Every team member reacts differently to stress or tension based on their communication style, priorities, and behavioral profile, hence ignoring these differences can quickly lead to misunderstandings and disagreements.

The typical problem leaders face, though, is managing teams with diverse personalities. In the field, tensions can indeed arise between colleagues with opposing work styles, leading to avoidable conflicts. For example, a very directive person might struggle to collaborate with a more consensus-oriented colleague, causing friction in projects.

In this article, we’ll therefore explore:

1. How managing behavioral profiles helps better understand and anticipate disagreements.
2. The benefits of tools like behavioral profiling (e.g., DISC) to adjust communication styles.
3. Strategies to adapt your management based on different team profiles.

And by the way, to dive deeper into the topic, listen to our podcast “Managing Conflicts in the Workplace: How Do We Do It?” where Philippe Bonnet and Antoine Martin discuss practical methods for managing team tensions.

Do you want to master the art of communication in the workplace to avoid disagreements and boost cohesion? You’re in the right place. Read on to discover our tips!

Understanding Behavioral Profiles to Strengthen Your Teams

Managing behavioral profiles plays a central role in team success by understanding and adapting interactions according to diverse personalities.

Each team member approaches their work with different expectations, preferences, and communication styles. Without proper management, these differences can lead to misunderstandings, frustrations, and conflicts.

That’s why it’s crucial to adopt a proactive approach, taking these profiles into account to enhance and strengthen team cohesion and prevent tensions.

When everyone has a unique communication style, adaptation is key

Each individual in a team communicates and collaborates differently, influenced by their behavioral profile. What is obvious to one person may seem confusing to another. Some prefer direct and concise communication, while others look for more nuanced and thoughtful exchanges.

In this context, managing behavioral profiles allows managers (and team members) to adapt to these differences by adjusting their communication methods.

For example, a person who is action-oriented will need clear and quick directives, while an analytical team member will require more details and time to think before responding. By understanding, mastering, and personalizing communication, unnecessary misunderstandings can be avoided, and the flow of exchanges within the team can be improved.

Behavioral profiles also influence how group decisions are made

Collective decision-making can be one of the trickiest aspects in a team.

Different behavioral profiles influence how each person contributes to this process. Action-oriented profiles prefer quick decisions, while more analytical ones want to weigh the options carefully.

This can lead to tensions if these differences aren’t managed properly. Managing behavioral profiles not only identifies these differences but also values them.

By adjusting how decisions are made based on team members’ preferences, you create an environment where everyone feels heard and respected, while also enhancing the effectiveness of collective decisions.

Using This Diversity to Strengthen Collaboration and Prevent Tensions

Instead of seeing diverse profiles as a source of conflict, managing behavioral profiles can turn this diversity into a real strength for the team.

By adapting work methods, role distribution, and interpersonal exchanges, teams can not only prevent tensions but also encourage smoother and more productive collaboration.

Each profile brings unique perspectives and skills that, when well-managed, can enrich collective work and help the team achieve its goals more effectively.

By taking a proactive approach to behavior management, companies can create an environment where diverse profiles enhance efficiency, rather than hinder it.

Signs of Workplace Tensions Related to Behavioral Differences

Tensions within teams don’t appear suddenly; they often start subtly before escalating into open conflicts. The ability to identify signs of workplace tension early on is essential to defuse situations before they become unmanageable.

Unusual Behaviors Can Indicate That Something Is Wrong

When a team member suddenly changes their behavior, such as avoiding meetings or adopting a more distant and formal tone, it can indicate internal disagreements.

More introverted profiles may withdraw, while more expressive ones may show signs of frustration. If these behaviors are not addressed quickly, they can indicate growing discomfort within the team.

Unexplained Drops in Productivity Often Indicate Underlying Issues Affecting Work Dynamics

Repeated mistakes, lack of investment, or a loss of engagement from team members can signal that something is wrong in the communication or collaboration among team members. Spotting these indicators proactively helps limit their impact on overall performance.

Finally, Tense Relationships Between Colleagues Reveal Misalignments

Interpersonal tensions are not always openly expressed. Sometimes, they manifest through passive-aggressive behaviors or a lack of communication.

These signs, although subtle, often reveal behavioral misalignments between colleagues. If these conflicts are not addressed, they can lead to dysfunctions between departments or within the team, making collaboration more difficult.

Implementing Effective Processes through Behavioral Profile Management

To limit conflicts and improve collaboration, managing behavioral profiles combined with processes to reduce team disagreements is an effective approach.

These processes help organize work in a way that adapts to the different behavioral styles present in the team, ensuring better interaction flow and reducing misunderstandings.

Clear Processes Adapted to Behavioral Profiles Reduce Sources of Misunderstanding

A lack of clarity in the distribution of roles and tasks is often the root of conflicts. By taking behavioral profile management into account, processes become more tailored to the strengths and preferences of each member.

For example, some team members prefer precise and detailed directives, while others need more autonomy. Clarifying roles based on these behaviors reduces the risk of misunderstandings and improves collective productivity.

Structuring Meetings to Manage Disagreements Based on Profiles

Meetings are often where differences emerge. A good process involves structuring discussions by considering the different behavioral profiles.

For instance, a more reflective profile will need more time to express themselves, while a more direct profile will get straight to the point. By tailoring meetings to these particularities, it’s possible to defuse disagreements and improve the efficiency of exchanges.

Management Tools to Facilitate Collaboration Between Different Profiles

Using project management tools that take behavioral differences into account also plays a key role.

These tools help to clearly assign responsibilities while respecting each profile’s work preferences, thereby limiting coordination problems within the company. When each team member knows their role and what is expected of them, tensions decrease, and collaboration improves.

5 Strategies to Prevent Tensions through Behavioral Profile Management

Implementing strategies to prevent workplace tensions becomes much more effective when taking behavioral profile management into account. Adapting strategies to behavioral specifics allows for anticipating disagreements before they escalate into conflicts.

Detect Behavioral Profiles to Better Manage Interactions

Behavioral profile management starts with a good assessment of team members. Using behavioral detection tools (like DISC profiling – contact us!) helps to better understand each person’s strengths and preferences.

These assessments not only help to understand how each team member functions but also to anticipate potential sources of tension. Collaborating with facilitators or business coaches, companies can obtain a comprehensive analysis of profiles to adjust their management approach.

Adapt Prevention Strategies to Different Communication Styles

Workplace tensions often arise when team members do not understand each other or misinterpret others’ intentions. By adapting prevention strategies to the different communication styles of behavioral profiles, you limit these misunderstandings.

For example, a more diplomatic approach might be necessary with reserved profiles, while direct exchanges will be better suited to more assertive personalities.

Encourage Regular Feedback Tailored to Each Member’s Behavior

Regular feedback is one of the strategies to prevent workplace tensions. Depending on behavioral profile management, this feedback must be personalized.

An analytical profile might appreciate detailed and factual feedback, while a profile more oriented towards interpersonal relationships will prefer feedback that values collaboration efforts. Adapting feedback to behaviors helps maintain a harmonious work environment.

Create Dialogue Spaces to Defuse Tensions before They Become Conflicts

One of the most effective strategies is to create dialogue spaces where team members can freely discuss their concerns and difficulties. These spaces help manage egos in the workplace and defuse tensions before they become open conflicts.

Facilitators often play a key role in this process by structuring these exchanges constructively, according to each person’s profile.

Personalized Follow-Up to Help Employees Evolve

Once profiles are identified, personalized follow-up with a coach or facilitator helps employees evolve according to their behavioral preferences. Coaching then helps each member adapt and develop relationship skills suited to their communication style, strengthening team dynamics

Despite their expertise and fervour, many entrepreneurs find themselves overwhelmed, struggling to strike the right balance between working on their business and working in their business.

Recognizing this challenge, the business coaching network Impactified embarked on an inspiring journey to team up with partners and create not just one, but two coaching clinics to empower entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Business coaching clinics: the vision

The Impactified journey started with a powerful vision to provide transformative coaching experiences that would empower entrepreneurs and small business owners.

The team acknowledged the complexities of entrepreneurial life on the one hand, and the limitations of traditional coaching methods in addressing the unique needs and challenges faced by business owners on the other hand.

Driven by a desire to make a genuine impact, we thus decided to establish a coaching clinic concept with strategic partners, that would serve as a catalyst for growth, innovation, and personal development.

–          A unique approach to empower entrepreneurs.

To create a truly meaningful impact, Impactified crafted an approach that went beyond generic advice and offered tailored solutions to entrepreneurs of all types. Whether their business generated a hundred million dollars in revenue or barely launched a new offering, the point was to make an impact on their journey.

Months were dedicated to designing unique tools that seamlessly integrated coaching methodologies with business acumen. And even more energy was invested in building ways to deliver those methodologies: in person for those who need a personal push, through courses and online materials for those who want to get going on their own, and through business coaching clinics for those who just needed an occasional push in their own environment.

The objective was clear: to help entrepreneurs break free from the daily operational grind and focus on strategic thinking, goal setting, and long-term visioning, but also team development and creative thinking.

Two business coaching clinics set in Hong Kong

During the second quarter of 2023, Impactified opened two business coaching clinics in Hong Kong, in partnership with selected and highly entrepreneur-friendly organizations.

In partnership with Blueprint, a co-working space owned by Swire, Impactified gave entrepreneurs and their teams access to a business coach in residence, one day each week. For those who need a quick brainstorming session or get stuck with a problem, what could be better than a private sounding board?

Unsurprisingly, the concept rapidly gained popularity among entrepreneurs, and soon enough, this led to the expansion of the concept into another business coaching clinic in partnership with The Executive Center, a prominent office space provider across Asia.

Why is the concept successful? Because the coaching clinic’s holistic approach allows participants to delve deep into their business challenges, uncover hidden obstacles, and explore innovative solutions. Through personalized one-on-one coaching sessions and engaging group workshops, entrepreneurs gain invaluable insights, strategies, and access to a supportive network.

Transforming Perspectives for Success

One remarkable aspect of Impactified‘s business coaching clinic lies in its ability to shift perspectives.

Entrepreneurs often enter the clinic feeling overwhelmed and trapped in the day-to-day operations of their businesses. Through targeted coaching techniques, our business coach in residence helps them shift their mindset, enabling them to see beyond immediate tasks and embrace a more strategic approach.

This transformative shift empowers entrepreneurs to envision a future where they can truly work on their business, driving growth and achieving their goals.

Nurturing Long-Term Success

Recognizing that sustainable success requires ongoing support and guidance, Impactified goes beyond providing a one-time engagement.

