KA magazine startup guide june 2015

SALES MOTIVATION LEADERSHIP MONEY MARKETING IDEA GENERATION

SPECIAL EDITION JUNE 2015

30 ONLINE TOOLS to get you

Started

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this guide is to assist any individual with an idea or a wish to start a business move it from just being a thought to a venture that one can see come alive. Using online tools developed for start-up and expert advice from seasoned business veterans to assist themselves to achieve their goals.

A business is based on supply and demand, as an entrepreneur one aims at seeing a need and fulfilling it and in the process make a profit. All businesses have a start and this is where most aspiring entrepreneurs need the most help from idea generation, development, launching, marketing, sales, and management. These are some of the many components an entrepreneur has to master.

The age of the internet has created a huge single market that anyone can access according to Statista Inc. One of the leading statistics companies on the internet. With a team of over 80 statisticians, database experts, analysts, and editors, Statista provides users with an innovative and intuitive tool for researching quantitative data, statistics and related information. The number of internet users worldwide was 2.92 billion as of 2014. This is a huge market one can tap into to provide services, solutions and products to without the limit of boarders and huge capital requirements.

The Start-Up Guide will offer you tips, tools and a practical guide to move from idea stage right up to managing a functional business.

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CONTENTS THE IDEA STAGE Too many awesome ideas die in lost notes and cleaned up whiteboards.

BUSINESS PLAN

ARTICLES LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS 5 MARKETING TRUTHS THE SMOOTH SALE MOTIVATION IN BUSINESS PURSUE OPPORUNITY

14 34 41 43 48

PRODUCT TESTING FUNDING PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

LEADERSHIP With good leadership an organization can achieve amazing things.

MONEY You are the best and the first person to finance the venture.

TOOLS NAMING YOU BUSINESS DESIGN TECH TOOLS

A business plan is a written description of your business’s future.

9 10 12 21 28

ONLINE PRESENCE

In the 21st century your business will need online presence.

MARKETING

Targeting your potential consumers and coverts leads to sales.

SALES

Is what gets your organization the money for it to stay afloat.

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CONTRIBUTORS John Stanko

Since 1991, John Stanko the founder of a personal and leadership Development Company called PurposeQuest, has been involved as a teacher, consultant and coach in the purpose revolution that is sweeping the world. He has written books and developed resources to help people everywhere clarify their purpose and order their world.

Editor: Littchel Mathuthu Copywrite Editor: Tatshelwa Gabela Cover Illustration: Littchel Mathuthu Marketing: DSI Creative

WEBSITE: www.purposequest.com TERMS OF USE

Kathy Caprino

Founder/President of Ellia Communications, Inc a United States based organization and the Amazing Career Project, former co-founder and partner of Living in Harmony. The Center for Emotional Health in CT. She is also serves as a contributor to Forbes.com, 85 Broads, CT Women’s Business Development Council, More.com, and other women’s organizations.

WEBSITE: www.kathycaprino.com

Elinor Stutz

The CEO of Smooth Sale, doing what she enjoys most as an Inspirational Speaker delivering keynotes to standing ovations and as an Author. The March 2015 Sales and Service Excellence eMagazine cover features Stutz along with her article and two videos inside. Stutz contributes to PersonalBrandingBlog.com, LinkedIn Pulse, and AllBusiness.com. Microsoft requested her advice in three upcoming e-books, and her blog is distributed within IBM. WEBSITE: www.smothsale.com

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All rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, faxing, emailing, posting online or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the Publisher.

All trademarks and brands referred to herein are the property of their respective owners. All references to Kwantuthu Arts Magazine™ and the Kwantuthu Arts Website KA Magazine™ are trademarks of the Kwantuthu Arts.

LEGAL NOTICES

While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication, neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for error, omissions or contrary interpretations of the subject matter contained herein. The purchaser or reader of this publication assumes responsibility for the use of these materials and information. Adherence to all applicable laws and regulations, both referral and state and local, governing professional licensing, business practices, advertising and all other aspects of doing business in Zimbabwe or any other jurisdiction, is the sole responsibility of the purchaser or reader. The author and publisher assume no responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of these materials. Any perceived slights of specific people or organizations are unintentional.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Kwantuthu Arts Magazine Customer Service +263 772 383 687

Website www.kwantuthu-mag.com Copyright © 2015 Kwantuthu Arts Magazine.

STEP ONE

THE IDEA STAGE DO YOU RESEARCH YOUR BUSINESS IDEA? For some entrepreneurs, getting the idea and imagining the possibilities is the easy part. It’s the market research that doesn’t come so naturally.

One is often blinded by the thought of the multibillion dollar market they have identified. This is a dangerous way to start a business and some ideas do take off and in some cases they crash and burn. Market research, then, can prove invaluable in determining your idea’s potential.

“Market research can prove invaluable in determining your idea’s potential” Too many awesome ideas die in lost notes and cleaned up whiteboards, some people also have a hard time to find the right idea to peruse.

There are many ways to ensure your idea is new and worth pursuing. You can gather information from industry associations, web searches, periodicals, government or parastatal institutions and so forth.

Now you plan your research, your plan should spell out the objectives of the research and give you the information you need to either go ahead with your idea, fine-tune it or take it back to the drawing board.

“What is your selling point? “ With online start tools you should be been able to answer some of the important and fundamental questions or get feedback that you need to address. Issues such as what is your selling point? As it is going to be the core of your marketing and when will you be ready for that step.

What sets you apart and lures customers your way. To assist you in the process here is one tool that will help, although there are several tools one can use, here are some tools.

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TOOL 1.

GERM

TOOL 3.

BOX NOTES

Germ is a tool to help you manage your ideas in a better way. Never lose the big picture of your idea, starting from logging the “aha” light bulb moment that can occur at any time. Validate your ideas and share your vision by showing off the big picture. Evolve your idea by throwing in the next steps and shape up your idea in detail. germ.io gets you on the road to create actionable ideas, helping you define all the how’s, what’s and why’s you need to get going.

Box Notes is a very well designed and intuitive tool you can use to capture and expand your ideas. Collaborate with others on the same document at the same time, see who’s annotating/changing what and share your ideas with others. Box Notes is meant to be used along the Box cloud storage solutions so you’ll have to create a (free) account to start with.

WEBSITE: www.germ.io

Since Box Notes is built on top of Box, sharing notes with others is just as simple and secure as sharing anything else on Box. If you create a note in a folder that’s already shared with others, you don’t have to do anything else but to save your note, and your teammates will have instant access.

WEBSITE: www.box.com/notes

TOOL 2.

EXPERIMENT BOARD The Experiment Board (by Javelin) is tool that was developed based on the learnings from their first tool, the (Lean) Validation Board, which was used by over 20,000 entrepreneurs around the world. They’ve improved it to get you up and running even faster, teams who use this are ready to run their first Lean Startup experiment within 5 minutes!

The Experiment board is free to download (pay with a Tweet) and includes a PDF, a Google Spreadsheet version, and instructions. The PDF document can be printed out as a 60cm x 90cm (2 ft x 3 ft) poster that you can use to put on your (office) wall. If you have a virtual team you can use the included Google Spreadsheet of the Experiment Board to collaborate with your team online.

WEBSITE: www.javelin.com/experiment-board

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TOOL 4.

CURATOR Curator is an amazingly simple “modern creativity tool” for your iPhone and iPad. Curator lets you create a visual grid where you can quickly add and reorganise different types of content together, from the very first fragment of an idea all the way through to presentation.

Collect and see all of your notes (websites, images or text) in one place and organise all of your content with a simple drag and drop. Use the full screen mode to swipe between notes and even check out all your saved websites with live visual bookmarks. You can also add images from your device or cloud sources like Dropbox and Instagram.

WEBSITE: www.curator.co

STEP TWO

IS A BUSINESS PLAN REALLY NECESSARY? A business plan is a written description of your business’s future.

A document that describes what you plan to do and how you plan to do it.

A business plan conveys your company goals, the strategies you will use to meet them, potential problems that may confront your business and ways to solve them, the organizational structure of your business (including titles and responsibilities) and finally, the amount of capital required to finance your venture and keep it going until it breaks even.

So the question now is with an outline of your businesses future don’t you think you can operate it much better with a business plan?

A business plan also assist to seek finances to run or expand your business. Can be used to negotiate with key suppliers even in recruiting key stuff. So in a word ‘YES’ a business plan is necessary. There are three primary parts to a business plan: • The first is the business concept, where you discuss the industry, your company structure, your particular prod¬uct or service and how you plan to make your business a success.

