Quote of the day

10 Clever Marketing Tricks Using CRM, Link Building and More

Want to master online marketing? There’s so much that goes into creating an effective strategy. But members of our small business community have plenty of marketing knowledge to share. Read on for some of their top tips for taking your online marketing to the next level.

Solve These CRM Problems

Customer Relationship Management is a key part of communicating with customers online. But every CRM system presents its own challenges too. In this SBA post, Anita Campbell explains some of the biggest problems businesses might run into when implementing a CRM system and how to solve them.

Change Your Social Media Mindset

There are some common myths about social media that could be hurting your online marketing efforts. In this post on Strella Social Media, Rachel Strella details what some of these myths are and how to avoid them to make your social media strategies more effective. BizSugar members also share thoughts on the post on the community.

Use These Link Building Techniques to Push Traffic and Revenue

Link building isn’t just a cheap way to bring in customers via search anymore. It involves actually building relationships with other bloggers, businesses and site holders and then nurturing those relationships with visitors once they get to your site. Moosa Hemani of SETalks shares some link building tips here.

Generate Sales Through Social Media

Making sales doesn’t mean you have to have individual salespeople push your offerings onto different consumers. You can actually use social media to generate sales. Neil Patel outlines some tips for doing so in this post.

Pay Attention to Bounce Rate

Your website’s bounce rate is a stat that measures how quickly people leave your website after clicking on one  of your pages. To improve your website and this rate, you need to first understand what it is and why it’s important, as Mike Allton of the Social Media Hat details here. You can see further discussion about the post over on BizSugar.

Boost Your Ecommerce Sales With Email Marketing

Email marketing can let you communicate and form relationships with lots of different customers. Even if you have an eCommerce business, you can use email marketing to boost sales. This post by Vanhishikha Bhargava of Exit Bee includes tips for doing just that.

Create Interactive Content Your Audience Will Love

If you look at content marketing as just a way for you to share a specific message, you might not be getting as much out of it as you could. Instead, creating content that lets your audience interact with you can be more helpful for both your business and your audience, as James Pointon explains in this Right Mix Marketing post.

Master the Time Zones for International Marketing

Marketing a business online means having the potential to reach consumers all over the world. But if you want to actually reach those consumers when they are likely to act on your messages, you need to master the time zones. Bettina Specht provides some tips in this Litmus post. And the BizSugar community shares input too.

Learn From Abandoned Shopping Carts

Running an eCommerce business means providing a very specific type of customer service. You have to create a positive experience for customers on your site. So when they do things like abandoning their carts before completing a purchase, there’s usually something to be learned from that. This post by Leslie Simpson on Carts Guru includes some lessons you can learn from abandoned shopping carts.

Send the Most Relevant Emails to Recipients

Perspective customers on your email list don’t want to receive canned emails that look like they could have been sent to anyone. If you want to provide the best online experience for all of your customers, you need to know how to send only the most relevant emails to each of your customers. Scott Heimes explains more in this Marketing Land post.

 Source : http://bit.ly/2aK2HRt

6 Ways Startups Waste Money on Marketing

Marketing will be where the majority of startups spend most of their budgets. The average B2B marketer spends 42 percent of their budgets on marketing. Yet there are so many startups that don’t always get the results they want simply because most of their dollars are being wasted. If you are failing due to ineffective tactics and tools, this guide is going to show you some of the most common mistakes you may already be making, and how to turn things around.

Building a Following on Social Media

Your marketing budget should be spent partly on social media. But so many startups are convinced that building a following is going to lead to success. The problem with this is that social media reach is no longer what’s best for business. Facebook has seen organic reach crippled. Investing all this time into building a following is nearly pointless because what you’ll quickly discover is that you can have 100 likes on Facebook yet still make more money through advertising than someone with a thousand likes.

When only a fraction of your following will ever see your posts, building a following on social media is an entirely fruitless pursuit, so save your money.

Building a following remains important, but it should come through purchases of your products not through ‘like’ building campaigns.

