Tag: entrepreneurship

Ideas for Starting a Small Business

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One of the positives to come out of the Covid crisis, is the realization of just how much we can accomplish virtually and how to rethink how we work. Not only did the pandemic transform the way we work, it even sparked the development of new businesses.

If you’ve ever thought about starting a small business, now is a great time to get started. Unfortunately, sometimes getting started is the hardest part. Lucky for you, we’ve got some great ideas to inspire your next business venture.

Online Teaching
A quick Google search will reveal hundreds of opportunities to teach right from your very own home. Many of these jobs are teaching English and do not require any special certification. However, if you have expertise in a specific skill or subject matter, there is likely a virtual school you can join and teach for.

This is a great business to start because it requires very little initial investment. You’ll need some kind of computer and internet connection to start. With DollarDays’ wholesale pricing, you can find all the computer accessories and parts you need to make your online teaching experience successful.

Online Reseller
Another idea for a small business is to become an online reseller. Since many consumers have shifted to online shopping (even before Covid and definitely more so after), online resellers often make quite a profit. If you’ve got a passion for clothes and fashion, this could be a great option.

Many resellers get their wholesale products from DollarDays. This can be a great business for someone with specialized knowledge of certain products or industries or has excellent marketing skills.

Anyone who chooses this path, in addition to the products they plan on reselling, will need their own office and shipping supplies. Buying office supplies in bulk can save you more money in the long run, especially as you get your business up and running.

Dog Walking
If you prefer to get outside and start a business that will keep you moving, start a dog walking business. As people start heading back to their offices and traveling again, those Covid dogs will need to be walked!

This is another business idea that requires very little in way of start up costs. Most pet owners will likely give you the basics like a leash but DollarDays can help with any additional pet supplies you might like to become your neighborhood dogs’ favorite walker. To get started, simply start advertising who you are, your rates, and your love for dogs.

Catering or Baking Business
Got a love for cooking or baking? Try starting a catering or baking business. Start with just a few of your specialties and brainstorm where you could set up a small shop. Summer fairs and outdoor events are a perfect place to start. Friends or acquaintances who are hosting baby showers, bridal showers, or even small weddings would likely be interested in giving you an opportunity to show what you can do.

It’s easy and cheap to set up a website and start taking orders. DollarDays has everything you’ll need from kitchen and dining supplies to binders for files and orders.

Starting a small business can feel intimidating. But if you stick with doing what you love and look for ways to save (like by taking advantage of DollarDays’ super low prices on essential wholesale products), you can start succeeding in no time!

For more information for aspiring small business owners, check out this post!

Tips for Small Business Owners to Celebrate National Small Business Week

Interview: Marc Joseph, Founder of DollarDays

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Marc Joseph is the founder of DollarDays, the […] online wholesaler that helps small businesses compete against larger enterprises and [helps] nonprofit organizations find the products they need to support their causes. DollarDays offers more than 225,000 high-quality products at wholesale and closeout prices. Mr. Joseph has helped build some of America’s most known retail stores, including Federated Department Stores, Bill’s Variety Stores, Everything’s a Dollar Stores and Crown Book Stores. Most recently, he started a chain of hair salons in Arizona and built it up to 11 stores before selling them to devote [his] full time to DollarDays. He is the author of the book “The Secrets of Retailing…or How to Beat Walmart,” which provides expert advice to independent businesses of all sizes on everything from the psychology of buying and the hiring of great employees to working successfully with vendors and promoters, as well as how to expand your business on the Internet. Mr. Joseph is also a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post and the Alibaba Global Biz Circle news websites.

IdeaMensch (IM): Where did the idea for DollarDays come from?

Marc Joseph (MJ):When we started back in 2001, small businesses were getting crushed by chains moving into their towns, so we wanted to help these small businesses survive and thrive against these big-box competitors. At the same time, the Internet was emerging as the new way to quickly communicate, so I saw the Internet as the next channel of distribution of wholesale and closeout products by the case so the small guys could compete on a level playing field with the big guys.

IM: What does your typical day look like, and how do you make it productive?

