A summary of things you should know about The Startup Survival System according to Kurt Won: Introduction In this episode Kurt Won reveals all the insights on his book, TheRead More
The post A Preview of The Startup Survival System with Kurt Won appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>In this episode Kurt Won reveals all the insights on his book, The Startup Survival System, where he shares how a startup can thrive in the first 2 years of business.
In his book Won gives you a simple systematic approach to prioritizing your business, narrowing your focus, and increasing your results to ultimately keep your business from failing too early. The goal of the book is to help you prepare for the consequences of entrepreneurship, build a foundation for your startup, improve operations, drive more sales, and maximize profitability.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs who are ready to launch a new startup company and need an easy, actionable guide to help them get started.
The Startup Survival System is a very easy read and I’ve made it fun with very simple language for the reader to understand. I think the biggest difference that sets it apart is that I use survival in the wilderness as a metaphor for surviving as a startup which I think helps engage the reader throughout the book.
Because this book is a very simple read I suggest the reader read through the entire thing. I found that the more you read this book and answers the questions I give you the more you’ll get out of the book.
I would really want the reader to take action on the 5 C’s to complete confidence which I introduce in the book. This is a framework that having worked with so many people I have found really works. Learning this framework will allow you to help others on your team but also in your life to build their confidence which helps them to increase their productivity and also helps your business.
Just imagine that you are stuck in the wilderness all by yourself and without any tools. If this were really the case more than likely the first thing you would do is look for shelter or build shelter for yourself. I think this is also one of the things you need to do as a startup at the beginning. And chapter one is all about exploring ways for you to protect your business.
When you are starting up a business at some point you are going to experience some testing times and any entrepreneur can attest to that. And those times will test your spirit and also push you to the brink of nearly quitting your business. And so chapter two is really about getting clarity on where you are in your business and your bigger purpose other than making money. Because when the times are tough the thing that’s going to keep you in your business and doing what you are supposed to do is having a personal mission. And so in chapter two I will ask you questions to help you gain clarity on your purpose, your mission, and what’s really driving your desire to start a business or stay in business.
If I take you back into the wilderness, once you set up your shelter you need to find fresh water and fresh food to give you the energy to survive and find your way out. In business you need sales and cash flow to sustain all of the operations that happen on a day to day basis. In chapter three I share with you tips and also a proven process to help you to increase your sales more quickly and also make more money.
In chapter four we explore what to do in order to keep predators away from stealing your ideas, sales, and intellectual property. You will see that protecting your ideas can really help you create long-term wealth. If you are in a position right now where you have a very unique product or service that you don’t want people to steal than this chapter is really for you.
Once you protect your ideas you move on to chapter five which is called Surviving the Storm. I titled it that because no matter how things are going you are going to get the good times and also the bad times. In this chapter I share with you tips and strategies on how to deal with those rough times.
Chapter six is about what I call Tribal Survival. This chapter is about look at who is on your team, who you need to get on your team, and how to become and better leader.
Chapter seven is about taking the time to really look at the big picture and what all you have achieved.
In chapter eight I explore how to leave tracks for new customers to find you. I help the reader to get clear on how to establish the branding and also your marketing strategy.
Chapter nine will really help you to gain insights on how to put systems around your processes so it’s easy for you and your team to replicate the success that you’re having.
In chapter ten we look at the finance side. What happens to your money when it comes in to your business? Do you put some of that money away or does all of it get spent? In this chapter I help you to get clarity to better engage with your money flow on a weekly basis and ensure that you don’t get caught in what I call a cash trap.
In the final chapter I talk about the need to build a business in such a way that allows you to extract yourself from the business if you choose to do so.
NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 5:14
“Build a business that people can rely on, not a business that relies on you.” – Kurt Won
I was born and raised in South African and have been living over in the UK for the past 15 years. I am a multi award winning consultant for startups and small business owners. I am a speaker and now I’m an author. I’ve worked with over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners across 15 different countries to help increase sales and drive results in their business in a much quicker time.
