Millennials Spend 18 Hours a Day Consuming Media

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entrepreneurship

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How many hours a day do you spend on Facebook? How about texting friends? Reading magazines? If you're a millennial, it may be more time than you think. New research by social-influence marketing platform Crowdtap indicates that individuals ages 18 to 36 spend an average of 17.8 hours a day with different types of media.

Those hours represent a total across multiple media sources, some of which are consumed simultaneously. For example, a twenty-something may report spending two hours a day on Facebook, an hour a day answering texts and three hours a day watching television, which would count as six hours total, but may only be three "real" hours of her day if she does some of those things at the same time.

"Millennials are always on," says Anna Kassoway, Crowdtap's chief marketing officer. "Some of it is passive consumption. A lot is media hours that are overlapping."

Some forms of media are more important to millennials than others. Social media is a top priority, as 71 percent say that they engage in social media daily. User-generated content -- which encompasses social-media posts, photos, blogs, email, texting and talking to others about media -- occupies about 5.4 hours of the average millennial's day. That's 30 percent of their total daily media consumption.

The only rival to user-generated media is the old standby of traditional media -- print, radio and television – which accounts for 33 percent of millennials' media consumption.

Traditional forms of media may take up more of millennials' time, but user-generated content shapes millennials' lives more than any other form of media. Information gathered through user-generated content is trusted 40 percent more than information from other media – including newspapers and magazines. Millennials also find user-generated content 30 percent more memorable than other sources.

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7 Things Great Entrepreneurs Know

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Great Entrepreneurs

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Leadership is not in your DNA. There is no genetic code for becoming a chief executive or a business owner. We’re all born with a clean slate, more or less. What happens next – your childhood, your upbringing, your education, your experience, your behavior, the choices you make – determines what you become. And what you make of yourself.

It might surprise you to know that growing up with nothing does not diminish your chances of accomplishing great things in your life. On the contrary, growing up with adversity, in a competitive environment, can have a positive impact on your career. It all depends on how you use that experience.

So how about we throw out all the conventional wisdom and popular myths about where leaders and entrepreneurs come from and focus on what really matters: the things you have control over today that can really make a difference in what you achieve going forward.

While there is no common blueprint for success, there are common themes I see again and again in those who do exceptionally well. Here are seven things that, in my experience, every great entrepreneur knows. Most importantly, they’re all within your reach.

There is no four-hour – or 40-hour – workweek. You get out of life what you put in. There are no shortcuts to success. There’s no fad, no silver bullet, no miracle pill that will help you achieve great things without working your tail off. Period.

How to focus. The first rule of a startup is to focus. First you focus on coming up with a breakthrough concept. Then you focus on demonstrating it. Then you focus on delivering it and gaining customer traction. Then you focus on scaling the business. Focus is how things get done. If you can’t focus on what matters and shut out the noise, better not quit your day job.

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Marcus Lemonis: His Entrepreneur Journey And Investing Habits

By Dan Schawbel

As the chairman and CEO of Camping World and Good Sam Enterprises, Marcus Lemonis leads close to 6,000 employees in over 100 cities across the US. He started the company after realizing the RV industry had potential for growth and bought more than 100 RV companies from “mom and pop” dealerships across the country and turning them into Camping World RV SuperCenters. Combined with Good Sam Enterprises in 2010, the consolidated company will record close to $2.5 billion in sales in 2013. RV Business Magazine named Marcus as their 2007 Newsmaker of the Year. In addition, Crain’s Chicago Business featured him in their 2005 edition of “40 under 40”; and in 2008, Ernst & Young named him Entrepreneur of the Year.

Lemonis’ passion for business landed him to star in a new CNBC show called The Profit, where he helps turnaround struggling businesses while investing his own cash in the process. The Profit airs tonight and every Tuesday night on CNBC at 10 PM ET/PT. To keep updated with Lemonis, follow him on Twitter @marcuslemonis or on Facebook. In the following interview, we learn about his entrepreneurial journey, how he selects which businesses get on his show, how he wins small businesses over, and his best advice.

Marcus Lemonis entrepreneur

Marcus Lemonis

Dan Schawbel: Can you share how you first became an entrepreneur and some of the lessons you learned early that have helped you today?

