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from Style – Esquire http://www.esquire.com/style/advice/g2912/best-subscription-boxes-for-men/
Month: August 2016
Ever Wonder How Spotify Discover Weekly Works? Data Science
New music is everywhere. Hundreds if not thousands of new albums are released each week between major labels, mid-level subsidiaries, independent shops, and droves of label-less hopefuls. So with all those sweet new tunes out there, how do you dig through the dreck and find what sings to your soul?
Music is a deeply personal experience, and describing what you like or dislike about a particular song or artist can sometimes be frustratingly difficult. This can make finding new music difficult, and discovering hidden gems near impossible.
The answer? Spotify Discover Weekly. As veteran Spotify users know, Discover Weekly is a curated playlist of 30 songs ranging from new releases to deep cuts, personalized just for you. But how does it work? Data science.
“Recommendation is a really common problem for data scientists,” said Lucas Ramadan, a student in GalvanizeU’s data science master’s program. “The most common technique used for recommendation is called collaborative filtering.”
Recommendation engines have become commonplace in our daily lives. Netflix uses them to recommend new movies and TV shows we might like, while Amazon uses them to turn shoppers on to new products. The trick to collaborative filtering is that it recommends new things based on similarity between users, not between items.
In the case of Spotify, that means a huge database filled with everything that users have already listened to, where the rows are filled with users, and the columns are all the songs each user has listened to. A collaborative filtering algorithm finds users that are similar to each other, based upon their usage—the songs in common they have listened to—and then recommends the songs that only one person has listened to to the other.
But collaborative filtering isn’t the only thing responsible for setting you up with that hot new M83 track. Spotify discover actually uses what’s known as an ensemble method—a collection of models of which collaborative filtering is a member of.
“A big problem for collaborative filtering is what’s called the ‘cold start problem,’ which is when you’re starting a new product and you have no user data,” Ramadan said. For Spotify, this manifests when you have a new user who hasn’t listened to very much yet, as well as when you have an obscure, unpopular, or new song that not many people have listened to yet.
![The data flow of Spotify Discover Weekly. [Image via Spotify]](http://galvanize-wp.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/18104334/Screen-Shot-2016-08-17-at-4.48.55-PM.png)
Spotify wants to be able to recommend these new songs (and deep cuts) so to get around the cold start problem, it uses what’s called convolutional neural networks to actually analyze the songs themselves.
“The convolutional neural network is run over the acoustics of a song itself and analyzed to determine songs that have similar acoustic patterns,” Ramadan said.
A third method used is a form of natural language processing. In natural language processing, there’s a technique called Word2Vec, which takes words and encodes them into a mathematical representation—a vector. In these mathematical representations, vectors with a similar shape would equate to words with a similar meaning. Basically, it’s mathematical representation of the implicit associations and relationships between words that we know to be true in everyday speech.
What Spotify does is very similar to Word2Vec. It takes playlists and treats them as a paragraph or big block of text, and treats each song in the playlist as an individual word. This results in vector representations of songs that can be used to determine two pieces of music that are similar. As such, Spotify is able to determine which songs are similar to each other, thus enabling it to tackle the cold start problem and recommend songs with very few plays.
One of the things that makes Discover so good is that it employs a technique called outlier detection to differentiate things you actually like. Outlier detection is commonly used in financial security—it’s what banks and credit card companies use to detect fraudulent charges—but it also has uses in recommendation engines.
Essentially, outlier detection is used to determine if a particular usage—that is, listening to a song—is part of a normal pattern of behavior or not. This way, if you usually only listen to classic rock and ’90s alternative, your Discover Weekly playlist won’t get filled up with pop hits when your little brother plays Justin Bieber one time.
“Now, if you keep listening to Bieber 50-50 with other stuff, then it will start to recommend songs similar to Bieber,” Ramadan said. “The idea is that it initially flags it as an outlier and largely ignore it, only adding it to your recommendations if you continue that usage pattern.”
