Topics

31

Smart Business Idea / How to Find a Great Idea

« on: June 16, 2019, 02:17:07 PM »

How to Find a Great Idea

https://www.entrepreneur.com/video/329196
Here are three ways that inspiration hit some very successful business people.

Annoyance. Bothered by a $40 late fee on a rented video, Reed Hastings thought to himself that video rentals should work like gym memberships -- you get charged the same amount each month no matter how much you use them. And from that, Netflix was born.

Noticing a trend and building off it. Gregorys Coffee founder and CEO decided to start his own business while sitting in a Starbucks. He realized he wanted to create an experience for people who like the speed of Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks, with the atmosphere of a boutique coffee shop.

They recognize needs. House cleaning and dog walking don’t seem like innovative ideas, but people have started lucrative businesses focused on giving people what they crave most -- time.

These tips and many more come from Start Your Own Business. Check it out and other great resources at the Entrepreneur Bookstore.

source:https://www.entrepreneur.com/video/329196

32

Smart Business Idea / Three tips for choosing a business idea

« on: June 16, 2019, 02:12:49 PM »

Three tips for choosing a business idea

The business ideas we’ve covered might be easier to run when it comes to logistics, but that doesn’t make them easy. There are at least three things you should keep in mind as you consider your options, no matter what you decide to start.

1. Focusing on a niche makes marketing easier
As with any business, marketing is what unlocks your success. It’s not enough to know that there’s demand for your products—you need to figure out ways to reach the people that are most likely to buy them. You need to get the right visitors to discover your products.

Luckily, marketing is a lot easier when you're catering to a specific audience or identity (e.g. vegans, board game lovers, photographers in your city). You can produce social media content that resonates with these people or run ads that target their interests. Taking this approach also helps you project a consistent brand because you’ll have a more specific idea of who exactly you’re talking to.

Think about how you can zero in on a specific audience for your products and how the business you build can serve them. If you already have a sizeable audience (a blog, a YouTube channel, or an Instagram account), maybe you can even find a way to base your business off of that existing audience.

Additional resources:

How to Find a Product to Sell Online
How to Use Niche marketing
How to Evaluate Market Demand For Your New Product Idea

2. Pricing is about more than profit
Price your products too low and shoppers might assume they’re low quality. Price them too high, and you might scare some customers off. In any case, you’ll need to find a sweet spot that also lets you factor in the cost to acquire customers and offer discounts, especially if you plan on paying for ads.

With many of the business ideas we’ll explore in this post, you may not be shipping your products, but you still need to cover the cost of shipping. Consider your shipping costs and how they will vary in the different countries you want to serve.

Many online sellers try to bake their shipping costs into their retail price so that they can offer free shipping, or at least a reasonable flat rate. Others focus on encouraging shoppers to add more items to their cart with conditional free shipping (e.g. free shipping on orders over $50) to maximize their profit.

At the end of the day, your prices can be tweaked and you can experiment with a variety of pricing strategies until you find one that works for you.

Additional resources:

6 Tips to Develop an Ecommerce Pricing Strategy
How to Do a Break-Even Analysis
5 Ways to Increase the Average Order Value of your Online Store

3. Test, learn, and grow as you go
The pursuit of perfection can be one of the biggest hurdles in getting a business up and running. Keep in mind that nothing is set in stone.

Products can be swapped in and out fairly easily (especially when you're not stuck with stock). Your store can be redesigned. Your prices can be adjusted. You can switch to a better supplier. And you can validate all of these decisions based on the dozens of signals you have at your disposal (traffic, how much time people are spending on your site, reviews, abandoned carts, etc.).

If your idea just isn’t working out the way you planned, think about how you can pivot before you quit.

There are aspects of your business that you can always salvage if you try a different product or approach. The brand you invest time into creating and the followers you amass on social media or in your email list can be assets you repurpose for your next business idea.

Additional resources:

What are the Basics Ecommerce Metrics I need to Focus on First
The Beginner's Guide to A/B Testing
Supply without as many demands
Thanks to a combination of technology, third-party suppliers, and the ability to quickly test ideas online, it’s easier than ever to build a business and start making sales without getting caught up in sourcing products, renting space, and managing inventory.

With this approach, you can test ideas before you invest in them, or start making money on the side without all the inventory-related commitments that might stand in your way.

The online business ideas covered above can even be combined in a variety of ways to start a business that’s uniquely yours. If the idea of sourcing, storing and shipping inventory kept you from starting a business before, begin with an inventory-free, low-investment business model and grow from there.

33

Smart Business Idea / 10 Low-Investment Business Ideas You Can Start Online

« on: June 16, 2019, 02:10:40 PM »

10 Low-Investment Business Ideas You Can Start Online

Starting a business can seem like a mountain of a task. But the amount of time, money, and risk involved all depends on the business idea you chase.

