to fly about 170 combat missions. However he felt about the war itself, he enjoyed the “mission aspect” of his job: responding to the needs of struggling U.S. soldiers.

Later, he’d apply that same mission-oriented thinking to something else entirely: creating new financial tools for struggling consumers across America.

Image credit: Alec Lloyd

Greene is the director of SafetyNet, an innovation lab that’s part of CUNA Mutual Group, a nationwide insurance company. The innovation lab’s ultimate goal is what sets it apart: Listen to the needs of millions of Americans struggling through financial hardship -- people that banks and credit unions may not view as first-priority customers -- and create entirely new financial tools for them. Here’s his story.

The Itch

Greene’s family is staggering in number. His father is the youngest of 14 siblings, while his mother is the youngest of five -- yielding hundreds (yes, hundreds) of cousins. Relatives of all ages riddle Greene’s childhood memories. His family members’ future trajectories would vary as much as their personalities -- some found great success, others struggled with personal finance and still others, as he put it, ended up on the “wrong side of law.”

Greene’s parents didn’t often discuss money, but he remembers seeing them struggle -- there were hints, he said, that the family wasn’t necessarily on secure financial footing. One memory in particular sticks with Greene, and it would go on to shape how he thinks about service and gratitude. When, at age 10 or 11, he had his heart set on the newest pair of Nike shoes, his father presented him with a pair by a brand Greene had never heard of. He recalls that his reaction -- upset and ungrateful -- hurt his father deeply.

“That’s something that affected me my whole life,” Greene said. He recalled thinking, I have to change this. From that point forward, he had a renewed resolve to help people struggling in any difficult situation.

The Detour

After the financial crisis hit in 2008, the government decided to consolidate military bases, and Greene’s squadron was discontinued. He had a choice: Either relocate to Germany or do something else. Greene decided to apply to law school with the goal of eventually prosecuting war crimes -- after all, he’d learned about law by studying the laws of war as a pilot. At the same time, one weekend a month, he flew training missions for the Air National Guard.

Greene’s first class in law school, Contracts 1, changed his career trajectory. One day in class, he read about a costly dispute that could have been avoided if the defendants had organized their business differently from the get-go. Since Greene had been trained as an engineer, he was naturally interested in how things are built and put together. Because of that, he said, learning about the structure of businesses “blew [his] mind.”

Image credit: SafetyNet

“Studying how a contract is written kind of changes the way you think about how everything is structured,” he said. “That was the first moment where I saw the power of business.”

The class didn’t only teach Greene about long-term business structure -- it also taught him that companies could effectively boost their efficiency by listening to direct feedback from consumers. Through his time in the military, Greene had learned that on the government side, that feedback loop -- connecting directly to the people -- was exceedingly convoluted.

The idea of listening to customers to inform a business’s foundation would come into play sooner than Greene realized. Post-graduation, he snagged a job at Merrill Lynch in Madison, Wis., but his affluent client base -- and a report on the state’s racial disparity -- sparked new resolve in Greene. He felt he could be doing much more to help a larger cross-section of consumers on the ground.

The Leap

One day in 2016, Greene met with Dan Kaiser, an executive at CUNA Mutual Group. Kaiser wanted to talk through ideas about different financial solutions Greene wished existed. Kaiser was helping to develop an innovation lab, he said, to focus on solutions for consumers’ personal finance issues, and it was being kept largely under wraps. The project was spurred by a Federal Reserve report citing figures that close to half of Americans would be unable to come up with $400 in an emergency -- and that a greater number of individuals than that didn’t have $1,000 in savings.

After ordering coffee, the men talked about how insurance could be flipped on its head to help struggling people with immediate cash flow needs or insure their savings accounts. But Greene didn’t realize he was interviewing for a job until he received a game-changing phone call that same week. “We’re building a team,” he recalled hearing from an executive on the other end. Greene accepted the offer and joined the innovation lab as soon as it launched.

On Greene’s first day as director of SafetyNet, he said he met the team and read the mission statement on the wall: “Improve the financial well-being of millions of hard-working people by developing innovative financial solutions that help individuals manage unexpected cash flow, bill payment and savings challenges.”

Members of the team were tasked with thinking of creative ways to solve enduring financial problems, and Greene soon discovered he would embark on a nine-month venture to talk with 7,000 consumers in states including Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Illinois about the tools they wished they had to take control of their money. Greene said he didn’t believe the statistics that Trunzo had cited in their coffee meeting until his eight-person team began speaking with consumers across the country.

The Breaking Point

On April 11, 2016, Greene sat in a Hilton hotel in Madison, Wis. He was waiting to speak with a woman named Chelsea about her money struggles as part of SafetyNet’s new venture. Chelsea had called earlier in the day to cancel the interview, but she eventually changed her mind and finally walked into the Hilton around 5:30 p.m.

Greene listened as Chelsea explained how hopeless she felt -- that she avoided almost all contact with her financial institutions, including opening mail, and that managing her money paycheck to paycheck had become almost a traumatic experience. She said the money that she owed family members had driven a rift between them, and though she wished she could take control of her financial life, she didn’t know where to begin.

Image credit: SafetyNet

Chelsea shivered as she talked, and as she unloaded more and more of her story, she became more emotional. Her pain was so great that Greene felt like he was speaking with a victim of domestic violence. All he could think to do was offer her a glass of water -- and listen.

“I left that conversation with the feeling that that relationship that she had with her finances and financial institution was abusive,” he said. When he imagined Chelsea representing millions of people in the U.S., Greene said he knew he had to work to change the way people interact with the financial institutions that should be serving them.

The photos of the consumers Greene and his team spoke with ended up in neat rows on the wall of SafetyNet’s primary meeting room. Every time the team meets to discuss an issue, they’re under the watchful eye of the people who were honest enough to share their money woes with a company they believed may be able to help them.

The Next Step

After 7,000 conversations with consumers, Greene started brainstorming solutions he and his team could build -- including “layoff insurance” for people without emergency savings.

