Tips To Help You Identify Simple Forex Strategies

Having good forex strategies is critical to successful trading. This industry has a high liquidity and it has attracted many traders who want to take advantage of an established market. As such, many people have devoted time to design trading strategies to help them.

If you are new to this, you may be overwhelmed by the options available. Besides, some strategies might be too cumbersome for a newbie.

Breakouts in forex strategies.

This strategy focuses on new trends and therefore it uses price breakouts since the market fluctuates between resistance and support bands. Therefore, the breakout will always occur if a market moves beyond its boundaries and records a new low or high. As such, a breakout will serve as a positive signal before trends emerge.  However, you need to understand that a breakout will not always precede a shift in trends. As such, your strategy must have a sufficient risk management.

If a breakout persists for a long time, it implies that the trend will be longer. On the other hand, a break out that only lasts for a short time means you are looking at a shorter trend. As such, a good strategy should take advantage of the length of a trend to earn you significant profits. For instance, a long strategy will give a buy signal when a market records a new high for about twenty days while the selling signal will be issued when breakouts hit the twenty day low.

Since it’s possible to receive a false signal from forex strategies, you need to make sure you have a stop loss plan. Here, you will be able to minimize your risks after a certain period. But if you have trouble with the signals, you may want to work with hours as opposed to days. Nevertheless, you should always backtest your strategy to know if it will work or not.

Carry trade.

While this is among the easiest forex strategies to understand, it is also employed by seasoned traders. This method is designed to help you get a profit from the prevailing difference in any two given currencies.

Basically, you buy a base currency bearing higher interest rates than the quoted currency and you will receive the proceeds from the exchange. The amount of money you can earn is determined by the amount you’ve bought. Nevertheless, there is a real risk of choosing the wrong side.

With this strategy, you need to make sure you choose a currency that is less volatile. For instance, traders have used the Japanese Yen since it has recorded low rates for a long time. as long as you are trading at times where the risk appetite is buoyant, you may reap good returns since most people are engaging in the trade. But if the differences in interest rates dip, this strategy might burn your investments.

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2wxwYy1 via website design phoenix

Why It Pays To Keep Your Eye On Politics

While there’s much you can do as a business to control your own destiny, there are also plenty of factors outside of your control.

No business can ignore the words and actions of senior politicians – no matter whether they love or loathe them and their policies.

The things that politicians say and do can have a big impact economically – as shown by a new research project from forex experts DailyFX. Whether you import or export goods or just want to ensure the cost of doing business is low, the value of your currency matters – and DailyFX explores the role politicians have to play in the confidence this value.

By exploring the project – which focuses on 59 events between April 2017 and April 2018 – businesses can understand which big news events have an impact and which don’t. Forewarned is forearmed.

Brought to you by DailyFX

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2N9HPJ2 via website design phoenix

A Crash Course In Accounting For Entrepreneurs

From the outside, it might appear that accounting and finance are complex tasks in need of simplification. However, most entrepreneurs don’t have the luxury of having a full-time accountant on their team.

Where others might see a problem, an entrepreneur will see an opportunity. With that in mind, here is a crash course in accounting for entrepreneurs, this will give you some insight on what to look for when working on your next big idea.

What to Know.

In lieu of getting a degree in accounting, there are a few things you will need to know before getting started. These include how an accountant can help an entrepreneur and how to do it yourself as well as when to know when you will need help – after all, knowing what it is that you don’t know will help you to grow as an entrepreneur.

When it comes to the first item knowing what an accountant does, and in the context of an start up company, the following are often considered the most important tasks:

• Putting together financial projections;
• Assisting with decisions pertaining to the allocation of resources and measuring performance against the plan.

In the case of early-stage companies, the work can often be done by an entrepreneur with a basic understanding of financial modeling.

Not only can this be helpful as it forces an entrepreneur to better understand their model, the added knowledge can lead to operational insights as it will hone a founder’s sense of what is most important to make their ‘numbers’. As you can see the key is not just to know the formulas but to also understand the impact different activities have on costs and profitability.

Predictions.

One of the most important tasks that an accountant plays in an early-stage company is to help put together the financial projections which will serve as the basis for the business model. This includes putting together a comprehensive set of financial projections which are used for internal discussions as well as for presentation to investors.

The fact is that this document is often an iterative process and as such will expand and the understanding of the business model and the market dynamics improve. As such, it often makes sense to start with an understanding of customer acquisition will work in a case.

Why customer acquisition? There are multiple reasons including the fact that without customers there will never be a ‘business’. Another reason is that focusing on customer acquisition will help you, and your investors, have a better understanding of what activities generate interest and ultimately drive conversion.

Once the customer acquisition model starts to take shape you will not only have started to define the revenue streams for your business, but you will be on your way to defining the costs tied to these activities.

From there you can focus on the components which go into your ‘cost of service’ (also known as the cost of goods sold) – these are the items or activities which are needed to deliver what it is that you are doing.

As you can see, this process will start to bring some clarity to your initial vision for the business and in doing so, you have the basis to begin stress testing the model against feedback from investors or changes in the market.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions.

For entrepreneurs, there is no shortage of decisions which could make or break their venture. While relying on small business accounting services can help, there are times when you won’t have the luxury of relying on outside help; however, this doesn’t mean that you will need to go it alone.

Going back forecasting, you should already have a good idea of how different activities impact growth but the trick when deciding is to be able to identify the subtle differences in the plan and what goes on in the real world.

With that in mind you will want to be able to assess the impact of decisions such as capital investments (e.g. offices and equipment) when to pay suppliers or seek financing (e.g. cash management), or even determining the return on marketing activities (e.g. management reporting). The important thing to remember is that you will need a solid tracking and reporting function.

This brings us to the final piece of the puzzle – measuring performance. You see accounting is more than just filling out tax forms and for entrepreneurs, the real power is in determining how things are going. In doing so you can determine when is the right time to pivot or to even accelerate investments.

There you have it, you might not be an ‘accountant’ when things are done but you will have a better understanding of how accountants help entrepreneurs and their businesses.

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2MCiVC6 via website design phoenix

5 Ways To Coach Your Sales Staff Like A Winning Sports Team

by Lance Tyson, President and CEO of Tyson Group and author of “Selling Is An Away Game: Close Business And Compete In A Complex World“

Sales is a highly competitive field. People who sell for a living often face many rejections before receiving a “yes.”

Coaching can be helpful to struggling salespeople, as shown by a recent Forbes article that reported many salespeople who quit cited a lack of coaches and mentors as one of the top reasons they bolted. Some in sales management see their role as comparable to a sports team coach, given the attributes required to drive success in sales and sports are similar: encouraging a positive attitude, motivating, presenting a clear strategy, insisting on dedication and breeding consistent winning habits.

As a sales leader, you will often find your people looking to you for wisdom, direction, and reassurance. Therefore, you need a coaching process that takes time to build up the people who make up your talent pool. You need to look beyond what they can do today and help them realize what’s possible tomorrow.

Improvement in sales teams starts with how effectively sales managers coach their teams while emphasizing a competitive mindset.

