NY Report

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

mcourt — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:06:12 +0000

Choose your wording carefully to attract the right people

By: Matthew Weiss

February 6, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

The below advertisement was placed in an English newspaper circa 1919 by explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton for one of his South Pole expeditions. Undaunted, roughly 500 adventuresome applicants responded.

Why did this ad work? One might contend that it worked because life was full of constant danger in 1919 and people's alternatives were limited. Alternatively, one might contend that people responded because Shackleton was already known as a seasoned adventurer with good reputation.

I would disagree with both contentions. Instead, I argue that the 500 applicants answered because the ad resonated with their desire for excitement, being challenged, and achieving a difficult task. Anyone reading this ad who was truly longing for adventure would likely respond. Further, the ad clearly served to weed out the faint of heart, and those looking for easy money and a comfortable work experience.

Indeed, despite Shackleton's crew abandoning ship when it got stuck in the ice, and then drifting for months in freezing conditions on an ice floe, many survived. Research done concluded that so many people survived because of the type of people who responded to the ad. If he had just asked for sailors, many more likely would have perished.

When you write your help wanted copy, consider Shackelton's ad and use wording that will inspire the type of person that you are looking to hire. Similarly, when you write marketing materials, write them in a way that will resonate with your ideal customer.

If you do so, you will get the right type of people to respond and save yourself time in filtering out people who are not a good fit for your company.

Author Information:

Matthew Weiss is an admitted business learning junkie. He reads only business books and magazines (well almost only) and attends dozens of business workshops, keynotes and panel discussions each year. In this blog, he provides quality, take-home value from "all of the above" and shares his personal thoughts and experiences. Weiss is a New York traffic lawyer and sole owner of Weiss & Associates, PC, a boutique law firm specializing in vehicle and traffic matters throughout New York State. He is also the Global Learning Chair for the Entrepreneurs' Organization. He can be reached at mjweiss@888redlight.com.

He can be reached at mjweiss@888redlight.com.

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

mcourt — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:25:38 +0000

Make sure your website’s click-wrap agreement is binding

By: Kaiser Wahab

February 3, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

The bedrock of nearly any online business operation, from e-commerce sites to social media outlets, is the mighty click-wrap agreement, a digital extension of the equally mighty but very 20th century shrink-wrap agreement. These agreements typically carry the terms and conditions that are non-negotiable and must be accepted and ratified by the user prior to registering, downloading software, participating in an online sweepstakes, etc. However, despite the fact that click-wrap agreements have a long history, they often receive far more judicial scrutiny if the parties end up in court. That is due to the fact that, unlike tangible written agreements, it is often more difficult to demonstrate that a binding, all-digital, click-wrap agreement was formed. The following five tips can help your business avoid this fate.

I. Require an Affirmative Act for User to Convey Assent

The operative word in click-wrap agreement is “click”. Merely having the agreement as a permalink at the bottom of the website is insufficient to demonstrate that a user really had adequate notice of its existence and, further, the user actually agreed to it. Having a means to make the agreement a mandatory part of the process (registering, ordering, etc.) is the best course for demonstrating the agreement was assented to and, as a result, binding. The current du jure method is to employ a check the box or click the button marked “I Agree” or “I Accept.”

II. Allow the User to Exit the Process at Any Time

Providing the user a clear, manageable way to not assent to the agreement is just as strong a requirement, as providing a clear means to show assent. In other words, just as the check the box indicates assent, having a means for the user to exit the process demonstrates that the process is voluntary and that any assent was not made under duress.

©iStockphoto.com/porcorex

III. Keep Accurate Records of the Process

If a tree falls in the forest and no one heard it, did it really fall? Implementing a robust framework to show assent or non-assent will not help your cause, if you do not have the record-keeping to corroborate it. In short, you must be able to adequately demonstrate what steps the user undertook during the click wrap agreement process and what that user actually saw during that process. Hence, your platform should have the technical ability to create a record of the transaction indicating what documents were submitted to the user, the time and date of that submission, as well as the user’s ultimate actions (e.g., checked the box or not).

IV. Be Aware of Whether You Are Dealing with Children and Minors

Increasingly children are using the Internet in the same fashion as their parents, as consumers of information and goods. And due to the extreme anonymity and automation of the net, many operations fall into the trap of click wrap agreements being given to minors and small children. In the worst case, those children may seek to use the defense of “infancy” or being a minor to get out of their contractual obligations and restrictions. So far the legal landscape is fragmented on this issue, with only the fourth circuit saying definitively that clickwrap agreements are enforceable upon minors at this time (A.V. v. iParadigms, LLC, U.S. App. LEXIS 7892 (4th Cir. Apr. 16, 2009)).

V. Beware of Legacy Agreements

Businesses that are seeking to take the leap from paper to digital agreements should be careful not to create a tangled web of conflicting terms. Without proper vetting of previous agreements and those terms, in particular, language that prevents modification of the legacy agreement without a written and signed instrument, the click wrap agreement could be dead on arrival. In that event, a court may decline to enforce those new click wrap terms because they were not actually “signed” or because there was no separate signed document to modify the original agreement. Hence a review of legacy agreements with business counsel prior to click wrap migration is a good idea overall.

Author Information:

Kaiser Wahab is a Business, Venture, and Tech/IP Attorney at the NY firm of Wahab & Medenica, who loves to counsel businesses. Read more on his BLOG or follow him on Twitter @BizMediaLaw.

Drinks with Rob: Episode 1

mcourt — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:27:12 +0000

NY Report's CEO talks to Craig Schlanger, co-founder of Apple Seeds, at Ben and Jack's Steakhouse on 5th Avenue.

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

mcourt — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:55:12 +0000

The question isn’t whether to raise prices, it’s when and how to do it

By: Corey L. Massella

February 2, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

The benefit of raising prices is… well, isn’t it obvious? Given that it is so vital to long-term success, one would think that businesses had already figured out how to do it well. The truth is that despite watching Starbucks, Denny’s and Delta Airlines raise prices at the beginning of this year, many firms are wrestling with this challenge as they head into 2012.

One of the primary reasons businesses raise prices is an increase in the costs of services and goods used in products they sell. Many companies avoid passing these costs along to their customers by cutting expenses in other areas. But after more than two years of cost-cutting and belt tightening due to the “Great Recession,” there’s very little left to trim.

Typically, business owners’ chief concern is that all but the most loyal of customers will never be seen again, especially in this economy. They should look at this decision from another perspective: Not raising prices will, in many cases, put a company in even greater financial peril.

So the question really becomes not whether to raise prices, but when and how to do it.

©iStockphoto.com/Jezperklauzen

Look at the experience of one local restaurant, which just struggled through a financially disappointing holiday season. The restaurant did plenty of volume, but profitability was way down because of rising food prices. The answer, of course, is to raise prices. Upping the price of $18 entrees by $5 is out of the question, but what’s the right amount to retain profitability and not jeopardize a meaningful number of customers? This restaurateur and owners of businesses in other industries first need to analyze the size and potential effects of price increases.

This analysis includes several key pieces of information:

Determine customers’ “resistance threshold,” that is the price point at which a business would begin to lose customers.
Review the cost increases of raw goods/materials since the last time a business’s prices were increased.
Figure out expected revenue and profitability using current pricing and compare to expected revenue and profitability (minus customer defections) with new, increased pricing.

In the new scenario, business owners may find that although revenue is lower, profitability has increased. This could create the opportunity to restructure into a leaner and meaner organization. Following any price increase, it’s important to review numbers, to gauge how the price increase affected volume and sales.

Some thoughts regarding a potential increase in pricing:

Do you have one or two key customers? Think specifically about how they will react to a potential increase.

Is the product or service receiving the potential price increase considered a “commodity”? That is, can customers purchase a similar product or service elsewhere and not be affected? If so, business owners need to be sensitive to competitors’ prices.

Does your firm add value to this product or service that other firms don’t? If so, this value-add supports a potential price increase. If not, business owners should think about how they can add value in order to raise prices in the future.

Does your firm’s customer service stand out? Again, this “extra” many times insulates you from customer defections following price increases.

Raising prices has been and will always remain a challenge for many businesses. With the right strategy and tools, it doesn’t have to be impossible.

Author Information:

Corey L. Massella, CPA, is a partner with the accounting and business consulting firm Citrin Cooperman, and is the CEO of the firm’s SEC Solutions Group. He brings more than 20 years experience in counseling entrepreneurs in financial and business strategies, including structuring, negotiating and executing mergers and acquisitions, completing due diligence and preparing companies for public offerings. He is also a board member and sponsor for the Financial Executives Institute (FEI), Keiretsu Forum and the Long Island Capital Alliance. He can be reached at 212/697-1000 or cmassella@citrincooperman.com

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:26:47 +0000

The New Year is officially under way. Here’s the changes one business owner is planning on making

By: Jeanne Brutman

February 1, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

2012. It has the tenor and tone of opportunity. This is great and terrible at the same time. It is great because it means there is business to be had, friendships to be forged and strategic alliances to be made. It is terrible because it means one will have to be very aware and open to recognize the favorable circumstances as they appear, and as often as not they come cloaked in challenges.