This year, Greene’s team is building 25 different products to meet the needs of financially strapped Americans, including an employer-match savings account product, a type of insurance aiming to protect people from eviction, a new type of peer-to-peer lending platform and even pet insurance. The conversation Greene had with Chelsea in April 2016 inspired SafetyNet to develop a new type of budgeting app, and Chelsea is currently beta testing it.

By the end of 2017, SafetyNet was growing at a rate of more than 8 percent week over week -- primarily via word of mouth, Greene said, and without using insurance agents. The company now operates in 10 states.

“What we want to be,” Greene said, "is a company that understands our consumers better than anyone."

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What I Learned From Harvey, Can Help You With Florence

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Here are a few tips from a Houston-based business owner who survived Hurricane Harvey for entrepreneurs impacted by Florence.

September
21, 2018

4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

As the Carolinas evaluate the damage caused by Hurricane Florence and begin the recovery process, I can't help but think back to where I was a year ago. Last August, Hurricane Harvey roared into my hometown Houston community. The wall of rain blanketing our city eliminated visibility, and triple-digit winds ripped off rooftops and snapped trees like they were twigs.

Even in the midst of a natural disaster, entrepreneurs need to find ways to keep their businesses running and their customers well served. As devastating as the storm was, I knew, as a Farmers Insurance agent and owner of a small business, that I had a responsibility to my customers. I knew this historic storm would usher in some of the greatest moments of need in my customers' lives.

While my team and I dealt with Harvey's effects, we learned lessons that any entrepreneur could find helpful during any type of natural disaster. The three strategies below helped keep us going, and my team hopes leaders impacted by Florence, or any other catastrophe, can consider them during their time of need and recovery.

1. Schedule daily check-ins.

It's critical to plan full-fledged check-ins with your team every day, at least once a day. As we fought through Harvey's challenges, my team connected in the morning, midday and in the late afternoon on calls. We viewed these check-ins as opportunities to help team members get the resources they needed to keep the business running, share news and developments, and listen to our colleagues and customers.

Every disaster presents different obstacles, so sharing learnings specific to our team's objectives in real-time helped everyone digest, recover and support our customers more quickly. It's also important for leaders to remember that your team members are dealing with the natural disaster as individuals, not just employees; we knew it was vital to make time to let them be heard.

Regular check-in participation helped my team be smarter during Harvey and made us better prepared for the next one, whenever it comes our way.

2. Adopt a micro solutions mantra.

When everything is falling apart during and just after a natural disaster, the road to recovery can look like it's running straight up Mount Everest. It can be difficult to know where, how or when to start making things better.

Though challenges on the scale of a natural disaster can't be underestimated, teams can avoid feeling overwhelmed by breaking down problems to their smallest steps. In those check-ins I described, taking the time to explicitly discuss all components -- no matter how small -- of a large, pressing project encouraged clarity, accountability and confidence among the team. It minimized the risk of responsibilities getting lost to miscommunications or assumptions. And as team members shared firsthand experiences and customer feedback in relation to our efforts, we even discovered ways to optimize our work in real time.

Committing to creating micro solutions instead of mega ones can make it easier to focus on what your team can accomplish now. In turn, that behavior can help teams buy in and believe their goals are achievable -- even when their to-do lists seem never-ending.

3. Tap technology to its fullest.

Technology made a big difference in our response to Hurricane Harvey's destruction. In previous storm response efforts, we weren't as reliant on technology. For instance, when Hurricane Ike hit in 2008, I had to walk or drive (and personally hand-deliver) submitted claims to a mobile operations center.

In a time of crisis, plan to communicate with customers and team members through multiple channels, as some of your most reliable communication networks and methods may be temporarily down. After Harvey, my team received customers' claims via every form of technological communication, including phone calls, texts and emails. And my team stayed in constant contact through phone, video conferencing, emails and social media communications.

Most entrepreneurs rarely consider natural disasters until they're literally on their doorstep and by then, it's too late to devise contingency plans. But, these three strategies helped enable me and my team to assist our clients during and after Hurricane Harvey. We hope they'll be equally helpful to those affected by Florence -- or any other disaster -- so they can meet their current challenges and find practical solutions that will strengthen them as entrepreneurs.

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This South Pacific Country Is Sponsoring Research Seeking a Cannabis Treatment for Diabetes

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Vanuatu, suffering a diabetes rate far higher than the world average, is hopeful locally grown marijuana can help.

September
21, 2018

4 min read

Opinions expressed by Green Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The Republic of Vanuatu is facing a diabetes epidemic. It is estimated that roughly 13 percent of the country’s population suffers from the disease. This compares to a global average of 8.5 percent.

To counter this epidemic, Vanuatu’s national health care system is working on a series of clinical trials using a cannabis-based drug to treat diabetes.

Why it matters

These trials might provide us with an treatment for a condition that affects 422 million adults worldwide. As of 2012, 1.6 million deaths were directly attributed to diabetes each year. Here are some other important things you should know about diabetes before moving on:

1 in 3 adults aged over 18 years is overweight.
1 in 10 adults are obese.
Type 2 diabetes in much more common than type 1 diabetes.
A majority of diabetes deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.
Diabetes is an important cause of blindness, amputation and kidney failures.
As of 2010, diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S., taking over 17 million lives per year.

There's evidence marijuana works for diabetes.

A few studies support the hypothesis of cannabis working to treat diabetes.

One such study was published in The American Journal of Medicine in 2013. The scientists involved evaluated the impact of cannabis use on insulin, glucose and insulin resistance among adults, and concluded that “marijuana use was associated with lower levels of fasting insulin and HOMA-IR, and smaller waist circumference.”

Another study found that Cannabidiol or CBD “lowers incidence of diabetes in non-obese diabetic mice.” A third study determined that “Recently active cannabis smoking and diabetes mellitus are inversely associated.” The Diabetes Council seems to agree with the notion of cannabis holding a promise to treat diabetes. Check out this article where they explain why.

