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I was at the WOBIÂ business plan competition this evening and heard from an exciting panel of experts. The founder of Squarespace (Anthony Casalena), Selena Cuffe (co-founder of Heritage Link Brands) and Christine Dimmick (founder of The Good Home Co). These three entrepreneurs gave great advice to the attendees. Below is a Storify curration of their...
The post Lessons from Squarespace Founder: Do What You Love. You’ll Need It When Hard Times Come. appeared first on Small Business Technology.
The founder of Squarespace (Anthony Casalena), Selena Cuffe (co-founder of Heritage Link Brands) and Christine Dimmick (founder of The Good Home Co).
These three entrepreneurs gave great advice to the attendees.
Below is a Storify curration of their advice. Can’t see the embed - it’s here too.
It happens. At times, hardworking and well-intentioned small business owners fail to meet their legal obligations with the state, and their businesses fall into “bad standing.†No matter how you got yourself into a non-compliant status, it is possible to get back into good standing and reinstate a non-compliant business. Fortunately, in many cases, it’s not as difficult a road as you might think.
If your company is in bad standing with the state, it’s a good idea to bring it back into compliance before the end of the year. That’s because ignoring the problem won’t make it go away. The penalties and fees will catch up to you eventually. So it’s typically better to deal with the issue as soon as possible and start the new year with a clean slate.
If your business is not in bad standing, the following can still help you understand how to meet your legal obligations and avoid these problems in the first place.
A corporation or LLC falls into bad standing when it fails to meet the requirements of the state where it formed or where it has a foreign qualification. Here are some of the common culprits:
When a company doesn’t meet its legal obligations, it can be placed in non-compliant status, administratively dissolved or even revoked by the state where it formed. Any unpaid fees and taxes will continue to accrue, and you’ll most likely have some hefty penalty fines added on top.
In addition, when a business is in bad standing, the business owner no longer enjoys the limited liability protection of the LLC or corporation. That means that his or her personal assets are now vulnerable. If your business is sued, the plaintiff may seek damages from your personal savings.
Likewise, if you continue to fail to pay your business’ taxes or fees, the state may be able to place a levy on your personal bank account.
In many cases, your business (or your registered agent) will receive a notice from the state telling you that you’re in non-compliant status.
If you are not sure how your business stands with the state (for example, you haven’t updated your mailing address/address of record to receive a notice), simply check with your state’s secretary of state office.
The specific steps will vary based on your state and the reason why you fell out of compliance. At a high level, you’ll typically want to:
1. Check why you fell out of compliance in the first place (if you don’t already know this, you can check with the state’s secretary of state office).
2. Submit a reinstatement form on behalf of the corporation or LLC to the secretary of state. You can either do this yourself, or have a legal document filing company handle it for you to make sure you’ve got all your T’s crossed and I’s dotted. In some cases, you may need to file additional documentation with the reinstatement form. It all depends on why you fell out of compliance in the first place.
3. Pay your outstanding fees, fines, and/or overdue state franchise taxes. This is usually the most painful part for any business. There’s typically no easy way around it. If you owe more than you can pay, you may want to consult a lawyer to determine your options.
Once you’ve reinstated your business, your corporation/LLC keeps its original filing date of formation.
I’m sure that in many cases, it may be tempting to ignore the non-compliant business and start over with a brand new one. However, don’t ever think that the state will stop keeping tabs on the old business.
Until a business is officially closed with the state, you’ll be on the hook for all fees, penalties and taxes. As state budgets are being increasingly stretched thin, state franchise and equalization offices are keeping a closer eye on late and non-payments.
Reinstating your business lets you instantly regain all the benefits of corporate/LLC status, including that important limited liability protection to safeguard your personal assets.
Most importantly, you can start fresh without worrying about an uncertain legal status.
Non-Compliance Photo via Shutterstock
Apple Inc. plans to introduce two curved phones possibly making them among the first such devices available in the U.S. That’s according to murmurs in the industry saying the tech giant is in the planning stages on the two new iPhones.
The devices would also have the largest displays yet released on Apple phones â€" 4.7 and 5.5 inches.
The issue with curved phones thus far has been their lack of availability in the U.S. market â€" at least, so far.
Samsung introduced its Galaxy Round in October. The phone offers a 5.7-inch screen that curves along the vertical access. Whether the phone becomes part of a trend or just a passing fad, the Round is unlikely to be the phone that popularizes it. Samsung has set a steep price of about $1,000 for the device and it’s currently only available in South Korea.
