In the modern era, technological advancements like airplanes have given us the ability to travel faster than the fastest bird. Similarly, strategic planning allows us to explore even the most inaccessible parts of the ocean. The aim is not perfection, but rather, continuous improvement. In the business world, this principle is key to effective marketing.

Why Marketing Is Crucial

Marketing plays a pivotal role in business success. Traditional marketing strategies focused on showcasing a product’s strengths and benefits to attract potential clients. However, in today’s saturated market, this approach is no longer sufficient.

Nowadays, everyone is both a consumer and a provider. What distinguishes you is your ability to subtly showcase your expertise without overtly stating it. This nuanced method not only captures attention but also elicits emotional engagement, thereby drawing clients to you.

Weakness 1: Time Constraints

Expertise is highly valued by clients. I’ve started to delegate some coding tasks to platforms like oDesk and Fiverr, where there is fierce competition in various freelance fields such as coding, design, and video editing.

Despite this, clients are often willing to pay more for genuine expertise. Being an expert implies that your time is limited, which can actually work in your favor. Use your part-time freelancing and limited availability as a unique selling proposition.

When you apply for a job, highlight that your time is a valuable asset. Stress that you are committed to efficiency and will not squander either your time or the client’s. By working diligently and swiftly within the scope of the job, you can turn what may seem like a limitation into a compelling advantage.

Weakness 2: Deficiency in Specific Skills

Confidence is often mistaken for arrogance, especially among experts. However, a balanced mix of confidence, honesty, and self-assurance can be advantageous. For instance, if you lack expertise in a particular skill, you can turn this into a strength by being forthright yet confident.

Consider the following example:

“While my Java skills are limited, I believe I can develop a streamlined, robust app. My experience with VB Studio equips me to create innovative solutions, such as unique coding patterns, that a specialized Java programmer might overlook. Are you open to a non-traditional approach for your app?”

Would you consider hiring someone who presents themselves in this manner? I certainly would.

Belief in your own capabilities is crucial for convincing others. In today’s digital age, acquiring specific skills is easier than ever. Platforms like Udemy offer a plethora of courses to help you become an expert in almost any field.

Weakness 3: Inexperience

Recognizing your lack of experience in a specific area is the first step towards improvement. If you’re new to a freelance platform and have no ratings or job history, it’s crucial not to underestimate your capabilities.

If you’re applying for a job where you lack direct experience but understand the objectives, try to relate your other work experiences to the task at hand.

For instance, if you’re a freelance writer venturing into Photoshop design, you can discuss how your writing skills are transferable to design. Be candid about your lack of ratings, but emphasize your strengths.

Here’s a sample letter of intent:

“I’m eager to design your website using Photoshop. Although I don’t have job experience or ratings on this platform, I possess the necessary skills for this project. My fresh perspective will enable me to create a custom site that meets your business needs.”

“Being new to this platform, I bring a fresh approach without the constraints of rigid thinking. I’m adaptable and willing to meet your specific needs.”

“Here’s why I’m qualified: I have previously worked as a writer for… and completed…”

Proceed to list your writing achievements to further bolster your case.

Weakness 4: Operating as a Small Entity

Being a small company or even a solo entrepreneur is not a drawback; it’s an opportunity. As a smaller operation, you have unique advantages, such as:

• Providing individualized attention to each client
• Delivering faster and more personalized customer service
• Offering competitive pricing due to lower overhead costs
• Being agile and innovative

Make sure to highlight these benefits when communicating with potential clients. Many people today prefer smaller companies because they often feel overlooked by larger organizations that can’t offer personalized service.

When you’re a small operation personally managing client relationships, these issues are mitigated. Make your clients feel valued and special. However, be cautious as your company grows; rapid expansion could lead to a decline in the personalized service your clients have come to expect.

Conclusion

In summary, your online presence – be it your profile on freelancing platforms, your personal website, or your mobile app – should be meticulously crafted. Any perceived weaknesses can be repositioned as unique benefits. Adopting this strategy is crucial for effective marketing and personal growth.

The post Transforming Weaknesses into Strengths: A Guide to Personal and Professional Growth appeared first on Hongkiat.

This guide zeros in on five affordable CRM solutions that deliver solid features without breaking the bank.

Each of these economical CRM tools provides a unique combination of features and benefits, meeting the diverse needs of businesses. Whether you’re a small business owner seeking a simple setup or a larger enterprise in search of robust capabilities, this article is designed to help you make an informed decision.

Overview:

1. Zendesk

A Top Pick for Data Visualization

Zendesk stands out for its user-friendly data visualization features, making it a popular choice among budget-conscious CRM solutions. Below are the key features and pricing details:

Main Features:

• Data Visualization: Zendesk’s Team Plan offers an array of data reporting tools, including preset and customizable dashboards, as well as reports for deals, leads, and recurring revenue. This feature set allows businesses to effectively analyze and interpret their data.
• Contact Management: This platform provides efficient options for managing contacts, including capabilities for data import and export.
• Marketing Tools: Zendesk includes helpful marketing features such as an email design editor, automated workflows, and visitor tracking capabilities.

Cost Information:

• For eligible startups, Zendesk offers a six-month free trial.
• The Team Plan comes at a cost of $19 per user per month.
• The plan includes no user limit and provides 2GB of file storage per user.

Though the Team Plan from Zendesk provides a wide variety of features, it does fall short in some areas, including advanced marketing and customer service functionalities.

Learn more about Zendesk

2. Zoho CRM

A Comprehensive Solution for Businesses

Zoho CRM distinguishes itself as part of Zoho’s wide-ranging suite of SaaS business tools. It’s noted for offering a rich array of features that can go toe-to-toe with large-scale CRM solutions like Salesforce.

Key Features:

• AI-Powered Analytics: Zoho CRM comes equipped with Zia, an AI-driven analytics engine that identifies sales trends and anomalies, offering valuable insights for your business.
• Customizable Interface: With Canvas, a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor, you can tailor the CRM interface to meet your specific needs.
• Smooth Integration: If you are already a user of Zoho’s other products, incorporating Zoho CRM into your existing workflow is hassle-free.
• Gamification: The platform also includes gamification features to motivate your sales team and enhance performance.

Cost Overview:

• The pricing for Zoho CRM starts at $24 per user per month, when billed annually.

While Zoho CRM offers an impressive range of features, there is a learning curve to fully utilize them. Note that the more advanced tools are only available in the higher-tier packages.

Learn more about Zoho CRM

3. Salesforce

A Leader in Comprehensive CRM Solutions

Salesforce is renowned as a global frontrunner in the CRM software arena. It’s especially favored by medium to large enterprises for its extensive suite of customer relationship tools, seamless integration options, and deep customization capabilities.

Key Features:

• All-in-One Functionality: Salesforce provides a holistic CRM solution, featuring a user-friendly design, customizable options, and robust reporting tools.
• Smooth Integration: Its core offering, the Sales Cloud, can easily integrate with other Salesforce modules like Marketing Cloud for email automation and Einstein Analytics for AI-driven business insights.
• Customization Flexibility: Salesforce enables advanced workflow automations and approvals, allowing businesses to fine-tune their operational processes. Sales teams can assign specific members to individual deals.
• Data Reporting and Forecasting: The enterprise plans offer sophisticated reporting and predictive analytics, app development, full sandbox environments, and external system integrations through web services APIs.

Cost Overview:

• The pricing for Salesforce starts at $25 per user per month.
• Be aware that Salesforce’s upper-tier plans can become costly, especially as pricing is per user.

Salesforce doesn’t offer a free plan, but they do provide a 30-day free trial that doesn’t require a credit card or any software downloads.

Learn more about Salesforce

4. Insightly

Streamlined CRM for Growing Businesses

Insightly CRM is engineered to assist businesses in building and maintaining customer relationships, automating manual tasks, enhancing operational efficiency, and ultimately increasing revenue and profitability.

Key Features:

• Optimized Customer Pipeline: Insightly specializes in creating a robust customer relationship pipeline for your business.
• Flexible Selling: With Insightly, you can manage sales activities from any location and on any device, offering unparalleled flexibility.
• Data-Driven Sales: The CRM tool offers real-time insights into your sales processes, enabling informed decision-making.
• Project Management: Insightly ensures timely and seamless project delivery through its effective project management tools.
• Smooth Integration: Insightly integrates smoothly with the applications you use daily, boosting productivity and operational efficiency.
• Automated Workflows: The platform enables you to model and automate various business processes, reducing manual workload and increasing overall efficiency.

Cost Overview:

• Plus Plan: Priced at $29 per user per month.
• Professional Plan: Priced at $40 per user per month.
• Enterprise Plan: Priced at $99 per user per month.

Insightly’s plans come with varying features and limits on records, file storage, and mass emails. For more specific pricing details, it’s advisable to visit their official website.

Learn more about Insightly

5. Vtiger

All-in-One CRM for Comprehensive Business Management

Vtiger CRM offers an all-encompassing platform that merges contact management, calendar functionalities, email marketing, internal chat, and marketing automation.

Key Features:

• Comprehensive Contact Management: Features like engagement scoring, custom lists, tagging, and optimal times for contact are included.
• End-to-End Sales Management: Vtiger supports multiple pipelines and currencies, and offers features such as sales forecasting, sentiment tracking, and automated lead assignment.
• Streamlined Support Operations: Includes functionalities like knowledge base, case assignments, and a dedicated customer portal.
• Automated Marketing: Includes capabilities for email campaigns, auto-responders, and robust tracking metrics.
• Vast Integration Options: Compatible with numerous platforms like Google Suite, Office 365, QuickBooks, and various digital signing and payment systems.

Cost Overview:

• Free Tier: Allows up to 10 users and 3000 records. Includes basic features for contact and sales management.
• Professional Plan: Priced at $30 per user/month (annual billing) or $42 per user/month (monthly billing). No user or record limits. Includes advanced features.
• Enterprise Plan: Priced at $42 per user/month (annual billing) or $58 per user/month (monthly billing). No user or record limits. Includes all features of Professional plus additional advanced features.

Learn more about Vtiger

More on CRM Tools

If you’re keen on delving further into the world of Customer Relationship Management, you might find these additional resources valuable:

• Best CRM Tools for 2023: A comprehensive guide to the top CRM platforms to look out for in 2023.
• Top CRM Tools to Boost Business Growth: A roundup of CRM systems specifically designed to enhance business expansion.
• CRM for Startups: A curated list of CRM solutions tailored for startups and smaller-scale operations.
• CRM with WhatsApp Integration: Explore CRM options that allow seamless integration with the popular messaging app, WhatsApp.
• CRM with Facebook Messenger Integration: An overview of CRM solutions that integrate efficiently with Facebook Messenger.
• Pipedrive CRM vs. HubSpot CRM: A comparative analysis of two industry-leading CRM platforms to help you make an informed choice.

