Branson vs.Tesla

Richard Branson loves it when you travel with a Virgin. He’s winning fans in so many transportation spaces—trains, planes, spacecraft. It’s only natural that a man who made his billions with innovation would set his sights on other means of getting people from here to wherever they would rather be. And, with a move into the cruise ship sector already announced, where else is there for Branson to go? Passenger cars, of course.

And, because this is Branson, you know he will do it with style…and enough difference to make a splash wherever he lands. Perhaps telegraphing his intentions, Branson recently joined his racing team in Miami, where Virgin Racing was competing in the all-electric Formula E race. Yes, it’s a competition of entirely battery-powered racecars, all capable of going from zero to sixty in about three seconds.

In case you missed it, Formula E is billed as the “world’s first international, all-electric racing event.” Organizers said the event’s purpose is to “push the edges of electric car technology.” Races have been held in popular Formula 1 locales from Beijing to Monte Carlo. According to reports in Bloomberg, the vehicles currently reach top speeds of 160 mph, but they can do so in virtual silence. Can you imagine a race where all you could hear is the scream of the crowd?

What’s that you heard about the inherent performance limitations of electric vehicles? Well, friend, they were wrong. Just when you were wondering what he would say next, Branson dropped this bombshell on the press: “We have teams of people working on electric cars. So, you never know, you may find Virgin competing with Tesla in the car business as we do in the space business.”

Hey, Elon Musk, that sound you just heard was a gauntlet landing at your feet.

Why Marketing is the Secret Ingredient

The difficulty most new business owners find is understanding precisely what marketing is and what it is not. Marketing is the basic structure of how products and services will be presented to the target market. Before creating a marketing plan, there is a bit of marketing research needed to define and refine the marketing plan to be implemented. Marketing research basically consists of studying your target markets, your potential sales prospects, your suppliers and your competitors. This creates the basis of your marketing profile.

It's far easier to implement a marketing plan after a thorough investigation of these elements is comprehensively researched. A well-defined marketing plan is the secret ingredient in a structured business plan and business success.

Marketing - The Secret Ingredient in a Successful Business Plan

Ways Marketing Can Help Grow and Boost Business

There are several ways marketing helps grow and boost business. These include:
. Products and services are directed at specific sales prospects
. Advertising and promotions in structured marketing plans increase visibility
. Event planning and special marketing strategies boost the number of clients

Marketing Your Business for Best Results

There's more to marketing a business than creating a sales campaign. Marketing isn't sales. Marketing is the engine that drives sales, increases the number of clients and promotes the image, brand and visibility of the business. When businesses think of marketing and sales, the intermingling can result in mediocre strategies. When singularly defined as a business mechanism, marketing easily adapts to changing business trends and help sales remain stable. For example, a marketing plan for a manufacturing business needs enough flexibility built into the plan to withstand the impact of higher costs of raw materials needed to produce products.

Another example in the service industries is when a marketing plan for financial consulting allows wiggle room for stock market corrections. This is why marketing is the secret ingredient in long-term business success.

The All-Important Market Plan

Small businesses can develop their market plans based on the scope of the business in relation to the overall industry within which the business fits. Larger businesses that wish to enjoy steady growth often employ market researchers to help structure an annual marketing plan that is generally implemented at the beginning of a fiscal year. A marketing plan should be completely compatible with sales initiatives to help grow and boost your business. It should be based on business scope, target markets and buyer need.

Your First Public Relations Internship

The public relations industry can be a rewarding place to start a career, but there are a few things you should know before you start your search. If you are interested in finding your first public relations internship, the first thing you need to understand is what the internship will most likely entail.

Public relations internships are intended to support the business of generating goodwill toward a company, product, cause, or individual. Your responsibility will generally be to aid in developing a positive image for the organization that hires you. This includes a wide variety of tasks to accomplish the goal of positive publicity, from writing press releases to representing clients at events to contacting media outlets and planning events for your organization. Because of the nature of your tasks, it is very important that you have good writing and speaking skills before you apply to a public relations internship.

Take a writing course if your writing skills are lacking. Being capable of producing high-quality press releases in a short period of time is vital in a public relations, and professional writing and editing skills will help you stand out from your peers. Organizational skills are also a must in this industry, as you will be relied on to ensure that events are run smoothly and on time. Do not apply for a public relations internship if you cannot keep calm under pressure. There will be hectic moments during the internship, especially on the day of big events, or when you are in a time crunch. The ability to keep your cool will serve you greatly, and will show your bosses that you have the resolve necessary to be successful in the business. Make sure to study tactics that make a PR person successful. Understand how companies deal with crises, as well as how they promote their cause through positive publicity.

