Tips For Entrepreneurs: What are SEO and PPC, anyway?

The world is very much the same as when you grew up, but the major change is the speed at which everything happens.

Hacking [illustrative] Photo: REUTERS/Thomas Peter

My uncle Dov, a veteran of the War of Independence, is an avid reader of this column.

He recently confided to me that “Issamar, you have tons of readers my age who have no idea some weeks what on earth you are referring to in your column. You throw around terms like LinkedIn, social media, search engine optimization, PPC... can you take a column to go back to basics so we can get a handle on the newfangled terminology?”

Uncle! This one’s for you! 

Let me explain: The world is very much the same as when you grew up, but in one way it is very different. And that major change is the speed of everything.

Like the Panama Canal, which meant ships could cross between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean in hours instead of having to go around the entire continent of South America, the Concorde, fax machine, overnight delivery and microwave ovens are all examples of the speed at which today’s consumer demands life happen.

That bit of introduction should help you understand the definitions below: 

LinkedIn: A live, self-updating rolodex of everyone you’ve ever known. It has the additional twist of empowering the employee to own their list of business contacts. No longer does the business owner “own” the client list the way it used to be!

Facebook: An online gathering place where folks share too much information with everyone they know, sharing news, thoughts on politics and pictures of cats. It has a powerful search feature, as well as a messaging service that lets you get in touch with people without having their contact information or even their names! (Like: “People who went to Yale who live in Halifax” will give you a list of people sorted by who you know in common.) 

But how is all this paid for? How can these offerings be free? 

That’s because of another twist to an old idea.

Remember mailers, those coupon packets that used to come to your door? Remember hearing about how “it costs the New York Times more to print the paper itself than what you pay, and the ads are paying that additional cost?”

Well, these changes in technology and the sheer amount of data these companies collect means they can get tremendously targeted advertisements in your way at just the right time. They can get a hit-the-nail-on-the-head response, hitting the perfect demographic and the right strike time, and therefore can spend much more on acquisition per new client.

PPC, or pay-per-click advertising on websites, means that really, the advertisers looking for you are subsidizing the searches you do. And when understood and properly optimized, can bring a very targeted clientele to your (virtual or real-life) door at a profitable margin.

SEO is search engine optimization – trying to do the same and generate business but by positioning your site as most relevant without having to pay for each visit or view.

If you understand what I’ve written above, you have a good picture of what the Internet is like “under the hood.”

It’s all the same as a decade ago as Bill Gates said in his book Business at the Speed of Thought. It’s all the same just a bit faster, with businesses using your own psychological habits to target you and ensure you keep coming back for more.

From J Post

5 Inspiring Books on Social Entrepreneurship

As the founder of a social enterprise called LSTN Headphones, I often look to companies and entrepreneurs I admire for advice on navigating our growing business while continuing our mission to do well while doing good. Below are a few of the books I’ve found to help guide our startup through new challenges and inspire the team to work harder to make our company succeed.

1. Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard: Yvon Chouinard is in many ways the original social entrepreneur, starting Patagonia in 1973 and 1% For the Planet in 2002. Patagonia brings in over $500 million annually and has donated millions of dollars to many environmental causes. In this incredible book, Yvon details his journeys around the world looking for inspiration for Patagonia. He explains how he incorporated giving into his business model from the very beginning.

2. Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie: Blake is the founder of TOMS, the famed leader of the “one for one” movement — a trend that has expanded to many industries and products worldwide. Start Something started with a small, humble idea in 2006 that grew out of his apartment. He now gives away 10+ million pairs of shoes to children in need. An easy and inspiring read, the book teaches that it really is possible to marry fun, profit and social good.

3. Get Big Fast and Do More Good by Ido Leffler and Lance Kalish: Get Big Fast is about how two young entrepreneurs took a natural beauty brand called Yes to Carrots from a dream to the reality of 28,000 retailers in 25 countries in less than five years. Ido and Lance launched the Yes To Seed Fund with a mission to plant micro farms within schools in Africa to help supplement students’ meals with nutritional fruits and vegetables. The program plans to feed 100,000 students a day by the end of 2014.

4. Screw Business as Usual by Richard Branson: Founder of the Virgin Group, everyone knows Richard Branson as one of the most incredible, famous and admired entrepreneurs out there. Screw Business as Usual is his take on bringing more meaning into your life while changing the world. Branson provides a treasure trove of real-life examples and how-to’s from his own foundation. He also sites companies as varied as Method and General Electric, which have used their businesses to make the world a better place.

