July 15, 2020 6 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The first challenge facing startups in America, Europe and the rest of the world is to survive the pandemic. Not many have survived, and many others have hibernated while the storm has lasted. The fortitude to restart after such a huge blow can be even harder to come by than the fortitude they needed to start in the first place. The National Venture Capital Association hasn’t added any cause for optimism in its new report detailing how the coronavirus will impact startups in the coming quarters. The NVCA started the report with the grimmest prediction, “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride”. The NVCA expects VC investments to “drop significantly.” Related: Starting a Digital Business? Here Are Common Pitfalls to Avoid A lot of VC’s will take this time to do more of a reappraisal of their current portfolios than taking up new deals. However, some startups are still well poised to still garner some support in the funding sphere. The industries that will continue to thriveAccording to Oxfordbusiness, “Startups that performed well during the implementation of social distancing and lockdown measures might offer favorable opportunities to investors amid the uncertainty, while the changing investment environment is set to add impetus for greater collaboration and renewed risk evaluation” The pandemic hit most industries, but not every industry went under. Industries like the cannabis industry saw a renaissance of sorts during the pandemic as arguments were passionately made in favor of CBD-based businesses as essential services during the pandemic by scientists and psychologists. CBD-based businesses were later declared to be essential by many states in the US and Europe. This good-fortune created immense innovation within the industry in such a short time with many CBD businesses implementing curbside pickups for CBD using patients and growing their Income significantly within a period when many other industries were in a downturn, signifying great optimism for creative startups in this industry. Related: 5 Public Space Companies to Invest in Over the Next Decade Food delivery and supply services also thrived significantly mid-COVID with the US Chamber of Commerce declaring it one of the most improved industries during the pandemic. The reason is simple, people now spend much more time at home than at restaurants. In many states, restaurants were shut down completely. The US Chamber of Commerce highlighted companies like Eat Clean Bro, a meal prep and delivery service operating in New Jersey whose orders went up over 40% and Cannizzaro Sauces, a North Carolina based canned and jarred foods business that also saw a significant upsurge in sales. These are just a few of the many industries that thrived in these times. However, many of these businesses have done a great job serving their customers in this period, so much so that they have caused a shift in Investors perception as well as in culture, a culture where they and businesses in their industry are likely to remain a mainstay and hence, attractive for investment. Startups with social impact are likely to gain more supportThe coronavirus coincided with a significant rise in a push for social justice after the callous killing of George Floyd by a Police officer in the U.S. No one was quite prepared for the response that the world gave to George Floyd’s killing; an international uprising that spanned countries in every continent and a loud outcry. The effect has been tremendous with statues of people having confederate connections coming down at an alarming rate and with institutions naming holidays and schools after causes and people sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM). This has not just brought to the fore the issues of systemic racism and social injustice that exists in America, it has also highlighted more than ever the need for clear social impact angles in businesses. Related: 4 Ways Startups Can Prepare to Survive Economic Tumult It is becoming increasingly necessary for businesses to integrate a social impact angle, not just as an extra, but as a core part of their business strategy. This pandemic and the many companies that stood up to be counted in helping societies survive alongside the rapid reactions of companies to the BLM movement all over the world have more than ever established the necessity for social impact in the design of startups and businesses. This sentiment is not just held on the part of VC’s and Investors but is a mindset that is beginning to dwell in the minds of the everyday customer. The need to be socially relevant has risen beyond corporate social responsibility, this is now about a socially responsible design in business structure. Companies like Charitable have succeeded in building a strong socially-relevant business model, their demonstrated ability in getting renowned celebrities and influencers to endorse and promote their client businesses is based squarely on the fact that all their campaigns support a non-profit cause. This way, the Influencers do not promote the companies’ clients for the sake of it, but they are supporting the social impact cause against which the brand is laid. This sentiment has become a key index in informing VC’s and Investors on what startups to fund and so Startups must incorporate clear social impact strategies into the core working of their business if they intend to attract funding much easily. Niche crowd-funding platforms will riseCrowd-funding has in the last decade risen to the fore as a plausible means of raising capital and general funding for your business. However, while we have all gotten conversant with Platforms like Kickstarter who have done an immense job in helping startups across the board acquire funding, we are now forced to consider other platforms more closely in the wake of this pandemic. Niche-based crowdfunding platforms are already beginning to make their statements as the need for professionalism and precision in investment becomes necessary post-COVID. The idea behind their gradually rising relevance is that brands stand a greater chance of getting funded on a platform-specific to their industry because all investors that invest in that platform are in a sense looking for them. There are a number of lesser-known platforms who have been doing an amazing job before this pandemic and who are now poised to make an even greater impact. This trend is likely to grow and not let up as Investors aim to re-assess and streamline their portfolios after the heat that they have had to bear from the pandemic. In time, our states will fully reopen and business will resume. It may not be business as usual, but we must all find a way to move on. Just as there are many ways to catch a fish, there are many ways to keep your startup alive. Just know that your first step is to decide to strive on and not to faint. Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/what-startup-funding-will-look-like-in-a-post-covid-19-world/
