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Author: Danna Olivo

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Accounting Economics Growth Investing Personal Development

Show Me The Money – Part Deux

By Danna Olivo
Show Me The Money – Part Deux
June 9, 2022

Funding is a crucial part of any business’ success. Unless your balance sheet shows a massive cash hoard like Apple’s, at some point, you must answer funding questions if you’re planning to expand your business or just to make it financially stable.

When do you need additional financing?

Business growth happens in five consecutive stages. Let’s compare it to birthing and raising a child. During any or all stages an entrepreneur may be looking for funding to manage the growth process.

  • Napkin Stage – This is conception. The business is a spark in the eye of the entrepreneur. They have a vision or dream of what their business will be like.
  • Proof Stage – This is the stage where the business passes the sniff test or NOT in the market (Is there a need? Is the price enough? Who are your competitors?) Is it worth the time and investment needed to pursue this opportunity?
  • Build Stage – This is where the business model is developed, and the processes and methodologies are identified and proven. Think of this as the stage when a child grows and develops through the developmental years as he/she matures.
  • Funding Stage – This is the stage when the child is ready to graduate and go out on its own and spread its wings. The business is ready to move into the next phase of growth (exponential scaling.) To do that requires equity funding, planning, and resource management…meaning MONEY!
  • Growth Stage – this is the stage when the business grows exponentially. Profit margins increase as revenue dollars increase. The business may be able to run autonomously allowing entrepreneurs to relax and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

There are several reasons why a business needs to have a fresh influx of capital, and here are some of them:

Additional working capital

Having enough working capital is important when looking at a company’s financial health. Lack thereof may have a serious impact on the future of your business. Many businesses choose to apply for external funding to create enough working capital to enable them to fulfill their growth ambitions.

A loan can cover short-term funding requirements while giving the business the money it needs to grow or bridge the gap between customer orders and supplier payments to help the company meet its funding obligations.

Working capital also means that you will have additional funds to venture into new, potentially revenue-generating opportunities.

Asset purchase

Unless you’re content with your current revenues and output, it’s part and parcel of any company to have expansion plans. And part of any expansion plan is the purchase of assets.

Starting a business

If you’re in a business for too long, let’s say manufacturing, you’ll probably realize that some parts of your normal processes are better left with those you can control. So, it is quite normal for any business to control and build other businesses around their main ones.

Going back to the example, if you’re in manufacturing, you might consider building other businesses that aid in helping you with your raw materials or logistics.

Why is funding a bit of a challenge for startups?

Availability of funding sources may not be a problem with old, established companies, but it is quite a challenge for startups. According to a study, more than 75% of startups aged less than two years old, and more than 70% of businesses aged 2-5 years old have reported difficulty in getting funded.

More than half of startups have sought funding at some point, but only a little over a quarter of those who applied got approved. Out of those approved, a whopping 41% didn’t get the amount of funding they hoped for.

There are several factors why startups experience a certain degree of hardship when securing much-needed financing. Aside from age (which may be correlated with stability), some startups also fail to show how their business is scalable. Consequently, since they don’t have an idea (yet) how to expand their business, they also do not have an idea of how much additional funds they need. The worst kind is that they don’t know what to spend on.

Lenders are also looking out for returns, so if they think that your company might not be able to deliver, then it would be natural to get declined.

Types of financing available

The good news is that this article will set out the common ways you can consider getting some additional funding:

Self-funding

The best (and the cheapest) option for funding your business is using your savings. This will give you peace of mind knowing that despite having “skin” in the game, you won’t be saddled with loans to pay in the event the business goes under.

Some entrepreneurs who have resorted to self-fund their businesses say that they’re more driven knowing that “it’s all or nothing”. Since they’re staking their wealth on the line, they don’t have a choice but to work hard and smart to get back capital.

Debt-funding

Banks

If you’re one of the few business owners who have a stellar credit score from the start, then one practical option for you is to get some bank-funded loans. A traditional business term loan is the easiest type of debt financing to understand because it’s probably what you naturally think of when you think of a business loan.

You borrow a fixed amount of money, usually for a specifically stated business purpose. Then, you pay back the loan over a fixed term and typically at a fixed interest rate.

Small Business Administration (SBA)

There are three types of loans that the SBA offers:

7(a) program: The most common SBA loan program, the 7(a) loan program, offers loans up to $5 million to be used for a wide variety of purposes. Use our guide to learn more about the SBA 7(a) loan program.

Microloan program: The SBA microloan program provides financing opportunities for entrepreneurs needing between $500 and $50,000 in funding. Designed for newer businesses, the SBA microloan program is one of the best forms of debt financing for startups. Learn more about the SBA microloan program.

CDC/504 program: The SBA’s CDC/504 loan program is designed for businesses looking to make a major fixed asset purchase—such as large equipment, land improvements, or the purchase or renovation of an existing building. Borrowers through this program can take out up to $5 million, with repayment terms of up to 20 years and interest rates based on current treasury rates. Use our guide to learn more about the SBA 504 loan program.

Equity funding

Angel Funding: Compared to Venture capitalists, angel investors may offer more flexible investment terms compared to venture capital firms. Angel Investors are known for putting up a significant amount of money in exchange for equity in the startup.

Angel investment may be too much for a small shop owner, but small plant owners, tech startups, or firms can take advantage of this source.

Since you’re giving up a portion of your company’s ownership, this may not be the best option if you’re conscious of that. Especially since they will also become part owners, they will certainly have a say in how the business is run. They’ll be highly interested in your exit strategy, as they will make most of their money when your business is sold. So, we suggest you carefully screen who you let in your company.

