Stock exchange merger plan being investigated

The scheme would combine the stock exchanges of the UK, Germany and Italy and some big clearing houses to create Europe's largest exchange operator.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said it had to make sure that financial markets remained "competitive".

Shareholders of the LSE and Deutsche Boerse have already approved the plan.

The European Union's anti-trust watchdog says such a merger could eliminate competition in areas such as bonds, derivatives and repurchasing agreements.

Job losses

Each of the companies has more than 5,000 staff and in June, the LSE said that the merger could lead to as many as 1,250 job losses.

Read more here

SOURCE : BBC

3 Lessons for Small Business Growth by Robert Herjavec

Starting and running any business means hard work and a daily fight against the daunting odds of failure. For businesses in small towns that lack the talent pool and resources of bigger cities, the obstacles can seem insurmountable. 

Herjavec touched on some of most important lessons small businesses can glean from the series.

1. Know your numbers

"To a lot of small businesses, including me when I started, the numbers were like a jigsaw puzzle," Herjavec said. "I kind of knew what revenue was, expenses, cost of goods, but I couldn't put those pieces together into a picture that made sense." Similarly, many of the businesses on the show were closely monitoring their revenues but didn't know how to keep track of profits. Without a firm grasp of where your company stands financially, it is difficult to make changes when necessary, Herjavec said. Plus, if you don't know the language of accounting and finance, "someone is going to take advantage of you, or you're going to be left behind."

2. Engage in smart marketing

"We see a lot of small businesses that are jumping to Snapchat and Instagram and getting business that way, but email marketing is oftentimes overlooked," Herjavec said. Deluxe chief brand communication officer Amanda Brinkman, who mentors businesses in the series alongside Herjavec, said that 87 percent of consumers prefer to be engaged via email. It's far easier and less expensive to sell to existing customers than to acquire new ones, Harjevec added, so maintaining a robust customer mailing list is a good way to increase your revenue at a low cost.

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SOURCE: INC

Make these 10 routines your way of life and you could be a better entrepreneur

1. Start your day with a positive attitude

As a famous saying goes, “Well begun is half done”. As an entrepreneur it becomes even more important that you begin your day on a positive note. Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will. Positive thoughts provide you with an enhanced ability to build skills and develop resources for future use. There’s so much negativity on the internet that it’s very important for us to feed our mind with what it needs the most first thing in the morning. There are tremendous benefits to positive daily affirmations repeated over time. Start today.

2. Wake up a little earlier

Well, this is an important formula for many very successful entrepreneurs. You should wake up early enough to have some you time. There should be some quiet time each morning to reflect, refresh and get re-energized. You can spend this time meditating, praying and engaging in some physical exercise. Getting your blood pumping and clearing your mind are elements of a formula many successful entrepreneurs use daily.

3. Take up one task at a time

It is a well know fact that you should not step on too many stones at the same time. In the field of entrepreneurship as well, it is very important to focus on one task at a time. At some point, it became cool to multitask and pretend to be working on 50 things at the same time. The reality is that multitasking ruined our attention spans and crushed our productivity. Stick to your plan for the day and take each task one at a time. Give your full attention and energy to making what you’re working on the best it can be. You’re not striving for perfection, but you are striving for excellence.

4. Be aware about the industry that you are working for

While it is important to stay up to date on current events around the world, it is just as important to stay up to date on the current events in your industry. Read at least one article pertaining to your business. As an entrepreneur it is very important that you stay aware about your business and the industry that you work for. Subscribing to a publication relevant to your business and industry or following a publication on Twitter could be a good idea to do this.

5. Be socially connected

Be socially active, check your website and all your social media buttons daily and make sure they are operating properly. This is a way for your customers to know your brand. Social media is an excellent way to promote and market your business and reach people both domestically and internationally

6. Accept failure as a lesson

Failure is not a destination, it is merely a pot hole on the road to success, hence, never stop because of failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction. You will fail at something, at some point. If you can pick yourself up, dust yourself off and learn a lesson from that failure, you will be better poised to be successful the next time around. The best way to deal with failures is to accept the lesson and move on.

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Source: KNOWSTARTUP

11 Ways to Make Money While You Snore

1. Start a blog.

Perhaps the most popular way to earn a passive income is by launching your own blog. It only takes a couple of minutes to setup and is cheap to start - just purchase your domain name and pay for hosting.

After that, start creating amazing content that people would be interested in reading or sharing.

2. Sell your own information product.

If you’re knowledgeable in a certain area, then you can start creating products, such as eBooks or videos, and selling them on your blog. It may take a lot of work to create and market your products, but once all the leg work is over, you can just set back and collect the proceeds

3. Earn royalties.

If you’re a talented musician, actor, or author, then you could earn royalties from your work. In other words people will pay you for using your work or creative assets.

4. Sell physical products.

Just like with a blogging site, there are several ways to earn a passive income by selling physical products. Probably one of the best known ways is by selling your old junk on eBay. But even if you don’t have anything left to sell you can start drop shopping. This is where you sell products for a company on eBay or Amazon and they’ll take care of the rest - including shipping.

5. Invest in stocks or shares.

When you invest in stocks you become a stakeholder. That entitles you to a share of their profits. Investing in stocks has been a popular way to earn a passive income for years, and thanks to the internet, it’s easier than ever to research and invest in stocks on your own.

6. Rent out property.

Thanks to Airbnb, you can rent out your home while on vacation or your vacation home when not in use. You can also rent out your garage, parking space, or unused office space. It’s a nice supplemental income without really doing anything except placing an ad

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SOURCE: ENTREPRENEUR

14 Uncommon Habits That Contribute to Success

Here are some of the habits that contributes to success

1). Sacrificing important things. In the end, we all only have 24 hours in a day. To reach success you have to sacrifice spending time on important things to be able to have more time to spend on the things that really matter. Check every week what you can give up to gain something better.

2). Believing what you wantinstead of what others tell you.Most beliefs people hold are not based on fact and are not true whatsoever. Get into the habit of believing that which empowers you and makes you feel amazing instead of the things that others tell you to believe. If it is not certain what is real, believe the thing that makes you feel better.

