Entrepreneur

5 Business Lessons We Can All Learn from Ronda Rousey

November 17, 2015 by Kenney Myers

It’s never easy being the champion or leader in your industry. You constantly are looking over your shoulder as challengers pop up trying to take what you worked so hard to build and attain. They may be leaner than you and they may be hungrier than you which can be a very dangerous combination. They may also have training, skills, and experience that you don’t have. Recently, UFC champion Ronda Rousey was believed to be unbeatable. However, last Saturday night she wasn’t just beaten she was destroyed by challenger Holly Holm getting knocked out in the second round of their fight. I believe that we can all learn some lessons from Ronda Rousey to apply to our businesses and professional lives.

Don’t believe all of the hype. Your business may be all the rage with you getting amazing press coverage, large blogs, or even major National news on a regular basis. That’s all great, but the danger is in once you start believing all of that hype and start thinking that you are actually unbeatable (I think this was a major contributor to Ronda Rousey’s loss). There is an obvious advantage to being the incumbent but that hardly means you can’t be challenged. One thing is for sure, everyone and every business can be beaten.
Stay sharp and constantly challenge yourself to learn more and get better. Ronda Rousey put together a good team of coaches but she didn’t get world class striking/kickboxing training (if she did she ignored it completely). Holly Holm is a heavily decorated boxer/kickboxer and knowing this Ronda really needed to spend time focused on her opponent’s strengths.
Don’t run around chasing your opponent allowing them to control or manipulate your time. In the fight, Ronda was chasing after Holly Holm and completely allowing Holly to control the pace and style of the fight. If you allow your competition to dictate the pace plus how you fight your chances of beating them are not good. Try to focus on your strengths and get them to fight you on your terms.
Don’t block punches with your face. As Ronda found out she actually was not indestructible. She repeatedly got punched/kicked in the face and eventually that led to her getting knocked out. If you allow your competitor to keep hitting you and knocking off your clients one at a time or beating you in one market at a time, eventually they will take you out. You need a proper defense to block their attacks as often as you possibly can.
Talk is cheap and isn’t going to be enough. You can talk like the champ but that is simply not going to help you when you are in the heat of battle. You have to be able to back up the strong words and banter. Better yet, just let your actions do the talking for you. If you are the leader in your industry act like it but also stay as hungry as possible. You have to work hard to stay on top because you can be sure your competition is busting their butts.

There are a lot of other lessons that we can learn but in the end Ronda Rousey is fortunate because she will absolutely get a shot to get her title back. In business, rarely are we that lucky. If your competitor knocks you out you could be permanently down for the count. What are you doing today to make sure that doesn’t happen to you or your business?

How Big Was That Deal? Embellish Much? How Do You Reel it In?

November 16, 2015 by Kenney Myers

We all know that whether it’s a great fishing story, hunting story, or business deal the details are often a bit fuzzy and seem to only get fuzzier over time. It’s usually not that big of a deal and just like with fishing stories some exaggeration is expected even in business (plus or minus 10%). However, if you stretch the truth too much or too often it’s very likely to result in a loss of credibility that may be impossible to recover from. So what do you do if you find yourself in the position of getting caught adding some size to that deal you landed in order to impress a new client or to get a new job?

Immediately come clean – whatever you do, it’s important to never dig the hole you are in any deeper. It’s way easier to recover if you just come clean and explain your spin as best you can (saying you were wrong indicates that your integrity matters to you). Whoever you are talking to will respect that a lot more than you might imagine.
Accept that deals come in all sizes – focus on the deals you did get because even if they aren’t gigantic that really shouldn’t be the point. If you landed the deal and delivered on it well then that small deal could easily turn into something bigger down the road. This isn’t one of those trite “size doesn’t matter” points, of course it does when it comes to business deals. However, what matters more to new clients and employers is regardless of the size you made the most of every deal.
Come clean even if it isn’t you that exaggerated. I find quite often that it’s the people I am with that tend to stretch the size of a deal or accomplishment (even if it is about something I have done or we have done together). What is intended as flattery actually just brings you into something that you need to clear up. It’s better to politely correct them while still supporting the point they were trying to make. Don’t be guilty by association.

Nobody is perfect and there will be times when you honestly don’t remember the details as well as you may like. If the details are fuzzy then wait and get back to anyone that is asking questions until you have the facts or clearly tell them “don’t quote me on this” because then you have at least set their expectations properly.

In the end having the integrity to come clean and reel in any exaggerations will pay off in catching way bigger fish/deals down the road. If somehow telling the truth is a problem then frankly that’s probably telling you a lot more about the person listening than it is about you. Guard your integrity as you would your life because otherwise people are just not going to want to have you in there boats.