Contrary to popular belief, there are actually many ways to start a business that let you focus less on the logistics and upfront costs and more on getting started.

These low-investment online business ideas make a great entry point for beginners, bootstrappers, or anyone with a busy schedule, letting you pick up a side business without having to drop everything else.

You still need to come up with a solid idea, build a brand, put effort into marketing, and provide excellent customer service. But you can bypass many traditional startup costs, such as initial inventory, warehousing, and retail space.

Here are 10 of these low-investment business ideas you can start today.

10 low-investment business ideas you can start on the side
choosing a low-investment business idea

Partner with a dropshipper
Design and sell print-on-demand t-shirts
Launch your own book
Create digital products or courses
Sell print-on-demand posters, prints, etc.
Start a charitable business
Sell a service
Create an online fashion boutique
Sell handmade goods
Build an audience you can monetize

1. Partner with a dropshipper
Buy stock, store it, pick it, pack it, ship it. Managing inventory can be a big commitment when you’re running an online business.

Dropshipping is a fulfillment model where a third party supplier stores and ships inventory to customers on your behalf. You just need to make the sales and pass orders on to your supplier; you don’t need to handle the products yourself.

You can curate products from one or more suppliers into your own online store under a theme that focuses on a specific niche, like gear for yoga enthusiasts or water bowls for dog owners. When a customer buys a product from you, the order is sent to your supplier who fulfills it on your behalf. However, you are still responsible for your own marketing and customer service.

There are both local and overseas suppliers you can work with, as long as you can establish a relationship with them built on trust—an unreliable supplier will reflect poorly on your brand.

Dropshipping is a low-investment way to test product-market fit and launch a business before you invest in your own original products. Just be sure to always order a sample for yourself to make sure that your supplier is reliable and that the quality of the products is fit for selling to your customers.

2. Design and sell print-on-demand t-shirts
Another dropshipping model, print-on-demand puts inventory, shipping, and fulfillment in the hands of a third-party supplier. But unlike the dropshipping idea above, the focus here is on customizing these products with your own designs to create something original.

T-shirts, hats, phone cases, hoodies, skirts, tote bags, and more become canvases for your creativity. You can think up witty slogans for developers or references that resonate with cat owners—if there’s passion and pride within a community, there’s a potential t-shirt business you can start.

Even if you’re not a designer, you can find a designer to work with using freelance sites like Fiverr, Upwork, Dribble, or 99Designs.

With many print-on-demand services, you’re paying per-product, so the base price per unit will be more expensive than if you were to order in bulk. But the advantage is that if a certain t-shirt design doesn’t sell, you haven’t actually paid for the item yet (only the design if you outsourced it).

You can even use t-shirt mockup templates so you don’t actually need to spend money on a full photoshoot for every new design.

There are a variety of print-on-demand platforms you can work with, many of which can be integrated with your Shopify store for seamless order fulfillment. However, be sure to always order a sample of your product (often offered at a discount) to make sure your custom products look good.

t-shirt business idea
Source: ThinkPup
Additional resources:

How to Start a T-shirt Business
Think Pup T-Shirt Store [Case Study]
Printful (Shopify app)
Printify (Shopify app)
Template Icon
Shopify Academy Course: Build a Print-on-Demand Empire

Expert Shopify merchant Adrian Morrison shares his framework for starting and launching a successful print-on-demand shop.

3. Launch your own book
A book is just another type of product when you think about it. And as such, you can create one to serve a particular demand in the market.

Cookbooks, picture books, comic books, poetry books, photo books, coffee table books, and novels—if you’ve got the knowledge or the creativity, there are a variety of original books you can bring to the market.

Print-on-demand publishing is a relatively safe way to test the waters and get started with self-publishing, while giving you control over the quality and look of your book.

Lulu Xpress and Blurb are popular platforms for this purpose, letting you create, order, and distribute your own books as digital and physical products.

While you can order one book at a time, costs naturally go down when you buy in bulk. You can consider pre-selling or crowdfunding your book idea to ensure that there’s demand and guarantee a certain number of customers for a bulk order.

Launching your own book can be a great way to monetize a blog if you have one or are looking to start one.

print on demand books from lulu xpress
Examples of print-on-demand book types from Lulu Xpress
Additional resources:

How to Start a Blog That You Can Turn Into a Business
Crowdfunder (Shopify app)
Lulu Xpress (Shopify app)

4. Create digital products or courses
Digital products like music, courses, and templates are unique on this list of ideas. Unlike the others, they’re not tangible products. There aren’t recurring manufacturing or shipping costs to worry about so your margins can remain high.

