Monthly Archives: May 2012

Meet the MyCorp Team… Talia!

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Every Wednesday, we’ll be highlighting a member of our MyCorporation family tree- check in with us every week to meet the team here at MyCorp!

Name: Talia

Your Job Title: Director of Finance

What you do at work all day: Manage all MyCorp Finances, forecasts , budgets, hundreds of vendor accounts , payroll , the list could go on and on………

Your favorite website to waste time on: I will admit it has to be Facebook

The piece of technology you could not live without: iPhone

The best thing you’ve ever eaten: The amazing Ahi Tuna Tartare from Mastro’s Steakhouse

The animal that you have always wished you could own, and the name you would give it: It would have to be a stuffed animal because I’m not really a pet person lol! …. So with that being said, I would say a monkey named Cash

Why you love working at MyCorp: I work with a really strong, close-knit group of people who all genuinely like and respect each other–that is pretty rare, in my experience. Oh and one more minor detail…… I get to wear jeans and sandals to work almost every day ! :-)

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Guest Post: What It Takes to Run a Business

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By David Nilssen, CEO & Co-founder, Guidant Financial

Before you make the leap into business ownership, it’s a good idea to ask yourself some tough questions to make sure you’re up to the job:

1) Are you self-motivated?

2) Are you organized?

3) Are you proficient in finance, accounting, sales, marketing and customer service?

4) Are you willing to put your business first?

If your answer to any of these questions is a firm “no” you may want to re-think your plans for entrepreneurship. If not; keep in mind there is more to starting a business than enjoying the excitement and joy of potential success.

As a leader, you must be willing to accept that there are a host of disadvantages that also come with the territory. These include, but are not limited to: risk; responsibility; pressure; fear of failure; frustration; long work hours; fewer job benefits; less time with family and friends; income fluctuation; possible loss of investment.

If you’re still enthusiastic about starting a business after reading that laundry list of negatives, you may just have what it takes to tackle the business world!

As a first step, take note of all of the business skills you’ll need to succeed:

Finance

Even if numbers aren’t your thing, you must have the intent to hire professionals to do a good job on your behalf, and the knowledge to interpret their progress. If you don’t understand how to read balance sheets and financial statements, now is the time to take a crash course.

Management

Good managers need the skills to create a plan of action and see it through to execution. Before the plan is created, they should schedule the tasks it will take to get there, such as deadlines for completion, cost estimates and assigning responsibilities among staff.

Leadership

Entrepreneurs need to be motivators, disciplinarians and role models. At the end of the day, leaders shouldn’t command respect; they should earn it by demonstrating the skills needed to excel in these ways.

Marketing

Getting the word out about your product or service is vital. You don’t necessarily need to be an expert in writing, design or social media to be able to market effectively, but you do need to have a basic understanding of what makes an effective marketing piece so you can delegate others to create materials on your behalf.

Human Resources

If you’re planning on managing a staff for your new business, you’ll need to become good at identifying the skills and personalities of those who will do the best work for your organization. Once they’re on board, you’ll need to become well-versed about employment regulations and best practices, and establish clear employee policies. Remember: employees can be your greatest asset or your most damaging liability.

Customer Service

No business survives without customers, so it should be top priority to treat them well. Put simply, the old saying “under-promise and over-deliver” should become common practice.

David Nilssen is the CEO & Co-Founder of Guidant Financial. Read more tips about becoming a successful entrepreneur in his book, Making the Jump into Small Business Ownership.

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Meet the MyCorp Team… Heather!

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Every Wednesday, we’ll be highlighting a member of our MyCorporation family tree- check in with us every week to meet the team here at MyCorp!

Name: Heather

What’s your job title: Social Media Manager

Tell me about a day in the life of Heather: I blog and write pretty much nonstop, working on a myriad of different writing outlets that MyCorp has, managing my two awesome social media associates, editing, working with the PR team, updating Facebook/Twitter, and a whole lot of other online goodness.

What’s the one item in your bag you can’t go without: My iPhone.

Favorite city and why: San Francisco! I love everything about it- being able to walk everywhere, the sounds of the cable cars, the food, everything.

What’s one facet of your childhood that’s shaped who you are: I’ve always been pretty good at thinking outside of the box and it helps with keeping me on my toes and constantly approaching business topics from as creative a slant as possible.

