Career and Workplace Expert; Founder and President, Come Recommended
Image credit: Andrew Rich Photography
In the job search market, employees have the upper hand — and they know it. In a 2015 survey of U.S. job seekers conducted by Jobvite, 45 percent of respondents were satisfied with their current jobs but were open to a new one.
Employees are on the lookout for better opportunities, and much of how they decide is based on company culture. Employees don’t want to leave workplaces with awesome cultures and will stay in a job that satisfies them professionally and personally.
Startups have some of the best and most innovative ideas when it comes to company culture. Here are some of the most interesting culture hacks to adopt from creative startups:
1. Celebrate creatively.
A major part of employee satisfaction is recognizing and celebrating employee achievements. Yet, a 2014 survey of employees from more than 500 U.S. organizations conducted by TinyPulse found that 79 percent of employees don’t feel valued at work.
Startups without a lot of extra cash have to find creative non-financial ways to appreciate and motivate their employees.
Experticity, the startup that created GoToMeeting and was sold to Citrix in 2003, built employee recognition into their culture with a large iron bell. The bell was installed in their kitchen, and anyone could ring it at anytime. The bell was meant to be rung for victories, large and small. An employee who rang it without a good reason had to buy breakfast for the whole team the next morning.
After ringing the bell for a valid reason, the employee would send an email to everyone in the company to explain why they rang it and announce the accomplishment. Although some feared the employees would see the bell as a cheesy gimmick, the bell brought genuine excitement to the office. The employees would rush back to their desks to read about and celebrate the achievement.
Creating a culture that celebrates wins, big and small, boosts morale and keep employees motivated and engaged without spending money.
At the end of a long project, employees aren’t left with much. They move on to the next one with little fanfare. But at Palantir, a software company that specializes in data analytics, the end of each project is celebrated with a unique memento: a t-shirt.
Every month, the company releases a new version of their software. To commemorate the release, they produce a t-shirt with a unique design featuring the name of the new software. Employees treat these shirts as collectibles. They show how long an employee has been with the company, and allow everyone to remember and look proudly at their past work.
Employees know that, at the end of the month, their hard work will be rewarded. Small tokens of appreciation can be a big deal. Get employees excited about their own work and the overall accomplishments of the organization.
3. Build supportive teams.
An employee’s first day is overwhelming. There’s the stress of learning new information, and the awkwardness of meeting and getting to know a new set of coworkers.
Commerce Sciences, an A/B testing platform, eases the nerves of new employees with a welcoming tradition. The last employee who joined the team is responsible for creating a starter kit for the next new employee. There are no rules, and they use their creativity to fill the kit with jokes, books, coffee, nerf guns, and anything else.
The starter kits gets employees involved in the welcoming process and helps new employees feel connected and supported by the team from day one.
Great employees don’t magically translate to great teams. Create a culture where employees collaborate and support each other. Make employees feel welcome from their first day to better integrate them to the team and keep the team strong.
Company culture is a direct reflection of the brand, and workplace values should relate to the company mission. For Maptia, a storytelling platform for travelers, creating a culture that reflected their mission meant moving their headquarters to another continent.
When the startup couldn’t afford to set up shop in the team’s hometown of London, they moved to a small beach town in Morocco. The move allowed them to better live the company’s mission to explore the world and share their stories.
The location was the perfect place to blend the startup culture with their everyday lives. During stressful times, they could easily relax by surfing, doing yoga on their rooftop, or cliff jumping. These fun activities became a routine part of their days, allowing them to live their mission and work hard at the same time.
There’s a lot of work that needs to be done at startups, so focus on a work-life blend, not balance. Achieving this blend requires startups to focus on what’s most important to their brand and their culture. Tools like The Good Jobs can help companies discover which cultural values are most important so they can focus their values.
Make those values central to the company culture — the company should live and breathe them.
5. Focus on communication.
Employees value transparent workplaces. In fact, a survey of 1,000 U.S. employees published in March by 15Five found that 81 percent of respondents would rather join a company that values open communication than trendy perks like gym memberships and free food.
Enplug, a digital display software startup, offers their employees open communication reddit-style. Every few weeks, the company holds an ask me anything session with company leadership. Employees submit their questions before the meeting and each one is answered and discussed in detail in a presentation.
Encourage employees to ask questions and share their thoughts, and make them feel comfortable doing so. Welcome new ideas and value their feedback to build a culture of communication.
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with 91-year-old entrepreneur Jack Nadel to ask him how he has been able to achieve sustainable success in a wide range of industries over a 70 year span of time.
Nadel started his first business venture immediately after World War II and went on to found, acquire and operate more than a dozen companies worldwide that have produced hundreds of new products, thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in profits. Over the course of years, Nadel has also built up the Jack Nadel International multi-million dollar empire, a promotional merchandise distribution.
Because of his success, my seven-hour and three-day mentorship session with Nadel provided me with countless actionable and invaluable business tips, strategies and advice. Here are three particularly valuable lessons Nadel shared with me:
Nadel stressed to me that finding a need and filling it is his best and most important advice. He explained to me that this advice applies to both product and service-based businesses, startups or giant corporations. “Success is in finding a real market need and filling it,” he said. Nadel pointed out that his adherence to this lesson has allowed him to enjoy success in multiple industries over the past 70 years while many other businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs around him were struggling or going out of business.
Don’t let your ego get in the way.
Nadel emphasized that in order to achieve massive success as an entrepreneur you must be receptive to coaching, know your numbers and do your research. He warned, “There’s nothing quite as exciting as a new idea, especially when you’re convinced the idea is worth a million bucks, or more, but watch out. Great ideas are rarely born fully formed, and a new idea is like a 2-year-old: loud, self-centered and completely without perspective.” Having consulted with thousands of entrepreneurs all around the world, this lesson really resonated with me, because I see egos getting in the way of most entrepreneurs every day.