Here are five ways sales leaders can improve their coaching of their sales teams and thus facilitate more team success –  much like a sports coach looks for ways to lead his or her team to more wins:

1. Identify weaknesses.

Tyson says sales leaders must keep their eyes and ears open to find areas that need improvement. This information may come from a customer or vendor, a performance review, or observations from a colleague. Regardless of the source, always assess different opportunities for coaching and improvement.

2. Establish desired results.

This requires a leader to describe to salespeople the gap between what they are currently doing and what they should be doing. Associate an identifiable action with all the steps in between. When you outline the process up front, your team member can envision well-defined results.

3. Provide resources.

For the coaching process to be successful, you must clear away obstructions and make the appropriate resources available: time, money, equipment, training, upper management buy-in and support. Most importantly, your salespeople must commit to the process and want to achieve the results.

4. Practice, practice, and observe implementation.

Better results require new behavior which won’t come overnight. Once you have the resources in place and you’ve explained and demonstrated the desired skill, it’s time for the team member to implement it. They must sharpen the behavior with the help of a coach. Practice allows the coach to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement while witnessing the skill in real-time.

5. Use effective follow-up.

Many training sessions have gone for naught when there was no follow-up and new ways toward success were forgotten. Remember as a sales leader that your goal is to effect a behavioral change. Coaching is a process, and it never really ends. The next step is follow-up – regular intervals to review results. And when your salespeople reach goals, take time to acknowledge and celebrate it.

As a sales leader, you just can’t settle for telling your team what they should do. You need a process for coaching them to achievement. It gives you a framework to accommodate an individual’s unique personality through small adjustments.

 

Lance Tyson is President and CEO of Tyson Group , a sales training, coaching and consulting company listed among SellingPower’s Top 20 sales training companies of 2018. He is the author of “Selling Is An Away Game: Close Business And Compete In A Complex World“.

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2LF8MPL via website design phoenix

Small Business Owners Say They Have Achieved the American Dream And Wish Their Kids Pursue The Same Life

by Victoria Treyger, CMO of Kabbage

What is the American Dream? The answers are as many as those in pursuit to achieve it, though the general notion is always connected to achieving more for one’s self, regardless of the societal or economic class into which someone were born — a promised opportunity to earn upward mobility.

However, regardless of the choice of pursuit, simply choosing to build something on your own requires sacrifice, risk-taking and hard work.

In a recent study, my company, Kabbage, found 85 percent of small business owners believe they have achieved the American Dream. We surveyed more than 1,000 small businesses of varying ages, across different categories and industries from hospitality and restaurants to construction and accounting, retail, and more.

With more than 29.6 million small businesses in the United States, it’s indicative that many today enjoy the fulfillment of reaching this goal, and Robert Miller is now one of them. After working as a composer and music adviser in the commercial industry for 26 years, he took the next step and founded ScreenSound Alliance in 2016.

The company gathers talented composers from around the world to collaborate on original music for media, from commercials, TV, film and more. Today, he’s not only successfully running his business – but expanding it. With the help of working capital, he’s recently grown by more than 20 percent and he’s aiming to double his billings by the end of the year. Robert says, “talking and learning about business is something creative people need to do more.”

Our survey also revealed that small business owners wish their children pursue the same entrepreneurial life.

The Kabbage findings revealed 84-percent of small business owners hope their children one day become business owners. It’s a goal we hope our youngest generation pursue and established the site www.futuresmallbusinessowner.com to provide encouragement. Here are the top three responses business owners wish this for their children:

• 38 percent said it’s because they want their children to turn their passion into a career.
• 24 percent said it’s because being their own boss allows them to control their schedule.
• 22 percent said it’s because starting and building a company is rewarding.

In 2015 Tony Hernandez left his corporate career to open Cienfuegos Cuban Café in Simi Valley, California, inspired by the restaurant his father ran in the 1980s—a Cuban immigrant who came to America in search for a better life. He said he always knew he would follow in his father’s footsteps.

He started by building a following from his presence at farmers’ markets, street festivals and on social media. Daily sales quickly jumped from $400 to $5,000 and he took the next step by opening the brick-and-mortar location.

Tony surpassed his first-year business projections and in the past two months, he’s continued to break sales records. In the coming year, Tony hopes to expand Cienfuegos’ catering services, and eventually step back from day-to-day operations to focus on growth. But achieving the dream of success hasn’t been easy.

“Don’t underestimate how much capital you need to start and grow your business,” Tony advises. “Whatever funding you think you need, try to secure double,” he says.

Even the most savvy and successful entrepreneurs need extra capital to fuel their business. Capital is the oxygen of business, and if achieving the American Dream is building your own company, it’s crucial that you understand the role funding can play in growing a business.

Here are a few steps to take before securing capital:

Research Lending Options.

Doing research on the types of funding (traditional vs. alternative) that is available to your small business can be an extremely helpful first step. This way you can familiarize yourself with the types of institutions that work with businesses in your industry as well as the types of working capital options available, whether it be an ongoing line of credit or a single term loan.

Know How The Funding Will Drive ROI.

Write a detailed cash flow plan that explains what your bottom line is now, what it will be at least one year from now and how the capital will provide you a return. This plan will contain your profit and loss projections for the next 12 months, so be sure to be detailed and explain your projected losses. Try to follow the industry standards when writing your projection of your profits and losses. This way when you secure capital you know exactly how it can benefit your business.

Outline Your Loan Repayment Plan.

Clearly understand the total cost of capital before you take a loan from any lender. Know the cents-to-the-dollar amount it will take to repay the loan, understand the fee structure and all repayment terms before you agree. You should have a clear and realistic loan repayment plan in mind. This way, there are no surprises. You’ve selected the best partner, you know how the money will propel your business and have an action plan to pay it back.

It’s encouraging to see so many small business owners value the hustle and hard work it took to achieve the American Dream. Even more heartwarming to know they want the same for their children.

 

Victoria Treyger is an innovative marketing leader focused on driving growth for revolutionary companies. She’s the CMO of Kabbage, which pioneered the first financial services data and technology platform to provide fully automated small business loans. Kabbage has grown to become the #1 online provider of business working capital and is a Forbes Top 100 Most Promising Company. 

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2PjFYhZ via website design phoenix

The Do’s And Don’ts Of Video Conferencing

Former CEO Andy Miller of Polycom knows all about video conferencing, holding the belief that video communications “would change the world” as he’s so often discussed in interviews as the head of the world’s largest independent maker of videoconferencing systems. A survey of businesses in 2017 found that 86 percent of companies planned to use video conferencing as part of their unified communications environment.

Advancing technology has made video conferencing one of the best ways to interact with remote staff and clients, but there is still the human element to consider, which is why it’s becoming more important than ever to educate employees on the do’s and don’ts for a successful video conference.

The Do’s.