The trick is figuring out what makes for a good digital product. What is useful enough that people are willing to pay to download it?

The answers range from original instrumental beats to stock photos that can be licensed to other creators, to information products and templates that help people level up their skills in a particular field.

If you’ve got a talent that can be turned into a digital product, you can think about packaging it into a new stream of income.

Shopify offers a free digital downloads app that lets you offer digital products in your store as easily as physical products.

digital products business ideas
Source: PixieFaire
Additional resources:

How to Sell Digital Products with Shopify
How an Entrepreneur from Alaska Built the Biggest Hip-Hop Drum Sample Business in the World
How to Sell Photos Online

5. Sell print-on-demand posters, greeting cards, and prints
If you’re artistically inclined or know your way around a camera, you can dropship using a print-on-demand business model to let others physically own a piece of your work. Just be sure you have the rights to the content you want to print, unless you’re using public domain assets that you can freely monetize.

If you’ve already got an engaged online following, say you’re a cartoonist or an urban photographer, you’re in an especially good position to give this business idea a try.

Depending on the printer you work with, you can turn your work into products such as posters or framed wall art, even greeting cards. There are plenty of digital templates and mockup generators like Place.it that you can use to showcase your products without having to print out each item and conduct your own photo shoots.

sell prints business idea
Source: Zen Pencils
Additional resources:

How to Sell Art Online: The Ultimate Guide
How to Sell Photos Online: For Beginner and Professional Photographers

6. Start a charitable business
Starting a non-profit organization isn’t the only path you can take to help fund a better world.

Having a mission to go along with a business, and setting aside some profit for a cause, gives social entrepreneurs a unique way to position their company in the market while addressing the issues they care about most.

In fact, 89% of consumers surveyed said they were likely to switch to a new brand with similar products and prices if it was associated with a good cause.

While many social enterprises offer their own original products, you can also take any of the business ideas above and partner with a non-profit, or execute that social good with your own hands, as long as you’re transparent about how it works.

As part of your marketing, you can share the impact that your customers are having by supporting your business, such as a blog post covering your work in the community or a real-time impact calculator on your website.

The Give & Grow Shopify app makes it easy to partner with charitable organizations and incorporate your mission into your business. You can set it up to donate a specific amount or a percentage of sales, or ask your customers to add a donation at checkout.

charitable business ideas
The Give & Grow app for Shopify lets you track and display your impact.
Additional resources:

Social Entrepreneurship: Harnessing Business to Make the World a Better Place
How This Social Entrepreneur Is Building a Better Detroit By Empowering Its Students

7. Sell a service
With services-based businesses, “time” is your inventory and your biggest investment. You’ve only got a limited supply of hours in your day. However, that makes it easier to get up and running if you’ve got skills that are in demand.

Writers, designers, developers, photographers, house cleaners, fitness trainers, and more can build a business around their skills.

They can also expand their business with any of the other ideas above to create additional revenue streams by “productizing” their services through physical or digital goods.

A photographer, for example, can service a local event while selling prints online through their Instagram account. A copywriter can sell a copywriting swipe file of high-converting sales copy. Coupling your service-based business with physical products can give you another source of income that isn’t directly tied to your time.

You can use the BookThatApp or Book an Appointment app for Shopify to let customers easily schedule a session, consultation, or buy tickets to a class with you through your store.

You can also offer your services through a freelance marketplace like Upwork to increase your chances of getting discovered by the people who need your skills.

sell services
The Book That App for Shopify lets customers easily book your services.
Additional resources:

12 Things to Sell on Shopify (Other than Physical Products)
Build your business on Shopify. Start your free 14-day trial today!
Email
Enter your email address

8. Create an online fashion boutique
If you love fashion and sharing your sense of style online, you can consider creating your own online fashion boutique. You don’t need to become a fashion designer either—you can simply curate items from other vendors into your own online store (using the dropshipping model we discussed earlier).

From dresses, shoes, swimwear, accessories, and more, you can build your own fashion brand using one of the several product sourcing apps for Shopify, model them in your own product photos and social media posts, and build an online following as a trend-setter.

fashion product sourcing app on shopify
My Online Fashion Store lets you import various styles into your Shopify store.
Additional resources:

How to Start a Fashion Line
My Online Fashion Store (Shopify app)
Modalyst (Shopify app)

9. Sell handcrafted and hom

emade goods
If you’re a maker—whether you DIY soap, candles, sauces, or pottery—you’re in a unique position to start an online business since product development and procurement are literally in your hands.

Unlike many of the other ideas on this list, you will need to consider shipping and inventory management, but you can start out simple on a per-order basis or with a small batch until you start generating consistent sales.