The business coaching clinics foster long-term relationships with entrepreneurs, ensuring continuous access to coaching resources, accountability measures, mastermind groups, and networking opportunities.

By nurturing this supportive ecosystem, Impactified enables entrepreneurs to consistently tap into a wealth of knowledge, mentorship, and inspiration throughout their business journey!

Business Coaching Clinics: Concrete Applications

“The Impactified business coaching clinic has produced remarkable outcomes, showcasing the tangible benefits entrepreneurs have experienced through their participation”, said Samuel Demarais, business coach and General Manager of Impactified in Hong Kong.

–          Networking Mastery:

Entrepreneurs who attended the Impactified networking skills workshops were able to take their networking efforts to the next level. They gained an opportunity to work with a coach who provided them with a valuable tool for framing and monitoring their network.

This allowed them to track their connections, nurture relationships, and seize new opportunities. As a result, these entrepreneurs were able to establish stronger connections, expand their professional networks, and unlock new business prospects.

–          Strategic Business Planning:

We often see business owners approach strategic business thinking and funding research with vague and impractical business plans found on the internet. Recognizing their limitations and the lack of depth of their first attempts, they however seek feedback and guidance from the coaching clinic.

Through a series of focused questions and discussions, these entrepreneurs gain clarity on essential aspects they had overlooked.

Our coaches can also introduce the Impactified proprietary business plan tool, which rapidly helps develop a robust and comprehensive plan and makes a real difference.

Armed with this new plan, business owners can then present a compelling vision and plan to potential investors and secure funding to launch a new business line.

As Antoine Martin, Impactified Co-Founder often says, “nobody cares about your business plan if all you have to offer is a bland piece of paper. What matters is to show you have a business with a plan” – this is precisely what the business coaching clinic is there to help with.

–          Team Support

Entrepreneurs don’t just work on their own, they also have teams who also benefit from business coaching sessions.

Sometimes the sessions help them solve a problem. Sometimes they help them with handling their coworkers and becoming better managers and leaders. And sometimes they help with adding a dose of creative thinking into the discussion – a precious insight that really makes a difference.

–          Holistic Support:

The Impactified business coaching clinic extend beyond business challenges and provide support for non-business issues as well.

When individuals face personal challenges, the clinic offers referrals to professionals in their extensive network, such as life coaches, accountants, lawyers, and more.

By connecting participants with these experts, Impactified ensures they receive comprehensive assistance and guidance to address various aspects of their lives.

This holistic approach acknowledges the interconnectedness of personal and professional well-being and supports entrepreneurs in achieving overall success.

Join Us!

Impactified’s journey in establishing business coaching clinics stands as a testament to their unwavering commitment to empowering entrepreneurs and small business owners.

By offering transformative business coaching experiences, the clinics help individuals to break free from operational constraints and work strategically on their businesses.

With this unique approach, Impactified is building a community of driven entrepreneurs who not only achieve their goals but also inspire others to embark on their own entrepreneurial journeys.

Our coaching clinic serve as a powerful reminder of the potential that lies within every entrepreneur and the transformative power of personalized guidance. And you, what impact do you make?

Sounds magic, right? Yet, in reality, many people have no idea about what a value proposition actually is. You would be surprised to see how many executives, entrepreneurs and independent business owners struggle with the question when we ask…

Now, does that mean that these guys have no value to offer to their clients? No, of course. Still the absence of a clear answer and narrative often sends two signals to a seasoned interlocutor.

First, no clear value proposition can be interpreted as a lack of clarity and vision – which means less business for your business. After all, if you (as a business owner) are incapable of formulating your own value proposition in extremely simple words, why should anyone trust you with their money and interests?

Second, and that is perhaps more preoccupying, no clear value proposition suggests that your strategy is missing something important. Perhaps you haven’t taken the time to clearly define who your client is. Perhaps you haven’t thought about their wants and needs in precise terms? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps…

So, what exactly is a value proposition? Why should you spend some time building one? And how to do just that? Keep reading…

What is a value proposition?

Let’s kick the definition question out of the way. In essence, a value proposition is a brief and carefully formulated articulation of what you do (as a business or as a person) and of the value that your solution provides to others.

When we say ‘articulation of what you do’, we don’t mean that a value proposition is about merely describing what you do, however. That would be descriptive at most, and often very technical.

No, the absolute keyword here really is ‘value’.

For instance? Well. How many times have you heard people introducing themselves saying “I’m a designer”, or “I’m a lawyer”, or “I work for a recruitment company”?

These descriptions of people’s activities are accurate, that’s for sure. But what do they actually tell you about the actual value that is being produced and delivered to the client? Not much. Who is the actual client, by the way? What problem does the client have? What do they want? What do they need?

“I am” vs “I create this type of value”

In short, a good value proposition helps shifting from describing who you are to telling your prospects and clients what value your solution provides and how you solve that nasty problem they don’t manage to solve.

For instance, as business coaching professionals, we could introduce ourselves as a coaching Group, but doing that would be all about hoping that the persons we talk to will be interested enough to ask what precisely we do and how we help people. So, we have thought about our offering, about our clients, about their needs… and we have looked for a way to articulate the value generated by our solutions into one, easy to remember, sentence: Business Strategy Coaching, Easy as 1, 2, 3! 

The designer example. 

In a similar way, a designer client of ours came to us with their new branding tag line: “discover, define, design”. When we asked about the meaning behind this tagline, they replied that from an operational perspective their job was to discover the clients’ expectations, define their visual identity, and design something out of it.

The tagline made sense. No doubt about that. But did it articulate a value proposition? Not really. Why? Because this tagline was, well, a cold, operational description of their work.

It didn’t suggest the value provided to the client in clear terms, and it didn’t set them apart from the competition. The reason for this was simple: discovering, defining and designing are technical tasks, which suggested that their value proposition was strictly technical, and therefore limited.

So we came up with an alternative suggestion. Essentially, the value designers provide depends on whether or not the delivery of the product creates a wow! moment for the client. That wow! moment is important because it creates an emotional click which triggers both happiness and a sense of immense value for the client.

Accordingly, we turned the initial proposition around. Discover was too technical, so we proposed to use the term ‘reveal’ instead, and we put it in the end. Ultimately, the value proposition turned from “discover, define, design” to “define, design, reveal”, which means that the focus is now on providing technical expertise first, on producing design next (that’s the deliverable) and on creating visual revelations for their clients. Can you see what difference that makes?

Why you should spend some time articulating your value proposition.

Oftentimes, we talk to entrepreneurs who tell us that a value proposition – like a vision and like a mission – is a loss of time. They have a business to run and their priority is on doing just that.

Of course, we understand, That makes sense, right? Yet, our job as business strategists is to push and challenge entrepreneurs so we keep going, and sooner or later the clicking moment happens.

So if you are still wondering why you should spend some time on defining your value proposition, here is a couple of reasons.

You are not just a designer.

One – No, you are not just a [designer, lawyer, researcher, accountant…], and no, your business is not merely to be a technical operations company. Articulating your value proposition will give you an opportunity to focus on the value your deliver as a result of your technical work. What you provide is value, so keep the technical for yourself, and use the value to communicate.

You can charge more.

Two – value is money. Remember what we said earlier when discussing the case of our designer client? Their initial tagline focused on discovering, defining and designing was purely technical. What that meant was easy: the perceived value provided was technical and therefore purely a matter of man-hour. And man-hour always seems to expensive.

By contrast, refocusing on some technical (definition), some deliverable (designs) and some wow! (reveal) made a difference. How do you put a price tag on revelation? Difficult, uh? Well, that’s the point.

You gain an opportunity to build an emotional tie with your interlocutor.

Three – having a clear value proposition helps with putting your value add directly in front of people, which means that you don’t need to try and explain / justify / hard sell what you do to people. Instead, you can focus on storytelling.

By emphasizing that a designer “reveals” instead of “discovering”, we for instance create an opportunity to create an emotional connection between the designer and his prospects.

Similarly, when we present our business as “business strategy coaching easy as 1, 2, 3!” we make our value add so simple that people immediately normally shift to asking how we do that. Best way to avoid hard-selling, isn’t it?

You get a major opportunity to think like an entrepreneur.

Four –  value proposition thinking gets you to another level. Like we wrote in another article, being an entrepreneur is not as easy as it seems. In reality, many people call themselves entrepreneurs but tend to remain technicians or managers, depending on the level of development of their business. But is an entrepreneur supposed to be a technician? Nope.

Being an entrepreneur takes place at another level – i.e. the level where you focus on building the strategy and preparing the next steps for your business.

Clearly, working on your value proposition makes part of that. It forces you to see the big picture of your business. It forces you to think strategically and, more importantly, to articulate what the core of your business and business DNA are about. In short? It brings up the entrepreneur in you. Give it a try, you’ll see…

How to build a value proposition that rocks.

Now, how can you build a value proposition that rocks? The question is very important, and if you have read the above carefully you probably have some strong elements of answer already.

Know your environment.

A strong value proposition first requires that you take some time to thoroughly map your business environment.

What is the problem that you are trying to solve? Who is already involved on the market? What is their mode of action? What is their business model and how do they operate? Are they successful?

Know their expectations.

Next, think in terms of who is affected by that problem you just identified, and consider how your solution creates value to them.

Again, here is a series of questions to start with. To what extent are they suffering because of the problem? Is their pain significant enough to justify the price you ask? What do they want? What do they need? What type of solution do you provide to them? Does the solution match the expectations?

Build an emotional link.

As per our designer’s example, building an emotional connection between the solution and the client is important. Whether the feeling is a matter or revelation, ease or “feel good”, what matters is to avoid being purely technical.

One, easy to remember, sentence.

As we mentioned earlier, you should also make sure that your value proposition is articulated around one, easy to remember, sentence. Something easy to understand, something that reflects your value immediately, and something that people can associate with you and remember.

Invest in storytelling.

Once your value proposition is articulated, move to the storytelling stage. Having your solution explained in one sentence is important (and efficient when it comes to illustrating a business card, really), but you must also be able to tell a story around that sentence.

Said differently, the value proposition is made to catch your interlocutor’s attention, but you then have to convince!

The bottom line: your business needs a strong value proposition. Period.

To sum up? Well, clearly, your business needs a strong value proposition. Know your market, know your customer, know how your solution solves a problem that creates pain and make it simple enough to fit into one sentence.

The benefits of the exercise are huge! You get the basis of your storytelling, you get a strong big picture on your business environment, and you get a robust selling argument that catches attention. What else could you want?

Impact Thinking helps with implementation.