3). Getting motivated. Motivation is an emotion that doesn’t last, but that is of enormous help. Find things that motivate you every day.

4). Thinking less. Thought usually hinders us in our actions. When we think about things to do we tend to think about ways it can go wrong or reasons why we shouldn’t do something. Stop thinking and start doing.

5). Going to bed early. To be at the top of your game you need enough sleep. Yes, successful people get up somewhere between 4 and 6 in the morning, but they can only do that because they go to bed between 9 and 11 in the evening.

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SOURCE: TIME

With a Full-Time Job, You Could Still earn outside your Job.

Whether you’re looking for cash to launch your startup or make new investments with, or dig out from mounting debt, a few hundred to a few thousand naira can go a long way. Here’s how to get started.

1. Start a service business.

Launching a service business can be done without a large network, an online presence or much overhead. The easiest way to start is by telling people in your existing network what you’re offering and asking them to spread the word.

2. Invest in real estate.

Becoming a landlord isn’t always practical for those who are employed full-time and already strapped for cash. But you can look at buying a condo or small property in another country as a vacation getaway instead. The price tag is typically cheaper, even when you hire a local property management group to manage renters while you’re away.

Commercial real estate can also be a lucrative way to invest and earn passive income, even without a large down payment

3.Host an event.

You can make money hosting events without aiming for thousands of sign-ups, vendors and high-profile guest speakers. Instead, form a free MeetUp group on a topic you’re knowledgeable about, like growth hacking, and run free events.

After you secure a loyal following, charge for an events with a reputable guest speaker. Rent out a small, upscale conference room at a nearby hotel, and grow your new MeetUp by hosting exclusive, sought-after events that charge a premium for fantastic content.

4. Launch an online resource.

Share your expertise by launching an online ebook or course to help others while you earn passive income and If writing ebooks isn’t your strong suit, launch a video course or bootcamp instead

Read more here

SOURCE: ENTREPRENEUR

Mistakes Your Brand May Be Making When It Markets to Small Businesses

Avoid the following common mistakes if you want to really engage and grow your small business customer base.

1. Selling features versus solutions

Companies, especially large ones, like to tout their innovations and the features of their products and services. This takes place across the marketing media, whether companies are creating informational content or traditional advertisements.

This emphasis on features is at direct odds with the way entrepreneurs consume information. Most small business owners are busy and focused primarily on running their businesses. They prioritize the things that directly impact those operations that day, week, month and year -- how to find new customers, treat employees, save more money and time, work fewer hours, etc.

So, unless you happen to be offering a solution to a “hair-on-fire” problem, like the virus that just infected a company's computers or the lawsuit it just learned of, the company is not likely to pay much attention to your features-driven messaging.

2. Lacking a call to action

This is potentially the most frustrating and easily avoidable issue that I see with small-business marketing. A company will invest in some great, helpful small business content; this could be a video, social post, ebook, newsletter, etc. But at the end of the content, the company forgets to put in a clear, easy-to-follow call to action.

If in fact you have gotten a company's attention with your content, continue the conversation. Capture the contact's email and get permission to talk to him or her directly and provide more great content. Or at least have an online hub the company's reps can visit. Air this information simply, by putting at the end of your video or ebook: “For more tips to help your small business grow, visit ----."

Make it easy for the company to do just that, and send your contact to a specific place where you can leverage that connection point.

3. Having too many places to interface

Speaking of sending small businesses to a place for information, many brands -- large and small alike, but especially large brands -- aren’t organized, from a customer-facing perspective. Internally, there may be many teams that all do some marketing to small businesses. However, small businesses do not understand the internal politics of an organization. More importantly, they do not care nor want to understand the politics involved.

This means that, instead of every one of your teams sending small businesses to a different website or email list, or having 10 different Twitter handles that touch SMBs, create one cohesive small business hub for customers to visit. If your divisions need to remain separate internally, then have them all link into one main small-business umbrella online-touchpoint that the small business customer sees externally

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SOURCE: ENTREPRENEUR

Oil prices settled higher on inventory drop

Oil prices settled higher Wednesday following a third week of surprise U.S. inventory drops and the decision by the Federal Reserve not to raise interest rates. Oil for November delivery settled up $1.29, or 2.9%, at $45.34 a barrel. On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a 6.2 million barrel decline in weekly crude inventories, while the Fed decided against a September rate hike. Following the Fed decision, the dollar declined, and was last down 0.3% on the day

SOURCE: FOX BUSINESS

Self education: A vital habit for entrepreneur

A running theme through David Black's writing is that for most entrepreneurs starting their business in the 21st century, money is no longer needed to make an enterprise a success.

David Black has this to say. "Capital is not a barrier for any individual who is determined to start “something”. What you do need though, is the right set of skills.

Different business models demand different skills of course, but whatever niche you’re in, success will depend on your ability to pilot your ship more skillfully than your competitors. You need to know your craft, utilising all of the tools available to you to gain a winning edge.

How do you develop these skills?

With the repeated habit of self education.

The internet provides information in abundance. This presents its own challenges of course as we sift through the rubbish to find what we need, but the fact remains — We can learn almost any skill and find any answer on line, usually for free.

The availability of knowledge today is unprecedented. Smart phones are one of the key weapons an entrepreneur has in their arsenal, something previous generations of business men and women would be very envious of indeed.

The key though is how we use the technology to drive us towards our goals. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve heard people talk about closing their Facebook page because “it’s just so easy to waste time”. The potential value of the internet is related directly to how we harness it. Many people use the net to entertain themselves and procrastinate. Others use it to make a lot of money. 

For the 21st century entrepreneur it must be used properly, as a tool to get the answers we need to push past the obstacles in our way

There is a never ending amount of things to learn, but by taking this approach every time you hit a block in your path, year after year, you will become a powerful entrepreneurial force. A highly skilled individual that has the confidence to venture out of your comfort zone, try new things and start more complex projects.

The ability and willingness to educate yourself every time you meet a challenge is the most important habit for any entrepreneur. It’s not getting up early, delegating or marketing — It is the repeated habit of self education

Before you ask for help, teach yourself.

Develop the habit of self education and nothing can stand in the way between you and your success."""

