Entrepreneurs – MyTaskPanel Agile | Software de gestión de proyectos ágiles

You Must Know These Tips if You Plan on Starting a Business in 2022

Brenda — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 13:05:31 +0000

You must know these tips if you plan on starting a business in 2022

Few people are willing to go on the adventure of starting a business and building wealth from the ground up. This is mostly due to the time and effort required to launch a firm, not to mention loads of stress, hard work, commitment, and talent that go with it.

Any founder who wants to develop a successful company that will have a lasting impact on the market must invest time in creating a solid foundation to provide their venture with a competitive advantage. And in this post, we’ll go over three important foundations to establish when starting a business.

Three tips to know when starting your own business

1. Demonstrate your creativity and originality

It is critical that you know that just relying on an existing idea without making any improvements is not a viable plan for starting a viable business. Instead, aim to replicate the success of companies like Amazon, Netflix, and BeyondMeat by offering new services or improving old ones.

This can help you improve your authority and reputation in your sector while also providing your company with the relevance it needs. And, when it comes to enhancing your reputation, giving your company a strong and distinctive name is a tried and true way of expressing your company’s originality and competence to clients.

While looking for the perfect name, be sure to use a reliable business name generator to find cool company names that express both your company’s individuality and the preferences of your core demographic.

Furthermore, be sure to keep your company adaptable and ready to transition, much like how Heart of Darkness brewery did during the epidemic. Your business’s success hinges on your capacity to respond to forever-changing market conditions.

Limiting your vision can restrict future growth or even lead to failure. That being stated, make it your major goal to remain at the frontline of market innovation.

2. Seek funding

Starting a business may appear to be straightforward and inexpensive at first glance, but it demands significant cash to start, as well as a strong, persistent financial commitment. Don’t be duped into thinking that all you need to start a business is a decent idea and a few bucks.

One of the primary reasons that many firms fail is that they ignore getting the actual finances necessary to perform properly, or they face some other type of financial limitation.

Without a doubt, the majority of financially challenged enterprises fail before their product is fully embraced by their target audience.

To avoid this, conduct routine financial analyses and stay current on potential funding sources in order to obtain the capital your firm requires.

Look for overseas groups that can help you fund your company’s activities. Also, look for any government agency, for-profit or non-profit organization, or even private investors that are willing to support your business financially.

The Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Save Small Business Funds (SSBF) project is a reliable source of assistance with the primary goal of giving financial assistance to struggling businesses.

3. Create a positive company image

The tone and values of your company have a significant impact on its performance. Your tone also has a significant impact on your brand’s positioning and image among its target audience, and that’s because it can influence how they view your brand’s personality.

Creating an appealing brand image for your company is the most effective technique for obtaining and retaining loyal clients while also establishing a strong reputation.

Don’t underestimate the importance of establishing an effective brand for your business; a strong brand will raise awareness and assist clients in understanding your organization’s aims and ambitions.

Create and maintain a strong online presence

With the significant increase in eCommerce sales and businesses continually embracing digital platforms, maintaining a website and developing your online presence through efficient social media marketing is important for the growth of your brand.

Any business that can gain the love, trust, and loyalty of its online audience has a competitive edge over brands that have a weak online presence.

So far we have come with the tips to start a business in 2022. This has been an article written by: Grant Polachek. He is the head of branding for Squadhelp.com, 3X Inc 5000 startup and disruptive naming agency. Squadhelp has reviewed more than 1 million names and curated a collection of the best available names on the web today. We are also the world’s leading crowdsource naming platform, supporting clients from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies.

La entrada You Must Know These Tips if You Plan on Starting a Business in 2022 se publicó primero en MyTaskPanel Agile | Software de gestión de proyectos ágiles.

The 5 tips you should know if you are creating your own company

Brenda — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 12:32:45 +0000

The 5 tips you should know if you are creating your own company

Many times we have great ideas, but we don’t know how to carry them out. Other times it happens that we don’t even know exactly what we have. Have you not asked yourself the question of whether you are one more or you stand out for some differential factor?

These 5 tips will help you organize and really understand what you have and how to move forward.

Define the value proposition

First of all, to move in the right direction, you need to know which niche you will specialize in. This implies the heading and the specific area with which you will present yourself to the market. By doing so, you will be generating a competitive advantage over other offers similar to yours.

To achieve this, whether you will offer products or services, you have to know the strengths that represent you and somehow replicate them in your company. This way you will be able to differentiate yourself and, why not, stand out from the rest of the available proposals.

