Tag: Entreprenuership

Pop Quiz, Monday with Vanessa Babuin – Perera

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
 Vanessa Babuin – Perera

What is your job role?
 Managing Director of Sonsee Woman

Tell us about your company?
 Sonsee Woman is an eCommerce boutique focused on plus size woman’s clothing, hosiery, and intimates. All our garments are made in Italy to the highest standards possible.

What do you love most about your job?
 I love that I get to connect with so many incredible women and their stories on a day to day basis. I get to work with them to help provide solutions to problems they may have and ensure they live comfortably.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
 Having my own business is incredible. It presents new challenges every day and keeps me engaged, excited and ready to take on anything that may come up!

How do your co-workers inspire you?
 Working with a variety of people from employees to agencies allows for better solutions to be formed and ensuring all decisions are in the best interests of the business. My co-workers all have the same vision, and we work incredibly well together to ensure the success of the brand.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
 Fun at work? Of course! Every day is exciting, and the conversations I have with other staff create an entertaining environment for all. While we don’t do any particular exercises, we often catch up with one another out of the office.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
 Being a business owner can be very stressful at times! You have staff that is relying on you to ensure that it continues to grow. I make many of the large decisions myself and this can at times bean added stress, especially if I make the wrong one.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
 While we primarily sell our garments in ‘plus sizes’ we decided to try a small run of a smaller size to test the market. We found very quickly that the market was not within our database. This meant that we have to develop a new approach to selling smaller sizes. In future, we will ensure we look closely at the data to ensure what will be successful.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
 For anyone looking to start in the beauty/fashion industry I would recommend that you make sure you have a strong USP. People want to see something new, something that solves a problem and something they can be engaged with.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://sonseewoman.com
https://www.instagram.com/sonsee_woman/
https://www.facebook.com/sonseewoman

Pop Quiz, Monday with Kim Perell

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
 Kim Perell

What is your job role?
 CEO

Tell us about your company?
 Amobee is an advertising technology company fueling the next generation of advertising. We work with brands, agencies, and broadcasters. Our technology unifies advertising across TV, digital and social, which is a first in the advertising industry. This streamlined approach allows advertisers to maximize their impact.

Great people make great companies, and our team is what makes Amobee successful. Together, we’ve cultivated an award-winning culture and have been able to serve as a great partner to our clients.

What do you love most about your job?
 It’s a historic time in tech and advertising as we are in the midst of a transformation.

As CEO, the work that I do on a daily basis is very rewarding because of the world-class team that I have the pleasure of working with. My passion is people, and I strive to create an environment where everyone feels empowered to do their best work.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
 I love my job, and I love working in digital advertising. It’s dynamic and competitive, and the future is yet to be determined, which is what creates so much opportunity.

Working in a creative and dynamic environment inspires and motivates me always to keep learning and striving for results. It’s very rewarding working in an industry that is growing so quickly and requires constant innovation to be successful. The only real constant is change – and I think that is true for many of the industries we see today. Disruption is the standard. The question is will you be disrupted, or will you be the disruptor? When I first started, social media and programmatic advertising didn’t exist, and as a company, we’ve continued to innovate and acquired leading technologies, and now we are poised to take on the next frontier – TV.

My passion for the work that we are doing is what motivates me. It is a passion that gives me the energy and determination to stay committed – even when it’s at its most challenging.

Passion is not only what you love, but it’s about what you would willingly suffer for. The word passion comes from Latin root pati, meaning suffering or enduring. What do you love so much you would suffer and sacrifice for? I love what I do every day, that is why I take calls at 6 am to talk to the UK and at midnight to talk to Singapore and spend much of my time on a plane. My passion for what I do is what makes me successful. What are you willing to sacrifice to achieve?

How do your co-workers inspire you?
 The passion and drive of my team inspire me. Everyone goes above and beyond, and there is an atmosphere of collaboration. The caring and friendships are real. The team is committed to one another and the clients. I also appreciate how different everyone is, and how each person brings individual strengths, talents, and passions.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
 The culture we cultivate at Amobee is one of both hard work and fun. It’s important to have a balance, and I’m really proud of my company’s work ethic and drive for success and ability to celebrate successes–as a team. As a company, we set quarterly goals and celebrate when we achieve them. These goals are intended to empower employees to support the overall growth and direction of the company and understand if they are successful.

Our team is also passionate about giving back to our local communities, and we host volunteer events across the globe every year. Volunteering is a great way to have team-bonding while helping amazing causes and making a difference.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
 The adtech industry is very fast paced and dynamic–change is the only real constant. As an angel investor, I’ve seen the ways that changing market conditions can impact a company firsthand–and it can be challenging. It’s very competitive and dynamic.

The greatest challenges are ultimately your greatest opportunities. We’ve continued to capitalize on the opportunities before us and invest in technology and people, and we’ve made multiple strategic acquisitions. As consumers move seamlessly across screens and devices, advertising is converging. Advertisers are looking to work with fewer partners to create a more efficient and seamless experience, and Amobee’s comprehensive technology stack empowers advertisers with an end-to-end campaign and portfolio management across TV, digital and social.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
 I’ve done numerous acquisitions throughout my career, and I’ve learned many lessons on successful integrations. The main component I focus on is finding companies with complementary capabilities, whether that is in technology, markets served, or domain expertise. This ensures you are able to realize the greatest commercial value and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The other critical component is focusing on the people and ensuring both companies have complementary cultures. “Culture clash” is cited by executives the number one reason for an M&A deal failing to achieve promised value, and in my experience, I have seen this is the case as well. We make unifying culture and values and people a top priority and component of every acquisition and integration.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting out in your industry?
 Over the course of my career as an entrepreneur, tech CEO, and angel investor in over 70 startups with 15 successful exits, I’ve found the skill needed to be successful in execution. It’s what I attribute my own success too, and I believe execution is a skill that can be learned. Success isn’t dependent on having a great idea, and ideas are a dime a dozen. It isn’t about intelligence or education either or even about hard work. You can be really busy and hard-working, but it doesn’t mean you are working on the right things. We all know smart, educated people and hard-working people who are not very successful.

The difference between success and failure is execution. Execution is the ability to do and get results, to keep moving forward to achieve your vision and goals despite the obstacles that lay ahead. Execution is the difference between success and failure. I believe so strongly in the power of execution. I wrote a book, The Execution Factor, The One Skill That Drives Success that teaches the skill of execution broken down into five traits: Vision, Passion, Action, Resilience, and Relationships. In order to be successful and master execution, they must have these five traits. The traits are interdependent, not independent, and in the balance as you need them all to be successful.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://www.kimperell.com/
www.amobee.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimperell/
https://www.instagram.com/kimperell/
https://twitter.com/KimPerell

Pop Quiz, Monday with Emily Hamilton

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
 Emily Hamilton

What is your job role?
 Co-Founder of Supernova

Tell us about your company?
 I guess the best way to explain our company is to think of us as the ‘Shark Tank’ of the e-commerce world. Through Supernova and the power of the internet, we have created a formula, which allows us to fast-forward the brand building process. We’re now approaching our third year of business, with four global brands under our belt: Coco & Eve, Sky & Sand, Body Boss, and Skinny Mint, with more in the pipeline for 2019.