Starting from the end, that is, not only gives you a direction. It also gives you a context that enables you to define implementation steps (i.e. we’ll have an Impact by making this and that happen) and with goals typically come the opportunity of setting milestones (this will be done by Year 1, that will be in place in Year 3, etc.) and Key Performance Indicators (that many customers, that turnover, etc.).

For instance, deciding that you will become a market leader for a given segment will help you take into account the competition and the various market barriers that you will need to manage. It will help you define precisely to which audience you need to talk to (including why, when and how) and what key opinion leaders you will need to get on board.

Perhaps more importantly, it will also force you to think about what processes need to be put into place to manage research and development, sales, marketing but also your human resource and your customer assistance tools. Ultimately, Impact Thinking thus gives you a framework for action, and your job is to be aware of it.

Impact Thinking works for business, leadership-building, academic research, and all that.

To finish this Impact Thinking 101 article, it seemed important to repeat that Impact can help from a variety of perspectives, whether you are trying to build a product or a service, seeking funds to put a research project into place or looking at developing your leadership. The reasons for that are simple.

An Impact strategy helps with storytelling

In our experience (once again), storytelling-building is usually an overly complex process – particularly when it is made from the beginning onward. How do you define what constitutes success in the next years? How do you measure what progress has been done? How do you explain precisely who will be affected?

By contrast, those who start from the Impact they want to achieve have an opportunity to think in terms of what needs to be changed, who will benefit from the change and how the change will take place.

When doing that, they tend to gain a clear(er) idea or big picture of what they are trying to put into place – which in turn gives them the basis of the storytelling they need to communicate.

The reason behind this is simple: when your work consists in solving a real problem faced by real people, your storytelling helps you to connect with your interlocutors from an emotional perspective. If people can relate to what you are trying to achieve, their interest in your efforts will increase significantly. You, in return, will gain support and traction.

An Impact strategy helps with branding and leadership

The previous point also leads to the inevitable conclusion that one who thinks in terms of Impact gains an opportunity to develop a stronger branding and a significant dose of leadership.

Having an emotional story to tell help with building a stronger brand, no need to paraphrase what we just wrote. But building a connection with people – from the user to stakeholders of various sorts and the general public – can also help you build some leadership around the project.

If your story helps with creating an emotional bond with people, they will talk about you as being inspirational – and that could make a very big difference.

An Impact strategy helps with gathering partners

Last but not least, having a story to tell and an ability to build a connection whilst being seen as a leader in your field means that you ultimately gain an opportunity to gather partners who will be willing to push your vision a few steps further.

For instance, some will simply talk about you because your message made an effect on them. But others will want to associate their brand or name with yours and will do everything they can to push your agenda as long as it serves theirs. Guy Kawasaki called these types of partners ‘evangelists’ in his book Rules for Revolutionaries, and he clearly had a point.

The bottom line: Impact can be much more than a buzzword, but it takes some serious Impact Thinking and Impact Strategy.

The bottom line of this article is that Impact can be much more than an easy buzzword that people like to use because it is trendy and sexy. Without the slightest doubt, using Impact Thinking and starting your projects from the Impact you are trying to reach has the ability to give you an edge on the competition (because most people don’t think that way), not to mention the opportunities it creates in terms of storytelling, branding, partnership-building and leadership development.

The question is, what will you do about it and how do you plan on making your business and/or leadership strategy truly Impactful? Should you need help, please get in touch – we can help!

Although there are several misleading facts and misconceptions about businesses out there—like how some people genuinely believe that business owners only want to make money—it’s no longer news that businesses are the foundations holding up the world’s economy. 

And any small business or mega-corporation that wants to succeed must rely on building great trust between its brand and its customer. And one sure way of building customer trust in your thriving business is by getting a compelling brand name – aka. the best brand name.

Build Your Business on Trust

Establishing customer-brand trust is one of the essential considerations for startup owners alongside strategic thinking and business planning.

Why? Because buyers subconsciously decide whether or not to trust your company in 90 seconds.

And although using great brand names like Amazon, Pepsi, and eBay effectively establishes trust, using an unappealing brand name like ‘Pee Cola’ and ‘WeAretheSuperlativeConspiracy’ will have long-term negative effects on your company.

Consider successful companies with appealing names like Instagram and Gucci, and you’ll see that gaining the trust your business requires to succeed is challenging without the right name for your company. 

So ensure you invest the necessary time and effort in coming up with catchy and exciting company name ideas.

What are the Benefits of Having a Great Brand Name for Your Business?

Just because you’ve produced an excellent product or service that will wow your consumers doesn’t mean you won’t need to get seriously involved in your industry, compete with other businesses, outperform them, and win the love of your target customers like Tesla.

Understand that in the corporate world, competition has always been fierce. And the reality that 17 million businesses are expected to enter the market in 2022 is a cause for concern, especially for new companies, because it implies greater competition.

And with millions of companies being launched every year, it’s no wonder that the average end-user sees between 4,000 and 10,000 advertisements each day. Not to mention that a large portion of these ads will originate from your core rivals.

So, in addition to pushing the dial when it comes to producing outstanding products and offering excellent services, your firm should leverage the power of a memorable brand name, like Twitter or Mastercard, to highlight your exceptional traits.

Here’s a rundown of what a good brand name can do for your company:

• Attract a skillful workforce to your business.
• Win the love and attention of your target audience.
• Reduce the amount of money you spend on advertising.
• Assist you in establishing a compelling brand identity.
• Form a positive connection with customers.
• Enhance the image of your company.
• Increase the income of your company.

Now that you understand why your new business requires a strong name, we’ve put together a set of five steps to help you get started with finding THE best brand name ever. But before we get into that, you need to know what traits the perfect name must-have.  

Four Characteristics of the best brand name out there

Most entrepreneurs just starting their business look for the best brand name ever are curious about what makes a name the best option for their business. If that describes you, then remember that the most crucial characteristic of an excellent brand name is that it C.A.R.Es.

To put it differently, perfect names are:

• Contextual

Perfect names are not only descriptive but also appropriate for the company they represent. The perfect name is at the center of the business, supporting and setting the tone for various vital features.

It’s not great to have a goofy brand name if you want clients to think of your company as a serious and trustworthy venture.

• Appealing

Great brand names entice customers because they stimulate their attention and make them want to share the brand with their colleagues, relatives, and friends.

Don’t be one of the companies that choose difficult names to pronounce and spell because those names are often unappealing to customers.  

• Remarkable

Excellent brand names stay in people’s minds and are much simpler to recall than basic ones. Businesses with memorable names are easier to promote and receive positive feedback from their clients.

As a result, make sure you choose the greatest brand name for your company because it will help with its growth and success.

• Evocative

The perfect name for your company will never fail to induce a strong positive reaction from your target audience. And that’s why you must ensure you pick a name that’ll help your brand stir customer appeal, provoke strong emotions in your customers, and inspire them to think positively about your brand.

Understanding the four main elements that every excellent brand name contains will provide you with a decent notion of what to go for as you develop your brand name. 

That said, here are the five approaches to creating the most memorable brand names.

Five Tips to Choosing a Catchy Name for Your Business

• Your Brand Should Have a Clear Vision

Establishing what your startup should be, achieve, and how you want people to identify with it in the future is the first step in building a strong brand identity for your firm.

Words have a lot of power. Every object in our environment has a name, and each name has a meaning as well as thoughts and ideas that we associate with it as we interact with it.

So, to effectively attract people to your firm, you must first decide what you want your startup to be recognized for. Do you want to be known for your ground-breaking ideas, fascinating products, unwavering commitment to innovation, or worldwide reach and influence?

Finding the right name will be complicated unless you have a strong understanding of what you want your company to accomplish.

After identifying the long-term goals for your firm, the next thing to do is critically assess these goals and select a few of them that best represent your startup. These ideas will form the foundation of your company’s identity.

• Establish a Brand Tone That is Both Effective and Exciting

Remember that the quality of your company’s name can only be as solid as the tone it expresses. The best brand name out there has to be aligned with who you are!

Your tone exposes your company’s actual nature. If done right, it will engage a large number of clients; if poorly done, they will turn away.

The greatest way to influence how potential customers perceive your brand is to build a distinct tone firmly linked to your company’s values.

As a result, spend as much time as you need to learn about your consumers; what they are like, what they do, and what they want, as this will help you determine if your company’s ideal tone should be:

• Emotionally impacting 
• Modern and innovative
• Prestigious 
• Practical or pragmatic 
• Intriguing 

While searching for the best tone for your business, don’t forget to analyze your competitors’ brand personality and tone because it would help you determine whether you want to follow the norms or develop a new trend in your niche. 

Brands like Apple stood out to customers because they didn’t fit in with their industry’s norms at the time. 

• Understand the Elements of Your Brand

It’s fantastic to have a distinct tone, but your search for a strong brand name doesn’t stop there; you’ll also need to determine your firm’s branding elements. Why’s this vital? For starters, these elements serve as the foundation for developing good business name ideas for starters. 

Keeping this in mind, take out a notepad and write down your company’s:

• Big ideas: What key concepts drive your brand?
• Values: Does your brand represent any values that you or your target audience hold dear?
• Story: Is there an interesting story behind your business that customers can relate to?
• Industry specifics: What principles do you stand for in your industry?
• Benefits: What unique benefits would your customers gain?
• Emotions: What feelings would you like your clients to experience?
• Value proposition: Tell us about your business in one sentence.

• Build a Project Statement

Assemble all of the details you’ve gathered about your brand so far and use them to write a thorough project statement describing the sort of name you want for your company.

Here’s an example of a project statement to get you started:

• I’m looking for a unique name for my tech business that evokes boldness, confidence, and strength. The name should be fascinating and engaging, as well as convey pleasure, freedom, and achievement. It should also evoke feelings of dignity and majesty in customers.

Your project statement is an excellent indication of the qualities that the ideal name for your company must possess.

• Organize a Brainstorming Session

Now would be the time to get out your notepad and start brainstorming new brand names that are original, unique, and intriguing. Open your dictionaries, read through your thesauruses, and scour the internet for words that are appealing, catchy, and interesting enough to fit your firm’s name requirements.

Don’t hesitate to ask family, friends, or even coworkers for help. Gathering your naming team, going over your brand’s project statement with them, and using their help to discover unique and memorable name ideas that will distinguish your organization is one of the best steps to quickly finding a memorable name.

However, don’t quit if you or your team run into a creative block. Using a great company name generator remains the best way to ignite your creativity.

Trademark Your Name With the USPTO

When you’ve tested and confirmed that your audience loves your chosen name, be sure to register the word with the USPTO. By trademarking your company’s name, you can prevent other companies from having the exact name as yours.

