Why You Don't Need Rich Customers to Sell Luxury Goods

Sure, household wealth has diminished, but that doesn't mean you should cater to the super-wealthy.

Being a luxury brand isn't what it's cracked up to be, at least according to the The Wall Street Journal's Justin Lahart. The success that companies selling goods to affluent Americans have enjoyed, he argues, has its limits.

How to Decide Which Software to Use for Your Startup

Deciding which software will organize your startup is much more than a technological choice.

Tech companies quietly transmit a lot about themselves through the software they use to build their products; engineers call it their software stack, or technology stack. Though these choices can be babel to non-engineers, to fellow developers, a company's stack flaunts its values and priorities, its technological ambitions, and what it expects of its products. So the fact that Twitter, for example, uses in-house Java technology (after years of "fail whale" error messages with Ruby on Rails) reflects its priorities of reliability and scale.

Want to Be Successful? Stick to a Schedule.

There will always be fellow entrepreneurs with more funding, better connections or years of experience. One thing, however, that puts us all on a level playing field: the number of hours in a day. Figuring out how to effectively spend the 24 hours in each day is one of the most challenging parts of being a business owner.

When I first started out, I thought the main perk of working on my own as a publicist would be being able to do things, according to my own schedule. I didn’t have a daily routine. My schedule would just depend on my mood.

After about a year of functioning in this way, I realized that I needed to work during more normal business hours if I really wanted to grow my company. I decided to create a schedule and I still stick to one today. Not only did this make me feel significantly less stressed, I was getting more done in fewer hours!

How to Name Your Business

What's in a name? A lot, when it comes to small-business success. The right name can make your company the talk of the town. The wrong one can doom it to obscurity and failure. Ideally, your name should convey the expertise, value and uniqueness of the product or service you have developed.

Some experts believe that the best names are abstract, a blank slate upon which to create an image. Others think that names should be informative so customers know immediately what your business is. Some believe that coined names (that come from made-up words) are more memorable than names that use real words. Others think they're forgettable.

In reality, any name can be effective if it's backed by the appropriate marketing strategy. Here's what you'll need to consider in order to give your small business the most appropriate and effective name.

7 Things Great Entrepreneurs Know

Leadership is not in your DNA. There is no genetic code for becoming a chief executive or a business owner. We’re all born with a clean slate, more or less. What happens next – your childhood, your upbringing, your education, your experience, your behavior, the choices you make – determines what you become. And what you make of yourself.

It might surprise you to know that growing up with nothing does not diminish your chances of accomplishing great things in your life. On the contrary, growing up with adversity, in a competitive environment, can have a positive impact on your career. It all depends on how you use that experience.

21 Simple Ways to Get More Followers for Your Google Plus Business Page

Google Plus has more than one billion registered (and 359 million active) users, as well as some of the most business-friendly features of any social network, this is the time to start building out your business page, if you haven’t done so already.

As additional incentive, Google Plus has been shown to dramatically improve search engine rankings, which, in itself, is a sufficient reason to join the platform. By building your brand through this social media channel, you will be able to boost your SEO efforts and increase your business’s online exposure.

So, let’s jump in and take a look at some of the awesome ways to increase your exposure on Google Plus.

Be Prepared: 4 Ways to Outthink Your Competitors

In The Art of War, Sun Tzu wrote that "It’s more important to outthink your enemy than outfight him." Even after 2,500 years, this maxim is still so universal and relevant.

Sun Tzu warns against waging war without a strategy or understanding what your ultimate goal is. Tactics are not strategy. In the business world it’s common for people to confuse the two, because engaging in tactics makes it appear as if you have strategy, even when you don’t. The best leaders must first understand what their goal is and then work to develop unique tactics that will help you achieve that goal. But they must also be prepared to change that goal, then employ new tactics to achieve it.

Here are some strategies to employ to outthink your competitors:

5 Ways to Grow Your Business Without Adding More Resources

Everyone in business today is being asked to do more with less. There is constant pressure to improve performance, maintain growth and beat the numbers. From large multinationals to independent contractors, increasing efficiency is top priority. Here are five tips that you will help you grow your business, without adding more overhead:

8 Pro Secrets to Delivering a Knockout Business Presentation

Great speeches are memorable, informative and referenced for many years. They inspire and educate. And most successful public speakers have refined their skills through years of experience. So how can an entrepreneur who’s short on time master the basics of delivering a great speech fast? Mimic the pros.