In the hopes of capturing whatever gifts and graces that are available to me in the fresh start of a year, I have made a few resolutions that may sound personal, but truly apply to my practice, and also to all business owners. Here we go.

Learn to say no. Accept only the clients I can truly impact and who are really open to change and growth.
Give gratitude for everything and do it openly in front of as many people as possible as appropriate. I will be using my Wordpress blog, jeanneblogs to do this.
Choose carefully how I spend my time.
Delegate more. We all have a unique skill that makes us business owners. Try and just do that. If it is not my unique skill set, I will try and find the appropriate person to do it for me.
Take me time to play. Play develops character and creativity. What I do is very analytical and the reprieve from this constant work and from my responsibilities as a parent, significant other, family member and friend is essential for my overall well-being.
Ask for help and use the resources I have right in front of me. I am not weak when I ask for help, I am stronger because I am using synergy to create something more expansive.
Use “I am sorry” as needed. Only apologize when I have directly caused harm, but use it liberally when I have.

©iStockphoto.com/aluxum

In general, I try to live by these, and a few other guidelines, but the reminder, while sitting here has been helpful and refreshing. I hope that you can take all that 2012 offers and create prosperity, brilliance, health and satisfaction personally and professionally for yourself and all those you touch.

*All investment advice given by Jeanne Brutman is just opinion. Please consult with your financial professional for a more thorough discussion of what is appropriate for you.

Author Information:

Jeanne Brutman is a financial planner and a business owner advocate. She is a member of the New York City Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors as well as the Million Dollar Round Table, which represents the top one percent of the financial services industry. She can be reached at jeanne@jeannebrutman.com and through her website, askjeannebrutman.com.

February 2012

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:02:37 +0000

Cover Image:

Cover Story:

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Upper Left Article:

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Upper Right Article:

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Middle Left Article:

Market Smarter, Not Harder

Middle Right Article:

5 Steps to Creating a Rewarding Workplace

Bottom Left Section

Article #1:

3 Steps to Finding Clients Abroad

Article #2:

5 Minutes with… Mark Cuban

Article #3:

A HopStop, a Skip, and a Jump

Article #4:

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Article #5:

Why NY Report Exists

Article #6:

Majority of New York State’s Businesses in Favor of Health Insurance Exchanges

Bottom Right Section

Article #1:

Is It Bribery or Facilitation?

Article #2:

A New Retail Revolution

Article #3:

Tools for Digital Marketing

Article #4:

True Story: I Took My Business International

Article #5:

Businesses Spending More on Federal Contracts

Article #6:

5 Things Not to Miss on NYReport.com

Why NY Report Exists

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:58 +0000

We’ve figured out our why

By: Robert Levin

February 1, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

In a blog I posted last August, I asked, “Why does your company exist”? I also admitted that I couldn’t effectively communicate why NY Report exists. You see, after watching Simon Sinek’s talk at TED online and seeing him speak live a few years ago, I thought it was critical for my team and for everyone we work with (including our readers and clients) to know why we exist. After about six months of soul searching and discussing, the NY Report team came up with the following:

We believe that people should have access to the expertise to help them grow their businesses. We have built a peer-to-peer community of entrepreneurs and executives who constantly seek better ways to operate and grow. Through our multimedia platforms, we provide this community with access to knowledge from experts, and inspiration from successful entrepreneurs.
We believe that marketers deserve a partner that will provide unprecedented access to, and engagement with, business owners and decision makers. We have an unwavering commitment to outperform the standard in media.
Would you like to join us?

I strongly encourage you to watch Sinek’s video (which you can see on my original post) and read his book Start with Why to help you figure out your own why.

PS, we are thrilled to launch the digital version of our magazine this month. To read NY Report, cover-to-cover, on your computer or mobile device, sign up for free at nyreport.com/digital.

Author Information:

Robert Levin is the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of The New York Enterprise Report. Levin has extensive experience with midsize and small businesses, having previously held CEO, CFO, and COO positions with companies in several industries. He is also a contributor for The Huffington Post. Levin can be reached at rlevin@nyreport.com and (212) 307-6760.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:48 +0000

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

By: Jennifer Shaheen

February 1, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

“Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted,” John Wanamaker once famously said. “The trouble is that I don’t know which half.” Today, business owners and entrepreneurs share his concern, particularly when it comes to online marketing.

Google Analytics is a powerful tool for assessing the efficacy of your website. You’ll be able to see who is visiting your website, where they come from, what content they viewed, and, most important of all, what actions your visitors have taken to further their relationship with your brand. If used correctly, Google Analytics is almost like reading your customers’ minds. Google Analytics is free and you can register by going to google.com/analytics.

For most business owners, the information you’ll find most valuable and relevant is found in the standard report. The standard report is broken down to into these five categories: audience, traffic sources, content, conversions, and advertising.

Audience

The Audience section of the standard report is all about your customer. This section breaks down your website visitors into sub-sections: demographics, behavior, technology, social, mobile, and visitors flow. This isn’t your dad’s demographic report. The web is still largely anonymous; Google Analytics does not allow you to identify specific visitors to your website. It does, however, let you pinpoint the geographic region where your traffic is coming from.

Google Analytics also tracks the behavior of website visitors while they are on your site. The Visitors Flow section allows you to review, by type of visit, how your clients experience your website. What page did they access first? This simple question can be a real eye opener—it’s not necessarily your home page or landing page that serves as your website visitor’s first point of engagement with your brand.

Tracking the journey from this initial point of contact highlights opportunities to increase sales. Are web visitors taking the steps needed to become customers? Does your content motivate them to explore further? Did they follow a path to a page that would answer their questions? Did they go to a page specific to the purchase of a product? This type of data can help you make improvements to the design of your site.

The audience section of analytics also provides insight into the technology used by your visitors. You can review the web browsers and mobile tools they use to visit your website. Taking the time to review this information will help you make a decision about the pace at which you integrate a mobile version of your website and see if you are losing clients because of lack of compatibility. The social subsection also shows the number of places your website is shared across platforms like Twitter, Facebook, email, and Google+. If you have been wondering if your audience is social when it comes to what you say, this is the way to know. If you have no social engagement, maybe it is because your website did not provide a way for the user to share your information. This would be the time to add this feature.

These numbers serve as a critical metric you can use to assess the current impact of your social media strategy, identify and capitalize on strengths, and pinpoint and remedy weaknesses.

Traffic Sources

While the demographic information provided in the Audience section allows you to understand where visitors are located geographically, this data section lets you know where your website visitors are online and how they reach you. Do new customers find you after reading about you on a high-profile blog, or is the spike in traffic attributable to your new AdWords campaign? For marketers who place a premium on measuring the efficacy of any given campaign, this is where Google Analytics shines.

Google Analytics tracks numerous traffic sources, including direct, referrals, search, and campaigns. You will be able to see what websites send you the most traffic. Use this information to assess the cost-effectiveness of any relationship where you’re paying for referrals. It may turn out that you’re receiving a large amount of referral business from a site you’re not paying for, a great situation that could be made even better if you take proactive steps to strengthen that relationship. When you know where your traffic is coming from, it becomes easier to increase the volume of traffic.

One of the most useful areas in the Traffic section is the Search subsection. This report analyzes both your organic search traffic and, if you’re using Google AdWords, your paid traffic. You will be able to see what keywords people clicked on to get to your website from both paid and nonpaid positions. This will help you optimize your AdWords budget by reviewing the key phrases that sent your website visitors to your page, and how they acted when they arrived. If visitors are leaving quickly perhaps that keyword is not the right word for your website.

Ad words are the specific terms or words that your customers—and potential customers—have in mind when they reach your website. Review this information carefully! The bounce rate is especially important. If you have a high bounce rate associated with a word, it means that the user reached your site as a result of a search for this word, but left right away (bounced) because the content you’re offering was not what they were looking for. The bounce rate can be seen on every report as it relates to how the user is interacting with your website. These reports will help you decide if you need to refine the content to provide a more satisfactory user experience or refine your ad words for better targeting. The truth is you may need to do both, but by meeting your customer’s expectations, it will lead to lower bounce rates, greater conversion rates, and increased sales.