MJ: The Internet is really the last true vehicle to still be able to use guerrilla marketing to promote your business, so we start every day asking the question, “How can we find new customers and begin to brand ourselves?” in this sea of millions of websites currently trying to attract the eyeballs on the World Wide Web. We make this a productive exercise by reviewing sales from the last day, week and month and analyzing the customers, both new and existing, [who] created these sales. Our short-term goal is to market out to lookalike customers who don’t know about us today. Because of this, we get our report card each day. This month, we get a “B+” because we are averaging 1,500 new customers now joining us each day. Our long-term goal is to convert these new customers into repeat, loyal customers.

IM: How do you bring ideas to life?

MJ: Unlike traditional businesses that need a three-month timeframe from idea to implementation, being a company focused on the Internet, we can come up with an idea in the morning and have it live on the site that afternoon. This gives us the opportunity to test even the craziest ideas, because if the idea does not work, we can immediately take it off the site with a click of a button. So just about every day our site looks a little different, and the winning ideas become part of our culture, while those that do not click with our customers go away quickly.

IM: What is one trend that really excites you?

MJ: Adult coloring books are exciting. Why adult coloring books? I just use this as an example of how ideas become trends that become sales. About a year ago, one of our better small-business customers told us that in his small town, he was seeing 20- and 30-year-olds put down their cellphones and pick up a sketchpad or coloring book and begin to doodle. He assumed it was for stress relief from the constant pressure our modern society puts on itself in this electronic-driven age. With that early knowledge, we went out and sourced all kinds of adult-type coloring books from geometrics to nature to animals. Just this year, we have gone through hundreds of thousands of adult coloring books—[and all] because one of our salespeople developed a strong bond with one of our customers who trusted us to help them build their business. Adult coloring books are to this generation like pet rocks were to an earlier generation.

IM: What is one habit that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

MJ: I keep a pad and pen on my nightstand. For some reason, some of my better ideas pop up in the middle of the night, and if I don’t write them down when they wake me up, I just can’t remember them the next morning. Taking this a step further, whenever I am away from my desk to exercise, have dinner, etc., I now always have a pen and paper in my pocket just in case that million-dollar idea jumps in front of me.

IM: What was the worst job you ever had, and what did you learn from it?

MJ: To help put myself through college, I became the housekeeper and the weekend cook at my fraternity. Who knew that college guys could be such slobs? No matter how often you tried to train your brothers to pick up after themselves, if their mother could not teach them, I certainly could not, either. This was the beginning of my learning about the art of communication, and for negotiations to be successful, you could not use the tact of telling people what to do—you need to get them to buy into your dream or, in the case of the fraternity, working together for a cleaner, more appealing environment.

IM: If you were to start over again, what would you do differently?

MJ: Cash is king when starting a business. Opening your own business may be a dream coming true, but paying for this dream is an entirely different story. The vision of digging through your couch to find all the lost change to make your business work is a myth. Raising money is the toughest challenge you will ever face. You cannot put every penny you have into your business, because you will need dollars to cover your living expenses for the first six months, and if you do not have enough cash flow in your business, you will be scrambling for years. So my advice is to make an extremely strong effort to raise as much cash as possible before going into business.

IM: As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over?

MJ: Pick up the phone and always be reaching out. Don’t wait for people to reach out to you. Whether you like it or not, entrepreneurs are always selling. They are selling their idea to raise funds to start the business. They are selling their idea to potential employees to get them to join their dream team. They are selling their idea to customers and suppliers to trust them to help improve their businesses. So entrepreneurs cannot get complacent. Every day, you must relive those days and months in the beginning when you were the only one picking up the phone. Pick up the phone today and find new customers.

IM: What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

MJ: Hire good people. I try to hire people who are smarter than I am in areas that I am not the expert. This way, you can build a team with divergent expertise, yet when adding up the sum of the teams’ knowledge, it is first class.

IM: What is a failure you had, and how did you overcome it?

MJ: For years, our site, which is homegrown, did not give the perception that we were a top-notch company. It was slow and cumbersome to use, and, because of this, our sales were stagnate. We finally bit the bullet and put all of our financial resources and human resources into taking our site into the 21st century. It has paid off, because this year, we were one of the three finalists for the Internet Retailer B2B E-Commerce Marketer of the Year [award].

IM: What is one business idea for those reading this article?