Get to know your equipment first. Before hosting a video conference, be sure you understand how all the equipment works and how to use it properly. Practice using any apps and tools and be sure the camera is positioned correctly so that it fully captures your head and shoulders if you plan to sit down, or your waist up if you’ll be standing. It should be at eye level on the monitor, with the bottom of the image just above the height of the conference table. Run tests to ensure everything is connected properly from the camera and microphone to the speakers to be sure everyone can see and hear you, and that you can see and hear users.

Know your material. If you’re uncertain about what you’re going to say, the presentation is unlikely to go well as you’ll likely end up mumbling or adding too many “ums.” Speak naturally, but slowly so that everyone not only hears but understands you.

Consider your background. Ideally, your background should be as neutral as possible, with walls perhaps a greyish or bluish shade, without any busy art work. The plainer the background the better. A messy background conveys a lack of professionalism, so do some quick cleanup if there is a cluttered table or desk in view, and be sure that no sensitive information on a whiteboard, or anything controversial like political posters, can be seen.

Look at the camera. When you’re speaking, don’t look at yourself, look at the camera which will make it appear as if you’re looking at participants in the eyes rather than off somewhere else. Act as if you’re meeting everyone face-to-face.

The Don’ts.

Don’t get caught unaware. Time and time again, people have been caught unaware that their video feed was turned on and said something they really didn’t want everyone to hear. Unintended video footage has great potential for humiliation, depending on the circumstances, and at minimum can be rather disruptive.

Don’t tune out the conversation. Most people would never start having a conversation with someone else during a face-to-face meeting, be it texting, chatting, email or talking with the person sitting next to you. Always focus on the present conversation and never with someone not in the current meeting.

Don’t forget to close out any non-relevant windows or potentially embarrassing web pages. Let your imagination take you to the possibilities here. If there is anything on your computer that you wouldn’t want everyone to see, be sure to close it out before the video conference begins.

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2PMID4S via website design phoenix

Efficient Methods For Boosting Startup Revenue

There are a lot of factors that go into running a business, but money is by far at the top of the list. Without enough capital, entrepreneurs don’t have the means to invest in the development and growth of their brand. Though you may not have much to work with now, if your startup is to succeed, you must work consistently at finding and executing plans to increase your revenue.

Here are a couple of suggestions.

Review the Costs of Products or Services.

Pricing your products and services is tricky, but could be the reason you aren’t selling as much as you’d like. Take a look at your pricing methods and consider some changes. See what competitors are charging and raise your prices up or down to meet your goals. Raising prices, even a bit could give the perception that your products or services are of a higher quality than the competition and motivate consumers to buy. Decreasing your prices, on the other hand, can have a positive impact in that more people may be willing to make a purchase. You’ll need to find a healthy balance as pricing too high could make your products or services just as unattractive as cheap rates.

Pump Up the Marketing.

In a world where the average consumer has an attention span that only lasts about 20 minutes and a digital climate that’s consistently saturated with information, continual and diversified marketing measures are needed to keep your brand in the forefront of their minds. This means pumping up marketing. If you’ve been focused more on social media, websites, and content marketing, perhaps you should balance those with traditional methods like going to trade shows and conferences, or using print materials like postcards, foam board prints, and flyers as visuals to draw in an audience. The investment gives you balance and allows you to appeal to a larger audience which can expand the reach of your brand.

Add Something New.

If you have a steady flow of customers but would like to take your business to the next level, it may require you to offer your target audience something new to get excited about. A hair salon might start selling all-natural hair care products, a marketing firm who focused on SEO might add website development to their list of services, a home improvement contractor who specializes in kitchens might add bathrooms to their list. Just make sure that whatever you decide to do that it is complementary to what you already provide and consistent with your brand.

Partner with Other Businesses.

Sometimes, getting a helping hand from someone who’s been in business for a while can help you gain the exposure you need to increase revenue. Though it wouldn’t be wise to ask a competitor selling the same products or services to help you out, asking other businesses is. Try to find companies or entrepreneurs who have the same target audience but isn’t your competitor. For instance, someone selling wellness products might work with gyms or personal trainers to try and boost their sales. In exchange for them referring their customers and/or investing in your products you are willing to send business their way as well.

Give it Time and Remain Consistent.

Here’s advice you may not have thought you’d hear but sometimes boosting revenue for your startup is just a matter of time. Though you’ve probably heard a few overnight sensation stories where entrepreneurs are successful off the bat or products are so in demand that they fly off the shelves, but in reality, this doesn’t happen for most businesses. It is through consistency that many brands end up becoming successful. So, keep building that brand, growing your network, engaging your audience, and providing quality products and service and before long, the cash may start rolling in.

Money isn’t the only thing that makes businesses run, but it sure is essential. If you’ve just started your business, or you’ve been at it for a while and have become stagnant, there are solutions to help boost your revenue. The above ideas have all been used and continue to do wonders for businesses large and small across all industries. So, give one or all of them a try and see which one produces the best outcome for you.

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2N3MoUQ via website design phoenix

Why Team Building Is Important In A Company

Team building can get a bit of a negative reaction from some professionals. There’s often the worry that it could feel forced or even a little childish. But team building is a very effective exercise for a business and if you make sure you do it right, employees should leave feeling closer and happier in their teams.

And this doesn’t have to mean doing trust falls in the office car park. Team building can encompass a whole range of activities and can be hugely beneficial. You could choose to take part in team building cooking courses, sports days or puzzle solving games such as ‘escape rooms’. All of these help to bring your team together in a fun and more relaxed environment.

So how do you get the balance right and why is team building so important?

Boost your output.

The first reason that team building is important in your company is for boosting team performance, and as a result, increasing their output. A team cannot function well together if they don’t get along. That’s not to say that your employees will dislike each other without team building exercises, but these are a great tool for bringing them closer together and ensuring that they can work effectively alongside one another.

These team building activities often require your employees to tap into both existing and new skill sets to complete tasks. This presents an opportunity for them to pull together their abilities to undertake new and interesting challenges.  This in turn will give them a chance to work better as a team, solve problems and be creative.

Improve communication.

Team building exercises can encourage staff to communicate better with one another. Skills which can be transferred into the workplace. These activities can break down barriers and potentially help staff to interact with those colleagues that they may not spend much time with at work. They can also create more trust within their teams and help staff get to know one another a bit better.

Why is this great news for business? Not only does it mean staff will work better together, producing a higher standard of work. But it also means that they’ll be better equipped to analyse any areas of their workload where they excel and other areas that may need improving. This will allow them to effectively communicate this to one another to implement positive change. What’s more, it allows all areas of the business to communicate more efficiently, as they work towards shared company goals.

Strengthen your company culture.

While you might choose to run team building activities at your place of work, going outside the business can make these events feel more social and thus be more beneficial. Socialising with your colleagues is important for strengthening the company culture. Combining a team building exercise with a chance to blow off some steam and have fun with your co-workers is a great way to bring staff closer together.

This will also have a number of benefits for the business. It will create a positive working environment, as well as boosting morale and staff productivity. Company culture is important to today’s professionals, they want to work for a company that makes them happy and that they feel proud of. Team building is a great way to achieve this and strengthen your culture.

Spark creativity.