Content

Which page on your website is the most viewed by customers and potential customers? Review the information measured in the Content section for the answer to that question. Google Analytics allows you to review, page by page, how much time your website visitors spend on each page. You’ll also be able to tell what the bounce rate is for each page. When visitors spend time on your site, they’re realizing value and strengthening their relationship with your brand. When the bounce rate indicates that there’s no interest in the content on any given page, you’ve been presented with an opportunity to do something that your audience will find more meaningful and relevant.

The Content section also offers a tool called In-Page Analytics. This focuses on the metrics of a single page, highlighting the number of clicks and conversion percentage. You can use this metric to measure link performance. Adjusting the type and position of content can dramatically increase page performance; In-Page Analytics lets you know which configurations are most successful.

Conversions

For most small business owners and entrepreneurs, the Conversions section is by far the most exciting. By identifying and measuring the steps necessary to transform website visitors into customers, the Conversions section tracks the sales process from initial engagement through completed sale.

The system allows you to set up goals. These objectives vary: you may want to measure how many visitors register their email address for more information, fill out an appointment or reservation form, or select an item from your online store. When customers complete the desired action, they are moved through the process, arriving at your Thank You page or Shopping Cart, as appropriate. All of this is measured, allowing you to assess the direct efficacy of the content on any given page. This is a powerful resource to have, enabling you to adjust and test new ideas. Keep the best and don’t waste time on the rest: that’s great for your bottom line.

Advertising

One of the key strengths of Google Analytics is how well it integrates with other existing Google tools, including the Webmaster tool and Google AdWords. Google Analytics users can assess the effectiveness of varying AdWords campaigns they are running. Determine which campaigns are providing positive returns, and which are non-performers. This is critical information for maximizing your online marketing budget.

Google Analytics provides objective, actionable information vital to improving operations, customer service, and marketing. Knowledge truly is power—and Google Analytics is one of the best ways to get the knowledge you need to transform your business’s website.

Author Information: Jennifer Shaheen is the founder of The Technology Therapy Group, which is located in Manhattan. She can be reached at jennifer@technologytherapy.com

A New Retail Revolution

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:44 +0000

A new store in Chelsea takes a gallery approach

By: Michelle Court

February 1, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

Several years back, Rachel Shechtman, founder of consulting group Cube Ventures, had the idea for a retail store that was part museum exhibition, part magazine, with a common thread of community and conversation. When is a store more than a store? When it’s a story.

And Story is the apt name of Shechtman’s project, a new retail model that reinvents itself every four to six weeks, with new products for sale in a new environment, like an art gallery or a museum show. Each exhibition will include corresponding events, activities, and products for sale from a selection of companies, some of which are online only.

In an unusual move for a retail environment, Story has sponsors for the exhibitions. “I think retail’s always going to be about consumption, but I think the future of retail will become, in addition to consumption, about community and content, and so I wanted to develop a business model that embraced and celebrated and activated community and content,” says Shechtman. “I think retail is the untapped frontier of advertising.”

Story’s first exhibition—or, as Shechtman refers to it, beta version—A Startup Store, kicked off in late 2011 and was based around the concept of startups. Young companies such as Artspace, Birchbox, BaubleBar, Joor, and Quirky participated, and their products were displayed in merchandise-driven installations throughout the 2,000-square-foot Chelsea space. Story’s beta version was a big enough hit to enable Shechtman to go ahead with their first official exhibition, LOVE, which kicks off on February 1st, 2012.

Story’s February reopening will also welcome its first sponsor, Nerve.com, a sex, dating, and relationships website. LOVE will feature chocolates and candy by Vosges and Dylan’s Candy Bar, plus products from Jambox, Ilux, and PACT. Soho lingerie shop Le Corset by Selima, which closed several years ago, will be making a comeback as a mini in-store boutique, and there’ll also be a pop-up flower shop and a photo booth. LOVE will run for approximately five weeks.

“There will always be startups in the store because that’s kind of part of my DNA. I think it’s important to support emerging companies and businesses,” Shechtman says. “I’m lucky to have a physical space, and I think that the more opportunities to amplify what someone’s doing online in a physical space is exciting, both for the brand and for consumers.”

Story’s advertising is the store’s first stream of revenue, product sales is their second, and event tickets are their third. In regards to the retail aspect, Shechtman says, “There are a myriad of arrangements but it is retail first and foremost. Some inventory is paid. Some is consignment.” The planned events, such as film screenings, book launches, panel discussions, and industry events, will be both private and open to the public; some will be free. Advertisers, depending on their level, will have different touch points throughout the store, such as branded wall space and signage, as well as dedicated emails, website presence, and their own events. “I don’t want to just limit it to advertisers if more people want to be involved. It’s also a way to integrate different types of partners that wouldn’t necessarily be in the sandbox together. Our concept and our story ends up being the matchmaker, not only between brands and consumers, but brands and other brands,” says Shechtman.

“My dream is that people don’t look at Story like they’re going to buy something or get something, but that it’s also about entertainment and engagement,” she says. “I want people to leave the experience knowing something and excited about a story that they didn’t know before they went in.”

Author Information:

Michelle Court is the associate editor at The New York Enterprise Report. She can be reached at mcourt@nyreport.com.

Tools for Digital Marketing

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:40 +0000

Improve your emails, get blogs on the go, and make mockups easier

By: Michelle Court

February 1, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

Movable Ink

What’s it about?

Movable Ink brings email marketing into the 21st century by adding real-time content into your company emails, meaning that the content can change after you send it. This can be as simple as adding a live Twitter stream to your signature or as complex as real-time inventory counters, local maps, device targeting, and optimized creative content that automatically changes depending on what’s more successful in live A vs. B tests.

How can it help?

According to Movable Ink, their optimized creative content can increase click-throughs by more than 35 percent.

What’s the cost?

The most basic package is free, although the content is watermarked. A pay-as-you-go account costs $3 per opened email, and companies interested in premium accounts have to call for pricing plans; however, their site includes a price estimator.

Where can I find out more?

Visit movableink.com, email contact@movableink.com, or call (800) 270-6033.

Bloapp

What’s it about?

Bloapp (rhymes with soap) is an online platform that turns blogs into iPhone and Android apps. If your company website hosts a blog with an RSS feed, or if you use a blogging platform such as Blogger or WordPress, you can create an app featuring your blog’s content. When you register and customize your blog with Bloapp, the platform generates a QR code, which readers can use to retrieve the personalized app.

How can it help?

Besides being able to read your company blog on the go without having to navigate your website with a mobile device, Bloapp also lets you enable banner ads in the app. (If you use this feature, 10 percent of the time Bloapp will promote itself with its own banner ads.) You can also track readers through the app’s dashboard.

What’s the cost?

There’s no cost—Bloapp is free to use.

Where can I find out more?

Visit bloapp.com.

Mockingbird

What’s it about?

Mockingbird is an online tool that enables its users to create, preview, and share website mockups. Using drag-and-drop tools, users can build website mockups, link them together, use interactive previews to see how the pages will look when they’re live, and invite other team members to edit the site and see progress in real time.

How can it help?

Mockingbird eliminates the need for flat website mockups, which don’t allow you to see links or live content, and giving your team members access to the platform means you waste less time emailing each other. It’s also fully web-based, and requires no software to download, meaning your mockups can be viewed from other computers and devices.

What’s the cost?

The lowest priced plan is free, but limited to one project with 10 pages and two users. The highest priced plan is $85 a month and includes unlimited projects and collaborators, with unlimited archived projects, as well.

Where can I find out more?

Visit gomockingbird.com or email contact@gomockingbird.com.

Author Information:

Michelle Court is the associate editor at The New York Enterprise Report. She can be reached at mcourt@nyreport.com.

Market Smarter, Not Harder

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:38 +0000

How to create more opportunities in 2012

By: Mardy Sitzer

February 1, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

With a new year now under way, you’ve most likely gone through, or are about to start, a process of budget analysis and a reflection on what worked last year and what didn’t. Although some companies work on a fiscal year, many still look at their businesses with the Gregorian calendar year in mind. As you review the previous year, you are likely to see annual seasonal ups and downs, cyclical buying habits, and marketing attention time spans. This review process should be the groundwork for the plan and strategy for the year ahead.

News and forecast articles still caution us about the economy, and some companies are holding onto their cash to brace for more bumps in the road. No matter how you view the economic climate, if you are serious about business, then you should be serious about marketing, and that requires a plan that can be executed and measured. Hard times require as much, if not more, marketing effort—as long as it is cost effective and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely). I have my own rendition of this industry acronym—SMARTS (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely, and Sustainable).

Creating a marketing plan for 2012 (if you don’t already have one), or improving and refining the plan you do have, will move you closer to your goals. To demonstrate SMARTS and offer examples, I’ll focus on marketing to existing customers. Why existing customers? You already have all the information you need to market to this group, and customers are more profitable than targets and prospects. This is often a forgotten, yet critical, piece of a growth matrix.