Determine your ideal client

This is a variable that comes from the hand of the previous point. Once you have defined the value proposition, it will be easier for you to determine what type of client you will target. Personally, I recommend that you can specify it as best as possible.

When the time comes to communicate what you do, you will need to be clear about what your customer’s problems are and what they would like to achieve. No matter who you are, you will surely be waiting to feel identified and find the solutions you expect.

Surround yourself with the right team

Any organization or company needs good professionals to advance. You can hardly do everything alone. Therefore, I suggest that you make contact with trained and reliable people.

It is essential that you assemble a team with diverse skills, that is willing to give their best to collaborate in the growth of the product or service they offer. A team that contributes new ideas and always tries to add will serve you. When you get it, you should know that it will be a priority to maintain a good relationship with them.

Specify the tasks of each one

Once you have surrounded yourself with the best professionals for your company, assume that communication is the key. Organize regular conversations with them to discuss responsibilities and clarify job expectations.

By maintaining direct contact, whether via chat, videoconferencing or in person, you will achieve the teamwork that your organization needs.

Select the necessary tools

Now is the time to move to the next level. And for that you will need to have a series of tools that make the company work. Applications to communicate, to analyze data, to automate processes or to handle the most complex projects.

Make the relevant choices and study each case. To implement them, both you and your team must know everything about how it works.

When you have determined all the points listed above, which are the ABC of any new venture, I recommend that you read this other article where I explain what you should do and what you should avoid:

https://agile.mytaskpanel.com/en/do-you-want-to-set-up-a-new-entrepreneurship-and-do-not-know-where-to-begin-i-can-help-you/

Start managing your agile projects now. Sign up free

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10 tools for remote work that you can’t miss you

Brenda — Tue, 19 May 2020 13:05:05 +0000

10 tools for remote work that you can't miss

If you already work or have started to work remotely, I believe that you are aware that there are many tools that you need for your daily management in the ICT world. Whether you are in a managerial position (managing areas, accounts or projects) or an operational one (as a member of the team developer), you will need to communicate with the rest of your team.

In this article I tell you about the tools that gave us the best result and with which we achieved a high degree of efficiency.

Before starting, I tell you that at MyTaskPanel Consulting we prioritize simplicity and practicality in the use of any tool we have chosen. I also confess that we know and test a wide suite of tools; We consider the ones listed here the most suitable for achieving optimal remote administration of IT projects.

There are companies that are inclined to use the Microsoft Teams suite, others that prefer Atlassian. We chose Google, since it offers you practically everything you need. If you have contracted the Google business tools suite, you can manage the permissions to each tool from the Google Suite console.

To reserve important dates: Google Calendar

When you have to set times for meetings or appointments that you must remember, I recommend that you use Google Calendar. Just select the day and time you need to book, enter a place if necessary, place an alert to remind you of the date and complete with a comment in the description. In case you want to share the appointment with another person, you can add their email in the guests section.

To produce documents in different formats: Google Docs and Google Sheets

If you have information to exchange with your team and you need to organize it as clearly and concisely as possible, you can choose between Google Docs (documents) or Google Sheets (spreadsheets). The first one is used to create texts as you do in Word or similar programs and allows you to edit them as many times as you need and grant permissions for others to modify them. Regarding the second, you should know that it has a great utility to put together spreadsheets with graphs and charts of different sizes and colors, functionalities similar to those of an Excel. In this case, you can also grant permissions to edit.

To create shapes and diagrams for documents: Google Drawings

With this Google tool, you can create normal or flow charts and design diagrams, then add them to other documents or easily insert them into a website. In addition, you have the ability to comment on a shape or text box and send an email notification adding a user to a comment. In the end, each of your drawings will be automatically saved and stored, so you can access them anywhere and from any device.

To exchange opinions or organize a creative meeting: Google Jamboard

When you are part of a team in which there must be mutual collaboration, I suggest you use Jamboard. Create a digital whiteboard, drawing with various pens and colors, to record your ideas. Then edit it from any device and share it with others. The other participants can collaborate at the time they prefer, from the place where they are. Everyone with permission has the ability to add sticky notes to exchange opinions, insert photos and stickers, and highlight objects with the laser pointer.

To share documents with your team: Google Drive

Once you have completed the documents you want to share with the rest of your team, you can sort them into different folders within Google Drive. From this tool, exchange how many times you need files or folders with your teammates, whether or not they are connected to the Internet. Give them permissions so that they can view the documents and, if necessary, so that they can modify them.