I totally agree with David. I so much appreciate his write up, especially this one in the blog. You basically have everything you need available on the net. Make internet your friend. Teach yourself. Self education can help an entrepreneur a long way

Credit to David Black.. Read about him here

SOURCE: MEDIUM

How important is an entrepreneur's health or a worker's?

Having good health is extremely important. In fact health is the most important aspect of anyone life, even more so then wealth. However, everyday at the office or wherever you work, you see people almost killing themselves to earn more money. Trying to impress a manager by working longer and harder.

Although in some cases I do admire the hard working attitude that extremely ambitious people have! Sometimes it can just be over kill and unnecessary. Especially if your working in a large corporate firm. The work you tend to do will not further your career but someone else whose above you. Now I’m not telling you to stop working hard, but stop and see how you feel.

Be proactive

Now, a lot of us cling on to jobs that work us really hard. It might not be our dream job, but it pays well and there’s room to progress. Now its time you stop and think how this job is affecting your health. And if needed, how you can take steps to improve your lifestyle and heal.

Be a success!
People who practice good health have a better chance at becoming successful and achieving their goals. Its very simple. If your in good health, then you feel good. Automatically your in a better mood and more inclined to enjoy coming into the office everyday. Your productivity will rise. You will be happy and stress free at work allowing you to get everything done with a skip in your step.

Here is an experience . Click here to read it

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SOURCE: Buffbanana

what features make a business model transformative

40 new business models were selected and  analyzed by HBR  on the basis of how many mentions they received in the high-quality, high-circulation business press. All of them seemed to have the potential to transform their industries, but only a subset had succeeded in doing so. HBR looked for recurring features in the models and found six. No company displayed all of them, but as we shall see, a higher number of these features usually correlated with a higher chance of success at transformation.

1. A more personalized product or service.

Many new models offer products or services that are better tailored than the dominant models to customers’ individual and immediate needs. Companies often leverage technology to achieve this at competitive prices.

2. A closed-loop process.

Many models replace a linear consumption process (in which products are made, used, and then disposed of) with a closed loop, in which used products are recycled. This shift reduces overall resource costs.

3. Asset sharing.

Some innovations succeed because they enable the sharing of costly assets—Airbnb allows home owners to share them with travelers, and Uber shares assets with car owners. Sometimes assets may be shared across a supply chain. The sharing typically happens by means of two-sided online marketplaces that unlock value for both sides: I get money from renting my spare room, and you get a cheaper and perhaps nicer place to stay. Sharing also reduces entry barriers to many industries, because an entrant need not own the assets in question; it can merely act as an intermediary.

4. Usage-based pricing.

Some models charge customers when they use the product or service, rather than requiring them to buy something outright. The customers benefit because they incur costs only as offerings generate value; the company benefits because the number of customers is likely to grow.

5. A more collaborative ecosystem.

Some innovations are successful because a new technology improves collaboration with supply chain partners and helps allocate business risks more appropriately, making cost reductions possible.

6. An agile and adaptive organization.

Innovators sometimes use technology to move away from traditional hierarchical models of decision making in order to make decisions that better reflect market needs and allow real-time adaptation to changes in those needs. The result is often greater value for the customer at less cost to the company

Click here for more information

Credit to Stelios Kavadias, Kostas Ladas, Christoph Loch.

SOURCE: HBR

Success Lessons This Entrepreneur Learned While in the Laundry Business

Lewis Schiff recently had the chance to sit down with Rick Rome, owner of Wash Club, the dynamic laundry services company in New York City that uses apps, geolocation, and sophisticated technology to provide easy laundry pickup and delivery services to busy New Yorkers throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Rick shared with Lewis Schiff a few of the strategies that helped him to grow Wash Club’s incredible success which could b of helo to entrepreneurs

1. Dominate your niche.

Rick’s refinement of the delivery concept was based on his experiences with other services as well as his understanding of the people he aimed to serve. “At the end of the day, it’s about convenience,” Rick says. “In New York, we want everything yesterday. We want convenience in service – people will happily pay for service as long as it is convenient.” Wash Club provides very flexible pickup and delivery windows, making it convenient for a broad range of people, unlike the standard eight-hour delivery windows offered by many other companies. Features like email notifications and driver tracking technology help customers stay on top of their service and narrow down delivery windows even further. Wash Club now offers windows of two hours and often manages to whittle them down even smaller – a truly impressive feat given the logistical challenges of NYC traffic, as anyone living in the city knows. “The last mile is the biggest challenge in logistics,” Rick observes. “How do you get from the factory to the end user? Hence, Amazon writing the book about drones and what they can do. By being able to get that last mile effort under your belt, you’re a major player.” How did Rick manage to tackle that last mile? By reaching a critical mass of users, Wash Club has been able to expand its business – more orders equals more trucks, which leads to even faster and more convenient service, which leads to even more customers.

2. Leverage your assets.

It may seem as though Wash Club’s high level of service would translate to higher pricing for customers, but their pricing is actually around the middle of the pack when it comes to their industry. Why is that? For one thing, as an online business, they don’t have to deal with maintaining expensive retail storefronts. But another major part of their business is that Wash Club also offers its software-as-a-service to other laundry and dry-cleaning businesses elsewhere around the country – they’re now in 10 states and are close to international expansion.

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SOURCE: ENTREPRENEUR

10 Success lessons from Ed Catmull – “Pixar Founder, Disney Legend” for entrepreneurs

Ed Catmull is arguably one of the most talented creative geniuses alive today. He co-founded Pixar (along with Steve Jobs) and when Pixar was acquired by Disney, he became the head of both companies; forever changing and improving Disney’s already incredible animation domination.

Here are the success lessons from Ed Catmull – “Pixar Founder, Disney Legend” for entrepreneurs,

1. Be a problem hunter

According to Catmull, being on the lookout for problems isn’t the same as seeing them.

As a leader, one of his aims is to enable people to do their best work. He does this by presuming that his colleagues are talented and want to contribute, accepting that his company unintentionally stifles talent in unseen ways, and that his job is to identify those impediments and fix them.