Giving Up Too Soon

Startup owners believe that their product is so great that it’s sure to gain traction within a matter of days. Many small businesses begin with a twinkle in their eye and then realize they are not going to have an easy time.

Rather than persevering, they give up too soon. Many small business owners begin with high expectations and then when these aren’t met they believe it’s a problem with their business. You have unrealistic expectations if you demand that your business becomes a success within two years.

Not Understanding Your Audience

You can target any niche in the world with advanced marketing and advertising tools these days. To make the most of this you have to actually understand your audience, though. It’s necessary to have the image of your perfect customer, along with their likes/dislikes, and where they hang out.

If you are unable to understand your target audience, your targeting is always going to be slightly off. Conduct customer research before you start to waste your marketing dollars.

You Have No Idea How You Attracted Your Loyal Customers

The most loyal customers in your brand will be the ones who purchase every new product or service without question. These are the people you can rely on. At the same time, you need to know how you got them in the first place. It’s important for you to have a good idea for how you found your most loyal customers, so you can continue to replicate these tactics.

With most startups, the top fifth of your customers may account for up to 70 percent of your overall revenue, and this won’t change much as you grow.

Wagering Everything on One Marketing Campaign

Marketing is a game of trial and error whether you’re a small business or a large business. There are lots of things you can try and part of your growth period is to test out all these different tactics. But it’s difficult to do this when you’re wagering your entire marketing budget on a single campaign.

Don’t give yourself one shot to make your startup work. There’s a time and a place for this, but it’s not now. The best way to handle marketing as a startup is to start with extremely small scale tests.

Scaling up your marketing efforts should be done with extreme caution and only when you are sure that you are actually getting results. If it doesn’t work at a small level, it’s certainly not going to work at a higher spending level.

Not Tracking Your Results Well Enough

And then there are times where you are simply not tracking your results well enough. This tends to happen when startups gain a little bit of success in the beginning. They become so caught up in their success that they forget to track their results and compare them against the past.

Only by keeping track of your marketing results can you keep an accurate record of what works and what doesn’t. Without accurate measurements, you are going to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

 Source: http://bit.ly/1VjevgT

What Are the Top Three Things an Angel Investor Looks For?

Today, I am starting a new column here at Small Business Trends. In addition to my regular weekly articles that focus on data-driven discussions of entrepreneurship, I am going to cover my experience as an angel investor in two new monthly columns. Below, we will focus on the top three things that angel investors look for when evaluating a potential investment in a startup company.

What Does an Angel Investor Look For?

A Business Addressing a Real Customer Problem

The first thing I look at when evaluating whether or not to invest in someone else’s startup company is whether the company is responding to serious customer pain point. Selling a new product in a new company is very difficult. But if the startup is addressing a true problem that customers have, it will stand a chance of succeeding.

For example, I recently invested in a company which produces a biosensor that allows growers of fresh produce to identify pathogens, like Listeria, in minutes, not days. Faster identification of pathogens saves both money and lives, both of which are important to growers.

A Company Offering a Dramatically Better Solution than Competitors

The second thing I look for is the company’s solution to the customer’s problem. The odds of the company’s success are much higher when the entrepreneur is offering a dramatically better solution than other alternatives.

For instance, one of my portfolio companies uses artificial intelligence to allow salespeople to develop customized openings for email messages. The company’s product allows sales people to create email messages with three times higher click-through rates than templated messages. And it allows the sales people to create the message in less than half the time it takes to do it manually.

A six-fold increase in the number of “click-throughs” per minute of crafting time is a major improvement to companies undertaking email sales.

A Business-Led by an Experienced Entrepreneur

The third thing I look for is startup experience. As someone who has researched and taught entrepreneurship for 25 years, I can tell you one thing for sure. Much of what it takes to be a successful company founder cannot be learned in school or working for someone else. It is learned by doing.