LG announced its revolutionary Flex G more recently. Unlike the Samsung device, the Flex G is curved top to bottom rather than along the axis. The phone also features a revolutionary organic LED display. Also unlike the Samsung model, the Flex G is being planned for the U.S. too.
The Apple phones are planned for release sometime next year, possibly in the third quarter, Bloomberg reports. The new devices are expected to feature displays that, unlike either the Samsung or LG phones, curve down at the edges.
Whether or not the new phones will appeal to budget conscious entrepreneurs will depend on the price certainly. But on the marketing side, any entrepreneur must acknowledge the amount of buzz all three companies have generated.
It’s an impressive feat for products that, in some cases, aren’t even on the market yet.
Curved Phone Photo via Shutterstock
When it comes to managing employees, every small business owner wants a leg up. Thanks to technology, there are many mobile apps for business, for both mobile phones and tablets, that can help you do more, no matter where you are.
When I have multiple projects running simultaneously, Basecamp helps me assign tasks to team members, set milestones and share documents.
The app is available for free on iTunes, and Android and Windows users can access the mobile version through their mobile Web browsers. Plans start at $20 a month.
If you’re already a QuickBooks user, the mobile app provides a simplified version of the online tool. There, you can pay employees and employment taxes (and, of course, manage your finances and invoices).
The app is free for Android and Apple products, and QuickBooks online accounts start at $12.95 a month.
If you’re still using paper schedules to arrange your employees’ work schedules, step into the 21st century. With ScheduleBase, you can create schedules online, send updates to your staff via email or text and view and approve schedule requests.
The app is free on Android and iTunes, and ScheduleBase plans start at $10 a month.
The other side to the scheduling equation is tracking the time that your employees work. Enter Timesheet Mobile. Employees can “punch the clock†by either using the mobile app on a smartphone or by calling an 800 number and entering their employee and job numbers. You can also import timesheets into QuickBooks for payroll.
The app is free to download for Android and Apple devices, and accounts run at $29.99 a month, plus either $.15 a punch (an employee checking in or out of work) or $9.95 a month unlimited punches per employee.
If you manage a virtual workforce, it’s important to stay in touch regularly and virtual face-to-face beats simply communicating by email.
Skype’s mobile app is available for every phone type (including BlackBerry) and is free to download. It’s also free to use for most calls, except calling other countries.
This is by far my go-to app for team collaboration. Because I can share documents, spreadsheets, presentations and forms with team members in Google Drive, I don’t have to worry about emailing new versions of a document back and forth.
I can track revisions and notify other users when I comment in a document. It, like most of these other apps, is free for all mobile devices.
Trust me on this. You should be recruiting or researching potential hires even when you don’t need them.
Use LinkedIn’s free mobile app for any phone or tablet and start growing your network so that when you’re ready to hire, you already have the right contacts.
If you travel regularly and don’t have time to schedule employee interviews for a new position, try HireVue. Available as a free app for iPhones and iPads, applicants can record a video of their responses to interview questions you’ve set up.
Review the videos at your leisure and choose the best person for the job.
Shorten the candidate search process with JobVite, which allows you to send invitations to people in your social network and contact list to apply for an open position at your company. You can also use the applicant tracking system to streamline the hiring process.
Rather than being a mobile app, it’s an app built into Facebook.
If your employees regularly travel for work and you don’t have a travel coordinator, Tripit helps you manage multiple employees’ itineraries, as well as create team travel calendars and maps if you manage co-located teams you want to gather in a single spot.
There’s a free plan, then plans start at $49 a year, and the app is free for all mobile devices.
I agree with the saying, “work smarter, not harder.†These mobile apps for business do that. They take what used to be tedious processes, like handwriting paper schedules and coordinating vacation requests, and turn them into something you can do with a few taps of your finger.
Mobile Apps Photo via Shutterstock
However, for many businesses those precious seconds of your time are what they need to increase revenue. But are these types of video ads effective? Ramesh Sitaraman from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, along with his research partner S. Shunmuga Krishnan, sought out the answer to that question by examining how often viewers even finish watching ads.