Remember: the business idea or concept you are considering right now is not the first or last incredible business opportunity that you are going to come across. The billionaire success story Richard Branson was correct when he once said, “Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.”
As a business consultant and the founder of Thrive15.com, I constantly run into people at conferences and in workshops who don’t feel like they are worthy of success, or have the mental capacity and the connections needed to achieve success because they are not geniuses. However, this is not the case. “Every generation will produce technology pioneers like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Elon Musk, who invent revolutionary new products and services,” says Nadel. “They seem to have a genetic pre-disposition toward genius, but for the majority of us, the non-geniuses, the best solution is still to be entrepreneurial, even if only to earn enough income to cover the difference between expenses and earnings.”
He went on to say, “I speak from seven decades of experience, which have provided me with knowledge that is invaluable in an ever-changing market. I’ve lived, learned and profited knowing that every down stroke has an upstroke, and there is money to be made in either situation.”
Whether you are a current entrepreneur or an aspiring one and regardless of what industry you are in, I encourage you to apply these three lessons to your own life and business.
“People who are very, very successful don’t forget the importance of routines. There’s a huge correlation between thinking very deliberately about (creating) the right habits in your life and developing successful habits,” says Charles Duhigg, a New York Times investigative reporter and author of The Power of Habit.
The average adult who lives to around age 68 (which is still pretty young) experiences 25,000 mornings! That is 25,000 times to face the world, start anew and chart the course of our life. Our morning routine is a crucial habit that will either enhance our performance and set the tone for the remainder of the day, or set us up to experience daily challenges.
Highly successful people, sometimes naturally, cling to morning rituals as they use this time to ground, center and focus themselves on what lies ahead and how they can best use their time. While the majority of the world wakes up feeling stressed, overwhelmed, tired and negative, you have the power to experience enjoyment, renewal and productivity by embracing these “rituals.”
So . . . how do you do it? Here are six things that you can include in your morning routine to start your day off on the right foot and experience high levels of productivity, excitement and enjoyment.
1. Wake up early.
The saying “the early bird gets the worm” certainly rings true for the entrepreneurial self-employed go-getters we are. In fact, many articles claim that the most successful people wake up between the hours of 4 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. Being up this early really helps to ensure that you get the time to focus on you and do things that help you get off on the right foot for the day. This, of course, means implementing another important habit: Going to bed by 9 p.m.
Before you get to the fridge, take a few moments to experience positivity. This sets the tone for the day. If you are a prayer warrior, this a great time to demonstrate your thankfulness for another opportunity to wake up healthy and face the world. Gratitude journals have also been instrumental in ensuring that you have a positive day. Before you step out of bed, take five minutes and write down five things you are thankful for. The effects of filling your mind with happy emotions before other realities start to creep in are astonishing.
3. Drink water.
Every physician will tell you that most of the ailments that otherwise healthy people suffer from on a daily basis are a result of not getting enough water. Fitness guru Shawn Stevenson calls this morning ritual an internal bath and recommends drinking at least one pint first thing. Some people spice it up with lemon and cayenne pepper for a cleansing effect, while others prefer a green tea. Either way, getting pure water into your system will energize you and quench dehydration from the night before.
Exercise in the morning gets your endorphins going and literally wakes your body up. Your preferred exercise should be something you enjoy that gets the results you seek from physical fitness. If just moving is a priority, you may want to go for a daily morning walk; alternatively, if mind-body is your thing, yoga and morning meditation are perfect.
Make this part of the day something you enjoy, as it frames your mood for the day ahead. I like to reward myself by listening to my favorite podcast while on the treadmill. By doing this I have created a positive association with my morning workouts. Simple but it gets results.
5. Skip the pancakes.
Health and fitness research details the impact of carbs on our blood sugar throughout the day. People experience this when they get the midday “crash” around 2 p.m. They are tired after the coffee and doughnut have worn off. Try a healthy green smoothie instead of a bacon, egg and cheese on a kaiser roll!
Here is my favorite daily recipe that gives me a ton of sustained energy:
1/4 cup almond milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup frozen mangos
1 tbsp. goji berries
1 tbsp. “Green Vibrance”
Or, if you like something hot, here is a substitute for your coffee, “blender style”:
1/2 cup warm almond milk + 1/2 cup water
1 tbsp. raw cacao powder
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tbsp. agave syrup
3 dashes cinnamon
1 pinch each of cayenne + sea salt
6. Plan plan plan.
Here is the fun part. Now that your head is clear, plan out what you want to accomplish that day and actually get it done. Remember S.M.A.R.T goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound. Aim to complete one full goal a day and then, my friend, you are on your way to the top!
Netflix in June made a calculated decision to release the entire third season ofOrange Is the New Black early. Not only did this thrill the OITNB fan base and generate a ton of press coverage on the new season, but it also sent a powerful message: Netflix aims to please.
Entrepreneurs can enjoy these same advantages by making strategic decisions to announce or release products before the originally promised dates. Vital âgo liveâ dates, including new website releases, product updates and even a companyâs initial release are all prime opportunities for startups to excite customers, grab press attention and earn valuable feedback.
Netflix faces disadvantages in trying to reach large markets of potential viewers. So similar to a startup, itâs always searching for new ways to find the target audience.
By releasing the newest season early, Netflix advertised the show while reminding people that the company has a history of doing things differently, proving to customers that it doesnât blindly follow tradition. Netflix gives fans the power to watch when and how they wish, which builds goodwill and makes customers feel special.
In the same vein, startups can grant certain customers early access to products. The opportunity to see what a company is working on behind the scenes builds excitement and is often perceived as a reward.
In the public-relations game, the brand that comes out first often makes the biggest splash, but how can a startup carry that momentum forward? To make the most of an early release, follow these four tips:
1. Target the right customers.
Always keep the type of customer you want to attract in mind. Customers may view early-release products as half-baked, so itâs a good idea to target a specific audience with the highest potential for conversion. If conversion doesnât occur, a strategy shift has to follow quickly.