Each of these articles offers specialized insights that can help you make a more informed decision when choosing a CRM system for your specific needs.

Conclusion

Choosing the right CRM tool is more than just a matter of cost-it’s about finding the platform that will effectively bolster your business’s growth. The options presented, including Zendesk, Zoho, Salesforce, Insightly, and Vtiger, all offer unique features tailored to a range of needs and budgets.

Whether your focus is on deep customization, AI-based analytics, or simplified project management, there’s a cost-effective CRM solution ready to meet your specific business requirements.

The post 5 Affordable CRM Tools for Businesses (2023) appeared first on Hongkiat.

The challenging economic conditions of 2023, including rising interest rates, inflation, and supply chain disruptions, continue to exert a significant impact. Consequently, companies’ budgets remain under pressure. Outsourcing development continues to be a cost-effective method for implementing digital strategies that steer businesses in the right direction.

Outsourcing can help manage evolving needs and ensure timely adjustments and resilience. In many instances, development teams can be hired for weeks instead of months, leading to overall cost savings. Furthermore, outsourcing facilitates the quick and efficient location of relevant resources.

Key Takeaway

Distributed Teams

Today, software companies can reap the benefits of distributed teams, with members located in different countries. It has become standard practice to have the headquarters in one country and the team in others. This arrangement is achievable without sacrificing efficiency and while still maintaining processes in compliance with high security standards.

Developers often choose countries with flexible labor laws. As executives strive to find an optimal balance between cost and quality, outsourcing to countries with lower-cost yet high-quality experts can be a viable solution.

Distributing the team across various locations also reduces the risk of a complete project shutdown in the event of unforeseen circumstances and disruptions. Outsourcing enables the reallocation of technical expertise and skills, thereby maintaining a certain level of stability.

Software Outsourcing Factors and Countries

Software development outsourcing rates vary based on location, skill level, experience, English proficiency, and project duration. For instance, expertise in AI and Data Science tends to be more costly. Language barriers can exacerbate communication issues, increase the likelihood of errors, and potentially slow down the project. Significant cultural differences can complicate team integration, further impacting project progress.

It’s crucial to consider government policies and political stability in the outsourcing country, including taxation and employment regulations. Critical or extreme situations could result in loss of communication with the offshore team, leading to unexpected downtime and delivery delays.

Both client companies and outsourcing firms can benefit from business hubs and special economic regimes. Numerous countries have invested in the tech sector and established favorable conditions to attract technology companies.

Such opportunities can be found in countries like Poland, Georgia, and Kazakhstan. These benefits enable outsourcing companies with a distributed system to offer lower rates while still providing highly competent developers.

Generally, regions and countries have specific reputations in software development concerning expertise, time zone, communication, cultural differences, and rates. Costs in each country also depend on the economic level, currency exchange rate, and local wages.

For example, Eastern Europe is recognized as a region with hard-working, talented, and skilled developers. It boasts high-quality standards for projects, flexible labor laws, a relatively low cost of living, and tax benefits for software development.

The Annual World Competitiveness Rating by IMD measures the ability and readiness of an economy to explore and implement digital technologies, leading to transformations in business and society.

The Coursera Global Skills Index analyzes skill proficiency at both regional and country levels.

The EF English Proficiency Index ranks countries based on the proficiency of English language skills among adults.

Poland 🇵🇱

Software development in Poland is recognized for its high quality and affordability. The country boasts the largest pool of tech talents in Eastern Europe. The technology industry in the country is developing rapidly, thanks to the high-quality education in the field of software engineering. Global companies such as Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Cisco, and Intel have research and development centers in Poland. Numerous international IT conferences are held in the country.

Clutch lists 1,148 software development companies in Poland, specializing in domains such as finance, business services, e-commerce, information technology, healthcare, consumer products and services, manufacturing, retail, and telecommunications. They offer extensive technology expertise, including web and mobile development, cloud, IoT, AI, and Big Data development.

• Rates: $25-$99 per hour (based on Clutch)
• IT Hubs: Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Katowice, Gdansk, Gdynia, Sopot, Lodz, and Poznan.
• EF English Proficiency Index: 13 out of 111 (very high)
• Coursera Global Skills Index: 20, with an overall skill level in technology at 92%, and 80% in data science.
• Top Programming Languages: JavaScript, Java, Python, PHP, TypeScript, C#, SQL, ASP.NET.
• Top Frameworks and CMS: React, React Native, Node.js, Vue.js, Angular, .NET, Spring MVC, WordPress, Django.

Eastern Europe

(Including countries like Kazakhstan 🇰🇿, Georgia 🇬🇪, Armenia 🇦🇲, etc.)

These countries have earned their status as software outsourcing destinations due to reforms that have improved business conditions and the overall environment, legislation, and higher education supporting technological innovation. The salary rates here are lower than in other Eastern European countries. While developers often have moderate English proficiency, they possess strong technical skills.

There are over 150 software development companies in these regions listed on Clutch, specializing in sectors such as finance, information technology, business services, and healthcare.

• Hourly Rates: Ranging from $25 to $99, as per Clutch data.
• Major IT Hubs: Tbilisi and Batumi in Georgia, Almaty in Kazakhstan, and Yerevan in Armenia.
• EF English Proficiency Index: Ranked 45 out of 111, indicating moderate proficiency.
• Coursera Global Skills Index: Ranked 32, with an overall skill level of 82% in technology and 49% in data science.
• Top Programming Languages: JavaScript, Java, PHP, TypeScript.
• Top Frameworks and CMS: React, React Native, Node.js, Laravel, .NET.

Estonia 🇪🇪

The Baltic countries, including Estonia, are seen as one of the most economically stable regions for IT outsourcing in Europe. The country has a high level of digital solutions implementation, and legislation that ensures data security and smooth business activity.

Estonia is the birthplace of many startups and generally has a favorable business climate. Global companies like Microsoft and SAP have research and development centers here. Estonia hosts international events for developers and startups.

Clutch lists 153 software development companies in Estonia, specializing in domains such as e-commerce, business services, finance, information technology, healthcare, and retail. They offer web, mobile, and cloud development.

• Rates: $25-$99 per hour (based on Clutch)
• IT Hubs: Tallinn and Tartu.
• EF English Proficiency Index: 26 out of 111 (high)
• Coursera Global Skills Index: 42, overall skill level in technology 62%, 75% in data science.
• Top Programming Languages: JavaScript, Java, Python, PHP, SQL, TypeScript.
• Top Frameworks and CMS: React, React Native, Node.js, Vue.js, Angular, Django, WordPress.

India 🇮🇳

India is renowned for its vast population of developers proficient in various programming languages, its lower rates, and flexible government policies. However, there are certain drawbacks, such as potential miscommunications and a lower quality of development. Concerns related to data protection and privacy also exist. Given the multitude of companies, selecting one that can assure high-quality service is not a straightforward task.

There are 4,270 software development companies from India listed on Clutch, specializing in domains such as e-commerce, information technology, business services, consumer products and services, finance, healthcare, education, and retail.

• Rates: $25-$49 per hour (based on Clutch)
• IT Hubs: Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Delhi, and Chandigarh.
• EF English Proficiency Index: 52 out of 111 (moderate)
• Coursera Global Skills Index: 68, with an overall skill level of 46% in technology and 26% in data science.
• Top Programming Languages: PHP, JavaScript, SQL, Java, Swift, Python, ASP.NET, AJAX, C#, Kotlin.
• Top Frameworks and CMS: WordPress, Angular, Node.js, Laravel, React Native, React, .NET.

Cyprus 🇨🇾

Cyprus is striving to create an innovative tech environment and an investor-friendly business climate. The country is home to numerous startups and divisions of international tech companies such as NCR, Amdocs, Microsoft, and SAP. To address its tech-talent shortage, the country is attracting specialists from other countries and enhancing its educational offerings.

Clutch lists 23 software development companies in Cyprus, specializing in finance, ecommerce, healthcare, and information technology.

• Rates: $25-$99 per hour (based on data from Clutch)
• IT Hubs: Limassol, Larnaca, Nicosia
• Coursera Global Skills Index: The overall skill level in technology is 67%, and 60% in data science.
• English Proficiency: 76% of the population is able to speak English.
• Top Programming Languages: JavaScript, Java, PHP, C#, and Python.
• Top Frameworks and CMS: React, React Native, Ruby on Rails.

USA 🇺🇸

The USA is a leader in all global IT and digital rankings. The country is full of tech talent and maintains high standards for software development, including data privacy and security standards. The high rates are a result not only of high quality but also of high taxes. It’s worth mentioning that you can find developers in the US with lower rates. Some companies have their legal entity in the country but have a team distributed in other locations, and their rates are set in accordance with this.

The USA has the largest number of software development companies represented on Clutch, totaling 5143. These companies specialize in various domains such as business services, finance, information technology, healthcare, ecommerce, consumer products and services, education, and retail.

• Rates: $25-$199 per hour (based on Clutch)
• IT Hubs: Austin (Texas), Dallas (Texas), Raleigh (North Carolina), San Jose (California), Charlotte (North Carolina), Seattle (Washington), San Francisco (California), Atlanta (Georgia), Huntsville (Alabama), Denver (Colorado), and others.
• English: No language barriers.
• Coursera Global Skills Index: 29, overall skill level in technology is 43%, and 54% in data science.
• Top programming languages: JavaScript, PHP, SQL, Python, Java, C#.
• Top frameworks and CMS: WordPress, React, React Native, Angular, .NET.

Final Words

Choosing the right software development partner can be quite a challenging task. Here are some basic steps to select a vendor:

1. Collect Basic Information: Gather details such as the official name of the company, its business structure, date of foundation, headquarters and development locations, number of employees, certifications, and the contact person.

2. Study Their Previous Experience: Do they have cases in their portfolio from your business domain that solve similar problems? What international standards do they adhere to?

3. Understand Their Project Management and Delivery Process: Investigate how they organize project management and delivery. What development methodologies and tracking systems do they use?

4. Review Client Feedback: Study reviews and references from existing and former partners and clients. Websites like Clutch can be a good source for this information.

5. Compare Vendors: When choosing from a number of vendors, compare their rates, pricing models, technology stacks, and average timeframes.

As a first step, you need to define your business needs and ensure that the developers possess the required competencies. These may include skills in cloud solutions, legacy code modernization, UI/UX design, and web and mobile development.

The post Outsourcing Software Development – Which Country Offers the Best Developers? appeared first on Hongkiat.

These tools are designed to provide a range of features, including automated task prioritization and real-time progress tracking, which can help teams stay focused and organized as they work towards achieving their objectives.

In this blog post, we’ll be highlighting the top 5 AI-powered team management tools available on the market and how they can help your team work smarter, not harder. Let’s dive in.