5. Mission in a Bottle by Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff: Mission is the story of Honest Tea’s ascent from small local business to where it is today. One hundred thousand retailers are currently selling it, and it’s being purchased by Coca-Cola. Seth and Barry detail their quest to become a big beverage company that is organic, healthy, authentic and yes — honest. This book is particularly unique as the layout is in comic book form. While many business books can come off as dry and inaccessible, this one could be just as entertaining to a seasoned entrepreneur as a teenager interested in business.

What other books would you add to this list?

From Business Insider

31 Business Lessons You Usually Learn The Hard Way

1. Sometimes your best effort isn’t good enough to land you the deal.

2. You can’t learn if you aren’t willing to listen.

3. The only way to get other people to care about you is to care about them first.

4. You can’t find opportunities for success if you aren’t looking for them.

5. Just because social media is free doesn’t mean it gets you results.

6. You have to change the conversation before you can close the deal.

7. The difference between success and failure is just a decision to keep trying.

8. If you market like a “person” you have a better chance of getting people to buy.

9. Just because all your competitors are doing it doesn’t mean you should too.

10.You don’t have to build rapport to build trust.  Chit-chat is overrated.

11. Pretending like you never make mistakes doesn’t make it so.

12. Working smarter is a result of hard work; not a replacement for it.

13. Your big moment usually comes before you’re ready for it.

14. “Apologies” and “Thank You’s” are the best way to create a conversation on your terms.

15. You have to give a lot to get a lot.

16. Spend less time networking and handing out business cards. Be amazing.  People will find you.

17. Once you provide the answer people stop listening. Leave clues instead.

18. There is no easy way out for big problems; but there is always a way out.

19.Negativity isn’t reality.  Not for you.  Not for your critics.

20. You don’t need permission to start marketing to a prospect.

21. Being “professional” is key to getting prospects to want to do business with you.

22. Working smart will get you more applause.  Working hard will get more done in the long run.

23. Sometimes bad things happen to good people with great strategies.

24. Just because it hasn’t worked out already doesn’t mean that it won’t ever.

25. Anything that is easy to do isn’t going to lead to success.

26. Ironically, the quickest way to become an experts is to defy industry experts.

27. The number of people who believe in you doesn’t correlate to your chances of success.

28. Being the smartest person in the room doesn’t necessarily make you rich or wise.

29. You don’t have to be “up for the job” to finish the job.

30. If you haven’t failed a lot, you probably aren’t going to win a lot.

31. Experience is what you get just after you need it.

From Business Insider

Money Is Not What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs Tick

Fact: a very high percentage of startups fail. They might run out of money, and they might very well bankrupt their founders in the process. Despite the odds, more people are jumping onto the entrepreneurial bandwagon.

I have seen highly successful people leap into entrepreneurship with the only goal of attaining personal wealth. They lose heart when faced with the inevitable setbacks. The most successful entrepreneurs are not motivated by money. It’s about the experience, the way of life, the chase, the identity, the rush. It is a calling. It's about scratching the itch that just won’t go away. It’s about knowing that this is the work you simply can’t not do.

Success in entrepreneurship can be handsomely rewarded but even if it was not, I would do it anyway. Entrepreneurship is not a job, or a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s a journey.  

Creating an entirely new category of companies is many founders’ ultimate dream, believing it brings recognition, notoriety and wealth. The common wisdom is, successfully create a brand new category and you’re “set”.

Ignore the common wisdom. Before my co-founders and I created Eloqua in 1999, marketing automation did not exist. It is now a billion-dollar category. That brought me some success and recognition but I certainly wouldn’t consider myself “set.'' I am the definition of a work-in-progress. My success is not a final destination, it is a stepping stone. When entrepreneurs treat their company as the first and last thing they will ever do, they become too attached and make poor decisions.

The business I am leading now is not my first or my last. Instead of clinging to the past, I take what I have learned and apply it to my continued growth. Detachment allows for better decision-making, and a calm, collected approach to new opportunities or threats.

You can’t manage results or force outcomes. You can, and should, work hard toward a successful outcome for your company. It’s admirable to set lofty goals and work tirelessly to achieve them. What happens if you don’t reach those goals? What happens if you are one of the many startups that fail? I truly believe that focusing on the journey instead of the exit can be a powerful protective factor for entrepreneurs.

