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Navigating the Unknown: Leadership in an Era of Uncertainty

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 Leading through the mists of uncertainty can feel formidable; yet, it unveils a chance to display resilience, adaptability, and visionary leadership. Here are a tapestry of strategies to amplify your prowess in traversing unpredictable realms: Embrace Flexibility and Adaptability Stay Agile: Nurture a malleable work atmosphere that empowers teams to swiftly shift and respond to emerging insights and changing tides. Iterative Planning: Break down long-term visions into smaller, manageable milestones that can be recalibrated as needed, allowing for continual reassessment and evolution. Communicate Transparently Honest Updates: Keep your team apprised of the current landscape, even when the news is less than favorable. Transparency begets trust and ensures collective alignment. Open Dialogue: Foster a space where team members feel emboldened to express their concerns and ideas, enriching insights and uplifting morale. Focus on What You Can Control Identify Priorities: Direct your ene...

10 Marketing Strategies to Fuel Your Business Growth

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You need more than one strategy. You need a strategy for every opportunity. Growing a business isn't easy. First, you need a viable idea. From there, you need to discover a profitable niche, define a target demographic and have something of value to sell them. Whether you're peddling products, services or information, getting the word out has become increasingly burdensome. And without the right marketing strategies to fuel your growth, churning a profit and staying afloat is virtually impossible. However, identifying the right strategies to market your business is often likened to rocket science. How do you get your message to the right audience and do it effectively? How do you boost visibility and increase sales while sustaining a profit with a  converting offer ? Today, with so much vying for our attention from social media, to  search engine optimization ,  blogging  and pay-per-click advertising, it's easy to see why most are ready to pull t...

4 Social Media Trends You Need to Know About for Next Year

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2018 is just around the corner. Are you ready for it? The end of the year is quickly approaching --  the holiday season  is right around the corner and 2018 is just a few months away. Social media gives your brand an incredible opportunity to attract attention to your brand, provided you do it right. You either take full advantage of the opportunity or your competitors will. It's a constantly changing landscape, and it's time to start laying out your  social media marketing strategy  for the approaching year. In order to be successful, you need to know what the latest trends are. Staying ahead of the curve will put you in a much better position to capitalize as we head into 2018. Here are four social media trends you need to start focusing on immediately. 1. Chatbots have arrived. You need to master them. If you aren't familiar with chatbots, you need to learn how this technology  can greatly benefit  your social media marketing. Customer se...

6 Questions All New Entrepreneurs Should Ask Themselves When Starting a Business

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Asking yourself the right questions early on can lead to greater profits and productivity down the line. Congratulations! You’ve decided to start a business and  become an entrepreneur . You’ve made your mind up, which is good. But, now you’ve probably got a million questions. That’s a good thing. At this stage in the game, it’s all about asking yourself the right questions. Asking yourself which color your business card should be is not a good question. Instead, you want to ask yourself questions that will provide clarity of purpose on a day-to-day basis, because a day of uncertainty is a day wasted. Another major benefit of asking yourself the right questions is that the answers will lead you to greater productivity and quicker cash flow. These are the same questions I asked myself back in late 2013 when I first started selling grillz,  men's gold chains  and other hip-hop jewelry. And remember, without cash flow, you don’t have a business. You ha...

The 4 Personality Types of Successful Entrepreneurs

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Princeton University lecturers John Danner and Chris Kuenne explain what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Every wonder if there was one type of entrepreneur who is the most successful? I have. So when two Princeton University lecturers came to the Greatness Studio to talk about their new book (about personality types of entrepreneurs), I had to ask. And they told me no, there’s not one. In fact, they’ve identified four successful entrepreneur types, and according to their research, each is equally effective -- but for different reasons. Of course I had to know more, and both John Danner and Chris Kuenne fascinated me with their explanations of these personality types. They identified which one I am right away and gave me great coaching on how I can improve my business strategy. They pointed out that it’s not enough to know your strengths in business -- you need to act on that knowledge, hire people who compliment you in those areas and build ...

Successful Business Transitions Start With Early Planning

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Planning for a future business transition and assembling a team of seasoned professionals will help ensure a smooth, successful transfer. If you anticipate transferring your business privately to family members or employees, or if you are considering a sale on the open market, it's best to start planning for the transition sooner rather than later. Ideally, the transition should be a gradual, multi-year process, due to the complexity involved in most business transition plans. For example, if you think you may be ready to exit your business in the next five years, now is the time to start that process. While that time frame surprises some business owners, taking a long-term approach allows for a well-thought-out transition. Assembling a transition team. As a business owner, you know your business better than anyone. Because of this, some business owners make the mistake of thinking they can handle transitions on their own, without the help of professionals who speci...

One of Facebook's First Employees Explains Why Email Marketing Is Better Than Social Media Marketing

How you can take advantage when everyone else is focused on social. Noah Kagan was the 30th employee at Facebook, so he knows a little about social media. But, he might surprise you, because he doesn't say Facebook is the best way to market and connect with your audience. It isn't Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat, either. It's email. Email marketing can get lost in the mix when there are so many other marketing methods, but it shouldn't. Why? Because it can help you connect directly with your audience and, more importantly, it's algorithm-proof. With email, you don't have to worry about your post showing up in recipients' feeds or whether they'll even get a chance to look at your content -- it will just be waiting for them in their inbox at any time.  Click play to learn more about email marketing and the free tools you can use to improve your company's marketing campaigns. Mark Fidelman -- entrepreneur --

Lessons On Sales And Customer Relationships: Be Quick But Don't Hurry

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Legendary Coach John Wooden Would Use This Phrase To Motivate His Teams Growing up I often heard my dad say; “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” He was quoting the famous UCLA men’s basketball coach, John Wooden, who won a record 10 national championships in 12 years. I would have never guessed it at the time, but this lesson at an early age has proven foundational for all aspects of my life, especially when it comes to sales and customer relationships. These words echo in my mind today as I think about how my dad tried to impart to my brother and me the value of a strong  work ethic  and persistence. It rankled him to watch a job done poorly just because someone was lazy and inefficient. He loathed a rushed process, cut corners, or when people scraped by doing the bare minimum. Quick Communication Versus Hurried Responses Effective communication is key to customer relationships. It is what makes the difference between going quickly and h...