Are you in a position to transition? Many of us entrepreneurs started out side-hustling, building our little businesses while holding down a 9-to-5. But at some point, you have to decide if and when it’s time to ditch the day job and invest fully into your independent creation. It’s Q&A Wednesday, and one listener wonders how to know when it’s ...…

Every barrier between your customers and your product is an opportunity for lost business. One of the easiest ways to remove those barriers? Integration. Whether you’re selling a course, software, or even a physical product, integrations are and important key to closing, onboarding, and retaining customers. The more apps your products work with ...…

Leadership can be tough, and so can the conversations. When it comes to criticism, course correction, and other awkward talks, only the leader can (and must) buck up and say what has to be said. It has to be done smoothly, professionally, and in a way that creates change without creating resentment. It’s not easy. It’s a skill, one that every e ...…

Rise and shine, entrepreneurs. The early bird gets the profit. Or does it? Expert after expert, guru after guru, claims that jumping out of bed at the you-know-what-crack of dawn is the key to productivity and efficacy. But does that hold true for everyone? Can’t a night owl be successful? Can’t you make strides after 12pm? Is the snooze button ...…

What entrepreneurs focus way too much on: customer acquisition. What entrepreneurs focus way too little on: customer retention. Onboarding and retention are key to long-term sustainability. The first step? The initial welcome email your new customers receive when they purchase your product. That email is the start of something big, and it needs ...…

In business, public speaking is a must, even if it’s only occasionally. Communication is everything. It’s Q&A Wednesday, and one listener is ready to make a conscious effort to become a better public speaker. As it turns out, our host Omar wasn’t always the comfortable, confident maestro of the mic he is today. In fact, as a young educator, Oma ...…

When a customer taps out, it’s generally a sad, defeated moment. But not all is lost. Cancellations and refunds are going to happen, period. But each one is an opportunity to learn something that will improve customer retention going forward. There is great value in every loss, value you can reinvest into your business for a better long-term tr ...…

Stories have power. Stories are the way human beings fundamentally comprehend everything, from their history to their personal trajectory. When you want people to understand something, the best thing to do is tell a story. Especially if you want them to believe in your business. Entrepreneur and author Paul Smith’s Lead With a Story explains ex ...…

Travel is possibly the best fringe benefit of the entrepreneur’s lifestyle. But when you’re on the road, the emails can pile up fast. No one likes coming home to a crammed inbox. So how can you keep the backlog low? Whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure, there are ways to make sure those “unreads” are kept to a bare minimum — withou ...…

No matter how long you’re in business, there are still incredible, game-changing strategies to be learned. We just found a new one. For the past few weeks, we’ve been using a technique suggested by a keen business mind to increase our productivity. And boy howdy, does it do the trick. “Theming” our work days has made us more productive, more ef ...…

It’s a big world, and there’s talent all over it. So how can you attract the right employees for your team? It’s Q&A Wednesday, and one listener’s expanding business is ready to take on new blood. But with so many options for posting job openings, what’s the best move? Today, we discuss our favorite job boards and recruiting services. With a re ...…

What’s in a name? If it’s a domain name, quite a bit. As entrepreneurs, we often impulse-buy domains, hoping to lock them down for our next great business idea. But all too often, we end up with nothing more than a pile of unused domains draining our resources. Our host Omar is a classic domain addict. Today, he’ll explain how he finally got hi ...…

“Fire and adjust.” It’s a military metaphor that works wonders in business; you put something out there, watch it miss, and use that information to hit the target the next time. Or 3 times later. Or 10 times. Whatever it takes. The point is, experimentation is key to creating the “perfect” product, or at least one people will buy. The best entr ...…

As your team grows, it becomes tougher to manage. Keeping everyone on task, and getting the results you’re paying them for, gets a little more complicated with each new hire. We’ve got a strategy that keeps everyone on point by keeping everyone accountable. With a far-flung remote team of dozens, our system makes it clear exactly what’s expecte ...…

We used to think time is money. Since then, we’ve come to realize that time is way, way more valuable. Every way to save time is worth more than its weight in gold, and we recently stumbled on something that takes hours — yes, hours — out of our workweek. While writing can be painstaking (especially for those of us who aren’t great at it), talk ...…

The toughest part about content marketing? All that content doesn’t create itself. To keep your audience engaged, you have to produce consistent, quality content. And if you’re truly committed to producing podcasts, blogs, pics, and videos week after week, you can run out of ideas fast. Every content marketer needs a system to keep the topics c ...…

Business is failure, and failure is business. Knowing when you’ve lost — and how to move on — is an absolute requirement of entrepreneurship. No matter how much success you create, you will also create flat-out duds, products that miss the mark and just plain don’t sell. No big deal. Today, we discuss how to know when it’s time to admit defeat. ...…