With all these algorithms working together, it’s no wonder that Discover Weekly is a hit. The general sentiment seen on places such as Twitter, as well as feedback collected by Spotify itself, suggests that people are very pleased with the 30 new songs recommended each week.
And if not? Well, all you can blame is the data.
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The post Ever Wonder How Spotify Discover Weekly Works? Data Science appeared first on Galvanize.
from Galvanize http://www.galvanize.com/blog/spotify-discover-weekly-data-science/
Four Things Learned from a Design Critique with Facebook
Share your designs and ideas with others verbally.
The benefit of sharing your designs and ideas verbally is that it forces you to analyze your decisions on the spot. Doing so shouldn’t be a difficult task when you’ve spent enough time mapping out the reasoning behind your decisions. However, it’s when it does become difficult that areas requiring additional processing are revealed.
For instance, at the start of our critique session, the team asked me to provide context for my design. This included background on what problem I was trying to solve, who I was solving it for, and how my product would act as a solution. Simple right?
To my surprise, I could sense that my thoughts were scattered as I initially spoke. There were some ideas that I had difficulty expressing eloquently and some questions that I simply did not have a fleshed out answer to. However, as more questions were asked and I heard my own responses, things began to click. Questions I had no clear answer to in the beginning became obvious. I was able to reconcile pieces of information that appeared to be unrelated to form a greater understanding and ultimately fill in missing gaps that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Speaking out loud really does make all the difference. It brings forward your conscious and even subconscious thoughts that were stored in the back of your head and places them before for you, making it easier to organize. Things become unclouded, you begin making new connections, and you’re able to reorient yourself towards designing a better product.
Closing Thoughts
Facebook is doing something great here with these open design critiques. It’s not everyday that you see such a renowned group reaching out to the community so openly and honestly.
Having the opportunity to collaborate with some of the best designers in the industry has been an invaluable experience. I was able to gain insight into how critiques are carried out in a professional setting and have been able to transfer what I have learned into leading my own design critiques at my current internship. On top of that, it has helped me improve my design process and has overall made me into a significantly more aware designer.
To my understanding, Facebook plans to continue their open design critiques. Based on my positive experience, I would highly recommend anyone considering this to submit their designs, especially if they are someone just getting into product design as I was. I understand that doing so could be a daunting task, but believe me, it is well beyond worth it. These designers I have had the pleasure connecting with have been some of the most genuine and considerate individuals I have ever met. They want to help the design community, so let them!
I hope my honest reflection on my critique session with Facebook provided helpful advice and encourages everyone to continue sharing and learning from one another. I certainly still have a lot more to learn, but I look forward to using what I have gained from this experience as I move forward in my future growth and development as a designer.
from uxdesign.cc – User Experience Design – Medium https://uxdesign.cc/four-things-learned-from-a-design-critique-with-facebook-c72c14b985a8?source=rss—-138adf9c44c—4
Jerry Seinfeld’s 12 unconventional rules for doing the best work of your life
To make you laugh, a comedian has to convince you that their punchline is believable. Jerry Seinfeld is the master. He makes millions not only believe his punchline but say, “I can’t believe I never put it like that.”
He takes you there. He describes exactly how you feel, and he makes it all very funny. This is his craft. He’s a master technician. A true master of his domain. And the lessons he shares about his work are universal. It doesn’t matter if you’re a designer or a comedian. A custodian or a CEO. His approach will help you create the best work of your life.
Here’s Jerry Seinfeld’s 12 rules for doing your best work:
- Find the thing people want you to spend a lot of time on wastefully.
The amount of time Jerry spends thinking about what most of us consider trivial things is staggering. But he finds his best work comes when he’s wasting a lot of time on stupid things. The more stupid, the better he feels about it. Your work should feel unreasonable for anyone else but you. You should spend time on details that others don’t see. - Every year, get rid of the bottom 10–20% of your work.
Jerry makes his work keep getting better by getting rid of the bottom 10% every year. This means that every 4–5 years he has a whole new act. And it continues to evolve forever. Your work should grow with you. You should constantly be looking to improve. Start with what you consider the bottom 10%. Never settle. - Time your work perfectly.
