Mobile applications that I recommend.

I admit that I am an iPhone and Ipad addict. I use them daily (like more than 20 times a day), and unlike most people who only use a few apps, I always like to try new mobile apps and see if they are easy to use, have a good UI, and make my life better in one way or the other.

I would like to share which mobile apps I use most and why I love them:

1. Tumblr

I am a huge fan of Tumblr. It's very easy to use and so much fun. I love observing and finding cool photos, especially about food, fashion, interior design, architecture, and travel. It gives me inspirations whenever I use the app: what do people love, buy, and do these days. I usually do Tumblr through my phone because it's just easier and faster to reblog and "heart" the contents. One thing that I don't like about this mobile application is that when you click to go to an individual's tumblr blog, each one has a different layout and design so it's hard to scroll down or see photos that way. It's fastest to see photos from dashboard instead of from a member's blog. Also, gif files are slow in loading so it's better to see them on your computer than your mobile.

2. Instagram
This is another fun photo app. I covered Instagram Marketing for small businesses in my previous post (http://tipsforasuccessfulentrepreneur.blogspot.com/2012/02/instagram-marketing-101.html), and it's so easy to use! you just upload your photos from your mobile and share them with others. You get to see which photos are popular today, and your dashboard shows photos from the people you follow. Like Tumblr, it allows me to get inspired by amazing photos, and people on Instagram are usually very nice too!

3. Kindle
Kindle app is so cool! especially an iPad application since I like to read ebooks on a big screen. I purchase books on Amazon and read it on my iPad. Simple and easy. You can make highlights, bookmark a page, and look up words on a dictionary with one click. It's just really convenient to use. I tried Nook app but Kindle is so much easier to use! Nice UI, too. You can download a Kindle app on your phone too and read ebooks on subway or bus, but I think an iPhone screen is too small; it just makes my eyes soar whenever I try to read ebooks on my phone.

4. Wunderlist
Wunderlist is a great app to organize your daily and weekly duties and create a to-do list. You can sync it on your iPhone, mac, and iPad, so it's a convenient solution for me. I love the UI and plus it's free unlike most other utility apps!

5. StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon iPad application is so cool because it allows you to discover contents just like when you use StumbleUpon on your computer. As you "stumble" your interests, you get to discover cool contents you want to scrap and keep on your page. I stumble food and fitness contents and it's a great way to find recipes and exercise/health tips!

6. Zite
Zite is a cool personalized magazine application that allows you to read news that interest you. You choose your preferences and it gathers news from many newspapers online and presents them nicely. I read news on Zite daily on topics like entrepreneurship and social media. I personally think it's the best mag app out there.

7. Between

I believe this application is created in Korea but used globally. This app is made for couples to share (privately) their photos, chat, remind important days like anniversary, and leave short memos. No one else can see those contents except the couple themselves. You can do the same with your bff too. The app is just so much fun!:)

Other apps I use daily:
Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare...but who doesn't love these apps? Since almost everyone uses them, I didn't feel like I needed to explain them further:).

Inspirational videos: Stanford commencement address from Oprah Winfrey and Steve Jobs

I just needed some inspirational speech for motivation today. Here it goes!

Oprah Winfrey's 2008 Stanford Commencement Address

Transcript of Oprah Winfrey's commencement address: http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2008/june18/como-061808.html

Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

Transcript of Steve Jobs' address:
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

Score.org: Free small business mentorship site you should check out!

(source: www.score.org)

I would like to share a great website for entrepreneurs, especially those who need start-up mentors.
Score is a website that offers free small business advice. They have a pool of mentors who have volunteered to help out those who want to start their own business (but lack resources.) You can search for mentors by specific industry/region/area of expertise/keyword so that you can find the right mentor for yourself.

Mentors can give you advice on various areas such as marketing, advertising, SEO, legal, financial, and so on.
There are options you can take, such as contacting them by email, phone, video chat, or meeting your mentor in person if he/she lives close by. But mentors have their own preferences on this, so you should look into their profile page.

If you become really close to your mentor and your mentor really likes you (and your idea,) he or she might even consider investing in your company later. Why not?

So I encourage everyone to check out Score and take advantage of an excellent mentorship opportunity they offer! (It's free too!)

Instagram Marketing 101

How to use Instagram mobile application to advertise your business!

Most entrepreneurs and smart phone users must have heard of Instagram at least once.

It is one of the most popular photo apps, which allows you to take awesome pictures and share them with others.

It is a "global" app that is used by people from all over the world: U.S., Japan, Europe, Korea, China, Taiwan, Thailand.... you name it!