Venture Capital: Venture capitalists are similar to angel investors. However, since they operate as a group, they tend to infuse a larger amount of capital than angel investors (think of $2 million and up). Being professional investors, they can guide you in growing your business. They’ll also probably be interested in having a say in how your business operates.

Keep in mind that venture capital firms will invest at a point when injecting more capital into your business will result in further growth and more profit.

Crowdfunding: If you don’t like opening a large chunk of your business exclusively to one angel investor or a venture capital firm, you can investigate crowdfunding instead. In crowdfunding, a community of small investors puts up funds and invests them in your business. Since their shares are too small to have a say in how things are run in your company, having them individually won’t be as challenging operation-wise.

However, since you will be in debt to a LOT MORE people, you will have to be a bit more transparent with your campaigns and make them measurable and understandable. Having a well-established network of friends and professional contacts can increase the chances of a successful campaign.

Factoring (receivable financing): Factoring is a financial transaction and a type of debtor finance in which a business sells its accounts receivable to a third party at a discount. Sometimes, a business will factor its receivable assets to meet its present and immediate cash needs.

For example, you’re working on the construction. You have accounts receivable from your client worth $100,000. But to work on that project, you need additional capital that you don’t have now. This is where factor funding comes in. You sell your receivable for a discount, and in turn, you get the funds you need to start on the project.

Mezzanine capital: Mezzanine capital is like combining the best out of equity and debt financing. What happens is that banks usually do not lend money to businesses that just started, right? They just do not have enough information for the bank to make an informed decision. With Mezzanine capital, you can get financing from banks despite not having the requisite “business maturity,” but this is the tricky part—you must relinquish a bit of your equity.

It’s a fair exchange if you ask our opinion. The downside of this arrangement is that the interest rates might be a bit high to make up for the risk that the banks are taking. However, we maintain that this funding option is still one of the best out there.

Bottomline

There are a lot of practical funding options for any business owner. It’s up to you to determine which one suits your needs best. MarketAtomy has a FREE eBook entitled the “Business Funding Resource Guide,” highlighting the 7 Steps to understanding the SCIENCE of Business Funding. Head over to Marketatomy.com for our latest business blogs and articles.

Next blog we will be discussing when to know you are ready for funding. Stay tuned.

Danna Olivo is a Growth Strategist, Author, and Public Speaker. As CEO of MarketAtomy LLC, her passion is working with first-stage business owners to ensure that they are prepared and equipped to launch and grow a successful small business. She understands the intricacies involved early on in business formation and as such the challenges that come with it. A graduate of the University of Central Florida’s College of Business, Danna brings more than 40 years of experience strategically working with small and medium businesses, helping them reach their growth goals. danna.olivo@marketatomy.com

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Tell Me A Story | How Storytelling Impacts the Brain

Ever since the history of the world began, stories have played a crucial role in human development.

According to some studies, language and the ability to create and tell stories enabled the human race to survive during our early stages. That break became so instrumental that thousands of years later, we eventually evolved into one of the most dominant species on the planet.

Stories are powerful.

Once you hear stories, you’re immediately transported to another world. You’re placed in the shoes of the storyteller, and you immediately see, hear, and feel what he’s talking about. The more tension-filled the story is the more your palms sweat, eyes blink, or heart flutter.

Many different brain areas light up when someone is listening to a narrative. Aside from the networks involved in language processing, other neural circuits light up too. One study of listeners found that the brain networks that process emotions arising from sounds — along with areas involved in the movement — activate, especially during the emotional parts of the story.

Stories connect us

One amazing thing that happens in the background is that as you hear a story unfold, your brain waves start to sync with that of the storyteller. A study once recorded the brain activity of two people wherein one person told a story, and the other listened. The study found that the greater the listener’s comprehension, the more closely the brain wave patterns mirrored those of the storyteller.

It’s as if we make stories as a tool to be connected with one another.

Stories bolster creativity

Another important impact of stories on our brain is that it bolsters creativity and imagination. As you hear stories being told, your brain naturally anticipates and comes up with possible scenarios that could fit the story. When we hear stories, brain networks involved in deciphering — or imagining — another person’s motives and the areas involved in guessing what will happen next are activated, Neeley said. Imagining what drives other people — which feeds into our predictions — helps us see a situation from different perspectives.

Stories create a bond

Lastly, this is helpful in the medical field too. When we hear stories or anecdotes from people we know, we tend to identify with them. An invisible bond is somehow created. For example, when you hear someone, you know take, a particular medicine, you tend to follow suit (even if at some point you had qualms about taking it). That’s how powerful stories are in rewiring your thought processes.

Join us for our 3-Day Challenge
Building A Hero’s Journey | The Art of Telling Your Hero Story
June 1st – 3rd | 11:30 am EST

If you want to learn more about storytelling and how stories can impact your brain, you can check out our latest blog at MarketAtomy.com.

Danna Olivo is a Growth Strategist, Author, and Public Speaker. As CEO of MarketAtomy LLC, her passion is working with first-stage business owners to ensure that they are prepared and equipped to launch and grow a successful small business. She understands the intricacies involved early on in business formation and as such the challenges that come with it. A graduate of the University of Central Florida’s College of Business, Danna brings more than 40 years of experience strategically working with small and medium businesses, helping them reach their growth goals. danna.olivo@marketatomy.com

Categories
Best Practices Marketing Personal Development

What’s In A Name?