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July 15, 2020 14 min read This story originally appeared on PCMag The video-streaming industry is crowded; it can be hard to wrap your head around the scope of the entertainment giants that make up this market. Each service has its own origin story, business interests, and shifting content pile of exclusive originals and licensed content. There’s also a wide assortment of packages, plans, and technology under the surface. HBO Max and Peacock just made their debuts to take on Netflix, Prime Video, and all the rest, so a running market breakdown is certainly in order. Here are the most important streaming services to watch in the next hyper-competitive phase of this industry. Netflix[embedded content] The modern streaming industry begins and ends with what many have dubbed the “Netflix Effect.” Its digital subscription model and massive investment in originals have set the bar for the market. Netflix reported 182.8 million paid global subscribers in Q1 2020, thanks in part to a boost in quarantine-related sign-ups. Competitors are ready to pounce. Instead of fighting off startups, Netflix is up against tech juggernauts like Apple and Amazon, and century-old media giants. The latter have not only unveiled competing services, but moved to reclaim shows like The Office and Friends for their own services. Netflix saw all of this coming. The one-time DVD rental company-turned-streaming goliath keeps burning cash and raising debt financing to fund its original-content creation, which spans everything from Stranger Things and Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman to a vast trove of cheaper films and series to pad its increasingly originals-reliant library. To stem the losses of other classic sitcoms, the service reportedly spent more than $500 million for the rights to stream Seinfeld beginning in 2021. For now, the strategy is still working. Though Netflix saw its first-ever subscriber drop in the US in Q2 2019, that came after adding a record 9.6 million subscribers in Q1 2019 and a price hike. COVID-19 has shut down production across all streaming services, but subscribers have plenty to watch while stuck inside. And despite spending more than $1 billion a year on technology, CEO Reed Hastings still positions Netflix as more of a media company akin to Disney than a tech company like Apple or Amazon. Netflix is “mostly a content company powered by tech,” he told Recode last year, in response to a question about industry regulation. That posturing is largely semantic; in reality, modern streaming players are all media, entertainment, and tech companies rolled into one. Amazon Prime Video[embedded content] Unlike Netflix, Amazon has no discernible caps on how much it can spend, and its business model isn’t dependent on video subscribers. Amazon has more than 150 million Prime members as of January 2020, all of whom have access to Prime Video. Prime Video’s core value is to drive more Prime subscriptions at $119 a pop per year, which went up from $99 in 2018, the first price hike since 2014. So Amazon has no qualms about shelling out billions for original series and films on the indie festival circuit through Amazon Studios. Standalone Prime Video costs $8.99 per month. Amazon also owns Prime Video’s underlying infrastructure. Streaming high-quality live and on-demand video requires a complicated content-delivery pipeline, from data hosting and storage to encoding and packaging files, all the way down to content delivery networks (CDNs) and playback. Amazon controls the pipes, and Prime Video can enjoy seemingly infinite scale thanks to Amazon Web Services (AWS). Other streaming platforms need Amazon’s cloud, too. Netflix, for instance, spent years and untold millions building out its own global CDN network (the only streaming provider to do so) but relies entirely on AWS for cloud computing and storage. “We package up and have built our technology infrastructure on top of AWS,” Girish Bajaj, VP of Software Engineering for Amazon Prime Video, told PCMag in 2019. “Because we serve millions of customers and operate this massive amount of scale, it gives both Prime Video and AWS expertise in how to actually operate these systems, and with that level of scale comes cost savings that we then are able to offer back to customers on the consumer side as well as the enterprise side.” Amazon also owns IMDb, which launched a free, ad-supported streaming service in January 2019. Originally known as IMDb Freedrive, it was later rebranded to IMDb TV. Apple TV+[embedded content] Apple launched Apple TV+ in November for $4.99 a month. Its content library is small, so Apple is giving one year of free Apple TV+ to those who buy a new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV. Launch titles included: cable news drama The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell, and Reese Witherspoon; future post-apocalyptic series See starring Jason Momoa and Alfre Woodard; an Emily Dickinson biopic series starring Hailee Steinfeld; and sci-fi space race series For All Mankind. Most of the shows received tepid reviews, but Apple has billions of dollars worth of original content investments in its development pipeline to populate the fledgling streaming service in the next year or two. This month, for example, Tom Hanks’ war drama Greyhound skipped theaters due to the coronavirus and debuted on Apple TV+. The redesigned Apple TV app is available across media-streaming devices, including Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, and smart TVs from Samsung, Sony, LG, and Vizio. It offers original content through Apple TV+, as well as streaming app and network subscriptions through TV Channels, which is similar to the add-ons offered by Prime Video and Hulu. TV Channels launched in May with some big partners, including Amazon Prime Video, HBO, Hulu, Showtime, Starz, CBS All Access, and many others (but not Netflix); Apple showcased Prime Video originals such as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in demos during its launch event. TV Channels also let users choose traditional cable bundles from providers such as Optimum and Spectrum, as well as over-the-top (OTT) cable replacement services including AT&T TV Now. This strategy is part of Apple’s broader push into software and services: It has grand designs to expand to industries beyond the steadily growing chunk of recurring revenue it currently makes from iCloud, Apple Music, and Apple Pay. Amid stagnating iPhone sales, Apple’s glossy 2019 launch event for its new slate of services—including Apple News+ and Apple Arcade—highlighted how it sees its future growth. Hulu[embedded content] Hulu, which had 30.4 million subscribers as of Q1 2020, is a particularly intriguing player given its new mouse-shaped overlord. With Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox, the entertainment powerhouse also picked up Fox’s 30 percent stake in Hulu and later acquired AT&T and Comcast’s remaining stakes to take full control of Hulu. Hulu, which long represented the network TV industry’s collective streaming interests, is now another arm of Disney’s entertainment empire, and Disney hasn’t wasted time adding the jewel to its infinity gauntlet. Beatrice Springborn, VP of Content Development at Hulu, said last year that the service doesn’t measure success by nightly ratings or individual show performance. It’s about getting new subscribers to sign up for Hulu, watch a lot of content on the platform, and remain subscribers for the long haul. At the time, Springborn said her team was laser-focused on “making Hulu the number-one choice for TV.” Following Netflix’s price increase, Hulu took the opposite route and cut the price of its entry-level ad-supported plan from $7.99 to $5.99 per month. But it did raise the price of its live TV plan from $39.99 to $54.99 per month. HBO Max[embedded content] WarnerMedia is one of the more recent examples of high-profile corporate consolidation fueling the next wave of streaming services, and the result is HBO Max, which launched in May 2020 for $14.99 per month. An ad-supported pricing tier and live TV is planned for 2021. The pool of media brands and TV channels centralizes AT&T’s Time Warner assets under one streaming roof, with HBO as its centerpiece. HBO Max is pricier than its rivals, but it costs the same as HBO Now/GO, which only includes the HBO library. And