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Stephanie Winans

Business & Marketing Strategy Consulting

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8 Reasons #StartupLife Might Be For You

April 19, 2016 by Stephanie Winans Leave a Comment

Wondering what it might be like to leave corporate America and work for a startup (or start your own!)? Here are 8 pros of working for a startup (otherwise known as why #startuplife is awesome).

1. You’ll learn more (and fast). Working for a startup allows you to rapidly expand your professional skills. You’re routinely encouraged to take on responsibilities that stretch your existing experience, giving you a chance to learn new skills. At larger companies, you’re often restricted to duties that speak to your existing skill set. While it’s nice to stick to what you’re good at, it’s hard to get good at new things in this environment, which stunts your long-term professional growth.

2. You’ll feel good. Working for a startup is personally rewarding. There is something magical about building a company from the ground up: when it succeeds, you feel ownership in that success. You can’t get that feeling of ownership and pride from working on “someone else’s baby.”

3. You’ll own it. Speaking of feelings of ownership, you might get equity as part of your compensation package. Many startups give managers equity to better align incentives and reward hard work.

4. You’ll be challenged. If you’re in a career rut, working at a startup can refresh you. Fueled by motivation to achieve early milestones, there will be no time for boredom or complacency.

Pros of working at Startups

5. You’ll get creative. Working for a startup ignites your creativity. It takes creativity to carve out space for a new brand in an existing market, or to educate consumers on a new product if you’re disrupting a market. When your budget is lower than the competition’s, you’ll resort to innovative ideas to win.

6. You’ll be passionate. People work at startups because they love the idea or are moved by the problem the product solves. Who doesn’t want to work for something they believe in?

7. You’ll bond with your team. There’s a feeling of “in this together” that comes with building something new. Because startups typically run lean, managers are careful to hire for personality and fit and not experience or aptitude alone. Co-workers you actually like? Yes, please.

8. You’ll love the knowledge sharing. Tackling early problems requires brainstorming. Because there are rarely duplicitous roles and startups often foster a judgment-free environment, your co-workers will teach you what they know.

At Bundoo, professional growth is a big focus. We believe that skill building is one of the best things a startup can offer. We created Bundoo U, a meeting where a different Bundite teaches the team a skill each week. We vote on topics for each person, and the team member gives an interactive presentation on the winning topic when their turn comes around. These meetings not only teach us new skills that may help later in our careers, but they also help the team understand the value other Bundites and departments carry.

Not convinced? Tell me why in the comments.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: creativity, small business, startups

3 Attributes That Make A Successful Entrepreneur

January 12, 2016 by Stephanie Winans Leave a Comment

Attributes of entrepreneurs
Photo credit: wocintechchat/Flickr

I was asked on a panel recently about the most important attributes of an entrepreneur. When I think about the people who succeed at building their own businesses—not the anomaly, front of Time magazine entrepreneur but the everyday successful entrepreneurs—there are three attributes that come to mind.

Drive. Strategic thinking. Passion. And you need all three working in concert. So what happens when you’re missing one of these?

Without strategic thinking, you’re the crazy one going on and on about your idea but getting nowhere. You don’t look at the big picture and struggle to push through ideation to execution. You get stuck by making poor decisions. People probably duck into doorways when they see you coming.

Without passion you can’t sell your business to anyone—to end users, to talent for hire, to advertisers, to investors. We all fall in love with a story, and if you can’t tell it, then you’ve lost your audience and your business, too.

Without drive you just won’t survive. Have you heard the old adage, “Entrepreneurs are the crazy people who work 100 hours a week so they don’t have to work 40 hours for someone else”? Entrepreneurs and the talent who support them in #startuplife work their tails off. If you aren’t intrinsically motivated, you’re probably better suited for a 9-5 job at an established company.

Drive and passion typically come along with a good idea: it’s why people quit their day jobs to pursue their own businesses. It’s the strategy part that you have to watch out for. Finding a mentor early on can help ensure you aren’t wearing blinders and that you’re creating a plan that maximizes your chance for success.

What would you add to the attribute list?

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: entrepreneurs, startups

The 1 Question Entrepreneurs Live and Die By

December 22, 2015 by Stephanie Winans Leave a Comment

Entrepreneurs Post-it

Entrepreneurs face many questions each day, but there is one question that is as important post-launch as it is the moment the new business idea is conceived.

