tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32172039564777898062024-03-07T23:13:39.449-08:00Adrinafanore Business Blogtako yalichavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03410140062373886581noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217203956477789806.post-45388176841782301582017-09-26T16:18:00.005-07:002017-09-26T16:18:48.841-07:00Numark TTUSB Review<br /><br /><img height="400" src="https://img.purch.com/r/520x520/aHR0cDovL3d3dy50b3B0ZW5yZXZpZXdzLmNvbS9pL3Jldi9wcm9kL2xhcmdlLzUyODM5LW51bm1hcmstdHR1c2ItYm94LmpwZw==" width="400" /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />PROS / It has antiskating and pitch adjustment.<br /><br />CONS / It has difficulties removing the imperfections on old records.<br /><br />VERDICT / The turntable and software make it easy to convert LPs to digital formats, but make sure the records are in good shape or the conversions might have issues.<br /><br /><br />The <b><a href="http://numarkmixtrack.com/numark-turntables/">Numark Turntables</a></b> TTUSB is an LP to digital converter that comes with the program EZ Vinyl/Tape Converter that walks you through the process of turning your LPs into digital audio files. We especially enjoyed this software because it takes all the guesswork out of converting LPs. You plug your turntable into your computer via USB and the program takes you step by step through the process. This allows first-time users to successfully convert LPs to digital formats without a hitch.<br /><br />During our conversion tests, we had mixed results. One of our LP conversions was unlistenable, with static and scratches that got increasingly louder toward the end of the song. The conversion of a brand new Jack White LP didn't have any abrasive scratching, but it did lack volume and definition compared to a digital download of the same song. The panning was also off, where the guitar solo in the song was far less prominent than in the digital download.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />We also converted a 45 by The Beatles. We chose this particular album because it was not in good shape. It has its share of scratches and is slightly warped. This didn't do the vinyl converter turntable any favors. The turntable picked up plenty of static as well as some distortion when the entire band accompanies the piano. There were also some panning issues where the guitar solo was much further in the background than it was in the digital download. There were other turntables we tested that sounded overall worse than the Numark, but many others had more successful conversions.<br /><br />The Numark TTUSB has all the makings of a quality converter turntable. It features a belt drive motor to reduce noise during conversion, anti-skate control that keeps the needle from skipping, and a counterweight to help put the right amount of pressure from the stylus on the vinyl. It also has a pitch adjust slider on the tabletop in case you need to make minor adjustments to the sound of your record.<br /><br />This USB turntable does not have built-in speakers or an automatic start/stop feature that stops the platter from spinning once the record is done playing. It comes with all the cables you'll need.tako yalichavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03410140062373886581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217203956477789806.post-73444638326429103082017-04-17T09:29:00.000-07:002017-04-15T09:50:26.282-07:00Which Selling Technique Will Best Benefit Your Business?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://assets.entrepreneur.com/content/16x9/822/20150401191627-red-sox-mlb-baseball-ortiz-big-papi.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://assets.entrepreneur.com/content/16x9/822/20150401191627-red-sox-mlb-baseball-ortiz-big-papi.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Not all products or services are created equal in terms of the strategy you use to sell them. And, not all customers are created equal, in terms of how sophisticated they are about your product line and how much they may need your product or service.<br />
What's more, selling into different levels of an organization often requires different types of selling techniques, in order to get customers' attention. Below, I've summarized the three most typical selling techniques used today.<br />
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1. Product selling</h2>
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Product selling is exactly what it sounds like: selling the advantages or features of a specific product or service. With product selling, the questions from customers are predictable. Products are used in similar ways by customers. Prices are typically set. Marketing materials are standardized. And salespeople typically require a lot of formal training. Product selling deals are typically conducted with low-to-mid-level employees of the customer’s organization.<br />
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2. Solution selling</h2>
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Solution selling goes beyond simply selling products or services. Here, you are trying to focus on a customer’s pain point, and address how your product or service is the best solution. The bigger the pain point (e.g., this product/service can dramatically reduce costs, improve customer service or open up new revenues streams), the more your solution is needed.<br />
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With solution selling, customer questions are unpredictable and typically require research. In addition, the solutions vary from customer to customer. Prices can vary substantially based on the level of services provided. Sales reps customize marketing materials to the specific customer's needs. And the salesperson usually needs to train in order to gain a deep understanding of the situation. Solution selling deals are typically conducted with mid-to-high-level employees within a customer’s organization.<br />
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In 1998, Neil Rackham published the popular book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0070511136/">SPIN Selling</a> to help create a process for solution selling. "SPIN" stands for the four sequential steps of the process, and the right types of questions to ask in each step: 1. Situation questions where you collect facts (e.g., simply learn where the customer is today); 2. Problem questions to ask in order to identify problems (e.g., what is not working in the current situation); 3. Implication questions to learn the consequences of problems (e.g., quantifying the scope of the problems); and 4. Need-payoff questions to identify the value payoff of a solution (e.g., quantifying the economic lift from the solution to the problem. Possibilities include new revenues, lower expenses and better customer service benefit).<br />