In fact, many makers on Shopify started out selling from their homes on Etsy or to friends and family, growing into full-time business owners after establishing demand for their products.

10. Grow an audience you can monetize in multiple ways
In today’s connected world, the ability to capture and keep the attention of others is an asset. It’s one that many businesses are even willing to pay for, and one that many creators are able to convert into a business with multiple revenue streams.

Whether you choose to grow your following on YouTube, Instagram, or a blog (ideally a combination of different channels), you have many avenues for monetizing your audience:

Do sponsored posts on behalf of brands
Become an affiliate
Sell physical or digital products (via any of the ideas on this list)
Patreon
A combination of the above (they’re not mutually exclusive)
Taking an audience-first approach to starting a business means you’re playing the long game (it might be months until you've figured it out). But you don't need millions followers to do it—Instagrammer Kat Gaskin, for example, pulled off a $10k product launch with only 3,000 followers.

34

Smart Agriculture & Life Science / Climate-smart agriculture

« on: June 16, 2019, 12:35:49 PM »

Climate-smart agriculture

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is an approach to help the people who manage agricultural systems respond effectively to climate change.  The CSA approach pursues the triple objectives of sustainably increasing productivity and incomes, adapting to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions where possible.  This does not imply that every practice applied in every location should produce “triple wins”.  Rather the CSA approach seeks to reduce trade-offs and promote synergies by taking these objectives into consideration to inform decisions from the local to the global scales and over short and long time horizons, to derive locally-acceptable solutions.

The majority of the world’s poor live in rural areas and agriculture is their most important income source. Developing the potential to increase the productivity and incomes from smallholder crop, livestock, fish and forest production systems will be the key to achieving global food security over the next twenty years. Climate change is expected to hit developing countries the hardest. Its effects include higher temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, rising sea levels and more frequent extreme weather events. All of these pose risks for agriculture, food and water supplies. Resilience is therefore a predominant concern.  Agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Mitigation can often be a significant co-benefit of actions to strengthen adaptation and enhance food security, and thus mitigation action compatible with national development priorities for agriculture is an important aspect of CSA.

The CSA Approach
CSA is not a set of practices that can be universally applied, but rather an approach that involves different elements embedded in local contexts. CSA relates to actions both on-farm and beyond the farm, and incorporates technologies, policies, institutions and investment. 

Different elements of climate-smart agricultural systems include:

Management of farms, crops, livestock, aquaculture and capture fisheries to balance near-term food security and livelihoods needs with priorities for adaptation and mitigation.
Ecosystem and landscape management to conserve ecosystem services that are important for food security, agricultural development, adaptation and mitigation.
Services for farmers and land managers to enable better management of climate risks/impacts and mitigation actions.
Changes in the wider food system including demand-side measures and value chain interventions that enhance the benefits of CSA.
Actions to implement a CSA approach include:

1. Expanding the evidence base:

The evidence base is made up of the current and projected effects of climate change in a country, identifying key vulnerabilities in the agricultural sector and for food security, agriculture and the identification of effective adaptation options. It includes estimates of the potential reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (or increased carbon sequestration) generated by adaptation strategies, information on costs and barriers to the adoption of different practices, issues related to the sustainability of production systems and the required policy and institutional responses to overcome them.

2. Supporting enabling policy frameworks:

The approach supports the development of relevant policies, plans, investments and coordination across processes and institutions responsible for agriculture, climate change, food security and land use.

3. Strengthening national and local institutions:

Strong local institutions to empower, enable and motivate farmers are essential. In some cases, efforts also need to be made in building the capacity of national policy makers to participate in international policy fora on climate change and agriculture, and reinforce their engagement with local government authorities.

4. Enhancing financing options:

Innovative financing mechanisms that link and blend climate and agricultural finance and investments from public and private sectors are a key means of implementing CSA. New climate financing instruments such as the Green Climate Fund are currently under development and could be a way of spurring sustainable agricultural development. Strong and all-encompassing Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) are key national policy instruments important in creating links to national and international sources of finance. National sector budgets and ODA will continue to be the main sources of funding, climate integration into sector planning and budgeting is therefore a prerequisite for successfully addressing climate change.

5. Implementing practices at field level

Farmers are the primary custodians of knowledge about their environment, agro-ecosystems, crops, livestock, and local climatic patterns. Adapting to CSA must be related to local farmers’ knowledge, requirements and priorities. Local projects and institutions support farmers to identify suitable climate-smart options that can be easily adopted and implemented. This, for example has been done through Farmer Field Schools in the United Republic of Tanzania.[/font]

35

Newspaper / When Pepsi was swapped for Soviet warships

« on: June 16, 2019, 12:16:25 PM »

When Pepsi was swapped for Soviet warships

Bartering is one of the oldest ways of doing business in the world.