MJ: The relationship we as businesses and entrepreneurs have with our customers is changing. It is a trend that has always been part of the millennial generation, but is now also part of all generations, and that is [that] customers want to do business with companies that care about giving back to their community. We do it with three different programs—$5,000 a month through our Facebook giveaways to nonprofits, creating free wishlist sites for nonprofits, and letting all of our customers donate 5% of their purchases to nonprofits. I am sure there are plenty of other ways businesses can give back to their communities.

IM: What is the best $100 you recently spent and why?

MJ: We donated a case of baby blankets to our local Kiwanis Club K-Kids group at our Boys & Girls Club. This is an organization that helps young kids learn the value of service and helping others. This young club was helping the homeless families in our area. You should have seen the look on these kids’ faces as they were unpacking the carton of baby blankets. The joy they had in helping brought many of the adults in the room to tears. This is emotion that cannot be bought.

IM: What software do you use?

MJ: Because we have an inside sales team that works closely with our existing and new customers, we have just initiated Salesforce to help keep us organized and alert us quickly for followup with our customers. Making us more efficient in the long run will make us more money.

IM: What one book do you recommend?

MJ: If you are only going to read one book this year and you are an entrepreneur or small-business owner, you must read “Shoe Dog” by Phil Knight, the create of Nike. I could not put it down. The ups and down of starting a business are on full display in this compelling story. I must mention two other books also that gave me real perspective on growing a business. The first is “Alibaba,” which is the most accurate telling of the story of the largest e-commerce company in the world, and the second is “Elon Musk,” which tells the true story of this billionaire and gives you some insight into what our future may look like.

IM: Who has influenced your thinking?

MJ: We can learn so much by studying history. I can’t get enough of George Washington, whether it is his biography or the current TV show, “Turn: Washington’s Spies.” But the real influencers of my life were the entrepreneurs of my father’s generation, brave men who I watched in action just about every day. Most of these guys fought in World War II and then came home to build their dreams for their families. None of them had anything handed to them, and they built their businesses by hard work, dedication to their dream, and the understanding of what it takes to build and service a loyal customer base.

Original article here: https://ideamensch.com/marc-joseph/

I Want to Work for a Great Company

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What makes a company good and sustainable and a place where people want to work? According to BusinessKnowHow.com, there are five traits of a good company:

  1. [T]he leadership team must have a great ambition for the company.
  2. [This ambition must address] an unmet customer need.
  3. Good companies stay focused on what they know and can do well.
  4. [These companies] devote relentless attention to execution.
  5. [S]mart companies engage all of their associates in building businesses—from idea creation to delivery to the customers—so ideas just don’t come from the top down, [but] from the bottom up and every direction in between.

If everyone in a company feels they own a piece of the product and are held accountable, a good company will become great, [s]o human capital has really become the most important asset of just about any company, big [or] small.

All big companies started as small companies run by entrepreneurs with good ideas. Apple and Amazon were created in the founders’ garages. Google started as a dissertation project. […] According to Fortune, entrepreneurs with good ideas come from all walks of life; [f]or example, 33% of new entrepreneurs are college graduates, 20% of startups seeking venture capital have a female cofounder, […] and immigrant entrepreneurs account for 28.5% of all new business owners. [T]here is no true definition of what type of person will start a company.

[W]orking for a giant company does have its perks:

  • Big companies are large because they have done something right.
  • They have already developed a competitive advantage in the marketplace, so jobs can be quite stable.
  • [I]t is possible to change positions and move to a new area without having to leave a big company.
  • [E]mployees may get a higher starting salary, and opportunities for income growth may be superior to small companies.
  • Benefits also tend to be better.
  • More training becomes available, and a clearer promotional path may be offered.
  • Large companies [can] provide better equipment and access to newer technolog[y].

[As for one of the major drawbacks to] working with a large corporation, […] size sometimes is an obstacle, with layers of management slowing down not only personal fulfillment goals but great ideas that may take too long to be accepted.

On the other hand, […] working in a smaller company can be quite rewarding. [According to the Small Business Council, there are 5.73 million employer firms in the United States, and those with fewer than 20 employees make up 89.6% of these companies. These small businesses produce 46% of the non-farm GDP.] [Accordingly], in a small company:

  • [Y]ou can influence and directly contribute to the company’s success.
  • Changes can be quickly implemented, which is one reason smaller companies are often more innovative and can swiftly adapt to new opportunities. These options can make small companies quite interesting for individualists who thrive in an innovative environment.
  • Small companies can give the feeling of being part of a family, which […] can strengthen the relationship between coworkers and conveys the feeling of being more connected to the work. […]
  • Small companies give employees the opportunity to exhibit their entire skillset, because [you’ll] often wear several different hats. […]
  • It may also give employees the chance to lead earlier in their career.

