Startup Advice

The Missing Tools: 4 Things Your Lead Generation Strategy Is Missing

by Kimberly Zhang / ⠀Startup Advice / February 22, 2019

Is your business living up to its potential? Among small businesses, the answer is almost always “no.” That can happen for a number of reasons: Owners are too anxious to take risks, fail to focus, or haven’t cultivated a strong network. Luckily, there are simple tools that can help your business overcome these barriers. These four tools enable small business owners to take control of their lead generation…

4 Signs You Should Swap Your In-House Agency for an Outsourced CMO

by Kimberly Zhang / ⠀Entrepreneurship• Startup Advice / February 7, 2019

The in-house agency, like most marketing trends, has had its share of leaps and starts. In 1986, Bank of America led the way with its internal agency, Enterprise Creative Solutions; in 1987, Fidelity Investments followed, founding Fidelity Communications and Advertising. Then, as quickly as it had come, interest in internal agencies waned. It wasn’t until the early 2000s, with the proliferation of mobile and digital marketing, that the…

4 Project Management Tips To Deliver Large, Complex Projects On Time

by Kimberly Zhang / ⠀Startup Advice / January 23, 2019

Large, complex projects are twice as likely to be delivered late, go over budget, and have missing critical features. You can use the best project management tools on the market and still fall behind. Avoid a dismal fate for your next big project with the following project management strategies: Get your project managers PMP certified If you’ve hired a skilled project manager without Project Management Professional (PMP) certification,…

Office Manager Beyond Your Budget? 4 Tips to Patch One Together

by Kimberly Zhang / ⠀Entrepreneurship• Startup Advice / January 17, 2019

Just like human beings, startups that grow up go through “teenage” years. No longer is the founder’s basement an acceptable workplace, but office rental costs aren’t exactly within reach, either. That sole salesperson has an assistant now, but can two people truly be called a “department”? Perhaps the most awkward part of business adolescence, however, has to do with office management. With two or three, it might’ve been…

8 Reasons You are not as Successful as You Should Be

by Kimberly Zhang / ⠀Career Advice• Entrepreneurship• Startup Advice / December 24, 2018

Early on in my career, I had a roadmap of where I was going. It was actually pretty ambitious. However, things didn’t go the way I planned. Now, I consider that this situation was for the best. But, there were moments when I wondered why I wasn’t as successful as I had expected to be. After some self-reflection, I determined that I was not as successful as I wanted…

Putting Video to Work For Your Small Business

by Kimberly Zhang / ⠀Startup Advice / December 21, 2018

Textual content has a place in digital marketing, but in terms of efficacy, it’s quickly taking a back seat to visual content. In particular, video content is rising to prominence as a powerful medium through which small businesses can engage and convert viewers into customers. Why Putting Video to Work for your Small Business Matters Video isn’t just another type of content – it’s the highest returning content…

Why ‘Sales Operations’ Could Be the Key to Scaling Your Company

by Kimberly Zhang / ⠀Startup Advice / December 12, 2018

Salespeople are great at selling. They’re less great at all the things that surround the sales process — things like filling out spreadsheets, hunting down pricing and contract information, and figuring out how to use complex tools. Even the sellers who are great at these tasks are more useful to their organizations in the field or on the phone. Sales operations teams handle the busywork of selling and…

How Entrepreneurs Can Take Their Sales Teams Beyond Cold Calling

by Kimberly Zhang / ⠀Over 30 Advice• Startup Advice / October 15, 2018

In the era of inbound marketing and sales automation, cold calling is almost quaint. It would be, anyway, if it weren’t so hopelessly ineffective. According to marketing guru Charlie Cook, cold callers average a conversion rate of about 2 percent. Keep in mind, though, a conversion isn’t the same as a sale; in the context of cold calling, it’s usually agreeing to a consultation. But if cold calling…

10 Insider Secrets From App Empires

by Daniel DiPiazza / ⠀Blog• Startup Advice / August 5, 2016

Almost daily, someone tells me about his or her amazing app idea. It will blow up into something huge, gain millions of users and make millions of dollars. All with word-of-mouth marketing. That enthusiasm makes sense, really. Apps are massive right now and show no signs of slowing down. Developers make billions of dollars in the app store every year, so people naturally chase any idea that could…

6 Lessons From 4 Years In Business

by Rajiv Nathan / ⠀Career Advice• Entrepreneurship• Startup Advice / May 12, 2016

Recently my business, Idea Lemon, celebrated its 4 year anniversary. I use the word ‘celebrated’ loosely because really that meant Linkedin notified me it had been 4 years since I first added Idea Lemon to my profile, and I looked up at my Cofounder, Martin, and said, “Hey, apparently its our 4 year anniversary today.” He replied with, “Oh really? Cool,” and we got back to work. While there…

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