all HBO Now/GO users get upgraded to HBO Max for no extra charge. WarnerMedia is betting that streaming viewers will be enticed to subscribe through a combination of high-quality HBO content, 50 new original series by 2021, new and existing shows and movies from brands under its banner like CNN, Cartoon Network, and Warner Bros, the Studio Ghibli animated film collection, and a selection of TV shows including Friends, Sesame Street, The Big Bang Theory, Dr. Who, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, South Park, and Rick & Morty (for which WarnerMedia paid handsomely to license). Peacock[embedded content] Comcast-owned NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock, launched for Comcast customers in April and for everyone else on July 15. It offers a free, ad-supported tier with 7,500 hours of programming, including next-day access to current NBC series, as well as live news and sports television coverage. Peacock Premium is $5 a month ($49.99 a year) for 15,000 hours of live and on-demand content and 4K/HDR streaming. Peacock Premium Plus gets rid of ads for $10 per month ($99.99 per year). Toplining Peacock’s originals is a sci-fi adaptation of Aldous HUXley’s classic novel Brave New World starring Alden Ehrenreich and Demi Moore. Upcoming series include a Battlestar Galactica reboot from Mr. Robot and Homecoming creator Sam Esmail, and revivals of Saved By the Bell and Punky Brewster featuring original cast members. NBC is also dipping back into the well for a streaming-only season of A.P. Bio and a second spin-off movie of one-time USA series Psych, along with a number of other scripted and unscripted originals, including an adaptation of the Dr. Death true crime podcast starring Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater. On the unscripted front there’ll be a Saturday Night Live docuseries from Lorne Michaels, a Real Housewives spin-off, a new talk show series starring Jimmy Fallon, and a new weekly late night show starring Late Night with Seth Meyers’ Amber Ruffin. As with Disney+, NBCUniversal is also stocking Peacock with a vast library of shows and movies to which it already has the rights: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Cheers, Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, Friday Night Lights, and Will & Grace, among many others. Users will also be able to stream movies from the Universal archive. NBCUniversal’s bet is that plucking The Office from Netflix in 2021, along with some nostalgia-inducing originals, will be enough content to hold its own in the crowded market. CBS All Access / Showtime[embedded content] One media giant that often flies under the radar in the streaming wars is CBS, which owns Showtime and CBS All Access. The latter has spent a modest original-content budget on a few big franchises, headlined by Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard; The Good Wife spin-off, The Good Fight; a reimagining of The Twilight Zone from Jordan Peele; and a coming adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand. CBS All Access is $5.99 a month with limited commercials or $9.99 a month without ads. Showtime is $10.99 for the standalone service, but you can buy or add the network to existing subscriptions through Prime Video, Amazon Fire TV, Hulu, Roku, Android, or iOS, or through a long list of cable and OTT streaming providers for varying prices. It’s also available to existing cable subscribers as Showtime Anytime. Now that CBS has re-merged with Viacom, the company can draw upon a host of properties including MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon to bolster its streaming offerings. CBS has been in the digital media and streaming games longer than most, going back to its 2004 deal to buy SportsLine (before CBS and Viacom split up in 2006) and CBS’ subsequent acquisition of CNET for $1.8 billion in 2008. CBS has built its own streaming infrastructure atop that stack and now has its business firmly planted in all the big buckets: traditional cable and news, live sports, premium cable with Showtime, and a standalone streaming app in CBS All Access. CBS wants to top 16 million subscribers for Showtime and CBS All Access by year’s end. Disney+[embedded content] To get a sense of where the broader entertainment and streaming industry is going for the long term, Disney’s strategy may be the model to watch. Its much-hyped $6.99/month Disney+ streaming service, launched in November and has already topped 54.5 million subscribers. Disney’s foray into streaming market dates back to 2016, when it invested $1 billion for a 33 percent stake in BAMTech. The video-streaming company—which was initially spun out of Major League Baseball’s Advanced Media (MLBAM) arm—at one time powered streaming apps including MLB.TV, HBO Now, the NHL and PGA Tour apps, PlayStation Vue, and even the WWE Network streaming app before Disney took full control and rebranded BAMTech as Disney Streaming Services. BAMTech’s outside-consulting focus came to a halt when Disney bought another 42 percent stake to take majority control of it in 2017, and announced its direct-to-consumer streaming services, which would become ESPN+ and Disney+, in the same press release. ESPN+, which costs $4.99 a month or $49.99 per year, has more than 7.6 million subscribers. Disney’s advantages outweigh its challenges. Armed with original Marvel and Star Wars series, the Disney and Pixar film vault, Disney Channel kids programming, and the 21st Century Fox catalog—including National Geographic—Disney+ looms large. Big-budget franchises like Marvel and Star Wars are key to Disney’s business strategy in all their forms: from Disney book series and toys, to blockbuster films and TV shows, to cruise lines and theme parks such as the massive Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge parks. Disney’s end-to-end pipeline is the most fully realized version of a true content-industrial complex, and the one piece missing until now was a streaming subscription service. As the new players have found, building a streaming platform from scratch takes time. Streaming expert Dan Rayburn described BAMTech as “the special forces of our industry. They’re the best at what they do, and they’ve been doing OTT streaming longer than anyone. And by the time Disney+ rolls out, it will still have taken them 18 months to build it.” The man who built it is Joe Inzerillo, the CTO of Disney Streaming Services. Inzerillo is the former CTO of BAMTech and one of the founders of MLBAM. He oversees all Disney’s video-streaming tech, including Disney+ and ESPN+. Inzerillio told PCMag last year that Disney built its streaming interface to highlight its moneymakers—it’s sprawling, interconnected Marvel and Star Wars cinematic universes. “The thing I find so incredibly compelling about [Marvel and Star Wars] is that it’s they’re one enormous narrative with a bunch of stories around it,” said Inzerillo. “So the user interface of a company’s streaming service that makes epic sagas like that needs to be user-connected and one narrative designed to showcase the content for you and put it in front of the fans that love it, not get in the way. But it also needs to be personalized. It needs to be able to do all sorts of things. So it’s the fusion of all those components to create this vision of a constant narrative.” Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/peacock-hbo-max-the-new-streaming-giants-explained/ July 15, 2020 6 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Previously relegated to Hollywood fantasy, artificial intelligence (AI) is now one of the fastest-growing industrial capabilities. In fact, AI as an industry is projected to surpass $390 billion globally by 2025, up from $24.9 billion in 2018. At its core, AI seeks to transform information into intelligent, automated action. The consolidation of data structures and the creation of unique algorithms allow systems to automatically learn and recreate patterns that they’ve previously synthesized. While tech giants like Amazon, Google and Facebook annually invest hundreds of millions of dollars in AI to develop new products, marketing programs and enhance their platforms, small businesses can also leverage machine learning, a field of computational statistics where algorithms automatically learn and improve tasks without explicit programming, and predictive modeling to improve operations and grow at the same time. Related: How Is Artificial Intelligence Revolutionizing Small Businesses? AI and related applied sciences are commonly perceived as advancements that take jobs away from the labor force. However, the core purpose of AI is to make jobs and responsibilities more efficient by automating specific tasks and revamping outdated processes, allowing workers to maximize more critical areas of their profession. Simply put, AI either automates the execution of simple tasks or enhances our ability to perform complex tasks. In fact, 54 percent of executives have said that AI has already increased their business productivity. Charlie Burgoyne, founder and CEO of Valkyrie, an Austin-based AI-consulting firm, believes that the technology is particularly critical for up-and-coming startups to help reduce burdensome operations. “AI can be extremely beneficial in the automation of operational functions, such as financial management, risk mitigation, accounting and even legal work,” he explains. “In turn, this allows leadership to holistically understand the state of their company while prioritizing the strategic direction of their business as opposed to focusing on the minutia of the mechanics.” For example, an owner of a startup apparel company collects data related to purchasing trends and customer patterns, but likely doesn’t have the resources to sift through all the information without taking valuable time away from day-to-day operations. By incorporating that data into custom machine-learning models, the business can better examine how to position popular product lines based on seasonal trends and improve cash flow management and future inventory. And because the data is examined in real-time, a process that would normally take weeks or months can be drilled down to just a few days. Emerging tech and AI expert Valeria Sadovykh, Ph.D. says that, “Small businesses are in a much better position to savor the benefits from AI, and there should be no excuses for not utilizing basic features for enhanced business decision-making and competitive advantage.” She adds that small businesses usually have their data “easily accessible with lower volumes and smaller data sets. In addition, in the current environment, every bit of digital information that competitors produce is also available for gathering and analyzing for better decision-making.” Prioritize the CustomerThe old adage that the customer is always right still rings true, but it’s now even more critical to find and maintain a relationship with the right customer. A recent MIT Technology Review Insights survey of more than 1,000 business leaders discovered that 87 percent of respondents have begun deploying AI in their business, with most implementing various programs to improve customer service. Even though a startup yoga studio or ecommerce jewelry store doesn’t have the capital to match the efforts of billion-dollar conglomerates, they possess an asset that can be just as powerful: customer relations. Knowing who your customer is goes a long way, but providing personalized value goes even further towards creating a cherished bond. Ninety-six percent of marketers agree that efforts to personalize a business transaction or experience will help to advance the customer relationship. Startups can use AI and personalization to their benefit by leveraging existing data to build a more intimate customer relationship. From immediately notifying a customer about a specific product back in stock or providing up-to-the-minute inventory status, automation can help maintain and reinforce strong customer relationships that save time and result in continued satisfaction. As Dr. Sadovykh comments, “No doubt that AI can be used to streamline business processes, which is beneficial for both parties in terms of efficiency and cost. However, not all consumers are the same, and for some who are looking for support, individualization and like longer human interaction, traditional AI might diminish returns. In this case, businesses should tap into the Industry 5.0 concept, where consumers can directly interfere with AI to add a personal human touch to automation and efficiency. Businesses would need to designate their AI algorithms per classified customer base to provide a high degree of ‘hands-on’ personalization and customization. That is where human intelligence works in harmony with cognitive computing.” Collect as Much Data as PossibleSmall businesses don’t have the lUXury of scores of data that major corporations have at their fingertips, but they can still work with what what’s available to them, whether it’s a new business on the rise or a long-time mom-and-pop shop. Using predictive modeling tools to analyze customer relationship management (CRM) data helps businesses of all kinds discover patterns that can go undetected by the untrained eye, providing insights on how to best target future customers or clients and improve current customer retention. “If your business is like a car, then think of AI and machine learning as the automatic windshield wipers that provide an optimized view of the road in front of you,” adds Burgoyne. “It’s becoming an essential asset that enables businesses and employees to operate at peak capacity.” Drive RevenueWhile large corporations tend to take up a majority of headlines, small businesses are still the lifeblood of the American economy. According to the Small Business Administration, there are roughly 30.7 million small businesses in the United States, accounting for nearly half (47.3 percent) the U.S. workforce. As more and more companies begin to adopt AI and machine-learning capabilities within their business strategies, it’s crucial to examine and understand where AI can automate certain processes. When paird with AI, sales — the quintessential driver of growth for any organization — can increase business leads by 50 percent, according to the Harvard Business Review. The future is also bright across most industries, with estimates forecasting that AI has the potential to boost average profitability rates by 38 percent and lead to an economic increase of $14 trillion by 2035. Related: 6 AI Business Tools for Entrepreneurs on a Budget Small businesses of all kinds can lean on AI to help strengthen various assets of their day-to-day operations — from sales and customer service to product inventory or corporate finances. Small-business owners who can automate time-consuming responsibilities will end up having more room to grow their core organizational components and ultimately compete with bigger players in the arena. Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/how-small-businesses-can-leverage-ai-to-battle-bigger-competitors/ July 15, 2020 5 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. A board of advisors is a group of individuals who are appointed to provide counsel, advice, and support for businesses and their leaders. Unlike a board of directors, which brings with it formality, liability, and expense, a board of advisors is an informal and inexpensive way to have a group that offers guidance. A board of advisors has no formal power or legal authority — instead think of it as an informal team of experts. All businesses can benefit from a board of advisors, but they are particularly helpful for startups and businesses that are growing. Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder, tells leaders, “The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.” For many businesses, a board of advisors can serve as those people and can help to guide businesses to where they want to be. Here are 4 key ways that a board of advisors can add value to your business. Offering an outside perspectiveOne of the greatest advantages that a board of advisors can bring your business is an outside perspective on important issues. Advisors bring different opinions, perspectives, and experiences than your leadership team has. They are able to look at issues like business performance, market trends, and long-term strategy through a different lens and in an unbiased way. Having this perspective can help to identify blindspots and problem areas and can be invaluable when it comes to strategic planning. As a result, the ability to get an unbiased, outside perspective from knowledgeable individuals is perhaps the key benefit of having a board of advisors. Related: What’s the Difference Between an Advisory Board and a Board of … Expanding your business’s networkA strong board of advisors can also help to expand your business’s network, which is especially important for startups and small businesses. Having a well-connected board immediately expands your organization’s contacts and can help you to build or expand your presence in relevant markets. Additionally, your board members can utilize connections to help with funding, establishing strategic partners, connecting with vendors, and connecting with other industry experts. A strong network is key to growing and developing your business, and a board of advisors is an effective way to quickly expand your network and to add key contacts. Supplementing and expanding organizational leadershipA board of advisors is first and foremost there to support, guide, and advocate for your leaders and executive team. As such, they provide two key leadership benefits: They are able to fill skill and expertise gaps while also developing the skills of your leadership team. A strong board of advisors is selected to offer different areas of expertise and experience than your corporate leadership possesses. As a result, they are able to offer advice that increases the effectiveness of your leadership team. More importantly, perhaps, they can help your leadership build skills and become more effective. It’s important that your executive team is consistently growing and developing, and a board of advisors is an effective way for your team to get the support and guidance needed to ensure that they’re regularly becoming more effective leaders and managers. Increasing your credibility with investors, clients, and vendorsAnother way that a board of advisors can add value to your organization is by building credibility with investors, clients, and vendors. Having a board of advisors instantly gives your business more credibility, which only increases if you have a strong board of advisors made up of industry experts and community leaders. This can help build trust with investors and potential investors while also making customers and vendors more willing to work with you. Having a board of advisors improves your community relations and public relations and is an effective way to immediately gain credibility with key stakeholders and clients. Related: You Grew Your Startup, Now Build Your Advisory Board Be clear about what you need and what you want to accomplishHaving a board of advisors adds value to your business in many ways and can provide invaluable support, guidance, and advocacy for your executive team. For many businesses that want to avoid the expense, formality, and liability associated with a board of directors, a board of advisors can be an informal, inexpensive, and effective way to develop a team of experts. That said, to get the most out of this team, it’s important to be strategic about how it’s developed. When considering creating a board of advisors, first consider the strengths and weaknesses of your management team and work to build a board with the skills to address and compensate for some of the weaknesses. Additionally, before developing your board, it’s helpful to have some clear goals about what you want the board to accomplish. Finally, going into it with a general idea of the size and structure of the board can help make this process smoother. In addition to suggesting that it’s helpful to spend time with trusted advisors, veteran sports PR and marketing agency executive and Columbia University professor (and member of many company boards) Joe Favorito, more specifically advises, “We always need to grow personally and professionally and the best way to do that is to have people from different backgrounds and areas of expertise around us. They can both reaffirm strategy and hopefully challenge us on next steps. It’s easy to surround yourself with those who will tell you how great you are. What’s better is to have people who show you how great you can be, if you open your mind to different strategies and opportunities.” A board of advisors is a great way for your business to do just that. Related: How to Solicit Valuable Feedback From Your Board Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/4-reasons-you-should-have-a-board-of-advisors/ Financial advisor Jeff Rose reviews the answers to an online investing quiz most Americans failed. Grow Your Business, Not Your InboxStay informed and join our daily newsletter now! July 15, 2020 1 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. According to the CNBC article “The Average American Scored an ‘F’ on This Investing Quiz — See How You Do,” more than half of the 1,000 people surveyed for the financial site Magnifymoney failed to score above a 40% on a 10-question quiz about investing. Financial advisor Jeff Rose provides the correct answers to the questions from the quiz with explanations for each. The questions from the quiz are:
Related: The Tools You Need to Create a YouTube Recording Studio Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/do-you-know-more-than-the-average-american-about-investing/
Marieke van de Rakt
Marieke van de Rakt is the founder of Yoast SEO Company Academy and CEO of Yoast. Her favorite SEO Company topics are SEO Company copywriting and site structure. As you might know, Google is rolling out mobile-first indexing as we speak. In September 2020, all websites will be ported over to the mobile-first index. But what does that mean for your ranking? Should you be worried? Should you do anything? Google has been pretty vocal on mobile-first indexing. This post serves as a reminder so, I’ll talk you through five things you need to know about mobile-first indexing. Mobile-first indexingIn March 2018, Google announced that they were going to start with mobile-first indexing. In March 2020, Google announced that it would roll out mobile-first indexing for the whole web. This will happen in September 2020. But what does that entail? It means that from now on, Google will base what it places in the index on the mobile version of your site, whereas they used to index the desktop version of your site first. This switch is made because more and more searches come from a mobile device and to give those users a better experience, Google decided that it was time to prioritize mobile results. It is important to note that the mobile-first index is not a separate index, Google has only one index from which it serves the results. 