Like the ancient Greek athlete Milo who grew stronger by carrying a calf every day as it grew into a bull, focus on becoming a little bit better every day. Better management. Better leadership. Better sales, analysis, interpersonal skills. If the goal is not the payoff but regular progress on the journeyf, it’s a lot easier to withstand the wild gyrations of startup life and to stare down the possibility of failure

There is a reason that many of the most revered entrepreneurs of all time have coaches: they know and embrace that they can’t know it all. This is the concept behind Reid Hoffman’s theory of Permanent Beta. Outlined in his book, The Startup of You, the theory from the founder of LinkedIn revolves around applying an entrepreneurial mindset to one’s life and career. Hoffman suggests that truly great individuals live in a permanent state of growth and development. They are constantly iterating, responding to new experiences, knowledge, and opportunities. These are the type of people who relish the journey instead of racing to the finish line.

If you are singularly focused on the end-game of creating a company, you are bound to miss, or outright ignore, valuable learning opportunities along the way. Pause and take in these precious teachable moments that will turn you into a truly great entrepreneur.

If you do make a lucrative exit and turn toward teaching others, you will still be a work in progress. The Roman philosopher Seneca said, “While we teach, we learn.” By showing others how to build categories, I am still learning more nuances and applying insights to my present category-creation process.

Entrepreneurship is a craft and a vocation. To succeed, you need to treat it that way. Your goal should not be to win, but to master.

From Entrepreneur

Why Entrepreneurs Should Take a Gamble on Young People

By now, you’ve heard it everywhere: Today’s college graduates face a job crunch the likes of which young Americans have not faced since the Great Depression.

It’s a perfect storm of negative circumstances for 20-somethings: a sluggish economy, a record number of college graduates seeking white-collar work and a recent financial crisis that wiped out the retirement savings of older workers, preventing their jobs from turning over on schedule. By all accounts, the supply of professional jobs comes nowhere close to meeting the demand of young job seekers.

What most people aren’t talking about, however, is the other side of the supply and demand curve. When jobs are in short supply, it's a great time to be a supplier. And with so many qualified, ambitious young people out of work, small businesses have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to recruit from a large pool of top talent.

It’s a matter of simple trickle-down capitalism. The most desirable entry-level jobs -- the positions at Fortune 500 companies that have traditionally attracted the top graduates of elite universities -- are tougher to come as a result of lower retirement rates, industry losses and slow growth, leaving the best and brightest graduates to set their sights on second-tier opportunities.

The effects of the job crunch cascade down the line of graduates, making thousands of young people available to employers that they may not have considered otherwise. In 2000, success meant Wall Street or a dotcom firm. Today, it’s just having a job.

This should be music to the ears of entrepreneurs. Bright young college graduates are willing to take a chance on small businesses and startups. Now, it’s your turn to take a chance on them, even though the risks of hiring in an economy where capital remains tight can be substantial.

The decision to hire a 22-year-old without a lot of work experience isn’t one that's likely to lead to short-term profits. Employers can find it a more time-intensive effort to bring a new graduate up to speed as opposed to onboarding someone who knows their way around the workplace. But when this activity is viewed as an investment, finding the right young person in this job market can be a decision that pays dividends for years.

Young people bring energy, ambition, fresh ideas and familiarity with modern technology to workplaces. They also represent blank slates of sorts for small business owners, as they haven’t been socialized to follow the practices of another company and aren’t set into routines or working styles that more seasoned hires may have a difficult time of shedding. Hiring an employee directly out of school gives employers the opportunity to shape a person's professional growth and development -- an experience that can be rewarding on both a personal and monetary level.

Members of this generation of young people, undoubtedly shaped by the job crunch, have also proved to be exceedingly loyal to their employers, reducing a certain amount of risk by increasing the probability that employers will be able to recoup their onboarding costs.

Tom Nearny, CEO of United States Liability Insurance Group of Wayne, Penn., hires new graduates every year. He recently told The Philadelphia Inquirer that his retention rate in recent years has been near 100 percent. Of the experience of working with young people, he said, "It helps me learn how they see things, how they hear things, how they understand our culture. It helps fuels things. I’ve just been amazed at how much talent there is.”

Politicians have repeated ad nauseum that small businesses and entrepreneurs are the engines that drive job creation. And with the 1.8 million members of the class of 2014 hitting the streets this month, this is entrepreneurs' opportunity to be a part of that engine. The road to recovery begins when entrepreneurs take risks, and the buyer’s market for youth employment has never been hotter.

From Entrepreneur

Young Entrepreneurs Advised to Look Beyond Capital Support

Africa has produced some famous entrepreneurs over the years. The most notable among them is Ashish Thakkar, who has become a role model to youth throughout the continent.

At the young age of 32, Thakkar is recognized by Forbes Magazine as Africa's youngest billionaire, boasting a net worth of US $260 million, with a wide range of investments all over the continent.

Thakkar appeared as a guest speaker on Tuesday, May 20, during the Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Kigali, Rwanda.