 

The Story Behind The Brand Name

Shakespeare famously said before, “Do not judge a book by its cover.” Or in this context, we shouldn’t judge an establishment by its name. Unfortunately, this doesn’t hold much water when you’re running a business. In business, your name matters—a lot.

You see, a business name is more than just that. It signifies something more powerful. It represents what your business is all about, what it stands for. In the same vein, a name can have an instant effect on how your customers perceive you because every word, every sound, and every letter impacts the way we think and feel.

Coming up with the appropriate brand name is one of the most crucial things you have to think about when engaged in business. It can mean all the difference between a brand that instantly hits off or falls completely flat.

Yet, when you’re just starting, choosing a name is probably the second-to-the-last thing on your mind. Of course, there are lots of other things that come first, right? You still have to polish (or revise) your business plan, create your products, and research your audience. However, trust us when we say that creating a company name is useful. It could either make or break your brand.

Think of this process as similar to laying the foundations of a building. Discovering how to create a brand name can help you set the foundation for your company.

How to come up with a name that matters

The key to creating a brand name that sticks in the minds of your customers or is simply “catchy” and helps towards establishing brand recognition and awareness are the following:

It must be evocative

Simply describing your product or service could make your name too generic. Everyone else is doing that. Instead, try to come up with something that has a story behind it. Of course, the story has to be related to your business.

Stories have a powerful effect on our brain. When you’re given a really interesting story, your palms start to sweat, you’ll blink faster, and your heart might flutter or skip. Your facial expressions shift, and the muscles above your eyebrows will react to the words — another sign that you’re engaged.

Now, imagine feeling this when thinking about a brand. Take Apple, for example. Apple is a fruit, but it has come to be associated with cutting-edge technology, quality, and user-friendly designs over the years.

Make it Timeless

A name should be neutral enough to transcend time. Your name shouldn’t be something that restricts your brand.

It has to be timeless and one of the most effective ways to make sure that your name is “timeless” is to ensure that you create something that resonates with the emotions of your target audience, rather than limiting yourself to a basic descriptive term.

For instance, Nintendo didn’t just call themselves “The Gameboy Company.” Nintendo went with an evocative name with room for growth.

Consider the “looks” of the brand

Imagery is by far one of the most powerful poetic devices to use when creating a brand name with meaning. You leave a lasting impact if your brand can produce an image in your customer’s minds.

Some of the best phrases in literature earned their popularity because they evoke images in the reader’s mind. Think about how you can use the imagery in your name to convey an idea of your brand. GoPro, for example, leaves a lasting image of adventure and freedom on its customer’s minds.

Bottomline

Coming up with a brand name may be a daunting task, but that’s what the team is for. One way to make the process a bit easier is to think about what your company is all about and then come up with a brand that resonates with that. Everything else will eventually fall into place.

Pro tip from MarketAtomy.com: Come up with a name that you can easily trademark and find a domain for. After all, our goal here is to increase brand awareness and recognition. Making it easily recognizable online is one essential step.

Enter Our Naming Contest

Participate in MarketAtomy’s “What’s In A Name”  Contest. Submit the name of your business and a short introduction, video, or in writing, describing the story behind the name. The winning submission will be selected on May 10th, 2022. The winning submission will receive $100 and be featured on an Episode of the Charged-Up Studio Podcast. All submissions must be received by 12 AM EST May 5th (Cinco de Mayo) to qualify. Submissions should be sent to info@marketatomy.com.

Danna Olivo is a Growth Strategist, Author, and Public Speaker. As CEO of MarketAtomy LLC, her passion is working with first-stage business owners to ensure that they are prepared and equipped to launch and grow a successful small business. She understands the intricacies involved early on in business formation and as such the challenges that come with it. A graduate of the University of Central Florida’s College of Business, Danna brings more than 40 years of experience strategically working with small and medium businesses, helping them reach their growth goals. danna.olivo@marketatomy.com

 

Categories
Culture Economics Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Personal Development

How is the Great Resignation Driving Cultural Change in the Workplace?

Employees have been caught in limbo during the past couple of years. In thinking about the next career path, they should take, some employees are considering relying on accumulated savings over the years rather than continuing in seemingly lifeless employment.

Publicists have coined this event the Great Resignation—mostly credited to the effects of the pandemic, droves of employees have considered (and might have chosen) to leave their jobs.

To understand how the Great Resignation came to be, we should focus on two important factors: care and burnout.

What is Driving the Great Resignation? 

Even before the pandemic, employees are caught in a vicious cycle of outperforming each other. Employees are measured by nothing else but the amount of contribution they bring to the organization. If you have not hit your quota, you don’t have the “right” to take it easy and have a break. Employees are glorified for working 10-hour (or more!) workdays. This is not sustainable and has got to end at some point. When you’re working day in and day out with no end in sight, burnout is imminent.

This feeling of burnout was exacerbated by the lack of care some employers have shown their employees during the height of the pandemic. While some employers have been quick to deploy employee-friendly policies towards performance, attendance, and other factors, others maintained a rigid mindset. They dismissed the threat of the pandemic and continued to demand the same intensity from their employees without showing a little compassion and care.

These two factors came together and somewhat gave the employees the necessary jolt to finally proceed in leaving their posts.

Changes That We Can Expect in the Workplace Moving Forward

The Great Resignation may have been a wake-up call for employers to step up. Before the management and the employees may have existed on two separate planes but if there’s anything the Great Resignation and the pandemic have taught us is that our quality of life, safety, and health are far more important than our jobs, roles, and profits.