5 Ways to Succeed in Any Economy

The more difficult the economy, the greater the opportunities -- but only for those who are strong, well-prepared and persistent. Many people are fixated by national or even global economic doom and gloom. Many wait for a magic fix, only to realize it will never come.

We are now in what I like to call an “eat what you kill" environment, where the people who win are those who take the initiative without waiting for permission to create their own success.

Here are five ways I have found to ensure success in any economy:

How I Went From Zero to 380,000 Twitter Followers Without Spending a Dime

Technology is transforming how modern entrepreneurs stay connected to their business, their team and their industry. In this series, learn more about the cutting edge tools and thinking allowing innovators to stay ahead of the trends.

As social media is becoming more engrained in our everyday lives, it is becoming imperative for businesses to get on board. And Twitter is huge for companies, as it provides a place to share news, engage with loyal customers and attract new ones. But it isn't easy.

Never Take Your Eye Off the Ball

There’s an old saying, “You get what you pay for.” There may have been a time when that was true, but not anymore. In virtually every product category you’ll find relatively inexpensive products that do the job reliably and pricy ones with all sorts of bells and whistles that don’t.

While there’s no shame in being a cost leader, it does have its challenges, namely surviving on razor-thin margins. Marketers combat that with differentiation and premium positioning. But oftentimes, in their zeal to push marketable features and cool designs, they forget about basic functionality and end up with high-priced garbage.

5 Things You Can't Find on Google

There was a time when the Internet was used commercially for just one purpose: pornography. That’s right. We had this World Wide Web – a high-tech marvel developed by some of America’s most brilliant research minds – and the only people making money were in the adult film industry.

We’ve come a long way since then.

Today, you can find and buy just about anything online courtesy of a robust infrastructure that, at least at this point, appears to be infinitely scalable. And the one thing we take for granted, the one thing the Internet would be virtually unusable without, is search.

3 Golden Rules of Negotiating

The art of negotiating escapes most of us, even good salespeople, because few take the time to correctly understand the word and follow the golden rules of negotiating.

The first and biggest error is a misunderstanding of the word. When I ask people at my Closers workshop what the word "negotiating" means, I get answers like, "how good a deal can I get" and "how cheap can I buy." For many people, it's a process of painful tactics of stall and overcome or a give and take mostly involving the surrender of price and terms.

"Negotiate" comes from the Latin negotiatus, which is the past participle of negotiari, and means to carry on business. This original meaning is critical to understand because the goal of negotiating is to continue doing business by conferring with another to arrive at an agreement.

Twitter Basics From a Marketer With More Than 200K Followers

Most people I speak with feel overwhelmed with Twitter and struggle relentlessly with how to get started on the platform. If you’re one of the many hiding from the tweeting blue bird, let me help you get started with a few tips:

How to Negotiate a Better Deal on Enterprise Software

An abiding IT myth is that negotiating a steep discount on software licensing agreements (SLAs) is easist at the end of the fiscal year when reps for leading software vendors are scrambling to meet their annual quotas.

Most software vendors offer 15% to 20% discounts to open negotiations, without waiting for the year end, but every lasting myth has some truth. The fiscal year-end -- May 31 for Oracle, June 30 for Microsoft -- is the best time to negotiate the absolute lowest price but those alluring, unsolicited discounts could cost you dearly.

Growth and Change Require Agile Leadership and Bedrock Values

Every year we see a new best seller or startup sensation promoting the latest and greatest formula for success. We eagerly study these books and download every TED talk, even knowing there is no definitive guide to success. The path to success lies in continuously evolving and optimizing your leadership strategy, a process I call “agile leadership.''

There are numerous studies on the strength of agile methodology in software development but an "agile'' strategy is applicable to leadership and management practices. The challenges you face grow more complex with time, money and success. A great leader pauses to reflect and evaluate their leadership on a consistent basis. That is critical for personal growth and sustainability.

Guided by an agile philosophy, I have led my company, LivePerson, from start-up to global tech enterprise through the cycles of the dot com era. I have distilled five tips for becoming an “agile CEO.”