For a comprehensive list of studies suggesting cannabis could be used to treat diabetes or reduce its incidence, check out this link.

Already in the works.

Recently-public Phoenix Life Sciences International, a Colorado-based company with operations in Vanuatu, was awarded the contract to create this cannabis-based pharmaceutical drug targeted for diabetes. According to Vanuatu government sources and people in the company, the company is currently in the process of harvesting a 150-acre marijuana grow in the country to supply the trials.

The trials have now been fast-tracked by the local government, after the wife of the Prime Minister of Vanuatu was diagnosed with diabetes as well.

Moreover, the Republic of Vanuatu plans to approve Phoenix’s diabetes drug to be offered through hospitals and pharmacies throughout the 83 islands that compose the country, government sources who requested to remain anonymous suggested. The logistics are in the works but the main island's hospital aims to work with the Minister of Health and Phoenix Life Sciences to conduct several clinical trials with the drug over the next six to 12 months.

“We started this journey because of the need to improve the quality of healthcare. Being able to create a scalable global production facility for international distribution of pharmaceuticals derived from medical cannabis is exciting. Being able to do it in a developing country like Vanuatu, whose largest causes of death and healthcare cost are diabetes and cancer, really makes it a rewarding experience,” said Phoenix CEO Martin Tindall.

From Vanuatu to the world.

Tindall revealed Phoenix next plans to target other countries with single-payer health care systems that need a more affordable treatment for diabetes and cervical cancer.

“Completing our trials here in Vanuatu allows us to focus our efforts in the South Pacific, where the highest percentage concentration of diabetes exists worldwide. We intend to open up access to new countries to our diabetes products and programs before the end of the year,” he said.

Keep tuned in for updates on these trials and their results.

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4 Industries Women Continue to Dominate

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For women entrepreneurs, these four industries are ours for the taking.

September
21, 2018

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Women are surprisingly taking over jobs that were previously reserved for men and performing at par or even better, as well as commanding higher pay.

Recent trends suggest that we are moving up from lower paying jobs, where the bigger chunk of the female workforce lay, and taking up positions in previous "men-only" occupations in management, finance, law, leadership, etc. In fact, women statistically make more competent leaders than men, albeit less confident.

Besides demonstrating that what a man can do a woman can do too, we've gone a step further to dominate a few industries.

While the number of women in executive positions remains relatively low, our leadership competency gives us an edge to take over these industries and lead the way.

1. Health

From using websites to self-diagnose to counting the total number of steps we take each day, the health sector is a long way past where it was a couple of decades ago. A patient in rural Kenya can now ping a health worker in the middle of the night and because of advanced data collection and analysis technology, she can expect better prevention practices, smarter diagnoses and faster research and development.

Despite all the changes, two truths remain: a) Women bear the heavier burden in taking care of the family and b) we make up the majority of the front line health workforce.

A sample of 123 countries revealed that women make up 67 percent of the workforce in health and social sectors. In the U.S., 80 percent of the health workforce is comprised of women. And guess who makes up 90 percent of the registered nurses?

For some, serving in such positions as community health worker, where the training is minimal and pay meager at best, it's a calling. Others just want to get out of the home and participate in paid work. This not only equips them with skills but also earns them respect from their family. Whatever their reason, it's enough to show that without women, the health sector would crumble.

2. Education

Educational technology, or edtech, facilitates the performance and productivity of the learner while promoting ethical studying practices. It's an extremely diverse field whose effectiveness relies heavily on catering for individual needs. Anything from elearning to traditional learning and the supporting systems in-between are all part of edtech.

And women are interested.

In 2017, just 17 percent of tech startups had a female founder, according to Crunchbase. However, by some estimates, 30 percent of the founders in edtech are women.

But, this isn't new. Education has long been a female-dominated profession. Even back in the 19th century, women commonly held leadership positions in education faculties and across the school system.

On this basis, women are likely to take up even more responsibility in edtech.

3. Recruitment

There's an overwhelming number of women in the field of human resources. According to a 2016 report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 72 percent of HR managers are women. A separate report published by Payscale.com in 2017 shows a staggering 86 percent of HR generalists are women.

So, why is there such a huge gap in this area?

One theory is that the field has kept a reputation of being a domain for women. Meaning, because it's traditionally known to be female-dominated, few men and more women are likely to pursue HR. But, this is one of the female-dominated fields that men are currently showing a lot of interest in.

Another explanation is that of biology and genetics. While the "women are just more nurturing" argument might seem a bit uninformed and sexist, there's enough science to show that women typically have an edge over men when it comes to EQ (emotional intelligence), an essential aspect of HR. Women typically demonstrate more advanced empathetic and interpersonal skills than men. These skills turn out to be very important in resolving conflicts, managing people and negotiating contracts.

4. Customer service

All informed advice on how to provide great customer service seems to center around a few qualities: empathy, listening skills, patience, problem solving and telephone skills.

It's not just popular opinion that women are better at stepping into other people's shoes than men. Scientific research has revealed that there's a lot of truth in that common belief. But, no conclusive evidence has been shown to explain whether it's nature or nurture.

One study concluded that women's brains signal empathy more readily than men's. The 1995 study revealed that women are more likely than men to mimic involuntarily the emotional expressions of others. This behavior is thought to reflect increased activity of "mirror neurons."

Other studies suggest that rational thought has more influence than empathy in a man's brain and vice versa.

Be it nature or, more likely, nurture, women have a record of being better at customer service than men.

So, do some industries favor a certain gender? Probably. And for women entrepreneurs, these four industries are ours for the taking.

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Is Your Onboarding Process Broken? Here's How to Fix It.

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September
21, 2018

7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Most companies know that onboarding is an important part of the hiring process, but many still underestimate just how vital it is that the process be done right. According to a recent survey by Microsoft, what determined employees' odds of staying at the company for the long term boiled down to one simple thing: whether their managers had had a one-on-one meeting with them during their first week.

