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Question: What is one part of starting up that was easier than you anticipated?

Finding a Support Network

“A support network of other entrepreneurs will make any journey a lot more enjoyable—and a lot easier, too! By joining key networking groups, like YEC, and moving into a co-working space, building a support group of like-minded entrepreneurs after starting ZinePak was easier than I would have imagined. I never expected to make so many close friends so quickly!”

— Brittany Hodak
ZinePak
@brittanyhodak

Forming the Business Entity

“What I initially believed would be the most difficult part about starting a business for myself, which I would say is the process of coming up with and registering a name, filling out the prope...

What Is product differentiation?

Product differentiation is process used by companies to clarify the differences between their products and other products on the market. Those other products can include competitors but also a company’s own products, to prevent overlap between the offerings. The goal is to find a product’s unique selling point (USP).

Why is product differentiation important?

Product differentiation is important because it makes your product stand out from the crowd! It’s easier and easier to create a company or sell a product or connect directly with factories in China these days. So what makes your housewares product or dating app or SaaS product different from all of the other housewares products, dating apps, and SaaS pr...

There are weapons, and there are weapons made with plutonium. Well, there is competitive intelligence, and there is the competitive intelligence made by Knowlium.

Knowlium is the maker of the competitive intelligence software called Reveal – a product that “accelerates your digital strategy with real-time competitive insight.”

Here’s a quick rundown of what the Reveal competitive intelligence software covers:

• Brand Monitoring
• Content Marketing
• SEO Analysis
• Benchmarking
• Social Media Analysis
• Influencer Analysis

Which is to state matters very very simply. You must have a look for yourself to appreciate the comprehensiveness and sophistication with which Reveal processes data. If you want simple scores to understand your market position com...

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I’m not that smart, and yet I’m a pretty good online marketer. I am actually probably one of the better ones out there.

So, how’s that possible? Well, you don’t have to be smart to be the best marketer. Instead, you need to be creative, execute well, and continue to learn from others.

Here’s the process I used to become a great marketer, and here is how you can follow in my footsteps:

Don’t be afraid to bug people

When I first started out in the world of online marketing, I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t know how to edit HTML; I thought MSN was a bigger search engine than Google; and I had no idea where to start.

But the one thing I did know is that there are marketers out there who are a...

It’s a crazy, multi-device world.

According to one report from Facebook, 60% of online adults in the U.S. and U.K. use at least two devices each day, meaning that mobile is at the epicenter of many brands’ marketing, sales, and product strategies.

This trend creates a window of opportunity for companies that are looking to reach audiences at multiple points in their buyer journeys. The challenge, however, is that mass-market tools and analytics technologies haven’t caught up—basic reports in Google Analytics only provide aggregate-level traffic data, for instance. It’s tough to dissect the steps that your audiences are taking to become customers and repeat customers.

Despite this lack of transparency, one concept holds tried and true: you’r...

Unfortunately, my site (SujanPatel.com) was hacked again, but I’m happy to report that everything is back up and running – no data lost and no personal information compromised.

I wish I could say that this was the first time somebody messed with my site, but what I’ve come to learn is that getting hacked is part of the price of admission for running on WordPress.

Don’t get me wrong – I love WordPress. The fact that it’s open source and widely adopted means tons of great templates, plugins and add-ons, many of which I use to power this blog. But those same pros turn into cons when you take into consideration the fact that hackers have the same amount of access as you do.

Dealing with the potential for WordPress hacks requires two things – be...

Today’s Favorite Find: Polymail

Elevator Pitch

Polymail is “the most powerful platform for email productivity in a beautiful native app — on desktop and mobile.”

Why We Love It

Look, no one really likes email. In fact, people’s avid dislike of email has brought us everything from Slack to multiple apps trying to fix the problem that is email. And perhaps no one hates email more than startup founders, who spend even more time than the average Joe glued to their email inboxes.

And while I’ve written about quite a few solutions to the email problem over the years, I have to say that it looks like Polymail has finally, actually solved email. They’re still in closed alpha, but, from all reports, this is the email app we’ve been waiting for.

Ok...

Got questions? Ask thousands of world class expert mentors from Clarity.fm!

What are the legal ramifications of aggregating / scraping a third party onto a business listing site?

If a pizza shop shares photos of their business (and their pizza) on Facebook, Google+ and other large platforms. What are the legal ramifications of aggregating all of these photos onto a ‘master’ platform (external website).

Is this legal? (Attribution will be given).

Does anyone have experience (specifically the terms of Facebook and G+?)

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein, Small Business Attorney & Entrepreneur, answered:

(I’m an intellectual property law attorney.) If you use the embedding features of Twitter/Facebook/G+, you can embed a post on ...

Seven months after filming an episode for season six of ABC’s hit television show “Shark Tank,” I finally received the email I had been waiting for: my episode had an air date, and it was only 18 days away!

My immediate thoughts were relief and terror, in that order. Relief because it was the end of an almost year-long waiting game since producers had first contacted me with an invitation to appear on the show, and terror because I suddenly realized that I had absolutely no idea what my business—or my life—would be like in 30 days’ time.

Moments after receiving the email, I shared the “Shark Tank” news, along with my feelings of excitement and uncertainty, with a friend, Colin McGuire. After a short congratulations, he said something that r...

Trying to recruit an extraordinary business developer to get more sales? Or maybe a top-notch developer to create an app that will make you millions? Regardless of who you are seeking, the rules of recruiting have changed.

Essential supplies include:

• A helmet
• Military-level strategies and tactics
• A whole lot of tenacity

It is a war zone. I am not trying to discourage you. Rather, I’m trying to prepare you – to find the very best candidate that will propel your business to the next level and contribute positively to the culture that you’ve worked so hard to create. Not necessarily an MBA, but even “hungry creative kids that want to step up,” says Jason Khan.

Possible hazards you might encounter in the field include:

• Stacks of secretly key...