A clear focus is critical. Who do you want to give this to, and what kind of feedback do you want from them?
2. Request feedback.
Let people in early to play around through a direct invitation. Reach out to certain individuals, and tell them, âYouâve been invited to join our VIP beta-testing group prior to the official launch.â
Also consider creating a waitlist or another way for people to sign up. Engaging early adopters offers significant benefits because these test customers using the product in the real world can provide priceless feedback. Even when a firm is more interested in testing server load time than receiving feedback, asking for it every step of the way makes participants feel valued.
3. Donât fight expert opinion.
If people feel like theyâre part of the platform, theyâll be more forgiving of its flaws and will put more effort into improving it. Donât fight their opinions. Practice strategic vulnerability. Even if the experts are wrong, simply thank them. This will build trust with early customers and can enhance potential press.
4. Connect with the media.
Attracting press isnât always the goal of an early release, but itâs a good way to get the media interested in the platform sooner. Donât try to emulate successful early releases launched by other companies such as Mint or Mailbox – a newsworthy early release must be unique.
Of course, an early release isnât appropriate in some situations. Physical products that require testing should be released to the press first to ensure adequate coverage. If the product is new and innovative, itâs counterproductive to alert competitors. And finally, an early release is too risky for any project with uncertain development timelines.
For the right product or announcement, however, a strategic early release can work wonders.
If the success of the OITNB release has proven anything, itâs that startups donât have to cling to traditional release structures. In fact, breaking those norms can result in more press, buzz, feedback and, most important, happy customers.
Creating a successful startup is all about marketing these days, no matter how compelling your solution. Technologists have long believed that marketing is only required when selling the next pet rock, but in this age of information overload, even the most exciting solutions will be lost from view or assumed to have no value unless they are surrounded by hype.
According to Urban Dictionary, hype is âa clever marketing strategy where a product is advertised as the thing everyone must have, to the point where people begin to feel they need to consume it.â
Even technology solutions with a large intuitive value, such as a cure for cancer, need hype for visibility, education, side-effect considerations and to avoid a scam label. What most entrepreneurs fail to appreciate is that even the most basic marketing takes time, money and creativity, and even the best still may not succeed in winning over competitive approaches or the status quo.
Marketing acceptance, especially for new technologies, actually goes through several predictable stages, called the hype cycle, as outlined by Gartner research. This cycle is actually an evolution to total acceptance of a specific solution or technology, based on the effectiveness of the marketing and hype and on the feedback of early users.
Progress through these phases is unpredictable in time, often takes many years, and can only be measured by customer surveys and market penetration analyses. Here are the five key phases:
1. Innovation trigger
Every new startup rolling out an innovative solution is the start of a new cycle. Early hype actually should precede the final product, and consists of proof-of-concept stories, media events and industry exposure. Every entrepreneur in stealth mode who insists on waiting for their product runs the risk of being a non-starter.
2. Peak of inflated expectations
This is the phase where the marketing hype has fully kicked in, often creating unrealistic expectations which the solution canât yet deliver. Many startup solutions flame out at this point. According to Gartner’s Hype Cycle Special Report for 2014, wearable user interfaces such as Google Glass are now in this stage.
3. Trough of disillusionment
Solutions and startups that stumble under inflated expectations quickly lose their allure, and enter a long period of slow growth or even a big downturn. Technologies used in these solutions are then seen as red flags by investors. Examples include mobile health monitoring, NFC (near field communication) and virtual-reality systems.
Over time, with more marketing, and with further enhancements, customers begin to understand and accept the practical benefits of a given solution. This is the phase where strategic partnerships and new markets are key. Investors seek out startups at this point that are well positioned for rapid scaling.
5. Plateau of productivity
This phase more specifically applies to technologies that have evolved through multiple generations and are widely accepted. Multiple startups can now spawn solutions from the technology, and position themselves for rapid customer growth and early seed-stage support from investors.
I have intentionally broadened the hype-cycle definitions from their traditional hard-technology application to include soft technologies, such as social networks and entertainment. The rules for technology startups are no longer unique — marketing and hype are now as critical for business-to-business solutions as for business-to-consumer solutions.
There is evidence that the elapsed time of each phase is getting shorter, which just means that every entrepreneur needs to start earlier, and measure feedback more carefully, or risk failure by working on the wrong problem. As an angel investor, I often hear startups touting inflated expectations, or refusing to pivot in the face of disillusionment for their technologies.
The days are gone for those who believe that âIf we build it, they will come!â Growing a business in this highly connected and information-intensive world requires a total focus on marketing and evolving customer perceptions. The best startups start early, and put as much focus on the hype as they do on the product. Where is your solution in the hype cycle?
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It may be a cliche, but that doesnât mean itâs not true: Beyond a certain
Entrepreneur and CultureIQ are searching for the top high-performing cultures to be featured on our annual list. Think your company has what it takes? Click here to get started.
It may be a cliche, but that doesnât mean itâs not true: Beyond a certain pointmoney canât buy happiness, at least not reliably or sustainably.
The key insight into the nature of happiness for us came when we realized that the quest for happiness was not only the reason that people pursued careers and started families, but was also what guided many of their decisions in day-to-day life. In 2007, we started really looking into the science of happiness to help guide our decision-making for Zappos.com in a more rational way — after all, if happiness was the goal, wasnât it worth seeing what we really understood about the concept?
By 2009, understanding and delivering happiness had become the centerpiece of both our personal and professional strategies, which is reflected in the mission statement we adopted that year: âZappos is about delivering happiness to the world.â
Delivering happiness sounds good, but to be effective, you need to know what that actually entails. What makes you happy? What makes people around you happy? Different people have different ideas about what might make them happy, and itâs important to note that people arenât always on the right track about what they think will make them happy.