2. The story must come first

According to Ed Catmull the story must come first and be prioritized over all else (including egos, titles, technology, time and budget). That’s easy to say and a hell of a lot harder to live up to. But it is one of the main reasons Pixar consistently launches some of the best movies the world has ever known.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case. When the “highest paid person in the office” or HIPPO makes a comment, often the pecking order, not the feedback, wins the day. To avoid this, Pixar created a safe zone when seeking feedback on its movies. When you walk into the room to provide feedback, egos and titles are checked at the door.

3. Beware of potentially meaningless phrases

For years, Catmull and his colleagues would say phrases such as, “Story is king,” and “Trust the process.” However, he gradually realized that merely repeating—parrotting—such phrases to employees in meetings wasn’t enough. These phrases had to be substantiated by action

In Catmull’s own words: “Companies constantly tell us about their commitment to excellence, implying that this means they will make only top-shelf products. Words like quality and excellence are misapplied so relentlessly that they border on meaningless.”

4. The creative product is NOT a reflection of you

When your creative team puts their heart and soul into something, they become entangled in the creative product itself and often “defends” the end product–even if the feedback being given is warranted and spot on.

As an entrepreneur, we must work with our creative teams to separate out their emotional attachments to their work and judge the work solely on its core business objectives. Is this the story we need to tell? Is there a better way to tell it? Is it visually enticing? Does it draw you in? Do people outside of the creative process immediately “get it”? If not, keep working. Something worth doing is worth doing right.

5. Efficiency is a goal. Quality is the goal

Toy Story 2 was originally going to be a direct-to-video movie. However, eventually Catmull and his team insisted that the movie be released in theaters.

This proved to Pixar employees that “we weren’t tolerating second-class films [and] that everything we did—everything associated with our name—needed to be good. Thinking this way was not just about morale; it was a signal to everyone at Pixar that they were part owners of the company’s greatest asset—its quality.”

6. Take risks and be willing to fail

Our egos are often the main thing that gets in our way of delivering outstanding creative products. You should take risks, be willing to fail and to accept that we are not perfect.
Creativity requires vulnerability because without vulnerability, the much needed emotional connection simply won’t show up in the work and as such, will fail to win the hearts and minds of the audience we seek.

Read more here from source

Things thats distinguish an entrepreneur from other business owners

Here are the 5 realities of entrepreneurship that live at the foundation of what Michael Gerber refer to as "The New Entrepreneur":

Reality #1: The entrepreneur is an inventor.

Inventors ask the question, "What's missing in this picture?" and then answer it by inventing the piece that's missing. What entrepreneurs do next, however, is what distinguishes them from all other inventors.

Whereas inventors invent new products, entrepreneurs invent new businesses.

To the entrepreneur, the business he or she invents is a product, a unique product that stands out in a world of ordinary business products.

Reality #2: Entrepreneurs do not buybusiness opportunities; they createthem.

Business opportunities such as franchises are designed to ensure the success of the people who buy them as long as they follow the system and, in the process, suppress their entrepreneurial inclination to invent.

But the passion of the entrepreneur is not to run a successful business - not to run a business someone else invented - but to invent a unique business that thenbecomes successful. Uniquely.

To a true entrepreneur, the real business opportunity lies in inventing a unique business and then growing it.

Reality #3: Invention is contagious.

People love to experience an original business idea that has been successfully manifested in the market. The entrepreneur's passion, therefore, comes not only from inventing a new business, but also from basking in the delight of other people as they experience his or her invention.

Every customer of the entrepreneur's business invention is applauding the entrepreneur's originality, brilliance, and successful performance.

As the entrepreneur's invention grows and sustains its success, it becomes a model that others will want to emulate as they let loose their own inclination to invent and create new businesses.

Reality #4: To an entrepreneur, the measure of business success is growth.

True entrepreneurs know that the goal of every business is to grow.

Survival is not success.

Growth is success because it's the tangible, measurable demonstration that the marketplace has determined your invention has value.

To an entrepreneur, being caught up in a slow-growth or no-growth business is to be doomed to show up every day to perform in a show nobody enjoys.

Businesses that nobody enjoys should close quickly so that everyone can go out and find an experience they love.

Read more here

Source: INC

DOES YOUR AGE MATTER AS ENTREPRENEUR?

In a video, Entrepreneur Network partner Patrick Bet-David answers the question: "How big of a role does your age play when it comes to entrepreneurship?"

The answer isn't as simple as you might think. Bet-David says that older people are more paranoid, wiser and logical, and they have more contacts and more to lose -- all of which may give them an advantage in business. To the contrary, young peopleare more naive and emotional, they think that they know everything and they have nothing to lose -- also traits that can benefit entrepreneurs.

Depending on how you look at things, age and youth can both be good for business

Watch the video to catch up with the full info by clicking here

Source: ENTREPRENEUR

Ways to think to see failure as a step not a disaster

Why does failure cause some people to give up on their dreams while others bounce back even better than before? It has to do with the way they think about failure. Failure can be part of the long road to success—but only if you think about it in a way that’s productive

Beating yourself up for your lack of success or declaring yourself a hopeless cause leads to unhelpful feelings, like shame or resentment. And it can lead to unproductive behavior, like staying inside your comfort zone.

The key to recovering from failure is changing the way you think..Check out some thinking paths that could help you when you fail

1. “Even though things didn’t work out the way I wanted, I’m still OK.”

Catastrophizing failure isn’t helpful. Keep failure in proper perspective and choose to be grateful for what you have. Whether you still have your health or you have a roof over your head, there are always things to be grateful for.

2. “Failure is proof I’m pushing myself to my limits.”

You could probably live a safe and boring life that is relatively free of failure if you wanted. But, if you want to become a better version of yourself, you’re going to need to do things that could cause you to fail. Falling down is evidence that you’re trying to do something hard

3. “Failing feels uncomfortable, but I can handle it.”

Doubting your ability to handle embarrassment, shame, or regret makes the pain of failure last longer.  Remind yourself that you can handle failure, and you’ll be more likely to deal with the discomfort in a productive manner

4. “Failure is a verb, not a noun.”

Just because you fail doesn’t mean you’re a failure. Everyone succeeds at some things and not at others. Remind yourself of the success that you have had in other areas of your life

5. “I’ve overcome tough things before. I can do it again.”

