service

Dec

2020

Start-up Terms That Every New Entrepreneur Should Know

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Starting a new business? Here is a list of start-up terms that every new entrepreneur should know:

1. Angel Investor

Also known as a seed investor, an angel investor is a high net worth individual who invests money in a start-up. This person can be a family or friend of the business owner. in return for the money invested, the investor will then become a shareholder of the company.

2. Business-to-Business (B2B)

A B2B business means that your product or service is being offered to other businesses.

3. Business-to-Consumers (B2C)

A B2C business means that your product or service is being offered directly to consumers.

4. Beta Test

Beta testing is the final testing of a product before it gets released to the market. This allows the company to receive direct feedback from its target customer. It is the same as a soft opening soft or soft launch. In short, it is a trial run. By doing this, a company gets a chance to improve the product or service.

5. Bootstrapping

Bootstrapping is building a company from scratch with limited resources using your own personal savings.

6. Burn Rate

Also known as the run rate, it is amount of cash that is being used by the company to finance its operation. In a way, it is the rate of money that the company is losing each month because the company is not yet earning. In short, it is the negative cash flow.

7. Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

The minimum viable product is a version of the product with just the basic features. This version is just enough for the product to be usable to its target customers. Releasing a minimum viable product is cost-effective. It also shortens the product development phase. In addition, the business can start receiving feedbacks from the customers that they can use to further improve the product.

8. Pivot

A pivot is a shift of business strategy when the initial product or service failed.

9. Return-on-Investment (ROI)

The return on investment is the measure of whether a business is profitable or not in a given fiscal year. To calculate the ROI, simply divide the net profit with the total investment made then multiply by 100. Generally, an average return of 5-12% is good.

10.Venture Capital

Venture capital are private firms that offer financing to start-up companies. These firms can be pension funds, financial institutions, investment banks or even universities. They see potential long-term growth in the start-up. These firms will buy a stake in the company for a certain period of time and then exit once they are already profitable.

Photo by Startup Stock Photos from Pexels

Sep

2020

How to Rise Above Difficult Circumstances

Reading Time: 4 minutes

You are in pain. You are having a tough time. Nothing seems to be going your way. You just want everything to end. Unfortunately, no matter how miserable you are; life will go on. If it is any consolation, think that you are not alone. All of us, at several points in our lives have to go through challenges.No one is exempted even if you are the smartest and wealthiest person in the world. That’s just the way life is. The good news is that if you feel like you have already reached the lowest point in your life, then there is nowhere to go but up. Take inspiration and some lessons on how to rise above difficult circumstances in life.

Life always waits for some crisis to occur before revealing itself at its most brilliant.
– Paulo Coelho

Low points are the turning points in life. What you make out of them will define who you are and what you will become in the future.

An Inspiring Story

Here is an inspiring story of how a woman overcame her lowest point in life. She was a wife and a mother. Her day-to-day activities revolved around her family. She was financially dependent on her husband. She was also too much emotionally invested into the relationship. Her whole world crumbled when she got separated from her husband after being together for over a decade. It was not just one aspect of her life that ended, it was practically her whole life – her relationship, her dreams, her financial support and worst of all her self-worth. It was devastating.

Today, she is an investor and an entrepreneur who manages several businesses. She employs people especially women who underwent the same experience as her. Her free time is spent helping some marginalized people in society. She is also active in her spiritual community.

It is easier to just give up. Instead, this lady fought back and rose to the challenge that life has to offer. She succeeded in making her greatest crisis as the starting point in turning her life around.

How To Rise Above Difficult Circumstances

She shared with me the steps and some lessons on how to rise above difficult circumstances in life:

1. Embrace the Negative Emotions

The first step to healing is to embrace the negative emotions. Yes, it’s okay to not be okay, at least at first. Anger, frustration, fear and helplessness are all part of life. Avoiding, denying, ignoring and keeping them inside will only make matters worse. Pain demands our attention. Whether it is a loss of a love one, the end of a relationship, business failure, or whatever painful experience it is; we need to acknowledge them first before we can move on. Avoiding these emotions in the short-term will only lead to stress and long-term pain. Escaping the negative emotions through alcohol and drugs are never a solution, it will only lead to self-destruction.

2. Acceptance

Acceptance is understanding and realizing the reality of your situation. There are just some things that are beyond your control. There is no point to continue blaming yourself or other people for the things that happened. Know that things happen for a reason.Just let go. It is difficult to understand why it had to happen to you at that particular moment but later on as you look back in life, you will understand why certain events turned out that way. Just accept the fact that there are things that we need to experience in order to grow as a person.

You cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that somehow the dots will connect in your future.
– Steve Jobs

3. Self-Searching

In order to get back in track, you need to start your journey towards self-discovery. Self-discovery means finding yourself again. Meditate and ask yourself, who are you? What makes you happy? Think about your hobbies and interests. Then, ask yourself, what are you good at? Look for the genius within you. It involves recalling your childhood days and remembering past events and experiences in your life that shaped you as a person. It is about knowing who you really are and what you want to accomplish in your life.

