Category: Business News

Every good entrepreneur knows how important networking and relationships are in business. But, are you focusing on the right things when you network? Ivan Misner conducted a survey with 3,400 respondents, and in this video he breaks down the traits those respondents found least helpful.

Most of them will surprise you. For example, you might think that a good networker is a confident person who can close sales in a single meeting, but often that isn’t the case. Instead, those traits are often seen as pushy or overly aggressive.

Click play to learn more about strategies you should avoid.

Watch more videos from Ivan Misner on his YouTube channel here.

Related: What You Can Learn About Business From the Letter ‘E’

Entrepreneur Network is a premium video network providing entertainment, education and inspiration from successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders. We provide expertise and opportunities to accelerate brand growth and effectively monetize video and audio content distributed across all digital platforms for the business genre.

EN is partnered with hundreds of top YouTube channels in the business vertical. Watch video from our network partners on demand on Amazon Fire, Roku, Apple TV and the Entrepreneur App available on iOS and Android devices.

Click here to become a part of this growing video network.

Influencer marketing is one of the best ways to gain popularity for your brand, and get more visibility for your content. All you have to do is find a noteworthy, authoritative person in your field, build a relationship with him or her and work together to produce content, engage in discussion or otherwise build visibility for you both. Easy-breezy, right?

Related: 6 Influencer Secrets From Oprah, Tim Ferriss and Tony Robbins

Wrong. Influencer marketing actually takes a lot of work, but it is possible, even for people without much of a reputation to stand on. And, certainly, becoming an influencer in your own right could be your best path, in terms of being able to popularize any content you want, get more traffic for your business and even hand-pick the up-and-comers in your own industry.

The task might seem intimidating at first, and it will take  effort, but if you follow these nine steps, you, too, can become an influencer in your industry:

1. Start a personal brand.

First, rather than trying to build up your company’s brand, focus on building your own, personal brand. That includes creating a blog for yourself, as well as claiming profiles on the relevant major social media platforms.

When creating a personal brand, remember to define yourself in a way that distinguishes you from the competition and that makes you interesting. What are your areas of expertise? Who is the audience you’re targeting? What personal qualities do you want to demonstrate in your content and social engagements that your competitors won’t be able to match?

2. Actively publish content.

Once you have your blog in place, you’ll need to start writing/producing and publishing new material actively. To start, aim for at least one post per week, preferably two, and make sure that most of your content is evergreen (meaning it’s going to be relevant for more than a month or two).

You’ll be syndicating this content through your social media channels, and using it as fuel to generate interest in your personal brand (and giving your users somewhere to go as a call to action).

3. Get social media followers.

You won’t be taken seriously as an influencer unless you have the numbers to back up your credibility. Getting more followers on social media channels is either going to be time-consuming, or expensive, depending on what route you take.

Related: Why Brands Big and Small Continue to Fail at Influencer Marketing

It’s possible, of course, to build a giant social media following without spending a dime, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to invest money into ads to obtain likes and followers. For help with this step, see 101 Ways to Get More Social Media Followers.

4. Engage with your followers.

Only active authorities generate enough interest to propel them to “influencer” status. For that, you’ll need to start (and get involved in) social media conversations.

Ask your followers about their opinions on various industry events, or ask them what they do in response to common industry problems. This makes people more invested in your brand, and gives you more visibility, as you’ll be connected to their followers, too.

5. Get yourself on forums.

Go beyond social media and start getting involved on forums related to your areas of expertise. These are places where people ask lots of questions — such as Quora — which gives you the perfect opportunity to give detailed answers and show off your expertise.

If you can, include a link back to your blog as a citation (for both referral traffic and SEO value), and encourage people to follow you for more advice. In most cases, your answers will remain published indefinitely, and could, over time, provide a decent stream of traffic to your social profiles and blog.

6. Find existing influencers and network with them.

Next up, you’ll want to find at least a handful of influencers already in your industry and start networking with them (if you haven’t already). If you’re an up-and-comer, they’ll be more likely to respond positively to your conversation starters or your proposals to collaborate on content.

As you start to regularly engage with them,, your follower pools will start to merge into one another, and you’ll earn additional reputation value just for being associated with them.

7. Start deviating from the norm.

At this point, you’ll have built a respectable reputation, but if you want to become a more popular influencer, you’ll need to start taking some risks. Surprise is one of the best ways to earn more attention and visibility on social media, so start deviating from some industry norms.

Disagree with other influencers’ opinions, and don’t be afraid to start some controversy. The more you differentiate yourself, the more you’re going to stand out to new followers, and the more loyal and interested your existing followers are going to become.

