by Neil Patel
Here are 53 things to keep in mind if you want to be a better entrepreneur:
1. Don’t let emotions cloud your decisions.
2. Accept criticism, no matter who gives it to you.
3. Never stop networking.
4. Learn from your own mistakes.
5. Learn from other people’s mistakes.
6. Around every corner lies an opportunity for you to sell something.
7. Don’t get too greedy… pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.
8. Try not to mix your family life with your business life.
9. No matter how successful you are, you shouldn’t stop learning.
10. Spending money on good lawyers and accountants will save you more money in the long run.
11. Don’t pick a stupid company name and if you do, don’t change it later on.
12. Hiring employees won’t solve most of your problems.
13. Be agile because slow and steady won’t win the race.
14. Being agile isn’t enough, you also have to be scrappy too.
15. Having a good business partner will be a key factor in your success.
16. Don’t be afraid of the unknown.
17. It is easier to save money than it is to make it.
18. You don’t always have to innovate; there is nothing wrong with copying.
19. Have a marketing plan.
20. Don’t under estimate your competition; you can’t always know what they are doing.
21. Watching movies like Boiler Room, will teach you how to sell.
22. If you don’t have a business mentor, you better get one.
23. Your income will be the average of your 5 closest friends, so pick them wisely.
24. Diversifying is a good way to play things safe.
25. It doesn’t matter what you want, it only matters what your customers want.
26. When others are fearful, you should be greedy. And when they are greedy you should be fearful.
27. You don’t always have to pay for advice. You’ll be amazed with the free advice you can get pick up from the web.
28. The best chances you have of becoming rich is through your willingness of working hard.
29. Even the most idiotic business idea can make money.
30. Sex sells and it always will.
31. An easy way to make more money is to up sell to your current customer base.
32. Base your business decisions around metrics.
33. There is no such thing as a safe bet.
34. You don’t have to start a business to be successful.
35. Raising venture capital is harder than being struck by lightening.
36. Staying under the radar isn’t always a bad thing. Being out in the open is a great way to attract more competitors.
37. Learn to be a team player.
38. If you ever get screwed over, think twice before you burn the bridge.
39. Learn to manage both your personal and business money.
40. Live in a location filled with entrepreneurs.
41. If you don’t take any risks, there will not be any rewards.
42. Don’t let anything stand in your way.
43. Sometimes you have to wait for good deals to come to you.
44. The smartest route isn’t always the easiest route.
45. Being too aggressive can backfire.
46. With networking, it isn’t about whom you know, it is about whom your network knows.
47. It’s never a bad thing to know too many rich people. Whether you like them or not, they can always come in handy. So make sure you always play nice with them.
48. Use your email signature to promote your business.
49. Don’t be afraid of social media. It is a great channel for customer acquisition.
50. You’ll learn more from starting your own business, than going to business school.
51. Having a personal blog doesn’t only help build your personal brand, but it helps your business as well.
52. Your competitors don’t have to be your enemies, you can learn a lot from them.
53. You can grow your business by working for free.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Both social networking leader Facebook and "upstart network" Twitter both posted triple-digit growth in 2009.
Social networking now accounts for 11 percent of all time spent online in the US. Both social networking leader Facebook and "upstart network" Twitter both posted triple-digit growth.
Facebook surged to the number 1 position among social networks for the first time in May 2009, and continued its strong growth trajectory throughout the year - finishing with 112 million visitors in December 2009, up 105 percent during the year.
Twitter finished the year with nearly 20 million visitors to its website, up from just 2 million visitors from the previous year.
According to comScore's "The 2009 U.S. Digital Year in Review" report nearly four out of five US Internet users visited a social networking site in December 2009.
Twitter's audience growth occurred during the first few months of 2009 - at one point jumping from 4 million visitors to 17 million visitors between February and April.
Former social leader MySpace lost ground to Facebook. comScore report that its new strategic focus on entertainment content is working with MySpace Music growing 92 percent in the past year.
MySpace saw its user composition shift toward younger audience segments in 2009, with people age 24 and younger now comprising 44.4 percent of the site's audience, up more than 7 percentage points from the previous year.
Facebook grew substantially across nearly every performance metric in 2009. Unique visitors, page views, and total time spent all increased by a factor of two or more.
Frequency metrics such as average minutes per usage day (up 6 percent) and average usage days per visitors (up 37 percent) also saw gains.
Facebook's audience was evenly split between those younger and older than 35 years of age. The most noticeable demographic shift on Facebook during the year occurred with 25-34 year olds, who now account for 23 percent of the audience, up from 18.8 percent last year.
As more people use Facebook more frequently, the site has grown to account for three times as much total time spent online as it did last year.
The only metric by which Facebook decreased was the average minutes per visit (down 11 percent), which can likely be attributed to the increasing frequency with which people are visiting the site - says comScore.
As Twitter's audience grew in 2009, the site experienced interesting shifts in its demographic composition.
The initial success of Twitter was largely driven by users in the 25-54 year old age segment, which made up 65 percent of all visitors to the site in December 2008, with 18-24 year olds accounting for just 9 percent of visitors.