That is why I look for entrepreneurs who have started at least one previous business with a successful exit. The exit doesn’t have to be huge. But the act of building a company and selling it to someone else for a reasonable return on the entrepreneur’s time and the investors’ capital already puts a founder in rare company.

More importantly, that outcome indicates to me that the person knows several things that inexperienced entrepreneurs might not know. For instance, the founder of one of my portfolio companies, had three previous exits, including a company he sold in 2011. That experience was a big draw for me when I investigated financing the company.

There are many more things I will investigate before I make an investment decision — whether I like and trust the founder; whether the entrepreneur can sell; whether the team is complete; whether the company’s business model makes sense; whether the idea is scalable; whether the market is large enough ; and whether there is sustainable competitive advantage, among other things.

But if I had to list the top three things an angel investor looks for when making investments — it’s these three items identified above.

    Source:http://bit.ly/1SGWhPP

5 Big Changes Coming to Social Media in 2016

It’s been a memorable year in social media. 2015 saw the birth of live social streaming, with apps like Periscope and Meerkat winning over early adopters. Snapchat fully shed its reputation as a niche network and now counts more than 200 million active users. Meanwhile, video dominated social headlines, with Facebook users now logging an estimated 8 billion video views a day(even more than on YouTube, by some counts).

What does 2016 hold for social media users? Expect to see new technologies fundamentally change how we interact with social media, opening up new options like shopping and enabling us to share ever-more vivid, real-time experiences. But new functionality and the widening universe of social options also threaten to leave some users in the dust. Here’s a peek into the crystal ball at five trends that will change how we use social media in 2016:

Virtual reality comes to social media: “Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.” That’s what Mark Zuckerberg wrote after Facebook acquired Oculus, the virtual reality company, for $2 billion back in March 2014. Well, we won’t have to imagine much longer. Facebook has already begun incorporating Oculus technology into its 360 Video. The unique videos, which have rolled out on News Feeds, allow users to experience scenes from different angles (looking right, left, up, down, etc.), on both web and mobile devices, creating a more immersive experience.

Right now, there’s 360 Video available from the likes of Vice and The Disney Channel and a really cool clip from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Expect to see more immersive videos in 2016 as publishers and even brands catch up with the technology and begin creating more content. As for true, fully immersive VR, the consumer version of the Oculus Rift headset is slated for release in early 2016, opening up even more interesting possibilities for our News Feeds. Meanwhile, Oculus VR has already released a new “social” appcalled Oculus Social Alpha, for use with the Samsung Gear VR headset. The virtual movie-watching app allows you to “sit” in a theater and watch a video in real-time with other users — perhaps the first truly social application of Facebook’s new technology.

Social shopping takes off: Over the last year, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest all unveiled or upgraded in-line buy buttons, which allow users to purchase clothes, crafts, gadgets and more without ever leaving their feeds. In many respects, this development is long overdue. We’re already discovering and talking about products on social media, and four out of five people say that posts from friends directly influence buying decisions. Plus, overseas in China, Korea and elsewhere, social channels have long incorporated ecommerce functionality.

So far, the primary stumbling block in North America has been ease of use. To buy on social media, we’ve had to click out to other sites (always problematic on smartphones) or we’ve been offered limited selection (a lathe now defunct Facebook Gifts). But innovations like Pinterest’s Buyable Pins now let users browse color and style options and pay, all without leaving the platform. In 2016, expect to see networks’ role shift from being channels whose primary function in ecommerce is providing referral traffic to being platforms where users make purchases directly.

Facebook Live takes live streaming mainstream: 2015 started off with lots of excitement about the new crop of live streaming apps, which allow users to broadcast live video to their followings. By late summer, Twitter-owned Periscope already boasted 10 million active users, and just this month it was named by Apple the best iOS app of 2015.

Expect to see live streaming reach a whole new, mainstream audience in the year ahead as Facebook rolls out its own mobile streaming functionality, generally referred to as Facebook Live. Already being beta-tested among a small number of U.S. iOS users, the feature allows for instantly sharing live video using the Facebook platform. What’s key here is that you don’t have to download a special app or leave Facebook to use the new video functionality. If Facebook Live rolls out as expected, it’s likely to not only dominate other live streaming options but also to fundamentally change the way Facebook’s 1.5 billion users engage with the platform.

