Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2016 i Entrepreneur Magazine

“Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.” —Pablo Picasso We’re all artists. That doesn’t mean we’re all Picassos with paintbrushes, mind you. But we all have the capacity to create something unique: music, paintings, buildings, sculpture, books, logos, iPhones, businesses. I know this creative spark is a cornerstone to entrepreneurship (along with drive, talent and balls of steel). But not everyone agrees. Every once in a while, I find myself arguing with someone from some corporation or educational institution about what entrepreneurship is and what it means to our culture. This is their recurring response: “Entrepreneurship means you are the sole proprietor of a business, or you are a business owner assuming risk—nothing more.” No, actually, sir or madam, that’s wrong. Entrepreneurship…

ANDRA EGGLESTON WAS a trained textile designer but recent career moves took her far afield—movie actress and user-interface designer. After a move to Nashville, she was wondering: What’s next? For inspiration, and to pass the time, she started making weekly trips to Memphis to visit her dad, William Eggleston, the photographer widely credited with popularizing color photography as an art form. William also did drawings, and Andra began scanning the pieces to preserve them. Then she started playing with them. She enlarged one image, adjusted the colors and turned it into a pattern. “I said, ‘Dad, look at this!’,” she recalls. “And he said, ‘Goddamn it, that’s beautiful. What is it?’ I said, ‘That’s your drawing.’ And he was shocked.” She knew her next career move: Andra turned those designs…

MANY AMERICANS EXPRESS this anger on Twitter. Some start brawls at campaign rallies. A few, well, are running for president. But most people simply unplug. Voter turnout in the U.S. ranks among the worst in the industrialized world: Just 42 percent of eligible Americans voted in the 2014 midterm elections, the lowest level since the U.S. Census Bureau began tracking voter activity in 1978. In the coming presidential election, only 41.2 percent of registered voters aged 18 to 24 are expected to participate, according to Tufts University research. It is indisputably a problem. But here’s a question nobody has an answer to: Can business solve it? Savvy entrepreneurs might see all the signs of a good opportunity. A need in the market? Ample room to scale? A ready-made set of…

“EVERYBODY MAKES THEIR OWN PATH.” Kevin: People have asked me over this past year and a half, “What about your studio practice? Are you afraid of losing that?” I take refuge that I’m confident in my identity as an artist. I’m not worried about what particular thing I’m doing—making a photo, a painting, a company. I know that it’s all part of the same process. You have to be creatively open to these possibilities and not be hung up on, “I should be doing this, I should be doing that.” Everybody makes their own path. You’re thinking about following your own voice, and you’re always trying to identify who your audience is, and how to reach them and what to say to them. For me, for this particular set of…

GREG HONG had a sales theory that went like this: “I wasn’t just there to sell them something, but to be their customer as well.” When he cold-pitched restaurants, he’d show up between 4 and 5:30 p.m., order a drink—so that he was a customer—and then casually ask for the manager. Then he’d explain his app, called Reserve: It enables diners to make reservations, rate restaurants and split the tab among friends. “That’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard of!” one manager blurted out. Hong’s first 15 attempts went the same way; no restaurants signed up. Maybe, Hong thought, this app is just a bad idea. But he kept going. And as he did, he started to realize something: Managers needed to see that he understood them, not just that…

More than 10 million people have used the live-streaming app Periscope, with a few million more using Meerkat and Blab, to deliver raw and unedited broadcasts to viewers of all kinds. If used wisely, this technology can also help your business connect with customers and prospects. I’m not exactly a TV star, so what am I broadcasting here? Stick to content that delivers the 3 E’s: educates, engages and entertains. Boutique owners can stream activity at their store, with descriptions of different clothing styles, fabrics, colors or a tutorial on how to match pieces. A pizza-restaurant owner can create a pie, toss it in the oven and offer a discussion about ingredients or the pros and cons of brick ovens. Audience members can text questions onscreen. But is any of…

AS IT WAS OPENING multiple locations, the Plant Café, a thriving Bay Area restaurant chain, was struggling to find workers to slide into many of its new hourly positions. “The job market is incredibly competitive here,” says Doug Hunter, the cafe’s director of training and technology. “We were trying everything to find the right people—postings on Indeed.com and Craigslist— but the places we were using weren’t producing, which made it very difficult to sustain our growth. It was impacting the quality of service and the staff’s stress level.” The Fix Last summer, Hunter found the elusive talent pool he’d been seeking by using Instawork, an Airbnb-style marketplace that matches employers with part- and full-time job seekers. The site takes two key steps: It checks job-seekers’ references; and when an employer…