Recalling on the times when you’ve rebounded before can help you feel equipped to deal with failure again. Draw upon the knowledge, tools, and talents you’ve used before and remind yourself that you can bounce back again.

To read more about how to think when you fail, click here

SOURCE: FORBES

Tips On How to Stay Afloat in an Economic Storm/recession

Surviving tough times takes a lot of grit, but more importantly it takes skill and precision. Here are a few tips to help you survive a harsh economic downturn.

1. Involve your staff in the process.

Have you heard the term “mass misery?” It seems hard times are always tolerable when we are not alone. If one person has to bear the burden of an economic downturn alone, then she is likely to quit sooner rather than later.

Ask your staff to help you look at expenses and figure out where you can cut. Engaging your staff in this process is crucial. They need to be properly motivated and to understand that it's a time for sacrifice. Most times, they'll be happy to be part of the process if you get them involved.

2. Cut off tiny costs and some big ones.

Cutting salaries is the first thing that comes to mind, but a minimal pay cut across board might just be enough to keep your business afloat. This is why the first point is important.

What about the little things? There are always a few small costs your business can cut to stay afloat. It can range from electricity consumption to smaller office expenses, like stationery. How you efficiently handle your appliances and office equipment also plays a role at this point.

For example, you will save a lot by avoiding a new air conditioning unit when you maintain your current AC with best practices, like cleaning the AC filters or drain line. You not only extend the lifespan of your AC but also reduce your electricity bills, because your AC will not be exerting more energy than necessary. The last thing you need now is vital equipment breaking down. 

3. Don’t cut back on marketing.

One of the reasons you should not cut back spending on marketing is because most people (including your competition) would. I actually advise a slight increase in your marketing budget during turbulent times. This is because the need to remain competitive and visible is what will help you stay afloat in the long run.

For example, you may need to incur some costs on improving your website, which is a cost-effective way of marketing your company.

With fewer customers in the market, you need to fight even harder for those that remain! Plus, if your competitors stop advertising, you'll get more bang for your buck in the ad market. And if the market is less cluttered, your marketing efforts stand a better chance of getting noticed. It’s quite possible to market your way through a recession.

Continue reading

Source: ENTREPRENEUR

Steps to Improving Agility in Financial Budgeting and Planning

Today, there is rarely an aspect to business that isn't constantly fluctuating, evolving, and adapting to trends. Business tends to be one giant set of variables, and consistency is a rarity.

It's on account of all these economic and industry variables that Finance teams require a high degree of agility. Whether the cost of oil is increasing or the demand for products is on the decline, Finance teams need to be able to respond immediately to ensure their budgets and plans reflect these shifting circumstances. Here are some tips for building more agility into your budgeting and planning process, so you can increase, adapt, and reallocate resources as needed.

Reduce Reliance on Spreadsheets and Manual Processes

The first step in improving agility is dispensing of the manual processes that are holding your team back. Spreadsheets, while a common method of tackling Finance, are notoriously cumbersome. Not only is all of the work conducted manually, requiring a significant time investment, but it becomes very difficult to scale and improve budgeting process over time. Instead, many organizations are adopting the budgeting and planning applications found in modern, cloud-based EPM software. These solutions can greatly automate the process, reducing manual work, while providing you with a centralized, cloud-based platform to store all financial data and budget variations. Then you can build your budget and compile reports more efficiently while minimizing manual errors.  And with most of these solutions, users can continue to leverage Excel as a front-end to the application.

Adopt Dynamic Planning Techniques Like Rolling Forecasts

By this time next quarter, the price of oil could have doubled, the cost of imports and exports could rise, some of your customers may churn, and your business could have added yet another product to its offerings. Nothing about your business remains constant, so your budget can't either. Basing all of your decisions on an annual budget means you're operating on static assumptions that will soon become irrelevant, as the drivers of your business change.

A rolling forecast can solve these problems. The rolling forecast can extend to the end of the fiscal year, or beyond, and you can update it regularly to reflect any changes in your industry or business. This allows you to incorporate changes in business conditions as they occur, so your plans and resource allocations are consistently up to date and accurate. It's with the help of dynamic planning techniques like rolling forecasts that businesses can truly gain the agility needed to respond rapidly to new trends and opportunities.

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SOURCE: smart data collective

Jobs you never knew existed

1) NAIL POLISH NAMER

Did you think the names "Lincoln Park After Dark" or "Bikini So Teeny" just appeared out of thin air? No. These names are the product of professional nail polish namers, the creative geniuses at OPI, Essie, and the likes who are responsible for naming the newest shades of nail color. The brainstorm sessions are top secret and can last for hours at a time, but apparently it's hard work to develop a name that is accurate, sassy, and tells a story.

2) SEAT FILLER
If you've always wanted to rub elbows with A-listers, this might be your ticket in. Major awards shows, like the Oscars, the Golden Globes, the Emmys, and the MTV Movie Awards, hire seat fillers to take seats when attendees get up so that the venue always looks full for the camera. And yes, you have to dress the part too, because no one wants to see you dressed down when you're sitting next to Ryan Reynolds. Although this is usually a volunteer position (translation: no $$$), the chance to breathe the same air as Selena Gomez or Brangelina is, of course, priceless.

3) FOOD STYLIST
Here it is—the one job where you're encouraged to play with your food. A burger is just a burger until it's displayed properly, with the right props and and the proper lighting. In any movie where the characters cook or eat, or any commercial where a celeb takes a bite of an ice cream cone, or any ad where the pizza looks *damn* good—behind all that, there is a food stylist. (PSA: This also explains why your meal might not always look exactly like the cookbook's pictures, even though you followed every step.) Without the touch of a pro, food just looks so ordinary.

4) PROFESSIONAL SLEEPER
Sometimes 8 hours just isn't enough. Sleep researchers and doctors recruit test subjects for sleeping studies, and all you'd have to do is snooze through it all. Additionally, from time to time hotels will hire a professional sleeper to test the comfort level and overall sleep-ability of their rooms. Probably the only field where you'll ever get rewarded for sleeping on the job

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Source: Marie Claire

GET PROMOTION IN MARKETING. HOW??