Worst and best thing about the internet: Best: the memes. They get increasingly better by the day. Worst: all of the spelling and grammar mistakes. Help.

Why you love MyCorp: The bagels… just kidding! I love everyone I work with and the “you can do it” environment here.

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Thumbtack.com's Friendliest States for Small Business

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Ever wonder what states are the most business friendly? Or which ones have the most transparent steps to creating a registered business?

Thumbtack.com:
Linking local service professionals to potential customers

A quick Google search will reveal a myriad of studies, articles and opinions on that very question. But Thumbtack.com, in partnership with the Kauffman Association, actually interviewed over 6,000 small business owners to see where individual state ranked in terms of business friendliness. And they uncovered some extremely interesting facts. For example, there were substantial difference between how supportive men and women thought certain states were; women entrepreneurs in Iowa were half as likely to rate their state as supportive of them as men were. And small business care almost twice as much about licensing regulations as they do about tax rates when ranking their state!

This type of insight is extremely important, and highly useful, for entrepreneurs researching possible states to incorporate in. Popular opinion is usually that the state with the lowest tax rate was always the most business friendly, but that old supposition has been blown out of the water thanks to Thumbtack.

The most business friendly states, with all of the metrics considered, were Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma and Utah while California, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Vermont were awarded a failing grade.

Thumbtack.com has released all of this information both in the form of an interactive map. If you’d like to look at the raw data, the link to that information is at the end of the “Survey findings and summary” section.

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Guest Post: The Value of Social Media Buzz

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Today we’re featuring a special guest post from guest blogger Rachel Walker at FastUpFront which provides business cash advances for small businesses. Social media buzz is pivotal to the success of businesses both big and small but how does the marketing work for it and once you have an engaged customer, how do you get them to stay engaged with your brand?

I remember when social media was still in its infancy, with Facebook and Twitter leaping to become overnight social network sensations. Today there are a whole slew of social media sites which allow people to share their thoughts, feelings, and opinions on anything and everything- and businesses are working hard to keep up with the tweeting Joneses.

Savvy consumers use these platforms to share their opinions of businesses with one another, while said businesses scurry to leverage their social media reputations to attract more customers.  In the blink of an eye, social media has now become one of the most important marketing platforms worldwide. Now that we’re there, how does social media marketing work and how exactly does one keep a customer engaged with their fan page to keep that buzz going?

How Does Social Media Marketing Work?

There are many different methods when it comes to taking advantage of social media for marketing purposes being utilized, but here are a few tried and true ways to getting online exposure easy.

•          By “liking” a brand on Facebook or promoting it via Google+ fans are able to give their favorite companies a much-needed boost in Insight popularity and help to spread word of mouth out to their followers and friends

•          When businesses run promotions on the major social networks, fans of the brand can help spread the news by posting about the giveaways on their Facebook wall and tweet out a quick message with a bit.ly link included, all the while providing valuable exposure to the promoting brands

•          Sites like Yelp allow consumers to rate and comment about brands that they feel inspired to provide feedback about. Businesses can view the comments and reply if they like and also create new marketing campaigns for their company based off of reviews.

How Do Businesses Keep People Engaged Through Social Media?

One of the great things about social media is the fact that it allows businesses to build communities with personality as opposed to being known as a faceless brand.  Once a business succeeds in getting people to opt-in to something, they can work on continually marketing to them, knowing what the audience responds to best.  Here are some examples of ways that businesses are able to keep their fan base engaged…

  • Giveaways and exclusive sales for fans only
  • Have a community fund to raise money for a charitable cause
  • Hosting an online contest via Twitter with a fun prize offered at the end
  • Getting your customers to have a stake in your brand by encouraging them to drop you a line at a specific fan email address

So, it would seem that social media must be an effective form of marketing, but is it really?

According to the numbers, the answer is overwhelmingly, ‘YES!’  Social media not only has the power to bring in new business, but social media referrals are also a lot more valuable than most other referrals.  Not only do social media attracted visitors convert better, they also make better customers.

Rachel Walker is a FastUpFront blogging contributor and business consultant. Fastupfront offers fast business loan financing solutions based on business cash flow.

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Meet the MyCorp Team… Loren!

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Every Wednesday, we’ll be highlighting a member of our MyCorporation family tree- check in with us every week to meet the team here at MyCorp!

Name: Loren

Job Title: Sales Manager

What I do all day: Coaching, mentoring, motivating and helping customers to incorporate.