6 Things You Should Never Say During a Speech

When I was hired as a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines in 1992, I had to quickly learn how to be comfortable in front of a crowd. Keeping everyone engaged through a monotonous safety presentation, after all, is easier said than done.

If you’re new to public speaking, it can be intimidating -- for some, it can be terrifying, to say the least. That’s why most people never bother to master public speaking.

After I became a Certified Speaking Professional through the National Speakers Association, I learned the content of my speech was often less important than how I presented it. When we attend presentations by speakers who appear calm, confident and organized, we feel more interested and engaged.

3 Ways to Master the Hashtag

In an episode of his late-night show last fall, Jimmy Fallon held a Twitter conversation in real life with Justin Timberlake. Littered with spoken hashtags (my favorite: #lololololololololololol), the sketch skewered what happens when companies--and all of us--get a little carried away with tacking these things onto every social media utterance.

But hashtags don't have to be gratuitous and silly. They serve a purpose and can help tell your company's story, share your history and align you with an audience.

Seven "Ps" of Human Resources Management

By Ketan T Bhatt

After Human Resource Management (HRM), Marketing is my second love. Of all the business functions, I consider the Marketing function as a sibling of HRM function and in my opinion; seven 'Ps' of Marketing are also relevant to HRM.

The common feature between the Marketing and the HRM functions is "the need for influencing, attracting, delighting & retaining". In case of the Marketing function, this need is for the customers or consumers and in case of the HRM function, it is for the employees.

Allow me now to explain each 'P' for the HRM function or said in other words, let us understand the marketing mix of the HRM function.

The No-Nonsense Business Advice You Need to Hear

Author Geoffrey James demystifies the struggle for workplace survival.

Business publishers must be gnashing their teeth at the appearance of Geoffrey James’ new book, Business Without the Bullshit: 49 Secrets and Shortcuts You Need to Know, which hit shelves May 13th.

James, a prolific business journalist and blogger (most recently at Inc.com) is a longtime student of human and organizational behavior. His new book hacks through the abundant verbiage of most management lit to help readers be effective in their jobs while parrying the ubiquitous forces of distraction, deceit, and disaffection. Inc. editor-at-large Leigh Buchanan spoke with James about his brass-tacks approach to business.

How to Build a Strong Team Without the Pricey Off-Sites

The value of teamwork is priceless, so team-building shouldn't have to cost a lot. Start with these basics to build a good foundation.

As business owners, we count on our teams to get things done that will move our businesses forward. When each team works internally together productively and every department works in harmony with the others, our companies make giant leaps forward.

Great teams don't always develop organically, unfortunately. And while it can seem like a waste of time and resources to actively cultivate teambuilding, it is really an incredible tool in making our businesses thrive. Here are three easy ways to help your team gel without breaking the bank.

Start Up Capital - Funding Without Business Loan

Every start up has one critical need in common - financing. Usually the first thing everybody thinks about is going to their bank and applying for a small business loan or SBA loan. This is a great way to get cheap financing but the requirements can be quite steep and not everybody can meet it. First of all you'll be asked to have anywhere from 20% to 40% of cash to put down, then you'll need to put up everything you own as collateral and eventually you and your spouse (if you have one) we'll have to provide unlimited and unconditional personal guarantees.

8 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Pitching To Investors

One of my grown children called me the other day to ask if I knew of anyone who could help review a business plan for a startup technology company. Rather than offer a referral to someone else, I thought it would be easier to provide some fatherly advice and craft the following list of 8 mistakes that entrepreneurs often make when pitching to investors. During the last 15 years living and working in Silicon Valley, I have been a partner in a technology venture capital fund and most recently an angel investor. Before that I was finance and M&A lawyer for 20 years. So I thought my “fatherly advice” would be well received. Imagine my surprise when I received this email the following day: “Dad, I asked you to introduce me to someone who knows something about startups, not give me advice!”

Rather than waste my carefully considered advice, I offer it instead to you:

The Importance of Knowing Your Investor Before the Pitch

Business pitches to investors are essential to the success of any business idea and its transition from concept to reality. Pitching to investors is often the inevitable first step to gathering support and funding for any business idea. Even the most original and innovative business idea and opportunity can be missed if potential investors are not convinced and do not choose to fund the idea. This is why it is essential to understand potential investors before any business pitch and to change and adapt the business pitch accordingly.