This older age skew varied dramatically from the traditional social media early adopter model, in which younger users tend to drive the lion's share of usage.
Despite Twitter's initially older skew, as it gained widespread popularity with the help of celebrity Tweeters and mainstream media coverage, younger users flooded to the site in large numbers, with those under age 18 (up 6.2 percentage points) and 18-24 year olds (up 7.9 percentage points) representing the fastest growing demographic segments.
Facebook surged to the number 1 position among social networks for the first time in May 2009, and continued its strong growth trajectory throughout the year - finishing with 112 million visitors in December 2009, up 105 percent during the year.
Twitter finished the year with nearly 20 million visitors to its website, up from just 2 million visitors from the previous year.
According to comScore's "The 2009 U.S. Digital Year in Review" report nearly four out of five US Internet users visited a social networking site in December 2009.
Twitter's audience growth occurred during the first few months of 2009 - at one point jumping from 4 million visitors to 17 million visitors between February and April.
Former social leader MySpace lost ground to Facebook. comScore report that its new strategic focus on entertainment content is working with MySpace Music growing 92 percent in the past year.
MySpace saw its user composition shift toward younger audience segments in 2009, with people age 24 and younger now comprising 44.4 percent of the site's audience, up more than 7 percentage points from the previous year.
Facebook grew substantially across nearly every performance metric in 2009. Unique visitors, page views, and total time spent all increased by a factor of two or more.
Frequency metrics such as average minutes per usage day (up 6 percent) and average usage days per visitors (up 37 percent) also saw gains.
Facebook's audience was evenly split between those younger and older than 35 years of age. The most noticeable demographic shift on Facebook during the year occurred with 25-34 year olds, who now account for 23 percent of the audience, up from 18.8 percent last year.
As more people use Facebook more frequently, the site has grown to account for three times as much total time spent online as it did last year.
The only metric by which Facebook decreased was the average minutes per visit (down 11 percent), which can likely be attributed to the increasing frequency with which people are visiting the site - says comScore.
As Twitter's audience grew in 2009, the site experienced interesting shifts in its demographic composition.
The initial success of Twitter was largely driven by users in the 25-54 year old age segment, which made up 65 percent of all visitors to the site in December 2008, with 18-24 year olds accounting for just 9 percent of visitors.
This older age skew varied dramatically from the traditional social media early adopter model, in which younger users tend to drive the lion's share of usage.
Despite Twitter's initially older skew, as it gained widespread popularity with the help of celebrity Tweeters and mainstream media coverage, younger users flooded to the site in large numbers, with those under age 18 (up 6.2 percentage points) and 18-24 year olds (up 7.9 percentage points) representing the fastest growing demographic segments.
ALBUM SALES 2/11/2010
| LW | TW | artist / album | label | power index | % change | |
| 1 | 1 | LADY ANTEBELLUM | CAPITOL NASHVILLE/EMI | 201,426 | -58% | |
| NEED YOU NOW | ||||||
| -- | 2 | LIL WAYNE | CASH MONEY/UNIV MOTOWN | 173,821 | -- | |
| REBIRTH | ||||||
| -- | 3 | NICK JONAS & THE ADMINISTRATION | HOLLYWOOD | 83,963 | -- | |
| WHO I AM | ||||||
| 3 | 4 | LADY GAGA | INTERSCOPE | 83,520 | +25% | |
| FAME | ||||||
| 10 | 5 | BLACK EYED PEAS | INTERSCOPE | 70,462 | +77% | |
| E.N.D. (ENERGY NEVER DIES) | ||||||
| 8 | 6 | 2010 GRAMMY NOMINEES | CAPITOL/EMI | 69,728 | +63% | |