• The second is the marketplace section, in which you describe and analyze potential customers: who and where they are, what makes them buy and so on. Here, you also describe the competition and how you will position yourself to beat it.

• Finally, the financial section contains your income and cash flow statement, balance sheet and other financial ratios, such as break-even analyses. This part may require help from your accountant and a good spread¬sheet software program.

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Breaking these three major sections down even further, a business plan consists of seven key components:

1. Executive summary 2. Business description 3. Market strategies 4. Competitive analysis 5. Design and development plan 6. Operations and management plan

These are the main components of a business plan and after one has decided on the business they want to start. To also seek expert advice from experience individuals, consultants and public institutions who assist in business development is also a good thing for one to develop a good business plan.

7. Financial factors

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BRAND DEVELOPMENT

NAMING YOUR BUSINESS Naming your business at the moment you are working out how much it will cost to run your business, the number of stuff needed and a name storming session could be a bit of a headache or a bother. Did you know that the BlackBerry phone service developed by RIM in 2001 apparently hired a consultancy called Lexicon Branding to find a name for their new wireless messaging devices.

Current at the time CEO Mike Lazaridis confessed that he could have been called the “Uber-Electro-Swiss-Army- Telecommunicator” really hard to say hey.

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Well after much convincing the name we love won BlackBerry a far much better name. The devices were largely dark colored at the time and the name has stood the test of time. One can also use the functionality of the product or service to name the business. Another tip is a word that has no meaning and the business defines what the word means in relation to the brand.

Blackberry source –www.cio.com Article RIM BlackBerry History: Origin of the Name “BlackBerry”

Here are some handy tools for you to use while you busy.

TOOL 1.

NAMINM Naminum is a company, startup and website name generator designed to make your namestorming sessions smoother. They want to be successful in providing you with THE single name idea that leads you on the right path toward naming your product or company.

Enter a word and Naminum uses prefixes, suffixes and replaces letters within your keyword to generate a (huge) list of name suggestions. Didn’t find a satisfactory name? Try with a new word, transform the current one or generate random names for additional inspiration.

WEBSITE: www.naminum.com

TOOL 2.

NAMEROBOT Building a brand new start-up can be stressful! It feels like you have to tackle 101 projects simultaneously, and one of the most important of them is finding a name for your business.

TOOL 3.

PANABEE Use Panabee to search for and find a name for your startup. In case the perfect name is taken, Panebee presents plenty of suggestions inspired by your original idea. These are derived from phonemes, syllables, abbreviations, suffixes, prefixes, and popular domain trends. Panabee also simplifies domain name checks.

Enter a domain like tonystark.com and quickly see availability as well as multiple alternatives. You can also search for a different default extension like .io or .us, when you search with a domain like tonystark.io, Panabee sets a default for all future searches to use .io until you switch to another extension.

WEBSITE: www.panabee.com

Ironically, this one actually needs sufficient time and leisure or a decent budget, but NameRobot knows from experience that these are exactly the resources that people starting a business tend to lack. Fortunately, NameRobot helps entrepreneurs and businesspeople find ideas for start-up names and then checks their availability immediately.

WEBSITE: www.nameobot.com

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PRODUCT DESIGN

TECH STARTUP’S

DESIGN TOOLS FOR

Here are 5 Design tools to assist you develop your tech idea to prototype level.

1

UICLOUD UICloud is a place that designers and developers can both benefit from. It collects the best user interface designs from the internet all over the world and provides a search engine for you to find the best UI elements easily and quickly. Their mission is to build the largest UI design database and search engine in the world.

WEBSITE: www.ui-cloud.com

2

LITTLE BIG DETAILS Little Big Details is a curated collection of the finer details of design, updated every day. Little Big Details was created by Floris Dekker and is curated together with Andrew McCarthy. They created it because they wanted to encourage and inspire more good design. With help of the community, they receive hundreds of submissions per month that make it possible to give you fresh daily content.

WEBSITE: www.littlebigdetails.com

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R TECH STARTUP’S

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SKETCH

4

Sketch is a professional vector graphics app with a beautiful interface and powerful tools. They set out to build a better app for graphic designers. Not to copy, but rather to improve. Sketch has won the Apple Design Award at the Mac Developer Showcase 2012 and has been featured in many publications, mentioning it’s great features.

WEBSITE: www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch/

5

INVISION InVision is the world’s leading prototyping, collaboration & workflow platform for designers. InVisions powers the design process at some of the world’s smartest companies.

They enable companies of all sizes to discover the power of designdriven product development. That’s why designers, product managers, marketers and other stakeholders at so many of the world’s most beloved startups, agencies and corporations use InVision every day, including Zappos, Evernote, AirBnB, and Yammer.

WEBSITE: www.invisionapp.com

PTTRNS Pttrns is a curated library of iPhone and iPad user interface patterns.

All patterns has been carefully chosen before they were added to maintain excellent content quality.

There are currently 3097 patterns in their library. Pttrns started as a side project in Prague, February ’11.

The site is currently doing almost 2 million page views per month.

WEBSITE: www.pttrns.com

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TECH STARTUP’S IDEA VALIDATION & PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

PRODUCT TESTING

If you wish to test out your ideas on early adopters to test out your product or service one take advantage of this wonderful tool that can provide you with the best testing platform.

DEFINITION OF ‘EARLY ADOPTER’ An individual or business who uses a new product or technology before others. An early adopter is likely to pay more for the product than later adopters, but accepts this premium if using the product improves efficiency, reduces cost, increases market penetration or simply raises the early adopter’s social status. Companies rely on early adopters to provide feedback about product deficiencies, and to cover the cost of the product’s research and development.

ERLIBIRD Erlibird is the site where early adopters can discover innovative new technology and help shape today’s best tech startups. Their community is made of influential tech consumers, founders, journalists & investors.

WEBSITE: www.erlibird.com 12 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide June 2015

BETALIST BetaList provides pre-launch startups with their first hundred users. Their aim is to help startup founders better understand their customer through qualitative and quantitative research so they can make sure they are building the right product for the market.

Engaging with their customers is a key component of this approach which is why they’re helping founders connect with the Betalist audience of over 15,000 early adopters currently resulting in anywhere between 50 and 500 new sign-ups for each startup through a single post on our site. BetaList has helped over 3,000 startups so far, and 100 to 150 more each month.

WEBSITE: www.betalist.com

PRODUCT HUNT The Verge: “Product Hunt has become a must-read site in Silicon Valley.” Product Hunt surfaces the best new products, every day. It’s a place for product-loving enthusiasts to share and geek out about the latest mobile apps, websites, hardware projects, and tech creations. Product Hunt is for sharing new, interesting products. It isn’t the place for blog posts, news articles, events, or contract services.

Hundreds of products are submitted each day and curated by the community. Members are encouraged to submit launched products that are available to play with immediately; however, the occasional crowdfunded, pre-launch, or private beta submission is acceptable if it provides thorough information about the product (e.g. explainer video, product feature walkthrough) and proof that it’s not vaporware.

WEBSITE: www.producthunt.com

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ARTICLE

LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS I have taught on the topic of purpose and motivation for more than 20 years. In the limited space for this article, let’s take a quick look at some concepts that will help you as a leader to motivate, or at least not to de-motivate, your followers, teammates and coworkers.

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First, let’s look at a concept called extrinsic motivation. What is extrinsic motivation? It’s motivation that comes from external factors, factors that stimulate or motivate others outside themselves, things like supervisors, work environment, workplace policies, procedures and culture.

Other factors can also be included, things like salary, benefits, time off, and recognition, all of which emanate from outside a worker or volunteer – things over which the worker can have little or no control. The extrinsic factors mentioned hopefully serve as positive factors, but there can also be negative factors that enter into the mix, for rewards are not effective unless they are matched by punishments.

Those negatives would include demotions, loss of favorable work projects, adjustment of team involvements, or loss of benefits for not performing at a certain level.

Obviously these extrinsic factors have been the main focus of managers, employees, volunteers and leaders for many decades.

Most companies have bonus plans or other incentive programs designed to stimulate and motivate the worker toward greater and more focused performance. These factors have been studied and researched to determine their effectiveness and proper usage. Increasingly their effectiveness has been questioned and determined to actually produce the opposite effects from those initially intended.

The questions being raised recently are: Do these extrinsic factors really work? Are they effective? Do they produce the results needed for and desired by the organization? What are their drawbacks, if any? Of course, the full scope of this discussion is beyond this article, but I want to share with you two thoughts that stand out concerning extrinsic motivation.