The Art of Planning a Business: How to Make Money

Entrepreneurship, in today's world, does not need huge capital or a highly qualified team to start with. The Internet has opened up ways for people to start without investments, and to hire people with expertise on a need basis. Almost all aspects of running a business can be outsourced, while the owner can keep a brief overview of everything and ensure control over everything.

Joint Venture - Share Your Financial Burden With Partners

Being in a business means that you have to keep generating the money all time to manage finances and to operate the business smoothly. However, one thing that needs to be mentioned is that every business owner wants to expand his/her business for which a partner may be needed - be it for capital infusion or a specific skill-set. Joint ventures have become an increasingly popular choice for businesses as it allows them to leverage on the benefits brought in by the Joint Venture partner, thus enabling the business to grow exponentially.

11 Steps to Achieving Impossible Goals

The loftiest goal I ever set in the early stages of my professional career was to become a Navy SEAL. Achieving that milestone gave me a new perspective and set the foundation for the rest of my life. Nothing seemed too far from my grasp.

The first six months of training, called Basis Underwater Demolition/SEAL, is designed to identify those not solely committed to the mission of becoming a Navy SEAL, separate them from the herd, and force them to quit. Unless you quickly identify what you personally need to be successful, you will fail. Here are 11 important tactics I learned during that journey that I use every day in the constant pursuit of personal and professional success.

7 Simple Secrets of the Best Presentations

How to give a presentation that customers, colleagues, and co-workers, will talk about long after you're done talking.  

My new book, Business Without The Bullsh*t: 49 Secrets and Shortcuts You Need To Know, is being published this week, so my posts are condensed excerpts from it.

I've written about presentations many times, but I've never provided the core truths that transform an average presentation into a killer one. Here they are:

6 Ways Supersmart People Succeed

Facing tough competition? Supersmart people know how to gain advantage. Here are their secrets.

So much of business is competitive. Your market competitors are not the only people you will go up against to be successful. Sometimes your colleagues, employees, and partners will compete with you daily for power, ideas, and methodology.

In most cases, you can't win with just brute force or resources. You have to outsmart the competition. You need to carefully consider competitors' approach and figure out how to win the battles of ideas and acceptance, and ultimately of execution. It's not always easy or comfortable, but great rewards rarely come to those who sit back and take no risk.

Here are six ways your supersmart competitors are working to gain advantage over you. See if you can rise above their level and defeat them.

Why You Should Set Goals So Simple They're Laughable

At a recent class on behavioral science, productivity coach Tiago Forte explained how you can surmount your detrimental over-achiever tendencies.

In some ways, high-achievers are the worst at behavior change.

This is according to full-time productivity consultant and coach Tiago Forte. The reason for this, Forte said, is that high-performers approach new goals in the same ambitious way that they've tackled other challenges.

Seven Essential Components to a Marketing Plan

When you start out in business, two things are scarce: time and resources. To create an effective new business strategy and ensure you're not wasting time or money, you need a marketing plan.

Here are the essential components of a marketing plan that keeps the sales pipeline full.

3 Leadership Trends of 2014

The styles, tools, and theories of management that CEOs and academics are espousing this year

What are the most innovative leadership methods being taught in business schools and implemented by CEOs? Below, read three trends taking hold this year.

How to Get Your Employees to Go Beyond the Call of Duty

A recent study shows that employees who work for humble leaders are more likely to work harder and come up with better ideas.



Being humble is not just a virtue, it's an important leadership practice. If you're overly self-promotional and rule your team with an I'm-always-right attitude, chances are your employees will feel alienated, resentful, and unwilling to go the extra mile for you.

Recent research shows the impact of selfless leadership. In a survey by the Catalyst Research Center for Advancing Leader Effectiveness, which collected 1,500 responses from workers around the world, the results were clear:

5 Things Really Successful Learners Do

Many people claim to be a "lifetime learners," and with good reason. Scientists have warned that you need to keep your brain active if you want to avoid mental decay. But some people seem to learn easier and faster than others. These smart people often show creativity and innovation, and quickly pick up new skills on their own time.
Learning should be easy to do since we all go through years of schooling training on how to do it. But beyond basic acquisition of knowledge, there is a real art to intensive learning.  For deep learning you have to find the time and energy for knowledge and skills building. Really successful learners know the trick is to make the process itself as energizing and efficient as possible. Here's how they do it.