Fortunately, psychology has taken up the case of applying scientific principles to understanding what really governs happiness. Psychology used to be primarily interested in figuring out what was wrong with people and making them ânormal,â which was used as a proxy for “healthy.” But in the late 1990s, psychologists began exploring whatâs now known as âpositive psychologyâ to get a better understanding of how otherwise average people might become happier.
It turns out, there are four key principles that drive happiness across the board. Whatever the specifics of how an individual derives happiness might be, these four key principles remain common:
1. A sense of control
Having a sense of control over your own destiny is paramount to lasting happiness. When this is lacking, people tend to easily give up and feel despair and helplessness, but with purpose and control over their own destinies, people become energized and unlock their talents and ambitions.
A good entrepreneur gives employees, partners and customers clearly apparent control over their own destinies in managing interactions with the company.
2. Perceived progress
Itâs no fun feeling like youâre stuck in neutral. The perception of progress is a cornerstone of the path to developing sustainable happiness.
This is why the most successful video games offer unlockable content, achievements and badges and allow for âleveling up.â These elements function to keep people interested and motivated, and to feel as though theyâre experiencing a sense of progression.
Good companies will do the same, offering clear and attainable promotional paths for employees and intuitive paths to satisfaction for customers and clients.
3. Connectedness
Humans are social animals. We thrive on connections to other people. In fact, we depend on those connections emotionally as well as physically. Engaged, connected employees work harder and report greater happiness than those isolated in offices or cubes. This is also why itâs important to build a real rapport with customers and vendors.
We have evolved to care about the success of the tribe — make your colleagues and clients part of your tribe.
4. Vision and meaning
Thereâs nothing wrong with making money, but as weâve learned all too well, making money is simply not enough. In fact, research indicates that once you reach a certain compensation threshold, your salary becomes significantly less indicative of your overall happiness.
Maslowâs Hierarchy of Needs demonstrates how human motivation evolves rapidly once basic physiological needs are met, leading people to be more concerned with freedom of expression, social status, a sense of achievement, a sense of belonging and other intangibles.
If youâre counting on money to generate your happiness, youâre setting yourself up for disappointment. Being a part of something bigger and really committing to a vision brings deep satisfaction on a fundamental level. If you can find that sort of vision and meaning and offer it to the people in your life, youâre laying a firm foundation for genuine, long-term happiness that transcends financial considerations.
Ultimately, itâs up to you to decide what it is that you want to do with your life. But taking the time to truly understand what drives happiness will equip you to act effectively when pursuing it — and when delivering it.
Co-author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and President at TalentSmart
When faced with setbacks and challenges, weâve all received the well-meaning advice to âstay positive.â The greater the challenge, the more this glass-half-full wisdom can come across as Pollyannaish and unrealistic. Itâs hard to find the motivation to focus on the positive when positivity seems like nothing more than wishful thinking.
The real obstacle to positivity is that our brains are hard-wired to look for and focus on threats. This survival mechanism served humankind well back when we were hunters and gatherers, living each day with the very real threat of being killed by someone or something in our immediate surroundings.
That was eons ago. Today, this mechanism breeds pessimism and negativity through the mindâs tendency to wander until it finds a threat. These âthreatsâ magnify the perceived likelihood that things are goingâand/or are going to goâpoorly. When the threat is real and lurking in the bushes down the path, this mechanism serves you well. When the threat is imagined and you spend two months convinced the project youâre working on is going to flop, this mechanism leaves you with a soured view of reality that wreaks havoc in your life.
Pessimism is trouble because itâs bad for your health. Numerous studies have shown that optimists are physically and psychologically healthier than pessimists.
Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania has conducted extensive research on the topic. Seligman finds much higher rates of depression in people who pessimistically attribute their failures to personal deficits. Optimists, however, treat failure as a learning experience and believe they can do better in the future.
To examine physical health, Seligman worked with researchers from Dartmouth and the University of Michigan on a study that followed people from age 25 to 65 to see how their levels of pessimism or optimism influenced or correlated with their overall health. The researchers found that pessimistsâ health deteriorated far more rapidly as they aged.
Seligmanâs findings are similar to research conducted by the Mayo Clinic that found optimists have lower levels of cardiovascular disease and longer life-spans. Although the exact mechanism through which pessimism affects health hasnât been identified, researchers at Yale and the University of Colorado found that pessimism is associated with a weakened immune response to tumors and infection.
Researchers from the Universities of Kentucky and Louisville went so far as to inject optimists and pessimists with a virus to measure their immune response. The researchers found optimists had a significantly stronger immune response than pessimists.
Positivity and Performance
Keeping a positive attitude isnât just good for your health. Martin Seligman has also studied the connection between positivity and performance. In one study in particular, he measured the degree to which insurance salespeople were optimistic or pessimistic in their work, including whether they attributed failed sales to personal deficits beyond their control or circumstances they could improve with effort. Optimistic salespeople sold 37% more policies than pessimists, who were twice as likely to leave the company during their first year of employment.
Seligman has studied positivity more than anyone, and he believes in the ability to turn pessimistic thoughts and tendencies around with simple effort and know-how. But Seligman doesnât just believe this. His research shows that people can transform a tendency toward pessimistic thinking into positive thinking through simple techniques that create lasting changes in behavior long after they are discovered.
Your brain just needs a little help to defeat its negative inner voice. Here are two simple steps you can take that will train your brain to focus on the positive.
Step 1. Separate Fact from Fiction
The first step in learning to focus on the positive requires knowing how to stop negative self-talk in its tracks. The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are just thatâthoughts, not facts.
When you find yourself believing the negative and pessimistic things your inner voice says, itâs time to stop and write them down. Literally stop what youâre doing and write down what youâre thinking. Once youâve taken a moment to slow down the negative momentum of your thoughts, you will be more rational and clear-headed in evaluating their veracity. Evaluate these statements to see if theyâre factual. You can bet the statements arenât true any time you see words like never, always, worst, ever, etc.