What do you love most about your job?
 I love the challenge to build products and brands that have never been seen before. To bring something new and exciting to consumers in this extremely competitive market space.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
 I am so passionate about our existing brands, and the products and brands in the works, so motivation is something that comes naturally. Don’t get me wrong there are the odd days where I’d love to stay at home on the couch, but even then I find myself reaching for my laptop!

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
 Culture is something that is really important to us. Since day dot we’ve wanted to create a company where our staff would love coming to work. We are invested in our team, and try to go out of our way to make sure they’re relaxed, laughing and enjoying life! We promote living a healthy lifestyle, so a gym membership is included in our employment contracts. Getting a change of scenery is vital, so, going out for lunch, walks, or afternoon drinks are always plotted into our calendar! At Supernova, we all have the travel bug. We encourage our staff to take up international job transfers within the company, so they can get their travel fix while working with Supernova.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
 The main and most important challenge we have to tackle is compliance. We are currently shipping to over 70 countries across the globe, and it’s crucial that our products adhere to each and every compliance law. The rules and regulations are constantly changing, so this is something that we are cross-checking on a daily basis.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
 Don’t underestimate the power of social media. We’re all aware that it allows us to market directly to a global audience and reach new customers, but think of it as your most essential market research tool. Thought of a new product concept? Why not put it out to your social media ‘panel’ and see what they think! Social media is such an affordable and excessive way to interact with consumers, so think big when it comes to your social media strategy.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting out in your industry?
 Go work at a company that is doing great things in your industry. Find a job, boss or mentor you can learn from. After learning and achieving something in the industry then you can start to plan where you can personally make an impact, how to build something new and innovative.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

www.supernova.xyz

Pop Quiz, Monday with Tomas Keenan

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
 Tomas Keenan

What is your job role?
 As CEO and Co-Founder of Top Class Installations, my role is to…

  1. Set the Vision
  2. Build the Team
  3. Ensure the money keeps coming in

Tell us about your company?
 Top Class Installations was founded in September of 2009 by myself and my business partner, Jimmy Gavalas. We specialize in the installation of GPS Tracking and Dash camera systems in commercial vehicles.

What do you love most about your job?
 What I love most about my job is the ability to go out into the marketplace and positively impact people and their businesses. At Top Class Installations we bring businesses efficiency to life by installing the products sold by our vendors. We increase the safety and productivity of drivers and their vehicles. In my opinion, this is a snowball effect. We help one company better their operations and that ultimately snowballs down to their customers, their employees and most importantly, their families.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
 My family! Everything I do is done with intent and is used to set the prime example to my children. A mentor once told me to do everything in life as if my grandchildren were watching.

I want my children to see that I work on myself daily to become the best version of me possible.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
 My co-workers inspire me when they show growth in their personal development. We’ve taken in a few employees who were at first rough around the edges. Through continual training, mentorship, and coaching we have seen these folks begin to prosper both professionally and personally. Not only have they become caring and reliable experts at their craft, but they also become an incredible resource for those newer employees who follow in their footsteps. Watching this unfold over time makes me want to impact more lives on a daily basis.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
 This is actually very challenging for Top Class Installations as we are a 100% remotely based team. However, we meet in person quarterly and always find time to break bread and playfully poke fun at each other. During the summer months, we hold an annual company barbecue and spend the day interacting as friends and family rather than co-workers and colleagues. On more of a personal level, I find it important to get out from behind the desk. I sometimes go for a drive or head down to the water and take a few moments to take in the scenery. This helps inspire and re-invigorate the drive to continually better myself, my business, and most importantly… my team.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
 The biggest challenge we face is hiring skilled technicians. There are several out there, but we find it hard to find techs that fit our company values.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
 A lesson learned from a past project is to keep you hiring pipeline full at all times. You never know when you will need to ramp up the team size quickly to complete a project within a tight deadline.

About 2 years ago we completed a project for the New York City Board of Education. We installed GPS tracking systems in approximately 6000 school buses. Since our hiring pipeline was not full at the onset of this project, it forced us to hire subcontractors at an extremely high data rate per technician. Although the project was completed on time and within budget, this negatively affected our overall profitability. Had we the resources in place prior, we would have had a much larger pool of talent and resources to choose from that ultimately would have cost us less money.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting out in your industry?
 Get clear on your core values ASAP! Without the necessary clarity and direction provided by your core values, you have nothing to gauge opportunities that appear to see if they truly align with your purpose and mission.

Many years of hard work were wasted at Top Class because we lacked this clarity. It may seem like a big waste of time at first, but without them, you are just a big ship floating around the ocean which is at the mercy of the sea. You need to set a course and stick to it. Core values will help you stay on that course.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://topclassinstallations.com/
https://tomaskeenan.com

Pop Quiz, Monday with Noel Moran, CEO at PFS

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
 Noel Moran

What is your job role?
 My role as CEO is to continue to strive to elevate PFS as one of Europe’s leading FinTechs with global ambition.

Tell us about your company?
 PFS is an agile FinTech chosen by other FinTechs. We are obsessed with innovation. We rapidly deliver world-class payment technology solutions to the market. The company recently won two of the most prestigious business awards in Europe – the RSM European Business Award for Digital Technology and the European CEO Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Payment Solutions industry. We would be one of the best-known challengers in the prepaid space.

What do you love most about your job?
 I enjoy solving problems and creating more alternatives to cash for people, so there is much to love about FinTech. Today, people can open an electronic money account online – without ever needing to visit a traditional bank. You can easily link your account to a mobile and enable your smartphone for digital payments (Contactless). Financial Technology will continue to place innovation at the heart of payments in 2019. This makes it another exciting year for challengers like us pushing the boundaries of what is possible to achieve in a booming sector filled with new possibilities.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
 I have not worked in 10 years. I don’t see this job as work. I enjoy it so I see it as two things, firstly a hobby and secondly I am endeavouring to build a global business that will be the leader in the market for prepaid products and services. We have an opportunity to help many people via governments, NGOs, mobile phone companies, banks, corporate clients and FinTechs. This, in itself, is a motivating factor. We have a huge amount in the pipeline this year between an IPO, launching innovative new products and seeking licenses to expand into Asia and Africa. Today, we are live in 25 countries. By the end of this year, we hope this figure will be much higher.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
 My wife Valerie Moran has been by my side from the start as employee No.1 and continues to inspire me. In that time, we embarked on our own adventure going from boyfriend and girlfriend to husband and wife. Lee Britton, our Commercial Director, has been a great friend for many years and has a wealth of experience in the sector. Conor Doyle, our CTO and I go back a long way to our early days in traditional banking. In recent times, we have had to go on a hiring spree to meet the needs of a fast-growing business. My team inspire me in different ways all the time whether it is in the office or through work they get involved with in their communities.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
 Early December was a great example of this when everyone was gathered together from our 4 offices in 3 countries. It was an excellent weekend of activities in Ireland when all of the UK, Ireland and Malta teams enjoyed quality time together. In Malta, some of our Developers are in a basketball league that PFS sponsors – they keep winning games. Our Maltese colleagues also like to kick back and celebrate the successful completion of sprints at the end of each month with what they call monthly free beer Fridays. In Ireland, we have a sports and social club where regular events are organised throughout the year.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
 Regulation is a universal challenge for any financial institution. We continue to professionally navigate the many requirements that come with regulation as well as the various directives we must comply with. Brexit is a challenge for many FinTechs including ourselves and we have taken steps to minimise the transition.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
 One of the biggest lessons I learned in the business related to outsourcing. Knowing what I now know, we should have had more in-house capabilities in the early days. It also makes sense from a cost savings perspective.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting out in your industry?
 PFS is ahead of other FinTechs as we have been in business longer and have a long track record of profitability. If at all possible, I would advise founders not to dilute their shareholding too much at the start. This can be a challenge, but it can make a significant difference if their business can survive long-term without running out of money.