The exchange of goods and services predates the use of money and is believed to have developed in the first human societies. Today, bartering is usually associated with countries in turmoil.

Take fisherman in Venezuela who now swap their catch for other food stuffs or medicines, because after years of hyperinflation the country's currency is now nearly worthless.

Or the bartering networks that emerged in Greece at the height of its financial crisis eight or so years ago.

However, it is not just individuals who continue to engage in bartering, it is also used by governments. And again, this is often the case when a country is facing financial woes and isolation on the world stage, such as Venezuela or Iran.

For both countries bartering has enabled them to get around US-led economic blockades.

Bartering also continues to occasionally be used by companies, such as Indonesian aircraft maker Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) agreeing to trade two of its transport aircraft for 110,000 tonnes of Thai sticky rice back in 1996. That was all the Thai buyer had to offer.

And in an even more eye-opening historic example, back in the 1970s US giant Pepsi traded its soft drink for Soviet tomato paste, so it could enter the USSR market. Pepsi, which owned Pizza Hut at the time, spread the tomato paste across its pizzas in western Europe. It also bartered its fizzy drink for Russian vodka, and even Soviet warships, which it sold on for scrap.

Swedish chart-toppers Abba did something similar in the Soviet Union, where they earned royalties in the form of fruit, vegetables and crude oil, which were then sold on the global market.



After the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - China, France, Russia, the UK, the US - as well as Germany and the European Union, Iran was able to start trading normally again.

But last year President Trump pulled the US out of the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and re-imposed sanctions. This has forced Iran to return to bartering, such as reviving its old agreement with India, whereby it exchanges its oil for rice.

Using a method that is bit more complicated than a straight swap, Iran agrees to accept payment for its oil in Indian rupees. The money is paid into an Indian bank account operated by an Indian state-owned bank.

Iran then uses this to pay for rice and other Indian imports such as pharmaceuticals, with no money crossing banks or borders. It's a moot point whether this bartering violates sanctions or not, but until the US removed special waivers for Iran's main oil importers, it had become a common way to do business.

France, Germany and the UK set up a similar scheme earlier this year to allow companies in their countries to trade with Iran. The initiative is called the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchange, and it is limited to humanitarian goods, such as medicines and food items.

In Venezuela, it is not just goods that are bartered - it can be workers too. It sends 50,000 barrels of oil every day to Cuba. In return Cuba sends its highly trained doctors, teachers and economic advisors to work in Venezuela.

Most barter deals are struck when conventional avenues are blocked. says Michael Czinkota, an associate professor of international business at Georgetown University in Washington.

He says this is also the case for other trade deals that are not straight cash payments, which are known collectively as "countertrades". These can include a simple mix of barter and money, to pledges of future investment or purchases.

"The starting point for countertrades is always that something is wrong with the traditional system," he says. "The companies I talk to who do countertrade say if they could do everything they do for money that would always be their first preference."

"In that case it was really about building reputational capital [in a new market]," says Mr Taylor, who is an associate professor of economics at Christopher Newport University in Virginia.

"No-one wants to be stuck with tonnes of sticky rice. But this company also wanted evidence that the aircraft could be sold. So they couldn't be picky."

Prof Taylor adds that a specific type of countertrade deal called "offset agreements" continue to be prevalent in the global defence sector. Under these agreements defence firms agree to generate economic activity within a country over a period of time, such as buying or making components there.

Overall, he says that bartering and the other types of countertrade are here to stay, "particularly among developing countries and during times of instability".[/font]

36

Finance & Accounts / Accounting and accounting rules in Bangladesh

« on: June 16, 2019, 11:53:14 AM »

Accounting and accounting rules in Bangladesh

Tax Year From:1 July to 30 June
Accounting Standards: The main source of accounting principles is the series of approved accounting standards issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB). Most of these standards are based on international accounting standards IFRS and IAS.
Accounting Regulation Bodies Securities and Exchange Commission of Bangladesh

Accounting Reports:The financial statements consist of a balance sheet, an income statement (profit and loss) and cash flows. Accounts should be accompanied by an Auditer's reports and Director's report.
Publication Requirements:Financial statements must be prepared annually. Companies with shares listed on the stock exchanges in Dhaka or Chittagong must comply with additional requirements in terms of financial disclosure and public announcements. The Government may ask for, via notification in the Official Gazette, an annual information return.

Professional Accountancy Bodies Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB)
Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh
Certification and AuditingOnly members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) can apply for an audit license, which allows them to audit companies. For more information see the KPMG website.