Jerry methodically calculates timing in his work. He likes the first thing he says in a joke to be funny right away and for the funniest part of a joke to always come at the end. How our work is experienced through time is often forgotten. Think about how you can not only deliver your best work but also deliver it at the right time. - Connect good ideas tightly until you have a smooth whole.
Jerry weaves his jokes together as tightly and seamlessly as possible. He relates it to a jigsaw puzzle—shaving seconds off jokes and counting syllables—to make sure his next piece fits just right. Are you making sure your next piece is perfectly tailored to follow your last? - Just try to be one of the people you look up to.
Jerry always wanted to be like the comedians he grew up watching. Instead of shying away from admiration, he was proud of this attitude that was a part of his success. Pick the top masters in your field, and follow their example.
“Once I stepped on stage for the first time, that’s it. I’m now one of those guys.” - Make your work keep resurfacing in people’s brains.
Jerry’s jokes go deep into your brain and keep coming back. He picks common topics that he feels have a special twist and tries to plant that twist into his work. If you don’t feel something that’s unexplainable about your work, nobody else will either.
“When I hear a good bit, I think about it constantly. There’s some bits I heard over 10 years ago that I still think about at least once a month.” - Find the vessel that gives you the best chance.
You might have wondered why Jerry doesn’t do movies. He thinks the size of that content doesn’t lends itself to great comedy. He knows the limitations of his craft and he tailors his work to it. Find the shape that suits your work and gives you the best chance.
“To me, the funniest things are shorter, so I think with TV series or Comedians in Cars, I have a better chance of making you laugh.” - Never stop practicing.
Ever hear a joke and tell it to every person in your office? The last few recipients always hear the best version and laugh the most. Why? Practice. When you practice something a lot, a nerve pathway in your brain expands to contain more information. As soon as you stop practicing, the pathway begins to shrink back down. Jerry continues to practice his material in front of small crowds before going on tour.
“That changed my life. I used to wonder, ‘Why am I doing these sets, getting on a stage? Don’t I know how to do this already?’ The answer is no.” - Work should feel generous.
When you’re doing your best work, it’s an act of generosity. It makes people’s lives better. Keep that in perspective—it’s essential to a long life in your craft.
“If you’re doing it for them you’ll be fine. If you’re doing it for you, you’ll have problems. They’ll know it, feel it, and they won’t like it. When you’re making people laugh you feel like you’ve done a nice thing. You come off feeling much more like you gave something than if you got something.” - Find the torture you’re comfortable with.
Jerry keeps doing standup. It’s not because he enjoys it. In fact, it’s torture. That’s why a lot of comedians stop. But Jerry hasn’t. He’s decided to feel comfortable with the torture because it makes his work better. Instead of trying to avoid all unpleasantness, seek the right amount of it in your work.
“Your blessing in life is when you find the torture you’re comfortable with. That’s marriage, it’s kids, its work, its exercise. Find the torture you’re comfortable with and you’ll do well. It’s no different than when you’re 30 minutes into a workout. You’re okay. You don’t wanna wake up early, you don’t wanna get dressed, you don’t want to go to work, but once you’re there, it’s okay. Once you get going, it’s fine. That’s life. You master that and you’ve mastered life.” - Trudge your ass in.
Jerry believes writer’s block is a phony, made-up excuse for not doing your work. The way to be better at comedy is to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes is to write every day. It’s the same for you.
“I realized construction workers don’t want to go back to work after lunch. But they’re going. That’s their job. If they can exhibit that level of dedication for that job I should be able to do the same.” - Bust your ass, pay attention, and fall in love.
Only good can come from working as hard as you can. People don’t absorb enough of the world around them, despite the fact that you can learn everything from what’s around you. We don’t stop to say how great something is. Stop and take that moment because it’s not always great. Fall in love when it is.
“Every year, get rid of the bottom 10–20% of your work.”