Pop Quiz, Monday with Rob Misheloff

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Rob Misheloff

What is your job role?
President

Tell us about your company?
We help small business owners finance equipment when the bank says, “no.” 85% of businesses that apply for bank or SBA loans get turned down. Unfortunately, when small business owners shop for alternative financing, a lot of the time they will not be talking to folks that have their best interests in mind. It’s too common for small business lenders to lie to customers about rates, terms, and other vital variables they will need to make an informed decision. We help small business owners avoid scams when they shop for business financing.

What do you love most about your job?
Employees here refer to the office as a “family” environment. We tend to attract good people, and as a result, the folks in the office like each other. It’s a nice environment here.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
We’ve helped a lot of people get funds to start their business with. That’s an AWESOME feeling. I helped a lady finance her first food trailer four years ago, and I love going to Yelp to see her recent reviews.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
My business partner, Chet, works like crazy – whenever I feel like it’s tough to keep up, I just look over and see him grinding away. Running a business is hard – but it’s great to have a friend helping.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
We’re in Las Vegas – so there’s no shortage of fun things to do with the team. We recently made a championship belt (just like boxers wear) so that the top salesperson each month can parade around the office wearing it.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
There is no end to the challenges. We need to feed our salespeople enough leads to having prospects. We need to train our salespeople well enough that they can convert the prospects in their pipeline. We also have to have our operations streamlined such that deals are approved and closed efficiently. If any of those pillars falls, we won’t have money to pay people, and the business crumbles to ashes.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Always address problems immediately. Early on, we had an employee who always looked haggard and smelled like he hadn’t showered. We were short-staffed, so we tried to avoid a confrontation hoping things would get better. It turned out that he was shooting heroin in the office – nothing was ever going to get better. It was a hard lesson.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting out in your industry?
It can be frustrating competing against liars and thieves. You’ll lose business to phony approvals, and it will kill you to know your prospect is about to get scammed by someone. In the long run, honesty pays off – customers that are treated well return. It’s a lot easier to keep a customer than to find a new one.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:
 www.smarterfinanceusa.com
https://www.facebook.com/smarterfinanceusa/
https://www.instagram.com/smarter_finance_usa/

Pop Quiz, Monday with Elaine Slatter

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Elaine Slatter

Elaine Slatter
Photo credit: Elaine Slatter

What is your job role?
Founder/Owner

Tell us about your company?
XL Consulting Group helps entrepreneurs with market planning, strategy, branding, web design, and social media.

What do you love most about your job?
The variety of clients we are able to help with branding, marketing strategy, websites, and social media.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
The variety of problems we are able to solve for our clients.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
We challenge each other to find out of the box solutions for our clients.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
Fun at work is team building at our annual mastermind in Varadero Cuba relaxing, excursions to different spots, dancing almost every night. Other guests remember us as the fun group.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Finding solutions to more complex website requirements.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Fixing a poorly designed website from a previous vendor is harder than designing one from the ground up.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Build relationships early. Work on delivering content consistently. Develop subject matter authority both online and offline. Find a mentor who can help you develop your career and open doors for you.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://xlconsultinggroup.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/xl-consulting-group—business-strategy-and-marketing-coaching/about/
https://twitter.com/XLConsultingGro
https://www.facebook.com/xlconsult/

Pop Quiz, Monday with Mohammed Tayeb

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Mohammed Tayeb

Mohammed Tayeb
Photo credit: Mohammed Tayeb

What is your job role?
Co-Founder and COO

Tell us about your company?
MedicalChain is an organization using blockchain technology to create products and services that enable patient-centric, borderless healthcare. Its mission is to empower patients to take greater control of their health by transforming how they communicate and connect with healthcare practitioners.

What do you love most about your job?
I love that we are experimenting with and developing new technology that can empower people and save lives.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
My creative mind usually is working in the middle of the night. I often wake up and write things down then go back to sleep. When I wake up in the morning, I am motivated to go to work and test out new ideas.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
I am lucky to be surrounded by some brilliant people. New ideas always inspire me. Developers are like artists. Everyone has a different solution to a problem. It’s encouraging to hear them and agreeing on one.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
I am a big foodie, so I enjoy taking colleagues out to discover new restaurants to eat in. Our last team building exercise was when we took everyone go-karting. That was a lot of fun. We’ve recently got a TV in the office with a view of running some Mario Kart tournaments.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
We are working with nascent technology so often finding the right people is a challenge, but we have done well to take on bright engineers and train them. The other major problem is working in a regulated and often political space. Let’s just say things in healthcare tend to move slowly, and we are trying to improve that!

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?

  1. If you are new to an industry, don’t make assumptions. Try to work with experts/ veterans as quickly as possible to realise where you can fit.
  2. Don’t spend a long time working on your product. Get an MVP (minimum viable product) out as soon as possible, or at least get it tested with friends, family, and those experts I mentioned above.
  3. If you are on your own, find yourself a co-founder with complementary skills. For example, worrying about the tech, hiring, financing, regulatory hurdles and sales can be overwhelming for someone by themselves. Splitting these challenges between two or three co-founders helps maintain focus.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
The healthcare industry is generally complicated with government and private stakeholders. Navigating it is a challenge no matter which country you are in. Having said that, Healthtech as an industry is attracting a lot of new talent which is great. There are so many improvements to be made, and the bar is pretty low right now. However, so as not to waste time, I would highly recommend you join an established organisation at first that will help you learn the ropes of who is responsible for what. Let’s say you want to develop an app to help people quit smoking. Your users are the general public, but your customers (the organisations paying you) might be the insurers. Figuring that out is often challenging.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://medicalchain.com/
https://twitter.com/medical_chain

Pop Quiz, Monday with Seth Wiener

I love many things about my job, however, helping underserved markets obtain technologies to transform their enterprise stokes my fire.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Seth Wiener

Seth Wiener
Photo credit: Seth Wiener

What is your job role?
CEO and Founder

Tell us about your company?
AmigoDATA solves business continuity issues for markets frequently targeted by criminals looking for personal information. The platform works with any enterprise facing these challenges. However, we launched focusing on two underserved markets, Universities and Healthcare Providers. Our first product LITE is an on-premises backup data platform.LITE consists of biometrics for securing network access points, software for data management, and an ECO. Flash Array for data storage. The solution is unmatched when it comes to offering seamless data continuity in the event of a hack or breach.