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SPIN selling gives your salesperson a playbook to work from in selling your solution.<br />
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3. Insight selling</h2>
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Don't confuse solution selling with insight selling, which has become more broadly used in today’s era of big data and big analytics. With insight selling, the pain point is unknown to the customer. You are helping your customer to identify a problem that he or she did not know even existed, opening a space in which you can easily sell your product or service. <br />
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With insight selling, your salesperson is actually playing the role of business coach or strategy consultant to the client, holding their hands through the process of buying and implementing your solution. Insight sales deals are typically made at the high-to-executive levels of a customer’s organization, with the people who care the most about taking their business to the next level of success.<br />
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The common mistake startups make</h2>
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Aas you can see, sales is not a “one size fits all” solution. You need to employ the right tactics and hire the right type of salespeople, to fulfill whichever of the above techniques is most relevant for your business. The biggest mistake most entrepreneurs is to focus too directly on just selling their product. Oten, they forget to think about the solutions and insights their product offers customers (which could make it a much easier sale). <br />
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So, do a critical assessment of your needs, and more importantly your customer’s needs, then plan accordingly.<br />
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Be sure to read my companion piece, <a href="http://redrocketvc.blogspot.com/2014/09/lesson-187-1024-types-of-salespeople.html">"The 1,024 Types of Salespersons -- Hire the Right Ones,"</a> to make sure you recruit the best sales team for your specific needs. As you will learn, not all salespersons are created equal, and hiring the right person can make or break your success.tako yalichavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03410140062373886581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217203956477789806.post-39486333136370351202017-03-29T09:50:00.000-07:002017-04-16T01:26:33.044-07:006 Practical Steps to Learning How to Build a Startup<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://assets.entrepreneur.com/content/16x9/822/20141223182153-come-up-idea-business.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://assets.entrepreneur.com/content/16x9/822/20141223182153-come-up-idea-business.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Despite the rush in every academic institution to offer more courses on entrepreneurship, I still haven’t found it to be something you can learn in school. Of course, you can pick up the basic principles this way, but the problem is that the practical rules for success are changing so fast that no academic can keep up. The best thing you can learn in school is how to learn.<br />
The successful entrepreneurs I have met and worked with over the years all seem to share that passion for learning, and they see rapid market change not as a problem, but as an opportunity for them to move ahead of the crowd in changing the world. Making big money is usually the last thing on their mind, and most are happy living on Ramen noodles in a sparse apartment.<br />
From a practical standpoint, there are many ways to learn about business change, and the opportunities that may spring up at any moment. Here are six steps that every aspiring entrepreneur should take full advantage of:<br />
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1. Communicate with peers who have “been there and done that.”</h2>
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The common term for this is networking, but I find that many aspiring entrepreneurs like to do all the talking about their latest new idea and fail to listen. You don’t learn anything while talking. Successful entrepreneurs love to share, but they respond better to pull rather than push.<br />
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2. Research current success stories and role models.</h2>
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The Internet is better than the Library of Congress or any university, since it changes daily to keep up with reality and is interactive. Reserve some time each day for your favorite blogs and influencers, follow up with social networking and expand your personal contacts offline.<br />
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3. Find a business mentor, as well as a friend.</h2>
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A mentor is someone who will tell you what you need to hear, while a friend might tell you what you want to hear. Actually, you need both, and the ability to tell the difference. I find that all entrepreneurs benefit from bouncing their ideas off someone else, and unique perspectives can add real value.<br />
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4. Don’t skip new “learning how to learn opportunities.”</h2>
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These include the classes in school that focus on case studies and team exercises, but extend beyond the academic world to professional and industry seminars. Focus on the opportunities that match your needs for today, since you never know too far ahead what you need to know next.<br />
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5. Volunteer to help organizations related to your interest.</h2>
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There is no better way to broaden your perspective and understand realities than to work in an environment where motivations are positive. You can get real leadership experience and real learning without long-term commitments and financial pressures.<br />
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6. Start your own small business.</h2>
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The cost of entry for an entrepreneur is at an all-time low, with very low incorporation fees in most states, website creation tools for free and the ability to create and offer smartphone apps for a few thousand dollars. Learn from the challenges of a startup with a low-risk idea before you bet it all on the big dream.<br />