Of course businesses want to get the most from their staff, but it can’t be all work and no play. Otherwise you risk your staff burning out or becoming unhappy in their role. Offering creative and fun ways to bring your team closer together is also the perfect way to get their creative juices flowing.

Creativity and innovation are vital for businesses if they wish to stay ahead of their competition and keep attracting new customers and clients. By offering staff the opportunity to try new things and work together, you’ll give them the chance to think outside the box. But more importantly, have fun whilst doing it! This will help their creativity to flourish, which will be reflected in their work.

In summary.

There are so many options when it comes to team building activities and as more focused is placed on employee retention and happiness, it’s clear that these will continue to become more popular. There are a number of benefits for both businesses including boosting morale, increasing productivity and sparking creativity. As such, it’s vital that employers are encouraging team building exercises, however they may choose to do this.

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2PiVQBA via website design phoenix

How Having An MBA Gives Your Upstart A Competitive Advantage

Having a Master of Business Administration has become one of the most prized qualifications that upstarts can seek out. Even despite several leading business figures criticizing those who get an MBA, the knowledge you attain from an MBA will serve you for the rest of your life.

You don’t necessarily have to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School to become the next success story, but a growing body of evidence suggests that having an MBA could help you as an upstart.

It’s true that not everyone benefits from earning an online MBA, but enough entrepreneurs have benefited to make it a worthwhile investment.

Forging an Invaluable Network.

Ever heard the saying that it’s not what you know, but “who” you know. The people who were accepted into an MBA course have most likely earned their right at the school, and some of them will have years of experience in business under their belt. Meanwhile, you will have other students who have worked for non-profit organizations, or they have even founded startup companies. The people earning their MBA will be talented individuals who are worth networking with. Your classmates could one day turn into insightful business partners, but you could also use them to help you seek out knowledgeable investors.

Learning What It Takes to Expand.

While anyone can begin doing business, not anyone has the ability to steer it in the right direction. Nine of the 10 business started will fail within the first five years, which shows you need purpose and a powerful direction. Even when the economy looks like it’s growing, this doesn’t mean that you can guarantee your success. If you want to grow a successful business, you need shrewd judgment, and not every entrepreneur possesses this talent naturally. That doesn’t, however, mean that you can’t acquire it. When you study for your MBA, you sharpen your business skills, and you learn how to turn sound ideas into actionable steps that turn into valuable business opportunities. Even when you have a fantastic idea, you will have to properly execute the idea, and business school will teach you how to do it.

Humbling Yourself.

Going to earn an MBA will teach you how little you knew before you hit the books. In fact, it can leave you feeling woefully vulnerable. You will learn many techniques and soft skills that may have never even occurred to you until you started school. What are some of the things that you might learn in business school? What you will learn includes:

• Business ethics
• Doing business in a foreign country
• Value of giving and receiving feedback
• How to focus on a long-term business plan

Part of earning your MBA means that you will study unique business cases and dissect what works and what doesn’t work. This will prove invaluable insight into how businesses become successful and how they fail. It’s true that no two businesses will ever be exactly alike, but you can learn from the mistakes of others as a powerful lesson and a deterrent to making the same mistakes that they did. It’s possible that you could even learn of catastrophic mistakes that will keep you safe from making the same ones.

Sharing Innovative Ideas.

An MBA program has proven a hotbed of valuable ideas. Many students who earn their MBA may have a valuable idea germinating in their head, but they’re not sure about the best way to implement it. Going through an MBA program will help you take a vague idea and draw lines around it so that it becomes more valuable. Getting ideas beyond their embryonic stage is important, and an MBA program can help you to give birth to great ideas.

Earning an MBA takes two years of rigorous study, but it will hand you the tools and skills needed to evaluate ideas and decide on the business ideas that will be the most valuable. An MBA course has become a place where entrepreneurs can receive some of the most valuable feedback on their ideas so that they can tweak them and make them even better. In addition, you can help your colleagues to develop their plans as they help you as well.

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2MXlluu via website design phoenix

3 Reasons To Find A Passion Outside Your Business

by Allison Maslan, author of “Scale or Fail: How to Build Your Dream Team, Explode Your Growth, and Let Your Business Soar”

Are you attracting the kind of “Big Picture” vision you want for yourself in business and in life? As a driven, Type A business owner, you are most likely focused solely on your goals, which are certainly important. However, if you are so singularly focused that you miss out on the star-studded landscape around you and the little miracles falling at your feet on a daily basis, you will arrive at your destination with years of missed opportunities for happiness.

Business owners are their own body’s worst enemy. They are so driven to succeed, but they don’t take care of themselves, so they can’t succeed. You’ve got to make time for fun and relationships in your life! It is about building a company that also fits your lifestyle. If you are scaling it properly, you will be able to let go and trust that your team has got your back.

Find More Success, Fulfillment In Business By Doing Something Else You Love.

Find a passion outside of your business and explore it. For me, that’s the trapeze. Years ago when I was at a crossroads in my life, I happened upon the Flying Gaonas — a fifth-generation family of trapeze artists who performed with shows such as the Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey’s Circus, and the Big Apple Circus. Having been a gymnast back in high school, I became exhilarated at the prospect of trying out this physical — and seemingly dangerous — art form. I simply had to try this out for myself and take the leap, as it were. From that very first leap, I was hooked. The goal in business and trapeze arts is to surpass what your mind wants you to believe you can accomplish while assembling the systems, processes, and team behind you so that you can soar.

Find your own “trapeze” — your own passion project or activity that engages you and forces you to think in a new way. Why?

1. It’s crucial for you, as a business owner, to be involved in a passionate activity outside your company. Otherwise you run the risk of becoming a single-focused, compulsive workaholic! Been there, done that, and I don’t recommend it.
2. When you are engrossed in a non-work-related passion project, the sting of the problems troubling you will fade out.
3. This is when you will do your most revolutionary, innovative thinking, come up with solutions to many of your dilemmas, and create big breakthrough ideas to scale your company.

When I’m on the trapeze, I’m not thinking about any responsibilities. It is a great way to release stress and get refocused on myself; I have to focus or I could get hurt. I also face my fears every time I climb that ladder. I become more and more resilient up there,  and in doing so, I become more and more resilient down here. The bigger the risk I take on the trapeze, the more fearless I become with my feet on the ground.

What’s your passion? What can you tap into to become more well-rounded and happier throughout all the ups and downs business and life instead of being constantly stressed out while chasing your tail? Find your outlet and you’ll be amazed how positively it impacts all the other areas of your life and work.

 

Allison Maslan is the CEO and founder of Pinnacle Global Network®, offering business mentorship and mastermind programs to established business owners who want to accelerate their growth, capitalize on their success, and balance it all with a meaningful life. She is also the author of two books: Amazon #1 bestseller “Blast Off!: The Surefire Success Plan to Launch Your Dreams into Reality” and her newest book “Scale or Fail: How to Build Your Dream Team, Explode Your Growth, and Let Your Business Soar”.