What do you love most about your job?
I love many things about my job, however, helping underserved markets obtain technologies to transform their enterprise stokes my fire. The reason we built a data continuity solution for Universities and Health Providers was they are two of the most frequently hacked markets who face similar challenges and constraints. By helping them regain control of their data, we provide them with an opportunity to save money spent on technology while they improving storage and security capabilities. It does not get much better for a company to earn money while helping others.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Plain and simple for me it’s technology innovation. The rate with which new technology gets created and existing applications are improved is exciting.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
Each person is multi-talented and experts in areas I am not. They are selfless with their time and always willing to share their insights and perspective. The information that’s shared helps me become more skilled and proficient in every aspect of the business. I am grateful for each team member and think they are all amazing people.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
Our team has a policy we never work with a client or person the team does not respect. In business respecting whom you work is important So the theme of respect is further solidified outside of work. As a close-knit group, with shared passions such as surfing, mountain biking, and sailing, our free time outside the office is spent bonding over activities we are passionate about Our shared interests or hobbies have helped further strengthen the team.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
The challenges I encounter seem to change often. As a Founder of AmigoDATA, I have had to learn to let go and allow my co-founders and team a chance to provide feedback and input. This adjustment to the way I was running the company was crucial to success. A significant challenge I deal with is learning is to use my two eyes, two ears, and one mouth accordingly.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
1) Never stop fundraising activities.

2) Become immune to naysayers.

3) On average you need to speak with 130+ potential investors before you find your first.

4) The most crucial concept I can share is become impervious to criticism.

5) Make sure you continuously maintain your SWOT and PEST reports.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
 1) Get Comfortable With the Unknown

2) It’s not just about you

3) Know When to Let Go

4) Find the Balance

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

http://amigodata.com

Pop Quiz, Monday with Victoria Brodsky

Surround yourself with people who are in this industry for the right reasons.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Victoria Brodsky

Victoria Brodsky
Photo credit: Victoria Brodsky

What is your job role?
COO

Tell us about your company?
BlockchainBTM is a Bitcoin/LiteCoin ATM operator. We operate a network of these machines in California, Nevada, Texas – and soon, Illinois! We are a group of blockchain enthusiasts who believe access to crypto should be simple.

Victoria Brodsky

What do you love most about your job?
Working with really smart professionals in this space, and learning from them.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
We are a start-up, so our working days are not “normal” – but I’m motivated by our mission, and by the new projects we’re taking on this year (keep up-to-date with us on Twitter)…

How do your co-workers inspire you?
We are a very random group with varying backgrounds (just see our team page). Their work-ethic inspires me, and their passion for space and to make this company grow inspires me.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
The guys are always teasing each other, and us girls just roll our eyes. We’re always laughing.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
I am not a technical person, nor is this my only job, so staying on top of all the latest happenings in this new industry is a challenge.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Keep it simple. Our President is always telling us to keep it simple – focus on our goals, and do the tasks that will get us there. Running a start-up business is inherently challenging, so it’s essential to not complicate anything along the way.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Surround yourself with people who are in this industry for the right reasons.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://www.blockchainbtm.com/
 @blockchainbtm

Pop Quiz, Monday with Roger Knocker

Don’t take any business. Try and find clients that you have chemistry with. You will be successful with these clients which allows you to find similar clients. Also, make sure that there is real ROI for the work you do. If there isn’t, your work will eventually be replaced and forgotten, and you will lose out on repeat work.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Roger Knocker

Roger Knocker
Photo credit: Roger Knocker

What is your job role?
CEO

Tell us about your company?
Most businesses live with loss-making customers only because they can’t measure the actual profit by the customer. We build business simulation models to reverse the situation, which results in more high-profit customers.

What do you love most about your job?
The ability to innovate without having to ask committees to approve. I usually try an innovation in my spare time (because I love it) and once I have something more tangible I present it to my colleagues and get their approval to invest more time and resources in the idea. I usually get the approval within a few days which allows me to go full steam ahead.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
New ideas. I wake up every morning, and within a few hours I see, hear or read something that gets my create deuces going and I’m able to try the idea out. I love the high I get from playing with new ideas (creativity that you wouldn’t associate with an accountant or analytical person, but innovation very much exists in this world. It’s not limited to arty people)

How do your co-workers inspire you?
When I hear customers are happy with my co-workers, that inspires me to do more or do better.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
We have pizza Friday every week.
We also do fun runs
We turn farewells into an event
We also have a WhatsApp group and celebrate successes or birthdays.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Managing the “Feast vs. Famine” syndrome. As a services business, you either have the problem of too much work or too little. One way around this problem is to put your foot on the pedal and try to sell more. Another way is to productise your services and build annuity income versus project type income which is typically once off.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Projects in large organizations can be very political. In one of my early projects I thought I was doing well as all the executives were buying into the project and the solution that was developing. There was one executive who kept missing the workshops and close to a critical milestone we managed to get him to a workshop. Unfortunately, he disagreed with our methodology, and he had the gift of the gab and managed to convince his colleagues that we were approaching it incorrectly and he sabotaged the project. The lesson is that make sure you have all the stakeholders bought in throughout the project. Don’t leave influential executives outside the conversation. Sometimes they spoil the project only to flex their muscles.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Don’t take any business. Try and find clients that you have chemistry with. You will be successful with these clients which allows you to find similar clients. Also, make sure that there is real ROI for the work you do. If there isn’t, your work will eventually be replaced and forgotten, and you will lose out on repeat work. Repeat work is the best ideal as it costs you less to sell and you can build on your previous great relationships. Also there and stay as focused as possible. If you have too many solutions, you will never be exceptional at one thing. If you do one thing well, people will seek you out.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

Www.kpims.co.za
Www.kpims.co.za/podcast
@rogerknocker

Pop Quiz, Monday with Sally Foley-Lewis

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Sally Foley-Lewis

Sally Foley-Lewis
Photo credit: Sally Foley-Lewis

What is your job role?
I’m a Productivity- and Self- Leadership and Middle Management Expert

Tell us about your company?
I run a practice helping manager become productive leaders. I speak at conferences; I coach and train one on one and groups to help boost productivity through better people skills.

What do you love most about your job?
No two days are the same for me. I work across a diverse range of industries – if you have managers, then I can help. I’ve worked on shipbuilding yards in the Middle East training supervisory management skills to coaching people skills in a gym in Germany, to leadership skills for early childhood education centre directors, to boosting personal power for women in outback Australia. I’ve worked with 10,000+ managers across multiple countries.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
I’ve been a manager and a CEO. I know how hard management is. So I want managers to be valued in their role and see for themselves (and in themselves) the value they bring to their role.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
I am a sole practitioner but have many mentors and people I look to and look up to. I’m inspired by those who continue to learn, those who continue to question, and those who continue to ask ‘is there a better way?’.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
Music – lots of it and loud – my dogs usually dart out the door when I start singing.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Sales are my toughest element.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Not everyone will appreciate your effort – get over it.
Ask for help before you are forced into receiving help.
You are stronger and tougher and smarter than you give yourself credit for.
Feedback is just that, feedback: your reaction or response to it is your choice.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
As hard is it is not to compare with others, do not compare yourself to others. This can be a massive hit to productivity and self-belief.