“Connect good ideas tightly until you have a smooth whole.”
“Find the torture you’re comfortable with.”
Want to read about Jerry’s formula for accomplishing anything you want in life? Check that out on Robert’s website, Let’s Workshop.
This post was originally published on Medium.
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from InVision Blog http://blog.invisionapp.com/seinfeld-rules-for-doing-best-work/
Apple Acquires Personal Health Data Startup Gliimpse
Apple’s ambitions in the health sector continue to expand, with its digital health team making its first known acquisition—personal health data startup Gliimpse, Fast Company has learned.
Silicon Valley-based Gliimpse has built a personal health data platform that enables any American to collect, personalize, and share a picture of their health data. The company was started in 2013, and funded by serial entrepreneur Anil Sethi, who has spent the past decade working with health startups, after taking his company Sequoia Software public in 2000. He got his start as a systems engineer at Apple in the late 1980s.
The acquisition happened earlier this year, but Apple has been characteristically quiet about it. The company has now confirmed the purchase, saying: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”
According to Sethi’s LinkedIn page, Gliimpse—like many startups—was born of a personal need. Sethi says that he’s followed his sister through her battle with breast cancer and discovered firsthand how challenging it is to acquire and manage your personal health data. Sethi writes:
As a consumer of healthcare, I leave behind a bread-crumb-trail of medical info wherever I’ve been seen. But, I’m unable to easily access or share my own data. Obamacare is one of several forcing functions federally mandating physicians and hospitals give us our data: meds, labs, allergies . . .you get the idea. However, there’s no single Electronic Health Record that all physicians use, sigh. Worse, there isn’t even a common file format across a 1000+ systems.
The acquisition will bolster Apple’s efforts in digital health. In recent years, Apple has delved into the sector with a range of services (HealthKit, CareKit, and ResearchKit) that allow patients, clinicians, and researchers to access important health and wellness data via a range of mobile devices. That’s in line with Gliimpse’s mission of uniting disparate streams of health information.
What stands out about the deal is that Gliimpse is intended for patients with diseases like cancer and diabetes. Apple recently hired a top pediatric endocrinologist who developed a HealthKit app for teens with Type 1 diabetes, signaling an increased interest in applications for chronically ill users.
It’s unlikely that this acquisition will bring Apple’s health technologies under the purview of federal regulators. CEO Tim Cook recently told Fast Company in an interview that he sees a major business opportunity for the company in the non-regulated side of health care: “So if you don’t care about reimbursement, which we have the privilege of doing, that may even make the smartphone market look small.”
It’s hard to tell how Apple will use the technology—in previous cases, the technology it has acquired from another company often ends up looking very different when it finally makes it into a product.
So far, the acquisition has not been announced on LinkedIn, or on the company’s website.
from Co.Labs http://www.fastcompany.com/3062865/tim-cooks-apple/apple-acquires-personal-health-data-startup-gliimpse?partner=rss
MIT shows off a smart tattoo that can turn your skin into a touchpad
With DuoSkin, wearables are no longer just an accessory. They become part of your skin.
The MIT Media Lab and Microsoft Research set out to create on-skin user interfaces using gold leaf, which is commonly found in craft stores, as a conductor. Piggybacking on the trend in body-art and metallic jewelry-like temporary tattoos, the team decided to repurpose gold leaf because it is “robust to movements and skin deformations during motion…[and] both workable and aesthetic in appearance.” The smart tattoos, outlined in a paper that will be presented at the International Symposium on Wearable Computers 2016, look like fashion statements but they include other materials and electrical components that make the tattoos interactive.
The tattoos can turn into an interface that can be used, for example, as a trackpad or a button to remotely control your phone. Alternatively, they can track and show you information about yourself. For example, by including thermochromic displays that change color in reaction to heat, the tattoos can show you your body temperature.
A third possible function is wireless communication. The tattoo could include an NFC (near field communications) tag, an electrical component that includes small microchips to store data that can be read by phones or other NFC devices nearby. In the near future, the technology could serve as a substitute for identification, subway cards, and even movie tickets, DuoSkin’s lead researcher Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao said in an interview with Quartz.