Specific

The specifics for a marketing campaign can consist of, for example, increasing the customer spend by 10 percent or increasing their frequency of purchasing. Another specific goal might be to get business referrals from 15 percent of your customers. And my favorite one is to recapture at least 10 percent of those customers who are no longer buying.

Measurable

One goal means one measurement. Keeping things simple and breaking it down will help you understand your marketing efforts and measure a true ROI. With the specific goals expressed in percentages, you now have the benchmark and target growth numbers to achieve this year. Create a dashboard or spreadsheet that breaks this into actual dollar amounts or numbered counts. An example might work like this: run a report that shows what your accounts spent last year. Then increase it by 10 percent and this will give you the number each customer needs to hit for you to meet your goal. Then break down that amount weekly, monthly, quarterly, or semiannually to monitor how your program is working. Every specific goal has a number attached to it, and your history reports will help you establish the benchmarks and begin to measure step by step or week by week how you are progressing.

Attainable

I like grand goals, but why lose your head attempting something you know is unrealistic? A sense of being overwhelmed might get you off track and so goal targets should be sensible. You might want to check your historical rates of growth and bump those numbers up a bit to keep you motivated. An example might be that if you historically get referrals from 10 percent of your customers, you might set a new goal to get referrals from 15 percent of your customers. That means each month you should get a specific number of referrals. This should be attainable and yet with a great targeted marketing program you could hit it out of the park and get even more. What you set out to accomplish should be within your grasp and anything beyond that will be truly worth celebrating.

Relevant

The easiest way to check relevancy is to ask with each goal, “How does this improve my bottom line?” Chasing shiny nickels can get distracting, so if you are setting social media goals such as new followers, fans, and friends, your marketing program should also include how to engage this flock into actionable, measurable, meaningful events. Another rabbit hole is website traffic. The goal of getting more traffic to your website might not be relevant without the right lead-capturing systems or the right “buy now” triggers. High volume traffic isn’t so much the target as it is the right traffic doing what you need them to do to generate leads and sales. Remember the old adage of quality over quantity. Try setting website goals, such as increasing time on site or number of pages viewed. These metrics will get you closer to providing a marketing site that is doing what you paid it to.

Timely

Timeliness helps you plan your marketing for the year. Knowing your buyers interest and buying cycles will be helpful in crafting your marketing program for seasonal and cyclical buying. Selling ice in the winter might be difficult, but by targeting sports events and holiday celebrations, customers would see buying ice as a big time saver. The point is that by understanding your customer’s challenges, you’ll be better positioned to sell when the time is right. Other timely marketing programs are renewals, refills, and the “what’s next;” or “now that you have this, you might want to consider that.” Some of my favorite timely marketing programs include anniversary dates (where you can say “You placed your first order on this date,”) and customer birthdays—you can find these easily enough with social media profiles.

Sustainable

This is a piece of the program that you don’t often hear about. It lacks a certain sex appeal in marketing speak, but I think it is critical. A marketing program should be systematized so that it is sustainable. To effectively do this you should have a customer relationship management (CRM) system that supports campaigns and provides reporting. That means weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually, your CRM system can generate either the emails or reports that you need to act on. If you cannot sustain a program then you are doing shotgun marketing and your results will be you hit some, you miss a lot. The less than sexy side of marketing is the systems that you put in place to execute, measure, monitor, and perform.

Author Information:

Mardy Sitzer is a Certified Inbound Marketing Professional, and President of Bumblebee Design & Marketing. Since 1993, Mardy has been delivering creative and innovative marketing solutions. An avid reader of all things internet and marketing, she also writes blogs, articles and web content for industry magazines as well as for Bumblebee’s clients. Follow her on Twitter (twitter.com/MardySitzer) or email her at mardy@bumblebeellc.com.

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:35 +0000

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

By: Daria Meoli

February 1, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

This month, we asked our members the following: Who do you turn to for advice?

Here are some highlights from the responses we received.

Steve Hindy, Brooklyn Brewery

The Brooklyn Brewery designer, Milton Glaser, is one of my most thoughtful advisors. Not only does Milton do great design work for the brewery, he also has a wealth of experience with start-up businesses, having co-founded Pushpin Studios, New York Magazine, and Milton Glaser, Inc. He knows New York very well, and is a great judge of people. He is a very wise man.

Divya Gugnani, Send the Trend and Behind the Burner

While many would say that their board of directors is probably the first go-to-place for advice, in my case I find that directors have potentially different interests than the CEO. Investors want to protect and maximize their investment.

Personally, I’ve found that my old boss, a current venture capitalist, is a great sounding board for issues and problems. He has years of experience from seeing so many deals and deal dynamics, as well as pattern recognition for many obstacles that entrepreneurs face when running their businesses. Since he doesn’t have millions on the line when he suggests a course of action, it’s truly unbiased advice. I also reach out to a friend, a former entrepreneur, who successfully sold his business. I get his input on operational challenges and solutions. Lastly, my father ran a large company and gives me good, candid advice on managing people. Better yet, his judgment isn’t clouded by the internet world and he cuts right to the chase when it comes to profit and loss.

Ian Schafer, Deep Focus

One of the main reasons I sold my company to The Engine Group was to have daily access to mentors, something that happened much less frequently in the nine years prior. Two specific mentors, Martin Puris and John Bernbach, have given me several decades worth of insight about the advertising business—insight that, when married with the constantly evolving state of the consumer, give me and Deep Focus a marketplace advantage.

And when all else fails, I go to my wife, who always seems to be right.

Shenan Reed, Morpheus Media, A CREATETHE GROUP Company

I get advice from many sources. I love asking the opinions of people who are entrenched in my business as much as I love the opinions of people who are completely outside of it. My first source of advice is usually from my husband and business partner, Alex. Because of our different roles and life experiences we often see things from very different perspectives. This is fantastic, because it forces us to defend our points of view to each other; work through what is best for the business, the people, and the clients; and come to a solid decision. For other internal sources, I turn to the management team here at Morpheus. I’m a big believer in buy-in and trying to get everyone on the same page before we roll things out. That can sometimes slow down the process, but I find when we don’t get buy-in we spend just as much time hashing it out after it’s done and sometimes have to retrench.

For external sources of advice I go to my parents. It’s amazing what I can still learn from their careers and life experiences. I also turn to a host of mentors that I have collected over the years, some of them may not know they are my mentors, but I love picking their brains. And Google—I’m often surprised by the answers I can find in business books and other online resources.

When all is said and done, you can take and absorb all the advice in the world, but you still need to have your own filter and make your own decisions. No one person or book is going to be able to solve your challenge, only you as a leader will be able to know what is right for your business. By owning the decision you can then also own the implementation.

Edward Solomon, Net@Work

Although I have always thought about seeking out a mentor, for some reason I have not been successful in doing so. However, when faced with challenges or embarking on new initiatives, I reach out to the many successful individuals that I have met over the years. The combined experience of these “virtual mentors” has been invaluable to me. The list ranges from successful corporate executives to serial entrepreneurs, and inspiring community leaders to people I respect because of their personal qualities. I believe that there is something of value to learn from anyone we interact with if you take the time to observe and reflect. And sometimes you learn what not to do.

Andrew Hazen, serial entrepreneur and attorney

Over the past 15 years I have developed an extremely strong network of contacts; from clients to attorneys/accountants and industry experts and it is this network that I go to first for advice.

Christiane Lemieux, DwellStudio

When I need advice I have a roster of people I turn to depending on the situation. I think each situation is different and I love to consult a specialist. When you want advice, it should be pretty accurate and targeted. I am a member of YPO and my forum is comprised of eight very savvy business people. I have turned to each of them for advice in different situations, tapping into their strengths. Recently I learned from one of them that my online SEO strategy was not as sophisticated as it could have been. We made a few tweaks and saw results immediately. I would offer up the advice that it's never a bad thing to tap someone who knows more than you. The things that you learn can sometimes change your business for the best

Alexander Gordin, Broad Street Capital Group

I usually turn to three people for advice:

My wife, who over our thirty year relationship has become an expert on international business and has a very sober and objective view of most situations.
My attorney, who also happens to be my lifelong friend and whose judgment I value.
Depending on the nature of the issue, I then seek guidance from one of several trusted experts in my network. I cultivate deep and mutually beneficial relationships with specialists in the areas my firm operates and rely on their advice.

Once I hear everyone's opinion, I make my own decision and stick with it.

Yacov Wrocherinsky, Infinity Info Systems

I firmly believe that one of the critical factors to being successful in running a business is to have a close network of advisors who serve as mentors and friends. The importance of having a trusted circle of advisors is they serve as a great sounding board to both challenge and validate your thinking as you make key decisions to grow and evolve your business.