My favorite breakfast food is: Eggs over easy with sourdough toast/ fresh fruit with yogurt and granola.

Dog person or cat person?: Dog

Your hidden talent: Accomplished musician (drums)

If you were on a plane next to your favorite celebrity, who would it be and what would you ask them? It would be Joe Pesci and I would ask him if he prefers his comedy roles or mafia roles and why?

The thing I like best about MyCorp: Helping people find the right combination of products and services to launch their business. The environment and the people I work with here is great!

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So You Graduated… Now What?

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Graduation season is upon us, and with it comes the heaps and mounds of posts telling graduates what they should have done while in school and what they should do now. Bloggers are rarely invited to give commencement speeches, so we have to make our own opportunities to dole out our own pearls of wisdom.

The MyCorp Social Media department is pretty young – one of us only graduated a year ago, another of us got out two years ago, and our final member is still in school. We’ve noticed that our generation is particularly freaked out about getting a job and, since we’re employed (hurray hurray!), we decided to try and give our younger readers some advice.

Just be warned; your next few months are going to be rocky.

This was the most unrealistic stock photo we could find on graduating. It was also the cheapest.

1. Don’t stop sending out resumés, and never stop talking.

We noticed something a little disheartening amongst our fellow graduates within the first few months of receiving our diploma – they give up. Fast. Sure, they’ll start out by sending a nice, fat stack of resumés to their dream jobs and laugh about how none of them ever called them back. Then the next week that stack will get a little lighter, and a little lighter, and a little lighter, and suddenly they are complaining that no one wants to hire them, but are only sending out a couple of resumés a day.

If you’re unemployed, your job is to find a job. And man is it going to bite – it is going to be one of the most draining, depressing experiences you will ever have to live through. But eight hours a day, five days a week, you need to be monitoring job sites, sending introductory e-mails, and re-writing that resumé so it fits exactly what those employers are looking for.

Network as much as you can – that does not mean sending a Facebook message to someone you took a class with that is now working in a position you’d like. Talk to your professors, see if they can give you any leads, and never stop looking for someone’s hand to shake. It’s going to be rough, but stay at it.

2. It is okay to be underemployed if you’re still looking for something better

One of the members of our department – we won’t say who aloud – worked full time at a fast food chain before coming to work here. It is okay to be underemployed, to scrape a living by, but don’t let that become your life. These little jobs we take to make ends meet – retail, food service, coffee vending – they end up taking over our lives. We are so drained from logging in forty hours that, at the end of the day, the last thing on our minds is sending in another resumé.

Again, it’s going to bite, but don’t let that happen to you. Spend a few hours before bed looking for new posting, new nooks you might be able to squeeze yourself into. Don’t be ashamed of having to work while you look for work. But, whatever you do, don’t take an early night.

3. Be proud of your degree!
Did you get a degree in something that you’ve been told has absolutely no bearing in the real world? Something like sociology, or art, or history?

Let us put an end to that rumor right now – anyone who has told you that is full of themselves; every degree has relevance. Each person that gets churned out of academia has four years specialized training. Humanities majors spend four years perfecting their ability to write and analyze – an Art degree teaches you how to move past artistic blocks, be creative, and remain dedicated to a project. The worse possible thing you can do is walk into an interview and talk down your degree, to say that you should have done business or management or finance instead.

You’ve accomplished something that you should take a lot of pride in, and honed skills that are relevant in hundreds of fields outside of what that paper says you have a BA in. So congratulations! Now start applying for jobs, and don’t stop until you get one you like, even if it takes a bit.

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Guest Post: 6 Things I Wish I Knew Starting Out as an Entrepreneur

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Today we’re featuring a special guest post from Justin Krane at Krane Financial Solutions! Ready to make the leap of faith and start your own business? It may be one of the riskiest moves you choose to make but the rewards will be in spades after. Justin Krane tells us today about his entrepreneurial journey and the six things he wished he had known starting out.

It was another business conference, and I was in the room with another 300 financial planners. The room was really cold, the AC was maxed, I had forgotten my sweater and I was freezing!

It was a scenario I’d been in so many times but I had no idea that this session would change the direction of my life.

Out comes the motivational speaker guy. I started to tune him out until I realized he was blind. His name was Jim Stovall, a former Olympic weightlifting champion who had gone blind over time. He told us that he had changed his life because he had changed his mind.