To talk through video conference: Google Meet

From the Google Calendar option, you can add the link to have a video conference through Google Meet. This tool allows you to send a notification to the other person and, if necessary, share the link so that they can access it easily and quickly. It is one of the video conferencing tools that work best today. You can invite an unlimited number of attendees and, as a moderator, share the screen and enable or disable the audio of the rest of the attendees.

To communicate through instant messaging: Slack

In this case, although Hangouts would have been the option that would follow our line of recommendations, we opted for Slack, due to the fact that independent chat channels can be administered for each project or topic that you want to manage with an independent and particular team. Although we use Hangouts for quick chats with our closest team, communications regarding ongoing projects are done by Slack. As it is a market standard, we also often invite customers to participate in certain channels and workspaces. Finally, I can add that it is very easy to integrate with external tools (such as Google Drive or Google Calendar).

To manage your projects: MyTaskPanel

If you need to manage several projects with a remote team, without losing control of any detail, you can do it in the most simple and intuitive way with MyTaskPanel. This is a new tool that will allow you to create a project in three simple steps. By locating the Projects in different Accounts and having the possibility of having more than one workspace, you will have organized the management visualizing due dates, priorities, efforts, labels and those responsible for each task. It doesn’t matter if you have a small team or are part of a more complex organization, MyTaskPanel will help you control your most demanding projects, both with Scrum for development projects and with Kanban for maintenance stages.

As a project source code repository: GitLab

Depending on the project, we also use Jira, Github or Teams. However, whenever we can choose, we opt for Gitlab. It is a private repository with a good response and easy to configure. It also integrates easily with countless development IDEs, both in Windows and Linux.

To keep track of times and timestamp: TimeSheet

With this mobile application, record your work hours and add breaks, expenses and notes in the easiest way. You can export this data to an Excel document and easily backup or restore to your SD card, Dropbox or Drive. Use the summaries and statistics provided by TimeSheet to improve your work experience. If you want to use this tool on multiple devices and on your desktop, activate real-time synchronization. Track your work hours even better with the TimeSheet web app.

Although these are not the only tools that we use in our daily operations (I have omitted, for example, mail and other applications that I did not think necessary to mention), we consider that they are the most outstanding to take into account when teleworking effectively and comfort.

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Interview in CIO Applications magazine

Mario Rosal — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:17:11 +0000

Interview in CIO Applications magazine

Just a few months ago, a prestigious Silicon Valley’s magazine (CIO Applications) contacted us to let us know that we have benn selected among the Top 10 Agile Consulting / Service Companies in Europe 2020. After being nominated by the magazine’s subscribers, their market research team reviewed carefully the latest Agile developments across Europe, through various sources. Finally, the advisory panel, together with the technical managers, decided the final list of those selected.
As part of this recognition, we shared an interview that they did us, below:

MyTaskPanel Consulting: Enabling Streamlined Workflow and Continuous Development

The journey of Spain-based MyTaskPanel Consulting is compelling. With cash crunch coming in the way of setting offices in three different locations, the founding partners of the company knew that they had to be creative and open-minded to keep their doors open. The team thrived on online collaboration tools such as Google Suite for Business to connect with its resources—analysts, programmers, designers—working remotely from Spain and Argentina. However, these tools led to huge complexity in administration. Soon MyTaskPanel adopted Agile methodology and conducted daily meetings using Slack and Google Meeting for videoconferences.

Utilizing Agile, the company made several gains, and soon followed the idea of helping other companies achieve the same value through Agile. But, the market lacked an efficient Agile tool. “Unfazed by the challenges, we took it upon ourselves to build a robust Agile tool, and the rest, as they say, is history,” states Óscar Valente, CEO and COO of MyTaskPanel.

As multinational companies and distributed teams grow and markets change rampantly, transparency and agility become crucial for any organization to stay competitive. A firm should be fully aware of the current phase and the status of its ongoing project at any time. In such a scenario, companies must focus on learning from previous mistakes and encouraging continuous improvement. MyTaskPanel Agile Software offers a practical solution that provides visibility into every phase of an IT project. The functionallyrich solution helps both the project managers and the clients to view the project map, iterations that compose it, and the tasks to be followed to maintain short iterations. Besides, the solution stresses fluid contact with stakeholders, transparency, and self-organized teams. The clients can also quickly comment on the tasks, upload files, and propose changes in priorities when required.