One thought comes from business author Daniel Pink, who has written several interesting books about motivation. Pink cites studies indicating that pay for anything except for menial work isn’t effective; in fact, extrinsic rewards actually demotivate the worker! If a worker is getting paid to produce x number of widgets in an hour, and gets paid a bonus if they produce more widgets, Pink shows that the extrinsic motivation of pay is effective.

For most other kinds of work, Pink contends that the reward does not work or produce the desired result. In fact, the extra reward hinders performance.

If you’re like me, this seems counterintuitive.

You can ask, “How can rewards or punishments not be effective? If we pay someone to do something, won’t more pay or the right amount of compensation produce the desired results?” According to Pink, they will not. As I stated earlier, the extrinsic motivators improperly applied will actually demotivate and produce the opposite of the desired results. Before we move on to discuss intrinsic motivators, there is one additional concept or theory that helps put the extrinsic motivators into proper perspective. That concept what’s known as hygiene factors introduced by an author named Fredrick Herzberg. Herzberg identified hygiene factors in the workplace that can produce dissatisfaction but once provided or corrected cannot produce job or work satisfaction. What are these factors? Herzberg identified such things as: - Company policies - Supervision - Relationship with supervisor and peers - Work conditions - Salary - Status - Job Security If those seven things are missing or poorly presented or executed, the worker is demotivated. Correcting them produces an environment of satisfaction or work “hygiene” – admittedly a unique usage for the word that we usually associate with hospitals or a doctor’s office. Herzberg goes on to point out that while providing or correcting these factors cures dissatisfaction but they cannot produce satisfaction or motivation. Let’s look at an example: According to Herzberg, bad or ineffective company policies can and do demotivate a worker, but a better policy or more policies cannot actually motivate a worker; it will simply cure the dissatisfaction, bringing the work conditions back up to ground level, so to speak.

It is interesting to not that salary is included in Herzberg’s list. Another example would be low or unfair wages as perceived in the mind of a worker can demotivate, so fair wages, according to Herzberg, can remove the demotivation.

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More and more money on top of the adjustment or correction, however, will not necessarily provide more and more motivation.

Once again, we see that a fair and equitable pay scale will remove dissatisfaction, but may not produce the satisfaction or motivation for outstanding work or results. Once the demotivators are removed, then motivators can be provided, things like work awards, promotions and praise.

Business author Craig Pender defined intrinsic motivation as “those behaviors that a person engages in to feel competent, selfdetermining, and in command of the situation at hand.” The syllabus for a course on motivation I teach in graduate school states, “Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation are interdependent.

However, while it is possible to have intrinsic motivation without extrinsic, the case is not as clear cut for the opposite.” In other words we aren’t really sure you can have purely extrinsic motivators present to do most work; intrinsic motivation is indispensable to good work.

“ An engaged employee or worker is a motivated worker - motivated to be innovative, creative and to manage his or her own work. ”

“ ..those behaviors that a person engages in to feel competent, self-determining, and in command of the situation at hand. ” Craig Pender Now let’s take a look at intrinsic motivation that motivate people from the inside or from the heart of the worker. If you find work that you love to do, you are more motivated to do an excellent job and produce exceptional results. Someone once said, “Find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.”

While probably an exaggeration, it speaks to the issue of doing things with heart and passion, certainly getting paid but not doing it for the money, but rather for love of the work or the results of the work.

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I mentioned Kenneth Thomas’ book on motivation entitled Intrinsic Motivation at Work: What Really Drives Employee Engagement in my earlier article in this book. Note that the word engagement is used in the book’s title, and that word is a buzzword of sorts in the business world.

An engaged employee or worker is a motivated worker - motivated to be innovative, creative and to manage his or her own work.

In the 21st century with many specialists working in every company, managers cannot be expected or skilled enough to manage everyone. Workers must manage themselves and in his book, Thomas shares his theory of how that can happen.

Suffice it to say that Thomas is a proponent of the effectiveness of intrinsic motivation.

He maintains that there must be four aspects present for intrinsic motivation to function properly and produce the desired results.

If any one of the four is missing or weak, then the worker is not fully engaged – that worker is not intrinsically motivated and consequently not engaged. Let’s look at those four factors’

THE FIRST IS SENSE OF MEANINGFULNESS. The worker must understand how his or her role contributes to the overall mission or vision of the organization. This occurs when the values of the organization match up with the personal values of the individual. When that alignment is present, workers understand how their piece of the work contributes to the overall.

Thus they feel like they are playing an important role. A great example would be the United States during World War II. Most everyone was on the same page, so to speak, as to the importance of the War, and each person felt engaged whether they were on the front lines or collecting scrap metal in their neighborhoods to use in the war effort.

THE NEXT FACTOR IS A SENSE OF CHOICE. Since many workers are specialists with knowledge of some specific skill like graphic design or information technology, these workers respond best when given some latitude not about what they will do necessarily but how they will do it. When employees have a say in the how, they are calling on their experience, expertise and job wisdom. They are being trusted to produce specific results and they respond to the challenge with energy and enthusiasm, at least according to Mr. Thomas.

THE THIRD FACTOR IS A SENSE OF COMPETENCE.

In addition, chances for additional training and exposure to others who have mastered the work or skill of interest to the worker will also provide opportunities for workers to have a sense that they are getting better at what they already do well. This also leads to a motivated, engaged worker.

FINALLY, THE FOURTH FACTOR IS A SENSE OF PROGRESS. The previous three factors can be present, but if workers don’t feel like they are moving forward with a project or task, they can become discouraged. Discouraged workers, according to Thomas, are not engaged. They lose heart and interest and don’t feel like they are making the headway they should with the skill level and opportunity at hand.

There you have the four intrinsic motivators according to Kenneth Thomas: a sense of meaningfulness, choice, competence and progress.

When you look at them, they do make sense. If and when those four factors can be present and active in our work, it would make showing up every day a meaningful experience because we would be energized and engaged. No one can buy that kind of engagement with money or perks - it only comes through a willing heart and hands.

ARTICLE BY

John W. Stanko founder of a personal and leadership Development Company called PurposeQuest, has been involved as a teacher, consultant and coach in the purpose revolution that is sweeping the world. He has

Knowledge workers want to improve on their knowledge and skill. When they have a chance to improve and are supported in their efforts, they are more apt to contribute their full energy to the work at hand. If the work itself provides the opportunity to learn and grow, all the better.

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FEATURE

STEP THREE

MONEY Now back to our next step in finance, financing your business and to find out where one is going to get the money to start the venture. The answer is looking at you in the mirror, you. You are the best and the first person to finance the venture you are about to undertake. Also financial institutions and venture capitalists that one might approach would ask you how much of your own money you have used. After all if you don’t have faith in the business then why should anyone else have?

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Now do a thorough inventory of your assets.

You are likely to uncover resources you didn’t even know you had. As¬sets include savings accounts, equity in real estate, retirement accounts, vehicles, recreational equipment and collections. You may decide to sell some assets for cash or to use them as collateral for a loan. If you are employed, another way to finance your business is by squirreling away money from your current salary until you have enough to launch the business. If you don’t want to wait, con¬sider moonlighting or cutting your full-time job back to part-time. This ensures you’ll have some steady funds rolling in until your business starts to soar. People generally have more assets than they realize.

Use as much of your own money as possible to get started; re¬member, the larger your own investment, the easier it will be for you to acquire capital from other sources.

Note that as you are raising capital for your venture that even if the finance is coming from family or close friends. Agreements will be made and these agreements usually favor the investment over the entrepreneur. Here are some terms that you need to know and terms that you should understand.

PRO-RATA Used to describe a proportionate allocation. A method of assigning an amount to a fraction, according to its share of the whole.

INVESTOPEDIA EXPLAINS ‘PRO-RATA’ For example, a pro-rata dividend means that every shareholder gets an equal proportion for each share he or she owns. Pro-rating also refers to the practice of applying interest rates to different time frames. If the interest rate was 12% per annum, you could pro-rate this number to be 1% a month (12%/12 months).

CONVERTIBLE DEBENTURE A type of loan issued by a company that can be converted into stock by the holder and, under certain circumstances, the issuer of the bond. By adding the convertibility option the issuer pays a lower interest rate on the loan compared to if there was no option to convert.

These instruments are used by companies to obtain the capital they need to grow or maintain the business.

INVESTOPEDIA EXPLAINS ‘CONVERTIBLE DEBENTURE’ Convertible debentures are different from convertible bonds because debentures are unsecured; in the event of bankruptcy the debentures would be paid after other fixed income holders. The convertible feature is factored into the calculation of the diluted pershare metrics as if the debentures had been converted. Therefore, a higher share count reduces metrics such as earnings per share, which is referred to as dilution.