1. Ask for it

How do you land a promotion in adland? The very first thing you need to do is ask. It might sound simple, but so many people overlook the importance of clear and straightforward communication. It’s about voicing what you want and your ambitions (we’re sometimes so busy working that we forget to share what’s on our minds with our managers, and when we do it’s often not soon enough).

Take the time to stop, pause and reflect on where you see yourself. Imagine the year ahead, set some goals and talk it through. Doing that means you’re creating and controlling your own future – and most likely building your confidence with it.

2. Find a mentor

Next up: mentorship. Whether this is formal or informal, always try to watch and learn from those around you. Gravitate towards the colleagues you respect and admire. It’s amazing how many different work habits you can pick up that boost your professional skillset. When all’s said and done, respect in the workplace is as much about attitude as it is about the work you deliver.

Ultimately, gaining a promotion isn’t anything to do with a tick list – it’s about more than just matching a generic job description. In the marketing industry, you need to have gravitas in a room full of clients, step up to lead when you’re not necessarily the appointed leader, and stay calm when the storm hits. The best way to be seen as ready for promotion is to behave as if you were already in that role, and show that you have what it takes. A good mentor will help you develop the confidence you need to step out of your comfort zone.

3. Be brave

Don’t be scared to challenge the norm. Push new boundaries. And most certainly don’t be afraid to fail. Innovation is very much at the heart of our agency here atR/GA and we encourage everyone to work innovatively and collaboratively in all aspect of their jobs. We’re now living and working in the connected age and with it, there are more challenges and opportunities for what’s possible.

So in your day-to-day role, always consider where you can really make an impact for your team or client by taking risks (within reason of course) and trying ideas that might seem unreachable. This goes for anyone, whether you’re working in the content, strategy, HR, creative, marketing or tech team. We encourage all our staff to be bold in their work.

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Source: Telegraph

RUDE THINGS NEVER TO DO AT WORK

I don’t blame anyone who doesn’t know the rules of workplace etiquette. Where would you learn the rules? They are seldom taught in school. If we are lucky our parents and grandparents teach us. Otherwise we risk looking and feeling impolite and out of place. Sometimes we only realize that we’re doing something impolite when we notice the looks on our coworkers’ faces.

Here are terribly impolite things that happen at work, but shouldn’t. 

1. Participate in a loud mobile-phone conversation while walking down a hallway, thus interrupting dozens of people in their work.

2. Chew ice, slurp coffee or otherwise eat or drink loudly or obtrusively whether you’re in your cubicle, in a conference room or anywhere else.

3. Work out via a lunchtime bike ride or run and then go back to work without washing up.

4. Get into an argument on the phone and force your teammates to listen to it.

5. Apply or remove nail polish at your desk. Some people are allergic to the chemicals in nail polish and polish remover — and that goes for cologne, after shave and perfume, too!

6. Try to engage one co-worker in a conversation focused on bashing another co-worker.

7. Walk into a meeting late and ask the other participants to bring you up to speed on the part of the meeting you missed.

Read more here

SOURCE: Forbes

10 Things You Didn't Know You Can Claim On Your Resume

Many more people under-promote themselves on their resumes than the reverse. They leave their most significant accomplishments off their resumes, because they are afraid to claim them!

Why would anybody hesitate to claim their professional accomplishments? In this list of Ten Things You Didn’t Know You Can Claim on Your Resume, you’ll see why talented people so often understate their own career histories.

10 Things You Didn’t Know You Can Claim On Your Resume

1. You can claim any project you were part of, even if your manager was not aware of your participation or would not have approved the time and energy you spent on the project. This is one reason many people don’t claim their most exciting projects. They don’t claim them because they didn’t have their manager’s full support for the project!

2. You can claim any good idea that you came up with, especially if you had to “sell” the idea to upper management. Make sure to call out that accomplishment in your resume, like this: “I conceived of our new pricing scheme and sold the idea internally for six months before it was adopted and then expanded to include all seven regions.” Yes, you can use the word “I” in your resume, and you should!

3. You can claim work that you performed on a volunteer basis or when you were consulting with a friend for free.

4. You can claim work that you performed as a favor to a colleague.

5. You can claim accomplishments that were not part of your official job description. Here’s another reason many people fail to take credit for their triumphs. They keep their coolest accomplishments off their resume because those wins were not in their job description. Who cares?

6. You can claim everything you learned at work, whether you learned it in a classroom, online, or from another employee. On-the-job training is just as good as instructor-led training, if not better!

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SOURCE: Forbes

What I Learned When I Quit My Fancy Job to Become an Entrepreneur

Until February 2016, I had the perfect job in Manhattan working for a tech-media giant and an apartment on the Lower East Side. I was a single guy living in New York making a hefty salary, Green Card process underway, had a good potential relationship, and the career graph had nowhere to go but up. I was living the dream, as one would say, but who wants to be comfortable? Insanity struck, and here I am building a tech startup with my co-founder in Bangalore.

Here are a few of my personal experiences:

Finances - We are bootstrapping, so every expenditure is a dent in our savings. I never had to think twice before booking a trip to the other side of the planet or drinking at a pricey cocktail bar in Manhattan. However, now I commute only during the Uber pool hours to save on transportation costs. I am on a daily budget of less than my lunch money in Manhattan.

Social life - From being the happy hour organizer of my social group, I have turned into an anti-social animal. Over the past four months, I have gone out as many times as I would in a week in New York.

Work life - My typical work week is somewhere around seventy to eighty hours. Only time will tell if this is sustainable for an extended period. As a founder, there is no job description. I code, write content, recruit, sell, design, pitch and whatever else is needed. The hardest thing of the lot so far is selling, whether it is to the investors, users, or local merchants. Did I mention you can plan your workday as much as possible, but the unpredictability of startup life plays the spoiler every time? Most days you are just putting out a fire somewhere or other.

Uncertainty - You work even when you don’t work. My mind is constantly thinking. I worry about the validity of the idea, managing salaries for my team, selling to the customers, and having an uncertain future in general.