“Video usage is growing so rapidly,†says Sitaraman, “but making online videos economically sustainable and profitable is a burning question of key importance to the future economics and evolution of the Internet.â€
In what is one of the largest-ever scientific studies, Sitaraman and Krishnan analyzed anonymized viewer data linked to more than 257 million ads, in 367 million videos, from over 3,000 publishers that were viewed by 65 million unique viewers around the world over a 15-day period.
Using Akamai’s media analytics platform to sift through the data, Akamai found some interesting things. Here’s some of what they found:
This gives business a lot to think about. While you may have worked hard on that two minute magnum opus to your business’ ingenuity and work ethic, will viewers actually stay around to check it out while waiting for Cutest Kittens Vol.9 to play? While Sitaraman and Krishnan’s study doesn’t provide specifics about what a business should necessarily do, it’s a safe assumption that brevity does more for your video ad than a large budget, and that it’s better to not overstay your welcome.
If you’ve noticed the comments in your YouTube account are looking more like Google Plus these days, it’s not your imagination. YouTube recently announced roll out of a new comment section powered by Google Plus.
In a post on the official YouTube Blog, product manager Nundu Janakiram and principal engineer Yonatan Zunger explained:
We told you recently that better commenting is coming to YouTube. Starting this week, when you’re watching a video on YouTube, you’ll see comments sorted by people you care about first.
Here’s a brief video highlighting the basics of the new comment section:
The new roll out stops short of being a full integration of the Google Plus comment section. However, comments from your Google Plus circles are given priority. So are comments from what YouTube calls “popular personalities†and the video’s creator.
Of course, if you’d really rather see comments in the order they were added, you can do that simply by choosing the “newest first†option instead of the default “top comments†at the top of the comment section.
Another feature similar to Google Plus lets you choose whether to share the comments you make in a video publicly or only with certain circles of your connections in the Google Plus social network.
You can even share comments in your Google stream if you wish by choosing that option under the comment box.
The new comment section also gives you more control over comments on your channel. You can either hold comments for approval or auto-approve comments from long-time trusted fans.
You Tube says it will even allow you to block certain words from being posted in the comment section on your channel, a potentially helpful tool for moderating comments.
The new commenting section should make YouTube ultimately more socially. But only time will tell whether users and channel administrators want to spend time monitoring and maintaining yet another social media channel.
If you’ve noticed the comments in your YouTube account are looking more like Google Plus these days, it’s not your imagination. YouTube recently announced roll out of a new comment section powered by Google Plus.
In a post on the official YouTube Blog, product manager Nundu Janakiram and principal engineer Yonatan Zunger explained:
We told you recently that better commenting is coming to YouTube. Starting this week, when you’re watching a video on YouTube, you’ll see comments sorted by people you care about first.
Here’s a brief video highlighting the basics of the new comment section:
The new roll out stops short of being a full integration of the Google Plus comment section. However, comments from your Google Plus circles are given priority. So are comments from what YouTube calls “popular personalities†and the video’s creator.
Of course, if you’d really rather see comments in the order they were added, you can do that simply by choosing the “newest first†option instead of the default “top comments†at the top of the comment section.
Another feature similar to Google Plus lets you choose whether to share the comments you make in a video publicly or only with certain circles of your connections in the Google Plus social network.
You can even share comments in your Google stream if you wish by choosing that option under the comment box.
The new comment section also gives you more control over comments on your channel. You can either hold comments for approval or auto-approve comments from long-time trusted fans.
You Tube says it will even allow you to block certain words from being posted in the comment section on your channel, a potentially helpful tool for moderating comments.
The new commenting section should make YouTube ultimately more socially. But only time will tell whether users and channel administrators want to spend time monitoring and maintaining yet another social media channel.
However, for many businesses those precious seconds of your time are what they need to increase revenue. But are these types of video ads effective? Ramesh Sitaraman from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, along with his research partner S. Shunmuga Krishnan, sought out the answer to that question by examining how often viewers even finish watching ads.
“Video usage is growing so rapidly,†says Sitaraman, “but making online videos economically sustainable and profitable is a burning question of key importance to the future economics and evolution of the Internet.â€
In what is one of the largest-ever scientific studies, Sitaraman and Krishnan analyzed anonymized viewer data linked to more than 257 million ads, in 367 million videos, from over 3,000 publishers that were viewed by 65 million unique viewers around the world over a 15-day period.