The Question in Ideation: How will I make money?

So you’ve encountered a real world problem and you have an idea on how to solve it. How do you know that your new business idea is a business and not a hobby? The answer to the question “How will I make money?” will tell you everything you need to know. If you’re building a for-profit business, define how you’ll generate revenue and a path to profitability. If it’s a not-for-profit you’re developing, outline how you’ll get funding. If you can’t answer this question clearly, then you need to re-evaluate your idea.

Having a clear path to revenue at the beginning of your ideation phase will keep you from making the wrong decisions and from wasting time and money on inconsequential things that won’t impact the business.

The Question in Daily Operations: How will this affect how I make money?

The “How will I make money?” question morphs to ““How will this affect how I make money?” once your business is operational. Asking yourself how a decision at hand affects your revenue streams will ensure you’re making choices that have the long-term health of the business in mind. With new startup Founders and CEOs making hundreds of decisions a day, it’s easy for this focus to get lost.

I have a post-it on my computer as a reminder. If post-its aren’t your thing, I’ve heard reverse forehead tattoos work, too.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: business strategy, entrepreneurs, revenue, startups

4 Tips for Marketing to Millennial Moms

October 21, 2015 by Stephanie Winans Leave a Comment

Millennial moms are discerning. They expect authenticity and are drawn to brands that tell a compelling story with every touchpoint. Moms today demand more from your marketing than ever before.

As I shared on a recent panel at M2Moms, here are 3 things you should know when marketing to millennial moms:

  1. Think mobile first. Moms are meeting your brand on their phones, and they are a design-conscious audience that expects a cohesive user experience from in-store to TV to mobile. Given that 21% of Millennials don’t even use a desktop computer to go online anymore, being mobile responsive is no longer enough. Think about the mobile experience first, and then think about how that translates to desktop.
  2. Be transparent. They grew up with the Internet and know how to get information quickly and how to tell what’s legitimate. Many Millennials will dig into the source of information, particularly when they’re skeptical to begin with. So when it comes to creating content for your brand, make sure your t’s are crossed at all times. If not, be prepared to be embarrassed as your brand authority comes into question.
  3. Focus on the lifestyle. I know it’s painful to hear, but moms care about more than just your product. Your product is a tiny blip within the full (and often chaotic) life she is living. To build loyalty through marketing, think about the bigger picture. What is she doing when the need for your product arises? How is your product used in her daily life? Use content marketing and digital advertising to tell her you understand her—her needs as a whole and not just her need for your product.
  4. Segment your Millennial audience. A “one size fits all” approach is only good when it applies to a poncho in the pouring rain at an amusement park. Know which segment of the Millennial audience you’re talking to, and craft your message accordingly. Don’t believe me? Get a 22-year-old and a 34-year-old in a room together and tell me how much they have in common.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: brand, content, content marketing, digital strategy, marketing, marketing strategy, millennials, moms, online content

Measuring the Digital Impact of TV and Radio Ads

May 28, 2015 by Stephanie Winans Leave a Comment

Brands and agencies love digital advertising in part because its effectiveness is easy to measure. You begin a PPC campaign and you can track the results immediately. As long as you’ve built a smart campaign, you can track everything and go down a rabbit hole of granularity.

And what’s better than granular data? Immediate granular data. It doesn’t take long with digital advertising to see what’s working and what needs to be tweaked.

With broadcast media, not all campaigns are as easily tracked. There is the immediacy issue, and some campaigns are also tougher to measure by nature. Just say the words “brand awareness” and many will stutter when answering the question “Is it working?”

Cue Adometry TV Attribution and Google search integration, a new Google initiative which aims to bridge this gap. It measures the digital impact of TV and radio ads, so you can gain insight immediately on your broadcast media messaging. This will help with optimizations to your TV and radio spots, but also with your supporting SEO and PPC campaigns as you can assess which offline messaging is driving the desired online behavior.

This is the beginning to a beautiful marriage between online and offline media, making it easier for brands to optimize marketing campaigns that involve both (especially campaigns that include TV or radio and Google AdWords!)

Read more about the initiative on the Google Analytics Blog.

Photo credit: Al Ibrahim/Flickr

Filed Under: Business, Uncategorized Tagged With: advertising, analytics, marketing, radio, TV

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