That single meeting, it turned out, shaped how employees saw their future at Microsoft and whether they felt they would be in it for the long haul.

The first few weeks for an employee are filled with uncertainty and an eagerness to deliver something of value to the company. But new hires can’t accomplish much without a clear set of tasks, roles or duties -- no matter how talented they might be. It would be like asking a contractor to build your dream house without giving him any blueprints.

Adjusting to the culture of a company is also an important challenge for all new hires. Every startup (heck, every company) has its quirks: inside jokes, kitchen etiquette, company history and interpersonal dynamics, to name just a few. Even with a clearly defined role and a set of tasks, the workplace is a minefield of potential faux pas and isolation. The potential for failure during the onboarding process is monumental in its scope.

On the other hand, onboarding also comes with the possibility of unleashing a new hire’s full potential faster and bolstering retention rates. Done right, this process can positively impact the entire company. To accomplish this requires finesse and dedication and some specific moves:

Pass on the jack-of-all-trades.

The delicacy of the onboarding process is even more important for startups in particular, because a small company needs all employees dedicated and at their most productive almost from day one. While any company can take steps to improve the onboarding process, one of the most effective is to change the type of person who gets hired in the first place.

One major error many startups make is to try to hire a generalist instead of a specialist. The conventional thinking is that because employees of startups tend to wear many hats, being competent at a variety of things is better than being expert at one.

Actually finding someone who performs his or her job well, however, can be like finding a needle in a haystack. It’s great if one is found -- but this definitely shouldn’t be counted on. Laying out to a new hire a set of responsibilities that’s too broad usually results in confusion and inefficiency.

Instead, fcus on finding the specialists. From there, it will be much easier to create an onboarding process that not only ensures initial success, but also increases the likelihood of long-term retention.

Making onboarding useful.

According to a Bamboo HR survey, 91 percent of HR managers polled said they were well aware that their onboarding process could use improvement, and nearly half believed that both money and time were being wasted because of it. Here are some ways to make onboarding more effective, efficient and good for your business.

1. Don’t saddle new hires with busywork. Every new hire needs to ease into the work, but many businesses make the mistake of thinking that means easy work that doesn’t really affect the company as a whole. New hires want to feel they’re contributing, even from day one.

We give our new hires a micro-project or task that they should be able to complete within the first week but that will have visible positive impact on the company overall. This gives them that sense of accomplishment much faster, which in turn makes them more enthusiastic and excited to work for the company.

Amazon has a similar, if more intensive, approach with its employees. New full-time hires are required to take a leadership training course for a month before starting the job, whatever that job may be. The idea, according to Amazon’s communications manager, is to train employees to “be owners from day one.” Though not every company needs to be as ambitious as Amazon, the basic principle is the same: Give employees a real stake in the company right away, and they're more likely to be committed and passionate going forward.

2. Keep new employees from large meetings. Unless they absolutely need to be at them, don't bog new hires down with mandatory attendance at big meetings. For someone who has just started, these events are mostly just an invitation to be confused and intimidated.

I once had a new hire who had been given a clearly defined micro-project to complete in his first couple of weeks, but after one week, he had done something completely different. This was because he’d heard a different directive at a company meeting and thought it was more important for the company, even though his manager hadn’t authorized it. That desire to produce can backfire at times.

Instead of unnecessary meetings, have new hires socialize with staff in other settings, such as taking them out to lunch with a small group. Another option is to create a weekly forum where every staff member has a chance to speak or share something inspirational he learned or saw, such as a TED talk. The object is to get new hires acquainted with their teammates without throwing them in the deep end.

3. Assign a mentor. New hires have questions and need guidance. Think about establishing a mentorship program. Make sure each mentor is someone with interpersonal skills, not just experience in his or her line of work. These people should be able to handle questions respectfully and not make a new person feel stupid for asking for help. There’s a reason social-media software developer Buffer calls its mentors “buddies” instead.

Besides helping with questions related to their work, a major duty of a mentor is to help a new hire become acclimated to the culture. Keep in mind: A mentor is not a substitute for checking in with a new hire within the first week. The mentor is meant to be complementary to the new hire's guidance by his or her direct superior; and direct contact from the manager in week one is a vital step in the onboarding process.

Onboarding shouldn't be looked at as an obligatory month when new hires learn the basics and don't get much of value done. It should be looked at as a valuable opportunity that makes clear where they fit in a company. By focusing on hiring specialists instead of generalists and tweaking the traditional process just a bit, onboarding can be a transformative process for both new hires and the company as a whole.

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Preparing a Security Token Offering? Here's Your Marketing Playbook.

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You can't get potential token-buyers to trust you overnight. As the old saying goes, trust is earned.

September
21, 2018

6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

As the SEC comes closer and closer to a crackdown on the “utility” tokens that function as unregistered securities, a new breed of token is emerging: the security token, backed by real-world assets, and fully SEC-compliant.

Securities-backed tokens are different from pure utility tokens, such as Ether, or true value storage tokens, such as Bitcoin. As a crypto marketer, I’ve seen more and more of these companies launch advertising campaigns. Here’s what helps them succeed:

Knowing your target consumer

Token sellers can seek full registration with the SEC, but few companies choose that path (and it’s hard to blame them for it): Full SEC registration is a logistical, legal and financial quagmire. To skip that move, though, companies must choose an SEC exemption. Here, most companies go with the Regulation D exemption, which generally forbids sales to non-accredited U.S. investors.

Then there's the Regulation A exemption. Securities group Tripoint Global is a strong contender to become the first company approved to offer securities-backed tokens under Regulation A, which means it can sell to non-accredited U.S. investors -- if it's willing to do some extra paperwork.

But for the time being, marketing a securities token means marketing to a mix of accredited and non-U.S. investors. Accredited investors are generally either institutions or individuals with a net worth of $1 million or higher. Successful securities token sales target their marketing for this income group.

Tailoring marketing for both crypto natives and finance natives

Security tokens hit a marketing sweet spot between forward-thinking (but often risky) ICO tokens and conservative, SEC-sanctioned products backed by real-world assets.