6 Traits You Have to Possess if You Want to Start a Business that Can Succeed

November 13, 2015 by Kenney Myers

Most successful entrepreneurs that I know have some traits in common that seem to enable them to endure and eventually win with small businesses. On the other hand, I have met far more people that have tried to start a small business only to fail. In some cases their ideas were amazing, they just couldn’t make them happen. Here are six traits you need to possess or acquire if you want to successfully start a new business:

You have to be an insanely hard worker. Somehow entrepreneurs got a bad rap for being too lazy to work for someone else but my experience is the exact opposite. The best entrepreneurs I know work FAR more than 9-to-5 in fact, they really never stop working because of the passion and drive they have for their ideas.
You have to be passionate about your mission and ideas. If you want your business to succeed you have to believe it will to your core and be able to demonstrate those beliefs to everyone you meet (literally). You have to be a master evangelist because nobody should love your idea more than you.
You have to be able to deal with struggles. Look, a start-up is going to be difficult. You have to be able to keep focused even though you know you are scraping by and always looking for that next round of funding or deciding whether or not to keep depleting your own savings to fund the business. If you are looking for job and financial security then you probably shouldn’t start a business.
You have to believe that you are going to win. If you can’t put your “gameface” on basically on demand then you probably are going to fail. You have to look like a winner because you believe you are going to win and that its just around the corner (because it very well could be your next meeting or that next stranger you give your passionate elevator pitch to that is your big break).
You have to be a fighter. You can choose to live to fight another day or fight to live another day but either way you are going to have to fight. If you don’t have that killer/warrior instinct in you and the willingness to go into battle (call it cold calling or knocking on doors or …) then you are going to struggle and you probably are going to lose.
You actually have to be able to produce your product or service and not just talk about it. Some people are just idea guys/gals and that’s all great but if you can’t actually bring the idea to market or know someone that can then you obviously are going to fail. You have to be functional enough to be able to make sure the work gets done and that usually means being willing and able to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.

There isn’t really a secret to success in starting a business other than hard work, smart work, and determination. It also helps a lot to have a business idea that actually can make money, but that is far from enough. If you don’t have the stomach to be an entrepreneur along with these traits listed above then you really shouldn’t begin because your odds for success are very low.

10 Ways to Bootstrap Your First Startup

August 9, 2015 by Kenney Myers

Seeking investors can be a reliable way of building startup capital, but it can also leave you under the control of outsiders and forced to surrender some control over your business model in order to keep those investors happy. Bootstrapping your startup, or financing the venture with your own money, leaves you in control and completely independent. It can also be a struggle if you’re not sure where to begin. Here are ten ways to bootstrap your first startup and get your business off the ground yourself.

Do It Yourself – Just as you are your own source of funding, you’ll need to be your own source of labor. Because your finances are limited, you should avoid hiring until you’ve reached the point of profitability. This means you’ll have to do a lot of work yourself, but you won’t be shelling out a salary and cutting into your limited capital.
Expand Your Skill Set – It’s tempting to say that you don’t have a particular skill set, then shell out money to have someone do something for you. Learning new skills makes you more valuable in the long term, though, and helps you avoid costs associated with outsourcing. You will end up having to hire some people/services anyway (very few people can do everything themselves and do it well), but it’s better to try to save money where you can.
Separate Your Finances – If the capital you’re using to fund your startup comes from a personal savings account, move it into a dedicated business account. You’ll have a more difficult time tracking expenses if your business expenditures are on the same statement as your personal purchases and it will save you a lot of grief when it comes time to prepare your taxes.
Strive for Quick Profitability – Everyone wants to start earning a profit quickly, but it’s vital for boostrapped startups. Optimizing for a quick turnaround on cash flow may mean changing some aspects of your business model, but it can mean the difference between success and failure.
Consider Partners Carefully – A like-minded partner who brings a bit of capital to the table means more money, more labor and more attention. A well-matched partner can help you put off the first hire until your joint venture is profitable, stretch capital a bit farther and get more done than one person can accomplish alone. A poorly-matched partner, however, can mess up more than they fix and derail all of your efforts. Don’t be hasty about going into business, especially a boostrapped venture, with a partner.
Start With the Free Version – Crucial tools like Dropbox and QuickBooks can be expensive, but they can also be free. Choosing the free version may mean missing out on a few functions, but a small venture isn’t likely to require the high-powered capability of premium offerings. Don’t leap into paid relationships before exploring free options; sometimes, free is exactly what you need.
Negotiate Trade Credit – If your startup specializes in non-tangible goods, trade credit may not be an issue. For retail operations, though, being able to obtain trade credit can make a world of difference. In most cases, trade credit will only be extended by suppliers after you’ve established a payment history, but you may be able to negotiate a better deal if you go directly to the CFO or a small business owner. Bring your business plan and financial forecasts to the table, and see what you can work out. You may be able to get the crucial first rounds of supplies in your hands, then pay for them when you’ve made some sales.
Test, Test, Test – You know it’s important to wireframe your entire concept before getting started, but are you factoring in time for consumer testing? Get feedback from your potential customers, and actually listen to what they have to say. You can build a better mousetrap after going live, but it will slow your momentum. Get the kinks out before launch through rigorous testing, even if that just means grilling your friends and family members.
Build a Marketing Concept – Too often, entrepreneurs focus all of their energy on product optimization and financial forecasts, leaving their marketing campaign conceptualization on the back burner. Because your startup capital will be limited to what you’re able to raise on your own, you probably won’t be able to afford a high-powered brand strategist to handle marketing at launch. Make sure you test your marketing plan just as thoroughly as you do product roll-out and infrastructure. When it’s time to go live, you’ll be able to hit the ground running with a promo campaign to grab customers’ attention.
Build a Buzz with Competitions/Contests – Want to get hundreds of people talking about your new venture while limiting the amount of product you discount or give away? Hold a crowd-sourced contest. For every entry, retweet or Facebook share of your competition, you’ll get more exposure, and you only have to shell out rewards for a single winner.

