Perfect Business > Starting Into Business

Starting Into Business

Enable your business to take root or transform your business with a bit of nurturance. Branch out to other entrepreneurs by asking a peer or asking an expert for advice. Networking is a key aspect of starting into business, so join the conversation. Additionally, check out the 7 Keys to Success. Successful entrepreneurs are often unique, but it's no coincidence that they share certain common traits - they're driven by key factors such as passions, clarity of vision and goodwill, among others.

New year. New You. New Business.

Start 2012 off with the right recipe for success. Begin your business plan today by concretely describing your product or service, your market, your strategy, and your financial plans, you will lay out a roadmap to prosperity.

Step up to the Plate

Hook 'em with your headline and wow them with your ingenuity. Create a pitch that spells success in order to attract business partners, investors and contributors aplenty. Our forums are designed to help you launch or grow your business to engage other entrepeneurs. Follow our step-by-step guide to construct your pitch complete with photoand video content and run it by one of our many industry experts or your fellow PB community members. This personalized pitch engine will give you the clarity and concision necessary to hit a homerun.

Start "Liking" #SocialMediaMarketing.

This is one trend to "Check in" to. Add it to your "top 8." Okay, we’re done here. But really—what’s the secret to successful Web2.0 Tweet-o-matic, blogospheric success? It’s not that difficult, really. It’s rather effective, intuitive, and inexpensive. Social media websites are designed to widely disseminate information within and between networks. To ignore the value that these existing mechanisms offer is to pass up a prime opportunity. Check out this video series to see how you can use sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to establish an online presence and generate a new customer base while keeping your business going strong at little to no cost.

Marketing

Marketing is one of Perfect Business’s Seven Keys to Success. From knowledge of branding, to advertising, positioning and public relations, developing marketing mastery is key to business prosperity. You can create and display advertisements and seek investors here on Perfect Business. We also offer coaching services at affordable rates in order to convey your marketing message.

Featured Entrepreneur

Tim Westergren, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Pandora

Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world just two years ago. Tim Westergren is the man behind Pandora, a music search engine and customized web radio. Westergren is a former rock and jazz musician who eats, sleeps and breathes music. In 1999, Westergren envisioned The Music Genome Project, a grand music taxonomy used to categorize music according to over 2,000 different attributes including voice vibrato and the use of electric rhythm guitar. Pandora feeds off of data from the Music Genome Project to bring users their customized musical selections. Prior to the launch of the iPhone, Pandora wasn’t always as successful as it is today. Westergren’s business had its up and downs. The technology of mobile apps has greatly influenced the ways that people use web radio and has spelled success for Westergren and the rest of the Pandora team. These days, Pandora is doubling is size and revenue, annually. Watch our interview with Westergren to find out more about how he created and maintains this successful multi-million dollar business.

Top 5 Business Books of All Time

Folks are abuzz about these businesses books. From CNBC’s top 12 list to Businessweek Bestseller Lists, these suckers have secured their spots at the top of the stacks.

Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman
When staring into business, it’s important to establish an effective leadership style. Wiseman gathers interviews from over 150 executives to pinpoint the keys to amplifying the amount of intelligence and capability of a team by spreading motivation, freedom and inspiration to employees.

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
Tony Hsieh, author and CEO of Zappos, demonstrates that a little happiness can go a long way. With emphasis on company culture and customer service, Hsieh has used scientific research about the study of happiness to guide his business and has struck gold. Zappos.com does over on billion dollars in gross merchandise sales each year.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life, writes Malcolm Gladwell, is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do. In this bestseller, Gladwell demonstrates that small changes in individual behavior can lead to big changes in the world. In harnessing this power, those starting into business can spread the word and change the world.

The Upside Of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home by Dan Ariely
Whatever you think, think the opposite—if only for a moment. That’s what Dan Ariely urges readers to do in this collection of behavioral economics ponderings. Ariely illustrates how irrationality does not always lead to disaster, but sometimes it leads to innovation and seemingly unlikely yet transformative successes both in business and in everyday life. This read might inspire new entrepreneurs to throw caution to the wind in order to embrace spontaneity and creativity early in the game.

Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Rework is about demolishing your predispositions about business processes and practices and re-creating them in a more pragmatic and simple way. By cutting out unnecessary flab, you will establish more efficient processes leading to better outcomes with less input. In Rework, Fried and Heinemeier Hansson show you how to cut out the middlemen and cut to the chase. In short, get this book; get things done.