MyTaskPanel provides two different types of services, Agile outsourcing and software development. These services help clients successfully catalyze innovation, accelerate growth, improve time-to-market, and adapt to market conditions. Through Agile outsourcing, MyTaskPanel provides high-level Agile professionals. “We use both Scrum and Kanban for flexible iterations, depending on the clients’ project timeline. If the client has no specific requirement for the iterations, we make informed decisions based on our experience and expertise,” says Valente.

For greater transparency, the company also outsources quality assurance and information security processes. On the other hand, the company’s software development service provides visibility throughout the development cycle.
MyTaskPanel is the ideal technology partner to develop solutions for a broad array of needs spanning web and mobile, IoT, home automation, and Robotic Process Automation projects, especially when the challenge is great and the time is a constraint.

In delivering Agile solutions, our team focuses on enabling a streamlined workflow to the clients for continuous development while taking care of the unique client requirements.

In all of its services, MyTaskPanel adapts to the client needs in every project. “Adaption is the essence of Agile,” Valente believes. “In delivering Agile solutions, our team focuses on enabling a streamlined workflow to the clients for continuous development while taking care of the unique client requirements.”
The company takes a partnered approach, guiding clients on the best possible way to achieve their goals. In an instance, Croowly, a cybersecurity solutions provider, approached MyTaskPanel to achieve minimum viable product (MVP) to market. MyTaskPanel worked as their technology partner and interacted with the different stakeholders in the project to build the desired MVP in time.

In the future, MyTaskPanel plans to upgrade the existing services and enhance the knowledge of its team in the areas of robotic process automation. The company will continue assisting clients in transforming their businesses and boosting the quality of their products with more streamlined workflows and new tools.

You can see the original article here: CIO Applications Europe

La entrada Interview in CIO Applications magazine se publicó primero en MyTaskPanel Agile | Software de gestión de proyectos ágiles.

Being or not being an entrepreneur – Pros and Cons of a lifestyle

Mario Rosal — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 12:26:56 +0000

Being or not being an entrepreneur- Pros and Cons of a lifestyle

If you are reading these lines it is because in some way you are considering a change in your work life. The first thing you have to know is that a decision like this is not limited to the workplace, but also to the professional and even to the social one.

I have worked as an employee and I have been and still am an entrepreneur since I received my Bachelor’s degree at IT. Today, 25 years after setting up my first entrepreneurship, I am a small businessman with a relatively good economic position and a successful person (it is a separate issue to understand what we call success), although not to the point of having reached the top, far from it. That is, I’m not going to tell you a fairy tale sitting on the throne of plenty, but a real story. Maybe it will help you decide.

Making a brief summary, so you know who is talking to you (or typing), I tell you that I come from an argentine family of middle class, as so many others. I’ve never had any needs, but neither was I leftover. I had to work to be able to afford my university and finish my career. I went through several jobs, all quite badly paid. I learned something in all of them and I am grateful for it.

Hasn’t it happened to you that from a very early age you had an aim, a dream or a goal in your life? Like when, as a child, they ask you “what do you want to be when you grow up?”

In my case, being barely a teenager, every time someone asked me about my future, I answered that I wanted to have my own company. About 6 months after having my degree, me and my college friend founded our first systems consultant, in which we did everything (hardware sales, computer courses and systems development). The beginning was really tough, the numbers did not close and the problems abounded, but we were good at developing software, therefore time and persistence rewarded us. We began to gain more clients, in general by recommendations, and the numbers began to close. It took several tries, but we made it. We started to hire more people and ended up having a whole apartment for rent in Cordoba Avenue (that is, the centre of Buenos Aires city).

Until then, I can tell you I had what I wanted. I sat in my comfortable office on the fifth floor to watch the movement of the street while having a coffee and I thought I had it all. Being this said, it is not that I had a movie salary, not at all, but I was professionally satisfied (which was much more important for me than the economic part), since being less than 30 years old, I had achieved my goal of being the owner of my own company and of working doing what I was passionate about: developing.