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2PNIDBB via website design phoenix

13 Powerful Ways You Can Manage Customer Expectations Better To Grow Your Business Faster Than Ever

by Katie Lundin of crowdspring

A prospective customer looks to your business to provide something they need or want.

This is the beginning of a very important story for your business.

And, starting with your very first interaction, this story can develop in one of three ways:

1. You fail to meet their expectations.
2. You meet their expectations.
3. You exceed their expectations.

The first scenario will lead to an unhappy customer and poor word-of-mouth marketing.

Scenarios 2 and 3 will likely lead to a loyal new customer and positive word-of-mouth marketing.

The tricky part is that each customer supplies their own expectations. And, they won’t necessarily tell you in advance about their expectations.

Psychologist and professor John A. Johnson Ph.D. explains:

My research on moral psychology tells me that expectations among people are often based on an implicit social contract. That is, without actually verbalizing expectations about give-and-take in a relationship, people construct stories in their heads about legitimate expectations of each other. So, people in a relationship have a “deal” in which the specifics of the deal are never really talked about.

Having worked in both retail and customer service (among other fields), I can tell you that people apply this logic to their interactions with businesses as well as with people.

So, it’s in every marketer’s and business owner’s best interest to learn how to effectively manage customer expectations.

But, if this were truly as simple as it sounds, there would be a lot more happy customers in the world.

So, let’s examine the science of expectation… and explore 13 ways that you can better manage your customers’ expectations, create loyal brand followers, and grow your business faster than ever.

First Impressions Set Subsequent Expectations.

We’ve all heard that first impressions are important.

Why?

When it comes to setting expectations, a first impression is powerful. This is because we tend to make snap judgments, whether we’re aware of it or not.

Your judgment about a situation becomes the expectation the next time you find yourself in a similar or identical situation.

And, those initial judgments tend to stick around because expectations are not just a state of mind. According to Loretta Breuning, Ph.D. (professor, author, and founder of the Inner Mammal Institute) expectations become a part of your physical being:

…expectations are surprisingly resistant to adjustment. Expectations are real physical pathways in the brain. Past experience built these pathways but new experience does not easily modify them.

Once a pathway has been established, it requires repeated exposure to new information to alter that pathway.

Moreover, it’s harder to improve a negative first impression than to tarnish a positive first impression.

A study by Nadav Klein and Ed O’Brien at the University of Chicago investigated how difficult it is to reach what they call a”moral tipping point”. This is the point at which a person goes from being viewed as a good person to a bad person – or vice-versa. They explain:

…this moral tipping point is asymmetric. People require more evidence to perceive improvement than decline; it is apparently easier to become a sinner than a saint, despite exhibiting equivalent evidence for change.

In other words, it’s hard to rebuild a positive reputation when people already have negative expectations. And, it’s easy to gain a negative reputation even in spite of people’s positive expectations.

We expect businesses to be “in it for the money.”  And so people are naturally inclined to be suspicious of businesses’ intentions.

So, if your business makes a poor first impression, most people won’t stick around to give you a chance to fix it.

Not when their hard-earned money is at stake.

Actionable Tips For Your Business.

Focus your marketing efforts on creating a positive first impression. Work with your marketing, sales, and customer support teams to make sure that they fully understand your efforts and can deliver on your marketing promises. The positive expectations generated from this first impression will prime your consumers to see your subsequent interactions in a positive light.

New businesses without a known brand reputation have to work harder to help their customers identify and recognize them. So, (much like a television pilot episode) provide enough background information to generate a good first impression. Be sure that your branding (including your company name and your company’s logo design) are clear, visually interesting, and memorable. And be sure your branding is consistent.

Work hard to maintain your positive impression. Always deliver on your brand promises. It’s easy to lose your good reputation and negative expectations are very hard to overcome.

Magical Thinking – And What it Means for You.

Magical thinking sounds fun.

And, in some instances, it can be. But, magical thinking’s implications for your business may not be so fun.

Magical thinking is the false belief that something will happen just because you expect it to.

Children subconsciously imbue their thoughts with the power to directly affect the world in a tangible way.

Many adults continue to believe this is possible to do. Dr. Johnson points out that:

…many normal adults continue to engage in various forms of magical thinking. Prayer can be a form of magical thinking. Witness the huge popularity of The Law of Attraction, which says that our thoughts attract events into our lives. For many of us, it is difficult to let go of the idea that expecting something to happen will make it happen.

Now, please don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean to suggest that your thoughts have no power to affect change – they do. Your thoughts can directly impact your actions.

However, your thoughts cannot make a bad product or service great or deliver the specific product you’re seeking at your perfect price.

But, that doesn’t stop people from reacting negatively when their expectations go unmet.

In fact, these negative reactions are unavoidable. According to Professor Wolfram Schultz, a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge, dopamine levels are depressed in the brain if our expectations are not met.

Unmet positive expectations make people feel bad.

Consumers bring their own set of expectations with them, and when those expectations go unmet, disappointment and displeasure follow.

Actionable Tips For Your Business.

It’s best to manage expectations for customers from the beginning of your interactions with them. This will help you to control the dialogue instead of scrambling to react to unrealistic consumer expectations. Be sure you understand the difference between empathy and sympathy.

Make your marketing offers as clear as possible. Don’t make vague assertions that can be easily misinterpreted and lead to flawed expectations that work against you.

Don’t make implications in your marketing that you can’t or won’t deliver. If you claim to have a 100% money-back guarantee, deliver that refund every time it’s requested.

Negative Expectations Lead to Negative Perceptions.

We’ve discussed how magical thinking can lead to unrealistic expectations and disappointment.

So, is it better to encourage customers to set their expectations lower so that you’re more likely to meet them?

Yes, but be careful.

While it is good to create realistic expectations that can be reasonably met, it’s important not to lower expectations too much.

If you lower consumers expectations too much, instead of creating an easy-to-hop low hurdle, you may find yourself stuck in a ditch.

It turns out that people who approach a situation with a negative expectation often find their negative bias confirmed. You may have heard of this phenomenon – the self-fulfilling prophecy.

A team of Columbia University students confirmed this in their research study, “Try it, You’ll Like It: The Influence of Expectation, Consumption, and Revelation on Preference for Beer.”

The study revealed that participants who were warned in advance about an unpleasant “secret ingredient” (balsamic vinegar) in a beer showed the lowest preference for that beer as compared to other participants who were not warned in advance.

It turns out that the anticipation of a negative experience delivered a more negative experience. This is because our complete experience of an event is determined not only by our physical senses but by our psychological perception of the experience.

The Columbia research article makes this very clear:

The quality of an experience is jointly determined by bottom-up processes, which reflect characteristics of the stimulus impinging on the perceiver’s sensory organs, and top-down processes, which reflect the perceiver’s beliefs, desires, and expectations.

So, it’s important to consider the entire customer experience – sensory and perceived – to create the best possible results.

Actionable Tips For Your Business.

Use your marketing language and visual design to set positive, realistic expectations whenever possible. For example, positive business taglines perform better than negative taglines.

Lead with the good news. Highlight tangible product or service benefits early on and feature special discounts or offers prominently.