The bad news: you’re on your own. The good news? That’s not such a bad thing after all. Since the 2008 financial crisis, what’s been called the “American Dream” (along with similar dreams globally) has collapsed. The days of just getting a job and supporting a middle-class lifestyle are, for most, over. To thrive in today’s world, you’ve gotta ...…

As entrepreneurs, it can be hard to define our goals for our business. Do we prioritize growth? Revenue? Reach? What is success, anyway? Today, we offer one possible answer: longevity. Every business, big and small, has competition. Companies rise and fall all around us, while a select few just keep trucking along through all the ups and downs. ...…

Let’s shake things up. If you’ve been in business for a while, you may have experienced a good ol’ fashioned rut. You’re stagnant. You’ve plateaued. You need a major boost to your biz, but you’re not sure what you can do to relight the fire and make a drastic, sweeping improvement that’ll move all the right needles. This is the episode for you. ...…

In business today, we don’t just sell our product. We sell ourselves. Personal branding, authentic connection with our audience, and sharing the journey is de rigueur for aspiring entrepreneurs. But where do we draw the line? It’s Q&A Wednesday, and we’ve got a doozy of a question from a listener who’s not sure whether to wear their faith on th ...…

What do your customers want? If you don’t have the answer to that question, you don’t have a business. It may sound obvious, but entrepreneurs overlook this question way too often. When creating our products and building our businesses, it’s strangely easy to forget about being customer-centered. We fall in love with our own ideas, our own visi ...…

Too much growth can kill your business. That might sound a little crazy to many entrepreneurs, but catastrophic success is a real and dangerous problem. Business after business has shot into the stratosphere, taking in investment and expanding their operations, only to crash and burn — hard. If you’re not careful, your business can literally gr ...…

Business is global, and that comes with incredible advantages. Today’s entrepreneurs can draw talent from all over the world, finding skilled, affordable remote team members wherever they are. But all that far-flung talent comes with one little drawback: time zones. Today, we discuss how to navigate the problem of the clock. With employees in A ...…

Refunds: they’re gonna happen. More importantly, offering the option of a refund is critical to earning your audience’s trust. With an entire Internet’s worth of competitors to choose from, today’s customers demand more information — and more guarantees — than ever before. As a business owner, you’ve got to create a refund policy that makes you ...…

Can you do this? Are you entrepreneur material? You’re not the only one asking. In fact, it’s the “Q” in this week’s Q&A! It’s a big, scary question mark for those who want to break out on their own, but haven’t taken the leap just yet. So what makes someone suited for the entrepreneurial life? What skill sets, talents, and dispositions raise t ...…

Yes, we’re recommending Facebook as a business tool. That may come as a shock to longtime listeners, who know what we think of the overrated, underperforming so-called “power” of social media marketing. Bear with us. Facebook Groups offer a wonderful opportunity for growth. Not revenue growth, not traffic growth, but the most important growth o ...…

Where is your small business going? More importantly, how is it getting there? The author of this week’s Must-Read for entrepreneurs, Gino Wickman, has an answer. Traction: How to Get a Grip on Your Business is far more than its title lets on. It’s not just advice. It’s not just inspiration. It’s an instruction manual with detailed, specific st ...…

Online courses are one of the most lucrative products you can sell on the Internet. With price tags in the thousands, selling your expertise to knowledge-hungry customers is a proven business model, one that’s worked well for many an entrepreneur. But how do you know if there’s really an audience for what you’re teaching? Before you pour time a ...…

Here’s a golden rule of business, one we can’t stop repeating: people buy a product when — according to their own internal math — its value exceeds its price. That means the only way to move your product is to increase the only kind of value that really matters: perceived value. Adding features and investing in expensive updates is all well and ...…

Is your business website secure? As more and more business is done online, cyber security is beyond important. It’s Q&A Wednesday, and one listener wants to know if it’s possible to run a successful business with an “http” address, rather than a full on “https.” That little letter makes all the difference, especially in the way potential custom ...…

Social media is like fire. It can be incredibly useful and beneficial, but once it gets out of control, it can consume everything. That’s why Omar quit. Our beloved host made a decision, over a year ago, to take an extended break from all things social media. No Twitter, no Facebook, no ‘gram, nothing. For about 15 months, Omar didn’t make a si ...…

What does a millionaire look like? A trust-fund baby? A hedge-fund bro? Nope. As it turns out, millionaires aren’t the exotic species we think they are. Overwhelmingly, they’re not born into privilege. And shockingly, they don’t tend to have high-powered jobs. Often, millionaires are regular people. So how does Average Joe hit 7 figures? That’s ...…