All the most successful leaders I have met in my career, whether they are professional athletes, CEOs of large companies, politicians, Navy SEALs, or astronauts, have all been guided by mentors and trusted advisors to whom they can attribute to their success. I’m a member of YPO (Young President’s Organization) NYC Chapter that helps CEOs of a number of companies connect to the right people and share information, ideas, and experiences. Surrounding yourself with the best and the brightest minds in the business by participating in different peer networks allows you to develop personal relationships. The YPO global network helps you leverage best practices, challenges and celebrate successes.

The other group I belong to is called Leveraged Wisdom which meets once a month and is made up of a group of 12 CEOs. All the meetings are managed by a facilitator to ensure a productive and collaborative discussion which also includes guest speakers. The goal of these meetings is to challenge your current thinking and force you to analyze current issues and problems, which in turn helps drive strategic thinking and action and growth.

These mentors, friends, and peer networks have been a great source of inspiration and served as trusted advisors to me for many years.

Alexa Von Tobel, LearnVest

At LearnVest, we have a very active and insightful board, as well as an incredible group of formal advisors. They bring a wealth of experience in start-ups, finance, and media companies to the table, and it seems that I always have the perfect person to talk to when in need of advice.

In addition, my family has been so supportive throughout the journey of building a business from the ground up, and they have guided me along the way. LearnVest's CFO/COO, John Gardner, happens to be my first cousin, so he's my go-to for any and all advice!

Savio S. Chan, US China Partners Inc.

The only people I turn to for advice are people I deem the best in their class/business.

I learned from the past that even people who really care about you and have the best intentions for you, if they don’t know the subject matter you could go to the West looking for the sun to rise. So I carefully ask the most successful people for their advice so I can learn from their experiences and minimize my learning curve.

Obviously we always come across family members and good friends who voluntarily gave their advice. I do not argue with them because I know where they are coming from. I simply said “Thank you for sharing, I appreciate it,” and move on.

Ronn Torossian, 5W Public Relations

I have two very close friends who serve as my informal board of advisors and are the people I turn to for advice. Naturally, they are both self-made entrepreneurs (as only an entrepreneur can truly understand how to give advice to a crazed CEO entrepreneur like me). My closest friend in the world is a self-made entrepreneur with a similar sized business to me—albeit in a completely different industry. We sit down once a week—at least—in a pure business setting and review the ins and outs of each other’s businesses and offer clear counsel, with NO bs criticism when its needed. He’s my age, comes from a similar background and gets me—that matters.

Jack Killion, Eagle Rock Diversified Fund and Bluestone+Killion

Most of us live in multiple worlds and multi-task all or most of the time. Which means, in my case, I generally turn to different people for advice in the various aspects of my life. I don't have one group I turn to all the time. I think others with similar multiple worlds should think of benefiting from advisors in a similar way. Match them to the need.

For example, I:

...have six advisory board members for the Eagle Rock Diversified Fund that I launched and have managed since 2001. I use these exceptional people for input on any and all aspects of developing our fund successfully.
...recently started a new partnership that is developing specifically to coach professionals and organizations on how to network and build win-win client relationships more effectively. For this effort I turn for advice to exceptionally skilled networkers with whom I have developed relationships over the years.
...was invited last year by MIT to organize an ongoing networking group in NJ for graduates of the MIT Sloan School of Business. To launch and successfully develop this networking group, I sought advice from heads of other successful higher-level networking groups including YPO.
...suggested to our son, while he was a senior at Georgetown University, that he form his own advisory team to help guide the launch of his professional career. He did and it worked big time. Once he started working, I recommended he put together his life advisory board to include a CPA, a financial planner, a lawyer, and a good insurance professional. He has one in place.

The point is, in these complicated, rapidly evolving times, we may have to develop and use "pods" of special purpose advisors. The key is to pick good people with whom to work long term.

Jennifer Walzer, BUMI

I have a few “groups” that I like to turn to for advice. One group is Entrepreneurs’ Organization. They are a group of like-minded entrepreneurs who are going through the same challenges that I am at our company. Hearing about their experiences has always been extremely beneficial. The other group of people that I turn to for advice is my team. I find that my employees have a very keen eye on what is going on with our customers and company and I find it extremely valuable to get their opinion on ideas. And lastly, I turn to Jeff Silbert from Order of Magnitude who is always giving me great advice and different ways to think about issues.

Jeff Stewart, Lenddo

Who do I turn to for advice? A broad and diverse range of people. It is critical that business innovators surround themselves with accomplished professionals who represent a wide range of perspectives and experiences. Any CEO who is innovating needs to know what they know and what they don’t know. The learning is the fun part, and the right expert community bridges the gap. The job of the CEO is to assemble a diverse group of experts, filter the often conflicting advice, and then set the strategy.

At Lenddo we built the world’s first online community that empowers the Emerging Market Middle Class to use their online social connections to build their creditworthiness and access local financial services. To best serve our members, I sought advice from experts in behavioral economics, computational psychology, microfinance, emerging markets, and game design.

The good news is, as an entrepreneur, people want to help you, especially if you are having a positive impact on people’s lives, which is the case with Lenddo.

One other tip: There is a tendency for entrepreneurs to seek advice from people who are older. Age should not be confused as more experienced. The way society uses technology is changing rapidly, thus, it is critical to get advice from people who are often much younger. As CEO, you want fresh perspective.

Author Information:

Daria Meoli is the Executive Editor at The New York Enterprise Report. She can be reached at dmeoli@nyreport.com

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:30 +0000

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

By: James Marshall Reilly

February 1, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

If we think of leadership styles on the most basic of levels, a few obvious techniques come to mind. There is leadership modeled after imprinting. Think of employees as baby ducks blindly following the first thing they see when they open their eyes, usually a parent, without any independent thought whatsoever. There is also herding, which is like a sheepdog barking and corralling sheep with a leadership style based on totalitarian rule, a frightening bark, and reinforced with fear. But all of the entrepreneurs and leaders that I interviewed for my book, Shake the World: It’s Not About Finding a Job, It’s About Creating a Life, are exercising a far more employee-centric and nurturing leadership style as a means to create a dynamic, positive workplace; kindle creativity; cultivate employee loyalty; and grow their respective organizations through an environment and ethos of spreading good.

When Mickey McManus of MAYA Design (consistently rated as one of the best companies to work for in America) described his leadership style to me it sounded a lot like the Montessori method of education, in which children are not structured but rather encouraged to explore and play. This approach is based on the premise that if individuals, regardless of age, are given freedom in an enriched environment, it will accelerate and facilitate—not impede—hard work, thereby generating more positive results. In the broadest sense, this good-centric style of leadership democratizes the workplace—a workplace that has been traditionally structured as a hierarchy of clearly delineated power where no one is created equal, all employees are designated by a pay grade, and everyone knows their place.

As a means of differentiating their leadership style as unique, many of these entrepreneurs and leaders adopt playful job titles for both themselves and others at their organizations, where they are known by monikers such as “Chief Shoe Giver,” “Head Samurai,” “Possibility Accelerator” or “Loyalty Ninja”—not CEO, president, or director of marketing. Tony Hsieh of Zappos, whom I interviewed about failure, is known for taking a modest salary ($36,000) and he has a cubicle right in the middle of the pit with everyone else at the company. These entrepreneurs, regardless of the size or revenue of their organizations, all engage in Google-esque management techniques; where employee happiness, comfort, peace of mind—as well as personal recognition and validation— matter so much that they have become the company focus. Not to mention a source for increased innovation.

This type of leadership style, on the surface, can, at times, sound like superficial PR spin—or something that works in theory but not in practice. Allowing employees to come and go as they please so long as they get their work done might make sense at a large company like Google, but it certainly doesn’t work when your lawyer doesn’t show up to court, or when the fry cook decides to stay home one morning. So, translating these ideals can be tricky, and it needs to be done on a job-by-job basis. However, with an Internet connection, a parent who can stay home with a sick child and work from a computer may be more effective than that same employee at the workplace worried about that sick child at home. All of the data and research supports that this trend toward positive company culture with an employee-centric core is a valid source for increased innovation and corporate growth. Happy employees, statistics prove, are more productive across the board. We only have to look as far as Google to see that. Or Zappos. Or Apple. The one-day-a-week for exploring personal projects that Google gives its employees has resulted in massive innovation for the company, while the freedom that the aforementioned MAYA Design allows its team members has resulted in a few multimillion dollar offshoot companies that have been created and developed in-house.