My mission is to be able to help empower and support as many startups and existing small business owners as possible. Over the past five years I have worked with over 1,000 entrepreneurs and small business owners and I found that there are really so many people I can help with the amount of time that I have. I knew that writing this book would be a great way to help serve more people and make a bigger impact and help more startups survive and thrive in their first years of business.
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
Buy The Startup Survival System by Kurt Won on Amazon today
Visit TheStartupSurvivalSystem.com to learn more about Kurt and his book
Follow Kurt Won on Facebook and Twitter
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books:
Business in Blue Jeans by Susan Baroncini-Moe
Fail Fast or Win Big by Bernhard Schroeder
Profit Hacking by Steven Daar
Relevant advice and tips:
5 Financial Mistakes That Devastate Startups
5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make With Marketing and Branding
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
The post A Preview of The Startup Survival System with Kurt Won appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>A summary of things you should know about How To Ruin A Business Without Really Trying according to MJ Gottlieb: Introduction In this episode MJ Gottlieb shares his book, HowRead More
The post A Preview of How To Ruin A Business Without Really Trying with MJ Gottlieb appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>In this episode MJ Gottlieb shares his book, How To Ruin A Business Without Really Trying, where he shares what every entrepreneur should not do when running a business.
In his book Gottlieb gives you 55 of the most painful and destruction mistakes and failures many entrepreneurs make when running a business today. The goal of his book is to help you learn from other entrepreneurs’ mistakes while taking the ego out of the equation allowing you to enjoy the freedom of your own experience.
This book is perfect for aspiring entrepreneurs who are thinking about starting a business and need a stepping stone to help promote faster growth in the beginning.
Most of the books that are out there tell people what to do. I believe that this is really the first book that tells people what not to do. And the reasoning behind that is that I don’t believe entrepreneurs like to be told what to do.
You can absolutely jump from one section to the next and it doesn’t necessarily have to be read from front to back.
I would say doing your due diligence. I think that doing your due diligence is one of the most recurring themes of the book.
The book is separated in to two sections. The first section is 39 case studies starting with the top do nots and never evers. These are the most common and prominent mistakes entrepreneurs make and I do that by highlighting the mistakes that I have made. Every case study has the mistake that I made and then it goes into the right thing to do which is what I know about it now and how I would go about doing things differently. Even though I came from the fashionable background it is applicable for all business whether you are product driven or service driven.
The second part of the book has everything to do with people that are in pursuit of the deal, raising capital, the different types of investors, the whole process of looking for money, the value of resources compared to just money, different problems with technology and different ways that we can take advantage now of the technology that we have. Sections also contain things that you would never learn in a business class such as something like Murphy’s Law. It is full of information that happens in the real world of being an entrepreneur that you really can’t be taught in business class.
“The jack of all trades is a jackass.” – MJ Gottlieb
I have been typically in the offline business for about 20 years having owned and operated five fashion brands since 1991. The last one I owned was up until 2007. I recently wrote a book about all the mistakes I made in hopes that aspiring entrepreneurs can actually learn from those mistakes.
I had just lost my second business and I was writing down all the mistakes that I had made just to get it out of my system. A friend of mine said it was great that I was doing it but asked if I had any idea the value that this information can have for those people that are looking to start a business. He said to call it What Not To Do When Starting A Business and then years later I made it into a book.
How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Buy How To Ruin A Business Without Really Trying by MJ Gottlieb on Amazon today
Visit HustleBranding.com to learn more about MJ and his company
Visit HowToRuinABusiness.com to learn more about the book
Follow MJ Gottlieb on Twitter and Facebook
For questions contact MJ by email here
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books: Business in Blue Jeans by Susan Baroncini-Moe | All In Startup by Diana Kander | People Tools For Business by Alan Fox
Relevant advice and tips: 5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Overcome Business Failure
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
The post A Preview of How To Ruin A Business Without Really Trying with MJ Gottlieb appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make With Marketing and Branding Marketing, when done correctly, is considered as an investment to a business. Since entrepreneurs can’t splurge huge amounts of money on theRead More
The post 5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make With Marketing and Branding appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make With Marketing and Branding
Marketing, when done correctly, is considered as an investment to a business. Since entrepreneurs can’t splurge huge amounts of money on the promotion of their products and services like larger brands, they need to be very particular about their marketing plan to ensure that not a single marketing dollar gets wasted. A great marketing plan can bolster the market reputation of a business and can help it win the trust of its targeted audience eventually, whereas a bad marketing plan can hurt its business prospect in more than one way.