The social media skills gap at work widens: With the explosion of workplace social networks like Slack (which recently saw more than 1 million users logged in at the same time) and the imminent launch of Facebook at Work, using social media in the office has gone from taboo to requirement. Businesses are incorporating social tools to streamline internal communications, to help sales staff reach customers, and, of course, for marketing and advertising. The problem is that front-line employees aren’t up to the challenge. Among 2,100 companies surveyed by Harvard Business Review, just 12 percent of those using social media feel they use it effectively. Even millennials brought up on social media are falling short: “Because somebody grows up being a social media native, it doesn’t make them an expert in using social media at work,”explains William Ward, professor of social media at Syracuse University.

The consequence of this social media skills gap can be seen in mounting corporate social media gaffes, from misused hashtags (see #WhyIStayed) to scheduled posts gone awry, not to mention trillions of dollars (yes, trillions) in lost productivity and business value. In 2016, expect to see social media training finally begin to make its way into the workplace in an effort to close this gap — similar to initiatives launched when office software suites and later email and the Internet itself emerged as critical business tools. A number of online offerings now provide self-paced lessons and video modules designed for the workplace. (Hootsuite is giving our course away free.)

Social media customer service gets a lot better: Customer service on social media has always seemed like a great idea. Why wait on the phone when you can Tweet and get an answer immediately? But the reality has been quite different. A new study of 500 top retailers shows that only 20 percent answer questions sent via Twitter and 54 percent respond via Facebook. And the average response time ranges from 27–31 hours! Not to mention that not all customer service problems lend themselves to being handled out in the open in a public forum.

Fortunately, change is on the horizon. In the latter part of 2015, both Twitter and Facebook significantly upped their customer service functionality. Twitter ditched the “mutual follow” requirement for its DM (Direct Messages) feature, meaning companies and customers can now contact each other directly and privately. At the same time, it lifted the standard 140-character limit for Direct Messages, so DM now makes a great one-on-one channel for tackling customer issues. Facebook, not to be outdone, has launched a beta version of Messenger Business, offering a new chat-based avenue for companies to have real-time, personal conversations with customers. Considering that Messenger has more than 800 million users, it’s not hard to see it evolving into a ubiquitous, mobile-friendly channel for customer service in the years ahead.

Perhaps the biggest change in social media is the accelerated evolution of networks into “everything platforms.” Twitter isn’t just for blasting out 140-character updates anymore: It’s for one-on-one messaging, video-sharing, customer service and more. Facebook isn’t just about connecting with friends: It’s now (or soon to be) a workplace productivity tool, a video sharing and streaming platform, a place to shop, etc. Similar transformations can be seen across LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat, among other networks. Social media has become less a discrete thing that people do than a natural component of everything they do. And that trend shows no signs of slowing.

Source : http://bit.ly/1PkKSKb

6 CREATIVITY HABITS FOR PEOPLE WHO THINK THEY'RE NOT CREATIVE

EVERYONE IS CREATIVE. (NO, REALLY.) HERE'S HOW TO UNLEASH YOUR BEST IDEAS.

Think about the roles and responsibilities in your office. There are probably people you think of as "creative"—maybe those in product or graphic design, marketing, and even sales. Then there are those who don’t immediately spring to mind when that word is used.

But thinking about people—or yourself—as "not creative" could be hurting your company, because you’re discouraging them from thinking in innovative ways before they can even do so, says Mark Prommel, a partner at Pensa, a Brooklyn-based design and invention firm.

"Ideas and the creative execution of those ideas comes from anyone, anywhere," he says.

Does your workplace have creative designations? Use these six tips to create a culture where everyone’s creativity is stoked.