Marcus Lemonis: I became an entrepreneur as a child. I liked the art of the deal whether I was mowing lawns or selling candy or promoting clubs at the age of 16. I understood early on the importance of knowing my numbers and surrounding myself with the best people. I also learned to invest in things that have staying power; this is why I am in the RV business today. I like trends and fads as a consumer, but not as an investor.

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Afraid of Failure? Think Like a Scientist and Get Over It

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I recently had a wonderful conversation with my friend, Beck Tench. During our chat, Beck told me about an interesting shift in thinking that occurred while she worked at a science museum.

During her time there, Beck said that she learned how to treat failure like a scientist.

How does a scientist treat failure? And what can we learn from their approach?

Here’s what Beck taught me…

Great Failure Like a Scientist

When a scientist runs an experiment, there are all sorts of results that could happen. Some results are positive and some are negative, but all of them are data points. Each result is a piece of data that can ultimately lead to an answer.

And that’s exactly how a scientist treats failure: as another data point.

This is much different than how society often talks about failure. For most of us, failure feels like an indication of who we are as a person.

Failing a test means you’re not smart enough. Failing to get fit means you’re undesirable. Failing in business means you don’t have what it takes. Failing at art means you’re not creative. And so on.

But for the scientist, a negative result is not an indication that they are a bad scientist. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Proving a hypothesis wrong is often just as useful as proving it right because you learned something along the way.

Your failures are simply data points that can help lead you to the right answer.

Failure is the Cost You Pay to be Right

None of this is to say that you should seek to make mistakes or that failing is fun. Obviously, you’ll try to do things the right way. And failing on something that is important to you is never fun.

But failure will always be part of your growth for one simple reason…

If you’re focused on building a new habit or learning a new skill or mastering a craft of any type, then you’re basically experimenting in one way or another. And if you run enough experiments, then sometimes you’re going to get a negative result.

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Why Dabbling Can Make You a Better Entrepreneur

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Why Dabbling Can Make You a Better Entrepreneur

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While focusing 100 percent of your energy on your business may seem the path to success, having varied interests can be the key to making you better at your work. Erin Hopmann, co-founder and CEO of Dabble, a Chicago-based company that offers one-time courses in everything from pasta making to calligraphy and glassblowing, says dabbling in different interests can stimulate the creative juices, expand your network, and aid in the pursuit of better balance.

“I don’t know an entrepreneur that doesn’t say I could have a better work-life balance. Taking a one-off class can give you some pause in your schedule that’s needed, especially when you find yourself burning the midnight oil,” says Hopmann. Not only does being knowledgeable in a number of areas make you more interesting and well-rounded, it can make you smarter and improve your business.

Neuroscientist Jeff Stibel, author of Wired for Thought, says Dabble is definitely onto something. “The brain is a multitasking machine,” he says, arguing the most successful entrepreneurs are those who have an intense amount of focus and discipline across a number of subject areas. “That’s quite a unique thing and it’s why we prize entrepreneurs in our society,” he says.

Entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk, who runs multiple multi-billion dollar companies, are good examples. “People wonder how can he do that, but I suspect if you talk to Musk, he’d say, 'How could I not? If I didn’t do this, I wouldn’t be good at what I do,'” says Stibel.

What happens to the brain when we dabble?

Dabbling is cross-training for the brain. Pursuing interests in a variety of subjects stretches the mind and pushes the imagination, causing us to be more creative. Dabbling is simply a way of gathering new information and experimenting with new ways of doing something. It causes you to think differently about everything else that you do, a process which can lead to incredible innovation. “The best way to discover something is to take an existing concept in one discipline and apply it to another,” says Stibel. Hopmann says Dabble fields lots of fan mail from people who have felt inspired after taking their courses, showing inspiration can come from the most unexpected places – even a glassblowing class.

We build a stronger brain. Dabbling in diverse interests strengthens neural connections in the brain. Your brain is a muscle, so just as your abdominals get stronger with the more crunches you do, the more you exercise your brain, the better it will perform.

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Detroit Regional Chamber launches Startgrid entrepreneur website and platform

By David Muller

DETROIT, MI – The Detroit Regional Chamber has been eager to help foster growth in southeast Michigan’s entrepreneur community, but has wanted do so without creating overlap or doing something that’s already been done, Chamber president and CEO Sandy K. Baruah said.

Enter Startgrid, a community platform for entrepreneurs to exchange ideas, gather feedback and make connections. The free website was officially unveiled by the Chamber Thursday at the Detroit Policy Conference. The New Economy Initiative has given the Chamber a $100,000 grant toward its launch.