The dark side of entrepreneurship often goes unnoticed, buried deep under all the TechCrunch success stories of hefty valuations, high-profile IPOs, and exits. There is no such thing as overnight success. No battle is won without its fair share of scars. Yes, between my company, relationships, and health, I can only have two at best, so don’t beat yourself up trying to achieve the perfect state of affairs.

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SOURCE: huffpost

Tips for better meetings

Meetings could be boring!! Just like pic above. It could also be interesting and even more productive. Check out these tips

1. End your previous task five minutes early.

The best way to be early is to ensure your previous engagement doesn’t run late. You can accomplish this by adopting a mindset where you stop whatever you’re doing five minutes early. This gives you time to go to the bathroom; grab a cup of coffee; say hi to your assistant; check emails; or grab a seat before the gun fire

2. Make sure everyone knows their role.

When people know their roles in a meeting there is less confusion and more efficiency; therefore, the meeting starts and ends on time. Every meeting must include five key roles: the moderator, the note taker, the timekeeper, the participants and the closer. Each of these five roles is crucial to running successful meetings, and taking the time to assign each of the roles at the beginning of each meeting, will make your meetings more efficient and effective.

3. Go straight to the point

Asking about the welfare of your business workers ain't bad at all neither should it be the talk of the day. Some jokes are also allowed to balance the scenario. Ensure the aim of the meeting is met and straight to the point. Perhaps,you could usher in some refreshment. This way, your workers will be eager for the next meeting (ENSABB)

4).End meetings five minutes early.

It’s a bit unusual and may not always be possible but ending the meeting five minutes early gives you and your team time to transition to the next meeting or activity.

Find out more here

SOURCE: ENTREPRENEUR, ENSABB

Ways to reduce stress and anxiety by Deepak Chopra

As an entrepreneur, stress and anxiety is as good as normal . Work all nights and burn candles but ignoring the fact that stress kills you gradually. Yes of course, you can't totally avoid stress and anxiety but you could reduce them and keep them at their level..
Here are Deepak Chopra tips

1. Nourish your body and mind with healthy foods -- and splurge sometimes.

“Eating a pure diet, one free of toxins, is best for mind-body balance. That doesn’t mean you can’t have chocolate, though. Chocolate has been shown to release dopamine and serotonin, which make you happier.

“While I don’t partake in them, I don’t think a glass of alcohol, beer or wine, hurts. However, you should never go to bed intoxicated because that will mess up everything, including your microbiome, which is the 2 billion bacteria in your gut, something integral to your well-being overall.”

2. Get a good night’s rest.

“Head to bed on time as part of a calming nighttime routine. I go to bed every night at 10 p.m. and wake up at 4 or 5 a.m., ensuring that I get enough sleep for the day ahead, which I start with two hours of meditation and an hour of yoga.

“The secret to good sleep is dynamic activity during the day, and the secret of dynamic activity is deep, restful sleep at night. The two go hand in hand. When this equilibrium is achieved, good sleep is effortless,” Chopra wrote in a Heal Your Lifeblog post recently.

3. Just breathe.

“Take a breathing break to take the pressure off. Observe your breath where you are, at your desk or anywhere. Start by consciously breathing in to the count of four and breathing out to the count of six, with a short pause in between.

“The normal breathing rate is about 14 breaths per minute, but if you follow this simple practice, you actually decrease your breathing to somewhere between eight to 10 breaths per minute. Doing so has a very direct positive effect on your biggest nerve [the sciatic nerve], which is your stress-reliever and what brings about cell regulation.”

4. Take a gratitude break.

“Sit for five minutes and meditate and reflect on what you’re grateful for. Or, you can just be grateful for every breath for a couple of minutes at a time. Try using a simple mantra for manifesting gratitude, such as 'I am.' Repeat the mantra to yourself four or five times silently.”

5. Wind down once a day.

“Embrace an active, daily stress-management routine. Once a day, make time to care for yourself by doing yoga or running, walking, watching comedy or getting a massage. You can also take in uplifting entertainment and culture, like art and music, poetry.”

Read more here

Source: ENTREPRENEUR

Three simple steps that could boost your confidence

1) Slow Down Everything. Walk slower, talk slower, react slower. Do everything a bit slower. You get two benefits from this. First, you'll find that by slowing down, you'll have more time to think through want you want to say or do. That leads you to speaking and moving more deliberately, which makes you look more confident.

2) Watch your body language. Your body language leaks out a lot of info about you. If you are nervous your body language will betray you. The cool thing is that body language not only shows how you are feeling, it also can influence how you are feeling. Choose some confident body language and you'll feel yourself becoming more confident.

3) Get rid of fear and get prepared: Fear could make you loose confidence. It could be fear of failing, fear of disappointment and so on. Believe you-me, preparation kills it all..When you prepare, you know how to get over disappointment, you could track your paths back cause no one is above mistakes. Preparation helps you build confidence

SOURCE: INC , ENSABB

TARGET HIRING 70,000 SEASONAL WORKERS

First the good news for anyone look for an extra job over the holiday season:Target  TGT -0.66%  said Monday that it is hiring 70,000 seasonal workers in its stores during the busiest time of year for any retailer.

Now the bad news: That’s the same number as last year, reflecting a slowdown in the discount retailer’s business and less-than-rosy outlook for the Thanksgiving-to-Christmas period.

Last month, Target reported declining comparable sales for its second quarter, blaming fewer shoppers visiting its stores. The company lowered its forecast for the rest of the year, warning investors that during the holiday season, it expected comparable sales to fall as much as 2%, or be unchanged at best. (The second-quarter drop was the first under CEO Brian Cornell and his turnaround plan.)

Like its competitors, Target has a lot riding on the holiday quarter from November through late January. That’s when many retailers get 30% of their sales and profit for the year. It’s also a golden opportunity to dazzle shoppers who come in less frequently during the other nine months of the year, making in-store customer service and product presentation even more important. In the 2015 holiday quarter, Target’s comparable sales (which eliminate the impact of closed stores and dropped businesses) rose 1.9%.

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SOURCE: FORTUNE

Vital Keys to Success From the Likes of Tony Robbins and Gary Vaynerchuk

When closely studying successful people, you realize that each story is unique. Each person has his or her one quirks, success habits, turning points and failures. How they get to the destination of success often varies quite a bit. Once they arrive there, however, they start to have similar perspectives. They also tend to agree on their advice for those launching a brand and starting a business. 