8. Perfect your brand image and target audience.

At this point, you may want to revisit your brand image and target audience. As you’ve deviated from the norm and gotten enough attention to solidify your standing, you’ll have the flexibility to revisit your most important qualities, and if necessary, shift focus. Run an audit of your personal brand, and start making tweaks if you need to.

9. Maintain.

Finally, you’ll need to maintain what you’ve already built, and scale up to find even more social media followers. At this point, you should be creating new material at least several times a week, if not every day, and you should be logging in regularly to check for new notifications, keep up with other influencers and start new conversations.

It takes hours of work every week to keep up your image, so if you have trouble staying on top of it, consider hiring an assistant, or someone to co-manage your personal brand. If you drop off too much, you could start losing the audience you worked so hard to build.

Obviously, you aren’t going to become an industry superstar overnight, and you’ll likely run into some obstacles in your path toward attaining that status. However, these steps should give you enough of a framework to build yourself into a reputable authority in your industry.

Related: How Your Business Can Benefit From Micro-Influencer Marketing

Be patient and stick to your plan; with enough visibility and thought leadership, you’ll be boasting a following of thousands  — and the industry respect that comes with that — in as little as a few months.

Image copyright
Getty Images

The number of Britons complaining about car hire in Europe has risen by more than a third over the last 12 months.

In the year to June 2017, there were 505 complaints, compared with 382 in the previous year.

The figures were compiled by the UK European Consumer Centre (ECC), which helps consumers who have issues with firms based in the European Union.

The most frequent complaint was from consumers who said they had been charged extra after returning the car.

The countries which caused UK consumers the most problems were Spain, Italy, Iceland and Malta.

Many consumers find they are sent a surprise bill many weeks or months after they have returned to the UK, charging them for damage to the car.

‘Take photos’

The ECC said such bills can come as a total shock.

In some cases, the car hire firms will send photographs as proof of the damage, but these photos can be taken days after the car was returned.

Other typical complaints include:

• unhappiness with insurance, such as overpriced or unrequested excess waiver charges
• fuel policies, such as charging to refill the tank even when it is not empty

“Our general advice to consumers hiring cars abroad is, where possible, to return the car to someone in the office, get them to check the car and sign it off as in good condition,” said Andy Allen, director of the UK ECC.

“If you have to leave the car, take some photos – showing that it was returned in good condition.”

Image copyright
Green & Black’s

Green & Black’s, which pioneered organic Fairtrade chocolate, is launching its first UK product without a Fairtrade or organic label.

The new Velvet Edition dark chocolate bars go on sale in the UK this month.

Instead of the Fairtrade mark, it carries the Cocoa Life certification, set up by Mondelez International, the owner of Green & Black’s.

Mondelez calls Cocoa Life “a holistic, cocoa sustainability programme in partnership with Fairtrade”.

And unlike all other Green & Black’s bars, there is no organic label.

Glenn Caton, Northern Europe president of Mondelez, said: “These beans are not available in organic at the scale required for Green and Black’s, but I am proud that they are sustainably sourced, independently verified beans from the Cocoa Life programme, of which Fairtrade will ensure we remain an accountable partner for farmers.”

Green & Black’s was founded on the Portobello Road in London by Craig Sams and Jo Fairley in 1991. Three years later, its Maya Gold bar was the first chocolate in the UK to be awarded the Fairtrade mark.

It sources its organic cocoa from the Dominican Republic.

All its ranges, apart from the Velvet Edition, will continue to be organic and carry the Fairtrade logo, which is considered to be one of the most widely recognised and trusted ethical brands in the world.

Cocoa Life branding

Mondelez, formerly Kraft Foods, owns Green & Black’s through Cadbury’s, which it bought in 2010.

Its Cocoa Life branding is now rapidly replacing the Fairtrade logo across all its chocolate products. By 2019, Cadbury’s entire chocolate range in the UK and Ireland – including Flake, Twirl and Wispa – will display the Cocoa Life logo.

Green & Blacks said in a statement: “Cocoa Life, which is independently verified, means Green and Black’s will build more and stronger relationships with farming communities and become an accountable partner, not just a buyer. “

Image copyright
Getty Images

Fairtrade

The UK Fairtrade label is administered by the Fairtrade Foundation, an independent non-profit organisation, and appears on some 5,000 products.

It claims there are more than 1.65 million farmers and workers in 1,226 producer organisations across the Fairtrade system, which guarantees decent working conditions and a minimum price for produce.