I was thinking, here was this amazing athlete to whom fate had dealt quite a blow and yet he wasn’t bitter. Instead he was brimming with life because he’d made a mental adjustment. The longer he spoke, the more he made me realize that I was playing a mediocre game in life, and that I was resistant to doing anything about it. It was like he was speaking directly to me.

Back then, I wasn’t happy working for a large financial services firm. I had been there for 13 years. But secretly, I wanted independence, autonomy and to feel the thrill of running my own business. The problem was I had no idea how to run a business!

As a Certified Financial Planner ™ professional I obviously knew how to financially plan. So I decided to put those skills to work for my own future business. I made some assumptions and forecasted my future results as an entrepreneur. I based my planning on 3 scenarios: best case, medium case, and worst case. I modeled out my revenue, as well as fixed and variable expenses.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I was freaking out when I was planning this stuff. I kept asking myself: Do I have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur?  Am I willing to forego a steady paycheck in order to have my own business?

I decided to go for it. I felt like a young bird jumping out of the nest, learning to fly right away. There were no training wheels or life jacket.  And for the first few weeks, it was a wild ride that lasted well into the first year.

Today, I am still a Certified Financial Planner, but I have developed a niche where I work with entrepreneurs. I help them unite their money with their life and business. My goal with all my clients is to help them get an amazing return on their lives.

It’s gotten easier the longer I’ve been an entrepreneur. But looking back, here are the things I wish I had known when I first became an entrepreneur:

1)      Love what you do. Do the things in your business that you love to do – the things you are really good at.  While making money is important, you have to focus on what you love, otherwise you will burn out. There will most likely be parts of your business that you really don’t like to do. Farm that stuff out. Delegate. If you don’t have the money to hire staff, start small. Hire a virtual assistant. Spend a few bucks to take something off your plate.

2)      Diversify your revenue streams. Create a business model where there is more than one way that you can make money.  Get leverage and scale.  Create a product or a system that gives you passive income. Do not trade hours for dollars.

3)      Be conscious.  A financial planner talking about consciousness?  Yes.  You have to be aware of what it is that you want. Think of it this way. You are either taking steps towards your goal or away from it. I have a sign in my office that says more of the same equals more of the same.  If you want a different result, do different things.  Be conscious about what it is that you are really doing every day. One way to do this is to share your ideas with a peer group like a mastermind.

4)      Educate yourself. Study successful entrepreneurs. What have they done that has made them successful? How do they think? How do they create? What makes them smart? For example, Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook to make a social impact. He cares about how people communicate and share information.

5)      Spy on your competition. Know what your competition is doing. What’s working for them? What is their messaging and branding telling you? How can you be different from them? There is plenty of business to go around.  Your competition may be your co-opetition. There may be a way you can cross promote each other’s services. Set up Google Alerts for the top 5 people in your industry.

6)      Spend at least 50% of your time marketing.  Yes, put valuable content about your services or products in the market place. No one knows you. So you gotta get out there and make it happen. People need to hear and see what you are offering. Block time and set aside a few days each week that is solely dedicated to marketing.

Decide to be an amazing entrepreneur.  Challenge yourself to kick some butt!  You’ll love the journey.

Justin Krane is a Certified Financial Planner with Krane Financial Solutions. Follow Justin on Twitter @justinkrane.

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Meet the MyCorp Team… James!

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Every Wednesday, we’ll be highlighting a member of our MyCorporation family tree- check in with us every week to meet the team here at MyCorp!

Name: James

Job Title: Social Media Intern

What my job entails: I mainly help the rest of the social media department claw out a bit of exposure for MyCorporation using different online outlets. Sometimes that means writing a few articles on business topics, and others times it’s talking with people on our Twitter account.

Favorite pastime while in Ireland: Walking. I never liked walking before – I grew up in a desert where the temperatures reached well above 100 degrees, so even lingering by a window meant being drenched in sweat. But Ireland is beautiful, cold, and has the best scenery in the world. Even the city has its beauty, and walking around with Tiff (my fiancée) has become one of my favorite things to do.

Favorite pastime while in America: My favorite thing to do in the States would probably just be to sit around and joke with a few friends. I can do that in Ireland, but I have friendships that go back to when I was five in the States, so the conversations are always a lot more enjoyable.