Rohit Kulkarni, managing drector of SharesPost, argued in a guest contribution to the Nasdaq blog, for example, that security tokens represent a perfect mix of utility tokens and venture capital. Venture capital boasts: issue-investor alignment (with everyone incentivized to help the venture succeed); access to expert networks; KYC-AML compliance (which protects investors and companies from fraud and money-laundering); and regulatory oversight. Utility tokens offer investor liquidity (quick access to cash via exchanges) and a dynamic investor community. Security tokens offer the whole shebang.

These tokens can appeal to a wide range of accredited investors when companies reach out to them properly. Traditional investors will respond to their increased liquidity and lowered administrative costs while feeling reassured by the presence of investor protections and real-world assets.

Crypto-natives with first-hand knowledge of how quickly crypto fortunes can be made or lost are increasingly looking to diversify their portfolios. These consumers want to keep the blockchain benefits they know and love while embracing the security of more traditional investment products.

Picking your partner exchanges carefully

One of securities tokens’ biggest selling points is that they bring liquidity to traditionally illiquid markets. Before Blockchain, exchanging fractional ownership of an illiquid asset such as a real estate investment or a private equity fund was challenging or even impossible. With Blockchain, it’s as easy as selling a token.

There are a few catches, of course. Tokens must remain compliant as they change hands, which requires an ongoing KYC/AML process throughout the token’s lifecycle. Token purchasers and buyers must have a place to find one other: a token exchange. The SEC has decreed that all exchanges listing security tokens must register as securities brokers.

We’re still seeing how that rule is going to play out. Coinbase, for example, recently walked back claims that it had the SEC’s blessing to list securities. But hopefully, you still get the takeaway: Securities tokens aren’t worth much without good exchanges to trade them on. This is doubly true considering that some exchanges have experienced massive thefts, and nothing’s going to scare off safety-oriented investors faster than news of a hack.

So, screen your partner exchanges carefully, and make sure the ones that fit the bill show up in your marketing.

Networking and educating to build trust

In the early days of ICOs, casual crypto-buyers could buy a few tokens from a new company just to see what might happen. It’s fair to say that today the stakes in many modern crypto transactions, and particularly in securities tokens transactions, are much higher due to the volumes of real-world assets involved.

That’s why trust is paramount for securities token purchasers. Telegram’s ICO utilized Regulation D and raised almost $2 billion. The company didn’t accomplish that through a marketing blitz. It did so by participating heavily in the crypto world and networking in the finance one, exploiting social connections among investors.

You can’t get potential token-buyers to trust you overnight. As the old saying goes, trust is earned. I’ve found that two practices are essential to any trust-building campaign in crypto: The first is networking. Companies offering security tokens need to advocate for their product, in person whenever possible. That means attending crypto events, meeting movers and shakers and participating in the crypto community. If your company includes people who are well respected in the crypto or finance worlds, your marketing campaign needs to lean on that point heavily, as these people have built up the social capital that engenders consumer trust.

The other practice is providing information. We’ve all heard of poorly designed or even scam ICOs that rake in a ton of cash with only a flashy website. Securities-token purchasers aren’t going to fall for that. They’ll expect to be able to perform due diligence; and your marketing should invite them to do just that, by providing details such as an impressive executive team and a well-written, thoughtful white paper front and center.

The age of the security token is here. We’re likely to see the regulations surrounding these investment products change, but I think that these principles for marketing securities tokens will change less than you’d think.

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Top Company Cultures of 2018

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2018 Top Company Cultures List

Entrepreneur, along with Energage, present our third-annual Top Company Culture List, showcasing high-performance cultures across the U.S. We measured these companies focusing on 24 factors across seven areas: alignment, effectiveness, connection, management, engagement, leadership and basics, including pay, benefits and training.

Based on the results, we chose 150 companies to be featured in our ranking. We divided the companies based on size: small (35-74 employees), medium (75-299 employees) and large (300 or more employees).

Congrats to all.

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How Investing in AI is About Investing in People, Not Just Technology

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True AI readiness must go far beyond the data, and empower (and reassure) the people responsible for its success.

September
21, 2018

7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

How is your organization preparing for artificial intelligence (AI)? Ask this question of businesses investing in this field today, and the answer almost always comes down to "data"-- with leaders talking about "data preparations" or "data science talent acquisition."

While there would be no AI without data, enterprises that fail to ready the other side of the equation-- people-- don’t just stunt their capacity for good AI, they risk sunk investment and jeopardize employee trust, brand backlash or worse.

After all, people are the ones building, measuring, consuming and determining the success of AI in enterprise and consumer settings. They're the ones whose jobs will change; whose tedium will be eased by automation; whose consumption or rejection of AI's outcomes will be the focus.

People, in short, are those who'll feel AI's myriad impacts. That's why investing in AI is as much about investing in people as it is data.

I wanted to dig deeper into this issue. So, my co-founders and other industry analysts at Kaleido Insights and I surveyed more than 25 businesses that have deployed AI at scale to learn about the ways they've invested in people. Here is what we found:

1. Investment in factors beyond technical talent

Hiring a team of data scientists will not cause business processes to magically become automated overnight. Some liken this mistaken assumption to hiring electrical engineers to run a bakery: While the mechanics of ovens are important, it is the experienced baker who best knows how to innovate recipes and inspire customer delight!

Across industries, we found that the successful AI deployments we saw involved at least eight distinct personae:

Product leaders
Front-line associates (e.g., customer support agents, field technicians)
Subject matter experts (e.g., doctors, security admins, legal, etc.)
Designers
Sales
Leadership
End users
Data scientists & technical builders

In addition to identifying these stakeholders, businesses have to make AI accessible and build trust by educating people and quelling fears. The top recommendation here is to prepare stakeholders by using tactics that put AI into context for each role.