Linked to the first point: overnight success is an extremely rare phenomenon. Look up your favourite artist and find out exactly how long they’ve been at their craft!

Use hacks and productivity strategies to limit procrastination and time-wasting activities. Set yourself up with as much accountability as possible!

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:


www.sallyfoleylewis.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallyfoleylewis/
https://www.facebook.com/PeopleAndProductivity/
https://www.instagram.com/sallyfl/
http://www.youtube.com/c/SallyFoleyLewis
https://twitter.com/SallyFoleyLewis

Pop Quiz, Monday with Richard Bronson

70 Million Jobs is the first national, for-profit employment platform for people with criminal records.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Richard Bronson

Richard Bronson
Photo credit: Richard Bronson

What is your job role?
Founder/CEO 70 Million Jobs

Tell us about your company?
70 Million Jobs is the first national, for-profit employment platform for people with criminal records.

What do you love most about your job?
Working with heroic men and women who continue to believe that good intentions bring great results.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Fear of not doing enough.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
They are incredibly passionate and have very good hearts.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
We tease our Director of Operations Seth to no end. He’s 7’0″ tall, an ex-LA Laker, and an endless source of mirth.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Convincing the formerly incarcerated to accept menial, low-paying jobs, as opposed to returning to the streets where the money’s much better but the risk much higher.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Man plans and God laughs.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Basic start-up advice: move quickly. Perfection is the enemy of success. Build something that people want, not what you want.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:
70MillionJobs.com
https://www.facebook.com/70MillionJobs
Twitter.com/70MiiionJobs

Pop Quiz, Monday with Craig Pannozzo

The thing I love most about my job is being able to help many businesses grow and increase their exposure through trade events, conferences, markets and more with our products. It’s a great feeling to meet a startup in its early stages and watch them grow to where they are now.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Craig Pannozzo

Craig Pannozzo
Photo credit: Craig Pannozzo

What is your job role?
I am the General Manager of Gazeboshop

Tell us about your company?
We are the commercial suppliers of speciality marquees and gazebos. We established Gazeboshop in 2005 with myself and my father, Luigi. We now supply Coca-Cola, the BBC, British Army, Stroke Association, High5, Nandos, Sainsbury’s and St John Ambulance as well as many startups and SMEs across a range of industry sectors. We also specialise in bespoke marquees, gazebos and custom print accessories.

What do you love most about your job?
The thing I love most about my job is being able to help many businesses grow and increase their exposure through trade events, conferences, markets and more with our products. It’s a great feeling to meet a startup in its early stages and watch them grow to where they are now.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
I enjoy coming into work and overcoming the challenges of being a somewhat seasonal business through innovating new products that our customers can enjoy all year round. In 2019, we will be launching a range of roll-out bolt-on canopies that are inspired by vintage shops so watch this space!

How do your co-workers inspire you?
My father, Luigi, inspires me. His creative approach to our strategy has given the whole team a thorough understanding of the market. The team is always looking at ways to consistently make our offering fresh and relevant to existing trends.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
I always make an effort to organise team socials. As a family-orientated business, it’s important for us to ensure that everyone on the team feels fully included.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
As mentioned, the seasonality of marquees and gazebos can be quite challenging. However, we always try to overcome any seasonal dips through innovating products that our customers can use all year round such as bespoke custom-print materials for conferences.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Resilience is key to growth in a startup. You must always have a contingency plan before embarking on a project or a campaign. So many startups fail because of this. Furthermore, before embarking on a project, you must have clear objectives and KPIs in mind.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Research the industry thoroughly and know your supply chain down to a tee. You should also get out there and network with other businesses. The great thing about the marquee and gazebo industry is that most sectors will, at one point, need one. Because of this, it is integral to starting out that you are networking with these businesses so that your company is at the forefront of their mind when they need to buy a gazebo.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

https://www.gazeboshop.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/gazeboshop

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWqZne7TU6u0oxvus2l5mbA/feed

Pop Quiz, Monday with Vinod Pandey

We earn revenue from tea sales and use that to reinvest in the same village. The proceeds are earmarked to bring dropout girls to the schools and ensure they continue and complete schooling.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Vinod Pandey

Vinod Pandey
Photo credit: Vinod Pandey

What is your job role?
Co-Founder (Rozgar Dhaba)

Tell us about your company?
Rozgar Dhaba (“Employment Café”) works as an information exchange center to share information on jobs with rural communities so that people could get the jobs in their geography. It collects information from local employers about local jobs and also gathers information about job seekers, who are looking for employment and display the gathered information. We earn revenue from tea sales and use that to reinvest in the same village. The proceeds are earmarked to bring dropout girls to the schools and ensure they continue and complete schooling.

At present Rozgar Dhaba operates in the Madhya Pradesh state of India.

Rozgar Dhaba is registered with the name Development Innovation Foundation a not for profit charity.

What do you love most about your job?
Connecting with people from rural India

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
At the age of 12, I had lost my cousin brother who went to the city in search of the job and because of poor health care, less earning, savings to send money to home and long working hours have taken his life.

I think about him every day and think no one should lose his life because of unsafe migration and unemployment, and that keeps me alive and motivated.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
Most of my co-workers are from rural India when I see them helping communities with a smile. It inspires me to more work so that more Rozgar Dhaba centers could be open.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
Our work itself is fun…whenever one needs a break..just have a cup of tea from Rozgar Dhaba. It is more of a family than an organisation

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Reaching to the most unreached rural pockets and collecting information on jobs availability and starting Rozgar Dhaba centers in those areas.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
It’s important to receive feedback and work on it constructively.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Be ready to fail, but remember failure in, not for profit is the first step of success.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:
We don’t have a website of Rozgar Dhaba.

Pop Quiz, Monday with Peter Saddington

The speed of execution wins. The faster you build, the quicker you experiment, the quicker you will make mistakes, fail, and learn. The key to making informed decisions is to have as much data at your disposal as possible.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Peter Saddington

Peter Saddington
Photo credit: Peter Saddington

What is your job role?
Product at YEN.io

Tell us about your company?
YEN.io is the world’s first MEX (meta-exchange) which combines the power and features of a social network with multiple cryptocurrency exchanges.

What do you love most about your job?
The #cryptonation and the cryptocurrency community as well as bleeding edge technology in the blockchain.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
We are changing lives every day by building the tools for them to participate in the next generation of finance: Bitcoin.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
I work with my best friends, which makes it a great joy to work and to play with them. Their honesty is what inspires me to grow myself, challenge myself, and shoot for the moon!

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
I work directly with the community at YEN.io, behind the scenes with content creators for our shared YouTube channel, DecentralizedTV (www.dctv.show), and entrepreneurs who are building cryptocurrency applications for the YEN platform or cryptocurrency in general.

Engaging with the community on such a deep level, daily, is the most rewarding thing about my work!

What are some of the challenges of your job?
We’re never building fast enough. We have made seven cryptocurrency applications in the past two years, and we need to develop more!

