Author Archives: Joey Tamer

The upside & downside of crowdfunding for gaining your first professional investments

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Turns out that successful equity crowd-funding your startup may be a detriment to your gaining funding from professional investors afterward.  And, as of now (May 2013), this cannot actually be done in the U.S.

I’ve been talking with attorneys and investors about the JOBS Act (“Jumpstart our Business Startups Act), which was signed into law in April 2012, a law which has not proceeded quickly since that time.  Now, more than a year later, we have little clarity on the restrictions and structure of how we can offer early stage equity for our new ventures through public solicitation, primarily the Internet. In fact, it is not at this time lawful to do so.

We can accept cash contributions in exchange for rewards (like T-shirts or access to back-stage events) and this is working well in the arts and entertainment sectors.  But we cannot yet accept cash for an equity stake in any venture.

And it seems this may make some trouble if you need more than the crowd-funding capital to build, launch and grow your venture.  Currently the proposed cap on crowd-funded investment is $1M.  Here’s how professional investors may see it:

  • Your cap table is too complex.
  • There are already too many investors in the mix to ensure an ROI,
  • You may not be communicating with those many investors correctly, which may imply some later liability for the venture.
  • The ROI for those early stage crowd-funding investors may be questionable, implying later trouble from them.
  • The hassle of handling these many early stage investors when setting valuations and creating an ROI scenario may be too much work for the professional investors, in light of the risk of a follow-on investment.

Professional investors (angels and venture capitalists) are generally looking to say “no” to most early stage opportunities, and this may count on the negative side of their evaluation of your venture.

That said, crowd-funding for ventures needing serious equity investment in an upcoming round can use rewards-based crowd-funding to establish important benchmarks with those potential professional investors.  Here’s how:

  • Establish your product’s market viability by driving early sales through promotions and discounts offered through your crowd-funding site.
  • Show you have tested your product in various market sectors and at various price points, and share the results.
  • Prove which of your product’s target market sectors are responsive at what price point through tested online channels, and build your growth strategy on real data.
  • Validate your market traction, and projected market penetration, from early market response and sales.
  • Offer metrics to support your claims of rapid scaling.

So, while we are all waiting for the JOBS Act to become law, we can leverage crowd-funding in ways that direct our launch and growth strategies, and which investors will appreciate.

Good luck.

Is Your Web Site Losing Visitors? Best Practices to Fix the Trend, by Terry Corbell

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Terry Corbell, The Biz Coach

Terry Corbell, The Biz Coach

 

If your site’s visitor numbers are falling, there are five possible reasons. The key is to know what’s wrong before you start applying solutions.

 

It used to be that Web-site owners only had to worry about losing traffic in the summer. Instead of surfing, they found it more fun to enjoy the fresh air of the summer months, which prompted publishing solutions – five tips to deal with the inevitable traffic slowdowns.

But things have changed.

How’s your Web site traffic? Have you been suffering a decline in your visitors’ rate, but you don’t know why? If it’s any consolation, it’s ostensibly a perplexing problem for a lot of people.

“Slowly, but surely, you’ve been watching your traffic numbers decline, despite not having changed much of anything about the way you publish content or optimize your website for the search engines,” writes Michael Garrity, an editor of Website Magazine.

His article is entitled, “5 Reasons Your Search Traffic is Declining.”

Wisely, he suggests a “search result audit for your various keywords that will show you where you’re currently ranking on Google and its competitors for your most important keywords.”

He’s right. Your standing on your search engine results page (SERP) affects your visitors’ rate. If you rank highly, your visitors’ numbers are strong. If not, they’re weak.

In my experience, about 70 percent Internet surfers select a result from only among the first 10 on the SERP.

In addition, my sense is that the No. 1-ranked site attracts about 40 percent of the top 10 listings. (So, if you focus on content marketing, it’s important to use proven strategies for a No.1 rated blog.)

Mr. Garrity says Web sites falter in prominence for five possible reasons:

1. New Competition. He theorizes that too many search-engine optimization pros think they’re doing something wrong – without considering the possibility of increased competition – rival sites poaching their users.

“This is one of the reasons why conducting regular industry assessments and search audits is imperative,” he suggests.

2. Content is Out of Date. He believes the majority of content becomes old and declines in value, resulting in a SERP decline.