Peter Gardner, founder and CEO of Startgrid, said that while regional entrepreneurial ecosystems such as the one here in southeast Michigan are growing and showing progress, there are still gaps in a struggle to build a critical mass of support and connectivity.

“This is at the heart of our journey here at Startgrid,” Gardner said.

Gardner, who is currently based in northern California, said he wants Stargrid to grow to be a national network. An entrepreneur in Detroit could seek advice from someone in Atlanta, for example, and then be guided toward additional input and perhaps a business relationship in Austin, Texas.

The next step will be for entrepreneurs to come and use the site. “We can write the code, but you have to make it your own,” he said.

A variety of regional organizations have agreed to participate in the nascent venture, including Ann Arbor Spark, Tech Port in Port Huron, Automation Alley, the Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, Bizdom in Detroit, Insyght, Detroit Venture Partners and the Michigan Women’s Foundation, to name a few.

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Treat Them Well: 5 Keys to Lasting Customer Service

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5 Keys to Lasting Customer Service - Entrepreneur

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“Build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful." -- Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com

If you attended a party where the host snarled at you, reluctantly offered you a drink, looked past you to greet someone deemed more important and basically couldn't wait until you left -- chances are you would leave, slamming the door behind you.

Unfortunately, that's the experience many of us receive today. We're not treated as a valued customer -- a guest -- to be respected, we're a nuisance to be endured. We're the blaring car alarm when they're trying to sleep. Flipping to the company view: customer service has become a dirty phrase.

In my experience as CEO of a large digital marketing company and board member to others, companies that are too focused on new business risk ignoring, alienating and then losing the clients and business they already have. Customers that are taken for granted soon leave, and business suffers.

Here are five simple keys I follow and expect people in my organization(s) to follow, and hope they’ll unlock the door to your greater success:

1. Use the right term. First, I don't call people clients, or even customers. At my company we refer to them as “guests,” for they are our guests, and we are their host. We are always happy to see them and strive to make their time with each of us a great experience.

2. Anticipate needs. A great waiter knows when to refill your glass or bring the check, just as a great company anticipates what their guests need -- often before they know it themselves.

3. Give respect. It costs nothing to be courteous, but you can pay dearly if you aren't.

4. Treat everyone like a VIP. “There's only one boss, the customer,” Sam Walton once said. “He can fire everybody from the chairman on down simply by spending his money elsewhere.”

5. Show immediate action and solutions, not blame. Sometimes things get messed up, but apologies, which matter, mean nothing if they aren't followed by action. Well done is better than well said.

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Interview With an Asian Entrepreneur: Kenny Leung of Premium Technology

By Jane Wang

A regular series at The Wang Post, where we sit down and speak with notable Asian entrepreneurs. This week, we speak with Kenny Leung, the CEO and co-founder of Premium Technology, a tech company providing Supply Chain Finance solutions to investment banks, and is based in New York City.

Interview With an Asian Entrepreneur: Kenny Leung of Premium Technology

Jane Wang (JW): Let's start from the beginning: where were you born, and where did you grow up?

Kenny Leung (KL): I was born in Shenzhen before all the developments you see today. My parents were in Hong Kong working in the business field while I resided with my grandmother. My family and I moved to the United States later on due to a better education system. They sold their businesses in Hong Kong and worked in garment factories in New York for income.

JW: What was your first impression of the U.S.?

KL: While still residing in China, we had the impression that America was the perfect place to live. We had a different opinion after arriving to United States; there were challenges awaiting us. The Chinatown of New York City 30 years ago was very different from the Chinatown today, now known as a tourist attraction. New York was not that safe at the time and living in New York required a lot of survival skills. It was a difficult challenge but a good life experience; while attending school, I had to survive getting through the streets with another set of knowledge.

JW: What were some experiences that set you apart?

KL: The first couple of years after the arrival in United States, I have gained a lot of experiences that leads toward educational and survival. I learned to be determined and never give up; I also believe that execution is always the key. Don't just say something but put action into place.

JW: Where did you attend college and what was your first job?

KL: I studied Electrical Engineering (EE) with minor in Computer Science at Polytechnic Institute of New York University; graduated in 1992 during the recession. There were no jobs for Electrical Engineers at the time, few of my college friends accepted jobs in other fields but I was determined to keep trying. I took a chance on a part time position located on 125th area but I believed if I can handle the job in Harlem well, I'd be able to get through any other situations in the future. I was always a risk taker and I considered that opportunity as a stepping stone for my future.