ANTI-DILUTION A provision in an option or a convertible security. It protects an investor from dilution resulting from later issues of stock at a lower price than the investor originally paid. Also known as an “anti-dilution clause.”

INVESTOPEDIA EXPLAINS ‘ANTI-DILUTION PROVISION’ These are common with convertible preferred stock, which is a favored form of venture capital investment.

Pre-Money Valuation PRE-MONEY VALUATION A slang phrased that refers to the value of a company’s stock before it goes public. The term is often used by venture capitalists.

Also known as “pre-money.”

INVESTOPEDIA EXPLAINS ‘PRE-MONEY VALUATION’ For example let’s say Jim’s Fabless Donut Shop is thinking of going public. If management and venture capitalists estimate the company will raise $100 million in the IPO, it is said to have $100 million in pre-money.

Valuing a company’s stock before it goes public is a difficult task. When venture capitalists and entrepreneurs talk about pre-money they have to be very careful not to fall into the trap of “counting their chickens before the eggs have hatched” or, in other words, spending money they don’t actually have.

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PARTICIPATING PREFERRED STOCK A type of preferred stock that gives the holder the right to receive dividends equal to the normally specified rate that preferred dividends receive as well as an additional dividend based on some predetermined condition.

The additional dividend paid to preferred shareholders is commonly structured to be paid only if the amount of dividends that common shareholders receive exceeds a specified per-share amount.

Furthermore, in the event of liquidation, participating preferred shareholders can also have the right to receive the stock’s purchasing price back as well as a pro-rata share of any remaining proceeds that the common shareholders receive.

Investopedia began as a financial dictionary, separating itself from other dictionaries by offering the “Investopedia Definitions” featuring a plain English interpretation of hard to understand terms and concepts.

WEBSITE www.investopedia.com As your business venture is still starting of one needs to limit the amount of people who have the rights of being overly involved in your business. If you make this mistake you might find yourself having to get a signature to approve a strategic business decision. So the trick is to strike a balance with your first investors.

INVESTOPEDIA EXPLAINS ‘PARTICIPATING PREFERRED STOCK’ For example, suppose Company A issues participating preferred shares with a dividend rate of $1 per share. The preferred shares also carry a clause on extra dividends for participating preferred stock, which is triggered whenever the dividend for common shares exceeds that of the preferred shares.

If, during its current quarter, Company A announces that it will release a dividend of $1.05 per share for its common shares, the participating preferred shareholders will receive a total dividend of $1.05 per share ($1.00 + 0.05) as well.

Participating preferred stock is rarely issued, but one way in which it is used is as a poison pill. In this case, current shareholders are issued stock that gives them the right to new common shares at a bargain price in the event of an unwanted takeover bid.

DEFINITIONS OF FINANCIAL TERMS BY INVESTOPEDIA Investopedia is a resource for investing education, personal finance, market analysis and free trading simulators. With a comprehensive financial dictionary, exam preparation materials, and active trading strategies, it is a leading destination for investors.

20 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide June 2015

FUNDING TOOLS

Here is a list of online funding tools one can use to raise more capital for a startup or business at venture capital stage.

FUNDING TOOLS 1

SEEDINVEST SeedInvest provides investors with inside access to highlyvetted startup investment opportunities and makes investing in startups as easy as buying a share of stock. Since launching in 2013, SeedInvest has attracted thousands of investors who are collectively looking to invest over $330 million in startups.

WEBSITE: www.seedinvest.com

FUNDING TOOLS 2

THEFUNDED The Founding Member of TheFunded experienced a bad funding situation and wanted to help others avoid a similar fate. As the idea grew, the Original Members saw real potential for TheFunded to bring some transparency to the venture funding world, which is largely governed by secrecy. TheFunded is a guide to help entrepreneurs find the perfect funding source for their business. Imagine if you had a comprehensive database of funding sources with practical insights from entrepreneurs who have dealt with the funds…that’s TheFunded Search for any fund in the world by name, and the list of funds on the left side of the website will dynamically update, showing the top rated funds first.

Browse for funds by choosing “Geography” and/or “Funding Level”, and the fund list will update accordingly. Your browse preferences are stored for 24 hours. To clear the stored preferences, click “Go!” WEBSITE: www.thefunded.com

3

F6S Are you a Startup? Join 587,885 founders, startups & angels for free and find Accelerator Programs, Free Deals, Events and Contests on f6s. F6S is the network for Founders with the highest-ranked Startup programs globally, 4,700+ Startup orgs, 49k Startups and 1k+ deals. Thousands of F6S’ers a day apply to accelerators, pitch investment funds, post or apply for jobs, get free deals and grow. The F6S name comes shortening the six letters between F and S to F6S. We’re all about tech, getting stuff done and growing.

WEBSITE: www.f6s.com

June 2015 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide

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RESOURCE TIPS & ADVISE

PRESENTING FOR FUNDING

The art of a good pitch is one essential skill when one is raising capital for their business and to be able to pitch a perfect presentation is key. As this might just get you the funding you need to expand your business or finance expansion plans. Here are some tips to help you pitch a good presentation.

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5 PRESENTATION TIPS

1.

DON’T OVERDO IT.

2.

COMMUNICATION IS KEY.

Some entrepreneurs create lengthy PowerPoints that leave investors bored and with little time for questions and answers. Experts recommends a maximum of 15 slides for a one-hour meeting as this assists investors to have time to clarify any points that you have raised.

Investors will likely have questions that interrupt your presentation, and you may be tempted to hurry through them to get back to your rehearsed pitch.

Instead, always answer questions as completely as pos¬sible. After all, if you secure funding with an investor, it’s likely going to be a long-term relationship— and communication is key.

3. DON’T LIE.

While Investors are always hunting for the next big business or idea. As an entrepreneur to exaggerate your projections, customer base or any figure the truth will catch up with you. One might even loose the potential investor due to a lie.

4. HIT A TARGET.

Most of the time as an entrepreneur the thought of keep the business alive is ones aim. This is a good thing but that is not the target, ‘hitting the target’ when seeking investment is to seek funding that takes a business to a milestone.

5. TIMING IS KEY.

You will need to discuss how much money you are seeking, but don’t immediately share what percentage of your company’s value that represents. Instead of putting your estimated valuation in the presentation, allow it to come up naturally in conversation.

June 2015 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide

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STEP FOUR

ONLINE PRESENCE In the 21st century no matter how modest or how you believe that you don’t need a website, your business will need online presence.

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Maybe you’ve been putting it off. After all, we weren’t all put on earth to write code on the web this is the time to hiring someone who was but turns out to be expensive. To find the right web solution one needs to ask them self what role the website they need will play in their business. As this is an investment that the business is taking up and to find the right service is key.

The internet is full of horrendous sites, and we are not just talking about bad design. There are many other elements besides how a web¬site looks that go into making it visitor friendly not to mention the ‘call to action’ that inspires a website visitors to actually want to do business with you. Here are the essentials that every website should have for it to effectively help you do business.

1•

Have a clear description of who you are.

• 2

A simple, sensible domain name that anyone can remember.

• 3

Easy-to-find contact information.

• 4 An obvious call to action like

‘download’ or ‘register for free trial’.

• 5

Fresh, quality content, good design and style that’s friendly to online readers.

If your business requires custom interface design, a solution that caters to your specific needs which could give you a competitive edge. Probably you need your website to integrate to specific systems then your business needs a web development company such as to develop a website solution to meet your specific needs. Here are three web development companies you can use you can use for your website solution.

1. WEBDEV Webdev (Pvt) Ltd provides custom website development and web software including, content management, intranets, e-commerce, document management, image galleries, social networks, real estate solutions, finance solutions and much more. Webdev advantages include; 1.

Many skilled staff each specializing in web design, coding, project management, and copy writing.

2.

A 5 step process developed over the years involving the client, the project manager, developers, designers and hosting administrators to ensure web sites are world class when they go live.

Website: www.webdev.co.zw 2. WEBLOXION Webloxion is an online marketing company providing exceptional web design, strategy development, and SEO. With an integrated approach Webloxion brings together three distinct fields of expertise: creativity, strategy and technology. By applying these key elements Webloxion understands all aspects of your business and deliver a comprehensive solution.

At Webloxion, we ensure that we provide the best of facilities for customer’s satisfaction by making a unique and sleek design so, that it gives the customer just the kind of look desired. Your promotion is our aim. Be it a small business or a mid-size business venture, it always requires sharp minds to understand the trade requirements of any regional market and at Webloxion you get just the right brains to work just in accordance with any kind of market.