Do you really always lose your keys? Of course not. Perhaps you forget them frequently, but most days you do remember them. Are you never going to find a solution to your problem? If you really are that stuck, maybe youâve been resisting asking for help. Or if it really is an intractable problem, then why are you wasting your time beating your head against the wall? If your statements still look like facts once theyâre on paper, take them to a friend or colleague you can trust, and see if he or she agrees with you. Then the truth will surely come out.
When it feels like something always or never happens, this is just your brainâs natural threat tendency inflating the perceived frequency or severity of an event. Identifying and labeling your thoughts asthoughts by separating them from the facts will help you escape the cycle of negativity and move toward a positive new outlook.
Step 2. Identify a Positive
Now that you have a tool to snap yourself out of self-defeating, negative thoughts, itâs time to help your brain learn what you want it to focus onâthe positive.
This will come naturally after some practice, but first you have to give your wandering brain a little help by consciously selecting something positive to think about. Any positive thought will do to refocus your brainâs attention. When things are going well, and your mood is good, this is relatively easy. When things are going poorly, and your mind is flooded with negative thoughts, this can be a challenge. In these moments, think about your day and identify one positive thing that happened, no matter how small. If you canât think of something from the current day, reflect on the previous day or even the previous week. Or perhaps there is an exciting event you are looking forward to that you can focus your attention on.
The point here is you must have something positive that youâre ready to shift your attention to when your thoughts turn negative. In step one, you learned how to strip the power from negative thoughts by separating fact from fiction. Step two is to replace the negative with a positive. Once you have identified a positive thought, draw your attention to that thought each time you find yourself dwelling on the negative. If that proves difficult, you can repeat the process of writing down the negative thoughts to discredit their validity, and then allow yourself to freely enjoy positive thoughts.
Bringing It All Together
I realize these two steps sound incredibly basic, but they have tremendous power because they retrain your brain to have a positive focus. These steps break old habits, if you force yourself to use them. Given the mindâs natural tendency to wander toward negative thoughts, we can all use a little help with staying positive. Put these steps to use, and youâll reap the physical, mental, and performance benefits that come with a positive frame of mind.
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For some, making friends isnât easy. Being social isn’t easy. Some of us are more introverted than extroverted. Myself, I have driven both Uber and Lyft, and I’ve found that one suited me better because I tend to be more introverted.
This is all fine. Most introverts “get” that they live in an extroverted world and have to cater to extroverts a little at times to fit in and get along with others. This is the same whether you work at a giant corporation or a small, fast-paced tech startup. Making friends at the office can be intimidating because youâre all working to impress your superiors, as well as make the company more successful. Whether you’re in a close-knit office where everyone has been friends for years or you’re shyer than the average Joe, these steps can help you create good friendships with your work mates.
1. Say hello first.
This is an easy one, but much of the time people forget (or are afraid) to do it. Often, if you reach out to someone that’s all the effort it’ll really take to open a line of communication and begin a friendship. Just start by saying “hi” or “goodbye” and you’ll often find a coworker is happy to do the same to you the next time .
2. Create a group text.
Whether your coworkers are tech savvy or not, we are in an age where everyone sends emails and texts. I lament the loss of phone conversations, but such is life. You might as well try to take advantage of peoples’ dependence upon texting then. If you chat with people in messages during the day about work-related topics, it might be feasible to send out a group text when the workday is over.
3. Ask about them.
Ask how they are doing, how long have they worked there and other open-ended questions. People love talking about themselves and nine-times-out-of-ten they will return the favor and ask about you. You may then find that you like talking about your own experiences and slip out of your introversion for a minute.
One of the first steps to making friends is to know what the other person likes. Social media makes this easier than it has been in the past. Once you have befriended a co-worker on Facebook or Twitter, watch your timeline for his or her updates. Don’t be afraid to make a comment, or even re-share or re-tweet if appropriate. Talk to them in person about a picture you saw on their feed and you can immediately create a connection.
5. Be confident.
People can tell when youâre nervous. A lot of times, they donât like it. When youâre uncomfortable, so are they. Make eye contact with a coworker when either of you is speaking. This is one way to let them realize that you are “present” and don’t find them boring or intimidating. This is all part of showing your coworkers that you care about them and like them. More often than not, they will like you more if you make this effort, and your confidence will grow.
6. Find things you have in common.
Once you know what to talk to someone about, conversation will flow more freely. It may take just one common interest to build the basis for a strong friendship. Before long, your common interests may also have you bonding over workplace issues. You may work better together and your work may flourish because of it.
It’s not uncommon for groups of employees to gather at the end of the week at a nearby coffee shop or restaurant. Some companies treat their employees to movie night. Make sure to attend at least some of these get-togethers. It may be just like going to work, except no one will be as serious and there should be very little actual work. There might also be some alcohol involved and that can help make getting to know coworkers easier.
8. Ask for help.
Everyone has weaknesses, even you. If you show these weaknesses instead of trying to hide them, people will usually respect you more for asking for their help. It’ll open the lines of communication and show a different side of yourself.
9. Donât compare yourself to others.
Don’t compare your contributions to the company to what you perceive your coworkers are contributing. Remember, it’s a team and everyone is different and has their own skill set. Also, donât worry if youâre “too” short or tall or have no hair. If someone doesnât want to be your friend simply for those reasons they arenât worth it in the first place.
10. Donât fear rejection.
My father always told me, “People will meet you, and some will like you right away. Others will decide right away that they don’t like you. There’s very little you can do about that.” I’ve always found him to be right. For whatever reason, some people will never take a shining to you. That’s life. If someone doesnât want to be your friend, it isnât the end of the world. People get rejected every day all over the place but if you donât get out there and try again youâre just hurting yourself.