HABIT NO. 1: BANISH "YEAH, BUT"

If Leslie Ehm, president and "chief fire starter" at Toronto creativity training firmCombustion, could give organizations only one piece of advice to encourage creativity, it would be "to ban the phrase ‘yeah, but,’" she says. "'Yeah, but’ is just ‘no’ in a dress." Change the phrase to, "Yeah, and." That simple change suddenly confirms the original person’s contribution as valuable and builds on it. People don’t feel shut down. That’s collaboration in action, she says.

HABIT NO. 2: GET NEW PEOPLE AROUND A TABLE

One of the quickest ways to get people who think they aren’t creative to shed that viewpoint and start to contribute is to get them around a table brainstorming and coming up with solutions with a diverse group of people, says Jay Mathur, founder ofvalueideas, a creativity and management consultancy. The interaction with new people can bring perspectives never before considered and spur new ideas within the group, he says.

"If you bring a diversity of ideas, this is where a collision of ideas happen and the energy that releases new ideas. It can combine ideas. It can create more refined ideas," he says.

A 2015 study by researchers at Rice University and elsewhere backs a similar concept. The researchers looked at sales representatives at a pharmaceutical company in China. Those with wide networks of contacts came up with more creative solutions to sales and marketing challenges.

HABIT NO. 3: GIVE YOUR EMPLOYEES FREEDOM

It’s important to have job descriptions so that people can get things done and know the benchmarks by which they’re being measured. However, leaders who are trying to create a culture of creativity also need to reward—or, at the very least, not discourage—people from contributing beyond the confines of their roles, Ehm says. She cites a team she’s currently training where employees are worried about whether they’ll actually be allowed to contribute once the training is over.

"We keep saying to them, ‘Leadership is saying yes,’ [and they say,] ‘But, when we get back to the regular kind of workflow, and we have to do things fast, are they going to allow us to do it?’" she says. Make sure your own culture isn’t causing this type of creative hesitation. And encourage people to question processes, Prommel says. Let people know that if they see a better way to do something, it’s not only okay to speak up—it’s valued.

HABIT NO. 4: REWARD THE EFFORT EVEN IF IT'S A FAILURE

Ehm defines creativity as "combining previously uncombined thoughts and ideas to create new thoughts and ideas. Once you’ve gotten people to do that, you need to reward the effort, rather than the outcome," she says.

"Hierarchically, everyone is rewarded for coming up with the right answer, to sort of smooth the rough spots in the process. There's not a lot of room for rewarding or celebrating the risk and the failure. You can't have creativity without failure," she says.

HABIT NO. 5: WORK ON NEW PROJECTS

Grinding out the same old projects every day can burn out even the brightest creative light. At Pensa, Prommel and his team try to carve out time to think about projects on which they’d like to work, or areas in which they’re interested and think of ideas. Give employees time to think about the projects on which they’d like to work and try to get them involved on those teams, he says. Letting employees be part of projects that excite them is going to stir creativity. Plus, contributions from people who have fresh perspectives can help bring forth new ideas.

Source : http://bit.ly/1RPk6bK

Do you like marketing?

9 Social Media Marketing Mistakes Startups Should Avoid

Beginnings are difficult for startups, more so for startups trying to make their presence felt on social media platforms. While it is a fact that social media marketing can help accelerate the growth of your startup, damaging your online reputation is easy if you don’t do it right.

This shouldn’t put you off the idea of taking your startup online though: you only need to make the right efforts to see your brand gain followers on social media. If you’re planning to use social media to take your startup to new heights, here are 9 mistakes that you should avoid at all costs.

Not Having a Plan

Social media marketing is not about getting online and posting all you can about yourself and your startup. Before you make your presence felt online, it is imperative for you to have a social media strategic plan in place. Your social media efforts need to have a solid foundation and a strategic plan that outlines your goals and details your resources will be just that.

Get in touch with your lead sales and marketing members and identify your target audience. Also discuss how you plan to engage with them and how you’ll measure your success. List down your social media marketing objectives and be clear about how your social media campaign will augment your traditional marketing plans. Lastly, appoint specific people to put your social media marketing plan into action.