37

Impact Investment / The Landscape for Impact Investing in South Asia: Bangladesh

« on: June 16, 2019, 11:44:57 AM »

The Landscape for Impact Investing in South Asia: Bangladesh

Highlighting impact investing trends in Bangladesh
This paper develops an understanding of the impact investing market in Bangladesh. It covers key supply-side themes such as the current status and trends in terms of the types of active investors, capital deployment, and opportunities for and challenges to investing. The paper also evaluates the demand for impact capital, challenges to accessing capital and opportunities for enterprise growth, and the vibrancy and scale of the supportive ecosystem necessary for the industry. The paper finds that Bangladesh has the third most active impact investing market in South Asia after India and Pakistan. An estimated USD 955 million of impact fund is currently deployed in the country. Other key findings include:

Bangladesh’s large population and shifting demographics make the country appealing to investors;
Investor optimism has led to sharp increases in FDI inflows since 2009;
There are at least 15 impact investors currently active in Bangladesh;
DFIs are responsible for the largest portion of impact capital through investments directly in enterprises;
Institutional investors largely operate on a commercial basis as lenders;
70% of the total impact capital currently deployed has been through debt;
Sectors receiving most of the impact investing capital are high-growth sectors such as ICT, manufacturing, and energy.

source:https://www.findevgateway.org/library/landscape-impact-investing-south-asia-bangladesh

38

How To Raise Money / How to raise money

« on: June 16, 2019, 11:28:08 AM »

How to raise money

1. Understand your strengths
2. Have a clear vision
3. Connect on a personal level
4. The pitch deck
5. Become a storyteller
6. The Follow Up
7. Do Your Research
8. Never say you are fundraising unless you have a lead investor
9. Master the art of listening

10. Have a good amount of confidence

39

Angel Investment / Angel investor list

« on: June 16, 2019, 11:02:45 AM »

Most active Angel investor list:

• Jeff Bezos.
• Paul Buchheit. Paul Buchheit is a partner at Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley-based seed accelerator that has funded more than 550 companies in more than 30 different markets

    3.Paul Graham
    4.David Lee
    5.Max Levchin
    6.Benjamin Ling
    7.Marissa Mayer.

40

Partnership / Types of partnership

« on: June 16, 2019, 10:51:03 AM »

Below are basic summaries of the main types of business partnerships.

General Partnerships

A general partnership involves two or more owners carrying out a business purpose. General partners share equal rights and responsibilities in connection with management of the business, and any individual partner can bind the entire group to a legal obligation. Each individual partner assumes full responsibility for all of the business's debts and obligations. Although such personal liability is daunting, it comes with a tax advantage: partnership profits are not taxed to the business, but pass through to the partners, who include the gains on their individual tax returns at a lower rate.

Limited Partnerships

A limited partnership allows each partner to restrict his or her personal liability to the amount of his or her business investment. Not every partner can benefit from this limitation -- at least one participant must accept general partnership status, exposing himself or herself to full personal liability for the business's debts and obligations. The general partner retains the right to control the business, while the limited partner(s) do(es) not participate in management decisions. Both general and limited partners benefit from business profits.

Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP)

Limited liability partnerships (LLP) retain the tax advantages of the general partnership form, but offer some personal liability protection to the participants. Individual partners in a limited liability partnership are not personally responsible for the wrongful acts of other partners, or for the debts or obligations of the business. Because the LLP form changes some of the fundamental aspects of the traditional partnership, some state tax authorities may subject a limited liability partnership to non-partnership tax rules. The Internal Revenue Service views these businesses as partnerships, however, and allows partners to use the pass through technique.

Existing partnerships that wish to take advantage of LLP status do not need to modify their existing partnership agreement, though they may choose to do so. In order to change status, a partnership simply files an application for registration as a limited liability partnership with the appropriate state agency. All states require disclosure of the partnership's name and principle place of business. Some states also require, among other things, identification of the number of partners, a brief description of the business, a statement that the partnership will maintain insurance, and written acknowledgment that the limited liability status may expire.

41

Networking & Events / How to Find Networking Events

« on: June 16, 2019, 10:47:39 AM »

How to Find Networking Events Worth Going To

5 Ways to Find Networking Events
1. Talk to Friends and Colleagues


Never underestimate the power of word of mouth! Colleagues will often know industry-focused networking events. Friends who do not work in your industry can share how they find events. (And, even attending out-of-industry events can lead to meeting interesting people.)

Ask co-workers and friends about any professional events they’re planning to attend or ones they've enjoyed in the past — this can include breakfast discussions or networking events, happy hour events, conferences, roundtables, lectures and discussions, classes, and so much more. Your mentors are a good source for recommendations, too.

2. Browse Networking Sites

Thanks to the internet, there are tons of ways to find events, conferences, and specifically networking-focused events, all categorized by geographic location.