“One way to tell if your content isn’t as enticing to searchers as it used to be is to monitor that page’s analytics, and if something that used to get a consistently high influx of visitors now gets less and less, it’s likely that the content on the page is decreasing in value to most readers,” asserts Mr. Garrity. “A method for correcting this issue could be to produce a new, updated version of that content, and then to link to the new page on the old one.”

If I understand Mr. Garrity correctly, here’s where we slightly disagree on the solution to outdated content. Yes, you might have outdated content.

However, you’re paying for the bandwidth consumed by your users, and it’s best to save money. So, it you have new information to share — contrary to Mr. Garrity’s advice – simply update the old content and indicate it’s updated. Otherwise, Google will discount the value of the old page.

Google loves updating for fresh relevance and value, and so do readers. (Try not to delete the original post because Google will notice the 404 error and your site will be penalized for ranking purposes.)

Also, I’d make another suggestion: If you believe such pages are relevant, not to worry. You can use your social media and strategic press releases to boost traffic. Again, Google will notice.

3. Shifts in Algorithm Values. He points out the search engines might be making algorithm changes.

Agreed. Note: For you to stay popular on Google, be aware the search engine looks for its desired answers to 23 key questions about your Web site.

“If you notice that Google seems to favor certain types of content for one of your keywords or targeted search terms, maybe that means you should consider making a video or infographic the next time you consider writing a blog post about a that topic,” he suggests.

4. Caught Red Handed Being a Black Hat. Black hat artists use disreputable SEO strategies to trick search engines into a high ranking on the SERP. If you’re discovered using black hat techniques, you’ll be penalized.

“If you genuinely weren’t intending to be shady and just made a mistake, it’s important that you find out what your exact offense was and correct it as soon as possible, so that you can start trying to garner some good will with the search engines and make your way back up in the rankings,” Mr. Garrity says.

5. They’re Just Not That into Your Content. Ouch. Perhaps, your writing isn’t popular.

“To rectify this problem, you should be aware of the top sites and blogs in your niche or industry, and take note of what they’re regularly publishing content about (in order to understand emerging trends) and what their readers are saying in comments sections and on social media sites to see what they’re asking for, so that you have a better idea of what content will be engaging and valuable to the visitors you want to attract,” he recommends.

Furthermore, I’d add that the key for bloggers is to know the secrets for attracting and keeping readers.

Access his full article here. Website Magazine is a free publication, and provides excellent, timely tips.

Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

2 Best Words for a Start-up Job Description Ever, by Margaret Heffernan

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thumbnail mheffernan002 4 Characteristics of the Ultimate Start up Hire by Margaret Heffernan

Margaret Heffernan

Next time you write a job description, take this hint from a U.S. Army Green Beret.

Last month I wrote a column about recruiting for start-ups. In it, I recounted my “green beret” speech, in which I warned aspiring employees just how tough an experience working at a new company can be.

In response, I received a thought-provoking email from one reader, Alex Brown. He wrote:

“As a former Green Beret Commander finishing up my MBA at Georgetown this spring I’m focusing on finding my place in the start-up community out in Boulder, Colorado. It’s been a challenge to convey my comfort with discomfort, and my love of ambiguous environments. Funny enough “find work” was a common phrase that I heard and spoke throughout my Special Forces career.”

The ‘Find Work’ Mentality

I love the “find work” phrase he uses to describe his proactive attitude about work. It encapsulates what every great employee does: rather than sit around and wait to be told what to do, actively scan the horizon searching for needs. I know I’ve been lucky to have worked alongside many such work finders; until now, I never fully appreciated that is what made them so great.

This might be a valuable phrase to add to the job descriptions you write when you’re hiring, if you use them. Another variant I’ve seen is: “If the ball’s falling, catch it.” The point is that in great companies, no one is waiting for instructions. Everyone is aware of what needs to be done and keen to do it–whatever “it” is. That the work is self-selected makes it more rewarding. And a workforce that looks for problems will always be smarter and more adroit than any leader or system can be.

The alternative is to load people down with rules and assignments. This gets the work done but it won’t give you the early warning system that the work finders provide.

One Requirement of a Work-Finder Workforce

That said, for a work-finder workforce to truly be effective, every single person has to appreciate the difference between real and unnecessary work. To be able to draw distinctions like that requires a clear strategy, crisply articulated. Which means, of course, that you had better have one.

This article first appeared in Margaret’s Serial CEO column in Inc. online.