Website: www.websloxion.com June 2015 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide

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The alternative you don’t have to know a thing about programming to build a respectable website these days. There are loads of affordable even free tools that are available for you to use. Here are three services you can use for your website solution.

1.

GOOGLE SITES

What it does: This service can give you a simple Google web presence for free. But you probably don’t need that when there are bet¬ter, faster and easier options from the likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. What Google Sites does best happens outside the public eye. With this tool you can create private, team-based websites within your business which turns that Google Apps account of yours into a powerful business-organization tool. Google Sites puts nifty collaboration tools like announcements, documents and task lists in one online location, allowing you and your colleagues to access them from anywhere. It’s a great way to bring some san¬ity to the startup chaos.

WHAT IT COSTS: It’s free.

BOTTOM LINE: Don’t use this tool to de¬velop a traditional website unless you have a solid coding background or are hiring a coder who does. For the average user, Google Sites is best for creating a company intranet.

2. WORDPRESS What it does: WordPress.com is the easiest way to create a free website or blog. It’s a powerful hosting platform that grows with you.WordPress.com lets you create beautiful and powerful websites or blogs.

We’ll set up and configure your custom domain so that you can start using it in seconds. WordPress. com is optimized for SEO and getting your site in front of searchers on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others. Our Happiness Engineers work night and day through live chat, email, support pages, and forums to answer any questions you have. Our premium plans give you more control with additional customization options. They all come with free trials. We welcome 50,000 new sites every day. From small business sites, artist portfolios, and blogs, to giant media organizations like TIME and CNN. WHAT IT COSTS: It’s has a free service and premium service that is affordable.

BOTTOM LINE: No need for any special skills

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PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

TECH STARTUP’S

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

TOOLS FOR TECH 5 Development tools to assist you develop your idea from prototype to the final stage of marketing.

DEVDOCS DevDocs aims to make reading and searching reference documentation fast, easy and enjoyable. DevDocs is free and open source, the app’s main goals are to: keep boot and load times as short as possible; improve the quality, speed, and order of search results; maximize the use of caching and other performance optimizations; maintain a clean, readable user interface; support full keyboard navigation; reduce “context switch” by using a consistent typography and design across all documentations; reduce clutter by focusing on a specific category of content (API/reference) and by indexing only the minimum useful to most developers.

WEBSITE: www.devdocs.io

28 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide June 2015

PUBLICAPIS

PublicAPIs is built by Mashape. They make it easy to distribute, monetize, manage and consume cloud APIs. Mashape is building a world-class marketplace for cloud APIs, driven by a passionate community of developers from all over the world. Their mission is to facilitate a new revolution in software production by serving as the backbone of the distribution and consumption of data and services through APIs.

WEBSITE: www.publicapis.com

STARTUP’S STAMPLAY

Stamplay enables web developers to create advanced web and mobile apps in the cloud at a fraction of the time. It can be considered as the lego bricks of the web where everything is automated except the UI. Stamplay is transforming web development into a visual experience, reducing what used to be days/weeks of work into a few minutes.

NODE.JS

Node.js is an open source, cross-platform runtime environment for server-side and networking applications. Node.js applications are written in JavaScript, and can be run within the Node.js runtime on OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux and FreeBSD. Node.js provides an event-driven architecture and a non-blocking I/O API that optimizes an application’s throughput and scalability. These technologies are commonly used for real-time applications.

The platform brings together powerful components and services (API) in a way you only need to define rules like “let our user sign up with Facebook, and when they do, save him as a customer on Stripe, plus send him a welcome email”. Everything is instantly deployed and hosted so that developers only have to focus on developing amazing user experiences.

Node.js uses the Google V8 JavaScript engine to execute code, and a large percentage of the basic modules are written in JavaScript. Node.js contains a built-in library to allow applications to act as a Web server without software such as Apache HTTP Server or IIS. Node.js is gaining adoption as a server-side platform and is used by Groupon, SAP, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Walmart, Rakuten and PayPal.

WEBSITE: www.stamplay.com

WEBSITE: www.nodjs.org

CODEFRESH

Codefresh allows agile and DevOPS teams to focus on what matters most – building great cloud apps and continuously monitor and improve them. Codefresh integrates with the best of breeds services, tools and platforms – hosted IDEs, SCMs, testing, deployment, Infrastructure and monitoring. It’s accessible from any device and browser, and allows teams to collaborate on their code, deploy and monitor apps – all from a single, intuitive and fresh interface.

WEBSITE: www.codefresh.net

June 2015 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide

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STEP FIVE

MARKETING PLAN

While your business plan generally outlines your entire business, a stand-alone marketing plan focuses specifically, and in more detail, on just that one function.

Your marketing plan is vital for your organization to function as it details how your organization plans to target its potential consumers and coverts leads to sales. Here is a starting point doing a basic SWOT analysis with an internal and external outlook: When you start developing your marketing plan think of your company as if it were a person with its own unique personality and identity.

With that in mind, create separate lists that identify your business’s strengths, weaknesses and goals. Put everything down and create big lists. Don’t edit or reject anything. Then, find priorities among the bullet points. If you’ve done this right, you’ll have more than you can use, and some more important than others. Kick the less important bullets off the list and move the ones that are important to the top. Through this process you will identify what your organization has as a possible competitive advantage. You will have identified what your businesses weaknesses are and what needs to be fixed through the lists.

Next, list is to make out¬lines of your business’s opportunities and threats. Think of both as external to your business factors that you can’t control but can try to predict. Opportunities can include

•

New Markets – unexplored markets or niches.

•

New Products

•

Trends that favor your business.

Threats include competition and advances in technology that put you at a disadvantage. Now your list is complete use it in the next step.

DEVELOP A POTENTIAL BUYER PERSONA Also make a list of people or organizations that serve as ideal buyers or your target market. Now you need to come up with a potential buyer persona who they are, what would interest them the most? Put yourself in the place of each of these ideal buyers and think about what media he or she uses and what message would

communicate your offering in the most effective way that will convince them to make a purchase.

Keep your identity in the back of your mind as you flesh out your target markets.

The next step is to pull your both your Buyer Persona and SWOT Analysis lists together. Look for the intersection of your SWOT Analysis and your Buyer Persona. In terms of your business offerings, what could you drop off the list because it’s not strategic? Then think about dropping those who aren’t in your target market.

For example, a restaurant business focused on healthful, organic and fine dining would probably cater to people more in tune with green trends and with higher-than-average disposable income. So, it might rule out people who prefer eating fast-food like hamburgers and pizza, and who look for bargains. Narrow your potential customers to what most is in alignment with your business identity and what is the most attractive offer to your target market.

Now after you have narrowed both lists of your SWOT Analysis and Buyer Persona you are beginning to come up with a Marketing Strategy.

This strategy focuses on the clients that best align to your businesses offering. At this point now it is to get down to the details that are precise and measurable covering all the basis. Your Marketing Strategy then will develop into a plan that includes weekly or monthly reviews, tracking and measurement. Sales forecasts can now be drawn up that define your market segments and have specific messages for each segment.

Expense budgets of how much you will spend on campaigns and non-monetary metrics for tracking progress. Non-monetary metrics could include phone calls, blog posts, web page views, website conversion rates, proposals and trips, among others. The detailed document that you would have come up with after this process is which will detail your plan to get sales for your business is your Marketing Plan.

As you follow your Marketing Plan and start making sales, doing reviews and working on your business just remember that your marketing plan as your business plan needs to be revised. As your business grows so your marketing plan should continue to evolve along some of your assumptions will change, as will also business landscape. Some parts of the plan also will work better than others, so review and revise to ac¬commodate what you learn as you go.

June 2015 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide

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MARKETING TOOLS

Here are some marketing tools you can use:-

1. MAILCHIMP

MailChimp is a powerful, easy to use email marketing service. MailChimp helps you design email newsletters, share them on social networks, integrate with services you already use, and track your results. It’s like your own personal publishing platform. MailChimp also offers a variety of plug-ins for other programs.

Utilizing an open API, MailChimp encourages other systems and web applications to integrate with its email marketing engine. They currently offer integrations with systems such as PayPal, Google Analytics, Shopify, Magento, Salesforce, and more.

Website: www.mailchamp.com

2. GLEAM

Gleam is an action marketing platform, their apps make it easy for you to run competitions, coupon offers & get feedback from your users.

Forget clicks & impressions. Start driving proper engagement. Gleam verifies actions automatically against real users. Run competitions: Add your prize, choose your actions, Embed on your site, all in under 3 minutes. Capture Emails: Rules based email capture forms that integrate directly with your email provider.