About the author:

Grant Polachek is the head of branding for Squadhelp.com, 3X Inc 5000 startup and disruptive naming agency. Squadhelp has reviewed more than 1 million names and curated a collection of the best available names on the web today. We are also the world’s leading crowdsource naming platform, supporting clients such as Nestle, Dell, Nuskin, and AutoNation. 

So, how to develop an entrepreneurial mindset? If the question is relevant to you, keep reading.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, though, it’s worth noting that this article is part of a series on entrepreneurial development. You’ll find a lot of information and tips on what to do (or not to do!) – if you’re interested in the subject, you have some reading to do!

Is there a typical type of entrepreneur?

Let us start with a little bit of background, first.

We, at Impactified, work with entrepreneurs on a daily basis. As entrepreneurs’ coaches, business coaches, or private advisers, we learn to know their business models. We challenge them. We support them. We give them food for thought and help them to take a critical look at their operations. And we see how their style, skills, and entrepreneurial spirit impact their performance.

In many cases, our interlocutors have a fairly similar type of profile.

They describe themselves as entrepreneurs, for starters, and they invest a lot of time and energy in developing new ideas and making their clients happy.

Some always had a conviction and went into it as fast as they could.

Others ended up running a business because an opportunity presented itself and had to be seized.

And, of course, many build their own activity to escape the good old boss and 9-5 routine.

Any pattern?

In all three situations, the daily schedules look very similar.

Managing teams is time and energy-consuming, so entrepreneurs struggle with the day-to-day management of business problems. They complain about a lack of balance between their personal and work lives. And, ultimately, they come to the conclusion that something in their business is missing.

This type of profile is in our experience very typical of what the life of a business owner looks like – before we start working with them at least. Still, the example is interesting because it helps to bring a fundamental double-sided question that most people never think about: what is an entrepreneur in the first place, and are they really entrepreneurs? Really, we mean.

Having an Entrepreneurial Mindset: A Matter of Perception

Believe it or not, the perception of what an entrepreneur should be is often very different from what entrepreneurs are like for real. From a daily routine perspective, we mean.

Entrepreneurship is a trendy word these days, and for many people, entrepreneurs are successful people who work from the place of their choosing and make a good regular income thanks to a business that works for them. But that, clearly, is the fantasy that people like to read and write about in international bestsellers.

From a much more pragmatic day-to-day perspective, being an entrepreneur is a very different thing that relates to small business management and entrepreneurial success really is a matter of organization.

Entrepreneurship tends to be a daily struggle that burns energy (and cash, so we’re clear).

It requires full-time availability and demands your permanent attention (way beyond email management, that is).

Value creation is a permanent concern.

Cash flows need to be managed, staff needs to be stimulated.

And, sooner than later everything turns into something that needs to be managed yesterday rather than tomorrow.

Not that fun, though!

In reality, the difference between the way people see successful entrepreneurs and the way their daily routine actually happens is however a matter of human psychology and awareness. That’s why we talk about the importance of building and nurturing an entrepreneurial mindset and an entrepreneurial spirit, really.

There are different types of entrepreneurs. For Real.

There are different types of entrepreneurs out there. The idea was explained particularly well in Michael Gerber’s book The E-Myth – a must-read book if you ask us. Simply put? Well, when it comes to managing the way we do business, 3 types of entrepreneurs (or perhaps should we say entrepreneurial profiles) dominate. One is the technician, another is the manager, and the last is the entrepreneur. We like to add a fourth category, i.e. that of the business leader.

The Technician Entrepreneur.

The technician wants to focus on the detail-oriented part of the business – things and particularly products need to be neat and tidy –  and wants to be left alone.

This is typically the type of entrepreneur interested in changing lifestyles, leaving their job, and ditching their boss. This also corresponds, obviously, to the type of entrepreneur who sees potential in an idea and does everything possible to make it happen. Alone, because nobody else can do it, because there is not enough money in the bank to hire staff, so forth and so on.

The Manager Entrepreneur.

The next type of entrepreneur is the manager. The manager doesn’t want to do technical work but is more process-minded and very happy to manage the technician. Yet, the manager is often stuck in a routine too because he/she doesn’t have a big enough vision of the business to actually decide on the directions it needs to take.

That tends to make the business stagnate until the manager realizes that the point is not to manage but to structure. Which gets us to the third type of entrepreneur on our list.

The Entrepreneur Entrepreneur.

Then, therefore, comes the entrepreneur type of entrepreneur (yes, exactly), who doesn’t want to manage the manager but wants to focus on setting the direction in which the business is going. The mission changes dramatically here because instead of doing or managing, it becomes a matter of building a strong vision people can relate to, and putting people on a mission to turn that vision into reality. Quite a program, don’t you think?

The Leader Entrepreneur.

The last (but definitely not the least) type of entrepreneur we like to talk about is the leader entrepreneur. Typically, this type of person is behind (or on top of) a business that runs on its own and looks for ways to get to another level of entrepreneurship.

Some do it by becoming investors, others do it by becoming promoters of their vision. The ways differ, but the idea is the same: the fourth type of entrepreneur focuses on the future.

Why that matters.

This, obviously, is where things start to get complicated. Take a minute to re-read the above and think.

How do you get things done? What do you focus most of your time on?

What is, overall, your own entrepreneurial mindset and how does it differ from the entrepreneurial mindset of others? Does it work for you? Could you do better?

You see yourself as the entrepreneur, the boss around the place. Right?

In practice, however, chances are that you are still stuck somewhere between the technician and the manager. Things need to get done, someone has to get it done, and someone needs to manage – but who better than you?

So what?

Said differently: most business owners see themselves as entrepreneurs when in reality they are blocked under a glass ceiling, doing and managing things the best way they can – without however filling the shores they ought to be filling.

Said differently again? Well, those who understand the difference between the entrepreneurs’ profiles we just described can see how to optimize their own impact and how to develop more efficient businesses. It’s as easy as that!

Shift from one type to another and your preoccupations shift too, creating a stronger dynamic for your business. All it takes a great dose of awareness, first, and a serious dose of personal and company organization to ease processes and change your operations in a way that gives you more room for leadership.

Shifting to the next level: a matter of organization (and mindset)

The point here is not to be judgmental – as mentioned before, following and helping different kinds of entrepreneurs is our mission and we know better.

No, the point is first to help you with creating an entrepreneurial mindset that really works for you. It is, also, to help you realize that the reason why your business is probably not delivering the way you think it should depend on your ability to realize that you, for one reason or another, match one of these entrepreneur types. Perhaps even a combination of two, but perhaps not the third yet. The entrepreneurial journey is a progression, isn’t it?

Once you realize that, things can really begin. Does being a technician hold your business back? React. Are you too much of a manager and not enough of a visionary and strategist? React! In both cases, becoming an entrepreneur will become a matter of thinking differently (that’s important) and a matter of organization.

So, what type of entrepreneur are you?

Now, let’s come up with a clearer mindset definition – it will give you ideas on how you can start to improve your entrepreneurial life. Action plans need to be built on a case-by-case basis, to be fair, so there is no secret or magical recipe – except for trial and error of course. What we can do, however, is ask some general questions that you can use to try and build your big picture.

1. Do you spend time on the technical bits, whether daily or on a weekly basis?
2. Would you work less if your business was organized differently?
3. Do you ever wonder if the business could be managed without you?
4. Could you work more on future orientation definition?
5. Is organization a challenge at all?
6. Do you see room for improving your leadership methods?
7. Could your entrepreneur mindset be different?

If you have answered “yes” to one of these questions, chances are that you have great potential! The question is, how to develop and entrepreneurial mindset, build it or cultivate it?

Think about the various types of entrepreneurial mindsets out there and pick one that works for you. Define what is your definition of entrepreneurial mindset (and what isn’t). Work on your entrepreneur’s profile and things will get into place. Don’t stay on your own, ask for help and assess your situation. Things can only get better, all it takes is a decision to act…

One last thing…

One last thing before we let you go. A very efficient possibility to make a difference and improve the way you run your business is to start working on your business, not just into it… Stay tuned for more on this topic soon!

If you are reading this page, chances are that you must be looking for a sewing and tailoring business plan template. You probably know all about tailoring already (right?), but something is missing from your equation.

You’re not clear with what boxes you’re supposed to tick, not too sure about the format you’re supposed to use either. In short? You’re in a grey area, and guess what? We’re not surprised.

Truth be told, we – at Impactified – don’t run a tailoring business and we can’t tell you how to become a tailor. BUT, we are entrepreneurs on a mission to help other entrepreneurs and we know how to write a business plan. So we’re happy to share the fun.

As far as business plan writing is concerned, high-caliber tailor shops and sewing alterations business owners all have to abide by the same rules as other businesses. And that means that we can help.

Between you and us, the reality is that something close to five hundred people look for this exact term on Google every month, so you are not alone. Far from it…

The question everyone is wondering about, however, is how to make sewing and tailoring a fancy business for people to invest in. So, in this article, we’re going to try and answer some of your questions, and we’ll also provide you with a very detailed business plan template we’ve written to help you get yourself sorted.

Shameless plug: no, we can’t write your business plan for you, but since we keep receiving requests we developed a specific module (we called it The Business Plan Builder) designed to make your life super easy. It includes templates, a “how to” framework, designer-made decks and a couple of hours of videos – you have no excuse, really.

You should already be insanely turned on by now, but if that’s not the case, that’s okay – just keep reading.

Before getting to the “give me a business plan sample” stage, though, we’d like to provide some background information and food for thought on what business plans are about, and on how you could leverage the exercise.

Yes, at the end of the day, a tailoring business plan could help you with securing a bank business loan, but there’s a lot more to it. For instance, those who ask us how to write a good business plan would very often look for a way to talk to investors, or to reach new partners for their business – tailor or not!

More interesting, however, is the usually forgotten idea that the purpose of a business plan is to make you think about your business in a big picture mode.

In doing so, you not only gain a chance to pitch better, but you also have a major opportunity to think about your business much much much (yes, yes, yes) deeper than ever.

The purpose of a business plan.

Before we get to the question of how to actually write a sewing and tailoring business plan, we’d like to point out that two questions keep coming again and again. One relates to the purpose of a business plan, the other to its ideal formatting. Let us first focus on the former.

The purpose of a business plan is to present your tailoring business in a bankable manner.

To put things very simply, the purpose of a business plan is to present your tailoring shop business plan in a bankable and funder-friendly manner.

Something like that!

Usually, the idea you have in mind is to show the plan to a banker (in order to secure a business bank loan) or to an investor (to secure the capital you can use to develop the business).

The key, however, is to realize that bankers and investors are two very different types of beasts.

Both can bite (be careful), but they think very differently because their own goals are different from one another.