From working in Harlem, I transferred to a big Advertising Agency in Park Avenue. Later on, I continued on to Wall Street as a System Analyst in an investment bank. The experiences I've earned from all the opportunities I was given, I started my first company, ACS, a computer training school. I sold my shares to partners and started Premium Technology focusing on supplying finance and generating our own unique product. Our goal is to go global.

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10 Crazy Bootstrapping Stories

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What these entrepreneurs lacked in funds, they made up for in gumption. Read on for inspiring tales of daring, dedication, and desperation.

10 Crazy Bootstrapping Stories - Easy Apps - Entrepreneur

There's no question that turning a great idea into a profitable business is exciting. But it's tough, as well, especially if you're bootstrapping. So I wondered--what are some of the craziest things people will do to self-fund their businesses?

Ah, the stories entrepreneurs tell about keeping their companies alive--it's nail-biting stuff! Here are 10 tales of daring, dedication, and in some cases, desperation, to inspire you.

Live in an RV for Years

After selling about $100,000 worth of plastic comb-bound books to interior designers via direct mail, Kimberly Causey wanted to get a real book onto the shelves of bookstores but couldn't afford to professionally print them. Her solution? She bought $200 worth of professionally printed covers for her home furnishings buying guide, printed the interior pages on her home printer, folded and scored the covers and glued them all together in her kitchen using a hot glue gun and a butter knife. Within two years proceeds from her book were supporting her full time, she got an 800 number, and a credit card processing account, and she was regularly driving through the night to appear on morning TV shows all over the southeast.

With a small book run professionally printed she started approaching bookstores including Barnes & Noble, which let her give talks and sell her books in its stores. Encouraged by her success pitching bookstores, Causey gave up her apartment, bought an RV to live in, and traveled around the country promoting her book for three and half years, eventually convincing Barnes & Noble to pick up her book in its stores nationwide. Years of self-promotion paid off big when she landed an appearance on The Today Show, which catapulted her sales to seventh place on Amazon the day of its airing. Since then, Causey's advice has appeared in a slew of national media outlets and she just published "The Furniture Factory Outlet Guide, 2014 Edition."

Dogsit and Rent out Your Car

Marissa Hu and Andy Fortson thought their idea for Co-Ed Supply was a good one: get parents to lay down $20 a month to send a college student a care package once a month. But testing it out last year demanded their attention and they didn't have time for an extra job to pay the bills. Their solution? Months of dog sitting through DogVacay and renting out Fortson's car via Relay Rides.

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Getting Your Small Business to Scale Like a Tech Startup

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Easy Apps - entrepreneur

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In the world of entrepreneurs, it seems the ecosystem of small businesses and startups are converging more than ever.

As the founders of tech startup Bolstr -- an investment marketplace focused on small businesses -- we’ve spoken with hundreds of small-business owners about their challenges and growth plans.

Having experienced firsthand how many small-business owners think about growth vs. their tech brethren, we often noticed a dichotomy in approach.  Historically most small businesses strived simply to be great local businesses, while tech startups strived to become national and global operations. This belief seems to be changing.

More and more, we’re seeing innovative local businesses being launched in the consumer, retail and manufacturing space with the goal of becoming the next Chipotle, Gatorade or big-name specialty retailer. They want to scale and scale fast -- a goal that is standard within the world of tech startups.

While there is no magic formula for success, we do believe these tips will help set the course -- anchored by one fundamental truth: Growth is deliberate.

Adapt a lean-startup methodology. To become a national brand you’ll need to master the art of failing quickly. This means conducting cost-effective tests rapidly before making any big investments and deliberately learning from the failures along the way.

If you want to launch a new flavor or product category for your granola company, don’t immediately buy inventory for every location. Survey existing customers and offer a thoughtful incentive for their reply. Also test it first in your best and worst selling store and leverage sales data to drive your decisions.

Let your customers dictate how much you invest in the initiative, learn from their feedback and double down on the product categories they like. This allows you to fail quickly if the results weren't what you expected and avoid the devastating outcome of over investing in an unproven product.

If you haven’t read The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, pick it up ASAP. Regardless of stage or industry any business can learn a lot from his thinking.

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