A unique selling proposition (USP) is the “thing” that makes you unique in the marketplace—it’s what customers can get from you that they can’t find anyplace else. You can also call it your “value proposition” Any time you’re communicating with a prospect, be sure that you can appeal to any one of these four essential elements in your USP: 1. You’re unique because of the buyer you serve. Your business gets traction when you zero in on a niche. Maybe you target people of a specific demographic or you solve a specific kind of problem. Test the unique buyer approach in your ads. Whether you serve a unique demographic: Meet Singles Your Age. We’re an over-50 dating site made for older singles. Or you focus on a unique niche: Proven…

PROBLEM #1: YOU DIDN’T PAY. When you IT because your computer won’t turn on, they always ask, “Is it plugged in?” That’s because sometimes the obvious answer is also the right answer. Ditto here. Check with your accounting team—are payments going out? SOLUTION: If your team is off its game, take action: Improve the accounting manager’s performance or make a personnel change. If money has simply run dry, consider a new loan that better matches your debt structure to your capital needs, or find another source of funds. When one of my clients needed a $1.5 million line of credit to fund a planned expansion, we took the package to eight banks before ending up with a $4 million Small Business Administration loan. It pays to shop around. PROBLEM #2:…

THERE ARE SOME brands that franchisees would kill to get their hands on: Starbucks, Chipotle, Shake Shack and most coveted of all, In-N-Out Burger, the California-based chain that has a cult following so loyal it should be investigated by the ATF. While none of these brands will likely be franchising soon, Scott Walker has done the next best thing. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Screenmobile, which sells and repairs screens (for doors, windows and so on), and he’s been selling his low-cost business to managers from In-N-Out Burger. Several former burger sellers are now franchisees in his 90-unit system. The reasoning: Walker feels that anyone who has proved themselves in that fast-paced, well-run restaurant probably has the drive and energy to make a mobile franchise work. “Although In-N-Out Burger…

Pirtek Hydraulic Hose Services Jan-Pro Commercial Cleaning Miracle Method Surface Refinishing Pinot’s Palette Paint-and-Sip Studios Pillar To Post Home Inspection Apricot Lane Apparel & Accessories World Gym Fitness Mathnasium Math Tutoring iLoveKickboxing.com Fitness Cruise Planners Travel KURE Vaporium & Lounge eLiquids & Vaporizers Stratus Building Solutions Commercial Cleaning Ground Round Grill & Bar Casual Dining DKI (Disaster Kleenup International) Restoration Services…

The franchising business is booming, and nowhere is that more evident than Entrepreneur’s fastest-growing franchises ranking. Growth is the goal of every franchise system, of course, but not all achieve it as successfully as our top performers. To find out their secret sauce, we asked executives from the companies in our ranking. As their responses poured in, a clear theme emerged: Real growth—growth that’s not only quick, but sustainable—comes from a focus on people; not just the franchisees, but the employees they hire, the customers they serve, and the corporate staff who support them. In short: Take care of people and the numbers take care of themselves. The 105 companies listed on the following pages represent a total of 9,695 new franchises opened in North America between July 2014 and…

CINDY WHITEHEAD, WHO GRACED OUR JANUARY COVER, LEFT SPROUT PHARMACEUTICALS SOON AFTER, SAYING HER WORK WAS DONE. WE ACCEPT THE COMPLIMENT. I FIND IT HIGHLY valuable to be a creative entrepreneur and not just a “dollars and cents” business thinker (although you need that, too). Building something from the ground up, new or better than it’s been done before, takes a lot of skills/attitudes that creative types possess: taking original approaches to problem solving, willingness to make mistakes and learn from them, not being tied to conventional thinking, and being able to take criticism and turn it into motivation. Creative professionals are excited by the process, not just this month’s numbers. Creatives have huge egos and tons of nerve (this is an asset and challenge) to do things in a…