On the one hand, bankers lend money to entrepreneurs and business owners, which by definition means that they intend to get it back within a reasonable amount of time.

On the other, investors invest money on entrepreneurs to bet on their success and hope to obtain a return on their investment within a few years.

Said differently, one wants to be repaid asap whereas the other invests to get a lot more than a repay, later. Can you see the difference in terms of mindset and approach?

What that means is simple: you need to adapt your tailoring business plan to your audience.

If your objective is to secure a loan for your clothes tailoring business, your plan must show that you will be able to repay the debt. Not maybe. Not perhaps. Not if everything goes well. With certainty, at regular intervals, so forth, and so on.

If your objective is to secure an investment, however, then you must demonstrate that there is a potential for profit behind your business proposal. Profit won’t be there right now, it’ll take a few years. But when everything happens as you think it will happen, then there will be a significant return on investment for both sides – yours, and theirs!

The purpose of a business plan is (more importantly) to show that you have a business with a plan – hmmm.

Even more importantly, your tailoring business plan must show that you have a well-considered and sound plan to turn your tailor shop into a better business.

We know, that’s powerful, but bear with us. What we just wrote sounds dull but it really isn’t. In fact, it’s fundamental.

If there’s one thing you want to remember from this article, it’s this one: a business with a plan is worth a lot more than a business plan without a business.

Look – a business plan is nothing but a .pdf document or pitch deck you show to people to try and get what you want. And that tailoring business plan pitch deck of yours has no value whatsoever unless it actually comes with a real dose of strategic thinking as to how you will get your tailoring business to a significant next step. For real!

This implies a few things.

One, you must demonstrate that you carefully considered the big picture of your business. You have analyzed the market. You know your customer, and you are actually able to answer a demand. You have a competitive advantage compared to others. So forth and so on.

Are you an industrial sewing company or a local shop with a local clientele?

What makes you “you”?

What makes you unique for people?

Two, you must demonstrate that you asked yourself the right questions and that you are aware of your own limitations.

Typically, an entrepreneur or shop owner who presents themselves as an invincible superhero who has all the answers to everything will not tick all the boxes. In fact, they’ll sound ridiculous.

Doesn’t look too serious, does it?

If your primary job is to be a tailor, nobody will expect you to have an answer for anything business-wise so sometimes your best bet is to openly admit that you have clearly identified limitations – and a plan to tackle the problem you’re facing. That’s a smart move because you will then be perceived as being a lot more responsible than someone who sees them as an invincible superhero.

Some find this logic a bit counter-intuitive because we are often educated with the idea that we must be the best at everything. But in reality, what matters is your ability to manage risk, hence honesty with yourself and with the funders is key.

To that extent, showing that you have an actual plan – beyond the paper or tailoring business plan pdf you’ve nicely designed – can be a matter of providing an explanation of whatever partnerships you have in mind.

It could also be an explanation of how your business model, cost structure and go-to-market strategy will make your tailoring business a better business.

The purpose of your sewing and tailoring business plan is to make your program logical and sensible. Period!

So your plan is what matters, right? Well, here’s what it means!

Clearly, you need to show them what funding you need, whether to get things started, to get them going, or to get them to the next level. In each case, explain why you’ll be more than fine, and give them a feeling that you are the right person to give the money to.

You should be clear with the typical requirements for a tailoring shop, so be sharp on that side of things (obviously)

More importantly, go the extra mile and show that, beyond knowing how to do the job, you will be able to manage whatever comes next – including the BS and all the trouble you haven’t thought about yet! If reading the tailor’s guide on how to start a tailoring shop was enough, everybody would do that, right?

In short, you really want to show some context and demonstrate that you are the tailor shop to fund in town (did you notice the italic there?).

For instance, show that you have the necessary training, that you know about sewing and fashion design, and show that you have the right experience to not just make your job as a tailor, but also to run the sewing business like a business.

Like an entrepreneur would, we mean.

Explain how “location, location, location” will influence your shop.

Show that the population around your shop has enough means to think “oh, I need a tailor!“.

Show that the equipment you need is the right one and that the customer will have a great experience that’ll make them want to come back.

Why? Because returning customers are a source of recurring income, and that makes a big difference for a finance reader.

Last but not least, don’t forget to talk about you (why you are the best at it) and about your needs in terms of needs. Who do you need to hire? Why? For what type of return on investment? So forth and so on!

Remember, writing a sewing and tailoring business plan goes far beyond just finding a business plan template. It really is a matter of building a story around your shop, and about making sure that people will want to buy in.

In short, the purpose of your sewing and tailoring business plan is to:

1. present your tailoring business in a bankable manner
2. show that you have a business with a plan
3. make your program logical and sensible

Formatting your tailoring business plan.

All right! You’re still there? You’re awesome.

The second big point we wanted to talk about in this article relates to another question we keep having again and again (and again, and again…) relates to formatting. We all wonder about the ideal business plan format sooner or later, and the good news there is that the answer is rather simple.

Your tailoring business plan must be brief, and it must follow a specific code.

We’re exploring the topic of the ideal business plan outline and format in a dedicated article, but to give you the long story short: make it brief, follow the code and tell a story. That’s it.

Make it brief.

Making your business plan a brief one is always a good idea. In fact, not following that rule will get you into trouble.

At the end of the day, whoever is going to have a look at your tailoring business proposal probably has a lot on their plate already, hence anything too long will send your file straight at the bottom of the pile.

Follow the code.

Ultimately, writing a business plan is a matter of understanding a code and applying it scrupulously.

As explained in our “how to write a business plan” guide (keep reading, it’s coming) and in our Business Plan Builder Module, the secret is to fit everything into seven to eight pages – plus the financial tables that will come on top of that.

Those pages must be sharp and spot-on. They must focus on very specific topics organized in a precise way: an executive summary, a big picture presentation, an explanation of the problem (to suggest the existence of a market), followed by a description of the offer. Then the go-to-market strategy, the financial estimates, so forth, and so on.

Tell a story.

Beyond the structure, the point here is that this logical order gives you a chance to tell a great story about your business.

Why would you bother with that? Hmmm, think about it.

So?

Okay.

First reason: people hate reading boring stuff but they love stories. If your business plan looks like a long, boring, dull document written in black on a white sheet of paper on a pile of white-colored paper, then you’re out. Instead, writing your tailoring and sewing business plan as a story that gets people on a journey will make a difference.

Second reason: people want to buy but they hate being sold stuff. Your readers will want to put money in your business if they like your story, not just because you ask for money.

Now of course the difficulty is to turn your business plan into a story, but if you follow the framework we just gave you, whatever you produce should be logical and easy to read. This is precisely what the code is about.

How to format your tailoring business plan:

1. Make it brief
2. Follow the content code (as explained)
3. Turn the plan into a story

Saving your tailoring shop business plan from typical mistakes.

Now, beware of the traps. Your sewing and tailoring business plan must follow the code we just mentioned, but there are also some typical mistakes you absolutely want to avoid.

Don’t be your own reader.

One typical mistake made by many entrepreneurs relates to the fact that you cannot afford not to have an external reader.

Many entrepreneurs read their own business plan again and again until they are happy with it, then they submit the document pdf to whoever they have in mind. And they get it wrong, because they wrote the plan for themselves, not for a reader who doesn’t know the business yet.

The issue is, things that make sense to you won’t necessarily make sense to others. As the entrepreneur in charge, your job is to make sure that anyone would understand what you are trying to do, and that anyone can see that your plan to get there makes sense.

So, don’t be your own reader. Ask someone to read the business plan you just wrote, and ask them to provide harsh criticism, then adjust.

Can they understand what you have in mind? Say, your marketing strategy for instance? Can they see how to improve tailoring business of yours over the next five years? Does the plan actually give them any tailoring business ideas that they might share with you?

If yes, go on, if not, revise. That’s the only way!

Don’t be over-optimistic.

More often than not, entrepreneurs are very optimistic about their numbers.

Too optimistic, though.

Your job here is to explain your cost structure (what are your typical tailoring expenses and financial needs, what are the cash flow previsions for your small business, etc.), your new business model (if any), and what additional costs you plan on making to keep growing.

Do you need to invest in new sewing machines? In new people? In more social media advertising? Are there any other tailoring service providers out there capable of threatening your development?

Did you factor the cost of real estate expenses in the overall plan?

Did you do any market research at all? Is your target market big enough to make those investments sustainable and profitable? Within how much time will the marketing plan produce its first effects? How many suits do you need to sell to cover those expenses?

The idea here is to think in terms of tangible responses that people can understand and relate to. For instance, if selling 10 suits is enough to cover a marketing campaign for your store, then say it!

The point, however, is not to go for the moon. So, don’t be too conservative, find a happy medium between conservative and optimistic. And, of course, be ready to defend your numbers.

In case you were just wondering how to manage the numbers part of your tailoring business plan, the good news is that the Business Plan Builder will help you get those numbers going. Give it a look and go for it, you’ll see.

Act before your tailoring business needs money.

Another mistake entrepreneurs typically make is to wait until it’s too late. Total fail! They start working on their business plan when things get a bit tight, but by doing so they have to face a degree of emergency that blocks their perspective.

So, don’t work on a tailoring business plan because you need the money right now, but invest some time to do that ahead of time.

One, this will give you an amazing chance to think about the big picture, and this will give you great ways to see your business differently.

Two, having a tailoring business plan ready could be a way to actually look for money when you don’t need it. Technically, that would make you even more desirable because people love investing money in people who don’t need any money.

It makes sense if you think about it.

Don’t forget what they want.

The previous point gets me to this one: don’t forget what your interlocutors want. If you are talking to bankers, show them that funding your business is safe and that you will be able to repay the business loan in due time, according to the time schedule agreed upon.

If you are looking for someone willing to invest in your tailor shop, however, make them see what’s in it for them down the road. What will be their return on investment? When will you make money for them?

In both cases, show that there is a product-market fit. Show that the competition is healthy and that you have a distinguishing characteristic that makes you unique. Show that you have a sound financial plan to get there. So forth and so on.

4 typical business plan mistakes to avoid:

1. Don’t be your own reader.
2. Don’t be overly optimistic
3. Act before your tailoring business actually needs money
4. Don’t forget what the reader wants

Write your tailoring business plan, easy as 1, 2, 3!

As we mentioned in the introduction, the point of this article wasn’t to show you how to write a business plan per se, but to give you some food for thought as to why writing a tailoring business plan could help your business in ways you didn’t consider.

Now if you’re wondering how to move on with writing yours, here’s a couple of ideas.

Think outside your box & get yourself challenged.