The pandemic has made us rethink how fleeting our lives are. Therefore, it will become normal for both employers and employees to find more fulfilling things to do.

You can expect that employers and employees will no longer face burnout and lack of care separately. With that, we can expect that these two groups will collaborate in making the working environment more conducive for growth and development for the employees and for the company to be recognized for having a “toxic-free” work culture.

Short-term fixes such as offering people more money or promotion will no longer make them stay. Even if they do, you’re just delaying the inevitable–short-term benefits have failed to turn demoralized employees into happy ones, time and time again.

Progressive cultural changes should start from the company. Take this opportunity to reset your organization’s purpose, find time to listen to your people, prioritize learning and development – give your employees a sense of purpose, and most importantly give a lot of importance to their well-being. [eut_single_image image_type=”image-link” image_mode=”medium” image=”32020″ link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fc-suitenetwork.com%2Fexecutive-membership|||”]

What’s Next?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 4.5 million workers quit or changed their jobs in November of 2021. The percentage of “quit rate” – the percentage of those who voluntarily left their jobs – jumped back up to 3 percent. A March 2021 survey found that 54 percent of employees around the world would consider leaving their job if they were not provided some form of flexibility in where and when they work. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that 2021 saw a whopping 5.4 million new business applications, surpassing the 4.4 million in 2020. In 2019 there were 3.5 million applications reported. What do all these numbers represent?

Two things are blatantly clear…first, the tide has shifted from an EMPLOYER dominant workforce to an EMPLOYEE one. Secondly, the number of new inexperienced business owners has increased by more than 2 million applications. If given the opportunity and resources needed to survive the next 2-5 years, we could see a tremendous boost in our nation’s GDP as more money is pumped into our economy, not to mention our labor force. Or…we could see the downside of this economic surge as businesses follow the norm and fail within the next 3-5 years.

MarketAtomy LLC is committed to keeping this from happening by bringing the resources and education needed to prepare these new business owners for growing a successful small business. To find out more go to marketatomy.com or to our eLearning environment at marketatomy.academy.

Danna Olivo is a Growth Strategist, Author, and Public Speaker. As CEO of MarketAtomy LLC, her passion is working with first-stage business owners to ensure that they are prepared and equipped to launch and grow a successful small business. She understands the intricacies involved early on in business formation and as such the challenges that come with it. A graduate of the University of Central Florida’s College of Business, Danna brings more than 40 years of experience strategically working with small and medium businesses, helping them reach their growth goals. danna.olivo@marketatomy.com

[eut_single_image image_type=”image-link” image_mode=”medium” image=”32023″ link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fc-suitenetwork.com%2Fexecutive-membership|||”]

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Leadership Marketing Personal Development

Adjusting To The New Normal

The past several months leading up to and into 2022 I have been concentrating a great deal of effort preparing my clients and prospects for the New Normal ushered in by the COVID Pandemic. By now I believe that as business owners we can all agree that the old way of doing business has given way to a whole new way that involves:

  • Less personal customer/prospect interaction
  • Streamlined/reduced resources and personnel
  • Increases reliance on technology interfaces, and
  • New means of communicating and connecting

What amazes me is that with all these changes there has also been a growing sense of productivity, focus, and community around family and friends. So, the dilemma is ‘How do we capitalize on the New Normal moving forward as we strive to grow and scale our businesses or careers?’ I have included 5 tips to help weed out the confusion and uncertainty brought about by the changes that have taken place and how to Take Back Control.

Stop listening to all the chatter

The first step in gaining the upper hand in your own life and business is to stop listening to what everyone else is saying. The Pandemic has introduced so-called ‘experts’ introducing shock and awe into an already frightening situation. As responsible individuals, we can choose how we react to what is happening around us and whether we let it govern us or we can take back control.

Take stock of the impact

The Pandemic has really had on us personally. Weigh the Pros and Cons. What seems to be a mess and negatively impacting our lives may also be introducing something that was lost a long time ago. I am constantly hearing stories about how families are reconnecting, workers realizing that chasing the brass ring was taking away from what was important in their lives. I for one have realized that by being confined and working from my home, my productivity has increased three-fold. I no longer am putting 100+ miles a day on my car, ultimately saving time, gas, and maintenance on my car.

Take advantage of looser time restraints 

The Pandemic has introduced a new way of working, allowing more flexibility to spend as ‘ME’ time. Don’t be afraid to take an hour or two here or there during the workweek for downtime. Take a walk around the block, take the kids to the zoo, or spend some quality time with your ‘better’ half. Not being tied to an office 8-9 hours a day, allows you the freedom of flexibility.

Set up a dedicated space for work at home

Although the Pandemic has ushered in some positive advantages, these can easily be squashed when there is not a dedicated work/home life separation. Working from home can make it difficult to shut down, blurring the lines between work and family. Whether growing your own business or working at home in a remote position, you need to be disciplined enough to know when to close the door at work every day.

Pay close attention to trend changes

Now is not the time to become complacent thinking that THIS is the NEW Normal. Things are far from over when it comes to the impact of COVID. We will continue to see new and improved changes in technology, communications, operational management, streamlined systems, and much more as we maneuver the new normal way of working. To succeed in this changing environment it is more important than ever for you to remain apprised of the changes coming down the pike.

