When is the Right Time to Launch Your Business?
If you’ve ever aspired to start your own business, you know how exciting the idea can be. It’s easy to get carried away thinking about all of the possibilities of a business you’re passionate about, and how you can develop that business to make those aspirations of running your own company a reality. But smart...
Top Priority Social Media Tasks for the Time-Starved Entrepreneur
Nowadays, nearly everyone is supposedly a social media expert: you, your mom, your 10-year-old nephew. Most internet-savvy individuals have some degree of experience with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. But, when it comes to enterprise-level social media, you must appreciate the subtleties of fostering an online persona. Using social media for personal reasons and using social...
3 Signs Your Existing Startup Should Franchise Right Now
It is estimated that that a new franchise opens every eight minutes. Every. Single. Day. That’s a lot of competition — with over 900,000 franchise businesses operating in the U.S. today, it can be overwhelming to even attempt to enter the market. Choosing to franchise can be a make or break decision, and timing is...
5 Steps to Take Before Making Your Side Hustle Your Main Gig
Starting up a side hustle has become easier than ever. Between the explosion of opportunities in the gig economy and the plethora of tools and resources now available to facilitate remote work, Statista reports an estimated 59.7 million Americans worked either full or part time as independent contractors in 2018. That figure is expected to...
Navigating Your First Year of Filing Taxes as an Entrepreneur
If you’re planning to start up a new business this year, you’ll experience tax time as a business owner soon enough. The following tips will help you prepare well in advance. And if you started a business in 2018, you’re likely wrestling with your company’s first experience with taxes right now. As an entrepreneur, you...
What Kind of Social Media Strategy Does My Startup Need?
When you’re starting a business, especially in a highly-saturated, digitally-driven market, you need to build brand awareness through every channel at your disposal, including social media. But, building a social media presence that resonates with your target audience and compels them to purchase is far more than just curating one-off posts. It’s about sharing messaging,...
Starting From Scratch: Advice From Real Entrepreneurs on Starting Your Own Business
Imagine this: You’re sitting at your desk at work, staring aimlessly out the small window above your desk that looks out into the parking lot. Just kidding, you don’t have a window! Anyways, you’re staring, still aimlessly, at the cats-in-sweaters calendar pinned to your cubicle (your mom bought it on clearance at an after-Christmas sale)....
Should You Buy That Underfunded Startup?
When it comes to investing in startups, especially in the tech sector, headlines are crowded with “unicorns” and “unicorn wannabes.” It’s always the companies that have garnered incredibly high valuations and are collecting round after round of funding that populate the headlines, and for good reason. Whether they’re destined to be the next Lyft, or...
How to Drive Users to Your Startup’s Website with an SEO Strategy
After launching a startup, you’re likely still in the beginning phases of identifying your online audience and what they want from your website. That’s where Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, comes in. An SEO strategy helps identify your audience, discover their needs and determine what combination of marketing tactics will deliver ideal traffic. Before getting...
Why Your Startup’s Budget Must Include Social Ads
As of 2017, 81 percent of all Americans have a social media profile, whether on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or countless other platforms. Not long ago, it was easy for a startup to simply create social media profiles on Twitter and Facebook, and begin sharing information about its products or services. However, due to constantly changing...
(Should You) Eliminate These 3 Marketing Elements You Don’t Need?
From hairstyles to musical tastes, just about everything changes over time. There are some “classics” that never go out of style, but for the most part, if something is outdated, it’s pretty obvious. When it comes to your startup’s marketing strategy, there are also some “classic” elements that will always be important, such as: Understanding...
How the New Tax Laws Might Affect Your Startup’s Financing
Many entrepreneurs in the U.S. have been keeping up with the recent changes to the tax law, passed at the end of 2017 and championed as a boon for small business. However, if you were planning on launching a new business this year, you might wonder how these new tax laws might affect the financing...
Why It’s Key to Have an Exit Strategy Before Starting a Business
Some authors swear that writing the ending of a book first is imperative to the plot. Knowing where you want to end up can be invaluable, as it helps you plan out the beginning and middle of your story. If starting a business is part of your life story, it can be helpful to think...