What could go wrong? Hahaha, I didn’t have a clue what life was going to bring to me. As the saying goes “no recibimos lo que pedimos, sino lo que necesitamos” (we do not receive what we ask, but what we need). Well, that’s right…

As you can imagine, running a business, even if it is a small one (at that time I think we were in total between 15 or 20 employees and freelancers), is not easy at all. This is where I can not avoid getting angry with the educational system, which does not prepare you to be an entrepreneur, neither it teaches you numbers, finances, administration, resource management, in short, financial education. It can not be that only by doing the career of Business Administration or Economic Sciences you obtain that valuable knowledge. Well, we did not do it so wrong, but we learned due to blows, trial and error. I could finish this story here, but it was just beginning…

If there is something that Argentina never lacked are the crises. Well, to sum up, we went through several thereof, but we could not survive the 2001 recession and, a couple of years later, we went bankrupt. Here I’m not going to tell all the things we went through, we just need to know that we did not have any money, nor an active client and debts to give away. Ten years after setting up my first company, I witnessed its fall and I had to start all over again.

That experience, although it was not pleasant, was extremely instructive (believe me: what does not kill you, teaches you and makes you stronger). I learned a lot, as a person and as an entrepreneur. I would never make the same mistakes again. At that time, I was married and had two small children. My marriage strengthened, we matured as a couple, our children never found out that for months we ate thanks to credit cards and I barely earned enough money to cover the minimum payment.

I considered looking for a job as an employee with a colleague (at that time, I had several employers who would have been glad to hire me as an analyst and project leader) but my wife supported me because she knew that I would not be fully happy doing that. Then I did the only thing I could do: I got up, left the past behind and started again.

In 2005, I created my second company. We proposed a different structure with my partner, something innovative for the time (nowadays many people use it): a minimum staff in a employment relationship and the rest hired as associates or partners. That would give us flexibility of movement to grow in good times and quickly reduce us in bad times. Instead of renting a huge office to accommodate many people (with equally large expenses), we hired virtual and co-working spaces (they did not have that name back then). We promoted the home office work and the good quality of life. It worked. We had begun again the slow path of growth and expansion.

In 2018 my family and I decided to move abroad to Spain. So I partnered with a couple of friends in a startup which aim was to create the best software on the market for the project management in agile methodologies. This is how MyTaskPanel Consulting was builded, a Spanish company with a factory in Latin America, which experienced exponential growth in a very short time, for which we received several awards and mentions that fill us with pride and motivate us to continue giving our best.

This would be my third entrepreneurship. Obviously, being an entrepreneur is my thing. However, this does not mean that it is the right path for everyone, neither that it is wrong to be employed. It is perfect to be an employee (for some people, not for me, of course).

The advantage of being an employee is the security of having a salary, good or bad, but regular. Being an entrepreneur, you have to be prepared for good and bad times. Although today I maintain a balanced balance between leisure and work, it was not always like that and I had to work 10 hours a day and even several weekends, which on the whole does not happen if you are employed. Another difference is that, if you do not know how to organize, it is possible that as an entrepreneur you take the problems to your home and your relationship, since the company is yours, the problems are all personal, not labor ones. To be a good entrepreneur, you must not only wish to earn money, but you need to love and be passionate for what you do. Money is a consequence if you do your job well, but not an objective.

In summary, in my opinion and naming only the advantages of either one or another system, we could conclude that the advantages of being an employee in a dependency relationship are:

Safe salary
Higher benefits (medical coverage, various prizes)
Paid holidays
Possibility of professional growth having experience at the company
Fixed and predetermined working hours
Less labor concerns (limited to your work schedule)

On the other hand, on an entrepreneur’ side, the advantages therein are:

There are no limits to what you could achieve (with luck and a lot of effort, of course)
You can earn much more this way than being an employee (but also much less)
You can manage your time as you please
You achieve greater independence, which results in a higher quality of life
You can do what you really like (I do not know a single entrepreneur who is not in the field that he loves)

Once I read a phrase with which I feel fully identified: “if you work on what you like, you will not have to work a single day of your life”.

Today, almost three decades after the creation of my first company, I can say that I feel a successful person, both personally and professionally. I have a relatively good economic position and I give great importance to the balance between my obligations and my leisure time. I love traveling and getting to know other cultures and ways of life. Sometimes I think that if I started over with everything I know now, I wouldn’t have made so many mistakes, but maybe I wouldn’t be the person I’ve become, nor would I be where I am, since I firmly believe that we are the sum of our experiences.

They say that the path we walk makes us what we are. Do you already know which road you would like to follow? No matter which one you choose, dedicate yourself to it with all your love and passion, it is the only way life is worth living.

La entrada Being or not being an entrepreneur – Pros and Cons of a lifestyle se publicó primero en MyTaskPanel Agile | Software de gestión de proyectos ágiles.