Of all the people I interviewed for my book, the most compelling argument I heard for believing that, if left to their own devices, employees want to do their jobs and they want to do them well, was the story of a software engineer named Ron Avitzur who worked at Apple back in the early 1990s. Avitzur was so motivated to complete the project he was working on that after that project was cancelled and he was let go, he kept showing up at Apple campus to finish the job. He wasn’t a crazy rogue employee; he was a dedicated employee. Even though he often had to sneak into the building after his access card was denied, and even though he wasn’t being paid, he wanted to finish the project he had started. And he did. As a non-Apple employee, without pay or recognition, he developed the Pacific Tech graphing calculator that eventually shipped on millions of machines and landed an article in the New York Times.

As “good-centric” becomes the norm in business; as green, philanthropic, altruistic, and good become the standard—not only for employee culture, but for corporate ethos—we leave behind the companies and organizations of the twentieth century that were labeled “too big too fail,” as we evolve companies that are simply “too good to fail.”

Author Information:

James Marshall Reilly is author of Shake the World: It’s Not About Finding a Job, It’s About Creating a Life. He also is an entrepreneur, journalist, and the founder of The Guild Agency Speakers Bureau & Intellectual Talent Management. In November 2011, Reilly was honored at the White House as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs in the United States age 30 or under.

A HopStop, a Skip, and a Jump

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:30 +0000

The transit website and mobile app continues to move forward

By: Michelle Court

February 1, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

What’s the fastest way to get from point A to point B? Ask a New Yorker, and the answer won’t always be a straight line. Want to go by subway? Bus? Subway and bus? Actually, it might be faster if you walk. Oh, wait, you’re going on a Sunday? That complicates things…

A better idea? Let HopStop figure it out. A website and app with door-to-door directions and transit maps, HopStop was founded in 2005 by Chinedu Echeruo, a Harvard Business School grad who moved to NYC and became frustrated with the lack of comprehensive mass transit planning options for the city. With the help of an engineer, he created hopstop.com, much to the delight of New Yorkers.

Since then, the company has grown steadily. The office, located near the Empire State Building, now employs about 15 people, and HopStop is now in over 200 cities in five different countries. There are HopStop apps for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and Windows phones, with an app for iPad just launched. And they’re not just about mass transit anymore, either: you can find walking, biking, taxi, and hourly rental car directions now, too. HopStop can also recommend restaurants, shops, and hotels in the area, calculate your carbon footprint, and tell you how many you calories you’ll burn on your route.

Over the past few years, the company has seen a 250 percent growth in revenue and a 60 percent growth in traffic. Two years ago, five percent of HopStop usage was mobile; now, mobile usage makes up 40 percent of traffic. In Google’s 2011 Zeitgeist report, which analyzes the search engine’s top queries, HopStop was the number three search for the New York, NY, regional area. Not a bad acknowledgement from the company who’s essentially their biggest competitor.

The Secret of Their Success: The Fans

The reason for HopStop’s success is the fans. “Everything we do is a user suggestion, and I don’t exaggerate,” says Joe Meyer, the company’s president and CEO, who joined in 2009. “Literally, our entire product is dictated by our users. We get so much feedback, it’s crazy. For every 100 pieces of feedback you get, if 10 of them are talking about the same thing, you know that should probably be something you should focus on.” Users get in touch via the site’s feedback form, HopStop’s social media channels, and directly from the app.

HopStop has also found many of their employees from that pool of dedicated users. “Almost everyone we have hired has reached out to us in one form or another,” Meyer says. “I’d say for every one person we hire, we probably evaluate at least 100 resumes, and probably meet with dozens of people. We’re always opportunistically hiring.” And having an impressive degree doesn’t necessarily make a difference. “I don’t really care where somebody went to school. I don’t care if they have an advanced degree. It’s really all about how skilled they are in their respective functional area, how committed they are, how excited they are, and how much of a kind of self-starter they are. But at the same time, can they get along with everyone in the office?” Even if someone is incredibly talented, if they’re not a fit, it’s a no-go. “Hiring is really tough, especially in a company of 15 people. If you make one bad decision, it could have a detrimental impact,” he says. “Egos would kill this company.”

Meyer describes HopStop as a very flat organization, with no real reporting structures. Employees can come and go as they please, and there’s no official vacation policy. There is, however, a high level of transparency and a high level of trustworthiness, as well as open communication—and an open plan office. “Everyone’s role here has a direct impact on the company,” he says. “The reality is everyone knows what everyone else is doing, and if somebody’s not performing, you know pretty quickly. If you’re diligent about recruiting professionals, and give them some flexibility, leeway, and high-level direction, then the rest will take care of itself,” says Meyer.

Going Local

HopStop was ahead of the curve in terms of using geo-targeted ads, which has been their money making strategy for several years. “We’re not a health site. We’re not a sports site. We’re not an entertainment app. We power and provide directions, and we do it really well, and that gives us access to some interesting data in terms of people’s whereabouts. It was a natural evolution for our business early on in terms of how we were going to monetize it, to start tying people’s location to ads and offers and deals and coupons,” says Meyer. “It wasn’t until recently that companies like Foursquare have made it more popular, which is great. We’re kind of benefiting from their tail winds, but they’re spending $50 to $100 million to do it. We’ve raised $2 million in our entire company history. So, I think I’d rather do it this way.” Besides raising that $2 million in funding, according to Meyer, HopStop’s growth has been funded entirely via profitability and being cash-flow positive.

In terms of their own advertising, their approach is simple—they don’t do any. “We spend no money on marketing, no money on advertising, no money on promotion, no money on events, and no money on PR. We don’t buy downloads. We don’t buy keywords. It’s almost entirely word of mouth. We have a strong, large, committed, passionate user base. The user experience works well for them the majority of the time, and as a result they tell their friends and their family,” says Meyer.

HopStop has big plans for the future. The company recently released a free local advertising program for local merchants, they’re planning on expanding rapidly into even more markets, and growing their mobile arm of the business. “We’re seeing massive growth on the mobile side, so we’re going to continue to introduce new mobile platforms and increase and expand functionality across those platforms,” says Meyer. They’re also trying not to mess too much with an already successful formula. “We’re going to focus on improving, evolving, expanding, and innovating the user experience, but still stay true to our core,” he says.

For other startups looking to make a big impact in just a few years, Meyer has some words of advice: “Try not to get too distracted and do too many things, especially if you’re like us where you have limited resources but you need to still move quickly. It’s tough to move quickly and be effective at it if you’re trying to be too many things to too many people. Stick true to your core, and do it better than anyone else.”

Author Information:

Michelle Court is the associate editor at The New York Enterprise Report. She can be reached at mcourt@nyreport.com.

5 Steps to Creating a Rewarding Workplace

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:27 +0000

Retention strategies should cover more than just compensation

By: Rick Gibbs

February 1, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

When budgets are tight and raises are not a realistic possibility, how can you keep employees productive and committed to your company? Although a competitive employee benefits package that includes health care and other components, such as a 401(k) plan and disability and life insurance, will always be valuable to employees, there are many other types of initiatives that are also meaningful and effective. Consider instituting a recognition program to reward employees for jobs well done. Here are five components for creating a successful program:

1. Professional Growth

Employees want to know that they are advancing their skill sets and their position within your company. Yet, they often do not understand how their role affects the company’s success. Managers should communicate how each employee’s efforts, whether by working independently or as part of a team, directly impacts the company’s operations. It is important that everyone knows his or her contributions matter. Equally important, employers should help employees establish career paths by providing them with opportunities for promotion or cross-training to help keep them challenged.

2. Pay for Performance

Rewarding employees for a job well done directly affects their performance and the company’s bottom line. However, according to Kevin Herring, founder of Ascent Management Consulting and an expert in workplace performance turnarounds, traditional merit-based pay plans, such as raises and bonuses, are not the most effective employee motivators. Paying workers based on their performance, commonly referred to as pay for performance, offers employers and employees several advantages over the traditional across-the-board merit system, including:

Improving morale and retention. Top performers want to be recognized for their hard work. It is more motivating for employees to know they will be well compensated when they meet or exceed goals than it is when everyone receives the same increase regardless of their individual performance. Employers that provide extra incentives to valuable employees are more likely to enjoy lower turnover rates.
Increasing productivity. When individual and group goals are aligned with the company’s objectives, productivity can be greatly enhanced. Each person is held accountable for doing his or her part and more, and poor performers are forced to work harder and carry their share of the workload.
Engaging top performers. Employees want to work for an organization that values their efforts. A pay-for-performance initiative that is carefully communicated and executed can help employees exceed their goals.

While it is important to establish realistic goals, a pay-for-performance program should make it worthwhile for employees who do more to receive more. Employees should always know what is expected of them. Standards of performance should be established and communicated, and regular reviews should be conducted.

3. Public Praise

Recognizing employees for their positive contributions provides multiple benefits for companies. Employees appreciate being recognized both privately and publicly for their efforts and creativity. Honoring employees in the company newsletter and through employee appreciation events are other methods of developing loyalty among talented staff members. Special rewards also can be given for major achievements. And always, showing appreciation with a simple thank you—no matter how big or small the contribution—goes a long way.