The disadvantages of being in a small company include less job security and more pressure, because failures will be more visible and have a major impact of the existence of the entire company. […]

Having to make a decision on what type of company to work for follows us throughout our careers. According to About Careers, the average person changes jobs 12 times during their lives, [s]o we have many opportunities to decide if we want to work for a big company or a small company. […]

I would tell you to find a small business that you can help build, [b]ut if you do this, [keep in mind that] healthcare costs continue to be a major issue, and small-business owners are still worried about economic conditions and how they might impact their business, which could affect your job. Small businesses have much smaller safety nets in place than bigger businesses, which makes owners more vulnerable to threats like market shifts and new laws and regulations, that could be the catalysts the loss of your job. […]

If you like swimming in a bigger pond even though you may feel like a small fish, there is merit in working for larger employers with their extra resources, formal structures in place and the big pool of people to interact with throughout the day.

[I]f you thrive on getting involved in all kinds of new and varied projects, which causes you to develop new skills and knowledge where you feel you become a vital part of company growth, then smaller businesses may be right for you.

So ask yourself what size fish in what size pond you want to be, so you will not be hooked into being a fish out of water.

Original article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/i-want-to-work-for-a-grea_b_9518984.html

Industry VIPs Team up to Provide Powerful Business Information for Women Entrepreneurs

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Kim Flynn, business-training expert and motivational speaker for women entrepreneurs, and DollarDays’ CEO, Marc Joseph, team up in this webinar to deliver powerful business information for today’s women entrepreneurs!

Kim Flynn offers three key points to accelerate your business:

  • The top three mistakes women make in business
  • Building your business blueprint
  • Determining your current stress number 

Marc Joseph delivers the answers to:

  • Does it make sense to open an online business in today’s world 
  • What to sell online
  • Marketing your website
  • Mistakes to avoid

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/123988249]Sit back and enjoy the webinar, and learn from two of the most respected people in their businesses! This webinar was recorded live on April 1, 2015, at DollarDays’ headquarters in Scottsdale, Ariz., where we were honored to have Kim Flynn fly in from Utah.

Small Businesses Are Still Struggling

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Small-business owners don’t take vacation not because they don’t want to travel or relax or explore new adventures, [but] because they are scared to death their business will fall apart. Fortune recently reported half of small-business owners will take no vacation this year. Of the half that do go on vacation, 61% […] go for only a week, […] half of what the average U.S. employee takes each year. Also, when a small-business owner actually takes a vacation, 67% […] check in with work at least once a day, and only 15% completely disconnect from their business.

Gallup reported earlier this year that the total number of new business startups and business closures per year […] just crossed to the bad for the first time since this measurement began. Annually, 400,000 new businesses are being born nationwide, while 470,000 are dying each year. [U]ntil the recession began, startups outpaced business failures by 100,000 per year. If small businesses continue to die at this pace, disastrous consequences for our economy and way of life are right around the corner. […]

So why are businesses failing at such a high rate?

According to MSN, the No. 1 reason is running out of money too quickly. When starting a business, you need to plan as if you had no sales for six months and have that money sitting in the bank to cover all the startup issues. [B]efore the recession, business owners could borrow against the equity in their homes. [W]e don’t have that same home equity today, [which means many] new business startups are rolling the dice and not having as much in the bank. […] Larger businesses also face cash-flow issues—they may be completing their projects, but their clients are paying slower, so payrolls get missed and lights go off. […]

The No. 2 reason why businesses fail is overconfidence in their product that may be ill-timed or is a dud of an idea. [I]f you don’t test [the] market first or [if] you are not keeping up with the trends, there is a good chance customers won’t purchase your goods.

[T]he third reason is a poor pricing strategy. [The] competition may have a cheaper solution, [but] if you […] lower your price, there still needs to be enough margins to pay the bills.

