I’m an admirer of Mark Suster’s blog, Both Sides of the Table. It’s a Forbes Top Blogs for Entrepreneurs and has hundreds of thousands of followers–all for good reason. As his blog title denotes, Mark has done it all. He’s a successful entrepreneur turned venture capital investor and a big advocate of marketing and PR. And he has got a way with words.
So I was thrilled to see a recent post of his, “The Silent Benefits of PR” come through on the Innovation Daily feed. The post is really good. In it, Mark lays out the intangible benefits of PR and talks about why it’s so valuable to young companies. He hits on benefits that people probably wouldn’t even think of, things like keeping staff morale up and recruiting employees.
Money and time often are tight in a startup environment and committing the appropriate budget and energy for a solid and sustained PR campaign might not land on top of a founder’s list of to-dos, especially when its benefits can be so elusive. But they are there and Mark does a fantastic job explaining how you can see them in ways other than direct ROI.
PR is a very valuable benefit to an early stage company. Many investors and startups do not understand why. PR can be difficult to quantify, which is why it can be difficult for some to accept its importance and value. Here is why PR is pertinent to a young company
- Recruiting
- Business Development
- Fund Raising
- Staff Morale
- Enterprise Sales
- Future PR
- M&A
- Customer Acquisition
Your Name is a Brand – Treat it as One Online
People are not buying products, they are buying people. Social media makes it easier to be won over by your personality rather than your marketing strategy. Brands are associated with people and that is what sells the product. Here are some things to be cognizant of.
- Your name is your brand.
- Publish advice on a regular basis.
5 Essential Legal Issues To Review Before Securing Venture Capital
In the second quarter of 2014, venture capitalists invested $13.0 billion in 1,114 deals according to The Money Tree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. This is the most money invested in a quarter since Q1 of 2001. Before an investor decides to pull the trigger on an investment, these are the top five legal issues that they look into during due diligence.
- Corporate governance.
- Shareholder agreements.
- Intellectual property.
- Written contracts.
- Regulatory Issues and Other Potential “Show-Stoppers”
Otto van Bismarck, the conservative prime minister of Prussia in 1881, offered up a radical idea, “retirement”, to the Reichstag (government-run financial support for older members). This idea was new and unheard of because people worked until they died. During the mid 1800s in the US, there were certain municipal employees that started receiving public pensions. By the 1920s, a majority of railroads, oil companies and banks were offering support to employees in their later life. These pension programs started marking this age at 65. This age had way more to do with economics than it did with health. Research was conducted that suggested than man did his best work before 60 and that mental capabilities started declining after 60. When the Social Security Act passed in 1935, the average life expectancy for a man was 58. Soon however, man started living past the retirement age.
10 Signs You’re In The Wrong Job, And What To Do About It
There may be a point in your life where you find yourself in the wrong job. Here are the signs.
- You no longer believe in what the company does.
- Your job doesn’t tap into your natural abilities.
- You don’t understand the purpose of your job.
- You aren’t gaining new skills or you don’t feel challenged.
- You don’t find joy in the victories at work.
- You don’t feel your work is valued.
- You realize growth opportunities are severely limited.
- You hate it when a new acquaintance asks what you do.
- You’ve lost respect for your boss.
10. You’ve got an “itch” for a new job that is overwhelming.
So what do you do about it? Read this article to find out.