Use customer testimonials and reviews to create anticipation for new customers that they’re about to have a great experience.

Review your website design to remove friction that might make customers cranky before they get to the check-out page.

The Power of “Surprise and Delight”.

So far, we’ve focused on the downsides of expectations.

But, don’t get discouraged – expectations aren’t all bad news.

As I’m sure you’ve already guessed, meeting your customer’s expectations is a goodthing.

And, if you manage to exceed your customer’s expectations, the positive impact is even greater.

Cambridge’s Professor Schultz found physical evidence of this.

We already know that his research revealed a drop in dopamine levels (that neurotransmitter that controls the pleasure center in our brains) when our expectations are not met. But, he was also able to confirm that dopamine levels increase when we are pleasantly surprised by what Schultz calls a “positive prediction error.”

A positive prediction error is simply a fancy way of saying “surpassed expectation.”

This is why the concept of surprising and delighting your customers is so powerful. By surpassing their expectations, you are creating a physical reaction that makes your customers feel good.

That kind of experience will make customers take notice, remember your brand, and keep them coming back.

Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that leads to habit-forming and addictive behavior. People are driven to seek out ways to trigger their brain to release dopamine. Dr. Breuning explains:

Expectations are the core of our brain’s strategy for making sense of the world. Your brain is constantly generating an expectation and then comparing new inputs to it.

When our experiences match up with our expectations, we’re rewarded with a happy dopamine reward. When our expectations are disappointed, we lose our happy dopamine and receive the stress hormone cortisol instead.

Our biology controls our reactions. And, it’s hard to fight biology.

Actionable Tips For Your Business.

Set clear and attainable brand promises – and meet them every single time. Consistent, reliable, good service over time is surprising in and of itself.

Find creative ways to go above and beyond. Provide a surprise free add-on gift with their purchase. Design a fabulously fun “unboxing” process to make your product’s arrival even more special. Send a handwritten thank you note for their purchase along with a discount coupon for their next purchase.

Try to anticipate related customer needs and do your best to satisfy them. For example, if a customer purchased several packs of diapers in the largest available size, consider sending an invitation to try out your new pull-ups with a coupon code for a nice discount.

If you want to create the best possible customer experience, your marketing has to play a proactive role to define and then meet or exceed your customers’ expectations.

If interacting with your business regularly produces pleasurable reactions, you’ll see customers coming back again and again.

 

Katie Lundin is on the customer support team at crowdspring, one of the world’s leading marketplaces for crowdsourced logo design, web design, graphic design, product design, and company naming services. Katie helps entrepreneurs, small businesses and agencies with branding, design, and naming, and regularly writes about entrepreneurship, small business and design on crowdspring’s award-winning small business blog.

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2Nqutoh via website design phoenix

5 Benefits Of Expanding Your Business Into Global Markets

With the extensive focus on how the internet has divided Americans over the last two years, it’s hard to keep an eye on how it’s benefited businesses worldwide. Business is not local anymore, it’s global, and those looking to become Fortune 500 companies must expand beyond to really get ahead. Would it benefit you to consider expanding your business into the international markets? Possibly.

Here are five benefits as reported by The Business Journals that might help you decide.

1. Expanded Market Outreach.

The first benefit of expanding your business worldwide is pretty obvious: You’ll tap into new markets and increase your market outreach. Did you know that 96 percent of consumers live elsewhere? That’s what the U.S. Small Business Administration says anyway. Wouldn’t you love to tap into that 96 percent? Of course, you would, because that’s a huge addition to your customer base. Expanding abroad gives you the chance to solicit some of the 96 percent and increase your sales.

There are approximately 170 million potential new customers in Europe alone, and this is one reason why mega-corporations establish headquarters in international locations as well. Private investors also expand abroad to tap into new markets. Sjamsul Nursalim of Indonesia invested in Singapore property development to increase his $830 million net worth. A retail giant in his home country, expansion into Singapore real estate gives him additional income sources, which leads to…

2. Asset Diversification.

As with your personal finances, the more diversified your business assets the less risk you carry. Should an American facility fail, you are protected against bottom line losses with your successful facilities overseas – or vice versa. This also protects you against the volatile economy that accompanies business today. If you had a location in Turkey currently, you might find yourself in dire straits, but your location in China may more than offset the losses in Turkey’s current economic crisis.

It isn’t just about financial diversification, however. You can also diversify your products and services. One product might fail miserably in the United States but fly off the shelves in Tokyo. If you do your demographic research, you may find a market for the trinket that you simply know won’t be popular in the States. The more you can diversify your business portfolio the better, which is why many global businesses became global. International locations buffer your business from losses.

3. International Talent.

Even if you’re the proudest American there is, you must admit that there is talent throughout the world that, in some cases, will surpass the talent in the States. International labor offers some of the best people in all fields of business, and wouldn’t you love to tap into that? For example, computer technology is booming in India, and few countries can beat Japan for manufacturing. No matter what you do, you increase your ability to hire the best people when you tap into the global markets.

4. Advantage Over Competition.

When you expand into other markets and hire the best people, you automatically gain an edge over your competitors. International business allows your company to grow, and the more you expand into the rest of the world, the more customer base you control, but it isn’t just about having the most customers. You also gain an advantage in your own operating processes, because you tap into innovation and technology not available in the United States.

Imagine you are a manufacturer, for example. Wouldn’t you benefit from the technology Japan uses in its manufacturing processes? Considering it’s a leader worldwide in this industry, one could argue (and win the argument) you would. Back home in the States, customers will be impressed with your global presence. They will see a successful business here and abroad and be more likely to solicit your product or services, as a strong standing boosts consumer confidence.

5. Additional Investment Opportunities.

Remember the discussion about Sjamsul Nursalim above? By expanding into Singapore, an extremely hot real estate market currently, he took advantage of the additional investment opportunities this country had to offer. When you conduct business globally, you tap into investors abroad that might also be interested in financing your business. Some countries themselves are investors, and they offer incentives to attract U.S. business into their regions, just be careful you don’t violate U.S. tax law. Look into each incentive carefully and discuss each one with a CPA if necessary.

Expanding your business abroad opens up doors you never thought imaginable. Provided you research the expansion thoroughly and grow wisely, your business should benefit from an international market. Go slow and make certain you understand each culture included in your business expansion plan. Also, ensure you understand each nation’s business and import/export laws and regulations. Never go into another country blindly. This could create serious trouble that is best to avoid. Tap into experts in global business expansion and heed their advice. When you do so, you open your business doors to endless possibilities.

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2Pfc91Y via website design phoenix

Businesses and Essential Services

Businesses require all sorts of diverse services in the modern world. It can be hard to keep a business running well without them. If you’re a business owner, you have to take all sorts of service requirements into consideration.

Businesses often require interior design service, first and foremost. A business that lacks an attractive and inviting interior space may flounder in its competitive industry. Interior designers can help business owners select high-quality furniture items. They can assist them with the selection of decorations, artwork, rugs, flooring, interior paint color and more as well.