Kao calls DuoSkin a “project” and not, as you might expect, a product or prototype. The team hopes that others will read their research and use the information as a basis to create their own personalized on-skin wearables.
In theory, the process is simple. First, you sketch the circuitry with a graphic design software. Then, you have to create stencils of the circuitry by applying a layer of vinyl film on thin temporary tattoo paper and cut it with an electronic cutter. After that, you layer the conductive gold leaf on top with spray adhesives. The next step is mounting the electronics. The DuoSkin device is planted on the user’s skin like a regular temporary tattoo through water-transfer: apply the tattoo to your skin, press down with a damp cloth, peel off the backing paper, and then remove it, leaving the tattoo behind.
Kao says anyone can replicate the process for around $175—$150 to buy a craft electronic cutter from Amazon and another $10 each for the gold leaf and the temporary tattoo paper. That’s a steep price for one temporary tattoo that can only be worn for up to a full day, but it’s sort of scalable: after the electronic cutter has been purchased, each subsequent tattoo will cost less and less.
Although this isn’t the first time researchers have tried to use the skin as a touchscreen, previous iterations have proved to be expensive and required a device to project an interface onto the skin. Other innovations that have attempted to bring electronics to temporary tattoo-style applications include UV detectors and blood alcohol measurements but no technology has been as simple and affordable as DuoSkin.
Not everyone is going to be rushing to read through a scientific paper in order to design their own device, of course, but Kao believes there is commercial potential here, too. “There’s definitely some people who are more maker-type personalities but there’s of course people who would prefer not to do so [themselves],” Kao told Quartz. “We see this developing as a business model.” She thinks users might well be willing to pay a fee at “temporary tattoo parlors” where someone else could custom-design the product.
from Technology – Quartz http://qz.com/759572/smart-tattoo-turns-your-skin-into-a-touchpad-and-stores-data-on-microchips/
Snapchat to Buy Vurb for More Than $100 Million
Snapchat is tiptoeing into search.
The company is acquiring recommendation app Vurb for around $110 million plus additional team retention payouts totaling nearly as much, according to a person familiar with the deal.
To read the full article:
from The Information https://www.theinformation.com/snapchat-to-buy-vurb-for-more-than-100-million
Google Starts Rolling Out Duo, Its Super Simple 1-to-1 Video Messaging App
Android/iOS: Earlier this year, Google announced a couple new messaging apps (like it does every year, it seems). One of them is a 1-to-1 video chat app called Duo. Now, it’s finally rolling out to users.
Google pitches the app as the most dead simple video calling around. All you need to make a call to someone is a phone number. It seems to be aimed at competing with Facetime, with the added benefit of working across both iOS and Android. The app is currently rolling out over the next few days. If it’s not available for you from the source links below, sit tight and wait out the week.
Duo | Google Play Store via Google
Duo | iTunes App Store
from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/google-starts-rolling-out-duo-its-super-simple-1-to-1-1785336507
What This $79 Billion Industry Can Teach You About Selling
True confession: I own a timeshare. I know, it’s horribly embarrassing, but I was young and got lured in by the promise of a lifetime of cheap vacations. Many years of trying – and failing – to sell said timeshare, I’ve come to accept the fact of life as a timeshare owner. As a new parent, it’s actually worked out well for our family this summer. We used it to go to the beach (at our home resort) and had a really nice time. I also got to witness (once again) the selling techniques that keep this industry thriving.
Now, I’m guessing many of you know how the timeshare industry works: they invite you on a short vacation that’s either cheap or free (and usually comes with extra perks), and in exchange, you agree to attend a 90-minute presentation where they will share with you the benefits of “vacation ownership” also known as: a sales presentation.