4. Work-Life Balance

Successful employers understand the relationship between work-life balance and productivity and offer flexible work policies and practices. Those can include part-time employment, job sharing, telecommuting, and employee assistance programs. Many employees value time over money. Employers that offer opportunities to enhance work-life balance demonstrate to employees that they care about both their professional and personal well-being.

5. Have Fun

A fun work environment is among the many factors that employees say contribute to job satisfaction. Employers should foster an upbeat, enjoyable work environment that strikes a balance between productivity and fun. By celebrating a milestone, conducting team-building activities or going on a retreat, employees can see that their employer is human too and not all-work-and-no-play.

Retaining top talent is essential to a company’s success. By establishing a rewards and recognition program, employers can help maintain employee motivation and an atmosphere where everyone feels they are an important contributor to the company’s success.

Author Information:

Rick Gibbs, SPHR, is a performance specialist in the New York offices of Insperity. Insperity (NYSE: NSP), a trusted advisor to America’s best businesses for more than 25 years, provides an array of human resources and business solutions designed to help improve business performance. For more information, call (800) 465-3800 or visit www.insperity.com.

Is It Bribery or Facilitation?

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:20 +0000

How the FCPA impacts doing business overseas

By: Daniel Wagner

February 1, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

International business often requires dealing with foreign government officials. In the US, determining when a government official is asking for a bribe in exchange for helping your company get business is fairly cut and dried, that isn’t always the case abroad. The line between a bribe and a “grease payment” moves depending on the country you are working in.

Complying with regulatory changes—both at home and in a host country—can be a major challenge. Among the regulatory challenges, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) is well known to US businesses, and those that do business with them, as an inevitable stumbling block when engaging in cross-border trade and investment with American companies. The FCPA addresses transparency issues related to securities trading and the more commonly known anti-bribery provisions, which make it unlawful for a US person—and certain foreign issuers of securities—to make a payment to a foreign official for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business for or with, or directing business to, any person.

While the act has been successful in helping to curb corruption and bribery, it has also served to place many US businesses at a distinct comparative disadvantage in the global marketplace: The FCPA can make it more difficult for US companies and individuals to be competitive internationally. While anti-corruption legislation has either been adopted, or is in the process of being adopted, in a number of other countries, many countries do not have such requirements, and in some countries, bribes are even tax deductible. It is important for US companies or persons doing business abroad to understand the FCPA.

Bribery vs. Grease Payment

The Act draws a distinction between bribery and facilitation or grease payments, which may be permissible under the FCPA, but may still violate local laws. This can be problematic because the line between what constitutes bribery versus a grease payment is often unclear.

The FCPA generally prohibits US or non-US persons from offering, giving, paying, or promising to pay money or anything of value to any foreign government official, foreign political party, or candidate funds for the purpose of influencing them, gaining improper advantage, or retaining or directing business. Anything of value can mean: gifts, product discounts, meals, entertainment, travel expenses, company shares, or benefits extended to family members of foreign officials. The act defines corruption as an illegal or wrongful motive or purpose, intent to wrongfully influence a recipient, or a violation of local or international law. You can be held responsible if you had knowledge of wrongdoing, either as actual knowledge, conscious disregard, or willful ignorance. While proving you did not know of wrongdoing is burdensome, it generally can be done. The real challenge is in defining what constitutes facilitation payments—those gray areas that are difficult to navigate.

Facilitation payments can include gratuities given to government officials to perform “routine” actions that do not involve the exercise of discretion, as well as reasonable expenditures related directly to the performance of a contract with a foreign agency or government, the promotion of products or services, business relationships with foreign officials, and third-party relationships (i.e., with consultants, agents, distributors, or other parties acting on your behalf). It may also include service relationships (e.g., conducting clinical trials or research services for your company), charitable donations, and marketing and promotional practices, so US businesses must be cognizant of the need to comply with FCPA almost at every turn.

The penalty for violating the FCPA can include civil or criminal fines of up to $2 million (or two times the gross gain to the organization), forfeiture of assets, and imprisonment and fines for individuals. Collateral penalties may include disbarment from government contracting or loss of export privileges.

Avoiding a Violation

Many US investigations tend to take an industry focus (such as with oil and gas, medical device or pharmaceuticals, and telecommunications). Going forward, other industries are likely to be in the cross-hairs, such as airlines and financial services.

There is increased cross-communication by governments about violations, and prosecution of individuals remains an enforcement priority. The expectations of governments when evaluating compliance programs have risen. All businesses are required to keep detailed records that accurately reflect transactions.

Internal accounting procedures should ensure that accounts and financial records are accurate for external reporting purposes. Books must be audited at reasonable intervals. Failure to comply with local law can be perceived as an indication of corrupt intent, however, compliance with local law does not by itself ensure compliance with the FCPA. Lawyers familiar with FCPA compliance—both at home and abroad—are your best source for guidance here.

Unless a business is actually requested to produce such records for an audit or investigation, they will ordinarily simply be reviewed by corporate management. Under the Dodd-Frank whistleblower provisions (passed in 2011), fewer independent compliance monitors are being appointed. As a result, companies must self-assess and self-report, which increases corporate incentives to beef up their compliance and reporting capabilities. Civil litigation related to FCPA has become more routine, as are shareholder lawsuits, wrongful termination lawsuits, and lawsuits brought by government customers, all of which implies the need for companies to routinely update and monitor compliance. The best way to ensure that you are compliant is to consult regularly with a accountant or lawyer experienced in this area.

The US government can and does use FCPA accounting provisions to charge companies with activities that are not specifically addressed by FCPA anti-bribery provisions, such as commercial bribery and bribery of foreign officials without a specific US link. This raises the question, what exactly constitutes a “foreign” official when state-owned or -controlled companies are at issue, and just what establishes territorial jurisdiction in the US? The answers to these questions may be different in each instance.

More and more countries are adopting laws intended to reduce or eliminate corruption and bribery in cross-border transactions. The UK recently adopted a modified version of the FCPA with the Bribery Act, which introduces a more commonsense approach to the subject. It is presumed other governments will do the same, for while the FCPA has served a useful purpose, it remains stuck in another era. In today’s dynamic and ever-changing international business landscape, US businesses would really benefit from a less absolutist approach to the subject. But until and unless the FCPA is modified to take these new realities into consideration, US businesses have little choice but to beef up their compliance and monitoring capabilities.

Author Information:

Daniel Wagner is CEO of Country Risk Solutions, a cross-border risk management firm; director of global strategy with the PRS Group; and author of the forthcoming book Managing Country Risk. For more information, visit countryrisksolutions.com.

5 Things Not to Miss on NYReport.com

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:13 +0000

Contest winners, brand new videos, and more

February 1, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

And the Winner Is…

In our December/January issue we announced our Facebook and Twitter company profile contest. We’ve picked our winners, and profiles of their companies will soon be appearing on nyreport.com/contestwinners. Watch this space!

Drinks with Rob

We have a new video feature for nyreport.com readers, featuring our CEO and publisher Robert Levin speaking to prominent business owners from the NYC area over a beer or two. Keep an eye on nyreport.com/videos and get in touch to suggest business owners or venues—or drinks—you’d like to see.

Catch Up with NY Report

Happy 2012! Have you missed us? This January we’ve been busy on nyreport.com with our Accelerate 2012 series, featuring four areas for growing your business. If you missed out, don’t worry—you can catch up with all the exclusive online content at nyreport.com/accelerate.

NYReport.com’s Top 5 Blogs

The most popular blogs NY Report readers have been clicking on last month:

1. 5 Cost-Effective Online Solutions to Grow Your Business

2. 5 Essential Biz Apps You’ve Never Heard Of

3. Embracing the Unbalanced Life

4. Before You Hire a PR Firm

5. Use Your Time Wisely

Go International

Our recent International Business Opportunities Conference was a big success—we hope you thought so too! Read our recap of the event here and see some of the highlights on nyreport.com/videos.

Author Information:

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:08 +0000

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

February 1, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

We asked some area business owners who inspired them. Here is what they told us:

Ben Lerer, Manager of Lerer Ventures and the co-founder and CEO of Thrillist.com

“This is an easy one. My dad is definitely the entrepreneur who inspires me most. Not only is he my dad, which gives him a significant advantage over other entrepreneurs, but he’s also the person who made me believe that I could start and build my own business. Growing up in a house where my father always worked for himself (first starting and selling Robinson, Lake, Lerer & Montgomery and later starting and selling The Huffington Post with Arianna Huffington), I automatically assumed that it was normal for people to build their own companies and be successful doing it.”

