Tampa Bay’s hipster heights Public Market, Armature Works opened their doors for the Tampa Bay startup week. The facility was filled with the hustle and bustle of entrepreneurs and various companies eager to learn. Just recently, I had the opportunity to network and learn so many things on scaling business by attending the 2019 Synapse Summit. However, this event was free and open to the public. Imagine that, this event was basically CEO’s and influencers giving away free advice to the Tampa Bay Area. There were panelists that wanted to help out those who are starting up their companies. They talked all about their failures and successes of starting up their brands. Here are a few of the talks I had the pleasure of getting free advice from.
How to Handle a Crisis
As many of you have figured out, a crisis can happen anywhere, including within our company. Well guess what, they do not have to happen all the time. You may be asking, how often should a company practice a crisis? The answer, it should be brought up weekly and you should include all employees regarding the handling of a crisis.
Did you receive any bad review which led your brand to a crisis? Here are a few tips on how to address those reviews:
When receiving a bad review:
- Address the person who left the review then ask for a DM. Let’s be real, it is 2019 and most people will reply on social media compared to an email.
- Reach out to google and see about getting the review taken down if it goes against the Google standards of ethic.
- In general, be empathic with people. by doing so, you can change the relationship to a positive one after the crisis.
- Be honest during the crisis and back peddle if needed. No one likes being left in the dark. Just let your customer or client know what went wrong.
- Make sure to have a written statement.
- After the crisis, learn from it instead of moving on right away.
- Is there a way for your brand to recover? For ideas of how crises were handled, check Google, LinkedIn & Wall Street Journal. There are a plethora of brands facing crisis at the very moment.
After the crisis has occurred, use as many resources as possible to see about not having another crisis in the future. For starters, here is a book on how to handle a crisis.
Keys to Startup & Leadership Success
There are a few things every leader should ask themselves and be aware of –
Self-awareness:
- Awareness of your emotions.
- Insights into their impact on your performance and that of others.
- Honesty in your positive and negative biases.
- Accurate self-assessment.
- Who are we?
- Why do we exist?
- What do we stand for?
- Where do we see ourselves going?
- How are we going to get there?
- What drives our economic engine?
By answering these questions, you will already be ahead of the game compared to those who are just starting out and are at a loss of where to begin their journey of starting up their brand.
Vision:
What is our overriding focus for the future?
Having a vision is very important because this will allow you and your brand to stay focused on the one reason you worked so hard to get where you are today. Don’t be afraid to tell your team or have a sticky note on your desk reminding yourself every day the vision of your brand/company is trying to accomplish. The moment you forget what your vision is, everything can crumble and all those hours and hard work you and your team have put in, will go to the wayside.
Setting priorities:
This graph will help you organize all your ideas and tasks so you can focus on what is important for you as a leader. I cannot tell you how many times I have had to draw this graph out in my head to organize and prioritize emails, tasks and other day-to-day things that come up.
Setting your priorities can give you a clearer mind and will almost give your workflow a kick start making your job easier. As previously mentioned, “work smarter, not harder.”
When you are starting out with your brand it is extremely important to have a presence on social
Creating Effective Video Content for Social Media
In order to have effective content, it requires that you have the proper mindset. Here are a few ways to help get to that mindset:
- Do not think about what will work in likes, shares, views, etc.
- The individual truth is what will work
- Just be YOU – If you are the one behind the video-sharing the content, just act natural. By doing so, the viewers can acknowledge that you and your content are authentic.
Creating content:
- Curiosity – Create content that leaves your viewers with a curious mind (does it get them to ask what’s next?).
- Props – Use small or big items in your video to grab your audience attention. It could even be a blowup flamingo just something that will grab the attention you want.
- Environment – Find the top 10 most interesting places in the city you will be shooting your video in. Pick one of those places and use it as a backdrop for your video. Your viewers will most likely be more engaged with your content.
- Success in social media is more than followers but the interactions.
- When posting on social media, do something that makes you and your brand stand out. It can be as simple as creating a hashtag specific to your brand. Once you have created one, stick with it and use it constantly. There are three things that make up mindful posting. These are 1.Competition 2.Repitition 3. Connection. This brings me to the important things every business needs when it comes down to their website and social.
The 5 videos every business needs to survive
- Visual Business cards
- Customer testimonials
- Facebook live videos – Live videos are more engaging than just a Facebook post or an Instagram story. Be engaging as possible with your audience. Not only can you earn more trust, but it will show you care what your viewers say about you and your brand.
- Sales Videos
- Internal training
By having these 5 things, trust is earned from your client and customers.
Lastly, it is important that your brand is thriving and in order to do so, you have to make sure the nuts and bolts are well oiled and are not rusting. You may have guessed what I am referring to, if you guessed yourself, then you are correct. It is vital that as an owner or entrepreneur stays healthy mentally and physically.
20k Steps to 10x Growth: How to Stay Healthy During the Hustle
Being an entrepreneur or a startup can be draining and can take a lot out of you. In order to have a thriving business, self-health is the most important. Here are a few takeaways on how to remain healthy during the hustle.
- Schedule everything – Managing rapid growth can be overwhelming at times. Scheduling things will help manage that.
- Block time off in your calendar for the important things in your life such as the gym, yoga, dr appointments or picking your child up from school. Make time for yourself a priority.
- Work smarter not harder. No one could have said it better then Warren Buffet, “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted it a long time ago.” We can learn from the hard work while at the same time enjoy the hard work of others.
In today’s society, it may be hard to do with everything and everyone being on the go. Make sure to take time and step away from it all and enjoy all your hard work. That being said, I made sure to take a step away from my normal hustle each day and take the time during the week to attend the Tampa Bay Startup. I blocked time off my calendar to gain the knowledge of those who have successfully failed as well as those who have succeeded. If you happen to see a Startup week in your city, I would highly encourage you to attend. I hope you were able to come away with a few tips from reading this.