For some of us, making friends at work is harder than doing the actual work we’ve been hired for. Even if you think you would do better work without the distraction of having to make friends, a job without them can be lonely and boring. Who will join you in discussing favorite TV shows or poking fun at the new, aggravating work assignment? Bonding over work experiences is often what makes the whole thing tolerable. So before you write it off, turn to the person next to you and say hello.
The crowdfunding site Kickstarter might be best known for funding films, games and products — like Pebble, the Palo Alto-based smartwatch whose maker raised more than $20.3 million in March, making it the most-backed product in the site’s history.
But occasionally, small Main Street businesses get their start through crowdfunding. One example is Portico Latin Bistro & Cantina in Langley, Wash., on rural Whidbey Island near Seattle, which raised $16,000 in seed money late last year.
Owner Graham Gori was skeptical about his chances for success, and he was right to be: Although Kickstarter has raised $1.8 billion for projects since 2009, most campaigns â about three of every five â fail to launch. Chances on Indiegogo, another crowdfunding site, are even slimmer; about 1 in 10 fundraising projects reach their goal. And small businesses have the toughest time: Only 3.1 percent of small-business projects out of 20,000 reached their goal on Indiegogo last year, according to reports.
At NerdWallet, we examine complex financial situations that could affect small businesses. We then try to reduce them to a few key drivers to help bring clarity to the financial decisions people may make.
We found that successful crowdfunded projects or businesses depend on two main drivers:
You must have a sexy, marketable project or product.
It’s crucial to have a large number of backers — friends, family, local community, existing online followers — who are willing to drum up support for you. These people are your funders, but they are also your promoters.
It’s not enough to satisfy these drivers, however; you must also have a high risk tolerance. Itâs an all-or-nothing mode for Kickstarterl: If you fail to reach the fundraising target youâve set, you get nothing. In other words, you could spend weeks raising money on Kickstarter and lose it all if you don’t meet your minimum threshold.
Other crowdfunding sites are not all or nothing, but they can still leave business owners facing considerable uncertainty.
How a small-town business succeeded
Gori built a successful Kickstarter campaign by:
Testing the market. While Gori was âno expert on Kickstarter,â he did need to figure out if a campaign would even have legs, so he had to determine if there was a need in the market for his kind of restaurant.
âI set up a stand at a holiday bazaar over Thanksgiving weekend at a local farmers market. We prepared blue corn pozole and vegan pipian rojo, put up a little stand and hung up our shingle,â he says. People lined up for his fare. âThere was clearly an opening in the market for what people here would call âethnic food.”
Mobilizing friends and family. With 17 days to run his campaign during the busy holiday season last year, the first step was getting help with a promotional video.
“I called a friend who was a photographer. He said, âIâm booked for the next two weeks, but Iâm free tonight.â We borrowed a friendâs house with an enormous kitchen, invited a bunch of friends to take part. We did it in two takes.â
Doing some old-school marketing. While Gori took advantage of a cutting-edge funding platform and all the social-media tools at his disposal, he also used one of the worldâs oldest marketing techniques: He put on a sandwich board and walked in a parade and at a school festival, passing out fliers.
âA local magazine and newspaper did articles on our campaign. Folks at the library helped me create fliers with tags, like you see for garage sales,â Gori says.
In small communities, especially places like Whidbey Island, where one in five residents is above the age of 65, you canât expect your market to be glued to social media for outreach.
The alternatives to crowdfunding
If youâre a startup business — say, a franchise — you may have easier access to credit on manageable terms than you realize. Your franchisor is one possible source, and small-business loans may be available from other lenders if the brand youâre franchising has a strong track record. Another place to try is online lender Funding Circle, which has agreeable terms for franchises.
If youâre opening a business with low overhead costs — like a consultancy or graphic design company — and all you need to start your business from home is a computer and an Internet connection, business credit cards may be all the capital you need.
If you have good credit, another alternative to crowdfunding might be a personal loan or, if you own a home, a home equity line of credit.
Small companies in business-to-business industries with invoices and low revenue — essentially a cash flow problem — may want to consider selling accounts receivable, a small-business financing technique known as“factoring.” BlueVine, Lighter Capital and Fundbox all have products that can help.
If you have no invoices, low business revenue or low business credit, online lenders like OnDeck and Kabbage may be good alternatives to crowdsourcing and traditional bank loans.
Small businesses that have been around for longer than two years have more options. If you have a high credit score and are picky about what kind of debt you take on, you should investigate SBA loans from traditional lenders or new lenders. These government-backed small-business loans have significantly lower rates than many other lenders offer. Alternatively, you can check out online lenders such as Funding Circle, Lending Club and Fundation (if you have two or more employees).
Have a backup plan
Even Gori didnât rely on his Kickstarter campaign alone to succeed. As a backstop, he applied and received a $15,000 loan from Whidbey Island Local Lending (WILL), a group that matches local investors with local small businesses in search of funding.
The Portico Latin Bistro & Cantina campaign defied the odds, but it was a nail biter. Gori â a former correspondent for The New York Times and Associated Press in Mexico and Central America, whose love of Latin food turned him into a chef â only succeeded in meeting his goal in the last hours of the campaign.
âThere was a sense of relief, just my wife and I in an empty bedroom looking at the computer screen,â he recalls.
Crowdfunding can be a fun and successful way to fund your small business and generate buzz even before you open your doors. But itâs important to explore every available option as you look for the small-business funding. Although the crowdfunding route isn’t easy, you may find success and blow past your intended goal. But just remember to have a backup plan.
For entrepreneurs with a lot of money saved up, the only obstacle to starting a business is coming up with a viable idea. But many aspiring business owners have the opposite problem — the idea is there, but the capital isn’t.