Two of the most popular and well-known sites include:

Meetup — Explore free and low-cost in-person meet-ups in your industry, whether it’s beauty, tech, photography, or something else. There’s also a category for “career and business events” with a wide variety of career-focused groups that meet regularly.
Eventbrite — This event-based site has listing pages for free and paid events. You’ll find fairs, festivals, discussions, conferences, classes, and much more.
3. Check Social Media and Your Inbox

Do you follow industry organizations on social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram) and subscribe to newsletters? Many organizations put on annual or even more frequent events.

If you’re involved in media, publishing, or public relations, for instance, you’ll want to follow MediaBistro and Muckrack on social media and subscribe to their newsletters, since both organizations frequently host networking events, conferences, and host classes.

Look for the organizations in your industry and follow them on social media and through newsletters. If you're not sure which organizations are big, ask colleagues, post on LinkedIn, or do a quick online search.

4. Alumni and Affinity Organizations

Your college or graduate school can also be a rich source of events — they may host holiday parties which are an ideal place to make your elevator pitch and share a business card. Colleges and universities also frequently host events and conversations which are also a great place to meet people.

Affinity groups form around interests, goals, and sometimes identity. Some organizations, for instance, have affinity groups for LGBTQ+ people, or for women, or for people with disabilities, etc. You can join a group at your office, or seek out one outside of your company. For instance, DamesBond is a woman-focused networking organization, while Out Professionals is a membership-driven organization that has job listings, networking events, professional development, and more services for members.

5. Local Organizations

For more places to find networking events, think local: your library or religious institution may host events. You may also find events open to all at community organizations, co-working spaces, and through your local chamber of commerce.

42

Others / The world’s largest airplane is up for sale for $400 million

« on: June 16, 2019, 10:41:54 AM »

The world’s largest airplane is up for sale for $400 million

Holding company Vulcan is seeking to sell Stratolaunch at $400 million, people familiar with the matter tell  CNBC.
Vulcan is the investment conglomerate of late billionaire Paul Allen.
There are several possible suitors for Stratolaunch, especially the most active space industry trio of billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson.
While it’s unknown if either Musk’s SpaceX or Bezos’ Blue Origin is pursuing a purchase of Stratolaunch, people familiar tell CNBC that Vulcan has spoken to Branson about selling Stratolaunch to his Virgin Group.

43

Media & communication / Types of media communication

« on: June 16, 2019, 10:33:04 AM »

Types of media communication

1.Verbal communication
2.Non-Verbal communication

Verbal communication is the expression or exchanged of information or messages through written or oral words. Forms of verbal communication are as follows:

Oral communication: Oral communication is the process of communication in which messages or information is exchanged or communicated within sender and receiver through the word of mouth. It can be divided into two ways: a. Speaking b. Listening.
Written communication: Written communication is the process of communication in which messages or information is exchanged or communicated within sender and receiver through written form. It can be divided into two ways: a. Writing b. Reading.

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
Nonverbal communication is the expression or exchange of information or messages through without using any spoken or written word. Some of the forms of non-verbal communications are as follows:

Facial expression
Gestures
Body language
Proximity
Touch
Appearance
Silence
Paralinguistic
Eye Gaze or eye contact etc.

44

Startup / Best Small Business Ideas

« on: June 16, 2019, 10:18:52 AM »

Best Small Business Ideas

Handyman. Are you always fixing things around the house? ...
Woodworker. ...
Online dating consultant. ...
Sewing and alteration specialist. ...
Freelance developer. ...
Personal trainer. ...
Freelance graphic designer. ...
Life/career coach.

45

Smart Business Idea / 10 Smart Business Ideas for 2019

« on: June 16, 2019, 10:14:39 AM »

10 Smart Business Ideas for 2019

Starting a business takes, before anything else, a great idea.

Gift-giving businesses
For when you're searching for holiday gifts for your clients and co-workers, shopping for the perfect birthday present for your boss, or just looking for business inspiration, here are five companies with unique business models that can help. From mobile gift cards to personalized sweet treats, these businesses put a whole new spin on gift giving. (Read more)

Food trucks
Now more than ever, the best food often comes from tiny carts, stands and trucks. These 10 food trucks from around the country are serving up so much more than just mobile meals — entrepreneurs can learn a lot from their creativity and innovation, too. (Read more)

Businesses for kids
These companies don't just give children and young adults something fun to do after school or when school's out for the summer. They also help them learn valuable skills, develop their creativity, improve their health and further their education in other ways — keeping parents everywhere happy, too. (Read more)