“You shouldn't take it so hard” or "You're overreacting." Because this is criticism. "It could be a lot worse” or “You’ll get over it." Because this downplays suffering. "You need to pull yourself together" or "You need to be strong.” Because you’re asking the person to reject their feelings. “Everything happens for a reason.” Because this is stupid. “I know how you feel.” Because you don’t. “What can I do?” Because it requires the person to make a plan for you. “Did you see Scandal last night?!” (Not now.)…

A headline isn’t a final flourish, just something to tack on after the writing or video production is done. It’s your critical first impression: 80 percent of visitors will read your headline, but only 20 percent will go on to read the piece itself, according to Copyblogger. Draw readers in this way: Trust. BuzzFeed may score with hyperbolism like “36 Of The Absolute Worst Things That Could Ever Happen to You,” but your goal is to inform, help and inspire your audience. If you overplay the headline, your audience will feel misled and skeptical of your next headline. Be useful, and never waste your reader’s time. Context. Tell your readers what’s in it for them. For example, “Things to Consider Before a Business Launch” is vague and uninspiring, but “9…

JANE NÍ Dhulchaointigh’s glue has gained legions of fans who use it to seal cracks, fix busted bathroom fixtures or, in the case of a British TV show, affix their cameras to the outside of a small rocket that they then launched into space. A farmer even used it to make and attach a prosthetic leg to one of his chickens, who got nipped by a fox. And ní Dhulchaointigh knows all this because people tweet and Instagram and YouTube their crafts—it’s an online community driven by the question, “What else can this stuff hold?” But this booming business almost didn’t happen, because ní Dhulchaointigh, a London-based product designer, wanted to just sell the thing off. The project first started small: She was creating an ergonomic knife handle with a…

“MmmBop” was an international hit. But then your major record-label deal started falling apart. Was that when you realized that to have a long career, you needed to be entrepreneurs as well as artists? Isaac: We were always a bit hard-nosed, despite our cheerful demeanor. Our first manager really pushed that we not sell our publishing rights, which is one of the earliest things an artist will do: They’ll sell in order to get a cash advance. The premise of anything you do—whether it’s writing a song or any business—is ultimately that it hinges heavily on your belief in the thing that you’re doing and promoting and selling. It’s a reflection of who you are in a very deep way. We looked at it as: We care about the future…

The experiment: In a trial conducted for the sales and marketing consultancy Corporate Visions, researchers monitored two subtly different types of pitches from a bank. The pitch to one group of potential customers began like this: “You need to know that 40 percent of companies that take a bank loan still fail.” The pitch to the other group began by focusing on the benefits of the credit line. The result: Sales to the first group—the one that heard that 40 percent stat before anything else—were 10 percent higher than sales to the other group. Why? Humans feel the pain of loss twice as much as they’re pleased by gain, according to Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman. Loss aversion plays a major role in the decisions we make, particularly anything that…

Your persistence comes off as nagging The fix: End each call with a question that continues the conversation, such as, “What’s the best time to call you back and get you live?” Or, “What’s the best way to talk to you about X?” Plan to reach out five times over the first 30 days—and if there’s no bite, give it three to six months before trying again. You don’t seize the moment Does a customer seem interested? Jump at it aggressively. “Entrepreneurs often wait too long for live engagement,” says Hoffman. “Attention is a transient moment. You want to seize it. We are always too busy to do things that are uncomfortable. If you believe your product or service is good for the world, you have the responsibility to bring…

The feathers were killers. Ellen Okolita is a former florist and a stay-at-home mom who sells handmade children’s costumes, and cuts “miles and miles” of felt feathers for her popular, whimsical outfits. There was no way around the process, and it limited the growth of her business. During last year’s Halloween season, Okolita had to shut down her online Etsy shop, Tree + Vine, after booking as many orders as she could handle—about $14,000 worth, at roughly $60 a pop. “I have long envisioned some sort of machine to help me cut feathers,” says Okolita, who is based in Gray, Maine. “But I realized that might not be superfeasible because I work from my living room and don’t have space for a machine.” And then came hope. During that Halloween…

OF THE SCORES of items that VCs review, the one that they often care most about—after a solid business plan, of course—is intellectual property (IP). It’s a startup’s most valuable asset, and the companies that bake IP protection into their businesses from the start make for more attractive investments. But IP is more than just a patent or registered trademark. I’ve outlined four additional—and simple—steps you should take to protect, preserve and enhance this asset. 1 IP-assignment and nondisclosure agreements Require all founders, employees and third-party service providers to enter into some type of IPassignment agreement before starting any work. It should state that anything created while working for the company is the property of the company. Without this, the company might not be able to claim, or have proper…