Boostrapping your startup will require a serious commitment, but can also give you a very real incentive to get things right the very first time. Launching without a safety net can be daunting, but you’ll be positioned to reap maximum reward when your independent venture launches and begins to thrive.

10 Reasons Why List Articles Work So Well for Blogs

July 26, 2015 by Kenney Myers

Whether you call them list articles or “listicles,” you’ve almost certainly seen your share of web content pieces with lists at the center. You probably know that they’re popular, and met with a bit of derision from time to time, you may not know why they work. Before you discount the idea of using list format posts for your blog, take a moment to consider all of the reasons why they’re so popular.

The Brain Loves Lists – Your daily agenda, the things you need to buy at the grocery store and rules for your babysitter all have one thing in common: they’re more likely to be acknowledged and fulfilled if they’re in list form. This is because the human brain naturally seeks to categorize information, boosting not only recall at a later date by also comprehension in the moment. List articles appeal to a very specific quirk in how the brain operates.
They Encourage Readers to Commit – Scrolling through a Facebook feed or Twitter timeline translates to a never-ending barrage of information. Readers have so many options before them, and some are bound to get lost in the shuffle. The very nature of a list article appeals not only because of the information they promise, but because the headline itself lets the reader know exactly what they’ll be asked to invest. The certainty that the headline will be explained in a specified number of points is appealing, and greater appeal to readers translates to more traffic to your blog.
List Articles are Heavy on Skim-ability – Online reading tends to be more akin to quick skimming than in-depth concentration on the subject at hand. Because a list article is broken into easy-on-the-eye chunks, they’re more comfortable for web readers and better lend themselves to skimming than a solid wall of text.
Easily Digestible Content – A quick breakdown of a particular subject may not communicate all of the nuances and intricacies of the given situation, but it will allow readers to quickly and easily digest the most salient points. With a basic understanding accessible in relatively short order, readers are able to become a bit better informed without investing hours of research time.
Engaging Audiences Naturally – The very nature of a list article allows it to, if written properly, become a magnet for readers and post engagement. Opinion posts using the list article format as a ranking system naturally encourages readers to engage with the content, even if it’s just to disagree with the inclusion of a particular bullet point or the omission of another. When readers engage, even to disagree with you, you’ve created a successful blog post.
Sharing is Caring –Just as list articles can naturally encourage engagement with readers by urging them to share their own opinions, they also encourage social media sharing. More traffic is always a good thing, even if it’s generated as a show of opposition. “Can you believe what this post says?!” is still a share, and leads to more eyes on your work.
A Time-Honored Tradition – List articles may be one of the more popular and favorable formats for web content, but they’re not a new invention. From the Ten Commandments to the Top 10 Cat Gifs, lists are a venerable format with plenty of history.
They Don’t Have to Be Vapid – One of the more common criticisms of the modern listicle is that it’s long on fluff and short on informative content. While this can be true, it certainly doesn’t have to be the case. The same structured order that makes a list article easy for the brain to categorize and process can lend itself to sharing substantive and informative content.
Making Content Less Intimidating – A 5,000 word article in long form is intimidating to the casual reader, and can immediately put them off reading content sharing useful information. Breaking the same long form article into a list format immediately makes the content more approachable, even if the word count never changes. As a blogger, you want to present an inviting face to new readers. If your message is lengthy, a list article may be just the thing to draw those readers in and grab their attention.
List Articles and SEO Impact – Not only does the human brain love lists; so do search engines. Heavy on the structured HTML, a list article naturally lends itself to better search engine optimization. Because SEO is so important for web content creators and bloggers, it’s always a good idea to look for ways of boosting search engine friendliness.