Six Ways To Simplify Small Business Life

By Mike Savory, Product Manager, Sage One

As a small business owner, you are responsible for many key tasks in order to maintain your business –fulfilling orders, creative development, sales and marketing, and the dreaded invoicing process; the list goes on and on. This National Small Business Week – the annual designated small business celebration this May 12-16th – set aside some time to congratulate yourself on your accomplishments with all of these tasks and take a moment to pinpoint how you can simplify your life moving forward.

Being an entrepreneur or small business owner doesn’t mean you need or should do it all yourself. In fact, successful entrepreneurs are expert delegators. This doesn’t always mean delegating to other people, but rather understanding how to delegate key, but painful tasks and how to use delegation tools and solutions.

Below, I’ve listed a few ways to make entrepreneurial tasks less difficult.

Starting A Business? Two Common Management Issues And How To Solve Them

By Gabie Boko, Executive Vice President of Marketing at Sage North America

Is there a downside to job market recovery? If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, there may be.

A recent Kauffman study showed that entrepreneurship suffers when the job market is in recovery mode. In 2013, 476,000 new businesses were created each month, down 7 percent from 2012 when 514,000 new businesses were created monthly; highlighting that people who might have started their own business became employees instead.

As an advisor to small business owners, here are some of the biggest personal and business issues I see entrepreneurs face when getting started, and some thoughts on how burgeoning business owners can move past these challenges:

Build Great Customer Service Into Your Business With These 5 Tips

Positive customer service experiences can inspire emotional responses toward a business such as trust, gratitude and loyalty. Through word-of-mouth, every customer has the potential to become a brand advocate and bring you more business.

Try to create a “customer-service culture” of knowledge, communication, purpose and empathy in your business. With exceptional customer service, your profits will increase.  

Below are some tried-and-true tips to improving your company’s customer service:

Are You a Small Business Owner or an Entrepreneur? The Difference Is Important.

It’s National Small Business Week. Hooray! Small businesses are the backbone of this country. They create jobs, come up with new ways of doing old things, and help keep money in the local community. Without small businesses, we’d be in a bigger economic mess.


Among those of us with small businesses, there’s confusion between the terms Small Business Owner and Entrepreneur. Both can have small businesses, but they have different styles of leadership and thoughts on running their business. One is not better than the other, they’re just different. How do you fit in to these 4 scenarios?

Small business owners have a great idea.
They solve a problem in their community. They know their business and target audience. They know what will make their customers happy. They serve their customers.
Entrepreneurs have big ideas.
They dream big. They think big. They come up with ideas that haven’t been tested, diagnosed, or worked through. A lot of times they don’t even know if their ideas are possible, which gets them even more excited.

Small business owners hold steady.
They like to know what’s coming next and where it’s coming from. They make calculated decisions where the outcome is clear. The result may not be huge, but it will typically keep them moving forward.
Entrepreneurs love risk.
They step out on a ledge more often than not. They jump in with both feet knowing that if they put in their full effort, the risk will be worth it more often than not.

Small business owners think about the things they need to finish this week.
They have daily and weekly to do lists. They manage employees, work with customers, network with new customers, and keep everything rocking and rolling.
Entrepreneurs are thinking ahead six months.
While their team is thinking about what they’re doing that week, they tend to skip the now and focus on the future of the company. They have people to manage the business, and if they don’t, they soon will.

Small businesses owners are sentimental with their businesses.
They never plan on selling or handing their business off to someone else unless it's family. They like making the decisions and running the day-to-day.
Entrepreneurs focus on scaling.
They want to grow and grow they will. Although they may not focus on selling the business, they set it up to run without them. They surround themselves with experts while they end up being the rainmaker.

America needs small business owners to hold the economy and entrepreneurs to propel it forward. One isn’t better than the other. But the question needs to be asked: Are you a small business owner or an entrepreneur? 