Building a brand image is never easy. It takes years to build a solid brand but it takes just a few seconds to ruin it. Don’t believe us? Well then, try posting something nasty via your company’s social profile and you will see how the reputation of your company comes crumbling down [safety notice – don’t try this at home/office].
The thing is that most entrepreneurs have no idea about promoting their brand and for that reason, they try different things only to find themselves in deep trouble at the end. Sometimes they prioritize product development over marketing and branding and sometimes, they just ignore the concept of branding altogether. Here are some 5 mistakes entrepreneurs make with marketing and branding:
You Have no Idea About Your Targeted Audience
Imagine a scenario that you are selling anti-aging products and you are targeting mainly teenage boys. The probable outcome of this bizarre marketing initiative is easy to predict – a big Disaster. You need to realize the truth that you simply can’t target everybody around. You need to identify your targeted audience first before even thinking about marketing products. Culture, age, sex, geographical locations etc all play pivotal role while choosing your targeted audience.
You Don’t Care About What People Are Saying About Your Brand
Some business owners tend to remain oblivious to the fact that people might be discussing about their brand right now on different social media sites. You may never know that an irate customer might be venting his anger by spitting venom about your brand on Facebook or Twitter and if you don’t intervene right now or don’t redress his problem, things might go out of your hand. You need to keep a hawk eye on different social media channels otherwise a small issue can get snowballed into a major crisis.
You Are Trying to Be Everywhere
Some business owners are of the opinion that they should be active on social media channels. Now, there are over hundreds of social networking sites available and that means, there is no way you can be active on all of them. Try to identify those platforms that draw large number of your targeted audience and be active on those platforms. Limit the number of official social account to 4 or 5.
You are Trying to Do Everything By Yourself
Some business owners try to do everything all by themselves. It is good to keep eyes on everything but it will drain all your energy at the end of the day. Moreover, sometimes it is good to appoint a professional rather than doing all by yourself and messing things up miserably.
Your Business Does not Have a Website
You gotta be kidding, right? Why would a business not have an official website in the digital world today? To boost the brand presence of your business on the web, your business needs to have a website. There is no way around it. You need to invest some marketing dollars on design, hosting and content. Make the website live as soon as possible otherwise all your attempts to bolster the brand presence of your business will fall flat on the ground.
If you are looking for some great books that provide insights into marketing and branding, I recommend the following 5 reads:
Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days by Jay Conrad Levinson and Al Lautenslager – Listen to my interview with Al here
Business in Blue Jeans by Susan Baroncini-Moe – Listen to my interview with Susan here
Startup Mixology by Frank Gruber – Listen to my interview with Frank here
Everyday Entrepreneurs by Ken Horn – Listen to my interview with Ken here
How To Get Unstuck by Barry J Moltz – Listen to my interview with Barry here
The post 5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make With Marketing and Branding appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>A summary of things you should know about Business In Blue Jeans according to Susan Baroncini-Moe Introduction Business in Blue Jeans is designed to be as close to the experienceRead More
The post A Preview of Business in Blue Jeans with Susan Baroncini-Moe appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>Business in Blue Jeans is designed to be as close to the experience of working with Susan Baroncini-Moe one on one. When you read the book it is very much like the way she works with her clients. She starts with letting you know that you aren’t alone, giving you examples of things you need to know. The other thing is this book is based on fundamentals and we all need those fundamentals because if your business isn’t growing its most liking you need to find out what fundamentals you’re missing. It is written for people who are starting a business and people who are in growth.