Back-to-school businesses
Back-to-school season isn't always easy, but there are plenty of businesses out there that can help make starting a new school year a lot less stressful for students, parents and teachers. (Read more)

Art businesses
From facilitating new ways to display art in your home or office, to giving artists new mediums to showcase and sell their work, these businesses put the "art" in "startup." (Read more)

All-natural businesses
Whether you're looking for products or want to start a business that brings it back to basics, you need to check out these inspiring all-natural businesses. (Read more)

Music businesses
Beyond record labels, major streaming services, equipment retailers and concert venues, there are a lot of ways business and music intersect, and these music businesses are really changing the game. (Read more)

Sports businesses
From virtual-reality sports platforms and game-footage analysis to family-friendly youth sports programs, these six businesses put a whole new spin on sports, helping coaches, athletes and families do what they love. (Read more)

Vegan businesses
Fortunately for all you vegans out there, more and more stores and brands are dedicated to this animal- and eco-friendly lifestyle, covering everything from food and cosmetics to clothes and accessories. (Read more)

Green businesses
While many organizations do their part by increasing recycling efforts, sourcing local materials and using energy-efficient equipment, some have taken their eco-friendly efforts to the next level by basing their entire business models on these principles. (Read more)

Travel businesses
Ready to use some of your hard-earned vacation time? Don't book your flight just yet. Check out these cool travel businesses first to make your next vacation even less stressful — and more memorable! (Read more)

Death-related businesses
From afterlife preparations to unique burial methods and memorials, there are more businesses related to death than you might expect, including these seven totally killer businesses that will probably give you the heebie-jeebies. (Read more)

"Disgusting" businesses
Successful businesses all have one thing in common: They solve a problem for their customers. But some problems are less pleasant than others, and some are downright disgusting. (Read more)

Culinary businesses
From the weird (bacon-flavored envelopes) to the inspiring (a food truck that gives back to the community), here are seven unique food and beverage businesses you probably didn't know existed. (Read more)

Breakup businesses
These breakup-inspired businesses know what it's like to get dumped and are taking advantage of it. But don't worry, unlike your ex, they're not really taking advantage of you. (Read more)

Animal businesses
Whether they're making use of a critter's natural behaviors or pampering your pet to the fullest, these 10 companies have your four-legged friends in mind. (Read more)

Halloween businesses
While most companies simply run Halloween-themed promotions during October, these eight startups have built their businesses entirely on the season of spirits. (Read more)

Wedding businesses
Your wedding day should be flawless, and these services are here to help. To make sure your big day goes off without a hitch, take a look at these businesses that are dedicated to helping couples like you plan the best day ever. (Read more)

Yoga businesses
Staying fit and relaxing are rarely the same thing. One invokes images of pumping iron, the other of lying on the couch. But Yoga harnesses the best of fitness and relaxation to bring you a mind, body, and spirit experience that rejuvenates and strengthens. These businesses help support those goals. (Read more)

3D printing businesses
What was once seemed like a high-tech, futuristic device is now reality; 3D printers are taking the world by storm and allowing users to create real, physical objects from nothing more than a computer representation. These companies have harnessed the power of the 3D printer to create truly amazing businesses. (Read more)

"Sexy" businesses
What makes for a better business model than catering to one of the world's oldest pastimes? Sex is more than just instinct and reproduction for these companies; it's their business, and business is booming. (Read more)

Gaming businesses
Do you love gaming? These startups have their sights aimed at the top of the heap when it comes to video games. See what these six businesses are working on that could change the game, literally. (Read more)

Socially repsonsible businesses
Are you passionate about social justice AND looking to start your own business? Here are some examples of socially responsible businesses that don't just turn a profit, but also give back to the communities around them. (Read more)

Nonprofit organizations
Most companies are for-profit endeavors, but there are a ton of much-needed services offered by non-profit organizations as well. Often, these seek to support a community or further social projects, but each is unique in its own way. Take a cue from these inspiring organizations. (Read more)

Delivery businesses
Are you a proud couch potato? If you don't want to do any heavy lifting, you need to have these unique delivery services in your life. Don't fret, you'll only have to get up to answer the door! (Read more)

Beauty businesses
If beauty and cosmetics are your thing, then look no further! These companies found creative ways to make beauty into booming business; you can too, with the right mix of inspiration, creativity and style. (Read more)

Fitness businesses
If you're a health and fitness nut, then these businesses are just for you. These companies found innovative ways to approach fitness, spreading health and general well-being amongst their customers. How can you stay fit and proft? Let's find out. (Read more)

Fashion businesses
If you've got fashion sense and a mind for innovation, you'll fit right in with these entrepreneurs. Let's take a look at some of the businesses that are disrupting the fashion industry and find out what it takes to launch a successful startup based on changing the game.