FOR YEARS, TEXAS politicians have tried to lure business owners away from states such as New York and California, touting the Lone Star State’s lack of corporate or individual income tax. The idea of adding 9 to 13 percent to your personal income is hard to resist. But you may not want to pack up your office quite yet. Multistate business taxation rules have changed in recent years, and if you operate a service business across state lines—if you’re a consultancy or marketing agency, for example—your presumed tax savings might be smaller than you think. Historically, states primarily taxed you based on the location of employees, offices and the business’ sales force. It was a question of where the work that created the income was performed, according to Shannon Ward,…

In 2013, David Wolfe spotted a business opportunity. Nobody likes flopping down on 30 mattresses in a showroom, he figured. They just want an affordable, comfortable mattress. Wolfe suspected that if he scrapped the showroom and sold a single model, he could lower the price and sell directly to weary sleepers. So he teamed up with Jamie Diamonstein of Paramount Sleep, an 80-year-old family-owned mattress manufacturer. By March of 2014, the duo had a prototype for their business, and a name: Leesa. To their frustration, they also had a competitor: Casper beat them to market with the same idea, nearly $2 million in seed financing and a lot of hype. What’s a mattress salesman to do? “We ordered their mattress,” CEO Wolfe says. And he was convinced his sleeper was…

IN 2004, Leeward Bean was happily retired. He’d helped build a scientific instrument company, Ocean Optics, and sold it for $50 million. But when a pair of former employees, Christina Bacon and Ron DeFrece, pitched him on an online novelty shop called Uniquely Geek, the science nerd couldn’t resist: He agreed to give them seed funding and advice. And soon enough, this little side project would spawn an entire new business for him. It all began when he stopped into Uniquely Geek’s south- Florida office one day; the staff had just written 100 nerdy slogans for T-shirts, and wanted to print them all. “I said, bless your heart, you can’t do that,” remembers Bean. It would be a nightmare—meeting a silk screener’s minimum order for each design, finding space to…

Accelerate Your Business Event Series Join Entrepreneur and Microsoft in kicking off the first event of our 2016 series in Miami on Feb.23, and discover proven strategies and innovative solutions to optimize team performance, improve company productivity, and position you for continued success. Seats are limited. Go to entm.ag/accelerate  to register now. TELL US ABOUT IT Our Facebook fans, Twitter followers and discussion groups are buzzing about what matters to entrepreneurs most. Come join the conversation. Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/EntMagazine Follow us on Twitter: @Entrepreneur and @AmyCCosper Write to: Letters, Entrepreneur, 18061 Fitch, Irvine, Calif. 92614 fax: (949) 752-1180 email: entmag@entrepreneur.com…

Nod to process. Copper makes the bottle’s cap glow and adds some light to the label illustration. The metallic touches “reference the copper stills used to create it,” Campbell says. Find the overlap. The bottle looks like it belongs on a liquor shelf, but there’s something unique about it. “It’s a shape not currently owned by a particular liquor category,” Campbell says. Rather, it calls back to “botanical distillates and the language of apothecary shops,” he says. Create atmosphere. Seedlip was founded by a Brit who comes from a long line of farmers. The illustration plays off that, “revealing itself as the profile of the native red fox, a creature indigenous to the English countryside,” Campbell says. It’s also supposed to represent “the disruptive nature of the spirit.” Define the…

Q What legal issues do I need to address when providing company vehicles for my employees? A Keith Ashmus, a Cleveland lawyer and a former chairman of the National Small Business Association, suggests covering these three bases: Liability. “Make sure you have the right insurance coverage,” Asthmus says. When talking with providers, explore liability issues both for your employees (should one claim you provided a defective vehicle) and for third parties (should the employee get into an accident). Taxes. Is the employee entitled to drive the vehicle for personal use? If so, Ashmus says, the employee might be responsible for paying taxes on it. Check with your accountant and your lawyer. Compensation. Be clear about the terms of use. For example, is the employee responsible for vehicle maintainence? One solution…