Do you want to set up a new entrepreneurship and do not know where to begin? I can help you…

Mario Rosal — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 14:07:28 +0000

Do you want to set up a new entrepreneurship and do not know where to begin? I can help you...

It often happens that we have potentially great ideas, but when we think of everything that needs to be done to carry them out, we are no longer enthusiastic, we are overwhelmed by the task, we feel lost and maybe a little depressed because we cannot do it or know how to continue, What would be the next step? How can I carry out this idea, transform it into a entrepreneurship and achieve success with my product?

Has it happened to you? Have you asked yourself those questions before? I can tell you how to carry out your entrepreneurship and transform it into a great adventure.

I recommend you to see my LinkedIn profile to know who I am, what I did and why I think I can help you. However, almost all you need to know is that I have been an entrepreneur for more than 25 years.

Back in 1993, when I created my first systems consulting company, together with a friend from college, both of us just graduated as system engineers, I did practically everything there is to do. However, we were able to carry on the company and achieve some success and reputation in the local market, which allowed us to be where we are now (I am writing these lines in my studio located on a 13th floor overlooking the Mediterranean, and I do not say this with pedantry, but so you know I did it and I can help you to get it too).

Sometimes I think it would have been great to walk that road again with everything I know now about it. However, maybe that would make me today someone else and not who I am, because I firmly believe that we are the sum of our learning and our experiences.

I began by saying that I did everything I should not do in my first entrepreneurship. In short, what I did wrong was, among other things:

Creating the company without a perfectly clear idea of what would differentiate us from the rest (why did we think we would be better or at least that we had a good opportunity to compete?).
Registering the company as a Limited Liability Company (LLC), which involved a series of expenses that we had no idea how to deal with.
Not having a business plan (what on earth would that be?).
Starting the entrepreneurship without having a single client (literally, not even one) but with monthly and recurrent expenses (I really do not know how we subsisted).
As we did not know what was best, we decided to do everything (developing systems, selling hardware and giving courses) and, obviously, the one that covers a lot, little squeezes: we were not very good at anything.
None of us had any idea of business management, marketing or sales techniques.

As a mitigating, I have to clarify that at that time I was just 23 years old. Now that I think about it, we had no chance to last even 6 months. However, against all odds, we subsisted. Surely you will ask why or how we did it.

The reason was that we had some of the fundamental requirements to be an entrepreneur: open mind, flexibility to adapt, speed of movement and unlimited energy/enthusiasm.

We understood right away that something was not right, we focused on what we did best: developing software. We differentiated ourselves from the rest, providing a personalized and high quality service at a fraction of the cost of the market average (we could do it because we were the ones who did all the work). That interested the largest consultants and we began to be known. Businesses grew and we began the next stage: expanding.

This next stage did not lack difficulties, since we had no experience or a guide to follow, but this is another topic. I am going to give you now a series of tips that I would have valued very much back then, which you should take as a general guide, not as a step-by-step manual.

1.- Create a Business Plan

Let’s assume that you already have a more or less clear idea of the product or service you want to develop. The next step would be to write a business plan. You will wonder why.

You write a business plan for several reasons: to present the idea to potential partners or investors, to obtain a bank loan, etc.

However, the reason why you should do it is to make your idea clear and explore all the important aspects of the potential business. You will find models of business plans on the web. If the model is more or less good, it will force you to analyze each and every one of the edges of the business.

2.- First things first: Marketing

Only two things sell: a very good product or a very good marketing. In fact, with a good marketing campaign, even bad products are sold, which does not happen the other way around.

SIf you are developing a new product or service, it will hardly be initially the best in the market and, even if it were, if nobody knows it, nobody will buy it.

Over the years, many people sought my advice for the development of a new product or service and, after telling me their idea and technically how they were going to do it, I asked them, did you think about how you are going to sell it? Who is your client? What problem are you solving him? How are you going to do for him to discover that your product exists? What would be the sale price, is it competitive?

They always kept thinking and minimizing that aspect because, as many others, they concentrate on the technical or operative part of the idea, believing that it will then sell itself because they are building something extraordinary. I’m sorry to say it’s never so simple. Even the big ones (Airbnb, Facebook, etc.), invested a lot of money in marketing before being known and achieving success.

My advice: look for a partner who is an expert in marketing and who loves your product, who gives you great ideas and is as enthusiastic as you. Or, alternatively, seek capital to hire a good marketing agency.