You built it. It succeeded. Now, it’s time to cash in. Maybe you want to retire, or devote yourself to a whole new project. Whatever the reason, saying goodbye to your successful independent business is no easy decision. It’s important to end this chapter on the best terms, with an exit you can be proud of. So what comes next? You’ve got to fin ...…

A product launch doesn’t always go the way you want, or expect. Despite your best-laid plans and highest hopes, sometimes the market takes a look at what you’re offering and gives a resounding “meh.” Now what? In business — especially independent business — flexibility and adaptability are crucial survival skills. When your product doesn’t hit ...…

We’ve devoted many an episode to the ups and downs of affiliate marketing. Usually, we’re discussing the merits and drawbacks of affiliate marketing for those wondering whether they should get into it. But today, we’ve got a question from a listener who’s already in the affiliate game, and wants to know one thing: whether it’s time to move on. ...…

Happy New Year! It’s officially 2019, and we’re ready to hit the ground running with all new lesson to help you make this the best year ever for your business. Speaking of which, what are your goals for the year? More importantly, do goals matter? What’s the value of a goal? Is it just an arbitrary milestone, or does it have true motivational v ...…

Business doesn’t get any bigger than Disney. How did a patch of swampland in central Florida become one of the biggest revenue-generators in the history of American industry? It all starts with the employees, and how they’re motivated. This week’s Must-Read for entrepreneurs is Doug Lipp’s Disney U, a book that details the strategy behind the t ...…

It’s a question many would-be entrepreneurs are asking themselves: can you still make a living with a blog? About 10 years ago, people started earning serious money just by blogging. Has the business model survived? Can you still earn enough to live the life you want? The short answer is yes, you can still blog your way to success. The blog is ...…

Wish you were making sales? Well it may sound painfully obvious, but…you’re not selling enough. That’s not to say you’re not trying to close. It’s to say you’re not “selling” in the ultimate sense — the 24/7, all-encompassing sense that goes way beyond trying to get a specific person to make a specific purchase. Everything you do — everything — ...…

You can’t judge a podcast by its cover. But your visual branding needs to reflect what your business is offering. It’s Q&A Wednesday, and one listener noticed something different about our little old business podcast. We updated our cover art, changing the visuals around our show and updating its “look” online. Why? What’s the point? Today, we ...…

Getting ready to start a new business? If so, you probably know that every cent counts. Having started quite a few businesses ourselves over the years, we’ve learned what skills and abilities can save you the most. If you learn them, you’ll not only have an edge over your competitors — you’ll have a lot more in the bank by this time next year. ...…

No matter what your independent business is, you have to be a sales person. E-commerce, SaaS, freelancing, artisan pretzel-making; whatever the business, you can’t escape the need for salesmanship. It is everything, even if you don’t consider yourself a “sales person” in the conventional sense. Articulating your idea and persuading others to bu ...…

No entrepreneur is truly independent. We all need guidance, support, and help. One of the most important relationships you can cultivate in business is a mentorship. The most successful entrepreneurs, big and small, have always had at least one mentor. With less structure and precedent than the conventional job market, entrepreneurship is uniqu ...…

You will fail. If you’re an entrepreneur, you won’t always hit the mark. It’s part and parcel of independent business to establish a goal, strive for it, and come up short. As the year winds down and we evaluate our performance, we should take stock of how we’ve failed, and whether we let those failures drag us down or power us forward. For new ...…

A page by any other name is just as sweet. Whether you call it a squeeze page or a landing page, conversions are the name of the game. A well-constructed squeeze page shouldn’t take too much time or effort — if you have the right tools. Today, we tell one listener what those tools are, and where to find them. It’s a follow up from last week’s e ...…

They say to dress for the job you want. But if you’re already an entrepreneur, you can dress for the job you created! Our host Omar almost always rocks a branded t-shirt featuring our software company, WebinarNinja. The reasons for doing so, however, go way beyond the urge to sneak in some extra advertising. Whether he’s speaking at a conferenc ...…

What can we learn from failure? And not just any failure — total, massive, beyond-epic, multi-billion-dollar failure? In this week’s Must-Read book for entrepreneurs, we find out. Bad Blood by John Carreyrou is many things: an engrossing page-turner, an exemplary piece of investigative journalism, and a huge, devastating lesson in how not to la ...…

Sometimes, you just have to bang it out. Whether you’ve got a webinar, pitch, or demo, a quality slide deck is a must. Despite how daunting it can seem, putting one together doesn’t have to be a nightmare or a monumental task. It can be a simple, straightforward, one-hour process. It can take less time than an episode of Game of Thrones to get ...…

The sales call: is it a lost art? More importantly, should it be? What’s the role of outbound marketing in an almost completely inbound world? Is there still value in reaching out personally for a conversation? Can the time you and your sales people spend on the phone actually return worthwhile revenue? The short answer is yes. We still use out ...…