Not Being Committed to the Plan

If you’re not committed to your social media marketing plan, your social media accounts will end up being inactive, which will in turn, create a bad impression. Keep in mind that not having a Twitter account or handle is a lot better than having your last tweet date back to a year.

Your social media marketing plan is not a sprint; think of it as a marathon. If the results are making you impatient, tweak performance by analyzing metrics, adapting to audience behaviors, and tracking competition. Don’t let your enthusiasm fade; if you focus on your strategy and put in required efforts, your social media marketing plan is sure to work.

Selecting Random Platforms

Given the rise in the number of social media platforms, you might think it necessary to market your brand everywhere. However, all social media platforms have a different purpose and a different set of users. Subsequently, you’ll have to have a different social media marketing plan in place for each platform.

The key to marketing effectively on social media platforms is defining your target customers. Once you know who your customers are, selecting the right platform for your social media marketing plan will be easy.

Advertising on the wrong platforms will only be a waste of time and money. For example, you know that LinkedIn is primarily used by employers and job seekers, so advertising something that isn’t even remotely connected to recruitment or job vacancies on this platform will obviously not show positive results.

Consider using LinkedIn if you are a B2B company or if you want to establish yourself as a thought leader. Twitter can help you connect with like-minded thought leaders, join on-going conversations, and broadcast messages to followers. A social media marketing strategy based on SEO tactics will do great on Google+, while Facebook and Pinterest are great for sharing highly visual content.

Being All over the Place

As mentioned, all social media platforms have a different purpose, and as such, require different marketing plans. Being a startup, you might not have the time and energy to come up with engaging content for several platforms. Moreover, you don’t need to post on platforms that won’t get you desired results. So stick to picking a couple of social media platforms and trying your best to make your presence felt there.

Posting at Inappropriate Times

Simply knowing who your target customers are isn’t enough; you also need to know what time zones they live in and at what time they are most active on the social media platform of your choice for your posts to be noticed.

Take Facebook for example: a post shared on this platform has an average lifetime of about 23 hours in the Newsfeed section. If you share something when your target consumers are asleep or away at work, you lose out on those precious hours. Needless to say, sharing content during the peak hours will definitely get your brand noticed. So determine your sweet spot before you post and gain the upper hand easily.

Posting Too Often

While not posting consistently can be bad for your business, posting too frequently can also be a deal-breaker. Think about how annoying it is to see posts shared by a particular person all day- you certainly don’t want to annoy your target audience, do you?

Get the balance right: posting something once or twice in a month can cause your brand to become invisible, and sharing a dozen posts a day is way too much. Find out what works for your brand and stick to it.

Boring Your Audience

It is possible to bore your target audience without even knowing it, so be wary of what you’re posting at all times. Talk with your audience and get them engaged in a conversation, attract eyeballs, use humor, and ask genuine questions and give intelligent answers.

In addition to this, don’t be robotic; showcase your personality and you’re sure to engage more users. Aim to sell your brand without actually selling- you want to be on people’s minds, not forgotten the minute they log off.

Self-Promoting

If you only talk about yourself and your company, people are bound to unfollow you. Instead of putting your company in the limelight, focus on your target audience. Talk about things that interest your end users and you’ll end up engaging them in interesting conversations.

Furthermore, don’t be too aggressive in your approach. Build your brand’s reputation by empowering and educating your target audience instead of being a salesman.

Giving Users a Reason to Laugh

The worst thing you can do for your brand is to give your target audience a reason to laugh at you. Avoid gaffes by thinking about your posts and taking the time to analyze probable outcomes.

Most importantly, proofread all your posts and ensure there are no spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. If you happen to make a mistake, accept it and try to resolve it instead of hiding from it. Note that deleting an erroneous post won’t help- someone out there is sure to take a screenshot.

Additionally, refrain from giving canned responses to negative comments. Acknowledge issues and be genuine when engaging with users.