Even if the list article is something of a guilty pleasure for more “serious” readers, they’re still one of the most popular forms of web content out there and do have the ability to make a very real impact. If you’re looking for a quick, easy way to share content and communicate a particular point, consider the power of the list article for your next blog post.

9 Ways to Avoid Buyer’s Remorse with Your Martial Arts Students

July 25, 2015 by Kenney Myers

As a martial arts instructor or gym owner, you know just how much classes can cost. For eager and committed students, the investment is almost always worth the return; unfortunately, this may not be the case with every student on your roster. You want your clients to feel they’re getting a great value for their time and money, so making an effort to help them avoid buyer’s remorse is a wise business decision.

Explain Training Costs Up Front – One of the fastest ways to make your clients regret signing on the dotted line is to be vague or cagey about training costs. If you’re signing up a new student at a promotional rate, make sure you’re making any impending increases in pricing clear from the outset. No matter how much a client loves your program, they will encounter some buyer’s remorse if they’re later made to feel as if they’ve been scammed a bit on pricing.
Include Equipment Breakdowns – Training costs are one thing; parents and adult students alike expect to spend a reasonable amount of money for classes, but the cost of renting or purchasing equipment on top of those charges can quickly add up to sticker shock. Make sure you’re outlining not only training costs, but also the expected cost of equipment before accepting payment.
Offer Contract Transparency – It’s no secret that some students come to their first few classes full of enthusiasm, only to realize that martial arts isn’t as good a fit for their lifestyle or tastes as they first imagined. Buyer’s remorse doesn’t necessarily set in when they reach this realization; more often, it comes when they’re not able to understand an exit strategy. Make sure any cancellation policies in the contract are carefully spelled out before money ever changes hands, and you can stave off some dismay down the road.
Use Realistic Language During a Sales Pitch – An enthusiastic, gregarious salesperson can make martial arts classes seem like the most exciting and rewarding expense in the world, which is great for your bottom line and class roster. That enthusiasm becomes a problem when it starts to veer into the territory of unrealistic promises. Assuring a parent their youngster will be a black belt in a year might make them fork over the initial costs, but will make them feel serious buyer’s remorse when they realize just how unrealistic those promises are. This can easily come across as an unscrupulous sales practice, so make sure you’re using realistic language when you’re discussing classes with a prospective client.
Invest in Your Facilities – No adult student or parent wants to shell out what they feel is top dollar for martial arts classes in a rundown, shabby or dirty gym. Make sure you’re investing in your facilities, and at the very least are committed to keeping things clean and in good repair.
Match Instructors Carefully – If you have more than one instructor on staff, take the time to carefully match new students to their teachers. Even a seasoned vet can be a poor choice for kids’ or beginners’ classes if they have little patience for repetitive, low-level instruction. A bored, disinterested or unpleasant instructor can quickly sour a new student on not only your gym, but martial arts altogether.
Offer Trial Sessions – For the same reasons you’ll want to be transparent about contract terms with new students, you may also want to consider offering a few no-strings-attached, no-obligation trial sessions to brand new students. Within three or four lessons, students will have a good idea of whether or not martial arts training is right for them. If not, they’re free to explore other interests with no obligation, and won’t feel buyer’s remorse, which all too often translates to poor online reviews and word of mouth advertising.
Cultivate Your Brand Reputation Carefully – Your brand reputation can make some otherwise satisfied clients feel some buyer’s remorse, especially if they discover dozens of terrible online reviews or hear horror stories from past clients after signing a contract. This is why it’s so important to always cultivate a brand reputation carefully, and to address issues as soon as they appear. The last thing you want is for a happy client to decide your gym isn’t for them based not upon their own experiences, but on the bad word of mouth from disgruntled past students.
Make Yourself Available – Adult students and parents are the ones most likely to feel buyer’s remorse; kids don’t necessarily have a concept of money spent versus value in these situations. They can, however, cause their parents to feel very strong buyer’s remorse if they’re not happy. Many students, especially those in group class settings, need some one-on-one attention and nurturing to stay confident and happy. Even if you don’t have time for individual attention in a group class, you can make yourself available for questions and comments after the session.

Buyer’s remorse isn’t the result of sticker shock, though high prices can and do make people think twice about renewing an existing contract or signing on the bottom line. True buyer’s remorse happens when your clients or their parents don’t feel that they’re getting a good value for money spent. The best way, then, to avoid buyer’s remorse in your students is to make a point of focusing on great value and always managing expectations.