1. Wrike

Let’s start with Wrike, which we’ve previously discussed in one of our articles. Wrike’s Work Intelligence is a technology that helps businesses work more efficiently by automating routine tasks, improving communication, and simplifying workflows.

It equipped users with the ability to prioritize the most important work by automatically sorting tasks based on urgency. This means you, as the user, always have a to-do list focusing on your most important work.

Another benefit of Wrike’s Work Intelligence is its ability to identify patterns and risks that may impact your projects. By analyzing data and providing AI insights, Wrike can help you prevent delays, optimize resources, and complete projects on time.

The tool also allows you to create your own digital assistant by using voice commands to delegate tasks and manage projects. You can give Wrike commands using your mobile phone without opening the app first, saving you time and streamlining your work.

And finally, Wrike’s AI can help you generate subtasks quickly and easily. By analyzing your project plan or meeting notes, it can create a parent task and break it down into actionable steps with subtasks. This feature can take your ideas from rough notes to successful completion in just seconds.

PROS

CONS

Learn more about Wrike

2. SmartSheet

Next up, we have Smartsheet. It is a cloud-based project management platform that provides various tools to manage tasks, allow team collaboration, and provide reporting to help businesses manage and automate their work processes.

Aside from that, it also allows teams to create and customize their own project workflows, assign tasks, set deadlines, and track progress in real-time.

According to this article, Smartsheet has recently been using AI tools such as ChatGPT and DALL-E to help customers eliminate manual tasks and be more efficient and creative. Also not long ago, the company acquired Converse.AI, a UK-based pioneer in the field of intelligent bots for business automation.

PROS

CONS

Learn more about SmartSheet

3. ClickUp

ClickUp, the project management tool, has recently announced its new AI tool – ClickUp AI – which aims to help users save time and become more productive. ClickUp AI includes various functions such as content creation, idea generation, and writing assistance.

With the content creation function, users can quickly generate email messages, and blog posts and overcome writer’s block in seconds. The AI tool is designed to streamline the content creation process, allowing users to create quality content in less time.

The idea generation function serves as a brainstorming partner for users, helping them generate as many blog post ideas as they need. The AI tool can also help elevate users’ writing skills by providing suggestions and assistance in creating clear, concise, and compelling content. Additionally, the tool can instantly extract action items and insights from meeting notes, saving users the time and effort of reading through lengthy summaries.

At present, ClickUp AI has not been made publicly available. Interested users can join the waiting list by submitting their email addresses to be notified when the tool is released.

PROS

CONS

Learn more about ClickUp

4. Ayanza

Ayanza is a tool for businesses to manage their projects and tasks, and collaborate with their teams. It can assist businesses in creating goals, tracking progress, collaborating with team members, and planning strategies, among other things.

To enhance the effectiveness of this system, Ayanza employs generative AI in areas such as content writing and brainstorming among team members. Ayanza is accessible via web and mobile apps, but it does not currently support desktop apps for Mac and Windows.

Learn more about Ayanza

5. Notion

Last but not least, we have Notion AI, a new expansion by Notion with the aim to enhance writing, editing, and overall productivity. It offers a couple of useful features to help users work faster and more efficiently.

For example, it has the ability to summarize notes for both individuals and team members, eliminating the need to switch between note-taking apps and AI tools. Additionally, it can also analyze meeting notes to generate the next steps in real-time, making it easier to stay on track and productive.

Another feature of Notion AI is its capability to improve writing skills. It fixes spelling and grammar mistakes and translates given content into multiple languages, i.e, Japanese, Spanish, and German. It also allows users to edit their content’s voice and tone, enabling them to sound like anyone they want. Moreover, Notion AI can also help make the content shorter or longer, depending on the user’s needs.

Notion AI is accessible to all users and can be activated through simple prompts such as pressing the space bar, highlighting text, and selecting “Ask AI.”

PROS

CONS

Learn more about Notion

The post 5 Best AI-Powered Team Management Tools (2023) appeared first on Hongkiat.

Today, users are demanding an all-in-one experience in their mobile devices, including apps for purchases, finance, music, movies, sports, healthcare, games, news and communication. This encourages the creation of new apps or added functions on existing ones. The mobile development market is expected to reach $44.3 trillion by 2027.

In a highly competitive environment, startups want to build attractive mobile apps fast and launch promptly while saving time and resources. The mobile technologies market offers a wide range of free and paid tools to facilitate development and empower the user experience.

Instruments such as low code, templates, IDEs, APIs, integrations, chatbots, forms analytics, etc., can help accelerate development, create a smooth and friendly workflow, and improve UI/UX.

AI-driven Chatbots

A combination of natural language processing and machine learning technologies helps to ensure human-like interactions, personalized responses and continuous learning for chatbots.

Smart bots drive sales and serve as customer support in social media and mobile commerce apps, in banking and the telecommunications sector. Using chatbots means users don’t need to wait hours for a response and can take action faster.

AI-chatbot builders with an intuitive point-and-click interface make it easy to create your chatbot. To that end, they offer conversation templates appropriate for various use cases and industries and also allow creating custom conversation flows.

Furthermore, such chatbots can be integrated with your back-end systems, e-commerce platforms, CRMs, CMS, order and inventory management systems, payment platforms and other third-party systems.

LivePerson

LivePerson is a conversational AI platform for conversation management and automation all in one. An Intent Manager suite allows you to analyze all conversations and consumer behavior and identify pain points. Based on this data you can evaluate your bot’s efficiency and improve the chat.

• Platforms: iOS and Android.
• Plans: Free trial, starting from $40/month.
• Language support: 44 languages.

REVE Chat

REVE Chat has an AI chat API and mobile SDK that can be customized to your business needs. The AI chatbot allows you to send in-app messages as well as voice and video messages, and share screens. You have easy access to chat log and communication analytics to analyze conversation flows and adjust your communication strategy.

• Platforms: iOS and Android.
• Plans: free trial, starting from $49 per month.
• Language support: 23 languages.

GENESYS

GENESYS is an AI-powered engagement platform for client support and sales agents for low-code development. If a conversation goes beyond the chatbot’s abilities, it will be automatically transferred to an agent. An intent miner suite enables analyzing of conversations and in-app interactions to improve dialog and the customer experience.

• Platforms: iOS.
• Plans: pricing upon request.
• Language support: 49 languages.

Mobile Payment Gateways

Users want to make payments directly in apps. Wallet integration allows one to carry out and process transactions reliably and securely. Don’t forget that any payment service must be compliant with PCI-DSS. In this case, the payment gateway is a perfect solution that meets all security standards.

Payment forms can be customized to fit the design of your app. Also, such tools can generate monthly reports on all the financial activities of your users.

PayPal

PayPal is a sophisticated solution for businesses, available in more than 200 countries with support for 25 currencies. It can be set up easily, and you don’t need advanced technical knowledge. What’s good for users especially is that they can just snap a check with a camera phone and be listed. PayPal supports split payments and has a simple invoicing process.

Fees:

PayPal charges 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.

Stripe

Stripe is a popular online payment tool, available in 44 countries with 135 currencies supported, including Bitcoin. It supports Apple and Android Pay and recurring payments and can be integrated with social media payments. If you make changes in the payment function, all credit card data can be transferred to a new gateway.

In general, this is a flexible solution with easy-to-integrate API that can be customized to your needs. However, there is one critical point – industry limitations. Stripe doesn’t work with high-risk companies, such as financial and legal services, intellectual property companies, gambling companies, etc.

Fees:

Stripe charges 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.

Square

Square offers a feature-rich payment processing all-in-one system. It is available in a few countries with support for 6 currencies, but it accepts offline payments. Users can receive payment reminders thanks to its integration with the calendar.

Square supports both Apple Pay and Android Pay.

Fees:

Square charges 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.

Predictive Analytics

Predictive means the use of machine learning, natural language processing and data mining algorithms. Gathered data can be utilized to help make predictions about user behavior and for planning strategy and improvements to your app.

Add or remove features, change layouts and colors, take all necessary actions to enhance the interface and create a user-friendly experience.

Predictive analytics brings value to social media platforms, dating apps, mobile commerce, entertainment apps, and on-demand apps. Based on data on engagement and previous behavior, users can get personalized recommendations on locations, activities, products, services, movies, music, and profiles.

UXcam

UXcam analyzes users’ interactions with each screen of your app and detects crashes, rage taps, UI freezes and other hidden UX issues. Sessions are video recorded and can be replayed and segmented anytime. With custom dashboards, you may build app conversion funnels to determine key points, group events, and measure the effect of implementing new features. To enhance UXcam capabilities, it can be integrated with third-party services.

• Platforms: iOS and Android.
• Plans: Free plan available. Paid plans upon request.
• Compliant with: GDPR, SOC 2, PCI, CCPA, HIPAA.

Data.ai

Data.ai was formerly App Annie, rebranded after AI was introduced to its analytics platform. It now provides a product line. Data.ai ConnectPlus collects data from app stores, user acquisition platforms and ad networks. You don’t need any API or SDK to use it. A unified dashboard displays downloads, revenue, usage, and advertising.

With Data.ai Intelligence, you may analyze mobile markets across categories, segments and countries. It has a data-driven keyword search and a feature for automated monitoring of app reviews.

The platform allows you to create user profiles through demographic and behavior metrics. All of this data is aimed at helping to boost downloads and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

• Platforms: iOS and Android.
• Plans: Paid plans upon request.
• Compliant with: GDPR, CCPA.

AppsFlyer

AppsFlyer assists with marketing campaigns while strictly following customer privacy law. Its AI engine enables campaign optimization and outcomes prediction. Predictive insights are based on the first metrics of user engagement and anticipated value. The algorithm calculates correlations and shows aggregated behavior rates.

You may forecast retention rate, cost, ROAS, ARPU, etc. for your campaigns. To make things easy, the AI engine is synchronized with Apple’s SKAN, directly transferring all the data to it.

• Platform: iOS.
• Plans: Paid plans upon request.
• Compliant with: GDPR, CCPA, PIPL (China), APPI (Japan), LGPD (Brazil).

Internet of things (IoT) App Integration

IoT has great potential in mobile development for various industries. IoT mobile apps can be used in healthcare, logistics, e-commerce, education and more. Integration brings the benefit of flexible data transmission to mobile devices.

For example, users may have remote control over home devices or car systems. Medical devices can track patient indicators and send them directly to a doctor for analysis and recommendations.

Core elements of any IoT application are remote data collection, connection of components, secure connectivity and continuous communication. There are various types of IoT platforms that can help to prototype and deploy your mobile app.

Blynk

Blynk is an IoT platform as a service for solutions in the area of smart home products, complex HVAC systems and agricultural equipment. The tool is an example of a low-code platform that doesn’t require deep technical knowledge. All your data will be secured with a private cloud server.

Moreover, Blynk allows for historical device data storage of 12 months as well as raw data storage. Alexa and Google Home support makes it a good solution for smart home products. With the app localization feature, you can set alarms and notifications.