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
The speed of execution wins. The faster you build, the quicker you experiment, the quicker you will make mistakes, fail, and learn. The key to making informed decisions is to have as much data at your disposal as possible.

For example, The only way to truly understand your customer is to build features quickly and get feedback as to whether they like or dislike it.

It hurts to spend time on features that don’t work.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
The crypto industry is one of code. Learning to code will be a skill that the world desperately needs! Begin today! There are many great free resources like CodeAcademy.com and TheBitcoin.Pub.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

www.YEN.io
www.github.com/yenio
www.twitter.com/bitesizebitcoin

The Richest Man in Babylon

In the book, they discuss experiences such as the concept of saving to become financially secure by keeping a part of your earnings. The lesson of saving money is nothing new, but the way they explain how to save your money through storytelling will help the lesson stick.

You would think that managing finances would be more straightforward today with all of the innovations in the financial industry — the use of technology, artificial intelligence, and more information on the web to better educate consumers. I believe that the opposite is true. We are more confused about how to manage our financial portfolios by having too much information at our fingertips. We are overloaded with information and uncertain on which source to trust. This reason is why we need to build a knowledge base on the fundamentals of financial literacy.

We are too busy looking at the next big thing. We want to make money fast without putting in the hard work. The concept of getting rich schemes is all make-believe. If it sounds too good to be true, then the chances are that this may not be worth your time. A good example is Bitcoin. A lot of people jumped on the bandwagon in investing in Bitcoin. The value of Bitcoin was driven up by hype. Eventually, people lost a lot of money in their investment. This example of Bitcoin is a good reason why we need to understand the basics of finances.

The Richest Man in Babylon is a book written in 1926 by George S. Clason. This book is considered to be one of the cornerstones by the business community in teaching people the basics of managing finances through parables. What is interesting is that initially, the parables were separate stories given to customers as pamphlets at banks. The settings of each of the leaflets took place in Babylon. Each booklet discussed an essential financial lesson to consumers. Eventually, the brochures were assembled together to be published a book in 1926.

The Richest Man in Babylon

In the book, they discuss experiences such as the concept of saving to become financially secure by keeping a part of your earnings. The lesson of saving money is nothing new, but the way they explain how to save your money through storytelling will help the lesson stick. Sometimes, taking lessons from a book published in 1926 can provide the clarity that is needed for today. Check out the book on Amazon and learn the fundamentals of managing your finances.

The Richest Man in Babylon: Original 1926 Edition

Pop Quiz, Monday with Dominic Donato

Seeing my clients achieve what they set out to do, and knowing that I played a small part in that is immensely gratifying to me. Not only that, but I have also built long-lasting friendships with former and current clients who share the same interests and values I do.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Dominic Donato

Dominic Donato

What is your job role?
Realtor & Fitness Coach

Tell us about your company?
I help people change their lives. Either help them find or sell their home or change their bodies with health and fitness coaching.

Both my companies aim to add value to my clients’ lives. By doing this, the focus is always about providing a quality service first. The systems implemented in my business enable ease of use and convenience for the individual. AllLuxuryhomes.com gives people real-time access to all the properties that are on the market. They can also schedule a showing on a property, and have direct communication with me, very quickly. Detailed descriptions and ease of use on any mobile device ensure that the user has everything they need within easy reach of their fingertips.

UltimateBodyz.com The online personal coaching program gives the user a state-of-the-art branded app that has many features like Videos on each exercise, Calendar, workout programs, advanced nutrition plans, video calls and instant messaging to have access to my expertise 24/7.

What do you love most about your job?
Seeing my clients achieve what they set out to do, and knowing that I played a small part in that is immensely gratifying to me. Not only that, but I have also built long-lasting friendships with former and current clients who share the same interests and values I do.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Whether it’s helping someone grow their portfolio, sell up or flip a property, or even to set a fitness goal, each client’s needs are unique and challenging in their own way. Really listening to their needs and helping to devise just the right strategy is very rewarding. It drives me to succeed for them, and to deliver above and beyond expectations because a good result for my client is a good result for me.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
Seeing my colleagues deal with challenges and finding a way to win can be both inspiring and educational. Recognizing that the team is more than the sum of its parts, with each person contributing in their own unique way reinforces and strengthens our bonds and increases our chances of success.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
Going out for a great meal, a laugh each day, complementing someone each day on one of their qualities or accomplishments. I am always smiling, and it’s contagious : )

What are some of the challenges of your job?
With the real estate industry, there are many people involved in each transaction or deal. If one person drops the ball, it affects everyone. If there is an issue with the property inspection or loan, this could sabotage the deal. Negotiations can also be tough if both parties don’t feel they are winning in some way. Also, people changing their minds is a huge challenge to deal with on a daily basis! In the Fitness industry, people not doing exactly what you are advising them and them not seeing the results they are expecting. Keeping people motivated when traditionally they have been difficult to motivate can be a challenge too!

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
A deal I recently closed on had a scenario of a wonderful family looking to buy their first home here in L.A. They had received a loan approval from someone that did not do the due diligence and offered approval and then could not honor it. So, we found another loan officer who did most of the fundamentals but did not qualify an important point, which got rejected once the file went to Underwriting for final sign off. This was one week before our closing on the property, my clients loved the house and were told one week before getting the keys that they could not close on the loan. We were told that there was no hope unless they waited another six months to get their taxes in order.

We were so close I could not give up! I called and searched and found someone who solved the problem for us with a workaround. We ended up closing the deal one week later than originally scheduled but my clients were over the moon because they started believing that they would lose the house and thousands of dollars spent on various inspections.

The biggest lesson I have learned is always to work hard as if this was the house I was going to purchasing for myself. Utilize all my resources and connections and always try and look outside the box, when traditional outcomes do not work. Anything is possible when working with the right people and the right attitude. I focus on this now for all my future deals so I can add extra value to my clients and them having access to my trusted and proven network of people, to get the job done right the first time. Having a “Never Say Die” attitude until absolutely all avenues have been exhausted, is what I have adopted. It is too easy to give up and say no, but it’s much more of a challenge when finding a workaround that other people wouldn’t even think of. I have friends for life now, and they have a big family that they have recommended me to. A win-win for everyone!

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Don’t think about the money. Do the hard work and be consistent… Rome wasn’t built in a day, so don’t expect instant results! Trust in yourself and stick to the basics and always do the right thing by people.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:
AllLuxuryHomes.com
UltimateBodyz.com
Instagram – @thedominicdonato , @thedomdonato
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/TheDominicDonato/ https://www.facebook.com/DominicDonatoFitness/

First steps to working with a VA

Virtual Assistants can help with anything from marketing to accounts; social media or blog writing; diary management to website design. Virtual Assistants can ease some of your business worries and take care of all those time-wasting jobs for you.

If you’ve heard the term Virtual Assistant but are not quite sure what that actually means, then read on!

Virtual Assistants can help with anything from marketing to accounts; social media or blog writing; diary management to website design. Virtual Assistants can ease some of your business worries and take care of all those time-wasting jobs for you.

What is a VA?