Here are the top five keys to success when you're just getting started, from some of the most successful people in the world.

1 Learn as much as you can.

Over and over again,t hose who are now successful credit their success to diligent study, fierce curiosity and wise teachers or mentors. 

“Be a student of personal development and business development. Connect with people who have been there and listened to their advice.” -- Chalene Johnson, New York Times bestselling author and celebrity fitness mogul

2. Believe in yourself.

Henry Ford said whether you believe you can or you can’t, you’re right. The successors agree, and they encourage dreamers to dream big.  

“You have to raise your ambition beyond where you're capable of now. There's nothing about my hometown that said I'd be working with an Oprah or an Usher or Fortune 50 CEOs, Olympians -- the highest level.” -- Brendon Burchard, New York Times bestselling author and international speaker

3. Be patient.

When studying the massively successful, you realize that a “big break” usually comes after years, sometimes decades, of diligent effort.

“Patience. You’re not retiring tomorrow. You can make some quick dimes, but you've lost out on long-term dollars.” -- Gary Vaynerchuk, New York Times bestselling author and CEO and founder of Vaynermedia

4. Be willing to take risks and make mistakes.

If you learn to love learning, you’ll see that mistakes are part of the process. Successful people often don’t believe in failures. Failures are just lessons on how to improve. 

“Every time you push through failure, there’s always some prize for you on the other side. So all you have to do is keep doing it,” -- Barbara Corcoran, real estate mogul and star of ABC’s Shark Tank

“It’s OK to make mistakes. Just keep making stuff. Being passive is the hardest thing.” -- Chelsea Peretti, comedian and star of Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine

5. Commit and put in the work.

Commitment, consistency and follow-through is one of the many keys to success

”Show up, even if you don’t know what to do, and something will happen. Do the simple things -- call a customer, call someone you want to be a customer, call somebody who will support you.” -- Grant Cardone

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Source: ENTREPRENEUR

What could lead to an oil price spike

Oil prices have continued to languish below $50 per barrel as a glut of crude oil and gasoline persist even as global demand continues to rise.

The IEA still predicts that oil consumption will expand by another 1.4 million barrels per day in 2016, while production stagnates. That dynamic suggests that the market is converging towards some sort of balance, although the speed with which that takes place is hotly debated.

But in the short-term the record levels of crude oil and refined products sitting in storage have prevented oil prices from rebounding. The U.S. had 525 million barrels of crude oil inventories at the end of August and 232 million barrels of gasoline. Both figures are sharply higher than the running five-year average and higher than even year-ago levels. And inventories are only down slightly from their peaks hit earlier this year. Until oil and refined product inventories start to draw down much more forcefully, oil prices will struggle to rise above, say, $50 per barrel

While extraordinary levels of crude oil and gasoline inventories seem to point to a frustratingly oversupplied market, there is a case to be made that the world could soon suffer from the opposite problem

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Source: BUSINESS INSIDER

Stocks: Some things to know before the open

Today is September 7.

It's also iPhone 7 Day.

But there are only 5 things you need to know before the opening bell rings in New York:

1. All eyes on Apple: Apple (AAPL,Tech30) is set to unveil its latestsmartphone at an afternoon event. Much of the focus is on whether the iPhone 7 will be compatible with standard headphones or require customers to buy new ones.

Apple shares could have a bumpy rideas the event gets underway and investors react to product announcements

2. Chomping on Chipotle: Investors are trying to gobble up shares in Chipotle(CMG) after activist investor Bill Ackman bought a 9.9% stake in the company through his hedge fund, Pershing Square. Shares are up about 6% in extended trading.

In a public filing, Pershing described Chipotle as "undervalued" and "an attractive investment."

3. Earnings and Economics: It's a light day for earnings. After the market closes, HP Enterprises (HPE, Tech30)will post its quarterly results, alongside Canadian tea company, DavidsTea(DTEA), which listed on the stock market last year.

The Federal Reserve will release its Beige Book for September at 2 p.m. ET, which will give detailed information about the state of the U.S. economy

4. Global market overview: U.S. stock futures are holding steady andEuropean markets aren't making any major moves in early trading.

Even Asian markets, which tend to be more volatile, are closing out the day with minimal changes

Read more here

Source : CNN Money

Protect your business image

If you're running a small business, you are your business. Wherever you go and whatever you do is a business promotion opportunity. Conversely, wherever you go and whatever you do reflects upon your business; your business image is, in large part, your image.

Too often small business people forget this. They've spent some amounts of dollars placing ads in various places and figure that's enough. Business promotion will take care of itself.

It doesn't. If you want to improve your sales figures or get more clients or keep the customers you have coming back, you have to actively work at business promotion all the time.

But promotion isn't just advertising or press releases or sales events; promotion is also how you present yourself.

Ensure Positive First Impressions

Although we've all been advised not to judge people on our first impressions, we all do it. Worse, we form these judgments within two to thirty seconds of meeting someone for the first time! After that, we selectively filter our impressions of a person; sure, we'll take in new information or perceptions about them, but only in terms of how it confirms what we already "know" about him or her.

As a business owner, you want to ensure that everyone who meets you forms a positive first impression. After that, they'll be predisposed to think favorably of you. Creating a good first impression is especially crucial if you provide a service; every face-to-face contact you make reflects upon your service (and colors your business image).

Be Pleasant, Attractive, and Knowledgeable

That's why it pays to pay attention to your business image. Concentrating on being Pleasant, Attractive, and Knowledgeable  will help you create and maintain the kind of business image that creates a positive first impression, gets good word-of-mouth, and builds credibility.

Take Advantage of Organizations and Events to Promote Your Business

There are a great many obvious events and organizations that business people can go to or join to network with other business people. We all know how to conduct ourselves in a roomful of others like ourselves.

But sometimes we forget that we could also be making valuable contacts and perhaps getting more customers at our daughters' rugby games, the community pancake breakfast, or even in the waiting room at the doctor's office. Talk to people wherever you go; show an interest in them and they'll respond with an interest in you... and an opportunity to promote your business

Source: THE BALANCE