• Supported Languages: C++, C#, JavaScript, Python.
• Plans: Has free version.Paid plan starts from $6.99/month.

OpenRemote

• Supported Languages: Groovy, JavaScript, JSON or Flow rules object model.
• Plans: Free, under AGPL v3 license.

OpenRemote is an open-source IoT platform for solutions in the area of home automation, healthcare, public spaces, commercial buildings, energy management and crowd management. One can build custom apps to fit your business needs using a library of web components and APIs. It suggests various hosting options, a.k.a. cloud hosting, Edge gateway Docker images and hosting on-premise.

OpenRemote is more of a technical solution, which requires developers’ skills. Therefore, it has a manager interface, where non-technicians can analyze data and create automation rules. The geofencing feature also allows you to set alarms and send notifications.

Low-code

The vast majority of low-code platforms for mobile development on the market are affordable. On one hand, they can help save time and resources and launch the first product version faster. On the other hand, this can be tricky.

When choosing a platform, you have to take into account a lot of factors: budget and licensing, cloud support, the possibility of integrations, scalability and maintainability, collaborative IDEs and more. Non-technical persons can handle the development using templates, preconfigured modules, logic and connectors. Therefore, low code platforms capabilities are limited. You will not be able to customize and expand your app.

Handing your projects over to a professional team allows you to cover these potential issues. While the app is under development, you can do other important things, like marketing and strategy planning. At the same time, with Collaborative IDEs, you can track each step of the process and give timely feedback.

Some examples of low-code platforms includes Thunkable, BuildFire, and OutSystems.

The post Mobile App Development Tools for Startups in 2023 appeared first on Hongkiat.

If the employees are investing too much time in any task, it may cause delays in the project and cost overruns too. Therefore, time-tracking plays a crucial role in discerning employees’ time, productivity and bandwidth so that appropriate strategies can be formulated to enhance their productivity and minimize resource wastage.

In this blog, we shed light on how time-tracking impacts employee productivity in any organization.

What is Time-tracking?

Time-tracking is the process of tracking and recording how much time an employee spends on which task and project. It also provides a picture of team productivity, time distribution across tasks and projects, the progress of the project, etc.

Earlier, time-tracking was done via traditional paper timesheets, but it came with several limitations and drawbacks. Now, modern time-tracking solutions have largely replaced these paper sheets, overcoming their limitations while providing additional capabilities like managing productivity levels.

How Time-tracking Improves Productivity?

Here are some of the ways time-tracking can help with improving productivity:

1. Provides Data for Analyzing Productivity

Time-tracking maintains a record of employees’ time and work done daily. The project manager can utilize this data to evaluate various details like employees’ bandwidth and time utilization, employees who are procrastinating their work, which employees are more productive and which ones take more time to complete tasks, etc.

Armed with this information, project managers can spot where productivity is lagging behind so that smarter decisions can be made to improve the productivity and efficiency of employees.

Moreover, employers can overview which department is spending how much time on which project and whether the time utilization is worth it or not. This analysis helps them develop a strategy that is profitable to their organization.

2. Productivity Level Comparisons

A time-tracking software provides a 360-degree view of everyone’s contribution to the team. This data is helpful for project managers to identify those employees who are putting in extra effort and working overtime to meet the project’s goal. Managers can publicly recognize their efforts or reward them for motivating other employees to be more productive.

Similarly, if managers find employees taking more time to accomplish similar tasks, they can ensure relevant training or guidance is provided in order to enhance productivity and efficiency.

3. Smarter Task Allocation

One of the most challenging jobs for any manager is to assign the right tasks to the right person according to their bandwidth and availability. time-tracking provides clear visibility into every employee’s bandwidth and time utilization. Equipped with this data, managers can correctly assign tasks without overburdening their employees.

In addition, time-tracking also gives an estimate of employees’ capacity, allowing managers to distribute tasks across the workforce more efficiently.

4. Identification and Prevention of Distractions

Irrespective of how dedicated employees are, distractions are bound to arise, leading to lower productivity. These may come in the form of attending unnecessary meetings, requests for ad-hoc tasks, long break hours, etc.

Distractions disrupt the focus of employees, which may cause their current tasks to be delayed or even derailed. With the help of time-tracking software, managers can identify the causes of distraction and, therefore, can mitigate the issue by outlining a proper roadmap.

5. Elimination of Bottlenecks

Bottlenecks can arise at any time over the course of a project for a variety of reasons. These bottlenecks can end up causing delays down the road as tasks are often interconnected. With the help of a time tracker, project managers can look for any bottleneck or roadblocks in a specific task that needs more time and address it proactively.

6. Keep Focus on Priorities

A time tracker gives an insight into which employee is working on which task and for how long. The project manager can look into whether the tasks they are working on are of high priority or not.

For example, an employee may dedicate a good deal of time to a task that can be insignificant. Therefore, with the aid of a time tracker, employers can reevaluate and redefine their priorities, which can contribute to higher productivity.

7. Ensure Mandatory Breaks

Breaks are important to boost employee morale, as it helps gain balanced emotional health and de-stress at the workplace. Failing to avail of sufficient breaks during working hours can negatively impact employees’ productivity.

This is where the time tracker comes in, as it enables blocking appropriate breaks at the right interval. These breaks will prevent burnout and mental exertion, which are said to be the top causes of low productivity.

8. Support Better Focus Levels

When employees have clarity about which priority tasks they have to work on, along with other low-priority tasks in the pipeline, they can better focus on their work and can efficiently manage their time to accomplish them.

Time-tracking is helpful in identifying the priority or urgent tasks that need to be done first, which helps them better concentrate on their tasks.

9. Keeps Procrastination at Bay

The problem of procrastination is so timeless and usually happens when employees are overburdened with unpleasant tasks or face ambiguity regarding which tasks are of high priority.

However, it has been observed that most employees are more driven to complete the work when they are provided with milestones, as it gives them a feeling of personal accomplishment.

Thus, project managers can set milestones and micro-goals in different phases of the project with the aid of a time tracker. This way, employees can work more productively to meet goals and can beat procrastination as well.

In addition, some tracking software comes with an automatic notification feature that sends the schedule overrun notification if the schedule lags behind.

10. Prevents Employees from Multitasking

When employees are loaded with multiple tasks together, they start multi-tasking to complete them all simultaneously. However, frequently switching from one task to another can degrade productivity. This can further disrupt concentration and increases the chances of errors too.

Time-tracking gives an insight into if the employees are frequently switching tasks, and with the aid of this information, project managers can evaluate and prioritize their tasks accordingly.

11. Improved Project Planning

One of the most challenging tasks of project planning is estimating the time individual tasks may take. However, time trackers retain the historical data of previous projects.

Managers can leverage this data to estimate the time requirements for future projects since the wrong estimate can result in missed deadlines, cost overruns, and overburdening the team with multiple tasks that can hamper their productivity.

3 Great Time-tracking Apps

Replicon

Replicon is a time-tracking software that offers many AI-powered automated functionalities. It integrates with over a hundred popular productivity and project management apps, including Asana, Slack, Zoom, etc.

It features flexible timesheet capture that supports all types of employees in different roles. The software also helps verify, analyze, review and apply the right workflows for producing accurate timesheets.

Bonsai

Bonsai time tracker tool offers features to make your workflow easier and more efficient. It has an easy and straightforward interface that centralizes your timesheets. It also lets you manage tasks, track billed hours, and create and send client invoices.

Indy’s time tracker

Indy is a reliable tool to track your working hours on projects and helps you get paid. You can start or pause recording your work hours with a click and organize your tracked work sessions. There’s also an option to add the hours to your invoices to get paid for your work.

WebWork Time Tracker

WebWork is an employee monitoring software that helps employers track the progress of remote teams through screenshots and reports. You can get reports as timesheets or statistics that you can easily export in different formats.

Moreover, you can automatically monitor employee attendance, monitor particular app usage, among projects, and chat with your team. The tool is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux as well as for Android, iOS, and the web.

Conclusion

As improved productivity and higher efficiency levels are the keys to successful on-time project deliveries, investing in a robust time-tracking system can be enormously beneficial to any organization. Time-tracking can help organizations better manage their employees’ time and uncover missed opportunities to improve their productivity levels.

The post How Does Time-tracking Impact Employees’ Productivity appeared first on Hongkiat.

While you can hire freelancers from various networks like Upwork, the quality is often a gamble. If you’d rather not take that chance, read on for 20 design tools perfect for entrepreneurs and marketers on a budget.

Ready to take the plunge? Let’s get started with these cost-effective design solutions!

Wix

Your One-Stop Web Development Platform

Wix is a cloud-based platform for website development. It allows complete customization, making it easy to build anything from a business site to an e-commerce portal or a personal blog. And the best part? You can start for free.

What sets Wix apart is its user-friendliness. You don’t need any prior web development experience to create a professional-looking website. The sites you build are SEO-friendly, optimized for mobile devices, and can be integrated with features like online booking or e-commerce.

Getting started with Wix is a breeze. Simply pick a domain name, choose from hundreds of templates, customize your chosen template with a drag-and-drop editor, and publish. You can also use Wix’s SEO tools to increase site traffic and boost your online presence.

Cost Breakdown:

Wix provides free hosting and a variety of templates. If you require additional features, premium plans range from £4 to £21 per month for websites, and £15 to £27 per month for business and e-commerce sites.

Visit Wix

Creative Market

A Treasure Trove for Designers

Creative Market is a hotspot for designers looking for inspiration. The platform offers a wide array of design resources, from templates and icons to Photoshop add-ons and 3D elements.

The “Simple License” offered here covers both personal and creative uses of most items. What’s more, every week they offer six free resources. Sign up for their newsletter to stay updated on these freebies.

Cost Details:

Browsing through Creative Market is free and the items for sale are reasonably priced. Additionally, loading your account with $100 or $200 will earn you 10 or 22 free credits, respectively.

Visit Creative Market

Adobe Color CC

The Ultimate Color Tool

Formerly known as Kuler, Adobe Color CC is the go-to tool for color schemes. Whether you’re struggling with color choices or simply don’t have the time to start from scratch, this tool has got you covered.

The idea is simple. Use the color wheel to pick the perfect color palette for your project. You can choose up to five harmonious colors based on predefined rules.

For those short on time, the tool also includes an “Explore” tab that features ready-made schemes from other users. You can copy, edit, and save these into your own library.

One of the best features of Adobe Color CC is its integration with other Adobe products. You can import your new color theme directly into Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign. An Adobe account is required to maximize the utility of these themes.

Cost Breakdown:

Adobe Color CC is completely free to use, as is the Adobe account needed to make the most of its features.

Visit Adobe Color CC

Freepik

The All-in-One Design Resource

Freepik serves as a comprehensive platform for those dabbling in design. Based in Spain, the site offers a wealth of icons, vectors, and even photos, making it a one-stop-shop for all your design needs.