First, If you need a hand to brainstorm about your business, our online business coaches will be happy to assist. Let’s be very clear – they won’t write the business plan for you, but they’ll make you think outside your box, and they’ll put you on track.

[block id=”5106″ title=”book an online coach”]

Leverage the power of the Business Plan Builder.

Having said that, the other option is to get your own tailoring business plan done by yourself – which actually is a good idea for two reasons.

One, it’ll save you thousands of dollars compared to having someone else doing it for you.

And two, you won’t take the risk of looking stupid (ouchies, right?) when someone grills you and you have no idea what the heck they’re talking about.

Now no need to worry – as we said earlier, we can help.

To begin with, our free business plan template guide was written to help you write a tailoring shop business plan that makes more sense than ever. Again, we know, we’re not tailors ourselves, but a business plan is all about structuring so just use the method and add your own spicing. You’ll be just fine, really!

Even better (no kiddin’ bro!) The Business Plan Builder was designed to make your life a lot easier.

• The Module contains two hours of videos (by a business coach) that’ll tell you everything you need to know and do to make your business plan convincing.
• It also contains a real and life-changing business plan work-frame. We tell you what to think about, in what order, and how to write it down. No need to spend hours wondering what on earth you need to write…
• We also provide you with automated financial tables. Not only will you have the tables ready to go (and print), but you’ll also be able to understand the whole process, and to build a financial strategy that makes sense (especially for you!).
• And of course, we provide you with two designer-made templates that you’ll be able to turn your writing into something people will want to read for real.

All that is available at a reduced price for a limited amount of time, so act now before the price goes up again. The module will pay for itself in no time, at that price you really have no excuse.

Somehow, though, the topic is now becoming more important than ever, with a twist. While the topic used to be a question of working less to enjoy life more (as we just said), pandemic developments and the closure of frontiers everywhere across the globe have pushed people to rethink the notion of “life”, with new lights being shed on the definition of what really matters.

Some have started to give a lot more importance to family. Others miss the possibilities of traveling and discovering the world. And countless people are now wondering how to use Visio conference and home-working tools to fully redesign the way they are working and living altogether.

Having said that, if the question of work and life balance has never been more important, what strikes us is also the increasing need for structuration and self-reflection that we – humble business coaches and life coaches – witness around us.

Entrepreneurs are tired of working so much to scale and rocket their businesses and want to enjoy their lives more. Yet, most never do anything to think big picture and strategic thinking instead of routine and painful emergency control.

Corporate executives want to see better days ahead, yet only a minority start positioning themselves as the new leaders in their organizations and industries. As for the entrepreneur’s example, they stick with what they know and ignore the opportunities they could have access to if only they started thinking differently.

And, more generally, people hope to find ways to rethink their life and make the most of it, without however doing much to regain control and make things happen in a way that makes sense to them.

Think about it though. What would it take for you to start thinking about building your own business karma for a change, or your personal life karma? What if adopting a different mindset made a huge difference and a massive impact on your work and personal life? What if deciding to coach yourself got you to your next, next, next level?

As business coaches, executive coaches, and life coaches, we know how powerful one’s decision of coaching themselves can be (there’s a reason why Impactified is all about the “Coach Yourself & Thrive” moto) so we’ve decided to give you some food for thought – 5 reasons, in fact – as to why you should coach yourself sooner than later.

Coach Yourself: definition

Before we dig into the reasons, it seems important to explain what we mean by “coach yourself” though.

If you’ve looked around, you’ve probably seen that, at Impactified, we provide coaching through two main channels: coaching services, and self-coaching modules you can use without a coach.

Shameless plug, by the way.

Now, beyond the fact that both options are about giving our clients access to coaching, the big idea here is to say that the starting point is always for a client to want and make the decision to coach themselves.

If they don’t want to challenge themselves and create a change in their life, then there can be no evolution and no coaching. But, if they decide to act for themselves, then a new range of opportunities appear.

To that extent, “coach yourself” means that while there are tons of opportunities out there, the decision to act is on YOU.

A rather direct and provocative coach would summarize the “Coach Yourself” expression by saying that you need to pull your own fingers out, really. But we’re the polite type and we don’t want to be too aggressive here, so we’ll simply say that coaching yourself is all about (i) deciding to act for yourself, and (ii) sticking with that decision to make things happen.

Making the decision to coach yourself to get your own life and projects to their next levels can be a matter of relying on a coach to challenge your thoughts and boost your thinking.

It can also be a matter of deciding to take things into your own hand, in which case you’ll have to open your mind and learn new concepts by yourself, whether by reading books (and applying the insights!) or by relying on self-coaching modules designed to give you access to the ideas and tools you’ll need to challenge yourself.

Either way, coaching yourself is a matter of deciding to create a change, and to make that change happen. And there are 5 good reasons to start doing that NOW.

5 reasons to start coaching yourself

1. Start thinking outside of your own box (for good)
2. Stop complaining & regain control over your personal life
3. Stop struggling & empower your entrepreneurial journey
4. Turn your corporate job into your dream job
5. Write a build a future that matches your dreams

Coach yourself to start thinking outside of your own box

From a pure ‘benefits’ angle, coaching yourself is a very efficient way to bring a different perspective into your life. Different perspectives, even.

Like it or not, but people think with a very limited viewpoint – their own viewpoint. They don’t just think in a box, they think in their own box, with their own perceptions, their own biases, their own blind spots, and their own limiting beliefs.

Our perceptions are essential, but they are also very limited and depend on who we are, so they are not sufficient to give us a big picture of whatever surrounds us.

That’s because we are who we are, and that creates a bias that influences everything we hear, see and think – and I’m not even talking about the blinding impact of blind spots on our internal thinking process.

Limiting beliefs are another factor that seriously constrains the size of the box we’re in because unlike the empowering beliefs that drive us and boost us, they make us think that the possible is impossible and that we can’t dream as big as we should.

Sounds silly? I agree!

Still, think about it for a minute, when was the last time you managed NOT to do something that was important to you, just because you were tired, didn’t get the guts to try, or thought that the thing was impossible or unworthy anyway?

Think deeper. What blocked you, if not yourself?

Hmm.

Long story short? It’s in your head, and those who decide to look in different directions, talk to people with a different prism on life and accept to be challenged by others tend to have a much broader perspective than those who don’t.

Beyond thinking outside the box, the point is to figure out what your own box is, and to start thinking outside of that very specific box.

The potential is huge, because depending on your expectations and wanted results, deciding to coach yourself will give you many ways to develop your own thinking and skills.

Stop complaining & regain control over your personal life

Now, it goes without saying, but there are lots of ways to get yourself challenged: think books and materials of all sorts, think circles and communities, and of course, think coaching and self-coaching courses.

In fact, for those who managed to create a difference for themselves, the feeling is usually that deciding to coach themselves was the best way ever to gain (or regain) control over their own, personal life.

That makes sense because being challenged by new ideas typically brings new perspectives and opens your eyes to plenty of things – that’s the whole point.

Even better? They also tend to dramatically change your mindsets, and that typically happens when your own limiting beliefs are busted.

In the end, new perspectives create new mindsets, and both work to complement each other. A new perspective gives you a new way to see things and think, while a new mindset gives you a different way to decide, act and behave.

For instance…

Would you like an example? Okay, done!

A fundamental principle when it comes to life coaching and business coaching is that of taking responsibility (and there’s a good reason for that).

Except that there is a trap, because taking responsibility is not what people think.

Typically, people see the idea of taking responsibility for whatever happens as a matter of guilt and fault. So, when you ask them what responsibility they take into a given situation, they naturally respond that whatever happened wasn’t their fault, so there is no responsibility to take.

Rings a bell, doesn’t it?

Yes, it does ring a bell. But does it make any sense?

Nope. Makes no sense.

Why? Because the concept of taking responsibility is not about looking for fault. Or guilt.

It is all about realizing that while some things are out of our control and don’t deserve our energy, some other things can be influenced by our actions and should therefore be what we focus on.

Here is another example – think about your tyrannic boss (or mother-in-law, if the boss example doesn’t apply).

If I know that the boss will ultimately decide in a way that makes no sense because he is stuck with blinders, then I can either whine and complain …

Or I can choose to focus on what I can control and influence.

Instead of saying that work sucks and whining about it, I can decide to accept that the boss is the way he is, and I can choose to either focus on another project, or decide to make a compelling case that my method is the best to whoever is close to the boss and has the ability to convince him that my method should be applied.

And if nothing works? Well, then I can’t control the way that company works but I can still control where I work, so I can make my own decisions freely and stop being frustrated.

And you know what? This is precisely what coaching yourself is about. Decision to act, decision to move ahead, you name it, but decision to decide for sure.

By coaching myself and learning self-development tricks and methods, I can get rid of most frustrations out there and focus my energy on things that make sense to me, instead of permanently being the victim who complains about having no control over my environment.

Realizing that absolutely changed my life at a time where I was stuck in a heavy institution where nothing moved (except backward), and my mindset changed for the better as a result of that. The same will happen to you, the only thing you have to do is coach yourself, take responsibility, and decide to act.

Long story short: to get your mindset to its next level, coach yourself, and if you need a push to make that happen, our life coaches will make a difference in your life.

Stop struggling & empower your entrepreneurial journey

Now, hang on a minute, I’m not done with you! Coaching yourself gives you a way to regain control over your life, but there’s more: it’s also a great way to regain control over your business life.

As far as your business life is concerned, there are two dimensions to take into account: the first relates to entrepreneurial journeys and getting your own business to its next level, the other relates to your professional life as an employee or corporate executive.

But first, let’s regain control over your entrepreneurial life, uh?

Being an entrepreneur is a challenge of everyday, and we – at Impactified – have developed a real expertise when it comes to coaching entrepreneurs on a daily basis.

Beyond the shameless plug, the point here is to say that coaching yourself is a great way to boost your business, because it gives you a way to learn new entrepreneurship skills whilst putting every chance on your side to become an entrepreneur who succeeds.

If you consider that most entrepreneurs keep doing the same, typical, silly mistakes and that those mistakes kill their earning potential (more on that next), then why wouldn’t you coach yourself to get to the next level?

Look, it’s simple! Entrepreneurs keep working INTO their business instead of looking at the big picture and planning their development, so they keep doing fire control and emergency management.

What’s the result? Well, simple! They have no time for private life matters, they feel frustrated because the business is only trouble, they feel frustrated because the money isn’t worth the time invested, bla bla bla… and it’s totally on them!

But wait, though. There is more!

Mindsets are always underestimated and should also be brought into the discussion!

For the entrepreneurs who struggle, organization is usually a weak point, automation is usually rather inexistant, leadership is seen as optional while visions, missions, values and brand DNA are often left to the side because they don’t pay the bills immediately.