2022 will be a year of discovery and restructuring as we Take Back Control of our lives both personally and professionally. MarketAtomy is offering a 5-Day challenge February 21st – 25th “Taking Back Control in 2022” exploring trend changes impacting business growth moving forward. To register go to https://bpchallenge.teawithchris.com/

MarketAtomy, LLC is a growth development-learning environment for small and medium business owners with one goal in mind…to empower them with the tools and knowledge needed to build their business on a rock-solid foundation. Through foresight and fortitude, entrepreneurial dreams become a reality. For more information, please visit marketatomy.com. Visit MarketAtomy.Academy to find out about the only Learning Management System developed for early-stage business growth.

Categories
Entrepreneurship Personal Development Women In Business

Taking Back Control In 2022!

The new decade starting in 2020 ushered in a plethora of unexpected turns, from the ongoing economic recession that began during the previous decade to the newest and most impactful economic disruption…COVID19 is not even two months into the new decade! Have the past 24 months set the tone for what we can expect the next eight years to bring? Good or bad… acknowledgment and adaptation to meet the challenges that come with a changing economic infrastructure require critical thinking and strategic implementation.

We can sit back and hope for things to return to normal, or we can accept that what we’re experiencing today is the NEW Normal, and it is now time to Take Back Control! For me, the past two years have seen me pivot considerably in my business. Before 2020, my business engaged primarily in personal interaction through networking, seminars, and conferences for almost ten years. However, once COVID-19 kicked in I had to rethink how I would continue to serve my primary audience and deliver the programs they needed while being sequestered from my home.

Looking Back to Move Forward

I spent the next 20 months developing an online platform designed to educate and connect small and micro business owners. Although, I had always planned on building an online educational platform, COVID-19 just pushed the timeline up a little. Looking back, I realize that being forced to introduce this platform early was a God thing! There hasn’t been a better time to introduce this environment than now. Especially since we have seen almost an 80% increase in new business licenses issued since the beginning of 2020.

What was proposed to be the introduction of 20/20 vision that would enable us to see everything much more clearly than ever before … seems to have missed its mark. Or has it?

I believe that the past 24 months have introduced clarity and shown us what was missing in our personal and professional lives. For so many years we have been driven by our desires for things and the need to earn money to pay for said things. We were living in a rut chasing a speculative future. As a result, our immediate family lives have suffered a severe disconnect.

Priority Mindshift

Reports have indicated that a major part of the rise in business license applications has been a direct result of individuals realizing that time spent reconnecting with family mattered more than the material things they were chasing. They realized that they could afford to cash out and take the leap into business ownership.

However, businesses need to be more resilient, adaptable, and agile to cope with everything that’s going on in the world…and what may still be down the road. The focus moving forward should be made on how to build a business strategy and marketing. Business strategies are the blueprint for how you plan to run your company and how you will mitigate what happens down the road. No matter how much uncertainty exists, entrepreneurs need to build business strategies for 2022 to move forward.

Let’s dive into the business strategies that entrepreneurs build to move forward in 2022

MarketAtomy LLC will be holding a 10-hour virtual annual planning workshop series beginning January 31, 2022. For more information and to register go to https://www.marketatomy.com/gpstrategy-2/

_________________________

MarketAtomy, LLC is a growth development-learning environment for small and medium business owners with one goal in mind…to empower them with the tools and knowledge needed to build their business on a rock-solid foundation. Through foresight and fortitude, entrepreneurial dreams become a reality. For more information, please visit marketatomy.com. Visit MarketAtomy.Academy to find out about the only Learning Management System developed for early-stage business growth.

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Leadership Marketing Personal Development

Five Phases of Business Growth You Should Know

Would you agree that it’s easier to start a business now than 20 years ago? According to an article by the World Bank, the time to start a new small is favorable.

This can be attributed to many different factors. According to this article, 18 years ago, it took entrepreneurs worldwide 52 days to register a business, on average. Now, it only takes around 20 days. More countries have opened online channels making the registration process more convenient, accessible, and affordable than before.

If you’ve been planning to start a business, now’s probably the best time to do so.

Why? Because we’re seeing a shift in the way people do business. The recent pandemic has greatly transformed the market landscape.

Due to COVID restrictions, consumers were initially pushed to transact purely online, relying on market makers such as Amazon, eBay, and other internet-based platforms, but now that everything’s slowly getting back to “normal,” signs are saying that the consumer behaviors might not go back to the level it was before COVID hit.

Regardless, business is business, and in this article, MarketAtomy will share with you something crucial—the five phases of business growth. This is a particularly handy piece of information to know, especially if you plan to start a business soon.

Why Learn the Five Phases?

Think about your primary motivation for why you’re planning to engage in business. Nine times out of ten, people will start a business for the additional income stream. While there’s nothing wrong with equating business with money, this is only half of the story.

Successful business models that we see in the present such as Amazon and Paypal, paint a rosy picture of the possibilities of starting a business. Spend ten minutes on Instagram, and you’ll be bombarded with profiles of people who claim to have made it big selling online and the like. But, if you notice, they’ll only advertise their profits—”I earned xxx amount of $$$ in just one month doing one strategy.” This will lead you to think that as long as you spend on this one thing, you’ll be able to make it.

While there’s nothing wrong with that, they often make it appear that building a business is as easy as a walk in the park and one-dimensional—it’s not. And, as long as your heart is in the right place, your business will surely make it—that’s not often the case. All in all, It’s quite rare to see influencers who are on the side of caution when it comes to encouraging people to engage in business.

That’s why we’re doing this because we want you to take a step back and look at this with a more discerning eye. Be more objective, strategic, and calculating. Building a business and bringing it to success is indeed life-changing and rewarding, but the opposite could also happen. So we’re here to guide you so that you’ll be prepared for things to come.