The best outfit you’ve ever worn: The best? I don’t know – that’s a hard measurement to make. Suit wise, I’ll always try to go more rustic – tweed blazer, gray wool pants, suspenders and a sweater. But my favorite, standby outfit is a pair of dark jeans, doc martens, a Ben Sherman shirt, and a Harrington Jacket. And I never leave the house without my wool flatcap.

Favorite soda of choice: I really like Vault even though its been discontinued.

The best thought I’ve ever had: Can I get a little corny here? Realizing that Tiff will be with me for the rest of our lives, that we’ll be in studying in Ireland, that she’ll always be there for support – most of my best thoughts revolve around her. And we’ve been together for ten years, so there are a lot of them.

I like MyCorp because: I’ve never met a boss like Deborah, or worked for a company like MyCorp. The employees are treated with such respect, and Deborah has no qualms about taking advice and letting us do what we do best. That level of freedom is really hard to come by, and it allows the more creative among us to flourish.

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Open Up Your Own "Lemonade Stand" This Summer

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The joy, the pleasure, the inexplainable rapture of the lemonade stand. We all had one when we were a kid, or some venture that was close to one. Subsidized by the kindness, patience, and hard cash of our parents, most of us know the sheer bliss of making a few bucks selling glasses of lemonade for a nickel a pop. Then, as we grew up, selling lemonade transformed into mowing grass or washing cars. Every summer meant a bit more money for clothes or movies or, if you were more responsible, college.

The work ethic of millions has been built on experiences gained during summer employment. And I feel like it shouldn’t stop when we grow up. We become content – content with our jobs, our lives, our little ruts – and we forget about that entrepreneurial spirit that had us up at 6 AM to wake our parents and build a stand out of old plywood.

This summer, think about opening up a side business. A little space to get some extra cash and that you can make the hours for – something you’ve had a passion about but no real opportunity to pursue. Side businesses are great because they don’t require as much dedication, or money, and let you test out the waters. While you still have a bit of time left in spring, think about:

What kind of business you’d like to run

There is no shame in starting a business to make a little extra money, and there are plenty of entrepreneurial pursuits that will help you do just that. ‘Turnkey businesses,’ things like fast-food franchises and car washes, are always an option. But they require a bit more capital, and if you don’t have much passion for the project you will quickly jump back into your rut and be plenty happy for it.

But if you have a passion for something – business consulting, webpage design, tutoring, selling knives door-to-door…(maybe not that last one) – the best time to pursue it is right now. Most of these businesses can be run as a sole-venture, making you the one and only employee you have to worry about. Plus it is pretty cheap to start a business out of your own home and register it with the state. Heck, some states only require that you file a ‘doing business as’ name and file your taxes on time. So figure out what you’d like to do, and go from there.

How much time you can give to it

Businesses need a lot of time and dedication – that’s why it is so important you are passionate about what you’re doing. Remember that you’ll have to be an advertiser, designer and promoter along with a business owner. Treat this venture like you would a part-time job back in high school. Back when you had to clock in and work your full shift or your angry, slightly rotund manager would come looking to chew you out.

Budget ten or fifteen hours to start with, and then go from there. If you need more time, add more, but try your hardest not to shirk off hours. Even if you come home completely exhausted, give it at least one or two hours before you turn on the TV or head to bed.

When you can start ‘learning on the job’

Learning by doing is a great piece of conventional wisdom that is only half way to the truth. The first part will be researching everything other people in your field are doing so you can see what works and what doesn’t work.

Is there an online message board you can scroll through? Has Craigslist panned out for a lot of them? What common mistakes do you see people making?

However, in the midst of research, don’t forget about that whole ‘learning by doing’ bit. You can spend a lot of time preparing yourself and then never take any real action. Research is cozy and safe, actually acting out is scary and difficult. Just remember that you will make mistakes – even if you did spend countless hours reading about hiring a website designer, using Groupon, or cutting customers deals, you will slip up. Roll with it, remember what that lesson taught you, and keep at it.

Now, if you treated this venture like a part-time job, remained dedicated, and had a bit of luck on your side, you might have something quite astonishing by September. It may not be as tangible as couple thousand dollars towards a new car or a semester’s tuition, but it could be a lot more rewarding. Just don’t let another Summer pass by without knowing if you can make it. If it doesn’t work out, fine – you’re out a small bit of money and could have gotten a bit more sleep.

But if it does work, there isn’t a better feeling in the whole world than to watch the humble beginnings of your own business begin to grow.

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