The session titled "Enterprising Africa" introduced other speakers who are well-versed in job creation and youth challenges, including Felix Bikpo, CEO of African Guarantee Fund (AGF), Benjamin Gasamagera, Chairperson of Rwanda Private Sector Federation, and Valentine Rugwabizi, CEO of Rwanda Development Board.

At the session, Thakkar's life story as a refugee turned successful businessman, was presented as an inspiration to African youth with a dream to be entrepreneurs.

"Africa needs young brave young people, like Thakkar, who have dazzling projects. We all agree that their biggest challenge is access to finance - but what banks want is to give money to someone with an interesting idea and who has the skills to manage it well," Felix Bikpo said.

"Young people must know that we are here to help and that the avenues for getting finances are open to those who are brave and confident."

Valentine Rugwabizi of Rwanda Development Board said that some of the youth in Africa have brilliant ideas, but they are limited by the conservativeness of financial institutions that hesitate to risk with "untested waters."

"Banks all over the world are conservative and usually want to work with people or institutions they are well versed with. This therefore, provides an opportunity to non-banking institutions, like telecoms and cooperate companies, to come up with financing packages for business projects developed by the youth," she said.

"Governments must also create enabling environments that are conducive for entrepreneurial ideas among young people. This can be through giving them free advice, resources like Internet and energy."

For his part, Thakkar called on youth to prioritize entrepreneurship ahead of job-seeking.

"Seeking jobs is crucial. Seeking capital to startup businesses is also crucial. But the most important thing that young people need is mentorship. They need support and advice while they endeavour to develop the ultimate project that could define their lives," Thakkar said.

"In South Africa, 65% of the jobs are created by SMEs, yet four out of five of them fail," he continued. "This shows that many of them could have lacked mentorship in their inception phases. We are supposed to fix this through mentorship and through realistic African stories that inspire young people to overcome huddles in business."

Although job creation is paramount, it must be supplemented by entrepreneurship in order to satisfy 12 million youth that seek for jobs every year, according to Mouhamadou Niang, Acting Director of the AfDB's Private Sector Department.

The session also discussed issues related to gender disparities and economic opportunities for marginalized groups, technical advice and tips to operating successful businesses, as well as the role of coaching.

From All Africa

5 tips for achieving your life goals

Life goals can sometimes seem like unattainable pipe dreams, but follow our five top tips and you'll find your goals are closer than you think.

1. Dream big, but dream SMART

Dreaming big is a good thing - it's important to be ambitious - but more important is being clear, realistic and SMART. Your goals need to be:

Specific: know exactly what you want

Measurable: you need to know if you're progressing towards your goal, otherwise you'll always be chasing

Achievable: make it realistic. That doesn't mean 'aim low', but it does mean don't break the laws of physics (or any other laws, for that matter)

Rewarding: goals should be for you. Don't aim for something just because you think you should

Timed: include a rough idea of when you want to reach your goal, so you don't keep putting it off. For example, to own a house by the time you're 40, or retire at 60

2. Budget accurately

We're often told to 'budget wisely', but wisdom is vague and subjective. As you probably guessed from the T in SMART, we think accuracy is far more valuable.

While it might seem a chore to painstakingly record the ins and outs of your finances, there's an easier way. Our free Money Dashboard money management software lets you combine all of your online account details in one easy-to-read display, offering a range of attractive graphs, tables and tagging options to give you a clear view of your financial situation.

3. Consider every opportunity

Another adage that deserves closer scrutiny is 'carpe diem' (seize the day). There's a balance between sticking to a well-worked plan and taking advantage of the chances life throws your way. Take the time to assess whether a new development can benefit you, don't just grab or dismiss it instantly. And when you seize an opportunity, make the most of it.

A good personal finance example is the lure of credit card cashback schemes. Getting money back on your purchases is a great way of earning from weekly shops and monthly direct debits. But accumulate more debt than you can cover, or give in to impulse purchases, and you'll find the interest costs outweigh the cashback. The lesson being: consider opportunities carefully.

4. Enjoy the small things

The best things in life are free. Make an effort to find free events and activities in your area, plan simple, tasty meals, and take pleasure in each small victory on the road to achieving your goals: whether it's hitting a monthly savings target, losing your first kilo of weight, or finding a course that could advance your career prospects.

If you learn to enjoy the small things, you'll soon find you have the time, money and energy you need to achieve big things.

5. Learn from your mistakes

Even with clear planning, a cautious approach and a positive attitude, things will go wrong. The important thing is to stay strong, learning from your mistakes, and keeping focussed on your goal.

If you have any other tips you'd like to share, let us know in the comments below!

From Money Dashboard