You can combine it with Pexels, Pixabay, or any of the numerous free stock photo providers to elevate your projects.

Cost Information:

Freepik offers up to 60 free downloads a day. However, proper attribution to Freepik is required for the files you use.

Visit Freepik

Pablo

Buffer’s Social Media Design Tool

Pablo, a free tool by Buffer, allows you to create and share visual quotes across your social media channels. With seamless Buffer integration, your social media management becomes a breeze.

This tool automates the design process, offering pre-selected quotes and images. You can also upload your own backgrounds and customize them with effects like contrast and blur.

Cost Breakdown:

Pablo is a free tool with no hidden charges.

Visit Pablo

Pexels

High-Quality Images for Free

Pexels is a treasure trove of high-resolution images that are perfect for any project. All photos are covered by the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, allowing you to use them for both personal and commercial projects without attribution.

Cost Summary:

Pexels is free, but you’re encouraged to make a small donation via PayPal to support the platform’s hosting capabilities.

Visit Pexels

Visme

Your Go-To for Visual Content

Visme’s presentation maker is a game-changer for businesses looking to enhance their communications and presentations. With a plethora of professionally designed templates and a myriad of design elements, Visme makes slide creation a breeze.

You can enrich your visual content by using stock photos, stock videos, vector icons, and more. Insert your brand’s colors and fonts for a cohesive look.

The versatility of Visme extends beyond presentations. You can also create infographics, social media designs, marketing materials, and other types of visual content. The business plan is priced at $29/mo (billed annually).

Visit Visme

Instapage

The Landing Page Maestro

Instapage is a go-to choice for landing page creation, boasting over 250,000 users worldwide. This platform offers an array of templates that you can customize to fit your brand’s unique identity.

Customize your page with your logo, message, and other brand elements to make it truly yours. You can even A/B test different page versions to find the most effective layout for your audience.

Pricing Options:

While Instapage offers a free plan, it comes with limitations, such as the absence of a mobile-responsive feature. The paid plans—Basic ($29/month), Professional ($79/month), and Unlimited ($179/month)—offer a more comprehensive set of features, making it a valuable investment for your online presence.

Visit Instapage

Canva and Canva Pro

Design Simplified

Canva is an excellent tool for startups or individuals looking for an easy way to create visually stunning content. Whether you’re crafting social media posts or event invitations, Canva’s drag-and-drop interface simplifies the design process.

Canva Pro takes it to the next level, allowing for brand kits, template customization, and sharing capabilities. Easily maintain brand consistency with preset colors and fonts.

Price:

The Canva Pro subscription is priced at USD 12.95/month or USD 9.95/month if billed annually. Additionally, individual paid images can be purchased, often at discounted rates when bought in bulk.

Visit Canva

WhatTheFont

Font Recognition Made Easy

WhatTheFont is an ideal tool for those who lack design skills but wish to emulate a designer’s touch. Simply upload an image containing text, and the tool will identify the font used.

Once you have the font name, you can find it on various font repositories like FontSquirrel, Google Fonts, or 1001 fonts.

Price:

WhatTheFont and most font repositories are free to use. However, make sure the font you select is also free for commercial applications.

Visit WhatTheFont!

Coolors.co

Effortless Color Generation

Coolors.co is a top-notch color generator designed for ease and accessibility. Whether you’re a seasoned designer or a newcomer, Coolors offers a range of features to help you find the perfect color scheme.

The platform includes HEX codes, adjustable color components, and toggles for brightness, temperature, hue, and saturation, making it incredibly flexible and intuitive to use.

Price:

Coolors is a free-to-use tool, accessible to all.

Visit Coolors.co

Design Seeds

The Artistic Approach to Color

Design Seeds offers an alternative perspective on color generation. Founded by an artist who appreciates the nuanced art of color selection, the platform provides hand-crafted color palettes for those seeking something more emotionally resonant.

Each palette is created with meticulous care in Illustrator, often paired with an inspiring photo. The HEX codes are provided, making it easy to integrate these carefully curated palettes into your own designs.

Price:

Design Seeds is free to browse, though the founder offers freelance services for those seeking customized solutions.

Visit Design Seeds

Pixlr

The Free Photoshop Alternative

If you’re looking for a cost-effective way to create logos and graphics without committing to Adobe’s subscription model, Pixlr is worth checking out. This free online photo editor offers a user-friendly interface that closely resembles Photoshop, making the transition to this tool relatively seamless.

It’s not just the UI that’s impressive; Pixlr also offers a variety of file-saving options, including the ability to save files as TIFF, which will come in handy for future design work.

Price:

Pixlr is free to use, both on desktop and mobile, although the mobile version is still under development.

Visit Pixlr

BeFunky

Your One-Stop-Shop for Photo Editing and Design

BeFunky goes a step beyond conventional photo editors by offering a comprehensive suite of creative tools. Whether you’re creating a collage, editing a photo, or designing graphics, BeFunky has an interface tailored to each activity.

The platform provides a rich array of resources including icons, templates, and fonts. It’s an ideal solution for a wide range of projects, from event invitations to infographics.

Price:

BeFunky’s basic tools are free, but to unlock its full potential, including an ad-free experience and premium templates, a Pro account is available for $4.95/month or $24.95/year.

Visit BeFunky

Freebbble

Your Source for Free Dribbble Content

Freebbble serves as a curated hub for free design resources available on Dribbble, the popular showcase site for professional graphic designers. Whether you’re after fonts, icons, or templates, Freebbble has neatly categorized them according to license and resource type. However, it’s advisable to double-check the license terms with the original creator before using any free resource.

Price:

Freebbble is a completely free platform that aims to make high-quality design resources more accessible.

Visit Freebbble

Easel.ly

Visual Content Marketing Made Easy

In the age of decreasing attention spans, Easel.ly provides an intuitive platform for creating infographics and other visual content to engage your audience. The platform offers a range of templates, objects, and images, making it a one-stop solution for your visual content needs.

Price:

Although Easel.ly is free to use, it comes with limitations on the number of images and fonts you can use in each infographic. However, its Pro plan, priced at $3 per month, offers extended features and customization options.

Visit Easel.ly

UXPin

Your Gateway to UX Design and Prototyping

If you’re contemplating diving into the world of UX design, UXPin is a comprehensive platform for prototyping apps and websites. It features a user-friendly dashboard, collaboration tools, and resources for easy prototyping, making it ideal for beginners and professionals alike.

Price:

UXPin offers multiple pricing tiers, starting from $19 per month. While it provides a wealth of free learning resources, a subscription is necessary for full access to its design capabilities.

Visit UXPin

The post 20 Design Tools for Startups on Budget appeared first on Hongkiat.

This article will give you six things to know before launching your startup. It will show you some of the problems you might face on your journey and possible solutions to make the ride as smooth as possible.

1. You need a good team

Before you even consider starting a business, you must gather a good team. Even if you’re the most intelligent person, you have your strengths and weaknesses. Knowing those weaknesses will help you determine what you need to look for when searching for partners or hires.

But, a good team doesn’t solely revolve around technical skill or knowledge. A good team needs a strong leader that can keep it working as a cohesive unit. If you don’t have strong leadership skills, try working on them or partner up with a strong leader.

2. Cybersecurity is very important

No matter what type of business you’re starting, it’s safe to assume that you will have some online presence. With that in mind, you have to consider the different cyber threats out there, especially with the recent rise in cyberattacks targeting everyone, from individuals to small companies to large corporations.

In the early stages of your startup, establish good cyber hygiene, which involves:

• Using strong passwords
• Encrypting sensitive data
• Using a data security tool, i.e, NordVPN.

3. Most startups fail

It may be a hard pill to swallow, but the fact is that 90% of start-ups fail. Now, that isn’t to say that you should give up on starting a business. It’s simply a reminder to keep realistic expectations and your options open.

Stories about how people risked it all and made it are inspiring. However, for every one of those stories, a million more failed and lost everything.

If you’re unsure about a business idea, start working on it in your free time while keeping your full-time job. When you start your business, incorporate it so that you aren’t fully liable in case of bankruptcy. These are some ways you can risk-manage the start of your venture.

4. It will be emotionally draining

Starting and running a business is rarely a smooth ride. There will be some bumps on the road that even the most mentally resilient leaders will have trouble dealing with.

Many founders experience emotional drainage due to:

• Family-work imbalance,
• Work-related stress,
• Managing people etc.

Additionally, small business owners often take on multiple roles in their company for lack of resources. This leads to role ambiguity and can significantly affect the owner’s decision-making capacity and mental health.

While emotional drainage is hard to avoid, there are some things you can do to minimize its effects. One practice that many successful entrepreneurs recommend is meditation.

The various forms of meditation can help clear your mind and tackle problems more effectively. If you’re new to meditation, consider guided meditation on YouTube or even get a special app.

5. Find a mentor

No matter what road you’re on, there are people out there that have walked the same route and live to tell the tale. Find those people and soak in as much knowledge as possible.

If you’re lucky, you can build a good relationship with someone who eventually becomes your mentor. If there’s someone you admire or would love to meet, don’t be shy to reach out to them. You’d be surprised at how many people are eager to share their knowledge with others.

With that said, a mentor doesn’t always need to be a business figure. It could also be a family member or a good friend – someone who can keep you level-headed and help you focus on your goals.

6. Writing a Business Plan can help

Writing a business plan isn’t mandatory. However, if you want to pitch your startup to investors, a well-written business plan can help get your message across.

The main components of a business plan are:

• Executive summary,
• Products or services description,
• Marketing strategy,
• Competitor analysis, and
• Financial planning and budgeting.

A business plan is one of the first things investors look at when making investment decisions. But even more importantly, it gives you an objective summary of the business.

This can help you analyze certain aspects of the startup and drive good decision-making in the future.

Final thoughts

Launching a startup is a big step. You’re bound to face some hurdles along the way. It’s essential to prepare yourself for what’s to come and find solutions to problems that may arise.

To maximize your chances of success, surround yourself with a good team. Strong leadership and cohesiveness can make or break a startup. However, keep in mind that most startups fail, so be prepared with a few exit strategies just in case.

The post Launching Your Startup: 6 Things You Should Know appeared first on Hongkiat.

In this article, we’ll look at 7 key reasons why regular customer engagement helps grow businesses of all shapes and sizes, and how you can make the most of your feedback and survey responses when you do receive them.

1. Your customers pay the bills

Just because you spend a large portion of your time refining your business, doesn’t mean you’re completely objective as to the quality of your offering, nor does it mean you’ll see every potential opportunity at your disposal. This is where your customers come in!

Your website visitors, social media fans, and customers have already taken an interest in what you do, therefore you have a great opportunity to learn what they think you’re doing well, could be improved, or be an opportunity for you. If enough people are saying similar things, then you should consider taking action.