1. Do not panic!From September, the mobile version of every site will be indexed. But that does not mean that anything big is happening. In fact, it probably doesn’t do anything to your rankings. If Google indexes the mobile version of your site, you’ll get a notice in your Google Search Console. This means that Google will determine by the content available on your mobile site how you will rank — both on the desktop as well as on mobile. This sounds pretty big, but for most WordPress sites it’ll have minimal consequences. If you think about it, most WordPress sites have a responsive design. This means that both mobile and desktop display the same content. You’ll have nothing to worry about in this case. If you have different websites for mobile and desktop and your mobile website has far less content – you do have something to worry about. Everything you are offering on your desktop site should be available on your mobile site — this is called mobile parity. This also includes your structured data and any meta data like titles, descriptions and robots meta tags. If you’re looking to also improve the speed of your site and the user experience, it might be good to look into the upcoming page experience update by Google as well. Mobile-friendliness is one of the signals that informs the page experience algorithm. 2. Do a mobile-friendliness testYou do not have to have a mobile site to be in the mobile-first index, as Google will index desktop sites as well. But, it’s going to be harder to rank if your site is not mobile-friendly. So there’s work to do for all of you who have not have a mobile-friendly site yet. So what do you need to do? Check out Google’s mobile-friendliness test and check whether or not your site is mobile friendly. In our experience, this is a minimum requirement. If your site does not pass this test, your mobile version is not up to scratch. Read our Mobile SEO ultimate guide to learn how to improve your mobile site. Also, be sure to read Google’s documentation on how to get your site ready for mobile-first indexing. 3. Think about UX on mobileA mobile website needs a different design than a desktop version to appeal to your audience. Your screen is tiny. While it might make sense to discard a lot of content on mobile due to space limitations, that wouldn’t be a good practice. Of course, you can improve the mobile user experience by following best practices. For instance, Google explained that hamburger or accordion menus are perfectly fine to use. These kinds of menus make sense; they help a mobile user to browse through your website. Putting content behind a tab to make the mobile experience better is also totally fine. Read more: 10 ways to improve mobile UX » 4. Write mobile-friendlyReading from a screen is hard. And reading from a mobile screen is even harder than reading from a big screen. To attract a mobile audience, you’ll need to have mobile-friendly copy. This means short sentences and compact paragraphs. You need to make sure your font on your mobile site is large and clear enough, and you need to make sure to use enough whitespaces. Keep reading: Copywriting for mobile » 5. Check out those mobile snippetsIs your audience mainly mobile? Do they come from the mobile search results to your page? Or does most of your organic traffic come from the desktop SERPs? Make sure to check this in your Google Analytics. If your search traffic is mostly from mobile search result pages, make sure to optimize your mobile snippet in our Google preview. Conclusion on mobile-first indexingDon’t panic about the mobile-first index Google will fully roll out in September 2020. If your website has a responsive design, your content will be similar on both desktop and mobile versions. Please check if that’s the case. If so, the mobile-first indexing will have little consequences for your ranking. Do take some time to evaluate the mobile version of your website. Is your design good enough? Or could you improve? Are the buttons large enough to tap? What about your content? Could you make your text more readable for a mobile audience? Making sure your website has a kick-ass mobile experience is something you need to get started on. This will make a difference in your rankings shortly. Read on: How to improve your mobile site » Via http://www.scpie.org/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-mobile-first-indexing/ At SMX Next, I shared ways that brands can navigate content marketing in times of disruption so that they can avoid missteps, maintain relevance and pave the way for their own recovery. However, a strategy is only as effective as the team executing it. During the Live with Search Engine Land session that took place later that day, I sat down with Mel Carson, CEO at Delightful Communications; Carol Tice, founder of the Make a Living Writing blog and Freelance Writers Den community; Jessica Foster, SEO Company copywriter and content strategist at Keys&Copy SEO Company; and Heather Lloyd-Martin, CEO at SuccessWorks, to discuss how an effective writer can bring your content to life as well as how to find and foster relationships with them. Recruiting and training writers is an investment “because they’re the ones that make you money,” Lloyd-Martin said, adding, “They’re the ones that are creating the content that is helping Google position a page, that is helping to entertain or inform your buyer as he or she goes through the buyer’s journey . . . every dollar that you put into [your writers and content] is going to come back to your company in profits.” This investment is especially important in specialized sectors. “It’s very difficult to find those people, but when we do find them, we prioritize them and try and develop those relationships and make sure that they’re trained and mentored well,” Carson said, explaining that experts are typically practitioners and may not be content with a writer’s compensation, making relationships with these kinds of writers especially vital for success. However, keeping your writers happy so that they can serve your audience goes beyond compensation and training: brands must also have a well defined content strategy for their writers to carry out. “A lot of clients don’t have that direction — they have this idea of what they want to do in terms of ranking, but unless they have a real strategy in place, you’re relying on your writer to do a lot of this heavy lifting when they’re not really equipped to do that,” said Foster, citing keyword research and topic identification as duties that are often assigned to writers when they’re better suited for content strategists. The scope of the content you’re creating can also be an important factor for your audience as well as your writers. “Pretty quickly in your career, you catch on to the reality that you only want to be working on successful projects; you want projects you can brag on, that have results and metrics you can show,” Tice said, adding that brands must “have a plan that looks feasible, that looks winnable because [writers are] looking to fill our portfolios with wins.” Here is the complete list of topics we discussed, with corresponding timestamps:
Watch the full session above and subscribe to Search Engine Land’s YouTube channel to keep up with future Live with Search Engine Land episodes. Live with Search Engine Land’s weekly meetups are about giving great marketers a platform to inform, support and convene our global community. If you have an idea for a session or would like to join a panel, email [email protected]. More from SMX NextAbout The Author
George Nguyen is an Associate Editor at Third Door Media. His background is in content marketing agency, journalism, and storytelling.
Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/replay-how-to-find-and-foster-relationships-with-content-writers/ July 14, 2020 5 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Creating an SEO strategy for your small business demands time, research and investment. And although you might be able to manage the first two, money’s much harder to spare for SMBs — more than 80 percent of small businesses fail because of cashflow problems. That’s especially an issue today, as the U.S. and the world economy face the potential of a financial recession. But there’s no getting around it: SEO is crucial to reach target customers and increase visibility. That’s why annual investment in SEO Company has reached $80 billion in the United States alone and is set to keep growing. Yet good SEO Company doesn’t have to cost big bucks. Even the smallest business can still take advantage of various effective techniques and tools to build a quality SEO Company strategy on a budget. Here are some of the best ways to do it in 2020. Why SEO’s crucial for small businessesOne of the biggest reasons why SEO Company is crucial for small businesses is that more than half of all website traffic is generated by organic searches, while paid searches account for just 15 percent. Even if you’re in the paid search camp, it is worth recognizing that between 70 and 80 percent of people ignore paid results completely, and some even feel distrustful of businesses with sponsored listings. An SEO Company focus also helps small businesses create user-friendly websites that incorporate smooth navigation, valuable content and make solving problems easy. This contributes to a stronger customer experience, which 66 percent of consumers consider more important than pricing. And by increasing website traffic through effective SEO Company, businesses can gather more analytics data to understand their audience better over time. Six things you can do to help your SEOThere are many things you can do to help your business with SEO Company. Experts can come up with an almost infinitely long list. Here are some of the most important places to start, though. 1. Start a blogAny small business without a blog is missing out on the chance to extend its reach and increase traffic, as companies publishing blogs get 97 percent more backlinks than those that don’t. Blogging is a simple way to add keywords to a website organically, and creating regular fresh content means search engine indexers will visit the site more often. They’re more likely to recognize the valuable content that builds over time and increase the site’s ranking. Developing personas based on audience goals, age, buying habits, interests, etc. can help businesses maximize their blog posts’ relevance. 2. Optimize for mobile devicesGoogle started mobile-first indexing a little while ago, using the mobile versions of web pages to determine ranking. This is to ensure the growing number of mobile searchers find what they need conveniently and efficiently, as more than half of all searches come from mobile devices. Small businesses on a budget can use Google’s free mobile-friendly test tool to assess how well-optimized their site is for smartphones. Reducing load times, enabling Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and reducing the size of media will all help to increase mobile performance. 3. Pay attention to metadataThere are many factors that influence an SMB’s ranking on Google. Metadata is still an important factor, even if it isn’t the only one. Optimizing a site’s metadata involves tweaking titles, descriptions and URLs to increase visibility. Titles should include the page’s target keywords without impacting readability. Meta descriptions should be no more than 160 characters and provide a quick breakdown of a page’s content or purpose. Good URLs typically include keywords but are short, as longer URLs can leave search engines struggling to understand a page’s topic. 4. Make a sitemapCreating a sitemap makes search engines’ work easier by eliminating the risk of errors, especially for large websites or those with a small number of external links. Sitemaps are easy to generate, and there are plenty of free tools available to do this for you. One you might consider is XML Sitemaps, but there are many. When the sitemap is complete, submit it to Google through the Search Console and add it to your site’s root folder. 5. Take advantage of inexpensive toolsThere are some terrific free or “free-mium” SEO tools available for small businesses on a budget. One is SEMrush, which is immensely popular. It performs an in-depth SEO Company audit of any site and undertakes competitive analysis, topic research and more. Another option is the free to try GrowthBar. It’s ideal for keyword and backlink research, studying domain authority and understanding traffic value, with a user-friendly dashboard accessible from search engine results pages (SERPs). Finally, try Google PageSpeed Insights. This free tool checks the speed of any site and user experience with a simple score-based insight. Use this to identify slow pages and ways to improve their speeds. 6. Invite customers to leave reviewsReviews help small businesses in a number of ways. First, they help build credibility and gain trust when they appear on SERPs. Seeing a company has five stars while the others have just four or three can make customer decisions easier, as 88 percent of people trust online reviews just as much as a personal recommendation. Encouraging customers to leave reviews creates more fresh content related to your business, and if they contain keywords, all the better. Invite customers to write reviews after they make a purchase, whether on Google or a dedicated reviews site. Follow these tips to build an effective SEO Company strategy on a budget in 2020. Small businesses face immense competition from established brands, but there’s still plenty you can do to boost your SEO Company without substantial funds. Take advantage of tools and commit to publishing new content on a regular basis. Over time, even the smallest business can help increase its visibility and climb the SERPs. loading… Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/6-ways-to-improve-your-small-business-seo-in-2020/ July 14, 2020 5 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Throughout this pandemic, you’ve probably had quite a few questions cross your mind. I know I have. Some of these questions might even be defining moments for your business’s future. So, what are the answers to the questions business owners are asking? Unfortunately, I don’t have all of them. But, I do have over 30 years of experience, complete with dealing with recessions and other trying times. I can share what I know — and what I know is how to ask the right questions and weigh your options. 