Using Akamai’s media analytics platform to sift through the data, Akamai found some interesting things. Here’s some of what they found:
This gives business a lot to think about. While you may have worked hard on that two minute magnum opus to your business’ ingenuity and work ethic, will viewers actually stay around to check it out while waiting for Cutest Kittens Vol.9 to play? While Sitaraman and Krishnan’s study doesn’t provide specifics about what a business should necessarily do, it’s a safe assumption that brevity does more for your video ad than a large budget, and that it’s better to not overstay your welcome.
In today’s digital world, companies large and small are judged on how they communicate with customers via social media. One nasty tweet from a business owner can easily go viral and bury a company. And a string of helpful, customer-centric Facebook posts can dramatically increase feelings of goodwill among a client base.
The magnifying glass is never clearer than when a company is in crisis. It is during those times when customers really watch to see how a firm responds to a scandal, the recall of a defective product or a bad review.
It is during those times that business owners need to be most careful.
It is normal to feel strong emotions when on the receiving end of an attack. Especially if your business is the culmination of your life’s work.
Whatever you do, try not to react with negative emotions. Doing so will always backfire.
A Case in Point
In May, Amy and Samy Bouzaglo (pictured above), owners of Amy’s Baking Company in Scottsdale, Arizona, were featured on Gordon Ramsay’s reality TV show, Kitchen Nightmares. In the show, Ramsey was so upset with the state of the restaurant that he walked out, igniting a flurry of commentary on Twitter, most of it negative and aimed at Amy’s Baking Company.
The Bouzaglos lashed out on social media, peppering their company’s Facebook and Twitter pages with explicatives aimed at customers and even threats of legal action against anyone who wrote negative comments. The emotional reaction on the part of the business owners only added fuel to the already burning fire of negative viral comments and did nothing to help the couple’s business.
So what should you do if you are getting attacked and feel your blood start to boil?
Step away from your computer and take a minute to cool off. Talk to a colleague or impartial confidant. Only when you feel calm should you respond.
Just a few days after the social media blowup involving Amy’s Baking Company, the owners claimed that a hacker had taken over their accounts, thereby backing away from any responsibility.
Regardless if this is true or not (ahem), it is never a good idea to lie about anything. Even little lies can turn into major problems.
For example, telling a customer over Twitter that they will receive a call in 10 minutes and failing to call them for two hours is a lie. Tweeting that you have everything under control when you don’t is also a lie.
Keep things honest. Own up to your mistakes and be transparent. This is how you will come out on top during a crisis.
Do you schedule promotional tweets in advance?
If so, shut these down the second you experience a crisis. The last thing your customers want to see on your Twitter feed is an tweet promoting your latest product when that exact product just malfunctioned and everyone is complaining about it on Twitter.
It is important to respond to customer comments in real time during a crisis, but don’t go overboard. Limit your communication to a few tweets and then tell the person that you’d like to take the conversation off-line with a direct message, an email or a phone call.
This will allow other customers to comment and prevent a feed clog.
The best way to handle negative comments on Twitter and Facebook is to face them head on. It can be tempting to go into your account and delete unfavorable comments just to make your company look better, but remember that everyone is watching. It’s best to respond with kindness than to sweep anything under the rug.
What negative social media crisis communications would you add that you’ve seen take place?
Social Media Photo via Shutterstock
Image: Facebook
In today’s digital world, companies large and small are judged on how they communicate with customers via social media. One nasty tweet from a business owner can easily go viral and bury a company. And a string of helpful, customer-centric Facebook posts can dramatically increase feelings of goodwill among a client base.
The magnifying glass is never clearer than when a company is in crisis. It is during those times when customers really watch to see how a firm responds to a scandal, the recall of a defective product or a bad review.
It is during those times that business owners need to be most careful.
It is normal to feel strong emotions when on the receiving end of an attack. Especially if your business is the culmination of your life’s work.
Whatever you do, try not to react with negative emotions. Doing so will always backfire.
A Case in Point
In May, Amy and Samy Bouzaglo (pictured above), owners of Amy’s Baking Company in Scottsdale, Arizona, were featured on Gordon Ramsay’s reality TV show, Kitchen Nightmares. In the show, Ramsey was so upset with the state of the restaurant that he walked out, igniting a flurry of commentary on Twitter, most of it negative and aimed at Amy’s Baking Company.
The Bouzaglos lashed out on social media, peppering their company’s Facebook and Twitter pages with explicatives aimed at customers and even threats of legal action against anyone who wrote negative comments. The emotional reaction on the part of the business owners only added fuel to the already burning fire of negative viral comments and did nothing to help the couple’s business.