If you don’t, the most likely turn of events will be that your customers will go looking for these services elsewhere. Because you’ve already got the attention of these people, you’re in a great position to offer them services they want or improve the ones you’re already offering, therefore boosting their ongoing spend.

2. Plenty of choices online

As we touched on earlier, if you don’t provide your customers with what they’re looking for, they will most likely go looking for it elsewhere. So much so, that 86% of customers who receive poor customer service from you, will quit doing business with you. Customer service you say, isn’t that just good manners? Not at all.

Customer service is a full-cycle service that includes listening to your customer’s opinions and ensuring their journey from browsing your services to check-out is as easy as possible.

With all the different choices online, you have to be competitive across all areas of your business. Whether it’s improving existing services or adding new ones, your customers are the best people to tell you whether you’re keeping up.

3. Acquiring new customers increases costs

Have you ever wondered how much it costs to acquire a new customer vs. how much it costs to retain an existing customer? Almost 7 times, that’s how much! So many organizations overlook their existing customer base in search of new opportunities, and forget that it’s their existing customers who have been kind enough to give you their business.

Now nobody’s suggesting that seeking out new customers is a waste of time, but focusing on increasing your existing customer spend is definitely something you can use customer feedback to achieve. When the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, as opposed to 5-20% for new customers, you would be mad not to.

4. Reviews can make or break you

The sad but interesting truth about online customer feedback is that for each negative review of your service you receive online, this review will reach around twice as many people as compared to a positive review.

With this in mind, you need to make sure you’re using customer feedback to pre-empt negative reviews about you online. The customer feedback you receive needs to be acted upon; otherwise, you’ll be facing a growing amount of negative feedback you won’t be able to manage.

However, it’s good to keep in mind that if someone does post negatively about you online, 51% of these people will react positively to you if you directly address their feedback.

5. Make use of your opportunity

Did you know that 79% of people who provided negative feedback to a company had their feedback ignored? Ouch, that’s a lot of grumpy customers. As an organization, this is a major opportunity for you to outplay your competitors and provide a far greater service.

Sure the aim is to avoid negative feedback, but that will come when you listen to your customers through regular email based surveys, use of a customer feedback tab on your website, and implementing a strong website conversion review across your site.

6. It takes time to get those sales

Surprisingly, only 30% of first-time website visitors make a purchase on e-commerce sites. This may shed light as to why this user group only spends around 2.5 minutes on a site, whilst returning visitors spend over 5 minutes.

Nevertheless, don’t get discouraged if you notice your website visitors are not making a purchase the first time around.

If you’ve got things right, there is a strong chance they’ll be back and will make a purchase if your check-out process is easy to navigate. With drop-out rates during check-out generally going through the roof on most sites, this is a major point of focus where customer surveys and usability studies can help out.

7. Use your collected data

It’s amazing to see that so many organizations do the right thing and collect customer feedback, yet fail to use that feedback data in their businesses.

Sometimes it can be unpleasant or costly to recognize what you’re doing is not quite right, but remember just how much of a difference a small change can make to your bottom-line.

Regular customer feedback is an affordable business tool you can use to bolster your marketing and service offerings. So next time you see something negative happening with your website performance, sales, or online reviews; ask yourself, how can I change this trend and offer a better service to my customers?

The answer? Listen to what your customers are saying and act on that feedback as soon as possible.

The post Customer Engagement Will Grow Your Business (7 Reasons Why) appeared first on Hongkiat.

This is why it’s necessary to be particular about coming up with the perfect brand name and the story behind this name for your business. It may not seem like a daunting task, but it requires careful consideration on various aspects of what kind of services or products you will be providing.

After all, the brand name, along with the logo and the type, sums up everything your business represents into a symbolic name.

Here are a few essential things you might want to consider before you decide on your brand name:

1. Ensure it’s Web-Friendly

In this age and time, if you want your business to flourish, it’s probably a must to bring it to the Internet. Therefore, you have to ensure if the brand name you’ll be coming up with is “web-friendly“.

The brand name should be “web-friendly” in the sense that the name can be put on the web with Internet users having few issues finding and accessing it to gain information about the business.

First, if you’re going to utilize the net for your business, you’ll need an official website to serve as a one-stop station for anyone interested to find out more about it.

This means getting a domain name that is distinctly associated with your business. Therefore, you should choose a brand name that people could easily remember rather than something complex and meaningless.

Take for example, www.tchm.com versus www.tchmedical.com. The second one seems easier to remember because of the word “medical“. People would recall “tch” and “medical” better than simply “tchm“, which does not consist of any real word and does not give any clue about the business.

Second, given that social networking sites like Facebook are the in-thing now, you might be considering marketing your business through them in future. One thing you should thus check is that there are no pages created with the same name as your brand.

This will prevent the dilution of your branding and easily allow people to find the exclusive page of your business and gather more information about it.

Other things you may also wish to consider include your future business email address (which will most likely bear close resemblance to your brand name), the ease of using your brand name to search for your business on search engines, etc.

2. Simplicity

The easier it is for the brand name to be pronounced, the better it can be spread through word-of-mouth. Similarly, the fewer the number of words for the brand, the easier it is to be remembered.

Sometimes words are not spelt out the way it sounds, and people may have difficulties searching for the company on the net. For example, although “Xerox” has become an effective brand name that became synonymous with “photocopy“, it probably had some pronunciation issues when it first existed.

People might have mistaken the pronunciation with the incorrect spelling of “Zerox”. The company may have lost a significant portion of their potential customers just because these people couldn’t get the spelling right.

So when it comes to ensuring that your brand can be remembered accurately, simplicity could be the best policy.

3. Contains the Essence of Business

Just as your business should have a unique selling preposition to distinguish yourself from your competitors, your brand name should also manifest that which is distinct from the others.

It can also be used to reflect the strength of your business or give a hint on what kind of services/products it actually provides.

For example, the search engine “Google” might have given us the impression of “googly” eyes, which we can associate with searching for things. Such a company name lets people effortlessly identify with what the company provides and serve as a good anchor in their memory.

Other brand names may seemingly bear no relation to the business, but they emphasize on the “feeling” aspect of the name. No one probably have any idea what “Starbucks” is when they first heard it, but once people realize it’s a coffeehouse chain, it sticks in a strange way.

The name evokes energy and spontaneity, just as a cup of coffee would do to you every morning.

4. Stand Out from the Crowd

Simplicity aside, brand names need to be memorable as well in order to create a buzz and generate an interest in what is it that your business provides. Making your brand name too descriptive and straightforward may kill the curiosity that is needed to sustain the interest.

Before coming up with a few potential brand names, it would be a good idea to do some research on the ones that your competitors have come out with. Identify what are the similarities across the different brand names.

Subsequently, when you generate some potential brand names for your company, resolve not to come up with something similar to them.

In other words, your brand name should stand out from the crowd, by which I’m referring to your closest competitors. After all, a large part of your business concerns will revolve around these few.

As a potential customer considering the various options between you and your competitors, which one would most likely catch his or her attention initially? The one with a brand name that doesn’t sound like the others.

5. Have the Logo in Mind

Brand name and logo go hand-in-hand for the most part. If you want to have a strong branding for your business, make sure that people can identify the logo with the brand name.

The brand “Apple“, for instance, has a pretty straightforward logo in the shape of an apple. This makes it simple for people to recall your business. Why? Instead of relying on solely the linguistic memory for the brand name, they are now also able to store the visual memory of the brand by associating it with the logo.

Now that you know how significant the connection between the name and the logo is to your branding, it’s necessary to think of a name that affords you more freedom in the creative process of your logo.

Personally, I believe an “image” logo is stronger than a “word” logo, so it might be a good idea to consider a brand name that can be symbolized as an object or something.

Try comparing Apple‘s “image” logo to Microsoft‘s “word” logo, I think most of us would agree that the former takes lesser cognitive resources to remember than the latter.

The post 5 Tips to Building Better Brand Names appeared first on Hongkiat.

Welcome to that “12:00 o’clock going-to-the-office-never-have-to-answer-to-nobody” dream life! You’ll finally have the time and resources to do all the stuff you wish you’d done. Trips, vacations, freedom, and prestige!

Well, you’ll first need to start your business. And guess what? You’ll be very likely to end up closing it or selling its assets! And that’s a good thing. Let me explain.

Entrepreneurs Fail Constantly

That’s right. You could say it’s a never-ending, always-fashionable trend. Entrepreneurs, whether they’re dirt poor, millionaires, or even billionaires, just keep on losing. Don’t believe the hype. That’s the real state of entrepreneurship.

If you want to go into business for yourself, get ready for feeling failure and pressure about 90% of the time. But don’t worry. You’ll at least be in good company.

Did you know about Steve Jobs’s or Bill Gates’s failures? or that some of the most successful entrepreneurs initially faced much failure? Did you know the average millionaire goes bankrupt at least 3.5 times or that 3 out of 4 start-ups funded by Venture Capital fail?

So, if you were to generalize, by the 5th year, regardless of the industry, over half of all startups shut their doors.

That’s just facts.

But Why?

And the reasons why this is happening are even more ludicrous. According to StatisticBrain, the #1 reason all businesses fail is emotional pricing.

That’s to say, entrepreneurs usually overprice their products or services and are too stubborn to adjust to the market. They fail and give up. It’s not the economic climate, the industry, or management.

The list of bankruptcy reasons goes on, with increasing audacity and disregard for common sense:

• Living too high for the business
• Nonpayment of taxes
• No knowledge of pricing
• Lack of planning
• No knowledge of financing
• No experience in record-keeping

Why These Numbers Are Good News!

These high failure rates and stupendous reasons for failure are actually really encouraging for any budding entrepreneur. What they mean is:

• Competition is really low.
• You’re bound to succeed if you keep at it.

These reasons paint the picture of failure as being the most common element in business today. That’s normal. Because of this, the only winners in business are the ones who:

• Apply common sense (no emotional pricing, paying your taxes, planning and adapting, etc.)
• Continue practicing business after failure.

That’s the big secret you don’t hear in the interviews: being an entrepreneur isn’t so hard. Just keep at it and apply common sense. You only need one win, and bam: you’re a hero. Even billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban admitted this in his book:

“It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. You only have to be right once, and then everyone can tell you that you are an overnight success.”

Your Business Will Fail

I can predict with great certainty that your first business will be a disaster. I’m happy to be the first to let you in on this secret. Wisdom comes from practice, so it really doesn’t matter how much you’ve read or been taught, how many PhDs you have, or how much encouragement you get from family and friends.

You won’t have that common sense. You’ll reach too far. You’ll overexpand, overprice, and treat clients and employees wrong. I know I’ve said it’s easy, but most of us aren’t born with that much needed common sense.