1. See It

The first phase in every business foundation is what we, at MarketAtomy, like to call the “see it” phase.

When you look around you, you see all sorts of interactions. From these interactions, you see pain points, areas of struggle, areas of improvement. In other words, these are problems that make an otherwise hassle-free transaction inconvenient—think about the last time you ordered your food or went to pay for something, etc. So what are the processes involved in the current status quo that’s broken and, if fixed, can greatly promote convenience?

The answer to that question is “the idea,” which is where all businesses start. Jeff Bezos knew that people needed books. A bookstore should be able to supply people with books, but fortunately for him, not everyone lives near a bookstore, and there was a new invention created that would allow people from across the US to buy things online—the internet. Amazon started as a bookstore, selling books and making them accessible to everyone. From there, the rest is history.

2. Prove It

Your business idea will not go much further until you bring it to the next level. This is what we call the “prove it” stage. Just like any prudent scientist, you do not accept anything just because you’ve seen it happen once or twice. Instead, you investigate, you ask questions, you observe. The most important question to answer in this phase is: “How can I profit by solving this problem?”

Thus, you should focus on finding out if you have a market. Find out whether there’s truly a need for you to solve a problem, not because you personally like it, but because there’s a certain number of people who are willing to pay you to solve the problem for them. Only after testing your theories and assumptions can you truly say that what you have is a verified hypothesis, and consequently, the business model you built around is something viable and feasible.

3. Build It

Once you have the idea in place, it’s now time to come up with a business model and lay down the groundwork to build your business. Contact possible suppliers and play with certain game theory elements to develop multiple scenarios that may affect your business.

Come up with a list of costs, funding sources, workforce sources, logistics providers, etc. This is the part where your financial resources become useful. For example, you may have to shell out a few bucks to rent a place, procure materials, hire your crew, etc.

More importantly, this is where you come up with different strategies concerning sales, marketing, and customer service. And this is where you should plan for your objectives in the short and long term.

4. Fund It

The challenge to every startup is where to get the funding. Too often, we resign to the fact that the institution to go to is the bank or the credit union closest to us.

Unless you have a stellar record with these institutions, your business loan application might have little chance of getting approved. But does that mean you should abandon your “dream” of building a business altogether? Of course not! It might be a setback for sure, but sometimes, we only need to look at our business model a second time.

After being denied funding, we sometimes realize that we don’t need additional funds from these institutions or investors (who may sound like they have our best interest in mind but are just really waiting for a chance to take over our business).

Being denied funding sometimes means we start with a handicap, that’s all. Then after proving that the business churns out income consistently, we can go back to the bank with the proof they need to grant us that business loan.

5. Grow It

You might think that you just want a simple business, and there’s no need to concern yourself with any expansion plans, but you want to be prepared in case you change your mind.

Why did we start this business in the first place? Was it purely for profit? Probably not. We started this business because we genuinely wanted to make the world a better place for everyone around us. So, if we see the same problem plaguing others, isn’t it only natural that we extend help to them? We might be embarking on a journey to business expansion before we know it by deciding to do so.

To avoid the pitfalls of being “too big, too soon”, we should start thinking of expansion plans as early as possible. So that means we have to revisit company processes from procurement, processing, logistics, manpower, and even human resource management.

The key here is to make the growth sustainable and strategic. First, you have to make the right calls at the right time, and the only way you could do that is to maintain a good grip of company data. Nowadays, you can have all sorts of data available at the tip of your fingers with a few clicks of a button. Gone are the days when you decide on business expansion purely on instincts and gut feel. Instead, guided by data about consumer trends, you can make one effective decision after another.

What’s Next?

That’s the Five Phases of Business Growth. Now that we’ve discussed that, you probably can’t wait to give your business idea a shot. However, you’re wondering if starting a business in the middle of a pandemic is prudent. Here’s what we think.

The pandemic forced hundreds of thousands of small businesses to close. But for some, it was a rare opportunity to finally start one. According to government data, during the past 20 months, Americans have started new businesses at the fastest rate in more than a decade seizing on pent-up demand and new opportunities after the pandemic shut down and reshaped the economy.

Online transactions have given opportunities for hundreds, if not thousands, of businesses to thrive and flourish—from food-related businesses to online classes to online fitness classes— you name it, and there’s probably a healthy market for it.

There’s a reason why that’s so. As people spend week after week in lockdown, they’ve saved up a great deal of their disposable income. With nothing to spend it on, they’ve resorted to the internet for something to purchase. As an entrepreneur, this is where you should put your skills to the test. Be a keen observer of ongoing trends and upcoming opportunities that you can capitalize on later.

Challenges

The immediate challenge to keeping your business afloat is still the safety and security of your entire crew. Currently, 58 percent of Americans are vaccinated, and people are beginning to feel more confident about finally going out.

According to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, 20-30% of Americans still refuse to get vaccinated.

While this may still allow us to achieve herd immunity, it still leaves a lot of room for worry, especially if by doing so, it might cause another COVID mutation similar to the delta variant.

Getting vaccinated should be a personal choice under our right to life and liberty. Based on conflicting research, it may cause more harm than good. The choice of vaccination is a personal one.

Either way, what’s important is that consumer confidence is slowly creeping back to pre-pandemic levels. Whether vaccinated or not, staying alert and adhering to health protocols prescribed by the OSHA, CDC, and WHO, will provide peace of mind during this pandemic.