As part of your journey in figuring out who you are and who you can be, it is important to not just look into your heart but also to include God in your journey towards self-discovery. Pray. Read God’s word. Meditate. Include God in your plans. And then, surrender.

4. Set Goals

Once you have decided what you want to do in life, it is now time to set some goals. Goals are your stepping stone towards a new version of you. Having goals will give you a sense of meaning and purpose in life. You are done crying over your past. It is now time to look at the future and plan the direction of your life. In order to succeed, you need to make SMART goals.

5. Reconnect with Friends and Make New Ones

Being alone at the beginning is necessary in your journey towards self-discovery. However, long periods of isolation is no longer healthy. Once you have set your goals, it is now time to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. There are people that you need in your life . Extend your social circle. Join support groups. Attend trainings and seminars to help you meet new people in your chosen field of interest. But remember, choose the people that you hang out with. Stay away from toxic individuals. Instead, hang out with people that will motivate you to achieve your goals for you are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with.

6. Serve Others

Serving others will lead to deeper healing. When you serve others, you don’t think about our own pain. Instead, you think about other people’s situations. Once you think about the needs of others, you begin the process of healing. Thus, you end up actually helping yourself. It will also help you identify all the blessings in your life and feel grateful. The fact is even at your lowest point, there will be others who are in a worse state than you. Spending time with them will help you realize how blessed you are.

First published in Pinoy Smart Living on 10.2.2019.

Feature Image by Posted by A.L. Jonas in Emotional, 0 comments

Aug

2020

Launch : Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity

Reading Time: 3 minutes

You found your genius and you have finally figured out how to monetize it. You are now ready to launch. But wait, not just yet. To minimize failures, John Spencer and A.J. Juliani, authors of the book Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity talks about using design thinking as framework to boost the creative cycle.

Design Thinking

Design Thinking is actually a mindset that is is a solution-based approach in solving problems. It is focused on building up creative ideas. It put importance on creating value for the people on whom you are building the product or service for rather than on the work itself. In short, it is solution-focused rather than problem-focused.

Contrary to popular belief, design thinking is not just for designers or in people in the arts. It is applicable in any field. You can use it in the corporate world, politics, engineering and education. You can even use it to motivate and guide children if you want them to grow up as active creators rather than merely consumers.

The Launch Cycle

There are many models for design thinking, but John Spencer and A.J,Juliani created a design thinking framework that although catered towards students, it is still applicable for everyone. It is simple and easy to remember.

L – Look, Listen and Learn

Before creation, people are encouraged to first observe your surroundings. Look at what products or services are being offered out there that is quite similar to what you want to offer. Listen and be aware of the current problems or issues. Empathize with the people that you want to serve. What do they need most? And then learn from other’s mistakes so that you can avoid them.

A – Ask tons of questions

Based on the observation, people are encouraged to ask as many questions as they can. It is the simplest and most effective way in learning and applying the creative process. Questions help generate better solutions to the problem at hand.

U – Understanding the process / problem

This is the phase where the research comes in. To be able to better understand the process or the problem, an in-depth study is needed. The authors defined research to include watching videos, conducting interviews, doing surveys, read articles and publications, analyzing data and doing hands-on activities. In short, gather as much data as possible and analyze them until you have completely grasp the problem.

N – Navigate ideas

This is the time to apply the acquired knowledge in the product or service that you want to create. If you are part of a team, this is the time to brainstorm ideas. Try to focus on one specific problem that you want to address and generate a new concept from there. Identify also the necessary steps and resources that you need to create your product or service.

C – Create a Prototype

Once you have completed the first four phases, you are now ready to create a prototype. This is the phase where you bring your ideas to life. It is creating a sample for your product.

H – Highlight and fix

Try, test and get feedbacks from your prototype. This phase is all about highlighting what’s working and fixing what is not. Correct all the mistakes and improve your product/service.

LAUNCH

Once you have made the necessary revisions, you are now ready to launch. Many people fail because they jumped right up to this step right away. They have invested their resources only to find out that their project/business does not work. The launch cycle helps prevent that from happening.

Here is a scenario to illustrate the importance of the cycle. You found out that you have a passion for baking cupcakes. You want to monetize it so you decided to open a pancake shop. Unfortunately, the sales ended up not as you expected. So, you were forced to close your business after a few months’ operation. Shortly after, you heard feedback from a friend that your cupcakes are too sweet for most people. And besides, there is a cupcake shop at the next corner that sells cheaper and tastier cupcakes.

The waste of resources and the failure of the business could have been prevented if you have only used the launch cycle prior to you launching your business. If you only made samples first and ask people to get feedback from people, you could have adjusted the recipe for your cupcakes. In addition, if you have done your research, you would have known the existence of the other cupcake shop in that area. It is difficult to make the necessary adjustments if you had already formally launch because there are already so many things to consider.

Watch this video to find out more.

Video Credit: John Spencer

Feature Image by WikiImages from Pixabay.