You’ll fail miserably. Almost nobody makes a million dollars with their first business. Almost nobody makes that first jump. Not even superheroes. Neo from The Matrix Series can fly and dodge bullets, but even he didn’t make that first jump in the movie.

Here’s Neo looking smug and confident.

Here’s Neo doing/failing his first jump

The sooner you are OK with failing, the sooner you’ll be successful.

And don’t think for a second that just because you’ve failed, you won’t be able to get investors or hire people again. That’s because real investors and smart people aren’t surprised by failure. They already know these hard facts of the business world.

Charles Holloway, director of Stanford University’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies summed it up beautifully:

“How well a failed entrepreneur has managed his company, and how well he worked with his previous investors, makes a difference in his ability to persuade U.S. venture capitalists to back his future start-ups.”

What All This Means For You

So the conclusion is you should start your first business as soon as possible so that you’ll be able to fail as soon as possible. The sooner you fail, the better. You want to have a startup mentality.

One awesome idea to apply comes from Start-Up Nation, a book covering the impressive financial success of Israel:

If an entrepreneur has a business idea, he should start it that week.

Stop preparing. Stop building features for your clients who aren’t even there yet. Just stick a Beta Version next to the brand’s name and go to market. Good enough is good enough.

If given a choice, take speed over quality. Nothing worse than an uncertain, perfectionist Captain fighting the storm.

What to Do When Failure Comes Knocking

After your business fails, here’s what you need to do:

Find comfort in the facts and figures given in this article

Re-read them. Internalize them. You are not special. You didn’t make the first jump. You’re normal, and that’s OK.

Evaluate assets

Every business, no matter how bad, has some sort of assets. I.e., cars, equipment, office space, or maybe intellectual property, employees, or client base.

Even if the business is making no money, you still had to have some clients, or maybe you’ve worked and had ongoing relationships with different companies. Those are still valuable assets. Maybe you have a nice commercial lease worked out. That’s a plus in any buyer’s eyes.

If you have a brand name, that’s awesome

Brands carry a lot of value for investors. I’ve seen business saved just because they had mass appeal thanks to their brands. Open up a spreadsheet and list all your assets.

If you aren’t happy with what you have, add another column. Call it “Experience”, and in the corresponding cell, write “Invaluable”. You’ll feel better, and it’s absolutely true.

Sell the assets individually or collectively as a business

Another scenario would be to give it away and keep a certain percentage if you think the business still has potential. If you have trouble finding a willing buyer or person to take over, consider these routes:

• Contacting the competition
• Contacting business partners
• Asking your accountant or lawyer. They’re usually well connected.
• Being honest and asking your employees.
• Being honest and asking your employees if they know somebody.
• Ads, forums, blogs, newspapers
• Universities. Find a young, hungry wannabe entrepreneur. Give it away for free and keep a percentage.
• Try gatherings or conferences from your industry. Don’t be shy.

The Last Step

Now you’ve sold it or gave it away and kept interested, sit down. Relax. Detach. Open the spreadsheet. Write the top 3 mistakes you’ve done while owning the business. Write the corresponding three lessons you’ve learned. Once you’ve done this, it’s time to restart.

Restart as soon as possible. You’re now closer than ever to being a successful entrepreneur.

The post How to Deal With Failing In Your First Startup Business appeared first on Hongkiat.

This can be an incredibly rewarding experience that can enhance both the project you’re working on, as well as your overall career as a creative professional. Or, it can be a total nightmare, with clashing personalities and a muddling of the overall vision into an unsalvageable mess.

We’re going to look at how to handle being the boss of a team-driven design project, so that you, your team members, and your clients are all happy with the result.

Don’t Make Them Read Your Mind

Be direct and tell your team your exact expectations. What, specifically, do you want from them? What will happen if they don’t deliver? Never, ever assume people will automatically know what to do in any circumstance if you haven’t told them, especially if they’re new hires on an unprecedented creative project.

If they do know what to do, that’s a plus, but most people won’t know half as much as you think (or hope) they will.

Working Without The Manager

Give step-by-step instructions. The key here is to automate the process of creating the work as much as you can. In the book The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, there is a significant emphasis on “assembly line style” business practices — that is, setting things up so that you, the manager or business owner, are needed as little as possible in the day-to-day activities.

This may seem counter-intuitive, but the less your team needs to rely on you for little things, the more great things you can all accomplish together.

It’s always better to assume less knowledge and be pleasantly surprised than to assume more knowledge and be screwed come crunch time. I know I sound cynical, but after working with dozens of teams over the years, this is just the simple truth of the matter.

Be Generous With The Compliments

Your team is working long, thankless hours to make the company dream a reality. They made a choice to be there, sure, but weeks or months of relentless work on a single project will wear down even the most tireless worker.

Sometimes, all it takes is a simple compliment to keep someone engaged and willing to put in just a little more effort. People like to know they’re doing a good job and that their hard work is appreciated.

If your team is kicking ass, you owe it to them to say thank you in whatever way you can. This isn’t just HR psychobabble, by the way; it can literally make the difference between a project being a success or a failure.

I can’t tell you how many teams I’ve been on that have started out strong, and devolved into squabbling, demotivated groups of people completely alienated from each other and disenfranchised from the creative process — all because the manager was a jerk.

Defend Them & Take The Heat

If you’ve never been in charge of other people before, there’s some bad news I have to break to you: everything is your fault. You may have heard of the expression “the buck stops with you.”

What that means is that you are the final authority when it comes to all decisions, whether good or bad. You’re the judge, jury, and executioner, but your head is also on the chopping block when things go awry.

Specifically, this means that the mistakes of your team are your responsibility, not theirs. That’s why you’re the supervisor and they’re the employees. They expect you to protect them from the brunt of your client’s or boss’ wrath, and in return, you lead them to do the right thing for the company.

Filter Your People

This rule is non-negotiable, as it should be. There’s always a cost to power, and there are responsibilities that come with leading people. However, there’s a responsibility that your team has to you as well.

My personal rule is, if someone screws up more than three times, I immediately replace them with someone else. You only want winners on your team — all the losers can go goof off somewhere else.

Don’t Let People Get Away With BS

As the saying goes, you should hire slow and fire fast. If someone isn’t working out, it’s better to let them go sooner rather than later. Hanging on to a bad apple will only cause problems, not the least of which will be with other team members who are pulling their own weight. You owe it to the “A” members of your team to get rid of the “B’s,” “C’s,” and “D’s.”

The goal here is to have a team comprised of nothing but A-listers. That way, things will go much more smoothly, and you can focus on giving your team everything they need to be as successful as possible. It’s a little like cutting off the diseased parts of a plant.

The deadweight will do nothing but sit there and slowly poison the healthy leaves and flowers. You can’t afford that if you want to be the best.

They Must Earn Their Keep

Always make sure your team members are making you or your client a profit. Never pay someone more than what they’re actually bringing in to the enterprise. Team members need to earn their keep, and if they’re not doing so, fire them.

It may sound harsh, but remember, you want “all A’s” on your team — not someone who will drag down morale and make everyone else less productive.

If you’re working for a client or a boss, you have a responsibility to them to make their business as profitable as possible. If it’s your own business, your responsibility is to yourself and anyone who has a vested interest in your business’ success.

This will require some type of record-keeping of the profit margins and such, and if you’re not good at that kind of thing, hire someone who is.

What Do You Think?

Have you worked as a team leader before? What other insights do you have about choosing and bringing out the best of the best in the people working under you?

The post Building and Hiring an Awesome Team appeared first on Hongkiat.

There are usually rewards for the backers: they get promotional materials, or to try out beta-versions of the product, and if it is an event, they get exclusive backstage access.

In this way, the creator of the project raises capital to do it, and the contributor gains the rewards for supporting a project he or she believes in. Sounds too good to be true? Well, there’s a catch. For the project to raise money, it needs to follow specific guidelines. Here are the seven best practices for running a successful crowdfunding gig.

Build It Before Launching

Many crowdfunding campaigns go under because they fail to lay the groundwork before introducing their project to the masses. You want to have a social presence. Either a Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube account already in place.

Have your website describing the project you’re doing. This will help you harness the power of your audience for getting the campaign off the ground, and it also allows people who don’t know you to trust you more.

Nobody likes giving money away for no reason, so having your name and your campaign’s site pop up on Google when a potential pledger is searching for you outside the crowdfunding site will help build trust in your project.

Know Your Target Audience

There are tons of crowdfunding sites out there. It’s your job to know which website your potential pledgers (the people are contributing to your project) are browsing. That means understanding each site’s audience. Look at what sort of projects are featured on the homepage, and what campaigns are most successful on the site.

If a particular site raises the most money for music projects, and you are doing a piano recital, that’s the place for you. If you have a cause awareness campaign, you should check out MightyCause or RocketHub. Go for the ol’ behemoth KICKSTARTER for projects involving tech.

On the other hand, appsplit, the first app crowdfunding site launched in 2010, is great for mobile development.

Reminder: Make sure you read the terms and conditions for the site you choose. Some take a significant portion of the money gathered and/or require you to be a US citizen. Others have more relaxed terms.

Storytelling and Psychology

Believe it or not, the crowdfunding model is older than the Internet. During the 19th century, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer (yes, the inventor of Pulitzer Prizes) raised more than $100,000 in six months.

The goal? The pedestal restoration of the Statue of Liberty, which resulted in 125,000 people pledging towards it. Why? Because they cared and could identify with the story.

Most people browsing KICKSTARTER are looking to support things they believe in or care about. There are also certain psychological trends all humans fall into. Tony Robbins talks about this in an excellent TED talk.

How To Tell A Story

Think about this when you’re presenting your project’s story. Remember to make it emotional. The six keys elements you’ll need to address in your overall project presentation are Certainty, Variety, Significance, Love & Connection, Growth, and Contribution.

Most of the people want all of those things, so talk about them. The trick is to convey the ideas to the eventual pledger by hinting at them. Make sure they get it within the first minute. Let’s say, I’m trying to raise money for a social job platform for Android. Here’s an intro that works well:

“My project is certainly significant because we are trying to connect young people with their potential future jobs, contributing and improving to the overall employment rate here in Romania. We will impact more than 10,000 people in the first four weeks, and with a minimum conversion of 2%, our app is bound to drastically change the lives of 200 people.”

The combination of real numbers, overall tone, and the six elements make for a compelling story. What takes it to the next level, though, is the human element involved.

Video? 100% Yes!

What better way to tell a story than through video? Having a video for your project is an absolute must. “More than 50 percent of crowdfunding projects with a video is successful. Conversely, only 30 percent of those without a video succeed,” says Kendall Americo, CEO of ClickStartMe.

First, let the viewer know who you are, then jump right into the story. Your video should have a catchy title such as: “Would you save the app world with me?” as opposed to “New app to be launched soon”. The story being told should be short and precise.