Last year, it went into partnership with Cocoa Life to create “greater scale and impact for cocoa farmers and their communities”.

It says the partnership means that five times as much Cadbury chocolate will now be made with sustainably sourced cocoa.

Fairtrade admitted: “The cocoa for Cadbury products in the UK and Ireland under Cocoa Life will not be traded according to the Fairtrade Standards of certification.”

But it insists farmers will not lose out: “They will instead receive a competitive price for the cocoa, additional loyalty cash payments plus further investments in projects and support to improve their farming practices and implement community action plans.

“The value of all this will be at least equivalent to that previously delivered under Fairtrade.”

Image copyright
Getty Images

South African Airways (SAA) has run out of money and is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, according to information given to the country’s parliament.

It is thought the national carrier may soon be unable to pay salaries.

The cash-flow statement shown to MPs and seen by the BBC paints a picture of an airline haemorrhaging cash.

It says that matters may improve by October, but only if it gets a 792m-rand (£45m) bailout from the government.

Even then, the situation is expected to deteriorate again by December with a forecast cash outflow in that month of £38m.

The airline has lost money in each of the past seven years. Acting chief executive Musa Zwane, who has led the company for the last 18 months, has been trying to put together a recovery plan since January.

“Essentially insolvent”

Last month, the Treasury paid out £125m to settle a loan from Standard Chartered Bank‚ which the bank had refused to extend.

South Africa’s Finance Minister, Malusi Gigaba, has disclosed that SAA asked the Treasury in March for a £560m recapitalisation. He is expected to give an answer by October.

Alf Lees, the deputy finance spokesman of the opposition Democratic Alliance, said: “Essentially they are insolvent and should have filed for liquidation.

“We believe that the directors are in breach of the South Africa companies act by continuing to trade recklessly knowing that SAA will not be able to meet its financial commitments and without any guarantee that the shareholder (the South African government) will be prepared to continue to bail them out.”

The governor of the Bank of England has warned that uncertainty over Brexit is already weighing on the economy.

Mark Carney’s comments came as the Bank voted to hold rates and cut growth forecasts.

It edged this year’s growth forecast down to 1.7% from its previous forecast of 1.9% made in May. It also cut its forecast for 2018 from 1.7% to 1.6%.

The bank voted 6-2 to keep interest rates on hold at 0.25%. They have been at that level since August last year.

Mr Carney said that business investment was slower than it would have been expected to be, due to Brexit: “It’s evident in our discussions across the country with businesses… that uncertainties about the eventual relationship are weighing on the decisions of some businesses.

“Investment has been weaker than we otherwise would have expected in a very strong world… So the consequence of that is starting to build… The judgement of the MPC… is that while we will see a rotation towards business investment… it is still below historic rates… the speed limit of the economy, if you will, has slowed.”

FTSE rises on Bank move

Simon Jack: Wage squeeze to get tighter

Weak wages

It is also now gloomier on prospects for wage growth and thinks wages will grow by 3% in 2018 down from the 3.5% estimate it made in May.

Weak wage growth combined with rising inflation has been weighing on the spending power of households.

There has not been a rise since July 2007.

Many economists think the UK could see a move this year and recent speeches by bank officials have raised that expectation.

Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Andrew Haldane recently said an increase might be “prudent” in the second half of this year.

Sterling effect

The bank highlighted that the 18% fall in the pound since November 2015 has been raising the price of imports for the UK, which in turn has been making life more expensive for consumers.

Shoppers may have noticed significant increases in the prices of items like butter, meat and computer software.

The bank also said there had been evidence that spending on cars, home wares and electrical goods had been falling.

It also noted weakness in the housing market and a fall in consumer confidence, which it thinks could indicate that households will curb their spending in the months to come.

The bank expects wage growth of just 2% this year, which is well below price inflation currently running at 2.6%.

To help bridge the gap between weak wage growth and inflation, consumers have been borrowing more, aided by low rates.

In its report the bank said that interest rates on a £10,000 personal loan are close to record lows.

Bank officials have been expressing concern about household debt. Last week, Alex Brazier, the financial stability director, warned that High Street banks risked entering a “spiral of complacency” over mounting consumer debt.

Bank stimulus

Members of the MPC also voted in favour of extending a credit facility to British banks from £100bn to £115bn.

The so-called Term Funding Scheme (TFS) runs until February 2018 and has already lent £78bn to banks at close to the bank’s base rate of 0.25%.

The TFS is backed by the Treasury.

Image copyright
AFP

The pound fell and the FTSE 100 rose as the Bank of England announced it was leaving interest rates unchanged and downgrading UK growth forecasts.