4 coronavirus-related questions you may haveCovid-19 temporarily changed the way businesses operate nationwide. But could these temporary changes lead to permanent shake-ups? In my opinion, Covid-19 has changed business forever. So, here are some of the top questions business owners are asking: 1. Should I take my business fully remote?For 31% of businesses, the coronavirus was the push they needed to start allowing remote work. If you’re like one of the many businesses that took flight and moved to remote work at the start of the pandemic, you might be wondering whether you should stay remote after social distancing dissipates. Well, I can’t answer that for you. But if this great work-from-home experiment has been working out for you, it might be worth looking into. Related: 5 Ways the Cloud Can Benefit Your Business During the Pandemic Speaking for my company, Patriot Software, the work-from-home experiment has gone really well. COVID-19 expedited our ability and need to work remotely. It’s been nearly three months, and we’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t. Ask yourself some more questions like:
You have to look at your business model and operations to assess whether a permanent work-from-home model would be right for you. In some cases, it won’t work. And in some, it can work. Some advantages of working remote include:
Some disadvantages of a fully remote office might be: On the fence? Carry out the experiment a little while longer. Try incorporating remote work into your business (if you didn’t already) even when you go back to the office. Have employees work from home a few days a week and on-site part of the week. Related: Airbnb CEO: It Took Us 12 Years to Build, and We Lost Almost Everything in 6 Weeks Take notes, gather statistics and metrics (I can’t emphasize this enough), get employee feedback, and whatever else you can think of to figure out if going completely remote is the way to go for your business. 2. Should I offer employees paid time off?Another question I’ve heard some business owners asking is whether paid time off (PTO) should be part of your benefits package. When Covid-19 was kicking into high gear, one of the concerns was sick employees refusing to take off work because of money. Although the coronavirus sparked emergency legislation that requires eligible employers to temporarily offer paid sick and family leave to employees, it’s not permanent. So, when the federally-mandated coronavirus paid time off expires, what will you do? You might consider adopting a paid time off policy in your business. That way, employees can take time off when they are sick, have an appointment, or need a break without having to worry about money. At the very least, you might insist on having employees work from home if they have a nagging cough or stuffy nose. 3. How can I prepare for future emergencies?If your emergency preparedness plan was nonexistent pre-coronavirus, you might have been left scrambling. But instead of thinking in terms of What if? and If only…, you can take it as a lesson and plan for the future. An emergency plan won’t be the end-all-be-all when disaster strikes. You just never know what will be thrown your way. But by having a guidebook in place that outlines things like company communications, you’ll be better prepared. Whether it’s a pandemic, natural disaster, or another emergency, your plan should outline things like:
4. What are my business’s strengths and weaknesses?Covid-19 may have highlighted your business’s strengths. Unfortunately, it probably called to light quite a few of your weaknesses, too. Related: How Three Different Tech Companies Are Tackling the Common Fight Against Coronavirus Here’s what you need to do. Jot down your strengths and weaknesses. You can even make a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) to better organize your observations. Look at your business throughout the coronavirus and ask yourself:
Of course, don’t beat yourself up. You’re going to have some weaknesses when dealing with a global pandemic, and some of those aren’t your fault. But by observing your business’s strengths and weaknesses, you can find ways to build up your weaknesses and showcase your strengths. Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/4-coronavirus-questions-that-can-define-the-future-of-your-business/ Join us as we cha with Kuda Biza, Co-Founder & CMO of Nunbelievable, as he discusses the challenges and opportunities of launching a food/consumer products business. Grow Your Business, Not Your InboxStay informed and join our daily newsletter now! July 14, 2020 1 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Thinking of launching a food or consumer products business? Join us for our live webinar with Kuda Biza, Co-Founder & Chief marketing agency Officer of Nunbelievable as he discusses the challenges and opportunities of launching a food/consumer products business.
Kuda Biza is Chief marketing agency Officer for Nunbelievable, a Loeb. nyc backed impact baked goods startup fighting hunger in the US. Before joining Nunbelievable, Kuda managed P&L for a $75M e-commerce business with a $5M marketing agency budget, and successfully built six businesses and non-profits from scratch. Kuda is an active public speaker and has given keynote addresses at more than 40 institutions in 4 countries including Harvard and the United Nations, inspiring audiences to take action, achieve dreams and impact social change through purposeful entrepreneurship. *Based on our best-selling book, Start Your Own Business, we have launched a new on-demand start-up course, providing you with a step-by-step guide to starting your own business. Whether you’re ready or just thinking about it, get started for free. Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co Via http://www.scpie.org/free-webinar-july-29-how-to-start-a-food-or-consumer-products-business/ |
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