Clearing the startup financing hurdle is made even more difficult by the fact that brand-new entrepreneurs are often turned down for business loans. Traditional bank loans have always been tough to secure, and although loans funded by the Small Business Administration are typically more accessible, it’s getting more competitive: The SBA’s biggest lending program, the 7(a) program, recently maxed out its funds, and was on hold until July 28 after Congress raised the lending limit, ABC News reported. While business owners are in the clear for now, the growing number of SBA loan applicants means there’s a good chance of the program reaching its limits again.
So what’s a would-be small business owner to do? There are plenty of other options to help you fund your new venture. Here are 14 options beyond bank loans for financing your startup.
Editor’s Note: Need help finding a Small Business Loan? Fill in the following form for a quote.
What type of business financing are you interested in obtaining at this time?
Approximately how much money are you seeking?Are you looking for a loan for a business that you are about to start, a business that you already own, or a business you want to acquire?Why are you looking for business financing at this time?How long has your business been in operation?Do you have any credit issues which may impact the type or amount of financing available to you?What were your total business revenues over the past 12 months?What is the approximate total value of the assets you have to secure this commercial loan?Do you own a home or other personal real estate that could be used as collateral?Does your business currently accept Visa or MasterCard as a form of payment?If yes, please note your approximate monthly processing volume:What is your zip code?What is your email address?Please briefly describe the business and any further details regarding your financing needs. (optional)
Online lending. Recently, online lending services such as OnDeck and Kabbage have become a popular alternative to traditional business loans. Online lenders have the advantage of speed: An application takes only up to an hour to complete, and a decision and the accompanying fundscan be issued within days. In contrast, the traditional loan process can take weeks, or even months, to complete.Because of this, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said at the 2015 Lend It conference that he expects online lenders to eventually reach more than 70 percent of small businesses.
Factoring/invoice advances. Don’t want to take out a loan? Services like factoring and invoice advancing may help ease growing pains for small businesses. Through this process, a service provider will front you the money on invoices that have been billed out, which you then pay back once the customer has settled its bill. Eyal Shinar, CEO of small business cash flow management company Fundbox, says these advances allow companies to close the pay gap between billed work and payments to suppliers and contractees.
“By closing the pay gap, companies can accept new projects more quickly,” Shinar told Business News Daily. “Our goal is to help business owners grow their businesses and hire new workers by ensuring steady cash flow.”
Product presales. Selling your products before they launch is an often-overlooked and highly effective way to raise the money needed for financing your business. Entrepreneur Priska Diaz was able to raise $50,000 for her company Bittylab with a presale of her Bare air-free baby bottles. The money Diaz was able to raise helped her pay for inventory, and also helped to open some doors in retail and learn about her website’s visitors. Though Diaz was able to benefit greatly from this means of financing, there were still some difficulties to overcome.
“The biggest challenge was in coordinating the inventory delivery times from our supplier so that we could start fulfilling orders,” Diaz said. “Another challenge was forecasting the number of units we were going to presell, resulting in a shortage. We’ve now passed the presale stage and sold more than originally anticipated, resulting in back orders.”
Friends and family. If you have a friend or relative with some spare cash, you have another potential way to finance your business. Borrowing from friends and family presents an interesting alternative to traditional forms of financing, and can have some unique advantages, including low- or no-interest payments and avoiding the hassles of bank contracts.
Debra Doran, managing partner of the Seattle branch of financial consulting firmCTC Consulting | Harris myCFO, recommended open, frequent communication with potential friend and family lenders to avoid damaging relationships.
“Having a well-thought-out game plan will increase the odds of family members and friends agreeing to be your financial partners,” Doran said. “Business success is not assured, but by professionally approaching your family and friends to support your efforts, and communicating frequently on the progress of the business, the chances of maintaining good relationships are significantly higher.”
Side business. New business owners can try “double-dipping” as a means of funding their startup. Entrepreneur Alex Genadinik used his revenue from tours he organized on ComeHike to launch Problemio.com, which builds mobile apps for planning and starting a business. After receiving donations for some of the free hikes he led, Genadinik began to charge for events, where he marketed his new site to hikers.
“I tried everything else before that, including monetizing with ads and becoming an affiliate reseller for outdoor gear, but it didn’t quite work,” Genadinik said. “This allowed me to work on my project without the distraction of looking for investors.”
Home equity loan. For homeowners who have equity —the home’s value minus what you owe —a home equity loan is a great option for financing a small business. These loans generally offer interest rates that are both flexible and lower than traditional commercial rates.
“Home equity loans are very cheap, rate-wise,” said Al Engel, executive vice president of consumer lending at Valley National Bank. “It is a low-cost form of borrowing that is very controllable by the entrepreneur as far as when he pays funds and redraws funds. The flexibility is tremendous. The risk is, you are putting your home on the line. If the business fails, or you fail to maintain the terms and conditions of the home equity loan or line, you risk foreclosure.”
Selling assets. Sometimes, you may have a financing method and not even realize it at first. That was the case for entrepreneur Hamid Saify, who was able to fund his opinion-sharing community, ChoicePunch, by selling a car he had wanted to pass along to his children. Though it was a tough decision, Saify was able to make $30,000 from the sale of the car. That money, in turn, went toward some very important aspects of the fledgling startup.
“I used some of that money to help with the last payments to our design and development contractors,” Saify said. “The rest I put into our account and used to help support marketing during our beta launch months.”
Credit cards. Business credit cards are among the most readily available ways to finance a startup, and can be a quick way to get your business up and running.
“One of the few advantages is that the minimum payment on a credit card is very low,” said Ken Nickel, senior vice president of community lending at Valley National Bank. “If you are a new business who is just starting out and you don’t have a lot of money coming in, or you don’t have a ton of expenses, you can put it on a credit card and pay the minimum payment.”
However, there are some serious drawbacks to consider before using plastic to fund your startup, Nickel said. If a new business gets started and then has trouble making the payments, the interest rates and costs on the cards can build very quickly, and carrying that debt can be detrimental to a business owner’s credit.