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I fully recognize that self-initiated learning is not for everyone. If you are one of those people who likes structured classes and counts on spending a couple of week in the classroom every year to catch up, I don’t recommend the entrepreneur and startup lifestyle. Starting a new and innovative business is not a highly structured process, and finding time for structured learning is unlikely.<br />
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Finally, it is always helpful to check your motivation to be an entrepreneur. If you see it as the path to easy money or as an escape from an existing job or family pressures, it’s time to recognize that learning doesn’t come easily if your heart isn’t in it.<br />
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There is no substitute for doing what you love, and loving what you do. Once you learn to love learning, you too can be a successful entrepreneur.</div>
tako yalichavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03410140062373886581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217203956477789806.post-61992478928855817972017-03-06T03:46:00.000-08:002017-04-16T01:26:18.276-07:00Should a Startup Ever Splurge on Logo Design?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://assets.entrepreneur.com/content/16x9/822/20150414195357-important-roles-startup-ceo-managers-meeting-writing-group-brainstorming-suggestions.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://assets.entrepreneur.com/content/16x9/822/20150414195357-important-roles-startup-ceo-managers-meeting-writing-group-brainstorming-suggestions.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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How much should you spend on a logo?<br />
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I recently asked a friend that owns a branding agency this very question, just to gauge a reaction, and his response was, "how much does it cost to build a house?" Clearly there's a bit of "wise guy" in such a retort, but the reality is he's correct. A logo can cost as little as $5 or upwards of half a million dollars through a top-of-the-line, full-blown branding and marketing agency.<br />
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So where should you and your logo pursuits fall in this enormous span of financial resources?<br />
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The answer to this question is rooted in your current situation -- including items as simple and straightforward as the amount of money you have in the bank to dedicate to a logo, to how far along and developed your brand and voice is. Let’s look at two scenarios that are most likely to apply to your circumstance.<br />
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Early on and bootstrapped.</h2>
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At this point in your venture, you’re clearly scraping by with little money to spare -- so the thought of spending thousands on a logo isn’t exactly reality. The good news is that there are a number of effective options for having a relatively large number of logos produced for a fractional cost -- which can be for as little as $5 at <a href="http://fiverr.com/">fiverr.com</a> to a few hundred with the <a href="http://fourhourworkweek.com/podcast/">Tim Ferriss </a>favorite, <a href="http://99designs.com/">99 Designs</a>.<br />
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Both represent real early options, but with the latter, 99 Designs, offering a rather large number of artists and graphic designers that submit their ideas as options and are vying for your business -- as opposed to Fiverr, which includes you working directly with one individual -- but is also fantastically inexpensive.<br />
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There are certainly a large number of options when it comes to graphic design for your logo -- with <a href="http://bottlekeeper.com/">BottleKeeper</a> we paid $200 to a graphic designer I’d previously worked with to create exactly what we told him to, which worked great for about a year. The difficulty, at least early on, is that you don’t exactly know your brand or brand voice yet, largely due to the fact you haven’t had enough time and interaction to develop it, so there’s absolutely no reason you should be paying someone thousands to attempt to encapsulate what you think might ultimately be your logo.<br />
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Now you’re moving and it’s time to scale.</h2>
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So you’ve been in business for a bit of time -- maybe a year or so -- and you think you have your brand and voice solidly built and defined. You’re also generating some revenue and are, like nearly all startups, re-investing that revenue back into the business to further develop infrastructure, product, sales pipeline, etc. You’ve come to the point where you think your company has outgrown the original logo -- which you spent a pretty small amount of money developing -- and you’re ready to step up your game.<br />
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As of now, there’s a fairly large difference between your previous and current needs, which largely revolve around encapsulating the brand you’ve so diligently built into your logo -- this doesn’t necessarily mean that you must ditch your current logo completely. You very well may be able to tweak or reinvent it in such a way that it better represents your brand.<br />
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At this stage, you’ll be looking for the services of a branding and logo development company that has the expertise necessary to take the brand you’ve built and visually recreate it into something both highly creative and representative. Once you get to this point, you can expect to invest -- yes, invest -- upwards of $5,000 to $10,000.<br />
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It’s key to note that the mindset associated to the following circumstances can change pretty tremendously if you’ve raised a large amount of seed capital -- which is certainly the theme these days -- mainly because you’ve got a few bucks to spend or invest. I will contest, though, that despite having the money -- which technically and legally speaking, isn’t yours -- you should still avoid investing in brand and logo development until you’ve accomplished some important early milestones.tako yalichavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03410140062373886581noreply@blogger.com0