Margaret Heffernan is an entrepreneur and author. She has been chief executive of InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation, and iCAST Corporation. In 2011, she published her third book, Willful Blindness. @M_Heffernan

4 Characteristics of the Ultimate Start-up Hire by Margaret Heffernan

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Willful Blindness US cover

Margaret Heffernan

When you launch a company, each additional employee makes an enormous difference. Here’s exactly what you need to look for.

Working for a new business is completely different from working for an established one. You know this, but many job candidates don’t.

I used to give job applicants what my husband called my ‘green beret’ speech: If you don’t think it’s fun being scared all the time, staying awake worrying, not knowing from one day to the next what you’ll be doing, then please go now. (It went on longer than that, but you get the gist.)

I developed this speech after one too many people had asked what kind of guarantee I could give that my new company would be successful. The answer, of course, was: none.

What I learned to value in the many great people I hired were a few standout qualities:

1. Interstitial Instincts

At a start-up, your needs change constantly. You never quite know what you’re hiring for. So you have to find–and keep–people who are great at scanning the horizon, spotting a need, and filling it, whatever it is. They don’t ask for work; they find it. This requires a lot of flexibility. People like this are worth their weight in gold. And they’re also usually wildly underappreciated in traditional corporations.

2. Innate Mentors

You don’t have time to nurture everyone, but everyone needs to feel that he or she matters. So you want people whose natural tendency is to look after those around them. You do not want people who are competitive for credit and need a lot of your attention.

3. Specific Experience

Although start-ups are often full of very young employees with little track record, I find that people who have deep knowledge of a skill or discipline are more valuable than enthusiastic neophytes. They bring expertise into the business, know what is needed, and do it. Youthful energy is great, but know-how moves a business forward.

4. Nerves of Steel

New businesses are scary. Most fail. Worrying about it doesn’t help; solving problems does. You need people who don’t frighten easily and who (within limits) enjoy the sense of knowing that every single thing they do makes a difference. That’s the upside of fear.

This article first appeared in Margaret’s Serial CEO column in Inc. online.

Margaret Heffernan is an entrepreneur and author. She has been chief executive of InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation, and iCAST Corporation. In 2011, she published her third book, Willful Blindness. @M_Heffernan

Current trends in capital and exit strategies 2013

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In chairing two panels on venture capital at Digital Hollywood last week, some interesting ideas on successful capital and exit strategies were brought to light.

We know that access to capital and available exits became limited beginning in 2008 at the start of the Great Recession.  Now, 5 years later, in 2013, we are watching more shifts.

  • There is plenty of capital available now for starting and growing a new business, particularly in technology and mobile.
  • Some of this capital is available because other vehicles for investing capital are still limited (or perceived as too risky).
  • This available capital is made more accessible in light of the reduced risks associated with start up tech companies, because there are so many more sources of capital:  incubators, accelerators, angels, super angels, angel groups, boutique venture funds, and large, established venture funds, and well as private equity capital.
  • Yes, there seems to be the “Series A crunch” which makes attracting professional capital difficult once your product is in the market but before it has significant market traction or share.  But that crunch has always been there.  Years ago I called it the Series B Gap.  Just as you are ready to scale, but before you can prove that scalability, you cannot find the funds for that risky period.  But this is not news. Careful capital strategy, such as initially proving market share in a more narrow market sector, or building more proof of customers earlier in your funding cycles, can overcome this gap.
  • The rash of IPOs last year (2012) seems not to have encouraged a strong IPO market, as the hype did not match the results, in many instances.
  • There are always many more exits by merger or acquisition than by IPO.  And this year (2013), with the IPO market limited, we are seeing a flood of companies ready to be sold, because all the companies that were ready at the end of 2007 (and onward for several years) and which have survived, are on the market now.  So we are facing an unusual supply and demand dilemma:  there are too many companies ready for exit for the demand of the buyers.

Exits tend occur between 6 to 8 years following launch.  Venture capitalists need to create an ROI on each of their Funds in a similar time frame.  Companies need time to launch, scale and fully realize their potential to scale, to drive up their valuation at exit.  Predicting the conditions of the exit market that far into the future is difficult.