Conclusion

Social media mistakes have the potential to put a company out of business. As a startup owner, you can only be too cautious about what you post online. So put adequate thought into your social media marketing plans and ensure you don’t end up making the mistakes mentioned in this post.

Source : http://bit.ly/1OhqEKP

12 Surprising Startup Tips From YouTube Stars

Sometimes you can meet your future business partners in the strangest places.

Joshua Keller and Nick Matzorkis met anonymously on the Tyra Banks Show in 2006, performing live in a band together as "the world's first Internet band." Their band, The ClipBandits, had become one of the early YouTube sensations. What made their band unique was the members had never met in person, didn't know each others' names, nor even knew where each other lived. Their story was featured on ABC World News, Good Morning America, and countless other media outlets, prompting Tyra Banks to invite them and other bandmates onto her show to meet and perform together in person for the first time.

After their first in-person meeting, Matzorkis, a seasoned serial entrepreneur, and Keller, who at the time was in the process of forming his first company, immediately hit it off. They began exploring opportunities for working together, and eventually started up Global Agora, a seed capital venture fund and holding company. This then led to their launching a group of companies that included Union Square Media digital advertising agency, and SUP ATX Paddle Boards. USM has since grown into an industry leader with offices in New York, Boston, Miami, Austin, and Los Angeles. SUP ATX triggered the stand up paddling global phenomenon and remains the leader in that space. Global Agora is currently forecasting revenues of nearly $100 million in 2016. Not bad for a couple of former YouTube stars.

Here are 12 startup tips from Joshua and Nick--the first 5 are from Joshua, and the others are from Nick. You can also check out a video of their old group The ClipBandits (with a cameo appearance by Justin Timberlake) at the bottom of this page.

1. Keep it moving

Never expect things to stay the same or always be perfect. The worst thing you can do is sit around and sulk. You can't lose if you never give up.

2. Be a problem solver--never a complainer

The difference between success and failure is working through challenges and obstacles. There will always be ups and down but continuing to do the same thing and not solving the root of the issue is like running with a weight vest and shackles.

3. Automate and replicate

Whatever basic functions it takes to make your revenue stream try to automate as much as you can. Try to take it out of individual hands to determine success or failure. While some functions and decisions require a human mind, others don't, so identify which is which.

4. Trust people who have earned it

Not everyone will do things exactly how you do it, but when people have earned your trust you need to believe in them. Without an able support system of a trusted team, you will always be just another entrepreneur that is spinning too many plates and never take a step forward.

5. Build a business not a revenue stream

While it's very impressive to build a steady revenue stream you will never be worth much more than 1-2x time the net profit. When you build a business, you begin to expand and multiply to create value.

6. Find the right partners

You want loyalty, integrity, and honor. Complimentary skill sets a must too, but without the previous three qualities, don't even bother getting started.

7. Make a commitment

Starting a company with a co-founder is a commitment like marriage--through sickness and in health. Expect to go through hell and back together. Know that you and your business partner(s) can take the heat.

8. Be ambitious

All business partners must share an exceedingly high level of ambition. Success mandates an equilibrium on this front, with everyone pushing the business--and one another--to excel.

9. Don't let accountants and attorneys dictate how to run your company

Consider their perspectives and proceed accordingly. If they were so good at building companies, they'd be doing it themselves.

10. Have a strong vision

Trust your instincts and don't second guess yourself until proven wrong. No one else knows more about or will care more about your vision and your success than you and your partners. Don't let anyone else steer you off track.

11. Love what you do and have fun even during the tough times

There's no law that fun and work can't coexist. In fact, it's just the opposite. The more fun it is, the more successful you'll be. Choose the business you pursue wisely and accordingly.

12. Don't give up control of your business

If your company requires capital from a third party, only give up control if absolutely necessary to get the funding needed. If you do have to give up control, do it in a way that leaves you the opportunity to gain it back or you'll live to regret it

Source : http://bit.ly/1HTdmYa