Sterling dropped 0.38% against the dollar to $1.3174 and shed 0.3% against the euro to 1.1121 euros.

At the same time, the 100-share index gained ground. It was 32.56 points or 0.44% up on the day at 7,443.99.

Clothing retailer Next saw its shares surge 9.2% after it increased its dividend to shareholders.

The firm was the biggest riser on the FTSE 100 in Thursday morning trading amid positive reaction to its quarterly trading statement.

Medical technology company Convatec was the worst performer, down 6.7% after reporting a 7.4% fall in operating profit for the first half of the year.

Image copyright
Getty Images

The UK economy looks to be on course for “steady but sluggish” growth in the third quarter, surveys indicate.

But service sector firms’ prospects indicate a stalling or contracting economy in the longer term, research firm IHS Markit said.

This could be due to heightened uncertainty about the economic outlook and Brexit process, it said.

Firms also face a “relentless burden of inflationary cost pressures” after the Brexit vote-related fall in the pound.

“While the current picture remained one of an economy showing overall resilience in the face of concerns about the outlook, the subdued level of business optimism suggests it’s likely that growth will at least remain modest and could easily weaken in coming months,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit.

The IHS Markit/CIPS services Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 53.8 in July from June’s four-month low of 53.4. A figure above 50 indicates expansion.

While manufacturing exporters have gained from the fall in the pound since last year’s Brexit vote, Thursday’s survey indicated consumer-facing businesses are being hit by a reduction in demand due to stretched household budgets.

The service sector in the UK, which accounts for about 80% of the economy, had subdued output growth as the amount of new work failed to match levels seen earlier in the year, IHS Markit said.

However, the lacklustre performance did not stop employers from taking on more staff, with job creation seeing its strongest growth for a year-and-a-half.

Justin Zatouroff, head of business services at KPMG UK, said: “Despite input price inflation and difficulties in finding staff with the right skills affecting the wider performance of the UK economy, the services sector continues to employ more people and see continued growth in revenue.

“However, the ongoing political and economic uncertainty continues to erode confidence in the future performance of the sector.”

After my team made the decision to convert our legal status from a nonprofit to a for-profit, the next thing we needed to figure out was how. We navigated the internet for hours and realized there was a dearth of information out there on the subject.

The reason is because few organizations have navigated the conversion successfully. It is very easy to go from a for-profit to a nonprofit. Going the other way is not. After having gone through the process, I completely understand why. In making the conversion happen, there is a huge element of luck. The timing matters. Most of the founders that I spoke to that had attempted the conversion and failed after the fact, it was because they didn’t find product-market fit. They anticipated that their service or product could be a for-profit business and they jumped to make the conversion before they gained full acceptance of their product or service. However, if they waited until the business was too mature, then the cost of converting the business may outweigh the benefits.

Related: 3 Reasons to Consider Converting a Nonprofit to a For-profit

Assuming you have the timing right, which is subjective and will vary across businesses, below are the three most popular options. I’ve also listed the pros and cons for every one of these options.

Licensing, leasing, or renting the assets

This would require you to set up a new legal entity that you can incorporate in any structure you wanted. Then you’d work with the board of the nonprofit to draft an agreement that would allow you to rent, license or lease the assets that you need for the new company.

Pros: This is quick and easy. It provides you with immediate access to the assets that you need to do business.  

Cons: You manage multiple entities. You do not own the assets outright. The board of the nonprofit can change its mind and terminate its agreement with you, which could put you out of business.

Related: This CEO Abandoned a Life of Decadence to Serve Others

Complete asset purchase

This is the direction my team decided to go. This requires you to set up a new legal entity that you can incorporate in any structure you want. Then you have to hire counsel to represent the management team (buyer) and counsel to represent the board (seller). Once the counsel is in place, then you have to hire an accounting firm to provide what they believe to be a fair market value of the assets. The value is determined based on conversations with the board, an evaluation of the balance sheet and any hard assets that are being transferred. The management team then has to raise the money to purchase the assets. The board must approve the asset sale. Finally, the last approval must come from the Attorney General in the state where the transaction is taking place.

Pros: You own the assets once the process is approved.

Cons: This is the costliest of the different routes. This route also takes the longest of the three to accomplish.

Related: Why I’m Leaving a VC Firm to Work for Free

Full restart

During the process of the asset purchase, I wished several times that I had gone down this route. This route requires you to start a new entity and start over. It means walking away from what you built. Nonetheless, the most valuable piece of the experience is what you learned. Sometimes that chance to start over means you could probably do it even better. This option is only available for companies that are providing a service. Most states have loose non-compete laws. That means that anyone can start a competing business that copies exactly what you’re doing without any penalty unless you have a patent. It would require you to change the name and the branding, but those things shouldn’t be that valuable at the time of your conversion — otherwise you’ve probably waited too long to make the switch.