Professional electrical contracting is vital for businesses of all kinds. Businesses need to have strong and updated electrical systems in place. They need to be in contact with reputable electricians in the event of problems as well. If you walk into your office at work and experience oddly flashing lights, then that may mean that you need to get repair service from qualified electricians. Professional electricians can assist businesses with everything from preventing electrical fires to fixing circuit breakers that trip on a frequent basis.

Modern businesses need to be in the loop technology-wise. They need to establish presences on the internet. Businesses that are eager to soar need to create high-quality websites. They need to set up accounts with social networking platforms as well. Some of the planet’s most widely known social networking websites these days are Instagram, Twitter, Google Plus and Facebook. Business owners who don’t have a clue about internet use don’t have to fret, though. They can work with full-service digital marketing companies that can assist them with all aspects that involve the internet and related topics.

Digital marketing consultants regularly aid businesses with internet reputation management, PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising, SEM (Search Engine Marketing), SEO (Search Engine Optimization), website development, website design and branding. Online reputation management service can be favorable for businesses that want to take charge of internet commentary. SEO service can be favorable for businesses that are looking into their choices in attaining stronger search engine rankings. Companies that show up rapidly on Bing and Google often tend to get more website traffic. They often get more customers and higher earnings, too. Businesses that are searching for conversions can accomplish a lot through hiring digital marketing professionals for their campaign efforts.

Commercial settings need to be spick and span. Customers often steer clear of businesses that are anything less than tidy and neat. Cleanliness is particularly critical for businesses that are part of the hospitality and foodservice sectors. It’s also critical for businesses of all kinds. Businesses frequently recruit commercial janitorial service companies to accommodate their needs. Professional janitors often assist businesses with all kinds of cleanup and maintenance duties. They wax floors, empty out trash bins, dust tables, sanitize bathrooms and more. Businesses that want to have settings that are bright and fresh can get a lot out of professional janitorial assistance.

Businesses are like homes in that they feature sophisticated and intricate plumbing systems. Businesses are also like homes in that they regularly require professional plumbing service from licensed and trained individuals. Business owners who want to make customers, clients, and employees feel at ease need to have clean and functional restrooms in place. That means that they should do anything and everything they can to avoid headaches such as drain clogs, overflowing toilets and beyond. If a clothing boutique has a toilet that won’t flush, that can be a serious inconvenience to employees. It can also be a major inconvenience to shoppers. It may be so inconvenient and annoying that it discourages shoppers from ever returning.

Commercial roofing system service is often vital for businesses. If a business owner wants to promote a work environment that’s comfortable and healthy all year long, he has to invest in routine commercial roofing service. Regular roofing maintenance service can stop all kinds of problems from emerging and wreaking havoc onto businesses. If a business structure has incessant roof leaks, that signifies that a problem exists. If a structure has shingles that appear warped, that denotes that something just isn’t right. Professional roofing service can in most cases take care of these issues.

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2BVD5lA via website design phoenix

How Redtag.ca Helps You Save On Your Next Entrepreneurial Venture

If you are running your own business, traveling is par for the course. Often, travel costs can be among the top expenses for entrepreneurs but there are ways to cut down on your spending.

Business travel has been contributing over $10 trillion USD annually over the past few years, according to Statista. It has been estimated that there are over 400 million business trips taken each year.

The majority of companies spend nearly $1,000 per person, if it is a domestic trip and over $2,500 for international travel.

As the cost of airfares, car rentals and accommodation continues to rise, travel spending for businesses has only increased. The biggest contributors have been lodging, food and beverages, airfare and car rental.

On a positive note, an increase in travel spending among businesses has also been paralleled with greater online resources for finding some of the best travel deals.

redtag.ca, one of Canada’s leading retail travel agencies, is one such resource.  In its fourteen plus years, redtag.ca has succeeded in streamlining the travel process and giving its customers the best option for their needs, whether a traveler is looking for an all-in vacation package or they want to build the trip themselves by booking hotels, flights and car rentals separately. redtag.ca also offers last minute deals for those times when you just need to escape before you burnout.

redtag.ca partners with some of the top companies in travel including: Sunquest Vacations, WestJet Vacations, Air Canada Vacations, Signature Vacations, and Transat, which means they are in the loop when it comes the top discounts and deals. They also offer a Best Price Guarantee so that customers know they are getting the top deal on their travel plans.

The company is licensed in the province of Ontario. The Travel Industry Council of Ontario oversees the business and redtag.ca strictly adheres to all requirements and regulations of the Council.

As travelling has been know to be a successful character-developing experience for business owners, you may even want to get in on a group vacation with other entrepreneurs in your circle or industry. You can not only see a new part of the world, but can even learn new approaches to your business.

For those looking for the best deal who are short on time, redtag.ca has compiled a lowest price calendar. This is where you can quickly find the best prices, available dates and star ratings plus more.

The costs of travelling for business are not going away, but it is good to know that resources like redtag.ca provide a one-stop shop platform where you can find the best travel deals online. From the lowest airfares, hotel rates, travel packages, car rentals and more, the Canadian-based travel company aims to provide business travelers the best service as well as the best price.

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2Pi6sR9 via website design phoenix

Startup Growth Made Possible By FinTech: 5 Empowering Benefits

From inflexible funding requirements to fierce market competition, start-up businesses have many obstacles to surpass before they can reach stability and make a profit. It takes a great deal of ambition and innovation to get over the initial hardships of running a start-up, but, unlike a few decades ago, when entrepreneurs had a limited set of tools at their disposal, nowadays both technological and financial innovations offer a much-needed helping hand. FinTech, which has been dubbed “a paradigm shift in small business finance” in a World Economic Forum report, is a particularly empowering trend. Combining the best in finance and technology, it emerged during the economic crisis and, according to specialists, it will continue to fuel business growth in the following years as well.

Arvind Sankaran, FinTech advisor and banking expert, said that “We’re witnessing the creative destruction of financial services, rearranging itself around the customer. Who does this in the most relevant, exciting way using data and digital, wins!”

This customer-centric approach brings good news for start-up owners, who often have trouble keeping their businesses afloat and managing financial inconveniences.

Below are 5 key benefits that FinTech offers start-ups and micro-organisations:

1. Flexible lending solutions.

There was a time when entrepreneurs had to undergo rigorous screening prior to acquiring a loan. The process involved numerous visits to a local bank, filling in tonnes of paperwork, providing lengthy documentation and waiting for days only to receive a “denied” notice because their case wasn’t strong enough.

Fintech changed the rules of the game by streamlining the application process. Instead of seeing several bank representatives in person, entrepreneurs can now fill in an application form and receive a reply within 24 hours, or they can use loan calculators to find out if they are eligible. In addition, FinTech lending criteria tend to be more flexible compared to banks, which often consider the credit score alone. In other words, if the traditional banking system caters more to the big players, FinTech favours small and medium sized businesses.

2. Modern payments.

A 2017 analysis of the European Central Bank revealed that non-cash payments are on the rise in the EU, increasing by 8.5%. For businesses, accepting cash-only payments is no longer a viable long-term strategy, so they need to explore online, mobile and card payments as early as possible. If the payment infrastructure offered by banks is oftentimes expensive and difficult to implement by start-ups, who lack the resources of established businesses, thanks to FinTech, they now have access to flexible payment options and can compete directly with larger competitors.