If you haven’t attended one personally, you’ve probably seen it depicted in sitcoms. The process is typically this: you attend a presentation (which may or may not include entertainment and/or food), then you sit down with a “vacation consultant” whose job it is to bond with you, discover what you love about vacationing, and convince you that the best and cheapest way to live the life you’ve always dreamt of, is by “investing” in “vacation ownership.” The most convincing part is when they add it all up for you. They show you – with clear, easy math – how much money you’ll save by buying a deeded piece of real estate. And everyone knows real estates investments are great, right?
The problem is of course, that once you own one, you’re stuck paying the ever-increasing annual maintenance fees. Yes, you can rent your timeshare, trade it, and of course, use it yourself, but those are all typically complicated options that do cost you time and money. This is why the American Resort Development Association reports that the industry is currently worth $79.5 billion (according to a study conducted by Ernst & Young).
Timeshare salespeople have the reputations of used car salesmen – pushy, misleading (if not downright dishonest), and only interested in their own commissions. Most of us aren’t interested in selling that way or chancing our reputations with shady sales techniques.
There’s one technique that really is gold though, and can be used to your advantage, no matter what you’re selling. Most small businesses cannot afford to buy their prospects theater tickets, iPads, or other gifts, but you don’t have to spend a lot of money and strong-arm people you want to sell to.
It is: sell to your existing customers.
On our vacation, they invited us to an “update presentation” which was basically a way to sell us upgrades. Now, it didn’t convince us to spend any money, but I was curious to see their techniques (and I don’t mind getting a free tablet and gift card). Any sales course worth its salt will tell that it is easier to sell to people who have already said yes to you once. They’ll also tell you that you want to start off by getting little yeses. (“Are you enjoying your vacation?” “Yes, I am, thanks.” Do you like the beach?” “Yes, I do, thanks.” “Do you like free stuff?” “Yes, of course I do!” “If I told you there was a way to basically vacation for free, would you want to do that?” “Yes, I’d be a fool not to!” etc..)
The statistics are numerous and this article compiles a large variety of them from different sources. For example:
- 40% of an ecommerce store’s revenue comes from 9% of its customers;
- after 1 purchase, a customer is 27% more likely to buy from you again, but after 3 purchases, a customer is 54% more likely to buy from you again;
- average ecommerce conversion rates range from 1-3%, but repeat customers are 60-70% more likely to convert;
- after 2 purchases, a customer is 9x more likely to convert than a new customer.
The statistics go on and on. Repeat customers spend more money, are more loyal, and are more likely to share their love of you via social media. You may not think the timeshare industry is one you want to model your business on, but their numbers certainly show they know how to sell.
The bottom line is this: if you are not offering your version of an “update presentation” to your past clients, you’re missing out on low-hanging fruit (meaning, easy to pick). Reach out to past customers and give them the opportunity to say yes to you again. Chances are it’ll be worth your time.
from Inc.com http://www.inc.com/ariana-ayu/what-this-79-billion-industry-can-teach-you-about-selling.html
9 Ways to Profit From Your Passion
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I’d rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate. — George Burns
We’re all passionate about something in our lives. But how can you actually turn a profit off of that passion? Here are nine ways that you can make your dream come true.
1. It takes more than just passion.
Passion is a great place to start when thinking about business ideas, but don’t let that enthusiasm blind you from reality. Ask yourself if you’re willing to put in the hard work and if there is a market for you to tap into. Even if it’s just talking to some of the regulars at your favorite restaurant or bar, their feedback can be priceless.
Related: 10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Becoming An Entrepreneur
Make sure that you’re actually good at what you do. Your passion could be playing the guitar, but are you skilled enough to give lessons or repair the instrument when it’s broken? And don’t forget that as a business owner, you’ll be responsible for paying bills, invoicing customers, reporting taxes and marketing your business. Are you up for all those tasks?
2. How can you make something better?
Again, let’s say that your passion is playing the guitar. What void can you fill in that marketplace? For example, if you can repair guitars and realize that there isn’t a repair shop anywhere else around, that could be a business opportunity.
You also need to ask yourself how you can make the industry better? Is this venture where your true entrepreneur spirit is set free?