There are a lot of books out there regarding this topic but the way I say it is a lot different from others. I don’t start with saying let’s start your own business; I start with asking you what you really want out of life. We don’t want to just start a business that you hate; we want to create a business that makes whatever you want out of life possible. I am all about creating a business that makes since for each individual person. The other thing is this book is based on fundamentals and we all need those fundamentals because if your business isn’t growing its most liking you need to find out what fundamentals you’re missing. It is written for people who are starting a business and people who are in growth. There are homework assignments throughout the book for both audiences.
The most important concept to me is the chapter on brain junk. The reason I believe it’s the most important is it’s the starting point. If you don’t address your brain junk every step of the way is going to be impacted by your brain junk.
The book is designed to be as close to the experience of working with me one on one. When you read the book it is very much like the way I work with my clients. So I start with letting you know that you aren’t alone, giving you examples of things you need to know and when you read this book I want you to feel like I’m right there by your side. It’s written to be approachable and friendly. I talk a lot about how there is no get rich quick in business and it’s really not about that. There are certainly ways of making the process easier and shorter but it’s really not about going super-fast and getting rich quick.
The chapter I start with is titled Brain Junk and I start there because at the end of the day, if you don’t work on your brain junk, you will sabotage every piece of success that you’re able to create. We all have these ideas about ourselves, our business, and our money and we need to make sure those ideas are moving us into a positive direction. If we don’t deal with those ideas, they are going to hold us completely back. I also cover how to take care of yourself because you’re your own best resource and if the captain goes down, the ship goes down with it. We talk a lot about stress, sleep, time management, relationships and things like that. I think those are the fundamental places to start because they are really building a solid foundation.
I go more into what I call The Fire which is really about what you love doing and what your business makes possible. When you are deciding on a new business you need to know what you love doing and what you’re good at doing. It’s at the cross section of where those two things meet that you’re going to have the most likelihood for success.
Once you figure out what it’s going to take and you know your business is centered in the right place then we talk about what I call The Packaging. We talk about things like target market, mission statements and competition. We also talk about how to develop product and service offerings, creating a business model and how to deliver products and services.
And then I have a chapter called Leaning into your Marketing which is basically a philosophy of going a step beyond engagement marketing. It’s about how to create a marketing brand, what are the big mistakes in branding that a lot of big companies are making and leaning into your marketing. And I also include a piece on marketing with conscience because I think it’s important that we make the world a better place.
The last chapter of the book is about The Village and this is about creating a support structure for your business. I talk about the real intense and the perfection into masterminds and why it’s such a great concept. Then I talk about networking and getting your administrative staff together to help you manage your business. It’s also important to have a good advisory staff that can really help you and know the answers to the questions that you have. The book is design to give the reader really good start and/or a big burst in their growth.
“What builds success is creating a stable, strong business that’s based on fundamental principles and fusing that solid foundation with the best performing strategies that apply to your business and your target market.” – Susan Baroncini-Moe
I am the CEO of a company called Business in Blue Jeans. We are a digital marketing and consulting firm. We do full scale marketing all the way down from teaching/training you, to doing it for you. I also do a lot of business coaching and work with a large variety of all kinds of clients for the past 16 years or so.
I have always wanted to write a book but wasn’t sure what that would be. After working with a lot of people, I found myself saying the same things, and realized a book was a good resource for those that couldn’t afford to hire a coach. I thought I should really put this in book format so people can get a taste of my philosophy of doing business and how I do it differently.
Go Wild by John Ratey
Buy Business In Blue Jeans by Susan Baroncini-Moe on Amazon today
Subscribe at BusinessInBlueJeans.com to get the first chapter and workbook for free
BONUS: When you buy the book you get a workbook for each chapter developed by Susan
Download the full transcript here
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books: The Carpenter by Jon Gordon | Lean Customer Development by Cindy Alvarez | All In Startup by Diana Kander | Startup Mixology by Frank Gruber
Relevant advice and tips: Top Financial Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Creating a New Business | 5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make With Marketing and Branding
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
Share with us in the comments below:
The post A Preview of Business in Blue Jeans with Susan Baroncini-Moe appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>