So what should you do if you are getting attacked and feel your blood start to boil?
Step away from your computer and take a minute to cool off. Talk to a colleague or impartial confidant. Only when you feel calm should you respond.
Just a few days after the social media blowup involving Amy’s Baking Company, the owners claimed that a hacker had taken over their accounts, thereby backing away from any responsibility.
Regardless if this is true or not (ahem), it is never a good idea to lie about anything. Even little lies can turn into major problems.
For example, telling a customer over Twitter that they will receive a call in 10 minutes and failing to call them for two hours is a lie. Tweeting that you have everything under control when you don’t is also a lie.
Keep things honest. Own up to your mistakes and be transparent. This is how you will come out on top during a crisis.
Do you schedule promotional tweets in advance?
If so, shut these down the second you experience a crisis. The last thing your customers want to see on your Twitter feed is an tweet promoting your latest product when that exact product just malfunctioned and everyone is complaining about it on Twitter.
It is important to respond to customer comments in real time during a crisis, but don’t go overboard. Limit your communication to a few tweets and then tell the person that you’d like to take the conversation off-line with a direct message, an email or a phone call.
This will allow other customers to comment and prevent a feed clog.
The best way to handle negative comments on Twitter and Facebook is to face them head on. It can be tempting to go into your account and delete unfavorable comments just to make your company look better, but remember that everyone is watching. It’s best to respond with kindness than to sweep anything under the rug.
What negative social media crisis communications would you add that you’ve seen take place?
Social Media Photo via Shutterstock
Image: Facebook
When daredevil Felix Baumgartner jumped from a balloon hovering just inside the Earth’s stratosphere, a small enterprising firm made sure we were all along for the ride.
During Baumgartner’s harrowing four minute plummet to Earth, cameras designed by Flightline Films captured every second of the 128,100 foot free fall. (And let us all breathe a sigh of relief as his parachute opened and his feet finally touched ground.)
Like any good entrepreneurs, the Flightline Films team have evolved their services to meet a changing market, as their website explains:
“Since 1984, Las Vegas-based FlightLine Films has been providing television and motion picture producers with the highest quality in aerial cinematography services, and the company has pioneered visual documentation services for the privatization of space travel advances in the 21st century. Flight Line offers zero-gravity qualified crews and HD cameras for use in the cold vacuum of space, as well housings that allow even traditional cameras to operate in that hostile environment.â€
Red Bull, which sponsored Baumgartner’s mission to the stratosphere, recently posted the video for the whole world to see on the one year anniversary of the jump:
Vision Systems Design notes how cameras strapped to Baumgartner’s thighs and chest had to be tested to withstand extreme altitude and exposure to space.
If you think entrepreneurship is limited to finding average solutions for average people, think again.
Entrepreneurs are frequently pushing new frontiers and breaking barriers to create solutions for their customers â€" even in outer space.
Outer Space Photo via Shutterstock
When daredevil Felix Baumgartner jumped from a balloon hovering just inside the Earth’s stratosphere, a small enterprising firm made sure we were all along for the ride.
During Baumgartner’s harrowing four minute plummet to Earth, cameras designed by Flightline Films captured every second of the 128,100 foot free fall. (And let us all breathe a sigh of relief as his parachute opened and his feet finally touched ground.)
Like any good entrepreneurs, the Flightline Films team have evolved their services to meet a changing market, as their website explains:
“Since 1984, Las Vegas-based FlightLine Films has been providing television and motion picture producers with the highest quality in aerial cinematography services, and the company has pioneered visual documentation services for the privatization of space travel advances in the 21st century. Flight Line offers zero-gravity qualified crews and HD cameras for use in the cold vacuum of space, as well housings that allow even traditional cameras to operate in that hostile environment.â€
Red Bull, which sponsored Baumgartner’s mission to the stratosphere, recently posted the video for the whole world to see on the one year anniversary of the jump:
Vision Systems Design notes how cameras strapped to Baumgartner’s thighs and chest had to be tested to withstand extreme altitude and exposure to space.
If you think entrepreneurship is limited to finding average solutions for average people, think again.
Entrepreneurs are frequently pushing new frontiers and breaking barriers to create solutions for their customers â€" even in outer space.
Outer Space Photo via Shutterstock