You need to convey the following:

• Who you are
• How your story is connected with the six key elements
• What the rewards for the contributor are
• Asking exactly for what you want and explaining where the money will go
• Thanking everybody in advance, already assuming they’ve pledged

Consider making a professional video as an investment, and if you’re not comfortable with your accent, maybe hire a voice talent.

The Inner Circle

Competition for funds is fierce nowadays. That’s why you’ll want to make sure you have a few friends or family members as first investors. People often imitate others in order to belong to a tribe.

Take advantage of this “group mind” by planting the first seed yourself. Once you have your 1st round backers, others will come.

Lots of Rewards

Rewards are awesome, and offering them is a no-brainer. Try giving rewards for even the smallest of donations. Here are a few ideas:

• Behind-the-scenes photos or videos
• Autographed materials, photos, t-shirts, mugs, and other souvenirs
• Including the pledger in the product’s credits
• The actual product (free or largely discounted)
• Invitation to launch parties, events, social gatherings
• Unreleased beta-versions of the product
• Including the pledger’s name within the game/product
• Access to the team or one-on-one talks with you
• Direct involvement in the script/features of the campaign

Get the word out.

The Internet is full of blogs and publications about every topic under the sun. Immediately after your campaign starts to grow, contact as many as possible. Once you reach your first milestone, your project can become a story, especially if you are raising money for a cause.

Media attention spreads like wildfire if it’s an exciting project. Best to not contact anybody on launch day and wait until you hit your first milestone. That will prove some interest in your idea, and you’ll be more likely to score an article.

The post 7 Tips For A Successful Crowdfunding Project appeared first on Hongkiat.

Business plans are in place to give investors a sense of security. Hence, they try to test the person they are funding. Creating a business plan is just a test — a flight simulation if you will. It would help if you spent some time flying inside the simulator, but don’t get caught up.

Every entrepreneur knows that things will go wrong in real life, and no business plan can save you then. What will save you is your ability to bounce back, adapt, and fight. What will save you is being a real-life Iron Man.

But why exactly do these business plans fail? And if you are to make one, what’s the best business plan possible? Let’s have a look.

The map is not the territory

Reading a map and following a business plan is quite similar. Looking at any map, you see the overall direction in which you need to go. The map, however, won’t show you the people on the street, the traffic lights you need to stop at, or the distractions you need to avoid along the way

It can only show you the different corners you need to take en route to your destination. Sure, you need the map — for about 10 seconds. After that, it’s game on, and the actual environment will guide you.

Simulation Versus Real Life

What if there’s a crowd somewhere in between you and your destination? You’ll need to jump, dodge, run or slow down, depending on what’s actually in front of you. At some point, you’ll even need to forget the map. Will you stick with the plan and slowly work your way through the mob, or divert and look for a faster alternate route?

This is where you can see the difference between real entrepreneurs and wannabes. And there’s no right or wrong choice either. You’ll have to make that choice on the fly, considering the specific variables presented to you.

Fighting the tide

Going against the tide is how businesses make money. However, making their mark is where the real reward for entrepreneurs is.

Most of the time that doesn’t go down well with the big VC firms as their priorities are protecting their assets and making a decent yearly profit. Still, if you are an entrepreneur, your concern is offering the coolest product possible to as many people as possible. So how do you cope? You ride your wave.

How to ride your wave

Sure, you need to catch a good disruptive wave (a growing industry). But that’s as far as your business plan takes you. A glance at the map, a sight of a future, increasing wave, and in you go like a brilliant surfer. Don’t second guess yourself either as you lose time.

I’m not saying you should invest heavily in this fashion. Start small, and see if it works. If you invest little and start on multiple waves, you won’t drown when things go wrong. And eventually, you’re bound to hit the Jackpot and make up for all the losses. So when you see a wave that keeps on rising, you focus on that entirely and disregard everything else.

That’s your only business plan. The overall goal of finding the right wave, creating the best possible product and bringing it to as many people as possible. All the rests are distractions and unnecessary complications.

Just do it

No real superhero entrepreneur wants to hear about complex forecasts of customer volume according to age groups, and how an increase of 2.5 percent for the marketing budget three years from now will convert more young people into buyers. That’s for people concerned about profit.

So if you can, start by not putting yourself through the ordeal of having to construct such estimations. In the words of Sir Richard Branson: “Screw It, Let’s Do It!”

If it’s that simple, why doesn’t everybody do it? Well, it could be a multitude of insecurities and negative beliefs, which I’ll sum up as “fear of starting.” That is another reason that not everybody can create a successful business.

You need to adapt to win

Each superhero has their flaws and weaknesses. Sometimes, the superhero even runs away. He also asks for help. He doesn’t just blindly rely on his superpowers. The lesson here is he doesn’t always stick with the original “business plan” of going in and using his powers to win the fight.

Adaptability is what makes business work. Pivoting in crucial moments. Anticipating the future and adjusting your course accordingly make for a successful business.

So don’t believe the hype. Trust in Sir Branson. Forget your business plan. A business should be a fun sport. Yes, it can be a contact sport, but will a few bruises even matter when you know you’ll be smiling in the end?

The post Why Business Plans Don’t Work For Entrepreneurs appeared first on Hongkiat.

For example, I recently learned that in my previous job, they are paying someone $10k per month for ‘part-time work’. That’s only 20 hours per week, 80 hours per month, and all he does is act as an adviser to the founders of the business.

Read Also:  How to Ace That Job Interview Using Your Failed Startup

Even though he wasn’t hired as a co-founder, he is still on that level and is earning more than a majority of Americans because he has built, through the years, multiple skillsets that proved useful in not just the companies he has worked with, but to his own startup as well.

So, what are the secrets? Let me warn you, though, that these secrets take time to build up. They are not just some quick and easy solutions you can learn online in a week, month, or year. These are the things that you pick up, experience, and do over several years. And if you are just starting your career now, you must keep the following in mind (think of it as an investment in your future).

1. Specialize in diverse skills

It is ironic to say that you should specialize in multiple skills since specializing means you are focused and are the best on one thing only, but the playing field has changed in recent years. The "jack of all trades, master of none" saying is no longer applicable.

Anyone can be a master of several trades. Case in point – many influential tech entrepreneurs are accomplished in one field and are also great at some other skill that plays a vital role in their entrepreneurial endeavors.

Since we are talking about being hired at a startup as a co-founder, it’s important to understand that generally, startups have limited resources to spend on perks and salaries, that’s why they value people who have mastered multiple skills over those who only specialize on one thing. For example, most can’t afford to have separate teams for marketing and development. If you can do both, then you can secure a place at their high table.

But of course, this doesn’t mean that those who only specialize in one thing have no chance on being hired as a co-founder. What I’m saying is that it is definitely a big plus.

Another important note is that if you are aiming to be hired internationally, it won’t hurt to learn a couple of foreign languages as well. If you speak English well, learning German will be easy. Mandarin and Spanish are also hot in the market.

2. Try to learn things quickly

Entrepreneurs are extremely busy people and every second they have is important to further their goals. If you aim to be someone different startups want to be in their executive team, then you really need to learn, think and act faster than most people.

For example, if reading a 300-page book takes the average person 8 hours to finish, your goal should be to do it in three or four hours. In a speed reading test made by Staples, it is shown that an average college student reads 450 words per minute, a high-level executive at 575, college professors at 675, and speed readers at over 1,500, which most likely includes lawyers who read through thousands of pages each day or week.

Of course, it’s not just about reading. The aim is to keep your brain malleable. That means you need to train your brain to adapt and learn new things constantly because what’s reading for if you can’t "learn" the things you read, right? This also applies to learning new technologies that may arise anytime, be it programming, marketing, big data, or the like.

3. Possess mental and emotional fortitude

Running a startup is both mentally and emotionally taxing. Many people assume that being at the top of the hierarchy in a company means you get to dilly dally around when in fact, that’s where the most stressful decisions are made. Every day is a mix of making decisions, from minor stuff to literally making a decision that would potentially ruin the company down under (or secure multi-million funding).

Assume that each day will be stressful and that you will be bombarded with issues even during your supposed rest days or vacation time (if there even such a thing). Developing mental and emotional toughness is not an exact science, but it can be done through rigorous introspection and meditation, including learning how to tolerate minor discomforts, evaluating your beliefs, and the like. Here is a good article about this topic.

Founders who are looking for co-founders can and will detect weakness in your mentality and emotions. Your past record will also be a glaring indication of how tough or weak you are in dealing with high-stress environments and situations. And if they deem that you are not on the level where they can be comfortable with you being on a top spot, then you won’t get the job even if you are highly skilled in many facets.

4. Build personal projects

Having experience in a couple of companies at a senior executive role is definitely a plus, and will likely land you a great deal. But do you know what’s going to turn "likely" into "most likely"? Building your own personal project that culminates your skills and years of experience.

In the same sense that actual skill trumps grades received from school, having a concrete example of your experience will work wonders in your job hunting.

Answer this question: If you were to look for a co-founder for your startup who would you rather hire? Someone who has 10 years of experience in web development in three different international companies and has held senior management roles or someone who has built their own SaaS company and has been in business for 2 years?

Building a personal project can propel your career into the future. Start by looking at the successful companies of the past, including the ones that are booming currently, and from that make a prediction as to what is going to be hot in the future. It’s all about predicting what people will need, what problems they will experience, and the like.

In today’ market world, data is gaining undeniable significance. Companies that have amassed large amounts of data are now leading the data science revolution. Data visualization is also an up and coming trend that many companies are taking up right now and it is still growing with the growth in the need to process and present a data.

5. Be far-sighted with a good sense of timing

Ever wondered why some products like the iPhone or digital cameras are considered revolutionary even though their manufacturers weren’t actually the first to develop them?

The first touchscreen phone was developed way back in 1992 by IBM, but Apple took the cake in 2007. The first digital camera was developed by Kodak in 1975, but only a couple of decades later did other companies released their own digital cameras – which inevitably led to Kodak’s downfall. There is such a thing as launching too soon or launching too late.

You see the pattern here? It doesn’t matter if you have a “revolutionary” product if you don’t know how to properly time its release. Timing is everything, as they say, but the truth here is that you also need to understand the market, how people think, how they prefer things to be. Are they ready for it?

Being able to take in a massive amount of information and come up with accurate predictions for decision making that propels the company forward, is one skill that is wanted in co-founders. It takes a lot of mental prowess to do this, and it is a testament to your ability as well if you can do this.

Some final thoughts

By any account, as mentioned in the beginning, these aren’t things that you can simply pick up in a day, week, even an entire year. These are skills and experiences that you pick up over the years of hard work and desire to progress. They require extreme patience, passion, and focus, and that is why not many, even startup founders themselves, achieve the level of success they want.

If you start attending to these as early as now, or by reframing yourself based on the things you have already done in the past and start building and re-evaluating yourself, then chances are you may land yourself a co-founder position at a successful startup.

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