3.- One step at a time

You always have to move forward, but do not rush, do not try to climb up three steps together, because the most likely is that you’ll fall.

First, build a prototype of the product, then launch it into the market as a beta or find someone who is interested in trying it and give it to you free of charge in exchange for helping you to improve it. Do not try to build the perfect product for a first version: nobody does that, it is a waste of time, money and effort.

Only when you have a paid version of your product and some customers, or when you have sold your service to one or two companies, start thinking about creating a company. Begin as a startup, not as a L.L.C. (as I did). Try to spend as little as possible to maximize the results. Do not think a lot of yourself and hire a cellular fleet or rent a flat in the best area of your city, use the capital you have in a smart and discreet way.

4.- Invest your time on what’s important

You will wonder what is important. The answer is the same for every entrepreneur, I assure you: that your business grows.

In that sense, the important thing to do is that you get more customers, that your product is more sold. Here we are already entering the field of marketing and there are whole books about it. What you have to understand is that your time is expensive for your company, that only you will be able to recognize the good opportunities, close the best deals or make your product / service become the best of all. Do not let the day to day consume you, that the urgent does not hide what is important.

There are many approaches to address this issue. I prefer the one that has as a dogma to give to receive. That is, you have to discover what you are good at, in what sense you are the best at what is yours, what makes you unique and special: exploit it, give it away without expecting anything in return. Time will reward you.

5.- Learn to delegate

There will come a time when you will no longer be able to take charge of what is important because the administrative, accounting, human resources, support tasks or whichever they are, will require your participation. Do not fall for this trick. Much to your dismay, you’re going to have to start delegating responsibilities.

I know that something done by oneself is not the same as what someone else does. I know, but you will have to accept it, otherwise you will not be able to grow, you will have reached the limit.

The only thing you should never delegate is the control. Never trust that task to anyone. That is, if you have an administrative manager, obviously he will take care of the administration and have responsibilities over his area. That’s fine, but you cannot be totally oblivious to what happens, if not one day you’ll find yourself with an unpleasant surprise and by that time, it will be too late to solve it.

6.- Surround yourself with the best

Your company will be as efficient as the people who conform it. Your product will be as good as the team behind it. Try to create a team of extraordinary people and you will achieve equally extraordinary results.

In the same way, you must provide the best tools to help you in your management. Try to make sure your time is always well spent.

7.- Enjoy it, for it to make sense

EThis is the last, but in turn, the most important of all the tips. Never forget why you created the company. Why did you develop this incredible product or service (and do not tell it was for making money, because that is a consequence, not a purpose, if so this article is not for you).

You created that product because you had a great idea and it was what you wanted to do. Well, enjoy it!!! If you get to lose that spirit that was the one that prompted you to start with all this, you will not have achieved success, no matter how much money you make.

You should always keep in mind that the important thing is the path, not the goal. If you reach the top, you will discover that the interesting thing was the way traveled to reach it.

On the other hand, do not let your project become an obsession. Do not lose sight of what you want from life. For example, if your passion is to practice sports or travel, if you work 7×24, you will not have time for it, so you will not be happy neither, and that will have a negative impact on your company.

Maintaining a balance between your work and leisure time is the formula to become a successful person.

La entrada Do you want to set up a new entrepreneurship and do not know where to begin? I can help you… se publicó primero en MyTaskPanel Agile | Software de gestión de proyectos ágiles.

What kind of entrepreneur are you? – Tips to become the best one

Mario Rosal — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 22:46:43 +0000

What kind of entrepreneur are you? - Tips to become the best one

It is clear that you are the CEO, Founder, Owner, Director, General Manager, or some variant of your own company, but do you really know what level you are at? How do you see yourself and what do others perceive? What would be the next step?

A worldwide genius at the field (Bradley Schwartz) classified entrepreneurs in 6 levels. I will tell you below the summary version, which can help you understand yourself a little better, giving you a different perspective and allowing you to decide if you are where you want to be.

Without further ado, the levels, according to the author are:

0: Employee
1: Self-employed
2: Manager
3: Owner / Leader
4: Investor
5: Capitalist

In this case I already differ with this good man, since 0 and 1 are practically the same, such as 4 and 5. On the other hand, this should not be seen as a ladder, but rather as an ascending path where it begins at 0 and ends at 5, but with a long distance between each checkpoint. That is, most of us are at an intermediate level between one point and another. We would not be progressing if it wasn’t so, and that would be very boring.