Leadership requires a demonstration of ROI and visualization. AI leaders at FedEx, for example, built simulated dashboards and reports to illustrate the difference between traditional analytics and machine-learning-driven recommendations.

Meanwhile, readying the sales team requires both equipping agents with the knowledge, tools and confidence to sell the benefits of AI, and re-evaluating their metrics and incentive models to preserve quality and integrity. For effective roll-out, the unique needs and pain points for each of the above staff members have to be addressed.

2. Investment in addressing AI’s cultural stigma

AI is distinct from other technologies in that it can challenge people’s sense of importance and relevance. Some 58 percent of organizations in international settings have not discussed AI’s impact on the workforce with employees, according to a recent survey by the Workforce Institute. Yet AI’s success is driven by people’s willingness to adopt it.

Thus, enterprises deploying AI are well advised to assess how people’s sentiments, fears, questions and insecurities impact their proclivity to adopt. Instead of ignoring concerns, companies interviewed suggested discussing and developing positions and initiatives to address:

Job displacement
Algorithmic bias
Privacy, surveillance
Security threats
Autonomous machines
Societal manipulation
Environmental impacts
The notion of "killer robots"

These “elephants in the room” don’t just threaten employee morale, they highlight opportunities for companies to improve engagement and reinforce a healthy and trustworthy company culture. Address concerns of job displacement at your own company by evangelizing the limitations of AI. Articulate where AI will augment or accelerate human workflows. Provide clarity on governance models. And support employee upskilling and continued education programs.

Microsoft’s Professional Program for AI is an example: This is a massive open online course (MOOC) designed to guide aspiring AI builders through a range of topics, from statistics to ethics to research design. Other companies, like Starbucks and Kaiser Permanente, have partnered with elearning platforms like Coursera or Linda.com to facilitate professional development.

3. Investment in building an AI mindset

While investing in a mindset might sound squishy or disconnected from the bottom line, preparing employees with the education, ownership, tools and processes they need to engage with AI has tangible business benefits. According to a recent survey of 1,075 companies in 12 industries, the more companies embraced active employee involvement in AI design and deployment, the better their AI initiatives performed in terms of speed, cost savings, revenues and other operational measures.

The following “3 D’s” of what I call the AI mindset reflect three universal truths about AI and serve as starting points for building people’s engagement in an organization’s AI journey:

Think "diversified": AI must be designed and managed by multiple skill sets. Those responsible for the day-to-day administration of the workflow are the ones who best understand where the breakdowns occur, where products fall short, where they, the staffers, spend most of their time and where customer sensitivities lie.

The business benefits: Diversifying AI design and development helps companies identify important features, UX/UI needs and use cases that might otherwise go unseen, or take more resources to surface. Companies like Wells Fargo have cross-functional centers of excellence to accelerate this process, emphasizing the value of using trusted internal influencers to facilitate onboarding.

Think "directional": AI implementation is not a linear, "completed" destination, but rather one that calls for continual learning and iterations based on feedback loops.

The business benefits: Instilling a “directional” mindset reduces time to at-scale deployment. Even though people want to see results quickly, the extent of experimentation determines how strong any AI model is, and how many problems it can solve. Often, deployment time is based on user adoption, and the more people who can help train and optimize the system, (again) the more problems adoption can solve. This is also why companies like SEB, a Swiss bank, deployed its virtual agent, Aida, to 600 employees; then to 15,000 employees, before rolling the agent out across its million-plus customers.

Think "democratized": AI is more sustainable when organizations enable accessible tools, training and multi-functional contribution and collaboration.

The business benefits: Democratizing access via easy-to-use tools means employees don't have to have a data science degree to contribute value to AI systems. The more simple, reliable and “self-service” enterprise data portals become, the more employees of all stripes can activate enterprise data -- an invaluable metric to any business.

In sum, the culture of an organization is inextricably linked to the willingness of its people to adapt, adopt, engage and innovate. Technology is only half the battle. Hierarchies, silos, complexity, distrust and complacency can choke innovation. Given that the most powerful AI involves both humans and machines, true AI readiness must go far beyond the data, and empower the people responsible for its success.

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This Week in Weed: Coca Cola Considers Cannabis!

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Coca-Cola considers entering Cannabis, the NYPD is still making arrests, and South Africa makes history

September
21, 2018

2 min read

Welcome to Green Entrepreneur's video recap of the cannabis news you might have missed this week, hosted by our dope correspondent Conrad Martin.

Coca Cola Considers Cannabis

Coca Cola is the latest beverage company expressing interest in entering the cannabis industry. A spokesperson from the soda giant said that they're eyeing the growth of CBD as an ingredient. Pot stocks trended higher after the announcement.

NYPD is still making Pot Arrests!

Two weeks ago New York City announced a major pull back on the amount of cannabis arrests and prosecutions. However, the NYPD is still arresting people who are smoking vape pens. THC oil possession is a Class A misdemeanor and punishable by up to a year in jail. Come on DiBlasio!

South Africa becomes the first African Country to Legalize

Tuesday was "Dagga" day in South Africa. "Dah-Hah" which is the South African word for cannabis, was legalized on Tuesday for private possession, growth, and consumption. This makes South Africa the first country on the continent to legalize.

Be sure to keep up with all things cannabiz by checking out the newly launched GreenEntrepreneur.com

If you missed last week's episode, check it out here: Elon Musk Smokes Pot!

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How Multichannel Marketing Helps Build A Sense of Community in Gyms

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In addition to guest posting on the UpCity blog, Musselwhite Marketing is featured as one of the Top Digital Marketing Agencies in Temecula. Check out their profile here.

If you’re the owner or manager of a gym or fitness center, you already know that there are some serious challenges when it comes to bringing new people through your door. Whether you’re a new gym or one that has been making people’s lives healthier for years, it isn’t always easy to get people to see the value of your services. More often than not, this isn’t personal, it’s just that you haven’t managed to reach them at the right time or place with your message.