Yet, there are tons to do if you want to get your business to work for you rather than the other way around, starting with making a SWOT Analysis to know precisely where you stand, working on your mindset to see things from a different angle, setting some goals and priorities to get things back into focus, and following on those goals and priorities to get results.

I’m not even mentioning things like building automation so your business can work a lot more without you, and working on your ideal client to sharpen your marketing approach, so forth, and so on…

If what I’m saying rings a bell, then you more than anyone should think about doing something for yourself!

We have you covered with a FREE video module that covers the typical mistakes that kill an entrepreneur’s earning potential (you really have no excuse, go for it!). And support is also available through our Impactified business coaches or through our digital self-coaching modules designed for entrepreneurs.

It all depends on your needs and means, really, but beyond the material aspects, my point here is to make you realize that coaching yourself for business is, as I keep saying, a question of deciding to do something for yourself and your business. It’s totally on you, so just do something about it!

6 ways to coach yourself as a business owner

If you are wondering where to start, here is a list of six things you can start doing now to coach yourself and regain control over your business and entrepreneurial journey:

1. Start with assessing where you stand: is your business working for you?
2. Decide whether your workload matches your dream life expectations
3. Start working ON your business for good
4. Look at your business from a SWOT angle
5. Think about the typical mistakes entrepreneurs make: ringing any bell?
6. Define if your business organization is serving you: what can you change?

Turn your corporate job into your dream job

The second dimension to look at when speaking of coaching yourself to get back control over the business part of your life relates to your busy executive routine.

There, the challenges can be somehow similar, let’s say if your target is to get more time for yourself and work less.

Still, there can be a lot to do if your goal is to climb the ladder one way or another.

Coaching yourself will definitely be a question of taking responsibility and focusing on things you can influence, which is where your imagination becomes the only limit.

For instance, you could work on developing your organizational leadership in managing corporate teams (instead of just relying on the authority you don’t have anyway, right?).

You could decide what goals you want to set for yourself and for your team, instead of complaining that the goals given by the boss are way too vague and mean nothing. That would also give you a way to define what counts as a priority and what doesn’t, by the way (just saying).

You could also look into a particular conflict and, instead of being stubborn, decide to listen and adapt so both parties can come out of the issue with a win-win solution.

As with the previous parts, therefore, the stake, if you want to regain control over your executive career and life, is to stop being the victim nobody understands, to decide to do something for yourself, and to act upon your decision so it goes a lot further than wishful thinking.

And no, I won’t ask if that makes sense because you know it does…

4 ways to coach yourself as a corporate executive

1. Start with assessing where you stand: is your career working for you?
2. Decide whether your workload matches your dream life expectations
3. Wonder if your career path going where you want it to go?
4. Decide what’s missing in your professional life: what can you do about it?

Coach yourself to write your future (and build it!)

If you’ve read the article so far, you’ve probably noticed that the various points I’ve been making all have something in common: coaching yourself gives you a major opportunity to write your future and build it so that it becomes what you have in mind, provided of course that you decide to do something for yourself first.

Sounds B.S? Maybe, but what other solutions have you managed to leverage so far, that give you some control back on your life while giving you a chance to turn your personal life and professional life into something that matches YOUR expectations and serves YOUR needs?

In fact, give it a try and start right now. Look back on the past few months:

• Is your private life looking the way you want it to look?
• Is your business working for you, or do you keep making insane hours that leave you no time to live your life?
• Is your corporate career looking the way it should?

Next, think about your personal goals:

• Have you defined any?
• How are you doing as far as these goals are concerned?
• What do you mean you don’t have any goals to play with?

Wrapping up: Coaching yourself is all about deciding to make a difference for yourself

To wrap things up, the key point in this article is that coaching yourself is all about deciding to make a difference for yourself to stop being a victim who only complains about how unfair their environment is.

And if you are not willing to do that, then your next step will probably be to realize (and acknowledge if you can) that you are willingly deciding not to do anything for yourself. And then move on.

That difference can be made with the support of a coach, it goes without saying, but you can also make a lot happen just on your own, by working on yourself, on your life goals, and on the way your business life serves your life goals using the self-coaching tools we are putting at your disposal.

The next step is yours to define, keep us posted!

Rainbow Hui: I am the Founder of the  Jia Family Office, and I am on a mission to make the life of High-Net-Worth families with a global vision and mentality a lot easier.

I was born in Mainland China and raised in Hong Kong, but I also spent a lot of time abroad so I have an Asian heart with a western mindset – that gives me a unique perspective when it comes to Asian families’ cross-border needs and cross-cultural expectations, and to building wealth transmission peace of mind for our clients.

Please tell us more about Jia Family Office. Where are you based? How do you operate? How about your team?

Rainbow Hui: We are based in Hong Kong, with teams in China (Nanjing and Shanghai), the United States (California), the UK, and Australia where we are just getting started.

The core team – including myself – comes from a very strong insurance background, because insurance is all about peace of mind and this is what we are good at creating. The global team members rather come from niche expert fields, such as immigration law and services, patrimony-focused lawyers, so forth, and so on.

Let’s talk big picture. What problem does Jia Family Office solve out there?

Rainbow Hui: Jia@Family Office focuses on creating asset transmission peace of mind for High-Net-Worth families with global ambitions.

In plain English, we don’t focus on typical wealth management services like every other family office out there – we focus on making sure those families will be able to make the most of their wealth whenever they need it, whether that’s ten years from now when the young generation goes to school, or later on when that generation needs to pass things on to their own children.

The entrepreneurs and the families we work with are busy with successful businesses and empires behind them, but their personal and family lives tend to be less secured than their business assets. So, that is where we step in.

For instance, having a vision for your business is important and a typical must-have, but nobody thinks about building family visions and arrangements for the future and that creates problems later on.

Does the family want to stay local or international? How does that work from an immigration perspective? How to secure assets in robust legal structures so that they can be relied upon later on? How to transmit family assets to the next generation when needed? And of course, how to maintain family synergies as time passes and family branches spread?

What solution do you bring, then?

Rainbow Hui: Jia@Family Office provides family clients with a range of solutions designed to solve all the complexities related to asset transmission, but we do it with a family feel. Typically, our clients could go to their lawyer directly, pay for the paperwork and be done. They however come to us, because we know them, we know their family, and we are the human link between them and whatever technical expert they need to do what they need to do.

For instance, we work a lot on mindset development and education with regards to succession planning, because that kind of planning is not just a matter of legal contract. It requires a family culture and that culture has to be cohesive, while being open enough to bring the different members together durably. We typically arrange that type of thing, with highly private workshops, coaching and get-togethers tailored for each family.

Tax planning is also a topic we get involved with because large families – especially in Mainland China and Asia – tend to have more than one nationality and passport. We understand that, so we work on planning and optimizing taxation with very astute immigration planners capable of explaining rules and guidelines to families who depend on information to expand and make their next moves.

Last but not least, we provide very innovative Second Generation Trainings designed to make families think about how they will pass traditions and wealth to next generations. Every generation has to step down sooner or later, so we do our best to make that transition efficient and smooth. Part of the discussion happens with the former generation, the goal being to pass on. Of course, the discussion also needs to involve the next generation, and the stake there is to identify their own priorities and values so that things can shift peacefully.

Market-wise, what makes Jia Family Office different from the competition?

Rainbow Hui: The Jia Family Office is a very unique solution for High-Net-Worth families in Asia, because traditionally family offices have exclusively focused on wealth management and financial management. While we call ourselves a family office, we are more interested in the Family side than in the financial office side, and we focus on making their lives easier by connecting them with the right cross-border environment.

We are also very proud to be leading experts when it comes to cultural and mentality management, from East to West. There is no other option these days, the new generations are open to the world and it is our mission to guide them there. So much more than a family office!

Can you illustrate this with an example of how Jia Family Office made an Impact on a client?

Rainbow Hui: An entrepreneur once came to us looking for some help, not because of his business, not because of his investment needs, not because of tax issues and not about succession planning matters – but because he worried about passing everything on to his children in a smooth way.

He never had much advice on career and entrepreneurship, but his son came to him asking for help about university choice, living abroad, and becoming a global citizen. Being a Chinese businessman with limited global experience, he had no real tips to offer but he knew he needed to support his son so we supported him with international cultural management and career coaching, but also with guidance on global university choices and family asset allocation down the road. That made a difference no typical family office was able to make.

What stage of development have you reached? What can you tell us about the next steps? Anything exciting?

Rainbow Hui: Our core team originates from the insurance industry so we had to come up with a solid model capable of offering peace of mind for high-Net-Worth clients. Our model creates traction with clients but also with insurance companies and other family offices, who interestingly come to us because we are complementary rather than competitors. We share the name, but the offering varies and that makes us grow!

We are currently based in Hong Kong, but we progressively open representative offices around the world, mostly where the Mainland Chinese families live and spend their time. We are in Europe and North America already, Australia is being opened now, the Middle East could be next.

Let’s talk about entrepreneurship. Looking back, what was the most obvious challenge you had to overcome when you started that business?

Rainbow Hui: When I look back to three years ago, everything looked difficult, to be honest with you. I was successful in the insurance industry but wanted to develop a new model to answer needs from my clients that no insurance broker was providing, but I wasn’t sure about where to start. Positioning was difficult, business planning looked impossible, values definition and brand DNA were out of my comfort zone – everything needed to be created from scratch.

Beyond the business model challenge, I also had to think about building a team – which meant finding the right people but also developing a message and a pitch people would relate to and find attractive. I’m not even talking about the challenge of training those people in parallel to building the rest…

And the least obvious?

Rainbow Hui: The least obvious challenge was self-confidence and the impostor syndrome. Jia was a very unique model and I was trying to create change, so at the very beginning I was very worried about not being good enough to get the job done. Also, I was an insurance broker so I always had the support of a large organization behind me, so I also had to figure out how to start doing everything on my own and that was extremely challenging.

I mostly dealt with these fears by surrounding myself with people who managed to make me solve problem after problem. I started with an entrepreneur friend of mine who pushed me to try and dare, then I worked with business coaches (Philippe Bonnet & Antoine Martin) to create a challenging and supporting work environment around me. They guided me through my vision and mission statements, we created a business model and we defined the Jia core values with the team (after hiring the team).

All these experiences gave me an important reminder in life: don’t just lay on your bed dreaming, make it happen by doing instead of thinking. That’s very much aligned with a very classic story in Chinese literature that most kids know: Journey to the West, published in the 16th century and which tells the story of a Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk (Tang Sanzang) who had to travel to the western regions to obtain Buddhist sacred tests. He couldn’t achieve his vocation just by dreaming but had to step out of his comfort zone. I strongly believe in that mindset.