Rewards: Drive more sales, ask users complete predefined actions to unlock anything. Once a user has engaged with you, reward them in different ways. Maybe it’s an entry to win a prize or a discount coupon for their order. It’s up to you. Gleam aligns with your business metrics, whether it’s growing your social profile, increasing your email database, driving more value for advertisers or increasing revenue. Gleam’s got you covered.

Website

www.glem.io

3. BRANCH METRICS

At Branch Metrics, they believe the app install, sharing, and viewing experience should be seamless and not break at the app store. Branch Metrics solves this with a platform that powers the links that point back to your apps for shares, invites, referrals, and more. Branch Metrics makes it incredibly simple to create powerful deeplinks that can pass data across app install, making the entire app experience better. Their goal is to make every app experience frictionless 32 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide June 2015

Their goal is to make every app experience frictionless and fundamentally change the way people interact with mobile apps today.

Website: www.branch.io

TIPS & ADVISE

MARKETING TIPS Whatever business you are trying to develop marketing is key in getting customers that will make purchases that will grow your organization.

Effective marketing is the key and some bad decisions in your marketing strategy will affect your bottom line.

Here is an article with some valuable tips from a marketing guru Kathy Caprino about developing an audience as a business coach. This article highlights growth hacks that entrepreneurs try and shows key fundamental business development aspects that give you sure growth which are a loyal customer base, quality product or service. The result will be growth through the quality offered value to all your consumers giving your company referrals and your clients will be your biggest evangelists.

June 2015 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide

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ARTICLE

FIVE MARKETING TRUTHS THAT SO MANY COACHES (AND SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS) FAIL TO UNDERSTAND. As a career coach and consultant with a global practice and numerous online programs, I hear from hundreds of coaches a year who are struggling, flying through all their money, and feeling desperate for a silver bullet that will help them make money in the field they used to love (but now dread).

34 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide June 2015

When I hear a problem like this being repeated from all corners of the world, I know there’s a real issue that has to be addressed. I believe it’s a sham to tout the idea that one silver bullet will turn everything around, such as offering a telesummit (a virtual online conference) or any other one-shot program. To dupe failing coaches (or other floundering small business owners) into believing that the answer to their problems is a one-time endeavor is downright unethical.

The reason these marketing “experts” push offering a telesummit is that they claim it will help coaches build a solid, sizable list that will then generate revenue for them because:

1.

You’re offering something of great value.

I

’ve been there, and know how scary it can be. But I’m beginning to hear this one sad confession over and over: “Kathy, I spent a ton of money this year paying for a well-known marketing expert for coaches to tell me that building my list is the answer to my success, and the key to building a list is to offer a telesummit that features other top coaches. Sounded good, and I tried to do it, but nothing came of it. It didn’t work, and I’m still broke.”

2.

You’re featuring other coaches with big lists, recognized names, and lots of followers.

3.

The top coaches you feature will promote you and your tele summit because they’re in it.

4.

You’ll be able to add great new people to your list because the followers of these coaches will be added to your list, and will auto- matically enjoy following you.

5.

Finally, these new folks in your community will love your work, and buy from you immediately Sounds good, but the problem is – it just doesn’t work this way.

Here are five marketing truths that explain why this tactic simply doesn’t work to save a business:

June 2015 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide

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“Don’t be duped.”

There is no silver bullet to growing your business.

People follow you because you have fresh, important things to say and because you continually help them in potent ways that address a big problem they’re having. Once you add a person to your subscriber list, what are you going to do for them, on an ongoing basis? What are you offering that helps them address their most burning problems and challenges? What programs, products and services do you bring to the table that are different and better than what the competition has to offer?

To engage people and keep them as loyal followers for months and years, and to entice them to invest in you, you need to be of service continually, offering expert, proven information, ideas, materials, and resources that will move them forward. If you expect that they’ll just buy your programs the minute they’re on your list, you’ll be sorely disappointed. You need to continually deliver material that will engage and enliven them, often for months before they ever consider buying from you (unless they’re truly ready to pull the trigger, which is rare).

36 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide June 2015

Top coaches who are much farther along in their businesses won’t generally say “yes” to participating in your program. As in life and relationships, there’s a hierarchy of power and influence at play in the business world. If you’re broke and have only a small list of followers, the top coaches you’re hoping will be a part of your program will decline because there’s nothing in it for them. You need to be playing at the same level as the people you invite to join you. Otherwise, their investment in time and money with you won’t pan out.

The programs you offer aren’t selling for a good reason. Yes, building a fabulous list of loyal followers is essential to your online business. But so is offering high-quality programs that work, and can address a wide or deep niche. If all you offer is one type of help (private, one-on-one coaching, for instance) you won’t have the success you long for because the vast majority of people on this planet can’t afford your private coaching fees, nor do they want this type of help.

What other programs and services do you offer?

What do you have that’s free or low-cost (as well as your premium offerings), that people can download and learn from? What can you deliver for free that gives people a great sense of your “process” – your special way of approaching the problem that will guarantee to be a fit for them and their needs?

Finally it’s not a HUGE list you need – it’s a list of people who fit well with your style, approach and offerings and who have the will, interest, means, and commitment to invest. A list is great, but you need to do much more. People in fields that are highly competitive (like coaching) need a way to stand out from the crowd. They need to build their thought leadership, and devise a unique process and methodology for solving their client’s problems. Then they need to develop advocates, supporters and evangelists who will help them communicate about this special process in powerful ways that reach thousands. Also, they need to understand how to launch programs in such a way that people will be led along a compelling discovery journey.

If you’re a coach or consultant who needs to fill a client pipeline to make a living, this will be virtually impossible if you’re not out there in a bigger way teaching, training, giving workshops, writing and sharing our thought leadership, and collaborating with and supporting other coaches and small business owners as well. In short, you’ve got to cut through all the clutter and become someone who’s making a difference in the field to more than a handful. Finally, you need to understand the key essentials of running and growing a successful business.

“Positive thinking is very helpful tool, but it’s not nearly enough. You have to become a savvy entrepreneur and business person..”

Succeeding as a coach, consultant or private practitioner is a hero’s journey and an entrepreneurial one. You’ve got to learn to love marketing and business planning. It’s much harder than it ever was to make a great living because of the plethora of free help and resources available online, and because you’re competing in a global marketplace. If you’re a coach in Stamford, Connecticut, for instance, you’re competing against coaches not just in Connecticut or the Northeast, but with those all over the world, because coaches do the majority of their work via phone and now Skype. You have to understand what you’re up against, and build a solid business, marketing and financial plan and strategies that address all the key business challenges you’ll face. Positive thinking is very helpful tool, but it’s not nearly enough. You have to become a savvy entrepreneur and business person, and learn the ropes in terms of delivering and launching programs, products and services that work, and marketing those services in ways that will generate a terrific, sustainable return.

You’ve got to learn to love marketing and business planning.

The key lesson here is “Don’t be duped.” There is no silver bullet to growing your business.

It won’t just fall in your lap because you’ve delivered a telesummit featuring other people, or any other one-shot offering. It takes your becoming an expert in helping solve a key problem your clients face. And it takes planning, competitive knowledge, financial savvy, marketing know-how, and a deep desire (and ability) to offer products and services that will truly move the needle for the people you dream of serving. As Michael Gerber shares in his powerful book The E-Myth Revisited, business success takes working ON your business far more than working in your business.

ARTICLE BY

Kathy Caprino Founder/President of Ellia Communications, Inc a United States based organization and the Amazing Career Project, former co-founder and partner of Living in Harmony.

June 2015 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide

37

TIPS & TOOLS

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PLAN Is a social media marketing plan important? The question to ask now is what are your goals of using social media? Will it help your business? If it won’t help your business then don’t even use social media. But if it will then to know what your goals are and how much resources you will need to achieve the goals then you need a plan. Creating a social media strategy for your business by developing a plan, you create a critical foundation on which the rest of your social media efforts are based.

1. TOPSY

2. HOOTSUITE

3. SIMPLY MEASURED

Operating the world’s only index of the public social web, Topsy is used by some of the largest global marketing, news, entertainment, and financial organizations to get real-time insights into a wide variety of business questions: everything from spotting breaking news and identifying customer satisfaction issues, to gauging response to TV programming and understanding political sentiment. Many of the world’s largest brands also use Topsy as their day-to-day social dashboard to discover and track the impact of trending topics and predict future events.