Summary

Starting a business is both an exciting and daunting task. If you’re planning to start a business for the first time, it’s easy to focus on the profits. This single focus will lure you to false promises you see online that “guarantee” your exposure (by asking you to spend a fortune on marketing tools and expensive websites). Do not fall into that trap.

Starting a business involves a lot of patience, strategy, preparation, and of course, luck. But once these come together, it’s the perfect recipe for success. MarketAtomy brings a full arsenal of resources committed to helping small and micro business owners maneuver their success journey. You also have at your fingertips our weekly podcast called “Charged Up Studio” chargedupstudio.live, and monthly informational webinars through our academy at marketatomy.academy/featured-events/.

To find out more about how to start or grow a successful business, please check out MarketAtomy.Academy.

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

BulletProof Your Mind

There’s a wealth of materials featuring successful business leaders telling you why maintaining a positive mindset while running a business. This is especially crucial and essential if you’re starting small.

Positive thinking or having a positive mindset means opening yourself up to success and happiness. Positive thinkers are not entirely devoid of negative thoughts and self-criticism, they just put much weight on the favorable outcomes, rather than the untoward ones.

Why have a positive mindset?

The idea behind the power of positive thinking is that when your mind is in a positive place, good things come into your life. The universe will conspire to bring you closer to the reality you’ve always been thinking about. Being optimistic opens yourself up to allowing good things to come your way. Maintaining a positive mindset doesn’t mean a blind belief that everything will go smoothly without you doing anything.

On the contrary, it’s the belief that once you make sure to do everything on your part, there’s nothing else left to do but to hope for the best. That’s as realistic as you could ever hope for. Even if each day does not go perfectly, positive thinkers think about the things that went well instead of focusing on those that didn’t. Furthermore, the power of positive thinking is that you will attract others like you and encourage one another to reach your life goals.

Embracing a positive mindset

Embracing a positive mindset is beneficial to you especially if you’re running a small business for the following reasons:

  • Your problem-solving skills will improve. Positive thinkers open themselves up to new possibilities. Having a positive mindset helps you see a unique perspective that negative thinkers (or those with a defeatist attitude) might not be privy to. This enables them to tackle any problems and solve challenges as they arise.
  • Positive thinkers have more energy. It all starts with the mind. If you embrace a positive mindset, your body also responds. You will feel a surge in the enthusiasm that will fuel you to survive your ordeals, day in and day out.
  • Helps you develop resilience. Very few entrepreneurs make it big with their first idea or business venture. Why? Maybe they had the wrong motive; i.e. they just thought about the money and nothing else. For some, they might quit at the first sign of a challenge. This comes as an irony to what small business entrepreneurs represent. Being the “new kid on the block”, one might presume that you’re out to challenge the status quo and that involves solving problems the bigger companies were not able to. As such, you can’t expect to solve everything on your first try. What do you do? You press on! Armed with a positive mindset, you continue to find other ways hoping to solve the same problem later on.
  • Improves decision-making. It is somewhat logical that if you’re in a negative frame of mind, you’re less likely to make decisions that have a positive impact. Think about it this way. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re supposed to eat risks for breakfast. We’re not telling you that positive thinkers are reckless. On the contrary, they know when to push the pedal and when to step on the brakes. If you think negatively, you’d probably just embrace a defensive attitude and this will eventually entail missing huge opportunities along the way.

Bottom Line

As highlighted above, embracing a positive mindset can benefit you in more ways than you can imagine. The great thing is that it doesn’t cost you anything to be positive! The benefits also don’t end with you. Being the leader, your employees will look up to you for guidance and inspiration.

By maintaining a positive mindset, you do not only do yourself a favor, but you’re also setting a good example to your subordinates and employees.

To learn more about how you can develop a strong positive mindset in the business environment, you can download this free eBook entitled ‘BulletProof Your Mind’.

We hope you learned a thing or two about today’s topic! Subscribe to this blog to stay on top of our latest content. Also, tune in to our podcast ‘Charged Up Studio’ every Tuesday at 9 AM ET where we feature guest professionals each week bringing valuable tips for small business owners like yourself.

Danna is a Business Growth Strategist and CEO of MarketAtomy, LLC. Her passion is working with small first-stage entrepreneurs to ensure that they start out on the right foot and stay on the path to financial freedom. Known as the Business Birthing Specialist, Danna understands the intricacies involved in starting and running a successful business. As an intricate component ingrained into her client’s business structure, she works diligently to keep her clients accountable and on track to fulfilling their success goals.

A graduate of the University of Central Florida’s College of Business. She brings more than 35 years of strategic planning experience in business, marketing, and business development both nationally and internationally.

Danna is not only a professional business growth strategist but has worked Internationally within the country of Brazil. She is a public speaker and four-time #1 Best Selling Author on Amazon.

To reach Danna at MarketAtomy, LLC email danna.olivo@marketatomy.com.

Categories
Culture Entrepreneurship Leadership Personal Development

Are We Robbing Our Children Of The Opportunity For Entrepreneurship?

This is a question that we have tried to address unsuccessfully over the last decade to two. We have seen many technological advances in the 21st century. Some practices introduced in the 80s and 90s are obsolete, to say the least. Yet, you know what has remained unchanged? Our public educational system.

Our schools are raising employees, not leaders!

As we look into the U.S. educational system, we see that the curriculum has remained stagnant since the 80s. We’re still inculcating into the minds of our children to study hard so that they can be great employees. Schools still follow a method of teaching that rewards children based on their conformity to standards and seldom recognizes those who exhibit creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.