Melanie Spring

As the Chief Inspiration Officer of Sisarina, a D.C.-based branding firm, Spring built her business with a strong content marketing strategy. With an innate sense for social media, connecting with her customers, and building a culture around her brand, she teaches businesses and non-profits how to rock their brand. She also recently toured the U.S. on the Live Your Brand Tour collecting stories from businesses living their brand.

Follow Engee's Business Guide on Facebook and Twitter

Break the Ice: 8 Networking Tips for Introverts

Success is largely determined by an ability to play to your strengths. If you happen to be shy or introverted, don’t limit your dreams or count yourself out just because you don’t fit the traditional image of an entrepreneur. There is more than one path to success.

Networking events, however, tend to be designed for a particular personality -- the "work hard, play hard," never-met-a-stranger type. Rooms filled with crowds of people -- not to mention the pressure to be interesting and likeable -- is enough to give most introverts sweaty palms.

Here are some helpful hints.While visibility is a natural part of networking, that doesn’t mean you have to be the center of attention. Rather than approaching networking like an extrovert, introverts should relax, plan ahead and let their true personalities shine through.

Projecting a Great Customer Experience a Half Year Ahead

The hunt for new customers often starts with an attempt to make the phone ring or generate a click on a website.

Yet the best way to generate calls is to focus on making an existing customer thrilled.

What if your first thought in designing a new marketing campaign were to be about what you want the customer to think, say and feel about the product 180 days after purchase.

How to Triage Your Intellectual Property Needs

Intellectual property presents a conundrum to entrepreneurs and startup businesses with limited cash resources: The measures to protect it must compete with other necessary projects. Yet failure to take this important step can result in significant lost value later on in the business cycle.

Additionally, time limitations unique to intellectual property can exasperate the situation. One way to solve these problems is to “triage” the needs, focusing on assets that rank higher in priority and value. The following outlines the various types of intellectual property, the cost to protect them and some risks associated with inaction:

Tips to Working Smart

By Christina M Weber

Breakthrough ideas don't shower most entrepreneurs when sitting in front of their computers. Inspiration hits like popcorn when in the woods hiking with the sun shimmering through leaves, running down a scenic path or painting a picture.

Having more recreation alone doesn't grow cash flow. The magical smart work and high quality play does.

Simple Tips for Business Innovation Ideas

By Rasha Tiozon

Are you one of those people who can't sleep because an idea keeps on popping in their mind? As what most artists say, creativity never sleeps. But this is also applicable for people with an entrepreneurial mindset, always looking for ways to innovate and reinvent their products. Just take a look at the big names in the industry --- Apple, Microsoft, 3M, and so on and so forth.

Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or you're already one, here are some simple tips for you to have a million-dollar idea for your business.

Apple Near Buying Beats Electronics for $3.2 Billion

With a deal, Apple also would gain control of the Beats headphones, for which the company is well known. Iovine and Dr. Dre started Beats in 2008 as people used iPods and smartphones to listen to more music on the go. The pair marketed the devices aggressively, showing the high-end headphones as stylish accessories for the general public and not just audiophiles.

4 Ways To Increase Creativity As An Entrepreneur

If you’re an entrepreneur, chances are you’re pretty good at coming up with responses to unfulfilled needs in the marketplace. But what happens when you need a new idea? An original answer? A breakthrough? That calls for creative thinking. It’s a method of thinking most of us have never been taught, and some say is unteachable. Faced with the need to create, we tend to freeze up, get muddled, or, as I’ve written before, give up on the people we’ve got and hire someone else.

If this sounds like you, take heart. Here are four specific, science-based moves that creative people have been using for years to spark creative thinking:

Son Makes $58 Billion on Alibaba With Buffett-Type Return

With Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. filing to go public, the biggest winner won’t be founder Jack Ma or his fellow executives or even venture capital backers like Silver Lake Management LLC. It’ll be Japan’s Masayoshi Son.

Fourteen years ago, Son’s SoftBank Corp. (9984) started with a $20 million bet on a then-unknown Web portal connecting Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers. That site evolved into China’s biggest Internet shopping mall and SoftBank’s stake is now estimated to be worth about $58 billion, an exceptional return even by Silicon Valley’s standards.