This is where multichannel marketing comes in to reshape how you define success. Multichannel marketing includes a strategy for connecting and interacting with customers using a variety of direct and indirect marketing channels. The fact is that your customers are everywhere, and they’re too complex to be found in one location. If you want to reach them, it’s necessary to expand your vision of marketing from one that’s narrowly defined to one that expands out and gives customers a choice in how they’re introduced to your services.

Multichannel marketing sounds like a lot of work – and honestly, sometimes it is. However, it’s the approach that’s going to reach a wider target audience and enable your fitness based business to reach its full potential. Ready to learn a little more? Here are the first few steps to building a multichannel marketing process for your gym.

The Art of Acquiring and Retaining Customers

If you have a minute, stop reading this and go take a look around your gym. Maybe you already do this several times a day, but this time you’re looking for something specific. You’re looking to see how many of your customers are attached to their smartphones, and chances are your answer will be in the “overwhelming majority” range.

Digital strategies like social media marketing are some of the best ways of reaching a larger audience and acquiring new customers. Digital marketing is also a key component in retaining your valuable customers. Just think about the number of selfies that are taken in your gym every day. People are proud of their health and fitness accomplishments and will turn to social media to show them off. This means that they’re also heading to digital platforms when they’re ready to make a new health focused commitment.

Here are a few tips for acquiring and retaining customers with digital marketing.

Facebook Ads

Really, we’re talking about ads on any social network, but Facebook is one of the most valuable tools for getting the best ROI out of every dollar invested in social media ads. Recent changes in the Facebook algorithm has meant businesses have had to rethink their approach, and more of them are coming to the realization that it’s all about optimizing their paid ads for success.

For example, existing customers don’t really need to know about the latest sign up incentive for new customers, but if they see such an ad they might click on it out of curiosity. Each time they do, you’re only paying for a dead end lead. Existing customers, and those further along the path to becoming customers need a different type of engagement – something that’s achievable with a targeted Facebook ad strategy.

Optimizing Social Media for Success

We also know that Facebook isn’t the only social network your customers are on, especially if your gym attracts a younger crowd. Highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat are equally important, as are the other social platforms that your customers might be on. It’s important to understand your demographics, where they can be found and how to best reach them on those platforms.

Once you’ve identified these key factors, building engagement becomes easy with great, value filled content, user generated content, and interactive features like polls, quizzes and incentive driven contests.

The Value of Search

You’re not going to bring new customers through your door if they can’t find you. With all the focus on building an image on social media, it’s not uncommon for businesses to forget about the practical details – like being easy to discover. For practically all businesses today, regardless of their industry, it’s crucial to take steps to be as visible as possible in online searches. One of the best tools for this is Google My Business (GMB).

GMB is a free directory service offered by Google that instantly makes you more visible to those searching for gyms in your local area. How to take advantage of this? First, claim your GMB page and then fill it out completely. Not only will customers appreciate this, but Google will look more favorably upon you too.

Building a Community

There’s plenty of things that your customers could be doing to get a workout in at home, but instead they chose to go to you. Why do you think this is? It might be that you provide access to equipment that they don’t have, but there’s also a really good chance that they’re looking to belong to a community of health minded people. This can become an important tool for attracting and keeping customers.

Start by brainstorming ways to both foster your internal community while building a larger presence in the community around you. When people feel like they belong to something, or have a desire to belong to your community, they’re more likely to sign up and remain loyal. Here are a few ideas.

Host or take part in local event fundraisers

Become a valuable resource for improving health in the community through outreach programs

Create health and fitness centered social media contests

Offer your gym as a place for community events

Partner with local influencers for encouraging healthy habits within the community

Bringing It All Together: A Case Study

Gym Example

At Dan Henderson’s gym we hold in gym fight tournaments open to the public. This brings people into the facility and allows us to showcase talent and equipment without doing a sales pitch. During the tournament we video interview audience to share their buzz and excitement (especially when they get to meet and shake hands with their celebrity fighter). We also interview the celebrities to talk about the matches, the gym and invite people to come in for a workout.

We run ads occasionally to increase membership.The very first ad we were asked to do was an interesting case study. The GM approached us saying they were in the middle of the month (literally the 15th) and way behind on new signups. It took us a couple days to source, design and launch the creatives but the result was by month’s end we blew right past their original new member goal for the month!

There was a recent change when the gym hired a big name coach, Joe Stevenson. We took this opportunity to create buzz and attract new members. We did video interviews with the owner, MMA legend Dan Henderson, and a couple other UFC fighters. We also work with Joe to record and post videos of his lesson plans! These lesson plans can be accessed by anyone and attracts folks from all over.

Other Work We Do to Market the Gym:

We’ve taught the GM to do Facebook live on occasion by walking through the gym at different times, talking about the classes and having brief conversations with members.

We hold quarterly member appreciation nights and invite other businesses to come in a present their businesses.

We talk and post about other fighters and their fight promotions. We pump everyone up – NO NEGATIVITY.

Recently (within the last year) we started a newsletter campaign as a way to keep active members up to date.

As we head into 2019 we are working on some new promotions. One of them is “The Helpful Hendo Guys”, which is an obvious play on The Helpful Honda Guys. We plan to partner with local police department to get out into the community and complete acts of charity.

It’s Time to Build Your Marketing Muscle

These strategies are only the foundation of marketing success for your gym or fitness business. If you’re ready to experience a growth in membership and discover the strategies that make customer retention easy, it’s time to invest in multichannel marketing.

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Linda Musselwhite

Musselwhite Marketing is a full service marketing agency and believes you MUST differentiate your business from your competitors and that the marketing formula for success for most businesses is some combination of our 7-Pillars of Digital Marketing. The agency was founded in 2009 by husband and wife team Charles and Linda Musselwhite and now serves businesses nationwide with a focus on Independent Insurance Agents/Agencies and Gyms.

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4 Pieces of Financial Advice Every Budding Entrepreneur Needs to Hear

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Most financial advice for entrepreneurs revolves around where to spend funding, but the real lesson is in mindset.