How can we reverse this trend of more businesses dying than being born? One way is through a new program, “Big Ideas for Small Business,” that was launched last year by The National League of Cities in partnership with the City of Chicago’s Innovation Delivery Team. They have produced a toolkit that helps local leaders create ecosystems that support small-business growth with city resources and provides business owners with access to new sources of capital. Another resource is SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), […] whose mission is to foster small-business communities through mentoring and education. […] The NFIB (National Federation of Independent Businesses) […] is a great resource for information and interaction with other small businesses. […]

This lopsided failure rate of small businesses is a concern to every community. For our cities to [only recent;y] realize this is a local issue that must be solved with “boots on the ground” reinforces that these entrepreneurs are not in this battle alone, [that] they have their “village” looking out for them. This is a good start to reverse our small-business death trend, [b]ut it also takes individuals in our communities spending in small businesses. These “buy local” campaigns truly make a difference; [f]or each $100 spent at local businesses, $45 of secondary local spending is done, compared to $14 for big chains. This multiplier effect trickles down and has a dramatic influence in keeping our local businesses alive.

America has been great since our independence, because, on the backs of small businesses, we have built an exceptional agricultural, industrial and intellectual powerhouse economy. We can’t afford to let these small businesses die, because just about every great economic accomplishment in our country started in the mind of an entrepreneur.

Original article here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/small-businesses-are-stil_b_5870328.html

Do You Really Save Money by Buying Online?

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Trying to save money shopping online can be exhausting. Entire industries have grown up online to help you save money, but you can spend so much time trying to figure out what to do that in the long run, it’s not even worth it to save a couple of dollars.

So Many Options!

For instance, there are several coupon sites you can go to that aggregate coupon codes from online merchants so you have one place to look. Sites like RetailMeNot.com, CouponCabin.com and BradsDeals.com pull together this information so you can take the codes to sites to help save money.

There are rebate sites like Ebates.com and FatWallet.com that give you cash back on all the purchases you make on their deal sites. There are daily deal sites like Groupon.com, LivingSocial.com, NoMoreRack.com and 1SaleDay.com that will inundate your email box with great deals every single day.

You start to add all this up with coupons, rebates, deal-of-the-day sites, etc., and a serious shopper could be spending their entire morning bouncing back and forth trying to figure out where to save that extra dollar.

Now comparison shopping sites like PriceGrabber.com, Google Shopping, Shopping.com and Shopzilla.com have begun to streamline the exercise of shopping by letting you compare the same item on one page with prices from several different selling sites. This is progress for the hurried shopper.

Money-saving Secret

But the hidden secret of the Internet is the emergence of warehouse club sites that take away all the fluff, and, if you are willing to buy in a little bit larger quantities, they truly save you money.

Go to Costco.com; they have thousands of items on their site that cannot only be found in the warehouse club stores and bought online, but many new additional items can be bought just online from them. Look at their brand Kirkland baby wipes and baby diapers. What new family does not need a case of those to survive the week? Their pricing on this high-demand commodity item beats all the coupon sites, rebate sites and even the deal sites.

Go to [the] BJ’s Wholesale Club [website] and find supplies for your home office from recognized brand names like Hammermill Paper, which verifies the better pricing of this newer group of sites that actually do save you money.

DollarDays supplies over 300,000 general merchandise products at wholesale and closeout pricing that falls right in line with these wholesale club sites. Here, the consumer can find all the back-to-school products, health and beauty products, and all the snacks they need to fill their pantries or the clothing needed to fill their closets.

Internet entrepreneurs try to figure out the most efficient way to get you the best deal. That is why lots of ideas are thrown against the wall, and, over time, with a few developing into winners. [T]his will be how Internet shopping sorts itself out to become the most efficient way save money on the products that you really need and want. Will the coupon sites be the winners? [W]ill the rebate sites prevail, or is it the deal sites that rise above the rest? Maybe all three will win—it just depends on what you are looking to buy.

Marc Joseph is the founder of DollarDays, the premier online wholesaler that helps small businesses compete against larger enterprises and nonprofit organizations find the products they need to support their causes.

Original article here: https://www.mint.com/vip-content/do-you-really-save-money-buying-online

How to Publish a Book

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Who hasn’t dreamed of seeing their name on a book jacket at the local Barnes & Noble? Signing cover pages for lines of adoring fans? Watching your very own title climb the New York Times best-seller list?