Still, it is wise for entrepreneurs to develop an exit strategy in their early days of creating their new ventures, and track that strategy just as they track their other business planning issues, adapting to market shifts as necessary.  Many venture capitalists tell them, “Just build your company for value and don’t worry about when and how to exit.”  But I urge my clients to watch for their exits, and plan their growth strategies with a clear eye on the end game.

Good luck.

 

Sometimes it is all about the deal, by Megan Lisa Jones

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Megan Lisa Jones

Over the years and working as an investment banker I periodically hear the dig about my profession, that all we care about is “the deal”. Implied in that statement is: that we only value the deal because that’s how we get paid and we only care about the fee not the client; the deal means only the financial components ($$$) and not the big picture; we care about the deal at the expense of what terms might be better for the client; and that we ignore common sense to focus on deal terms or fancy capital structures. And, very often the slur comes from either a private equity or venture capital investor (who is generally on the other side of our client in “the deal” and presumably cares about their own deal terms).

What a joke.

I’m not going to say it doesn’t happen. Investment bankers get paid if a deal closes and very often only then, beyond a token retainer and expenses. Thus, we’re incented to close a deal, and the more time we’ve sunk in to one the more we want to get paid and may even feel entitled (otherwise, we’ve worked really hard and not gotten paid). But the fee structure is like this for a reason: we are paid to make sure a deal happens thus the downside of not succeeding is built in. Any transaction, be it fundraising, a company sale, or a company purchase sucks an amazing amount of management time, taking them away from actively running the business. The company also must pay for lawyers, accountants and the like typically on either a per hour or retainer basis and it adds up fast. Our clients generally either really want the deal to close or they want us to keep someone at bay. Badly.

Raising money can be a make or break proposition for a company, as can a merger or sale. Our clients want investment bankers to work hard and rarely care if we’re eating, sleeping or missing holidays. I once spent two hours in an airport on a cell phone conference call with two small kids in tow on Christmas day. That deal closed (and made my two founder clients very rich).

And deal terms are crucial. Putting together a detailed assessment of possible bad deal terms in a blog post is impossible…there are just too many. One investment banker even wrote a book called Deals From Hell which details some especially unpleasant and never-ending deals. Exploding warrants (miss financial milestones and quickly lose control of your company), poorly drafted indemnifications (lose all) and imprecise earnouts (work hard; don’t get paid) are good example of why sometimes it is all about the deal. Then there is litigation, non-competes and a buyer or funder who goes bankrupt. If “the deal” isn’t well structured it will haunt you for years to come and drain your resources, if it closes.

A busted or bad deal can also taint a company’s reputation.

Sophisticated investors, such as venture capitalists or private equity investors, range from those who want a happy and incented management team to those who really just want to yank control of your company away, no matter what you’ve personally poured into it. At the very least, all want to get a good deal because that’s their job and their obligation to their own investors. The management teams of other companies often want to sell their vision and don’t want it cluttered with the realities of practical deal terms and downside projection. Investment bankers can make their objectives harder to attain by adding a sounding board, push back and insight.

All about the deal? Absolutely. No one should commit to a deal that isn’t in their best interest, especially when their life’s work is at stake. Every time I hear the dig about investment bankers being “all about the deal” I must admit that I inwardly smile and think “absolutely and that’s why our clients hire us”. Advisors look out for their clients’ interests and deliver the tough messages, aiming to strike the optimal deal (for their client).

And, “the deal” isn’t about money alone. Very often I’ve advised clients to chose a partner that offers less money but a better overall package. Cultural fit, relationships, synergies, reputation and long term vision are often better than the best cash package.

Any deal that succeeds in the long term benefits both sides. Deal terms matter, as does clarity and pre-thinking through what can go wrong before it does. A clear and well articulated contract means that both sides understand to what they’ve committed and what actions constitute performance. Sometimes it’s all about the deal? Do I even need to mention some high profile flops in which a poorly structured deal made headlines for years, costing money, jobs and reputation?

My close colleague Megan Lisa Jones is an investment banker who works primarily with companies in the digital media, technology, gaming and other emerging industries (formerly with Lazard Freres, Needham & Company and Merrill Lynch). Her investment banking blog is at www.ibla.us She is also a novelist — check out her first novel, Captive, and its sequel, Escape, at www.meganlisajones.com.