September
21, 2018

5 min read

This story originally appeared on Due

Promising businesses go under all the time. Unmotivated teams and stiff competition can drive startups to close shop, but research from CBInsights found that cash flow problems knock out 29 percent of failed small businesses. Without money to keep the lights on and employees paid, even a business with a great product and a bright future can shut down in a matter of days.

Cash doesn’t disappear on its own, though. To keep the coffers full, entrepreneurs need to remember what motivated them to start their companies in the first place -- and recognize when personal strain starts to take a bigger toll.

“Being irreplaceable is huge for entrepreneurs,” said James Lenhoff, president of Wealthquest and author of Living a Rich Life. “You believe you’re the only human on the planet who can do it, so you do everything. In reality, if you can replace yourself, you can get out of your own way and give other people the gift of developing themselves.”

Entrepreneurs can’t afford to leave their finances to chance -- or rest them on the vain hope that their efforts alone can sustain the business. Only through a conscious commitment to better management practices can founders keep their companies open and thriving.

Financial advice: Why entrepreneurs should step back

Founders typically assume they know more about finances than the average person. Why shouldn’t they? After all, they started their own businesses, secured funding and learned to manage multimillion-dollar accounts. They should know all there is to know about financial management -- except they don’t.

Unlike traditional workers, who only have to worry about the numbers their employers give them and their finances at home, startup founders are in charge of all the money all the time. Every marketing plan, new hire package and home renovation project crosses the entrepreneur’s desk. Without a solid understanding of how to run a growing business, those responsibilities can quickly become overwhelming.

To avoid that fate, founders should follow a few basic principles.

1. Understand the truth about credit.

Entrepreneurs starting their own businesses frequently need to use their personal credit scores to secure funding. Small business loans and lines of credit can make or break young companies; the better the score, the bigger the loans (and the lower the interest rates).

The principles are easy to follow: Don’t carry high balances, pay bills on time and keep the oldest accounts open. Carrying a balance doesn’t necessarily increase one’s credit score; it just makes the borrower pay more in interest to the bank.

For people with bad credit, Credit Karma offers an easy-to-follow guide about how to build and maintain a good credit score from scratch. Those with better credit should read up on the basics and address any issues, such as incorrectly reported accounts, before they turn into bigger problems.

2. Account for the unexpected.

Successful founders quickly learn that the bills never stop coming, and they often come from unexpected places. The company might be prepared for spikes in labor costs, vendor changes and advertising expenses, but what about legal fees, insurance and other unexpected pitfalls?

Say a person walks through the office doors, slips on some coffee and breaks his arm in a fall. Does the company have insurance to cover the expenses? What if someone uses the company’s product in an unexpected way and causes damage -- does the company have a legal team, or at least a protocol in place, to address the lawsuit that follows?

Consult with a lawyer to follow the proper steps to set up a business. If the company deals with European clients, don’t forget to comply with GDPR. Even if the company deals purely in domestic affairs, set up GDPR-like data practices, anyway. It won’t be long before the rest of the world adopts similar measures to hold businesses accountable for breaches.

3. Separate personal and business finances.

The internet loves success stories about entrepreneurs who bet it all on black in Las Vegas to save their businesses. Unfortunately, online archives are less forthcoming about founders who emptied their personal bank accounts and still closed shop in the end.

Contribute personal funds to get the company started and invest in new directions, but don’t funnel money into a failing business out of stubborn pride. If the balance sheet looks bleak, take a hard look at whether the company is still viable. Move all the money into one last marketing gambit if necessary, but never take out a second mortgage when no one wants to buy the product.

4. Let drive lead the way.

Running a successful company is hard. When the worst times come and the future looks bleak, founders who don’t love what they do cave, while founders who feel passionately about their companies do everything they can to make it work. As Warren Buffett once said, “Being successful in almost anything means having a passion for it.”

Passion might be the wrong word, though. According to Mark Cuban, “A lot of people talk about passion, but that’s really not what you need to focus on… To be one of the best, you have to put in effort. So don’t follow your passions, follow your effort.”

Whether it’s passion or effort, don’t work for a company just to be the boss. Commit to something that will make the hard times worth it.

Most financial advice for entrepreneurs revolves around where to spend funding, but the real lesson is in mindset. Founders who learn how to set boundaries for themselves, learn from others and plan for the unexpected are far more likely to succeed when their cash dries up.

(By Max Palmer)

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Slide Images

Saturday, 22 September 2018

Step 1: Identify the contract with a customer.

Step 2: Identify the performance obligations in the contract.

Step 3: Determine the transaction price.

Step 4: Allocate the prices to the performance obligations

Step 5: Recognize revenue.

Areas of note

The Itch

The Detour

The Leap

The Breaking Point

The Next Step

1. Schedule daily check-ins.

2. Adopt a micro solutions mantra.

3. Tap technology to its fullest.

Why it matters

There's evidence marijuana works for diabetes.

Already in the works.

From Vanuatu to the world.

1. Health

2. Education

3. Recruitment

4. Customer service

Pass on the jack-of-all-trades.

Making onboarding useful.

Knowing your target consumer

Tailoring marketing for both crypto natives and finance natives

Picking your partner exchanges carefully

Networking and educating to build trust

1. Investment in factors beyond technical talent

2. Investment in addressing AI’s cultural stigma

3. Investment in building an AI mindset

Subscribe to the UpCity Blog!

Coca Cola Considers Cannabis

NYPD is still making Pot Arrests!

South Africa becomes the first African Country to Legalize

The Art of Acquiring and Retaining Customers

Facebook Ads

Optimizing Social Media for Success

The Value of Search

Building a Community

Bringing It All Together: A Case Study

Other Work We Do to Market the Gym:

It’s Time to Build Your Marketing Muscle

Linda Musselwhite

Subscribe to the UpCity Blog!

Financial advice: Why entrepreneurs should step back

1. Understand the truth about credit.

2. Account for the unexpected.

3. Separate personal and business finances.

4. Let drive lead the way.