As any recent author will tell you, the arduous process of writing a book hardly resembles this glamorous picture. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t write a book. Experts say penning a published work is a great way to build your personal brand, engage potential customers and boost sales.

“If your business can benefit from your reputation as an expert, a book is an amazing way to demonstrate that in a way speaking or article writing cannot,” says Rohit Bhargava, author of Likeonomics: The Unexpected Truth Behind Earning Trust, Influencing Behavior, and Inspiring Action and the founder of Influential Marketing Group. Even as more and more people are writing because of the rise of self-publishing and e-books, showing potential customers a published work lends a measure of gravitas, says D’vorah Lansky, author of Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling Your Nonfiction Book Online and a book marketing coach for entrepreneurs.

“Technology makes it so much easier to publish a book—today it can take weeks instead of years to get your ideas out there,” Lansky says. “Every business owner should write one.”

To make the most of your time and wrist cramps, consider first whether self-published or traditionally published is the route for you.

In traditional publishing, you will write a proposal—typically a 30-page document outlining the project with a table of contents and sample chapters. This is then shopped around to agents. Should an agent accept, you will likely be asked to revise the proposal, which will then be pitched to publishers. If it sells to a publisher, the entire process could take several years or more. The publisher absorbs the cost of editing and production, though authors are usually responsible for most if not all of the marketing. Lansky says that on average a traditionally published book nets the author $1 per copy once the advance is earned. It’s worth mentioning that advances have been notably low in recent years.

The other option is to self-publish. A number of digital options are available, including Lulu and Amazon’s CreateSpace, both of which offer easy-to-use, affordable software with options for e-books and print-on-demand. Writers like this option because it can be very fast; gives the writer control over the creative processes, prices and marketing; and generates a much higher margin on sales.

Even though there is now a low barrier to authorship, it’s worth investing time and money to create a polished, professional look, Lansky says. It pays to hire a professional book editor and designer. “An editor is absolutely essential,” she says. “Once a reader finds three typos, they think you’re lazy or unintelligent. A good book should go through five to seven rounds of editing—it’s like polishing silver.” Other professionals who might help include an indexer, illustrator and photo editor.

A few more keys to successful book publishing:

  • Pick the right topic. Ask yourself what is the one thing you do better than anyone else in your field? What is the No. 1 question customers ask you? What has no one else written a book about?
  • Consider a ghostwriter. “Not everyone is a natural writer,” Bhargava says. “If you can’t imagine sitting in a chair writing for eight hours per day for several months, then you know you should hire a ghostwriter.”
  • Don’t expect the book to make you money directly. “Don’t write a book to get rich,” Lansky says. “Those cases are very, very rare, even when the author hits the New York Times best-seller list. Instead, look at a book as a big business card.”
  • Be creative in ways to profit from the book. In addition to using the title to attract and close deals, consider it a networking tool. Bhargava suggests interviewing leaders in your industry for the book’s content as a way to open doors.

Dianna Booher

  • Business: Booher Consultants, a business communications firm
  • Strategy: Write the book first, then get consulting jobs
  • Results: Multimillion-dollar business has been driven primarily by book notoriety

“It was the early 1980s, and I had just earned my master’s degree in literature and needed a way to support my young family. But I hated sales and did not want to cold-call.

“About the same time, I had lunch with a friend who was a vice president of engineering at Shell Oil. He mentioned his department has flown in a consultant from Atlanta to teach the engineers business writing. I realized I could do that. So I penned a book on business writing, original titled, Would You Put That in Writing? But I needed money, so I went to an executive at Exxon and told her my book was coming out in nine months as a way to promote myself. She hired me, and the engineers said it was the best course they’d had in 30 years.

“When the book eventually did come out, the Houston Chronicle wrote a huge story about it, and my phone rang off the hook with 32 inquiries from companies wanting to hire me to do business communication training. Sales immediately jumped into the multimillion-dollar range. I haven’t done any sales calls since—I just market the book and call people back.

“From that book, I branched out into presentation skills, customer service communication and more. My philosophy is that you have to know enough to write a book before you can even think about being a consultant. To decide what my next area of expertise will be, I research by talking to clients about their problems, look for emerging trends, and go out to lunch with friends to listen to them. I find a solution to the problems I hear about.