A virtual assistant (VA) works on a casual or freelance basis. They usually work from home, but might work from an office, and might charge per hour or per project. Each VA will have their own skill set and will specialise in certain tasks.

A simple way to think of it is it’s like having a personal assistant/marketing manager/accountant/designer/administration manager… except we don’t need to be in the same office as you!

We usually have qualifications plus extensive training in our specialised area. For example, I offer writing, proofreading and general admin services, and I have a degree in Journalism and Marketing plus experience working as Personal Assistant, so you can see where my skills have grown and developed. Other VAs might have worked for years as an accountant and now they offer freelance account services.

How to work with a VA

First, identify what it is that you want to outsource. It might be one specific task, such as “you want them to write blogs for you” or “manage your email account”. Or it might be that you want someone to manage your whole business, and this often needs a VA that has a team of other VAs to call on.

Next, spend time thinking about the investment. Yes, it will cost you on average $50p/h for an Australian VA, but think about all the time you’ll free up to go and make money doing what you are good at. If you’re a plumber, you are better off paying someone for 10 hours a week to manage all your appointments and coordinate your social media, then spending those same 10 hours a week actually working for whatever your rate is.

Plus, the VA rate is covering everything: you don’t need to pay superannuation, ongoing training, computer/desk, or insurances on top of that rate.

Also, identify how you will communicate with the VA. Do you prefer to email, or will you be wanting to have a skype meeting once a week? Good communication is crucial. When delegating any task, ensure you let the VA know the deadline you have in your mind, what outcome you expect, what systems you use and any other relevant information.

Where to find a good VA

There are freelancer sites with mostly offshore VAs who are considerably cheaper than a local, Aussie VA. But you get what you pay for in this world. For very repetitive or basic tasks then an offshore VA could certainly be a good option. If you are looking for a higher level of support and expertise then you will need to recognise that need, and be willing to pay Australian rates. For example, an offshore VA might be really good at data entry, but not so good at managing your events or social media accounts, as they just do not understand the local market.

I am part of an Australian VA network called Virtually Yours, where you can put a call out for a VA, you simply state the task or tasks you would like help with. https://www.virtuallyyours.com.au/submit-a-job-request/

We are all self-employed, business owners running our own VA businesses. So, we understand how to run a business and also the local regulations, business opportunities and so on.

Building the relationship

Working with a VA is slightly different to working with an employee. Yes, we often complete the exact same work as someone in your office might do, but we love working virtually and it’s a win-win because you only pay for the work agreed. So rather than paying a wage, and superannuation and providing a computer, your VA will complete all tasks and then invoice you for the time or perhaps agree on a package rate beforehand.

VAs work with multiple clients and this means we are constantly practicing our skills and learning something new. I do more training and up-skilling as a VA than I ever did as an employee. Each VA has a different way of charging – I usually charge by an hourly rate but some may charge a package fee or outcomes-based fee. As an independent contractor, I cover all my own taxes, superannuation, equipment upkeep and training, so when I quote my price, you know the value you are getting.

If you would like to chat more about what a VA does, then feel free to contact me at https://www.sbcreations.com.au/

Or https://www.facebook.com/simplysbcreations/

Financial Education: The Key to Rich Dad Poor Dad

If you think a balance sheet is a piece of linen that helps you with your equilibrium, there’s probably a good reason why you have not achieved your financial goals.  And make no mistake about it, no matter what some authors tell you, becoming wealthy is much more complicated than sacrificing your daily latte.  Instead, wealth is a matter of education.  That’s the idea behind Robert Kiyosaki’s classic 1997 book, Rich Dad Poor Dad.

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Make no mistake about it.  If you have ever listened to anyone who knows anything about making money, it’s often like being in a foreign country, with all the buzzwords and complicated concepts to be heard and understood, but just like visiting a foreign country, once you understand the language and the concepts, you will be in a better position to absorb everything and learn a lot that you can put into play.

The same is true for earning your way to wealth and prosperity.  Once you understand the language of business and how the concepts work together to form a unified whole, you can better understand what the gurus (not to mention the financial books and newspapers) have to teach you.  That’s the whole idea behind Rich Dad Poor Dad, which gives the reader a basic understanding of financial matters so they can use them to their benefit.

Kiyosaki is careful from page one to tell the reader that his book is not a complete financial education, but once you read the book, you will be in a good position to understand the concepts of financial matters and use them to help you build a bright financial future.  Will you get rich by reading Rich Dad Poor Dad?  It’s hard to tell, but the results reported by numerous readers are encouraging.  You have nothing to lose by reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, only the financial mistakes of the past and perhaps a financially independent future.

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

Pop Quiz, Monday with Megan Nolan

Knowing that I am making a difference in the lives of my customers and their teams.

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Megan Nolan

Megan Nolan
Photo credit: Megan Nolan

What is your job role?
Director

Tell us about your company?
At PivotPoint, we work with Small & Medium Business owners who want to increase profits by creating customised solutions for teams so they can understand how their daily efforts drive (or diminish) business success and to equip them with the skills needed to deliver a superior Sales and Service experience for your Customers.

What do you love most about your job?
I get the opportunity to inspire business owners and their teams on how to provide superior sales and service offering that increases profits, boost morale and creates amazing customer experiences.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Knowing that I am making a difference in the lives of my customers and their teams.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
I consider my customers and their teams to be my co-workers. Whenever I have the pleasure of working with someone who goes from being uncomfortable with the sales process to be the top of their game is always inspiring.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
It’s easy to have fun at work when you love what you do. I try to keep things light and have a little bit of fun when coaching in sales and service. It’s all about building and maintaining relationships, and doing that is fun!!

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Sometimes I work with teams who feel that there is no reason for a change, which can be a challenge. It’s usually borne from an organisation not having clearly defined Mission, Vision, and Values that teams can align their behaviours with.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Always be clear with outlining and defining both yours, your customers and their teams.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Invest in continual education….. There is nothing more powerful than understanding a subject from many perspectives and learning a variety of deliveries. Then reinforce your learning by teaching what you know and providing as much value as you can to as many people as you can.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

www.pivotpointbc.com.au

https://www.facebook.com/PivotPointBusinessConsulting/

The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

Pop Quiz, Monday with Ben Winston, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Beauty By Design

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Ben Winston

Photo credit: Ben Winston
Photo credit: Ben Winston                                                                                             

What is your job role?
Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer

Tell us about your company?
Beauty By Design is changing the way skincare is bought. We provide a personalized, concierge service where users answer five questions, upload a selfie and text with an esthetician. The esthetician’s a real, licensed expert that you can talk to any time on text, and ask questions and get recommendations from. For product recommendations, we deliver a “SkinScription” that includes 100% transparency into why we recommended the products you’re seeing, and what’s in them.