Pros: This is the cheapest route to undertake. You do not need to hire any counsel and can pretty much walk away from what you had built to date.

Cons: The perception that you used donor assets to build something, get traction and then use it with a profit motive is poor. However, if you’re genuinely doing it for the greater good of the mission, you shouldn’t care too much about that.

Related: How Volunteering in Haiti Inspired This Founder to Start a Business for Social Good

When my team and I made the decision to make our conversion, we only really knew of the first two options. We also managed to receive pro bono counsel to support the nonprofit board. Otherwise, the costs of making the conversion might have sank our company. The intricacies of making this conversion happen are complicated. Though you may not need counsel to go through the entire process, depending on the route you choose to go, you should consult counsel at the start of the process to evaluate if there are any other options for you to consider that may be specific to your business. 

Image copyright
Getty Images

Top chief executives’ pay has fallen in the past year, but there is still “a huge gap” between them and the rest of their staff, a report has said.

The bosses of FTSE 100 companies now make on average £4.5m a year, down 17% from £5.4m in 2015, according to the High Pay Centre’s research.

The think tank said the fall was welcome but “limited and very late”.

It said the average UK full-time worker on pay before tax of £28,000 would take 160 years to earn the same amount.

Stefan Stern, director of the High Pay Centre, said: “We have finally seen a fall in executive pay this year, in the context of political pressure and in the spotlight of hostile public opinion.”

However, he added it was “so far, a one-off”.

Mr Stern said large cuts in the salaries of some high-profile executives had contributed to the fall, skewing the results.

The head of advertising giant WPP, Sir Martin Sorrell, took a £22m pay cut in 2016, as did Reckitt Benckiser chief executive Rakesh Kapoor, whose pay dropped by more than a third to £14.6m.

“There were as many rises as fallers and yes, those big number falls have hit the average,” he added.

The report said the pay ratio between FTSE 100 bosses and the average pay package of their employees had also fallen to 129:1 – meaning that for every £1 the average employee is paid, their chief executive gets £129.

In 2015 the ratio was 148:1.

Gender pay disparity

The study also found that, “in contrast to the generous pay packages awarded at the higher levels”, just over a quarter of top companies signed up to the voluntary living wage, which is higher than the minimum wage.

Image copyright
Thinkstock

The research, which was carried out with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), also showed there were just six women among the top 100 chief executives, and they were paid on average £2.6m last year.

CIPD chief executive Peter Cheese said: “Our analysis also shows a clear gender pay disparity at the top, with female CEOs receiving less than their male peers.

“Quite rightly this issue of fairness is increasingly being called out and this needs to be addressed at all levels of businesses.”

Edwin Morgan of the Institute of Directors said the gender pay gap was indicative of a whole array of problems regarding the promotion of women to senior levels.

“There’s headhunters not putting enough women forward for the most senior jobs, there’s not enough women in the pipeline right at the top, that’s why they’re under-represented as a whole.

“There’s also unconscious bias. It is a big systemic problem and it is not just the pay issue.

“The government is trying to tackle this particular issue of women in executive positions through the Hampton-Alexander review, but it is something all businesses have to recognise.

“We have a big problem here right at the top of these biggest companies. “

The report said one explanation for the fall in top bosses’ pay was that “it has become hard for organisations to justify further growth in [chief executive] pay while the wage progression for the typical British worker has been so subdued”.

Another was that politicians had become more interested in executive pay, with Theresa May criticising the “growing gap between rewards for those at the top and those who were just about managing”.

‘Not a threat’

The report also questioned whether the government would now “devote all its energy on Brexit”.

“Our concern is that if the government vacates this space [chief executive] remuneration will accelerate once more,” it said.

“Therefore we want to see Theresa May stick to her guns and introduce a bill to reform executive pay before the year end.”

But whatever the government does, the report advises firms to adopt the use of pay ratios showing the difference in earnings between the chief executive and average employees.

It said these “should not be seen as a threat or punishment but rather as a mechanism to bring about greater fairness and transparency at work, and avoid the demotivating effects of unjustified wage gaps”.

The employers’ organisation, the CBI, said: “Where pay does not match performance, business leaders can appear detached from society and not committed to fairness.

“Recent changes in executive pay growth show the vast majority of firms have taken this message on board.”