What does it take to be a business owner or an entrepreneur these days?

Rainbow Hui: Oh. Being a business owner is not a very funny thing because you are the owner of your own business and you don’t have any excuse like an employee. You need to think permanently about whether or not you have enough money to pay your staff and invest, you cannot be lazy, you cannot expect anyone else to get things done if you don’t do them, you can’t really be on holiday because your mind is always busy with something… I found that coaching helped me work a lot more on my business rather than into it however, and that was key to building the system we now have into place.

Once you manage to structure things up as a system, things get in place and your life becomes a lot more fun to live. It’s a little bit like seeing a baby grow – fun, tiring, then wiser and more autonomous as time passes.

Would you share tips as to how you manage to deal with the hurdles of being an entrepreneur? Any routines or hacks worth sharing?

Rainbow Hui: As I said before I built Jia in parallel to my insurance job so it took me two years to finish my company basics, like building up a convincing website, WeChat Public, or a vision and mission statement. Our company core values and our company structure and business model also took time.

I found these things very difficult to operate on my own, and creating a circle around me, with entrepreneurs and coaches was the most efficient thing I’ve done. Doing things on your own makes no sense, you have to open up and rely on others to get things done.

Speaking of tips & hacks, have you read any good books on business recently? What were the main takeaways?

Rainbow Hui: I loved reading “What it takes – Lesson in the Pursuit of Excellence” by Stephen A. Schwarzman – CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone.

That bit really resonated with me:

“I rarely take notes in meetings. I just pay very close attention to what the other person is saying and the way he or she is saying. If I can, I try to find some point of connection, an area of common ground, a shared interest, or experience that turn a professional encounter into a more persona one. Listening closely and watching the way people talk… the harder the problem and the scarcer the solution, the more valuable your advice is …” “business often succeed or fail based on timing. Get there too early, and customers aren’t ready. Arrive too late, you’ll be stuck behind a long line of competitors.”

Do you happen to listen to any podcasts you’d like to share?

Rainbow Hui: I really enjoy the Kevin O’Leary show on youtube – always inspiring, totally recommend it.

Wrapping up – how can people reach you? Anything else you’d like to share?

Welcome to drop me an email : rb.hui (at) jia-fo.com, or connect with us on www.jia-fo.com and WeChat Public: JIA Family Office

Ronald Yu: I am the co-founder of Ricciwawa, a multi-lingual, multi-sensory online platform that teaches Chinese to challenged students. I am also the co-founder of Makebell, a second platform dedicated to the production of Talking Booklets – i.e product content with text, audio, video, image, in multiple languages, and which authenticity can be certified with NFTs.

I am an engineer by training, but I also studied law and had the good fortune to work with (and learn from) some really wonderful people who taught me that if you have a good platform, you can adapt it for multiple purposes.

Education and marketing are converging! As more companies try to form relationships with their customers, their marketing materials increasingly resemble educational content, so we give them ways to adapt.

Please tell us more about Ricciwawa & Makebell. Where are you based? How do you operate? How about your team?

Ronald Yu: We are a small start-up, based in Hong Kong. We currently have a 3-member, multigenerational team of directors with legal and technical backgrounds.

We provide different perspectives and capabilities – and this team is supplemented by developers based internationally. But more importantly, we operate knowing that a confluence of technologies (and personal experiences) is the best asset when it comes to realizing our ambitions.

Let’s talk big picture. What problem does Ricciwawa & Makebell solve out there?

Ronald Yu: We focus on solving modern issues related to education and technology.

As far as Ricciwawa is concerned, we identified a global difficulty related to Chinese language learning. Beyond the fact that this language is difficult to learn, the challenge for most users is to find engaging content. Most of the content out there is not relevant to overseas learners, and it’s rarely translated correctly to students’ local languages.

Also, the most engaging solutions are often not easily shared online (as is the case with custom printed content) or hard to create (e.g. videos). As a result, teachers see their teaching efficiency reduced, and students can have a hard time learning. Ricciwawa solves both these issues.

The Makebell platform also solves an accessibility issue. Product education (i.e. creating products to educate customers) is now an important way for companies to establish relationships with their customers. Still, creating content is extremely time-consuming, especially if it involves video and/or one or more translations are required and businesses can therefore struggle to communicate with their customers, who are frequently frustrated trying to find updated content.

What solution do you bring, then?

Ronald Yu: We solve these issues by developing new generation ed-tech solutions.

Ricciwawa facilitates Chinese language learning by letting educators easily create and share content that students find more engaging and relevant, in students’ local languages. The platform is designed to teach Cantonese and Mandarin and thus provides two levels of translation, let alone of course the pinyin, character grouping, and the separation of radical elements.

To make that work, we provide the technology (the platform) as well as a different business model. Beyond uploading content, we also allow the users (the teachers, that is) to sell their unique content, which obviously creates a positive loop. More incentives create more content, that’s a win-win-win for the teachers, the students, and the platform.

Makebell then solves the problem of corporate content creation and updates by letting companies quickly create content that can be consumed in multiple forms. That content can be translated, turned into audio content, updated as needed, and as I mentioned before the platform can also certify the content’s authenticity through NFT technology.

Market-wise, what makes Ricciwawa & Makebell different from the competition?

Ronald Yu: The two platforms differentiate themselves from the competition from a model perspective and from a technology perspective.

Unlike its competition, Ricciwawa allows educators to create their own content, tailored for their students, by entering text or scanning existing materials. They can share that content and earn from it online. Typically, the recipe consists in producing heavy proprietary materials, so that’s a big change.

Makebell is transformative in its ability to simplify, accelerate content creation in multiple languages. Its format makes it easy for companies to scan, update content and generate multiple versions in different languages. And, again, certify its authenticity.

Can you illustrate this with an example of how Ricciwawa & Makebell made an Impact on a client?

Ronald Yu: We see teachers developing an activity they were not able to develop before. That’s very promising because we introduced Ricciwawa in a limited beta version so far, and quickly found followers and initial subscribers in Africa, Asia, Middle East, European, South and North American markets.

Teachers in Germany, for example, are already creating Ricciwawa content specifically for German students with stories relevant to them, and with German translations using our beta. Filipino and Indonesian users have also told us about how the Ricciwawa content had helped them learn Chinese in Tagalog and Bahasa contexts, respectively.

What stage of development have you reached? What can you tell us about the next steps? Anything exciting?

Ronald Yu: As I just said, we have developed and beta-tested a web version of Ricciwawa and expect to launch an app version soon. Over the next three years, we hope to work with educators to build up their content collections, and with NGOs to create content for overseas markets notably in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Our aim is to fashion Ricciwawa on a Patreon-style model where parents, educators, and students can interact and benefit from each other in a viable and sustainable way.

We are also deepening the market research for Makebell and, based on the feedback, we will adapt the Ricciwawa platform for Makebell. Over the next 3-5 years, we expect to launch Makebell to large corporates, then create online versions for smaller companies, particularly those involved in educating their products working with customer resource management companies.

Let’s talk about entrepreneurship. Looking back, what was the most obvious challenge you had to overcome when you started that business?

Ronald Yu: Being an entrepreneur is something you learn, and in my case, it took a while to acknowledge the flaws in our initial presumptions as well as the limitations of our initial ambitions – frustrating!

Another challenge was to recognize where our real customer base and strength lay, and having been an academic for some time, it’s actually forced me to unlearn years of academic training. Being an expert is worthless if you can only talk to the people who already know, you want to learn how to prune down complex messages into something more palatable to the average person.

And the least obvious?

Ronald Yu: A less obvious challenge was probably to learn to embrace A/B testing and the idea that all hypotheses, however attractive, must be validated before proceeding further. Many say ideas are valuable, but the reality is that ideas are a dime a dozen.

What you want is ideas that work because they are desirable, feasible and viable, but filtering these out takes time and effort. At the same time, you need to consider multiple perspectives, not variations of the same idea. Knowing when to act on an idea and when to wait for more data, more analysis is never easy.

You also must recognize that correct positioning is both an art and science and something that evolves non-linearly over time and that some of the best solutions can come to you unexpectedly, like when walking one’s dogs. I learned the importance of carrying a notebook to jot down ideas before they evaporate.

What does it take to be a business owner or an entrepreneur these days?

Ronald Yu: My experience tells me that what they say about entrepreneurs – that a business owner needs lots of nerve, belief in oneself, a vision, good social and entrepreneurial skills, a good online presence (if for nothing else, Zoom calls) – is all true.

But so too is a willingness to accept responsibility, to learn, to be flexible. Personally, I believe in backup plans and the importance of integrity and reputation because people do remember backstabbers, cheaters, and liars.

Would you share tips as to how you manage to deal with the hurdles of being an entrepreneur? Any routines or hacks worth sharing?

Ronald Yu: While I believe that having faith in yourself and your ideas is important, you need to balance this with rational analysis and a recognition that some problems have multiple solutions. You also need to be open to new ideas, be willing to recognize when things are not working and pivot.

I actually live by three quotations that definitely apply to entrepreneurs:

“There are always possibilities” (Star Trek)

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” (something Albert Einstein is alleged to have said)

“The fault…..is not in our stars, But in ourselves” (William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)

Speaking of tips & hacks, have you read any good books on business recently? What were the main takeaways?

Ronald Yu: I read Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr and Attention Factory: The Story of TikTok and China’s ByteDance Kindle Edition by Matthew Brennan.

The former provided me with important insights into Amazon’s management innovations, notably the use of narratives instead of Powerpoint presentations. The latter book’s most salient takeaway was Douyin/Tiktok’s dual virtuous cycles.

The other book I frequently re-read is the Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko because it was the first book to make me realize how facts can upend your assumptions.

Do you happen to listen to any podcasts you’d like to share?

Ronald Yu: I listen to many podcasts but regularly tune into the Techmeme Ride Home and Today in Digital Marketing because they are short, mostly fluff-free, keep me informed of new developments and I can listen when I walk the dogs.

When I have time, I will listen to podcasts on AI, cybersecurity, law, blockchain, economics. I particularly like Revisionist History because Malcolm Gladwell is such a good storyteller and his podcast often reveals the inaccuracies of historical narratives. I also like Law Bytes because Michael Geist is such a great legal thinker, and Against the Rules because I love Michael Lewis’s books.

Wrapping up – how can people reach you? Anything else you’d like to share?

Ronald Yu: As the world becomes more interconnected, I believe success will come more from the ability to connect disparate elements into coherent wholes. People can reach me at ron[at]makebell.com