What do you love most about your job?
As CTO, I love being able to work on both Product and Engineering. This means working with stakeholders (estheticians, marketers, merchandisers) to come up with new ideas on improving our service or enabling our team to improve our service. When we arrive at the best ideas for the next version of our product, I get to hunker down with the engineering team, work on architecture and code, and solve problems at an advanced level that’s rewarding. Researching how new technologies can help our business is also a thrill.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Customers across the country are saying we have changed their lives or provided value in some way. I love enabling our estheticians to do their work and having a tight feedback loop on what customers like or dislike. Over half of customers that bought from us have purchased again, and that’s because we make it easy for estheticians to have real conversations with people.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
I love this question. My coworkers are all data-driven, dynamic thinkers. They want to prioritize what’s best for customers, and it’s inspiring. This attitude applies to simple tasks like designing workflows for signup, all the way through to architecting complex algorithms that analyze a customer’s data.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
We are all super focused but find a way to have fun. Everyone on the team has a great sense of humor. Sometimes pranks are involved, for instance, if one person was working from home on a Monday, we’ll pretend that a celebrity was in our office that day, and they missed out, and we all had a great time. The pranks are short-lived, lighthearted, and everyone gets a good laugh.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
The primary challenge is listening to what customers tell us – not only through direct feedback but through behavior. We are continually presenting customers with different experiences in our funnel, figuring out what kinds of data they will readily share with us and how to build trust and accuracy by making the sales process more collaborative. We wire every component in our UX and back-end with analytics tools to understand how well the various experiments are working.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
No matter how good the idea, you have to believe in the team that’s as capable and ambitious as you are in their respective discipline. If you are building something on the Product and Engineering side, you not only have to believe in the ideas you’re building but that Sales and Marketing will get your work in front of customers and tell your company’s story the right way.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
I’m sure this applies to any industry outside of hard tech – don’t let technology be the full story. Learn how to provide value to customers and earn their trust through customer service. For us, we realized the “human touch” (our Esthetician Consult) was the most valuable facet to our service, despite building all of this technology we were excited about. Then our strategy pivoted to building the app around the esthetician and the customer and to foster that relationship.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

www.beautybydesign.com
https://www.instagram.com/beautybydesign/

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth 

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind reveals the missing link between wanting success and achieving it!
Have you ever wondered why some people seem to get rich easily, while others are destined for a life of financial struggle? Is the difference found in their education, intelligence, skills, timing, work habits, contacts, luck, or their choice of jobs, businesses, or investments?  –Publisher

Pop Quiz, Monday with Neeraj Kumar, Founder & CEO at Le Magnifique Group

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Neeraj Kumar

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Photo credit: Neeraj Kumar

What is your job role?
I am the Founder & CEO of Le Magnifique Group. As the CEO of the company, I oversee and delegate responsibilities related to marketing strategy, accounting, technology, design aspects, operations and work on the overall profitability and growth of the company.

Tell us about your company?
Le Magnifique Group is into Luxury Travel, Bespoke Events, Destination Wedding management and Brand consultancy based in New Delhi, Dubai & Jaipur. Be it handpicked heritage accommodations, travel guides, logistics, support staff, we try and ensure an impeccable on ground service, taking care of each detail in the finest possible way, to ensure a magnificent experience for guests. A family vacation with your loved ones, group journey with your friends, solo travel, corporate outing for your employees, school excursions or assisting medical tourists, we endeavor to provide the finest solutions. We design, plan and curate bespoke events for private and corporate clients, be it corporate galas, award ceremonies, creative conferences, team building activities or private parties.

What do you love most about your job?
The most exciting and fulfilling part about my job is the social impact that my events have and the value driven work that we do, with some of the most satisfying projects being on women empowerment. The thrill of showcasing the Incredible India brand through our travel division to a very well traveled International audience is unparalleled and at the same time very enriching. The passion of taking brand India to the world is what keeps us motivated towards our product, trying to create a niche for our brand and brand India.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
We have always tried to create a Brand value based on trust, consistency, distinctive product line and above all an impeccable customer experience. As a business owner, I need to live and breathe my brand to inspire my colleagues and ultimately our customers to believe in us. The passion for achieving the same and creating a truly distinctive brand identity is what keeps me motivated each day.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
My team’s dedication towards achieving the organisational goals is truly inspiring. The bonding in the setup is great which equally allows each one of us to criticise or appreciate ideas to achieve the best results as an organisation. That for me is the biggest motivation, as each one of my co-workers is our brand custodian, which allows me to think differently and think fast. My co-workers are my most significant assets.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
We are in the business of leisure (events and travel). Curating some of the finest events need a lot of detailing and on the job vendor management, which at the same time is a lot of fun. We have endless discussions and chit-chats while on a project, and certainly, my young team does play pranks on all of us. We do go out for team dinners, and every small or big achievement is celebrated. Also, being in the travel industry, we are invited to Fam-trips as a team which is super-exciting.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
The biggest challenge that we currently have is branching out to other Indian metropolitan cities including Mumbai and Bangalore. We maintain the highest quality standards for our product & service delivery and hence a very thought through approach is needed to start our operations elsewhere.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
It is always favourable to exceed your client’s expectations by adding on to the list of deliverables not mentioned in the contract. This not only brings in trust but also is the foundation of a deep-rooted lasting relationship. We also realized that it’s important to focus on your strengths and build on that and subsequently branch out to other associated domains.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Getting into the Luxury Travel and Events industry can be rewarding, given you do not compromise on the product quality and have a keen eye and attention to detail. A strong networking ability and excellent interpersonal skills will help you develop trust and confidence with your prospective clients. It is essential to be patient and at the same time passionate and enthusiastic to instill confidence amongst your co-workers. Have short-term realistic goals, to begin with, and take failures in your stride, as that will help you carve out a better, more refined product in the long run.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

www.lemagnifique-events.com
www.lemagnifiquetravel.com
https://www.facebook.com/bespokeluxuryevents/ https://www.instagram.com/lemagnifiquegrp/

Pop Quiz, Monday with Chris Sheng, CEO & Founder at Renly

The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy business owners. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young entrepreneur sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter that they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce business tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our entrepreneur for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Can you please tell everyone your name?
Chris Sheng

What is your job role?
2x Founder and Growth Marketer

Tell us about your company?
Renly is an Airbnb for beauty space. We match hair stylists with salon space.

What do you love most about your job?

Solving problems.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Knowing that every day is different and will be challenging in its way.

How do your co-workers inspire you?
By challenging me. I feel like you need to surround yourself with people that are better than you. That way you are continually learning.

How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
Not taking ourselves too seriously. In the end, everyone bleeds the same blood, cries the same tears, and sweats the same sweat…so with that in perspective – what we are doing needs to address something greater.

What are some of the challenges of your job?
Staying positive with 9 out of 10 failed experiments. Seriously, entrepreneurship is all about endurance. Success is the neighbor to failure. You have to knock on enough doors to find it.

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
The greatest hacks are the ones staring you straight in the face, but you’re too scared to pull the trigger. Simple is better. Ask don’t guess. These are mottos I live by. We as human beings tend to overthink things because our egos get in the way. When the reality is with focus and clarity, the answers aren’t that far off.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
Try, try and try again. If you believe in something, don’t let anyone deter you. Only you can realize your dreams. Unless you’re willing to take on that responsibility 100%, you won’t ever be able to get to your desired destination.

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their business by visiting them on the web:

www.chrissheng.com
https://www.facebook.com/thechrissheng/
https://twitter.com/thechrissheng
https://www.instagram.com/thechrissheng/