| VARIOUS ARTISTS | ||||||
| 12 | 7 | TAYLOR SWIFT | BIG MACHINE | 52,155 | +55% | |
| FEARLESS | ||||||
| 6 | 8 | SUSAN BOYLE | COLUMBIA | 46,716 | -16% | |
| I DREAMED A DREAM | ||||||
| -- | 9 | ROB ZOMBIE | ROADRUNNER | 44,027 | -- | |
| HELLBILLY DELUXE 2 | ||||||
| 23 | 10 | ZAC BROWN BAND | ATLANTIC | 39,239 | +79% | |
| FOUNDATION | ||||||
| 39 | 11 | BEYONCE | MUSIC WORLD/COLUMBIA | 36,922 | +158% | |
| I AM... SASHA FIERCE | ||||||
| 14 | 12 | LADY GAGA | INTERSCOPE | 34,316 | +11% | |
| FAME MONSTER (EP) | ||||||
| 11 | 13 | ALICIA KEYS | J RECORDS/RMG | 33,739 | -13% | |
| ELEMENT OF FREEDOM | ||||||
| -- | 14 | P!NK | LAFACE/JLG | 32,630 | -- | |
| FUNHOUSE | ||||||
| 4 | 15 | MICHAEL JACKSON | EPIC | 32,333 | -45% | |
| THIS IS IT | ||||||
| 29 | 16 | CARRIE UNDERWOOD | 19/ARISTA NASHVILLE | 32,047 | +76% | |
| PLAY ON | ||||||
| 17 | 17 | MARY J. BLIGE | GEFFEN | 29,860 | +3% | |
| STRONGER WITH EACH TEAR | ||||||
| 16 | 18 | KE$HA | KEMOSABE/RCA/RMG | 29,787 | -1% | |
| ANIMAL | ||||||
| 2 | 19 | HOPE FOR HAITI NOW | HOPE FOR HAITI | 29,013 | -79% | |
| VARIOUS ARTISTS | ||||||
| 19 | 20 | JUSTIN BIEBER | ISLAND/IDJMG | 28,860 | +9% | |
| MY WORLD | ||||||
| 15 | 21 | LADY ANTEBELLUM | CAPITOL NASHVILLE/EMI | 25,982 | -16% | |
| LADY ANTEBELLUM | ||||||
| 20 | 22 | MICHAEL BUBLE | REPRISE | 25,197 | -3% | |
| CRAZY LOVE | ||||||
| 21 | 23 | RIHANNA | DEF JAM/IDJ | 24,543 | 0% | |
| RATED R | ||||||
| 35 | 24 | KINGS OF LEON | RCA/RMG | 23,863 | +61% | |
| ONLY BY THE NIGHT | ||||||
| 13 | 25 | KIDZ BOP KIDS | RAZOR & TIE | 22,992 | -28% | |
| KIDZ BOP 17 | ||||||
| 24 | 26 | ALVIN & THE CHIPMUNKS | RHINO | 22,970 | +5% | |
| THE SQUEAKQUEL | ||||||
| 37 | 27 | JAY-Z | ROC NATION/ATLANTIC | 20,306 | +40% | |
| BLUEPRINT 3 | ||||||
| 26 | 28 | YOUNG MONEY | CASH MONEY/UNIV MOTOWN | 19,956 | +2% | |
| WE ARE YOUNG MONEY | ||||||
| 27 | 29 | OWL CITY | UNIVERSAL REPUBLIC | 19,759 | +5% | |
| OCEAN EYES | ||||||
| 30 | 30 | NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL MUSIC | SONY MUSIC | 19,135 | +9% | |
| NOW 32 | ||||||
| 40 | 31 | EMINEM | SHADY/AFTERMATH/INT | 19,031 | +34% | |
| RELAPSE | ||||||
| 33 | 32 | JASON ALDEAN | BROKEN BOW | 18,734 | +17% | |
| WIDE OPEN | ||||||
| 43 | 33 | TREY SONGZ | ATLANTIC | 18,209 | +44% | |
| READY | ||||||
| 31 | 34 | MICHAEL JACKSON | EPIC | 18,019 | +9% | |
| NUMBER ONES | ||||||
| 22 | 35 | VAMPIRE WEEKEND | XL/BEGGARS | 17,663 | -26% | |
| CONTRA | ||||||
| 25 | 36 | JOHN MAYER | COLUMBIA | 17,120 | -18% | |
| BATTLE STUDIES | ||||||
| 7 | 37 | CORINNE BAILEY RAE | CAPITOL/EMI | 16,990 | -68% | |
| THE SEA | ||||||
| 36 | 38 | MELANIE FIONA | SRC/UNIVERSAL MOTOWN | 16,640 | +14% | |
| THE BRIDGE | ||||||
| 9 | 39 | CELTIC WOMAN | MANHATTAN/EMI | 16,044 | -60% | |
| SONGS FROM THE HEART | ||||||
| 32 | 40 | NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL LOVE | CAPITOL/EMI | 15,500 | -4% | |
| VARIOUS ARTISTS | ||||||
| 42 | 41 | SELENA GOMEZ & THE SCENE | HOLLYWOOD | 14,942 | +15% | |
| KISS & TELL | ||||||
| -- | 42 | MAXWELL | COLUMBIA | 14,363 | -- | |
| BLACKSUMMERS'NIGHT | ||||||
| 45 | 43 | NICKELBACK | ROADRUNNER | 14,091 | +14% | |
| DARK HORSE | ||||||
| 41 | 44 | ROBIN THICKE | STAR TRAK/INTERSCOPE | 13,914 | -1% | |
| SEX THERAPY | ||||||
| 48 | 45 | GUCCI MANE | WARNER BROS. | 13,848 | +28% | |
| STATE VS. RADRIC DAVIS | ||||||
| 38 | 46 | ADAM LAMBERT | 19/RCA/RMG | 13,467 | -6% | |
| FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT | ||||||
| -- | 47 | DAVE MATTHEWS BAND | RCA/RMG | 13,004 | -- | |
| BIG WHISKEY & THE GROOGRUX KING | ||||||
| -- | 48 | CRAZY HEART | NEW WEST RECORDS | 12,935 | -- | |
| SOUNDTRACK | ||||||
| 44 | 49 | DARIUS RUCKER | CAPITOL NASHVILLE/EMI | 12,747 | +1% | |
| LEARN TO LIVE | ||||||
| 18 | 50 | SPOON | MERGE | 12,523 | -54% | |
| TRANSFERENCE | ||||||
Sunday, February 7, 2010
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