And if you dive deeper into the app, you see that there are many many users who have more than 1000 followers and have uploaded more than 500 photos. Many of them use Instagram daily, uploading pictures of their daily lives, places that they went to, food they ate, clothes they love, and so on.
Good pictures receive a lot of comments and a lot of "likes" (just like Facebook), and people do it because they love it. No, most of them are not professional photographers, but there are ways to make your pictures look a little more professional. So, on Instagram, anyone can be a quite good photographer. All you need is a smart phone to download the app and take pictures.

If you own your own business, you have to take advantage of this opportunity to advertise your company.  Most people wouldn't think that Instagram can help bring in more customers to your business, but you are wrong! It can be a quite powerful source of marketing.

Here are steps you can take to do a successful Instagram marketing:

First, you download the app and register: make your name your own name or your business name. For example, Teen Vogue has an Instagram account, and their name is shown as "Teenvogue."

Second, you upload photos. This can be photos of food, fashion, or whatever your business is related to. If you work for Teen Vogue, you might want to upload photos of fashionistas, trendy items, and so on.
But you can also upload photos of your company. What's happening inside the company? How do the employees look like? Are they happy? how is their office organized? Any photos that give viewers a clue about how your company really operate inside will gain popularity. People like to see insider info/secret scenes. (Have you ever looked into a Facebook profile of someone you don't know? Are you following someone's Twitter page secretly? Same for Instagram.)

Third, you follow people who seem to be popular in the area of your interest, or people who seem interested in it. They will be your potential followers, and possibly your potential customers in the future.
Most people you begin to follow will look into your profile and photos, and if they like the photos, they will easily click "like" and comment on it, and start following you back.
Make sure to upload at least 2-3 photos daily. Most Instagram heavy users use it daily, more than once..
So you want to update them constantly. This takes some work, but not that much. All you have to do is take some pictures (good ones). With a few clicks, done! You uploaded a new picture on Instagram.

As I said, Instagram is global, so this is a great way to make your business better known globally. People from all over the world will see your photos.

oh, and make sure that you fill out your profile page in detail.
Leave a link to your business (like "teenvogue.com" or your twitter address) so that people can visit your website.
And introduce yourself or your business "politely" so that people will like you more.:)

It takes a while to gain followers, but you should at least try.
Even if you fail, it's a great way to figure out what people like to see or do these days.

Top 15 Start-up Incubators you might want to consider applying

Techcocktail has a great article on a list of the best start-up incubators for entrepreneurs.
Here's the list that they showed:

(source: www.techcocktail.com)

One of the managing directors at Techstars visited my school as a speaker, and he said that not all start-ups that went through the incubator program succeeds, but he said that even if you fail, you still learn a lot from that experience. And a good thing about the accelerator programs is that you receive a lot of supports from people in start-up accelerators and you get to network with many many entrepreneurs. Surrounding yourself with entrepreneurs- always good for you!

He also said that having a great idea is not as important as building a good team. A great idea means nothing without a good team. I actually disagree with him because there are a lot of start-ups built by one person. I think it depends on what your work style is. If you hate working with someone, and you prefer working alone, go for it. Why not? You can just hire someone to help you. Don't worry about having co-founders. Starting your business with your friends or friends of friends could turn out worse in that case. It's always good to have an in-house full-time computer engineer for your company, but it is ok if you don't have one. There are many tools out there to help you build a great website. You can always build a good team later too. No need to rush or panic.

Anyway, whether you want to start your company alone or as a team, consider applying to one of those incubator programs. It can help turn your dream into reality faster than you think!


Link: http://techcocktail.com/top-15-us-startup-accelerators-ranked-2011-05

Pinterest marketing for your business: start now before it's too late!

(source: www.pinterest.com)

Pinterest is an interesting social media site. It is kind of like Stumbleupon, but it's much more visually appealing, and also easier to use. And businesses are starting to notice Pinterest's fast growth and open their own Pinterest account.

It's actually not that difficult to do. It's great for businesses, especially e-commerce businesses, because all you have to do is to pin anything that interests you (a person who will be in charge of Pinterest marketing.)
No, it's not like Facebook or Twitter in which you have to think of what to say. You don't have to set up any games or contests. And yet in my opinion, it works just as efficiently as Facebook/Twitter marketing.

Here's what you need to do:

First, you set up a Pinterest account (you request "invitation"). When you are approved, you start creating new "boards" (=categories).

Let's say you sell chocolates through your own e-commerce site "Chocochoco." (I just totally made that up. Not sure if it exists for real.)  Then you might want to create boards on food, desserts, baking, fancy restaurants, inspiration, recipes, DIY, or whatever. But it should be related to chocolates to some extent.