Mark Cuban, Owner of the Dallas Mavericks and co-founder of Broadcast.com and MicroSolutions

“I looked up to Ted Turner, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Paul Allen. They were the rock stars when I was getting started.”

Daymond John, Founder of FUBU and Shark Branding

“Steven Spielberg did it all. He didn’t just create films, he created culture. Jaws began the ‘blockbuster’ era in the 1970s, while E.T. and Jurassic Park shaped science fiction as a brand in the decades to follow. He’s a visionary leader and sets an example for entrepreneurs—he’s not only dedicated to his industry, he’s dedicated to his family. It isn’t easy to become one of the most influential people of our time and still make it home in time to raise children, but Spielberg proves that it’s possible.”

Tamsen Fadal, Co-founder of Spiritual Awakenings Jewelry, co-founder of The Love Consultants, and host of WPIX-TV Morning News

“Marcia Kilgore is the ultimate entrepreneur to me—three massive brands in one woman. The day I interviewed her about her brand FitFlops, she told me what is takes to really make an idea work. I will never forget her enthusiasm, it was contagious. If her name sounds familiar she is also the face behind Bliss Spa and the line Soap and Glory and I have a feeling she is not finished yet.”

Marcia Kilgore, Founder of FitFlops, Soap and Glory, Bliss

"Love the guys from Innocent Smoothies. They set up a blender, some cups, a bucket that said YES, and a bucket that said NO. Over the buckets they hung a sign that said, 'SHOULD WE QUIT OUR JOBS AND START MAKING THESE SMOOTHIES' and asked customers to put their used cups in either bucket. They took count of t he used cups at the end of the day and took the plunge (or so says industry legend)."

Michael Dorf, Founder of the Knitting Factory and City Winery

“Steve Jobs, of course. His focus on detail and user experience is beyond anyone I am aware of. Bill Graham and Isaac Tigrett are inspirations for each developing live music venues with a sense of style and personality. It is hard to not be impressed with Richard Branson’s charm and pizzazz. I love Bloomberg; I think he takes an entrepreneurial approach to politics and running the city.”

Dina Kaplan, co-founder of Blip.tv

"I love Caterina Fake (co-founder of Flickr and Hunch) because she is strong and fierce and a great entrepreneur."

Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City and founder of Bloomberg L.P.

“New York City has always been a magnet for dreamers and builders, and today we are experiencing an incredible renaissance of New York’s entrepreneurial spirit. When I visit companies like Foursquare or Etsy or Seamless or NextJump that are growing rapidly and creating new jobs, and I talk to the founders about their experiences, I’m inspired by the creativity and innovation that drives them. It wasn’t so long ago that I was in their shoes, working on the prototype for the Bloomberg terminal that no one thought would ever work. I know how hard they’re working to make their dreams a reality— and by building dynamic new companies, they’re making an enormous difference in the future of our city.”

Amos Winbush III, Founder and CEO of CyberSynchs

“The entrepreneur that has both inspired me and impacted the way I live my life is Oprah. Mainly because she always focuses on true intent and living your best life and that is something that guides me personally and professionally. When I discuss any topic with my team, such as product development or marketing, I begin with intention. I have discovered when the intention is stated and expectations are set, the team has the creative ability to produce a product built with that stated intention at heart and it flows through to the user or viewer. For example, if we are looking to release a product at CyberSynchs that is about protecting data, then the intention is to protect. So, as a team we can come together, not to make millions, but rather to create the best product
possible that will protect. With Oprah, she shows her intentions before she does anything else and it’s truly inspiring.”

Pamella Roland, Creative director, pamella roland

“That’s an easy one for me—my fatherin- law, Richard M. DeVos, co-founder of Amway Corporation. Not only is he one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time, he also has never lost sight of the things he holds most dear—his family, his faith, and his country. He has had a huge positive impact on countless people, many of whom he has not even met. His entrepreneurial spirit has also been a tremendous inspiration to me with my fashion company.”

Summer Rayne Oakes, Co-founder of Source4Style

“Damon Horowitz (technologist/philosopher), the co-founder of Aardvark (sold to Google in 2010), and currently in-house philosopher at Google. I admire Damon not only for his brilliance when it comes to business, but also for never losing sight of what’s of key importance to him, which is the humanities. He knows that life unquestioned is life lived in a religious state. We’re blessed to have Damon as one of our key advisors to Source4Style.”

Liz Lange, Founder and president of Liz Lange Maternity

“Like most people who start their own businesses, I have been inspired by many great entrepreneurs, whose autobiographies I cannot get enough of. At the moment, like so many others, I am obsessed with Steve Jobs. There are too many reasons why to possibly list them all here, but he of course has some of the best quotes of all time on the subject. Perhaps his description of entrepreneurship can be summed up in this one short Steve Jobs quote: ‘It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy.’ Genius.”

Rosie Pope, Co-founder of Rosie Pope Maternity, LLC

“Since the inception of her company in 2004, Tory Burch has mastered the art of branding, which I think has been one of the most significant contributors to the success of her company. As a woman in the industry, I have a deep appreciation for her ability to stay true to her classic, all-American, luxury style, while still keeping her line relevant and interesting. Both her style and savvy business skills serve as inspiration to me as I continue to expand my own company. Tory’s uber success has been enriched in my opinion by her starting the Tory Burch Foundation to support the economic empowerment of families and children.

A woman this successful in business, in fashion, and in philanthropy is a lady after my own heart and I have nothing but admiration for her and continue to be excited about what she will do next.”

Daron Pope, Co-founder of Rosie Pope Maternity, LLC

“S. Truett Cathy, founder and chairman of Chick-fil-A, Inc., built a dominant quick-service restaurant chain over the last 45 years, and in doing so, has preserved the critical core values that continue to make the Chick-fil-A brand an exceptional quality offering and an entirely unique dining experience. The quality of the brand is spread evenly across smile-inducing customer service, a clean and consistent dining experience, and a menu that is always off the charts. They achieve what other quick-service restaurants dream of achieving in only 86 percent of the time (six of seven days). Closed on Sundays, Chick-fil-A prides itself in sacrificing one business day a week so that its employees can spend important time away from work and focus attention on things that matter more than business. Over the years, the methodology of opening stores and careful growth has also been extremely sound.”

Keith Belling, Co-founder and CEO of popchips

“Steve Jobs and Richard Branson top the list, along with Gary Friedman. All of them are passionate, fearless, and incredibly creative and obsessed with details.”

Daymond John photographed by John Halpern. Michael Dorf photographed by George Koroneos.

Author Information:

Majority of New York State’s Businesses in Favor of Health Insurance Exchanges

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:03 +0000

Many small businesses feel health insurances exchanges are a good idea

February 1, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

According to a survey of the owners of 300 businesses in New York State with 50 employees or fewer, the majority of respondents are in favor of health insurance exchanges. The survey was commissioned by HealthPass New York, a NYC-based commercial health insurance exchange, and it found that 84 percent of respondents describe health insurance exchanges as a “good idea” after reading a description of the proposed New York State SHOP (Small Business Health Options Program) Exchange.

According to the federal Affordable Care Act of 2010, states are required to create their own exchanges by 2014 to give small businesses access to affordable health care coverage, or be included in a federal exchange. The survey also found that more than three-fourths of respondents (76 percent) would consider using a health insurance exchange when enrolling their employees in a health benefits program. Among businesses that do not currently provide health insurance to their employees, six in ten (60 percent) said they would be more likely to offer coverage if an exchange was available.

Author Information:

Businesses Spending More on Federal Contracts

mcourt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:03 +0000

Small business contractors are spending more time and money on federal contracting

February 1, 2012

25Founders: Who Do You Turn to for Advice?

Our 25 Founders reveal who they turn to for advice when times get tough

Inspired: Entrepreneurs We Love

Where do some of NY’s successful entrepreneurs look to fortify their resolve? Fellow entrepreneurs, of course.

How to Decipher Buyer Behavior with Google Analytics

Using this powerful tool can increase the efficiency of your company’s website

Market Smarter, Not Harder

How to create more opportunities in 2012

Forget Customer Loyalty—Your Employees Matter More

Democratize your workplace and watch your business grow

Latest Posts

Help Wanted: Low Wages, Constant Danger

5 Ways to Ensure Your Click-Wrap Agreements Work

You Can Raise Prices, Even In This Economy

Guidelines to Live By for 2012

Why NY Report Exists

A survey from American Express OPEN of 740 active small business contractors found that there has been more than a 20 percent increase in the amount of time and money they invested seeking federal contracting opportunities. The survey also found that even though the amount of money spent has risen, both bidding activity and the average rates of success have declined. Businesses reported that they had to submit an average of 4.4 bids before they won their first prime federal contract.

Author Information:

NY Report

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