Hootsuite is a social relationship platform that empowers users to execute social media strategies across their organizations. Their vision is to revolutionize communications, and their mission is to empower their customers to transform messages into meaningful relationships. Hootsuite is the world’s most widely used social media relationship platform. More than 10 million users, including 744 of the Fortune 1000 companies, trust Hootsuite to manage their social media programs across multiple social networks from one integrated dashboard.

Simply Measured is the leading social media analytics and measurement platform used by brands across the globe to quantify performance, determine impact and derive strategic direction from social media data. With more than 40 unique reports sourced from the top social platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google+, YouTube and Vine, Simply Measured turns social media data into beautiful, customizable reports that are easily analyzed and shared.

WEBSITE: www.topsy.com 38 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide June 2015

WEBSITE: www.hootsuite.com

WEBSITE: www.simplymeasured.com

SALES & ADVERTISING

HOW TO GET CUSTOMERS?

The objective of all businesses is sales that means businesses need customers who will make a purchase and continue to make repeat purchases. So how does one get customers or leads of potential customers?

June 2015 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide

39

Advertise but don’t just spend money the

key to advertising successfully is to generate promising leads in exchange for the money you spend. To do so, it helps to offer a message that not only hits on your target customers, but also showcases the value you can offer them. That is good advertising some business owners spend more money to acquire a single customer at a far greater value than they used and the client does not convert to a frequent buyer. So to make wise decisions is key especially at startup stage. As a business owner you have to find the right platform to get your message to your target market that will generate leads is vital to get business going.

Here are some cost effective ways to get customers:-

NETWORKING As you try to get your business up and running, determining which networking events to attend and which to skip is hard. Often, business professionals find them¬selves trying to attend every networking event that up. The usual result is that they don’t wind up getting as much business from their networking efforts as they’d like to. Having a strategy will help elimi¬nate this problem. If you’re not sure who the right contacts are for your business, go back and take a look at your past client list. What industries were they in? How long had they been in business? Were your clients even businesses to begin with or have you worked mostly with consumers? This will help you identify the right events also impor¬tant to surround yourself with quality business contacts. Very often, the best way to your ideal contact is through another contact.

REFERRALS Another excellent way to get good customers is landing Referrals it is not just a cheap way to pick up some business. The best way to a referral is a satisfied customer, it’s also a way to pick up customers with the high¬est retention rates. What’s more, referral customers tend to purchase more over time and in turn become a source of ad¬ditional referrals. How do you find referrals? Ask for them from satisfied customers is one way, also offer discounts or a reward for a referral and find ways to continually thank your customer for the referral.

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As a business owner you have to find the right platform to get your message to your target market

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS Strategic Partnerships are relationship is gener¬ally a one-time or short-term commit¬ment, but they can sometimes last for many years. For instance, a web designer and an ad agency might send each other referrals for clients who need added services. As long as there’s continued value to the shared audience, strategic partnership produce streams of referral business, which is ultimately what will benefit you most over time.

ARTICLE

EMBRACE WAVES TO EXPERIENCE THE SMOOTH SALE June 2015 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide

41

Attract the Right Job or Clientele: Embrace waves to experience the Smooth Sale Invariably each of us experiences high and lows in life and career. The hard part for most is when faced with being at the low point it becomes very difficult to rise once again to hit a new high.

SALES PERSPECTIVE Early in my sales career, I was solemnly advised to never let my pipeline of prospective clients dwindle; be certain to maintain activity to keep it full. Otherwise, once all of the expected sales are made, it will be more difficult than ever to recapture the high. In fact, most salespeople become so discouraged upon facing a low that they quit.

LOW POINT The same concept holds true for any endeavor you might undertake. Goals and milestones are achieved, and then the wonderment of what to do next has us not wanting to attempt anything new.

..most salespeople become so discouraged upon facing a low that they quit

RISING ONCE AGAIN

MAINTAIN HIGH POINTS

Should you in fact be at a miserable low where you feel emotional in a sad way, it’s time to call a good friend. Listen and truly hear encouraging words. After the call, reflect on the best of what you heard, and on the best of what you know to be true. Begin to contemplate a new plan of action. As you give serious consideration to a new plan over the following week, begin writing out specific milestones to be achieved along with specific completion dates.

It is the sales philosophy of always keeping the pipeline full that saves the day. Although you may seriously work on one endeavor at a time, as you can see the finish line approaching, that is the exact time to create complementary tracks to make the results of the first endeavor more robust. It is the act of always having a new adventure to look forward to that keeps the excitement flowing. The excitement instills motivation to do our best, and by implementing our best, the success and thrill of it all moves us to new heights.

Next, figure out which steps will be the easiest to accomplish. As small goals are quickly achieved, the motivation to attempt the more challenging steps kicks in and pretty soon, you are formulating the next wave. This time, include milestones and far off goals to keep that wave growing with increased possibilities. And never ever stop thinking of new ideas to include mentoring communities.

Always keep your pipeline filled to set the wave higher than ever before.

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ARTICLE BY

Elinor Stutz The CEO of Smooth Sale, doing what she enjoys most as an Inspirational Speaker delivering keynotes to standing ovations and as an Author.

ARTICLE

THE IMPORTANCE MOTIVATION IN BUSINESS June 2015 KA Magazine Start-Up Guide

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In my first article, I mentioned that I have taught and written about purpose for more than 20 years. It is my contention that everyone has a life purpose, something that only he or she can do and something only he or she can be. This concept is not only for work, but also for life in general. God assigns or instills this purpose according to His good will and pleasure. I like to call purpose your spiritual set of fingerprints. When you touch something in your purpose, you leave a mark that distinguishes you from every other person on earth. It is your unique contribution to the world and its betterment.

Why is there what I refer to as a purpose movement or craze in the world today, more than ever before? I listed four reasons in my previous article, you may see more. Let me expand on them at this point. First, people have more work and travel options than ever before. People have choices in the workplace of where they will invest their energy and talent, and when they move to another position, they take their expertise with them because they are knowledge workers.

Second, companies face global pressure to be profitable and efficient. A business success is identified quickly and people will beat a path to the door of the business that is successful regardless of where they are located. Failure is often fatal, and stories of ineffectiveness are reported the day they occur. Companies must be purposeful and employ people of purpose if they are going to meet the demands of modern business.

“When you touch something in your purpose, you leave a mark that distinguishes you from every other person on earth.“ Third, the day of lifetime employment opportunities are rare, if they still exist at all. People can expect to switch jobs and companies regularly, or at least more often then their parents or grandparents did. With these job moves comes the opportunity to search and hopefully find positions that are better suited to their strengths and purpose (or maybe they will even go into business for themselves).

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And finally, when basic needs are met, as Abraham Maslov told us, people will search for significance and self-actualization. In other words, they will search for meaning and purpose. In this time of unprecedented wealth and opportunity for many people in the West, people are searching for meaningful work.

Purpose is a faith concept, for it has its origins and fulfillment in the plan that God has prepared not just for the individual but also for His creation. Individual purpose meets a specific need in the world, and when your work aligns with your purpose, you have a powerful and rich tandem that leaves a mark wherever you go. When I teach or coach people about purpose, I am generally asking them to identify one thing and that one thing is joy. I ask, “What are you doing when you experience the greatest sense of joy in your life and work?” Joy is the basic indicator or barometer of purpose. Marcus Buckingham, noted author and leader of what is referred to as the “strengths movement” makes an important but simple distinction between strengths and weaknesses in the workplace.

Your strengths leave you feeling strong. So what does that say about a weakness? A weakness, according to Buckingham, leaves you weak, even if you have some gift or talent to do it! Saying someone operates in their strengths is the same as saying they are a person of purpose. Your purpose gives life and energy; it doesn’t take it.

A purpose-driven person or organization always has a competitive advantage in the marketplace, for joy and strength are intrinsic motivators that you cannot teach or rent.

There is another business author William Bridges who had this to say about purpose and motivation: This is a world in which people had better be doing whatever they do best, whatever they are really motivated to do, whatever most suits them temperamentally, and whatever makes best use of such assets as they happen to have. In this marketplace, organizations pay for results. Bridges also wrote: In the de-jobbed world, the truth that each of us has an inherent life work is suddenly rich with meaning. Nothing less than finding what you were meant to be and do will give you the motivation and the capability that today’s work world demands. Identifying your lifework is no longer an escapist fantasy. It is a condition for being successful.

You now have to discover your lifework if you are to have a chance

“What are my strengths?

How do I perform?

What are my values?”