Sure the school system has introduced technology to assist in the learning process, and skill-based learning such as graphic design, audio/video, and programming. But again, we are talking hard-based skill development, not the much-needed soft skills that will aid in career development later.

Who’s to blame?

There are certainly many factors that contribute to why this is happening. First on the list is the lack of government innovation and foresight. Despite wanting to overhaul the entire curriculum program, individual schools cannot just decide that on their own. They have to conform to government set standards for it to continue to operate and receive federal funds. This leads us to the grading system assessed on public schools and the standardized testing of the students.

Maybe the government does not see any problem with the current system. Despite most of the successful CEOs like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk saying that college failed to teach them how to be great in business, perhaps the government thinks that they represent just a small percentage of what the majority of the population believes.

There is also an apparent lack of clamor to change the system. We often hear a few groups advocating to overhaul the current educational system, but they lack a unified voice. Several groups are pushing for different changes, making it difficult to implement even one of them.

These are just two of the primary reasons why our educational system is lagging compared to other countries that emphasize the culture of creativity. Admittedly, this is a group effort and the government alone cannot do this on its own. It is high time for all concerned groups to work together and make changes one step at a time.

What’s the solution?

The internet age has allowed people from different corners of the planet to communicate with each other with ease. However, that’s just one of its benefits. For businesses, being able to meet with suppliers and close deals without ever having to show up in person has transformed the way people do business. This has given way to the age of unicorn startups, billion-dollar worth companies that primarily transact over or use the internet, among other technological advances.

COVID-19 has forced the nation into an environment that relies more and more on solo and micro business owners. A perfect example is the recent meteoric rise of the gig network and new business license applications. Displaced workers, non-immunization conformists are deciding to go out on their own rather than rejoin the corporate environment. These new business owners are facing an uphill battle as they realize they don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to launching and growing a small business.

Are our children prepared to be business owners?

Will they be thrown into a world that doesn’t really value what they bring to the table or one where they really can’t function independently? We really need to be introducing our young children to soft skills that include problem-solving, relationship engagement, team participation, and presentation/communication skills. Engaging business leaders in the curriculum programs in an experiential capacity will go a long way in preparing our children for the future. We need to be introducing these programs at the middle-school level before they move on to high school or college.

How about you? What do you think about our current educational system? Does it still provide for the needs of children? Or, is the current system stifling their potential? We would like to know your thoughts.

MarketAtomy, LLC is a growth development-learning environment for small and medium business owners with one goal in mind…to empower them with the tools and knowledge needed to build their business on a rock-solid foundation. Through foresight and fortitude, entrepreneurial dreams become a reality. For more information, please visit marketatomy.com. Visit MarketAtomy.Academy to find out about the only eLearning Management System developed for early-stage business growth.

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Leadership Personal Development

The Power of Execution

How to achieve your goals by taking appropriate actions

We all define goals in our lives. However, defining goals is not just enough to secure success. You will need to go ahead and take action to achieve the goals. Unfortunately, most people don’t have a clear understanding of setting up goals and taking actions to achieve them.

Setting up goals is something that everyone can do. However, when you set up goals and just keep them, they would become stagnant. In other words, you will not be working to achieve those goals on your own. This is where you need to develop a comprehensive strategy to execute the tasks required for achieving your goals. You might be executing some small steps. However, they will eventually help you to achieve your long-term success goals.

What should you do to achieve your goals?

Here are some of the steps that you should follow to execute the actions that help you achieve your goals.

Strategic execution

Strategic execution is one of the most steps that you should follow when executing your actions. It will help you to understand how to set clear goals and how to come up with a strategic plan to achieve them. On top of that, you will also be able to remain fully aware of the impact that communications can create as you try to achieve your goals.

Once you start executing tasks, you will need to keep track of progress. You can understand the best method available to keep track of progress. On top of that, you will understand how to remain accountable as you try to achieve your goals as well.

How to set powerful goals

You should not just set some random goals in your life. Instead, you will need to think about setting up powerful and SMART goals. Here, SMART refers to Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Based. If you can adhere to these goals, you will end up achieving what you want without trouble.

Performance coaching

Performance coaching can help you to get the most out of goals that you define in your life. This is where you can get a clear understanding of the GROW coaching model. It will help you understand the Goals, Reality, Options, and Will that you need to follow to ensure business success.

Overcoming challenges

People must deal with numerous challenges as they try to achieve their goals. For example, we have a FREE report entitled “Power of Execution” explaining the most common reasons people fail to achieve their goals. Download this report and see whether you are facing any of these challenges. Moreover, you can also understand how to overcome the fear you have for failure as well.

You can get a better picture of how to deal with all these problems through “Power of Execution.”

What is the Power of Execution?

The Power of Execution is a comprehensive guide that anyone can follow to understand how to achieve goals by taking appropriate actions. Along with the goals you define, you should also define a vision and a way to execute actions. Then you will need to bring them together so that you can march towards success in goals you define. This guide will make it possible to get all the information you need while avoiding many of the problems. Just follow the tips shared and go ahead with executing your actions.

Final words

As you can see, Power of Execution is a perfect guide available for you to follow and achieve success. Go ahead and download it for FREE Today by going to https://www.marketatomy.com/power-of-execution/.

MarketAtomy, LLC is a growth development-learning environment for small and medium business owners with one goal in mind…to empower them with the tools and knowledge needed to build their business on a rock-solid foundation. Through foresight and fortitude, entrepreneurial dreams become a reality. For more information, please visit marketatomy.com. Visit MarketAtomy.Academy to find out about the only eLearning Management System developed for early-stage business growth.