Let’s say that your passion is cooking. What makes your meals unique? Why are they better than the other cooks in town? Maybe it’s because you only use farm fresh ingredients and pick out the produce and meats yourself every morning. That’s definitely more appealing for customers than driving up to a fast food restaurant’s window.
When I started my invoice company, I had used several competitors. I knew what made them great, but I also knew what I wanted that they didn’t offer. I knew I could easily make the product and service better. I built it — and here we are!
3. Brainstorm a variety of ways to monetize each passion.
Sit down and think of all the various ways that you can actually make money off your passion. This may include:
- Selling an actual product, such as jewelry, clothing or furniture, online or in a brick and mortar store.
- Sharing your knowledge about your passion by blogging, writing books or filming videos. Between affiliate links, sponsors and subscribers, you could make a decent living. For example, the father and son behind EvanTubeHD combined their passion of film and toys into a YouTube channel that reviews toys. They’re are now earning more than $1.4 million.
- Offering advice as a consultant in anything from accounting to gardening.
- Becoming an investor in an idea that you’re willing to financially support.
- Inventing a gadget or software that makes life easier for people. For example, if you were a guitar instructor, is there an app to better instruct students or a new type of tuner that could make tuning the guitar easier for newbies?
- Building an event around your passion, such as a festival or community organization.
- Finding ways to preserve or maintain items that people enjoy, such as an alteration or tailor shop for fashion lovers.
4. Don’t be a perfectionist.
While you should have some sort of experience or skills to offer, there’s always room for you to learn and grow. For example, the guitar repair shop owner may have mastered repairing acoustic guitars, but still needs to work on repairing electric guitars. Don’t wait to start your business until after you’ve mastered that craft. You will continue to hone your skills all along your journey.
Related: How Perfectionism Is Sabotaging Your Business
The longer you wait, the higher probability that someone else will come in and start profiting from your passion.
5. Get outside of your comfort zone.
Starting a business requires you to step outside of your comfort zone every now and then. Maybe you have a fear of public speaking. You will have to overcome that when creating an instructional video on YouTube.
My friend Michael Gasiorek always tells me “Find techniques that can not only help you get outside of your comfort zone, but also work on improving your weaknesses. You don’t have to become a guru. Just familiar enough in that area so that you’re more comfortable and can deliver what people need and want.”
6. Make fun a priority.
It’s difficult to maintain your passion as you attempt to grow a legitimate business. Eventually, you forget exactly why you started the business in the first place.
To prevent that from happening, always make fun and passion a priority. This means hiring people who are equally passionate as you are about your idea or product, creating policies and branding that reflect your passion, and building a company that feels the same way to others.
7. Build your skills.
Author Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at something. While this one is hard for me — I think it’s hard to spend 10k hours doing one thing — my friend and financial expert Tom Drake says “Why many skills may take that long, don’t let those hours discourage you from moving ahead with your plan. Who knows, it may not take you that long. Never stop practicing on perfecting your skills. And don’t forget to ask for feedback for what you are doing and to track your progress.”
8. Overcome roadblocks.
Roadblocks are all of the factors that are preventing you from following your dreams. Instead of letting roadblocks actually block you, overcome these obstacles so that you can move forward with your business.
For example, if you’re not familiar with coding or programming, but require a website, then hire a coder. If you’re concerned that there isn’t a market for your idea – conduct market research. If you believe that your passion won’t be profitable then look for alternative ways to monetize your passion by being flexible.
Related: Watch Our 8-Episode Crash Course on Crowdfunding
9. Get creative with money.
If you need money to help scale your business, or even just to get it started, you have more options than ever before. Instead of going to your local bank or searching for investors. I’ve even event crowdfunded my idea on Kickstarter, but there are other great choices like Indiegogo and GoFundMe as well. Not only are these sites able to raise the funds you need, they can also be used to test your product idea.
Another option would be to use peer-to-peer-lending sites like LendingTree where you can get matched with like-minded people directly in your business area.
from Entrepreneur https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/280658