We asked four entrepreneurs what kind of mentoring opportunities they have found most useful over the years and why. Take a look at their answers below and start getting mentored today! – Angela Delmedico of Elev8 Consulting Group – Steven Buchwald of Buchwald & Associates – Ajmal Saleem of Suprex Learning – Emily Nhaissi of Craft & Root

Internet marketers must constantly find new ways to make their sales funnel more engaging. Many marketers have started using SMS messaging to better convert their customers. Why does SMS complement Internet marketing so well? SMS Is Highly Effective Many people believe SMS marketing is notoriously ineffective. This is largely because it has a reputation for being spammy, due to a number of unscrupulous marketers. However, SMS Marketing can actually be far more effective than most other marketing mediums – if you use a good approach....

At the core of the survey is this idea of motivation: what things will motivate a team? Is the traditional idea of increased wages as a source of motivation still relevant today? Especially when it comes to startups (where revenue isn’t necessarily a thing that even exists in early stages), is a stake of equity enough to motivate team members? Are unique perks, like designate nap spaces, actually effective in motivating employees?...

Unfortunately, most startups fall flat and some never get off the ground. But there are key factors that can help you walk down the right path of success. Keeping track and remaining focused until the end can be hard, but every startup needs to hack the basics to be successful. Here are five critical factors to help achieve success. The Founders Leadership can make or break a startup before it has a chance to succeed....

Read the Reviews For every great vendor to outsource work to, there are about 20 vendors that do not produce quality work. Reading the reviews of the vendors in different forums and discussion boards is a great idea. Oftentimes customers are critical of their vendors, but getting an unbiased opinion of someone who worked with them is invaluable during the hiring decisions that need to be made. If you have a professional contact who has used a vendor before, then reach out to them to see how their experience was....

1. Careless and Frustrated Employees People are often impulsive on social media. They vent their frustrations with their bosses and employees without thinking, which can create problems with cyber diplomacy. While employees have a right to vent, they can cause significant damage if they aren’t careful. They may carelessly (or deliberately) reveal sensitive information in their posts. They could also share pictures they took on company grounds, which could reveal more than they intended....

Launch a Paid-to-Free Campaign There are a couple of tactics for this maneuver. If you have a paid app, offer it for free for a limited time (say, 48 hours) and promote that special offer far and wide. Using this tactic can significantly increase traffic and bring you an influx of new customers – after all, everyone loves free things. If you have a free app, you can make one of your in-app paid purchases free for a while....

1: Power Poses Confidence comes from the inside, but sometimes changing your outside can help you make the inner change. Power poses are super cheesy, but can easily work wonders. Look up a few. 2: Stop Fidgeting While we’re on the topic of body language, one big one is the tendency to channel nervous energy into rapid, useless movements that wind up making you look just as nervous as you are....

Identifying your areas of loss will also make you a better business owner. You’ll figure out how to maximize your profits today, and you’ll also learn how to increase your profits years down the road. Consider these five ways that your business may be losing money. The solutions to these problems will go a long way toward the success of your business. Employee Training and Turnover Your business likely spends a lot of money to hire and train new employees....

From app development firms to desktop support providers, businesses across the globe now service multiple customers. Instead of paying salaried workers to work on site forty hours a week, businesses can now outsource those tasks to technology providers that charge an hourly rate to multiple businesses as services are needed. To manage their help desk tickets, those businesses need multi-branded support, which gives them the opportunity to set up multiple support desks to serve each client separately....

No, these tips won’t relieve you of the tasks of reading, responding, and sorting through your email, but they can turn your email into a source of revenue generation and customer service. Even better, the tips below can be put to use via most ecommerce and enterprise level email packages. Take a closer look at these six tips that you can use ramp up the power of your email...

When you are measuring your employee productivity, there are many things to take into consideration to ensure it is done accurately and efficiently. Set Clear Expectations Ahead of Time As with any kind of assessment, it’s important that the person knows what the expectations are ahead of time. They should know if they’ll be reviewed based on their sales or how they conduct themselves in meetings Spelling it out for them means that when it comes time for their evaluation, there is no confusion as to what the expectations were....

There are many ways to potentially fund a startup. And this guide is going to show you some of the ways you can go about it. Friends and Family Most entrepreneurs acquire their first customers through their existing networks. The same principle can apply to finding people to fund your business. So many successful businesses have started off because they raised money from friends and family members. You may decide to fund your startup through accepting donations, personal loans, or just using their skills to help you get things done....

If you’re lucky and have a decent, well-engaged audience for your website or product, you’d do well to get 20 percent of them to download your app, but they need a reason to keep coming back. Create a New User Walkthrough When someone opens your app for the first time, they need to be guided through your top features, and how those features help improve their lives. Otherwise, users are likely to open your app, peak around for a minute, and never come back....

The EU has been one of the tech industry’s biggest foes in recent years, doling out fines and regulations like nobody’s business. From antitrust suits against tech giants to sweeping online privacy directives, it’s safe to say the EU is finally taking a hard line on getting the tech industry in line, and the effects are substantial, if not groundbreaking. What Was the EU Ruling? In 2018, the EU charged Google with a $5 billion penalty for abuses of an antitrust nature....

Passwords just aren’t cutting it in 2022. Sure, they can work great if used properly, but the reality is that the average user doesn’t follow any password best practices, which can make hacking their accounts embarrassingly easy. Even worse, many organizations follow outdated password policies that are causing more problems than they’re solving. Fortunately, features like multi-factor authentication can seriously shore up your security and Apple notes that users are more on board than previously thought....

The new feature was first announced in February of this year, and could be a huge disruptor for the top providers currently active in the POS market. The new feature is likely to transform the lives of many restaurants and retail businesses by removing the need to invest in hardware that is now surplus to requirements. Visitors Park Becomes Testing Ground for Tap-to-Pay Apple has not put a precise date on when the feature will be commercially available to all iPhone users, but the company is currently using the feature at the Apple Park Visitor Center in Cupertino, California....

One of the upshots of claiming back those precious hours is potentially an increase in physical wellbeing, with a different study released this week showing that those that aren’t getting enough sleep are more likely to experience health complications. With almost half of Americans currently working remotely in some capacity, it looks like the switch to home working could have huge health repercussions. The study, conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, found that the rise in leisure was particularly notable among younger Americans, who reported spending more time at ‘social events, eating at restaurants or bars, or exercising’....

But whilst companies like Google usher employees back into their buildings, the relaxing of rules at other tech businesses like Activision – which is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft – has caused mass unrest among employees. But with web conferencing software now part and parcel of almost all tech sector jobs and facilitating smooth remote working arrangements – and the threat of COVID-19 still lurking – the question of whether we should really be going back into the office is an open one....

Over the five days of SXSW Interactive, there were eight sessions on autonomous vehicles and at least ten others that brought them into the conversation in some way. Google’s Chris Urmson was also on hand to give insight as to what it was like to build the world’s first fully self-driving car. A lot of the sessions on autonomous vehicles focused on how this technology will change us as a society....