Q We had to lay off an employee who wasn’t a good fit for us. I wanted to offer her a severance package of five weeks of income, to help her and her family as she searches for a new job. But I read that I should also have the employee sign a severance agreement. I know it’s common, but it feels slimy. What are the ethics here? A Your instinct to offer severance is compassionate and appropriate. It’s also the right message to send in the marketplace: Your company treats people with respect even when things don’t work out. But the accompanying agreement isn’t slimy at all. It’s good business. Severance agreements are business documents that clarify expectations, says Elaine Varelas, managing partner of Boston-based outplacement firm Keystone Partners…

“WE’RE CONSTANTLY REVISING. AND NOT JUST A PITCH DECK, BUT CONSTANTLY REVISING THE IDEA.” It’s a Saturday in December and things are not going well for Kevin McCoy. His year-old startup, Monegraph, released a major software update the previous evening and the bug fixes aren’t documented properly, the marketing materials aren’t complete, and the interfaces are barely holding together. The release, it seems, is a work in progress. But then again, this CEO is a work in progress too. Until recently he just called himself an artist. Since the 1990s, McCoy and his wife, Jennifer, have been making art out of internet media—using an online ad network to distribute 1 million absurdist banner advertisements, for example. But now he’s taken on perhaps the hardest challenge in the arts: He’s trying…

1 Create certainty “There’s a big difference between getting someone to like your product and getting someone to buy,” says Derek Rucker, a social psychologist at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. They need to feel certain it’s right for them, so engage their doubts. “Challenge consumers to critique your product. When they fail to find significant faults, they become more confident of the product’s merits.” 2 Reinforce the positive During a sales conversation, listen closely for comments your customer makes that reinforce your position. Maybe they say, “I’ve never thought of it that way.” Or, “I can see how that might help us.” Then respond by saying “I hear that a lot,” or mention another client of yours who said the same thing. You’re bringing them over to your way…

WITH ITS NEW Surface Book, Microsoft performed the impossible: It made a convertible laptop as cool as an Apple MacBook. The fully loaded, 3.5-pound Surface Book ($1,499) is made for enterprise-level use, with a› dynamic› fulcrum› hinge and muscular wire lock that secures its› detachable 13.5-inch display. That screen also houses the Book’s Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, eight to 16 GB RAM, and solid-state drive with 128 GB to 1 TB of memory. Once detached from the keyboard, it converts into a tablet—or “clipboard” mode, as Microsoft calls it, because that’s what it feels like when you’re writing on this 1.5-pound tablet with the Surface Pen. The tablet’s battery lasts a paltry three hours, so “canvas” mode is the way to get the most out of the Surface…

Over the holidays, a friend visiting from out of town asked for a restaurant recommendation. Instead of Yelp, we opened the Soon app (iOS) where we keep a list of must-try restaurants, complete with maps so we knew which ones were nearby. That’s the elegant simplicity of Soon, which generates slick lists of movies, TV shows, books, restaurants, bars and other pursuits on our life’s queue. And because it connects to our Facebook profiles, it can see what our friends and family are interested in, as well as tell us what’s hot among other Soon users in our vicinity. Next time someone asks, “What do you want to do?”, we’ll always have an answer.…

When Stephanie Lawrence began raising her seed round last summer, one of her first calls was to fellow Dartmouth alum Mike Collins. They weren’t old pals from the dorm, though. Collins is the lead manager of Green D Fund, an investment group that makes six-figure bets exclusively on startups with ties to Dartmouth. “It’s a fantastic resource for anyone raising money,” says Lawrence, whose company Traveling Spoon connects world travelers with vetted local hosts willing to make them a homemade meal. “Plus, it can be a great signal to other investors, to have some of that early support.” Dartmouth alums aren’t some rare, lucky breed. Passionate alumni of schools around the country are launching similarly alum-oriented ventures, seeking to give back to (and profit from) their community. There’s the UCLA…

MICHAEL TUNNEY USED to keep a small key ring in his pocket, but he hated how the jagged metal kept jabbing his leg. One night, as he was perched on a barstool, the then-twenty- something noticed a long line of keys sitting on top of the bar. “Obviously,” he thought, “I’m not the only one dealing with this issue.” That insight led him to invent a new way to store keys: It’s called KeySmart, a stack that looks like a Swiss Army knife, which he now makes as CEO of a 10-person company. Here’s how he got from the bar to the biz. Step 1: Develop a prototype. Tunney was a robotics engineer in the automotive industry and knew all about prototyping. So he designed the first iteration of the…