“All 46 of my books were published with major houses, including Simon & Schuster, Random House and McGraw-Hill. My advice is to go with a major publisher for your first book. That makes you stand out among all the clutter and helps build credibility easier. Today, 78% of my client inquiries can be traced to the books.”

Eric Erickson

  • Business: Desert Green Pest Management
  • Strategy: Self-publish a how-to book promoting the business’s expertise
  • Results: Sales came from new global markets, increasing a total of 20%

“Seven years ago, I started a natural pest control business, and we needed to stand out as the experts. We started by creating educational videos on YouTube, teaching people chemical-free ways of keeping insects out of their homes. Some became really popular, which gave us a lot of credibility and drove a lot of business.

“I’ve been an entrepreneur my whole life and have been involved in a number of publishing projects. I understand how much credibility a book can give a business. So I spent many, many hours researching and writing a book on natural and organic pest control. I had some friends with English degrees make sure it read at an eighth-grade level. I also hired a cover designer through the site Fivrr, which brokers affordable tech and design services.

“The book launched in February 2012 on Amazon—most of the 100 or so sales have been print-on-demand books for $12.48, though a few Kindle versions were also sold at $2.99. We promoted via Facebook, Twitter and on our company website. Since then, The Do-It-Yourself Guide: Keep the Pests Out has netted us new customers for our green products around the world. I attribute a sales jump of $100,000—or 20%—from the $100 investment I made to create the book.

“Now that I see how much success a book can drive, I’m writing a title for my business consulting firm: How to Start a Business from Scratch Backwards and Start Making Money in 30 Days or Less. The goal with this book is to attract high-profile media attention.”

Marc Joseph

  • Business: DollarDays, wholesaler of consumer products for independent retailers
  • Strategy: Teach customers how to be more successful through a book
  • Results: From the major publicity generated, company was positioned as industry expert

“I launched this business in 2001. From the start, I would get a dozen calls each day from our customers asking questions about running their businesses—everything from pricing to advertising and merchandising. I was happy to do that. It felt good to give advice.

“But pretty soon, 12 calls turned into 20. It was clear the smartest thing to do was to write a book to give these entrepreneurs a game plan for running their businesses. We knew that if we got them hooked into how we do business, it would help them be successful, which is obviously a win for us, too.

“Writing the book was a lot of work. Don’t kid yourself. I spent every weekend for nine months in my office writing it. You need a lot of personal and professional support to write a book.

“In 2005, The Secrets of Retailing…or How to Beat Walmart came out on Silverback Books. It immediately generated lots of publicity and positioned us as experts. I went on a tour visiting mostly independent bookstores, because the book’s message is how to survive and thrive against mega-chain competition.

“The book has made us go-to experts for retail sales, since, as wholesalers, we see trends emerging a full 30 days before retailers do. For example, the business media calls about holiday shopping trends in November, because we are the ones stocking the retailers. Those media relationships come from the book.

“As a result of all that publicity, we landed on the Inc. 500 ‘fastest-growing companies’ list in 2013. That is important from a PR standpoint since we are also a ‘little guy’ successfully competing against the big guys (Amazon and Walmart), just like our customers.”

Original article here: 
https://dm61q01mhxuli.cloudfront.net/media/magazine_v2.pdf

Is Entrepreneurship Dead in America?

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Over 200 years ago, James Madison wrote, “[T]he greater proportion of citizens who are their own masters, the more free, the more independent, and the more happy must be society itself.” Entrepreneurship is a critical measurement of our country’s political vitality and our own personal liberties. The more independent citizens become, power and responsibility will be distributed broader, which, in turn, strengthens our democracy. We, as Americans, have always viewed entrepreneurship as a fundamental way for upward mobility, where average people can build their wealth through a business venture that can be passed on to their kids or sold at retirement age. It could be the family farm, a local restaurant or a retail store that provides income and a place to teach their children and others the value of responsibility and working hard.

The Washington Monthly reported that compared to a generation ago, it is now much harder to start a business in America and keep it running. In 1980, “young firms”—companies [fewer] than five years old—account[ed] for 50% of all going concerns; [t]oday, it is less than 35%. In 1977, there were 35 new employer businesses for every 10,000 citizens; [t]oday, there are fewer than 17—a 50% drop! Startups made up 12% of U.S. companies in 1980, and today, they are less than 8%. We now average 7.8 startup jobs per 1,000 Americans, compared to 10.8 during the Bush years and 11.2 during Clinton.