You now have to discover your lifework if you are to have a chance of creating a satisfactory and satisfying work life – Creating You and Co. Peter Drucker, father of modern management studies, urged his readers to build on strengths or find purpose by the following means:

The answers to the three questions. “What are my strengths? How do I perform? What are my values?” should enable the individual, and especially the knowledge worker, to decide where he or she belongs. . . . But also knowing the answer to these three questions enables people to say to an opportunity, to an offer, to an assignment: “Yes, I’ll do that.

But this is the way I should be doing it. This is the way it should be structured. This is the way my relationships should be. These are the kind of results you should expect from me, and in this time frame, because this is who I am” – Management Challenges for the 21st Century.

There is nothing more valuable for you to study and consider than your own purpose.

Ask yourself: What are your strengths? Where can your team rely on your performance the most? What represents meaningful work for you? Answers to those questions and the questions Drucker posed can only enhance your motivation to excel and that is something that you and your organization need now more than ever. Some have said that it is impossible for anyone to motivate another person.

Every person is in charge of his or her own motivation. If that’s true, then purpose is intrinsic and critical not only to personal fulfillment, but also to corporate success. First you must learn what motivates you and, once you discover that, you will be motivated to help others do the same, not just because it’s a nice thing to do, but also because it makes good business sense

ARTICLE BY

John W. Stanko founder of a personal and leadership Development Company called PurposeQuest, has been involved as a teacher, consultant and coach in the purpose revolution that is sweeping the world. He has

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GRAB YOUR OPPORTUNITY In conclusion there are many factors that lead one to success in business and having an established business that generates millions of dollars. One of the biggest and most important factors is ‘Opportunity’, in being able to see an opportunity and take it. In Zimbabwe we have many examples of business leaders that saw industry and market gaps that they went on to fulfill.

Eample 1. Strive Masiyiwa Retrofit Engineering Masiyiwa is said to have started Retrofit by accident that is without any intention to get into Entrepreneurship. He had decided to build himself a house and after finding out that it would cost him twice the loan he had been granted by his employer, he decided to build the house himself.

His employer however told him that he could only get the loan if his house was built by experienced builders.

While still employed by PTC, Masiyiwa set up Retrofit Engineering in 1987 and started looking for work to get the experience to build his own house.

Zimbabwe happened to be inn a period of construction boom and he quickly built a team of 100 and decided to focus on electrical contracting. He gave up his job 2 years later.

Founding Econet Wireless In 1994 Masiyiwa resolved to start a mobile operator and approached Dr. Nkosana Moyo the CEO of Standard Chartered Merchant Bank Zimbabwe with a business plan to source funding. Standard Chartered was happy to fund the business. Masiyiwa then approached PTC his former employer with a proposal for a joint venture in the mobile operator in which TelOne would own 51% and Masiyiwa, 49%. PTC rejected and instead told him that they had a monopoly on telecommunications in the country. PTC also told him mobile telephony was a passing fad, which would never amount to much.

Masiyiwa challenged PTC’s monopoly in the high court, Supreme Court, constitutional court and then back to the lower courts. The court war would last 5 years, with Masiyiwa eventually being awarded the mobile telecoms license in 1998. Econet Wireless became one of Zimbabwe’s most valuable companies about 12 years later. Econet Wireless International, the parent holding company of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe now owns various telecommunications & renewable energy companies globally.

Example 2. Trevor Vusumuzi Ncube Trevor Vusumuzi Ncube is a Zimbabwean born entrepreneur based in South Africa who is the founder, owner and executive chairman of two newspapers in Zimbabwe, namely the Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard. He is also the owner of Munn Marketing which is magazine and newspaper distribution company in Zimbabwe, and StrandMultiprint, a commercial and newspaper printing company. His business empire also extends to South Africa where he is Executive Deputy Chairman of the Mail & Guardian Media Group (South Africa)

The Genesis of a Business Empire

After being fired, it is said that Trevor struggled to look for employment. It was however his dismissal from The Gazette in 1996 which set him on a path to become one of the most successful business persons out of Zimbabwe. In conjunction with Sarah Clive and Thompson Clive The initial print run of 10 000 copies is said to have been sold out before midday on Friday, May 10, 1996. . To date, Trevor Ncube has interests in Munn Marketing, StrandMultiprint and Mail & Guardian Media Group (South Africa).

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ARTICLE

The Most Common Reason People Fail To Pursue The Best Opportunity In Front Of Them This week, I connected with a high-level professional woman (let’s call her Karen) seeking coaching help to grow her career. She shared that she was ready to leave her current corporate role today as the senior leader was terribly toxic – a true narcissist who beat her down (in verbally and emotionally erratic and abusive ways). He also did this to every other talented and successful individual in the organization because he was threatened by their brilliance, accomplishments and by their independent thinking. She was done with putting up with this abuse.

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The second opportunity was an exciting stretch opportunity where she’d be working in the same field in which she’d become a true expert, but at a much higher level, running an organization and serving as its top leader. She’d be able to shape the direction, workforce, strategy and vision of this emerging organization. She admired all the people she’d be working with, and they shared an aligned view of how best to run, and grow, an organization.

In peeling the onion and looking at the pros and cons of each move, one thing became crystal clear. The only reason Karen hesitated to go for the amazing second opportunity was this: She said, “I don’t know if I can do it – lead a company.”

In my work helping professional women build exciting, rewarding careers they love, I’ve heard this one fear expressed literally more times than I can count. It comes out in many different forms and ways, but here’s what it often sounds like: “I’m not sure I have the skills or leader-

ship experience to do this.”

“I don’t think I’m quite ready.”

“This big of a stretch will really stress me, I think.”

Karen also told me that there were two exciting opportunities in front of her that she was deciding on. Both had come to her through a series of serendipitous events (I don’t believe these are “accidents” by the way – I believe that fabulous opportunities present themselves for a good reason.) One was an opportunity for a role at her current level in another firm that would tap into and easily draw on the in-depth industry knowledge and skills she had amassed. All looked good except that there was one individual in the prospective company with whom she interviewed who was terrible – demeaning, belittling and dismissive. While Karen wouldn’t be working for this individual, she would need her as an ally, and it was clear that would not happen.

“I don’t know if I can really succeed at this.”

“I’ll need a lot of help with this and where would I get that help?”

“I have some of the required skills, but not all of them.”

Behind these fears is a nagging sense that they’re not worthy of this big opportunity, and that they’ll let other people down. I’ve seen in my work that women are often afraid to leap into a big new role where they don’t feel they have 100% of the qualifications. The problem with that thinking is that it keeps you from pushing past your comfort zone, but if we don’t, we fail to do what’s necessary to live full out and fulfill our dreams.

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When you work as I do with so many professionals, recurring and self-limiting trends and patterns become clear. The pattern I’d like to eradicate is where fear yanks you back from stretching higher, and where you let your ego (which for most of us is a frail and fragile thing) stop you from jumping at an amazing opportunity that will allow you to reach a higher level of reward and impact. Yes it’s risky, without guarantees, but so is most of what helps us achieve our biggest and most compelling visions for our lives.

5.

Do I care about the outcomes this

organization is working toward in the world?

6.

Will I have the flexibility in this role to focus on and support the other top priorities in my life?

7.

Three years down the line, will this opportunity most likely give me the chance to become the professional and the leader I long to be?

Open your eyes to why you’re hesitant to move forward. If it’s fear, uncover it, and embrace the exciting new opportunity that stretches you farther.

Open your eyes to why you’re hesitant to move forward. If it’s fear, uncover it, and embrace the exciting new opportunity that stretches you farther. If your hesitation is anything about “I’m not sure I can do this” I hope you’ll think again. No one is truly “ready” for the exponential growth opportunities that come their way and fall in their laps. Forget “ready.”

If you’re facing a number of opportunities in front of you and can’t decide, ask yourself these questions:

Go for this instead: “I’m highly skilled, capable, resourceful, and accomplished. I’m excited to stretch bigger. I’m committed to building my capabilities and making the positive impact I long to. And I’m excited to do what it takes to grow and succeed at the next level.”

1.

Who are the people I’ll be working

with most closely – do I respect,

admire and enjoy them, and will they

teach me great things I’m excited to learn?

2.

What are the core values, traits and behaviors of the senior leadership – will it be easy for me to support them?

3.

What is the potential growth opportunity for me – will I learn new skills, make exciting new connections, learn to lead, manage and grow a business or endeavor in a powerful and rewarding way?

4.

Will this new organization and its leadership respect me and my values – are we aligned?

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ARTICLE BY

Kathy Caprino Founder/President of Ellia Communications, Inc a United States based organization and the Amazing Career Project, former co-founder and partner of Living in Harmony.