Even freelance contractors can set up mobile payment systems with low payment handling fees. Several FinTech companies provide additional assistance in the form of fast-track programmes. For example, Visa recently partnered with Contis Group to help UK-based start-ups have access to contactless Visa debit and prepaid cards and current accounts complete with IBAN, Faster Payments and Direct Debit functionality.

3. Increased security.

Accepting online and mobile payments is a sure-fire way to gain more clients, but also increases the risk of cybercrime. For start-ups, securing all transactions and client data used to be very challenging, because they had to invest in extensive cybersecurity infrastructure. Now, cybersecurity is part and parcel of FinTech and micro-organisations can finally afford it.

Thanks to the latest innovations in tech, security measures such as voice recognition and fingerprint scanning are now common and reduce the risk associated with transactions. As the E.U. is trying to build a sustainable regulatory environment for FinTech, security is expected to become even more sophisticated.

4. State-of-the-art tools.

Innovation is at the heart of evolution. Start-up owners who want to take their businesses to new heights now have access to a vast pool of Fintech innovations that give them room to grow. One major example is AI, which has had a major impact on financial services and helps entrepreneurs take strategic decisions based on accurate data.

Similarly, the rise of Insurtech provides insurance companies with modern features such as digital brokerage and product comparison. Other FinTech innovations that are worth a mention include crowdsourcing apps, payroll software and accounting tools.

5. Better customer experience.

Last, but definitely not least, Fintech has redefined customer experience. FinTech companies have understood that retaining old customers is just as important as gaining new ones, which is why they stand out through streamlined UX and UI. Focusing on transparency and efficiency, FinTech uses AI and analytics to deliver bespoke user experiences every time and make every interaction count.

For example, automated text chats and chat pots can help small businesses offer quality support for smaller issues and get more time for the ones that can only be solved by human personnel. Even complex tasks such as fraud detection and claims management can be automated, saving time and money.

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2NriMhe via website design phoenix

Seven Steps To Communicating As A Strategic Leader

by Diana Thomas and Stacey Boyle, coauthors of “Be More Strategic in Business: How to Win Through Stronger Leadership and Smarter Decisions“

Have you been told that you need to be more strategic? Do you get good results at work but find that you’re spinning your wheels, unable to achieve your goals? If you’re anything like us when we’ve been on the receiving end of such feedback, you’ve probably thought, “What does that even mean!?”

When someone tells you that you need to “be more strategic,” what they want is to ensure what you are doing is driving corporate strategic goals and adding real value to the organization. You need to get results that matter, and then you need to share those results with the business in an enticing way.

But what if you feel like you’re winning and know you’re making an impact on the business? Looking and acting strategic is just as important as cultivating your strategic mindset. Communication style is one of the biggest things we see tripping people up. Maybe you’re prone to rambling, give information without context, or don’t frame your arguments in a compelling narrative.

Fear not. We have seven steps to get you communicating like a pro.

1. Know yourself.

Take an honest assessment of your personality, tendencies, and the areas you know you shine. If you’re an introvert, you may tend toward thinking things through before speaking up, which means you run the risk of not jumping in soon enough. If you’re an extrovert, you probably like to think out loud and tend to say too much. By knowing your own habits, you can work on determining the right time to join a discussion, as well as how to organize what you have to say.

2. Know your audience.

Who is your audience, and where are they coming from in the context of whatever topic you’re discussing? Think about how you communicate in your personal life. If someone asks how your weekend was, your answer is going to vary based on whether the asker is your mother, your coworker, your close friend, or your doctor. You might convey the same information to all four audiences, but even if you do, the way you present the story will vary widely. In business, you need to know what your audience cares about with respect to the topic at hand. What does he or she hope to get out of the conversation? Which details will be significant to whom? Why should he or she care about this topic?

3. Communicate with intention.

When you go into an interaction, have a clear objective. Sometimes this is obvious: I want to sell my services or gain approval for my budget. But even casual conversations can be intentional. If you find yourself in the elevator with your CEO, take advantage of that uninterrupted time with him or her! Instead of talking about how busy you are (which makes you look unfocused and tactical), mention great things that are happening or results you’re excited about. Discussing results shows that you are focused on the right things.

4. Give the headlines.

As you work on communicating with intention, you quickly figure out what you want to get across. Now you need to think about how to get it across in the most effective way. Begin by giving the WIIFM — what’s in it for me — or in this case, for your audience. If you were a reporter coming up with a headline for your story, what would get the most clicks? Give the important finding first and let them ask how you got there.

5. Put the person before the message.

Listen to your audience, acknowledge you’ve heard what they are saying, and let them know you’ll do something about it. The stronger the relationship you have with somebody, the more forgiving they’re likely to be when you make mistakes or have to deliver bad news. Even when that isn’t possible, do what you can to develop rapport and show empathy.

6. Listen with the intent to hear.

One of the most critical keys to communicating effectively in any relationship is listening to hear. Strategic leaders do not just listen and say, “Yeah, yeah, I got it,” or “No questions from me.” They listen to what is being said and paraphrase what they’ve heard, asking questions until they sense mutual understanding. They don’t start jumping to solutions. As others communicate with you, listen for potential obstacles and unexploited risks, as well as indications that people don’t understand the goal or purpose of what they’re doing. Listen for potential opportunities you hadn’t thought of, too. Intent listening will help you determine if you are on the same page or whether there are flaws that need to be corrected.

7. Tune in to feedback and body language.

Once you share the headline and get into your presentation or discussion, look at the body language and facial expressions of the people you’re speaking to. Are they glazing over or looking distracted? That indicates that you’re giving too much detail and need to let them ask some probing questions, or that you didn’t lead with the right information. If you talk too much, you don’t give them a chance to engage with you or even react to what you’re saying. If you know who your audience is and that the information you’re sharing is right for them, you can give headlines in a way that engages them and cover your topic succinctly and logically. Be interactive. Don’t give too much information at one time. Make sure they’ve grasped what you’ve said by reading their body language and asking questions.

These principles apply whether it’s a quick, one-on-one conversation or a big, formal presentation. You always want to come across in a positive, can-do manner. By communicating in this way, you will be able to show your strategic leadership abilities. Looking for more? Check out our book, “Be More Strategic in Business: How to Win Through Stronger Leadership and Smarter Decisions“ where we present six factors for strategic leadership that will help you win through stronger leadership and smarter decisions.

 

Diana Thomas, MBA, is an executive coach and past vice president of training, learning, and development for McDonald’s USA. Stacey Boyle, Ph.D., is Chief People Planning for Smarter People Planning, a consultancy that helps some of the world’s best companies answer their business questions about investments in people. Their new book is “Be More Strategic in Business: How to Win Through Stronger Leadership and Smarter Decisions“.

from Young Upstarts https://ift.tt/2PNlwaz via website design phoenix