You are almost done. Now, you start pinning. You install a little bookmark bar that Pinterest asks you to put on your browser, and you start pinning anything you think is relevant to your boards. You only need about 15 minutes a day to do this. Just google the right keywords and Google will take you to blogs filled with great posts that you would want to pin, such as "recipe on how to make chocolate-covered strawberries."

What you have to be careful though, is that you can only pin photos. So, the page you are pinning should have at least one photo so that you can pin that photo. People who see your pin will click on it so that they can be directed to that web page.

Sidenote: You might want to pin a page that has an "interesting" photo. In this case, your pin should show  a plate filled with chocolate-covered strawberries that look so delicious that people can't help but repin it.

As you start to fill in your boards with a full of yummy food photos, people will start to notice your pins, repin what they like, and "follow" you. Having a lot of followers is important just as in Facebook or Twitter, because whenever you go to Pinterest, it shows you pins from the people you follow. Your pins will be seen by more and more people as you gain followers. You should also follow people who have boards similar to yours. They will often follow you back if they like your boards too.

So how does this turn into profits?

Well, let's say you have 10 pins on your "Desserts Board." You allow 1 or 2 of those pins to be on chocolates you sell on your e-commerce site. In other words, you can pin a photo of one of your chocolate sets from your site. However, you shouldn't pin from your website too often. 1 out of 10 is usually a good bet. Why 1 out of 10? so that people won't think that you are doing Pinterest only to advertise your products, or so that people will think that you are doing it for fun, not really for your company.

Your followers and people who see your boards will click on the pins that come from your website if they are curious about them, which direct them to your website, and if they think your product is excellent, they will buy it! There, you just made profits.

In my opinion, this is much easier than Twitter or Facebook. There's always too much going on on those websites. What you just posted can disappear from your followers' feeds in 5 minutes. They won't even notice that you posted something if they don't check their feed consistently. But if you can do Pinterest marketing well, you can get people's attention quite well. Pinterest is growing fast, but it is still relatively young compared to Facebook and Twitter. So why not take advantage of Pinterest and create your own boards now?

Note-taking is key: How to apply the lessons learned from business books to your business plan

Lesson #1 for (prospective) entrepreneurs: Get the most out of books and apply valuable lessons directly to your business!

Summary:
What I learned for the last few months which turned out to be really really helpful is note-taking. But it's not just about "writing down everything they say." You've got to read fast (efficient enough so that you can save your precious time), and pick and highlight only the most important points/tips that you can apply to your business. And the next day, you take notes on them, read through your notes one more time, and start connecting valuable lessons to your business plan.

Details:

Let me give you an example.

Every night, before I go to bed, I enjoy my own little "reading time." I usually read a book for an hour or two. Let's say that yesterday night I read the marketing book called All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin. I would only skim through important points and skip trivial examples. Most business books are actually filled with A LOT of examples, and if there are examples you think are not really related to your business, you may want to skip them. (You've got millions of other books to read, so you've got to read fast!)

I find a sentence written in bold saying something about how customers buy what they "want," not what they need, implying irrationality and subjectivity of people's purchase behavior.
I like this sentence because it makes me think about consumer behavior: How do I make my customers  "want" my products? How do I know what they want? How would this affect my future social media marketing plan?

The next morning, I wake up, get my breakfast, and then I would take out my note, write "by hand" sentences that I highlighted the previous day. It helps to write down the title of the book at the top of your note "really big" so that you can look it up later more easily. This step actually makes me skim through the book again, which refreshes my memory. Then I read my notes that I just wrote, one more time, this time rather slowly. It helps to read out loud. You are reading them so that you can remember valuable lessons forever.

Then I take out another note of mine which has my business plan written down. I compare two notes to see if I can apply the tips to my business plan. If I were to build an e-commerce website like Gilt, I would think about something like: "let's make my e-commerce website invitation-only and flash sale only, really exclusive so that people would die to buy my products. I would use celebrity marketing, ask a young celeb to advertise my product on his twitter page so that his fans would buy my products to look exactly like that celeb." Your business plan now has more insights included in it. Insights you gained by thinking hard about what successful business people said.

There is no point of reading business books if you are not going to remember any of them a day after you finish reading them. You don't want to miss any of the valuable lessons. You should pick out points that you want to think hard about for the next several hours or days. You can set your own "think time" later in the day, but remember, thinking hard is the most important part of the process.

Especially for the 20-something, young entrepreneurs, and those without mentors or resources, business books can actually help a lot. They give you real insights coming from really successful people. But unless you are ready to really "absorb" their points, it would be a waste of time.