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Hi there, 👋
If you celebrated Thanksgiving, we hope you enjoyed your fun, feasting, and long weekend.
For the rest of us, it was business as usual.
Here are a few of the tasks we’re working on:
>>Creating and adding helpful new content to the StartupResources blog
>>Welcoming over 150 new members into our Investing community
Here’s a sneak peek inside ⬇️
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>>Interviewing well-known entrepreneurs for our fortnightly podcast
and
>> Tracking down the most relevant news and tools for you this week
Scroll down to see what we found - and don’t forget to tell us what you’re working on.
See you next Wednesday,
Juliet
🧰 Tools
🌟 Glorify Your Images
The tagline on Glorify's homepage says: "create high converting product images in a few clicks."
We checked and it's true.
This design tool is for anyone who wants to design like a pro, but who has zero pro skills.
If you have an ecommerce business then you'll love the options to create product lifestyle images, hero shots, and headers.
Marketers will enjoy the templates for paid advertising, social media posts, and video thumbnails.
In fact, we can't think of any online business that wouldn't benefit from the versatility this tool offers.
As we're writing this, they have an incredible Black Friday deal available, but if that's expired, you can always try it free for 14 days.
🌳 Shop and Plant Trees
OurForest isn't exactly a business tool, but it is an example of tech we enjoy supporting.
Here's why.
Every time you shop online and use the OurForest browser extension, trees are planted.
This company has partnered with over 750 of your favorite stores, and each purchase you make helps fund tree planting organizations — at no cost to you.
This is a simple and easy way to have a positive impact on the environment.
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OurForest says:
Our goal is to inspire millions of people worldwide to become environmentally conscious and practice sustainable shopping. At OurForest, we believe that the smallest changes can make the biggest impact.
😩 Tired of Presentations?
Do you give regular sales presentations, product demos or training of any kind?
eWebinar automates the tedious task of giving the same presentation over and over and frees up your precious time.
While there are other automated webinar solutions out there, many are obviously videos playing alongside fake participants.
eWebinar cleverly combines pre-recorded video with real-time interactions and live chat. It's easy to load a video, add a few customizations, and set a play schedule.
This solution comes with all the features at a cost of $49 per month, but you can try it free for 30 days.
📚 Articles
💬 7 Things No One Tells You About Startups
This is for all of you who are thinking about starting a business.
It's great to ask your friends and family for advice, but you're also likely to get many warnings from those close to you.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, because beginning the journey to entrepreneurship isn't easy and you must understand the risks.
On the flip side, if you know what you're getting into, the rewards are worth the effort.
In this article by Aaron Vick, he walks you through 7 things to know before starting a business. His tips cover many of the downsides of entrepreneurship that nobody talks about and he gives advice on how best to handle each situation.
This is recommended reading.
We lost a man of vision this past week. R.I.P. Tony Hsieh.
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Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.
— Tony Hsieh, former CEO of Zappos
🦄 SEOs with Skin in the Game
Smash Digital - a growth agency, filled to the brim with unicorn images and SEO memes.
A team of SEOs with actual skin in the game, ranking their own portfolio of profitable businesses, and offering the exact same services to clients.
An agency with so much link juice you’ll need a mop and bucket to clean it all up. Check. Them. Out.
✋ Avoid Hiring Mistakes
You've reached the point where you need to make your first hire, but you're afraid you'll make a mistake.
That's normal. Plus, you need to take a little time and choose the right person for the job and your start-up as a whole.
Abdo Riani says that he learned valuable hiring lessons from making four basic mistakes. These same mistakes are made by many founders, especially with their first hires.
In his article for Forbes, Riani discusses how to determine who you need, how to find them, and the importance of "dating" your hire.
🏋️ Position Yourself as a Pro
You may love or hate social media, but both you and your business need to leverage its power for your brand awareness, network opportunities, and lead generation.
This overview by Rich Perry gives you the lowdown on positioning yourself as someone worth knowing on social media. He bases this discussion on the well-known book by Dale Carnegie - "How to Win Friends and Influence People."
(If you haven't read it yet, we suggest you do)
You may have seen some of Perry’s suggestions before - like building relationships based on value - but it's essential to recognize that there are no shortcuts.
If you make an effort to reach people by using these methods, then you'll be way ahead of those who look for the "easy option."
P.S. There is no easy option.
🥨 Startup Snacks 🥨
💠 How many of the 10 characteristics of young entrepreneurs do you have?
Everyone has skills that need enhancing or learning - or must be acquired through practice and experience.
If you're ready to put your dream into motion, then see how you measure up against the characteristics on this checklist.
💠 A Business That Lasts Forever
This article by James Skylor defines the words 'moats' and 'monopolies' and explains why a personal brand isn’t what it used to be.
He states:
You can escape competition through authenticity. Don’t imitate. Don’t copy. Be authentic and the less competition you’re going to have.
Check out his thoughts on building a business that lasts forever - if that's your aim...
💠 Quibi Were Wrong
We've spoken about how it took Quibi only six months to fail, but what can we learn from that?
The author of this piece, Christian Stadler, says that the founders of Quibi were wrong about the reasons for their failure.
He gives his opinion on what really went wrong, and the strategic lessons other start-ups can learn from this.
💠 Managing Business Debt
There is nothing inherently bad about having debt in your business, but knowing how to manage it is vital.
To avoid placing your company at risk, this post covers 6 tips to get control of your finances. Helpfully, it includes a section on why you should be wary of cutting too many costs.
👋 The Awkward End Bit
How did we do this week?
With your feedback, we can improve this newsletter. Please click on a link to vote:
Your suggestions and comments are welcome. Go to the web version of this letter to have your say!