So what is causing Americans to be less entrepreneurial than their fathers and mothers? We can all point to this recession we have been grappling with over the last four years, but I think it is deeper than that. In addition to new regulations of healthcare reform, an increase in regulatory activity in several industries, and the uncertainty about taxes, there are several causes that come into play that make it so hard to become an entrepreneur today:

  • There continues to be a shortage of financing alternatives to start businesses. Before the housing bubble, many Americans were using the equity in their homes as collateral for the financing of their business. Now that this equity has disappeared, borrowing against your house is just a pipe dream. [While] venture capitalists are in the news [almost every day] funding the big hitters, in truth, only an extremely small fraction of startups have access to venture funds. Venture investors with billions of dollars are pursuing a select group of entrepreneurs. Even though they fail to recoup their cash on 75% of their deals, the other 25% is big enough for investment companies to continue to be looking for those few new cutting-edge companies but has no effect with the mom-and-pop shop[s]. Add to this that bank loans to small businesses fell to a 12-year low in 2012, and financing may be the most powerful reason for the dramatic drop in entrepreneurship.
  • Technology […] is also responsible for displacing independent businesses across several […] verticals. How many travel agents have lost their business to the Internet? Where are the video stores, the record stores, the bookstores? Why do you need to see a middleman to buy products when you can go right onto the Internet to find goods? [T]echnology [also] provides the opportunity to combine small businesses into a few big ones—just ask Amazon.
  • The well-financed chain businesses are killing the little guy. Look what Staples has done to the office supply industry or [what] The Home Depot did to hardware stores or Best Buy did to electronic stores. Walmart controls close to 50% of some lines of the grocery and the general merchandise business, where a generation ago, thousands of families made their living selling these goods.

The Economist though still thinks America is a beacon for entrepreneurs. Our country was settled by innovators and risk-takers who were willing to sacrifice what they knew to be safe for new opportunities. In our current day, we continue to read about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who inspire us with how they built companies out of their garage. In a sense, this country was set up to encourage individuals to follow their dream:

  • Our culture encourages risk-taking. American companies have the unusual freedom to hire and fire workers and at the same time workers have the freedom to leave companies for better opportunities. We [believe] our fate still lies in our own hands.
  • Throughout our country, there are close relationships between universities and industry. Our universities are economic engines rather than ivory towers. They promote technology offices, science parks, business incubators and venture funds. Stanford University gained $200 million in stock when Google went public, [and] close to half of the startups in Silicon Valley have their roots in the university.
  • Historically, the United States immigration policy has been fairly open. We are a country of immigrants, and the brightest from overseas can see this. Just look at Silicon Valley again, where 52% of the startups were founded by immigrants, up from 25% just 10 years ago.
  • American consumers are unusually willing to try new products of all kinds, even it means learning new skills and taking a bigger chunk out of their savings. The bold American consumer is vocal in getting manufacturers to improve their products to meet their needs. This is not a bashful country.

On one hand, we have statistical proof that entrepreneurs are fading from the American landscape; on the other hand, we have many pieces in place to nurture and grow the entrepreneurial spirit. Are we at a crossroads where the determination of our forefathers built our great society, yet this generation is going to let it fade away?

America has realized that we have to do more to encourage entrepreneurs to follow their dream. Startup America Partnership was formed by the Kauffman and Case foundations to help entrepreneurs get their companies off the ground by delivering free or low-cost services and connecting them with larger corporations. Score is a nonprofit association helping small businesses succeed by using volunteer mentors who share their knowledge in an effort to give back to their community.

These are challenging economic times. A third of all startups fail within the first two years, and 60% are doomed to fail by the fourth year. Who in their right mind would play these odds, especially during these financially uncertain times? [A]s a society, we must look back to our founding fathers, [who] had the vision to create a nation that strengthens democracy through individuals taking the initiative and the chances to better those around them. Entrepreneurship is not dead; it is just reemerging on a different playing field, where innovative people need to be technologically in tune with new roads to travel. Now is the time to stop dreaming and begin to act on your dreams. When you think that 16 out of the 30 corporations that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average started during a recession, why can’t that be you?

Original article here:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/is-entrepreneurship-dead-america_b_2551281.html