1 – Self-employed

He is an entrepreneur who dedicates 90% of his time on the product, with very little focus on marketing and little knowledge of the management of a company. He fulfils all the roles simultaneously, so he does nothing quite right.

If you are here, what you should do is changing your perspective. For example, do not see yourself as a consultant or as a freelance, but, in any case, as the owner of the consultant. You must also generate a vision of your company: where do you want to go? Work to try to create a workflow and be able to hire someone to help you.

A variant of this case is the so-called level 0, which is different because it also has a single customer and the whole business depends on him.

Many entrepreneurs aren’t able to advance from this position. They feel that they are advancing because they work 14 hours per day, but in reality, they are stuck in a vicious circle (they need the finished product to generate income, but they need income to finish the product).

2 – Manager

This is a bad place to stay, but unfortunately it is part of the road. The characteristics of this milestone, according to the author, are:

They believe that if something has to be done well, they have to do it themselves
They lose focus, as they feel it is more important to be a boss than to earn money
They hire people who can control, not lead, since they want to be in everything
They see the company’s money as their own and not as the profit that the company generates
They have trouble at making decisions since they don’t have the information for it.

I hope you are not at this point, but if so, I’ll give you some tips to move forward. You have to put together a team (not a sum of employees) and you must lead it. You have to create a sum of procedures that take your company forward (remember why you created it in the first place). How to know if you achieved? When you have an autonomous leader in each area of the company, let them inform you, you do not have to direct them but lead them.

3 – Leader (Owner)

At this point you can consider yourself satisfied, since very few can make it. You work less than before, because all your areas are controlled by a person in charge and you don’t have to worry about everyday life. You have time to see how to increase the value of the company, opening new sales channels or improving procedures. Your role is to direct the company without “working” on it.

You may wonder, why moving forward if I am already where I want to be? The answer lies in the fact that you may not be happy here where you are. It’s ironic, because you are where thousands and thousands of people would want to be, but maybe you might not feel complete at this place. You have too much free time and that can be a problem.

A problem with this position is that probably you don’t feel comfortable, because you liked the work you used to do and now you don’t feel useful anymore.

Personally, I get you. Ask yourself again “where do you want to go?”, “what makes you happy?”

Probablemente encuentres que la respuesta es algo más compleja que este camino ascendente que describe el autor, ya que podrías seguir siendo el líder de la empresa, pero a su vez cubrir alguna tarea o participar en algún área que te apasione (por ejemplo, en investigación para definir el roadmap de tu producto, o en ventas para presentar tu producto en eventos, como hacía Steve Jobs o Bill Gates).

Now, if in spite of what has been said, you decide to reach the last level and become an investor, a business person, what you must do is changing the vision of yourself. You have to put a CEO and walk away from the management of your company, which happens to be only a business that produces a certain ROI and you must invest your time in generating other businesses, which will produce more and more benefits.

4 – Investor

Your focus is on the return on investment (ROI). At this point, the game is very different and you could make mistakes, don’t be afraid, everything is learning. You arrived here making mistakes, do not forget it.

The big question is: “Do you feel comfortable in this role?” If not, do not worry, you can go back to level 3 whenever you like.

As a corollary, the difference that the author sees between this level and the next one is that in the last one, you make investments with external capital, not with your own, you help companies to grow and to go public. I see this as a variant of this same level.

If you got here, making a self-analysis and as a matter of respect for the time you dedicated to me, I would like to tell you how I see myself. It is important for you to understand who wrote these lines.

Actually, I feel that I am somewhere between the levels 3 and 4. That is, I lead more than one company of the same category, which have a solid structure and area leaders whom I trust and who have a clear responsibility. However, I also get involved in the areas that I am passionate about, which are several (project management, macro-level business management, new products). On the other hand, I also have investments, and not only in the stock market, but in other companies, of which I am a shareholder or strategic partner.

A phrase that was stuck on me is the one that says: “If you are working hard, it is because your company is not working”.

I am saying this since it is something that always strikes me, because when I have plenty of time, I often feel bad because I think that I am being unproductive or that I have little work, but the truth is totally the opposite (the work is very well organized and it works as a properly oiled mechanism). In those cases, I take the opportunity to think about new opportunities, or write some lines in a blog.

La entrada What kind of entrepreneur are you? – Tips to become the best one se publicó primero en MyTaskPanel Agile | Software de gestión de proyectos ágiles.