Angel investors. Those looking to finance their business can always look to an angel —an angel investor, that is. Angel investors have helped to start up many prominent companies, including Google, Yahoo and Costco. This alternative form of investing generally occurs in a company’s early stages of growth, with investors expecting a 20 to 25 percent return on their investment.
“The principal advantage of an angel investor is generally that you have a friendlier atmosphere and a quicker decision-making circumstance for a smaller amount of [money],” said Mark DiSalvo, CEO of private equity fund providerSemaphore. “You are likely to get an investor who has strategic experience, so they can provide tactical benefit to the company they are investing in.”
Venture capitalists. For small businesses that are beyond the startup phase and already have revenues coming in, a venture capital investment may be appropriate. Fast-growth companies with an exit strategy already in place can gain up to tens of millions of dollars that can be used to invest, network and grow their company quickly.
Brian Haughey, assistant professor of finance and director of the investment center at Marist College, said that because venture capitalists focus on specific industries, they can generally offer advice to the entrepreneur on whether the product is going to fly or what they need to do to bring it to market. However, venture capitalists have a short leash when it comes to company loyalty and often look to recover their investment within a three- to five-year time window.
“They have to make a return and usually have a five-year time horizon,” Haughey said. “If you have a product that is taking longer than that to get to market, then venture-capital investors may not be very interested in you.”
Winning a contest. Sometimes, businesses can benefit from a bit of luck. That was the case for Roberto Torres and Luis Montanez, who funded a portion of their startup costs for apparel company Black & Denim with winnings from a business-plan competition.
“We utilized the funds to purchase manufacturing equipment that allowed us to scale our products and meet demand,” the owners said. “This advantage gave us the opportunity to increase our production and get into bigger players like Stein Mart and Walt Disney World. The competition also gave us access to business experts that asked us the tough questions while allowing us to retain our equity —a perk that would have been very difficult to obtain otherwise.”
Renting out your home. Cutting out liabilities is another creative way for new business owners to fund their startups. For Fay Johnson, founder and editor ofdeliberateLIFE magazine, that meant renting out her apartment. Johnson was able to do this by placing her San Francisco apartment on Airbnb and renting it out for anywhere between five nights and a month at a time. The decision has been successful for Johnson, who has used the money raised to fund the costs of the first few issues of her magazine. Though the move has allowed Johnson to finance her startup, it has not come without its share of headaches, including tight time restraints.
“As an entrepreneur, time is one of your most valuable resources,” Johnson said. “When renting, I have to keep in mind that I need to clean and reclean the apartment, and since I work from home, I also have to find a place to work during those days.”
Crowdfunding. Crowdfunding on websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo can give a big boost to the financing aspirations of small businesses. These sites allow businesses to pool small investments from a number of investors instead of forcing companies to look for a single investment. Many sites allow companies to raise money in exchange for rewards or products. Others have anequity-based model in which businesses give up a bit of their share.
Before choosing a crowdfunding platform, be sure to read all the fine print and know what you’re getting into. Certain sites require businesses to raise their full stated goal in order to keep any money raised on the platform. Other sites will allow companies to keep any money they raise. Additionally, sites can claim a percentage of any money raised on the site. Sites often also charge a payment-processing fee for money raised.
Grants. If your business focuses on a scientific or research-oriented field, grants from the government may be able to help fund your company. The SBA offers grants through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. Grant recipients are required to meet federal research and development goals, and to have a high potential for commercialization.
Shinar said there are not many downsides to a truly no-strings-attached grant. However, you should carefully read the fine print because grants may require that you give up part of the IT or other intellectual property, Shinar noted. Grants also can be time-consuming, and depending on the sector, the ratio of time expenditure to the odds of payout may be too high. Nonetheless, if your company could be eligible, it is wise to review the options.
Precautions and next steps
While the plethora of lending options may make it easier than ever to get started, responsible business owners should ask themselves how much financial assistance they really need. Companies that receive more income than they truly need should be prudent in how it is used. Shinar urged such companies to make — and stick to — a disciplined budget.
“It’s hard to go back later and try to exert fiscal discipline,” Shinar said. “It’s better to start from the beginning with good corporate governance.”
Companies that have received a large cash infusion may benefit from bringing in an experienced partner or board member to help ensure accountability, Shinar added.
As an alternative, bootstrapping your company — building it with existing resources and earned revenue — offers companies a low-risk way to test out their product. If you and your partners are able to work toward creating a functional product in your spare time, you may be able to begin to sell that product with minimal or no cash.
“The advantage of bootstrapping is that you stay the boss,” Shinar said. “More importantly, you get relatively quick validation from the market about whether you have a good business plan. Bootstrapping helps imbue a company with operational discipline.”
Owners who bootstrap retain exclusive control over their company for a longer time, allowing them to better influence its culture and goals. As your company grows, funds can be put directly back into enhancing the business, rather than into servicing your loans. In addition, they avoid less-than-favorable conditions and terms that might be imposed by lenders or additional partners.
If you bootstrap, however, be prepared and open-minded about moving to the next step. If you remain without external funding for too long, you may be unable to take advantage of market opportunities. Moreover, you risk creating a business that has failed to integrate more experienced minds.
“At a certain point, you need smart partners around the table, and those partners are commonly investors,” Shinar said. “If you want to grow really fast, you probably need outside sources of capital. And if you are only bootstrapping, you are missing some of the advantages of corporate governance. You may also miss some lifestyle advantage — you can go on bootstrapping for years without making money. So taking on debt may actually mean that your company can move forward.”
More information
Additional information about funding sources is available from the following resources:
Editor’s Note: Need help finding a Small Business Loan? Fill in the following form for a quote.
Originally published in 2011. Updated July 29, 2015. Additional reporting by Business News Daily contributor Katherine Arline and social media specialist Dave Mielach.
Applied Executive Brilliance in the Style of the Intrepid Sea Captain