Working smart # 14: Long-term care insurance: not just for the aged

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I admit I have a great aversion to paying for insurance.  That said, I have always spent a great deal of my annual expenses for lots of coverage.  As I have always been an independent consultant and entrepreneur, I have never had the (phantom) assurance of a larger corporation looking out for my welfare.  So, always insisting on self-reliance for my income, I have approached creating protection for myself and my tiny consulting practice against the catastrophic Unknown.

I know, some of you may want to rely on your husband’s or your wife’s income and coverage, or your family’s wealth, but an accident or a crippling disability may last a very long time, well beyond the tolerance of others and their resources. And besides, what if your partner loses his or her job or business or practice?   Insurance companies were created to provide exactly this kind of coverage.  If we are going to pay them for coverage, then they should provide it.

Long-term care insurance is usually considered insurance that old people get as they confront their mortality.  But we must widen our perspective.  Long term care is not an issue only for the elderly — we can encounter an accident (car?  rock climbing? skiing?) or an unexpected illness that requires extensive care at any age.

Long term care coverage is based on your inability to perform any two of six basic tasks in your own care, such as dressing, bathing, eating, toileting, continence, transferring (getting in and out of a bed or chair), and walking.  The payments cover help in your home, or in qualified facilities (assisted living, nursing homes, Alzheimer’s care facilities, etc.).  In my long-term care policy, there is a calculation that my total premiums would cover 81 days in a care facility if paid out of pocket (without the insurance).

Lots of variations to choose from, in each kind of policy:  get help

Long term care policies last as long as you pay the premiums, which are lower based on your age and health, so earlier coverage is better.  Disability insurance replaces a percentage of your established income (the insurance company determines the percentage), and lasts until you are 65.   Both kinds of policies have an exclusion period (30-90 days).  There are variations among different policies and you can design one (or a combination of both) that fits your conditions and budget with the help of a Certified Financial Planner (I particularly like Scopp & Associates for excellent knowledge and strategy).  Take your spouse or life-partner with you for a joint policy for long-term care, which will offer a discount for policies covering you both.

So, yes, I recognize the dread and the avoidance of paying for more insurance.  And I also know that these protections are needed, especially as we live longer and healthier lives, as breakthroughs in medicine keep us living beyond 100 (especially you GenXers and Millennials), and as we may well outlive our incomes, our intentions and our supportive communities.  The time to plan is now.

How to Successfully Communicate with Nerds, by John Shiple

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All business owners must now communicate with their tech teams, as now there are always nerds as part of our companies, whether outsourced or in-house.  And often, business and technology use two different languages and live with different value sets.

John Shiple offers us a three steps to an effective approach to this communication, in this short video.

 

My friend and colleague, John Shiple of FreelanceCTO, is a leading consultant, offering his services as a chief technology advisor to funded, early-stage and larger, scaling technology ventures. He has produced a series of short videos covering some of his expertise that he offers to technology CEOs.

Working smart # 13: time & calendar management in 15 tactics

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Managing your calendar to support the efficiencies of your work life is a learned skill.  There are tactics for controlling your time, your calendar, your clients and your work/life balance.  You can learn them, adapt them to your own particular preferences, and then you have to apply enough discipline to maintain them.

In working with my clients recently, this topic has risen to prominence again.  They feel scattered and interrupted.  They waste time in traveling (especially here in L.A., where we are sensitive to long commutes and lost hours in the car).

So, here are some simple tactics you can adapt to your own needs:

  1. Create standing meetings with your clients at a regular, confirmed day and time into the future.  Allow the client culture to dictate how such meeting schedules will be created, but get them committed on all the relevant calendars.
  2. Respect your own “best-times.”  If you are not a morning person, do not be available in the mornings.  Notice when you are at your best, and schedule your client contact during those times.
  3. Cluster your client meetings into whole days devoted to meetings with several of them, so those days are spent in meetings and not expected to be spent on deliverables, prospecting, and other work commitments.
  4. If travel time is a consideration, schedule your travel times to meetings to avoid rush hour, and leave some buffer time in case the traffic delays you.  The stress of sitting in your car worrying that you are holding up your client or a room full of people will certain affect your excellent performance when you arrive.  Leave room for the unexpected.  This means you need to slow your pace a bit, to leave that time available.
  5. When booking multiple client meetings into a selected day, leave buffer time between meetings, not just for travel, but (also) so that you can pause after each meeting, make some notes to yourself or deliver some immediate follow up from the just-concluded meeting, and feel complete that you have handled the meeting and required follow up before moving on to the next meeting.
  6. Re-confirm all meetings the day prior, by noon at the latest.  This can be a simple email or text note (“Confirming ….Still o.k. with you?”), or an automated calendar reminder.   But get a response.  This means you must ask for re-confirmation directly.
  7. If you generally have significant follow up work after these client meetings, then cluster the client-meeting days with a “work day at your desk” day in between.  Otherwise, you will be working in the evenings to do what could be done during the next day-time.
  8. Design your availability for the kind of time you need and the kind of tasks and work-product you must deliver.  Again, you are the one who must design your availability.
  9. This design will respect the other issues in your work and life:  your non-work obligations (health, family, pro-bono work).  Block these commitment on the calendar as if they were client meetings.
  10. Respect your own work time as if you were your own client.  Leave long spaces of time to do deep work, client work, prospecting, marketing.
  11. If a client cancels a meeting with short notice, take control of the schedule:  write back the days and times you are available, with no apology (since you did not change the commitment).  Do not invade your own time that was sheltered for another client’s deliverable, or a family commitment.  Do not waste a “work day at your desk day” to interrupt that open flow of time to travel and meet with a client who changed the plan:  offer him other times that fit more closely with your schedule.
  12. Schedule phone meetings with clients or prospects when you know you will be at your desk.  Tell your caller (at the beginning of the phone meeting) how much time you have before you need to end the call or be somewhere else, so everything can get done, and so the agenda can be prioritized.
  13. Unless the person on the other end of the phone cannot hear that you are in a car (noise, distraction, etc.), do not hold important client meetings, or early prospecting meetings, from an environment that signals the listener that you are “fitting him in.”  You owe your clients and prospect more respect (and they will appreciate you for it). And you owe yourself more attention to your own safety.
  14. If you can, pick the best time for the tedium of unavoidable administration (with your assistant and for those tasks you must do yourself).  This is often Friday afternoons, or Monday mornings.  Set aside two hours that cannot be interrupted, and settle in to handle the administration that needs to be completed.  Otherwise it will nag at you on the weekends (watch that life/work balance!), or you will not be able to find some critical piece of information later in the week.
  15. Take a few minutes to enjoy the sense of completion that comes with a clean desk and an organized upcoming week.

Finally, try these tactics and adapt them to your own best practices, and then keep to the discipline they offer until they are second nature to you.  You will live a longer and happier life, and get more done with less effort.

Good luck.

A match made in heaven, by Seena Sharp

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Seena Sharp

 

Seena Sharp

Wedding season is almost upon us, but not every couple will have their fairy tale ending. After hefty deposits have been paid on venues, flowers, food, entertainment and more, the “big day” may sometimes never happen.

Bridal Brokerage was launched in 2012 to sell canceled weddings — from cake to corsages — to new couples. The original couple recoups some of their investment and the new couple skips months of planning their dream wedding. (Okay, not their exact dream, but close enough.)

Profiting from misfortune or miscalculation is nothing new. A few examples:
▪     “Ding and dent” sales for appliances and furniture with cosmetic imperfections. Likewise, irregular bedding and clothing sold as “factory seconds” at a lower price.
▪     eBay’s Second Chance policy lets sellers contact losing bidders after the winning bidder fails to pay.
▪     TKTS in New York and Tix4Tonight in Las Vegas discount unsold seats to shows — mere hours before the curtain.
▪     Publishers slash prices on unsold books by 75% or more and let liquidators sell the “remaindered” titles.

In every case, some money is better than no money.  Cancellations, damage, and excess inventory (even when your product is a service) are all opportunities to find a new way to sell.

Sharp Market Intelligence can help you spot problems that can be turned into opportunities.

 

SharpInsights are byte-size bits of food for thought for executives from Sharp Market Intelligence. You are welcome to forward this message to colleagues, tweet or reprint it, as long as you credit us and link to the source: sharpmarket.com.  Want more SharpInsights? Visit the archives.

Seena Sharp of Sharp Market Intelligence is my long-time colleague who identifies your competitive edge by uncovering opportunities, threats and growth segments. Visit Seena at www.sharpmarket.com, and Download the free chapter in her book, Competitive Intelligence Advantage: How to Minimize Risk, Avoid Surprises, and Grow Your Business in a Changing World (Wiley). And read the 70+ 5-star-rated Amazon reviews.