You need to know how to shine a positive light on any situation. Lastly, once you have landed an interview for a public relations internship, it is important that you thoroughly research the company or organization your interview is with. Business acumen is vital in the public relations industry, and you need to understand the functions of your prospective hirer inside and out.

Being knowledgeable about the inner workings of a company or organization will show them that you take your work seriously, and are dedicated to making them look better. This will increase your chances of being hired. Good luck with the search for your first PR internship!

Snapchat Founder to Become Billionairs with new Investment

In early 2015, Snapchat announced that it had recently raised $485.6 million from 23 investors. The company, currently valued at $10 billion+, has grown in importance as concerns about security and the use of photos and other media sent over the Internet loom larger. The founders of this growing company, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, can expect to be the next billionaire giants in the tech community.

The Rise of Snapchat

Launched in 2011, Snapchat quickly became one of the most popular photo-sharing applications in the marketplace. The app allows the user to send images and video via the Internet to other users. Many applications do the same thing, but Snapchat also makes the images disappear in a few seconds. By 2014, Snapchat had 200 million users implementing the application. In 2013, Snapchat’s founders turned down a $3 billion offer from Facebook and a $4 billion offer from Google, preferring to keep the business in their own hands for the time being.

Snapchat Founders

Evan Spiegel and Reggie Brown were the developers of the concept, which was originally called “Picaboo.” They brought in Bobby Murphy to do the coding on the project. Brown left the group in the early days, but filed suit to protect his financial stake in the company when he learned that Facebook made an offer for it. The legal wrangling was eventually settled, and CEO Spiegel publicly acknowledged Brown’s contribution to the founding of the company.

The Snapchat Business Model

Some experts have been doubtful about Snapchat’s ability to make money when its most valuable asset, information on its users, disappears in seconds. In late 2014, Spiegel explained that ad money will be generated from untargeted advertising, essentially spam. He will have to overcome users general reluctance to view spam in some way that is, as yet, undisclosed. Making spam cool and appealing will be a significant challenge for these young entrepreneurs.

After Snapchat

The future will be bright for founders Spiegel and Murphy. If they follow the pattern of PayPal founder, Elon Musk, they could get involved in developing a new alternative fuel automobile like the Tesla. Or they could found a company that runs supplies to the International Space Station, like Musk’s SpaceX company. Ebay founder, Pierre Omidyar, who became a billionaire at the age of 31, went on to found online investigative journalism sites and a philanthropic organization. Whatever Spiegel and Murphy decide to do with their billions, the public is sure to hear more about their endeavors in coming years.

Dr. Gil Lederman, Jonah Engler & Others On Communicating

·“Good writing skills can help you come across as more credible, more capable, than a colleague who frequently has typos and grammatical errors.” Renee O’Farrell

·“Communicating is everything.” Dr. Gil Lederman

·“Supervisors and business associates who express themselves well in writing inspire a feeling of confidence in their abilities from employees or colleagues.” Brian Hill 

·“Communication skills, including writing, are one of the most important transferable skills that workers possess. Most business professionals, such as marketing, finance, and research and development managers, need excellent writing skills to properly convey ideas and concepts.” Rick Suttle

·“Strong written communication conveys intelligence, professionalism and attention to detail. These are qualities that are key in leadership roles where you represent the image of the business.” Neil Kokemuller

·"There are not many jobs in any industry that do not require good writing skills, and poor skills may even leave you at a disadvantage when searching for employment.” Kevin Withers

·"It's always been important for professionals and academics to use proper grammar and communicate well, but now, it's increasingly important for more people to have good writing skills.” Sarah Wright 

·“Good writing skills communicate intelligence, professionalism, and competency.” Serena Franken 

·“Strong writing abilities can help you move up the corporate ladder. The Grammarly study noted that fewer grammatical errors correlate with more promotions and, of course, higher salaries.” Robert Hosking

·“Writing, talking and more works – as long as people are listening.” Jonah Engler

·“Written communication to employees is one way a company shows that it values their contribution and appreciates their efforts.” Brian Hill

·“In my experience, the practice of good, collaborative writing makes the difference between great business and bad business — a sale or no sale.” Kyle Wiens

·“The skills that make us better writers make us better explainers, better persuaders, and better thinkers. They are the skills that allow us to “sell” our ideas effectively, whether in giving a presentation to potential funders of our company, proposing a new project to our corporate leadership, or transmitting a new policy to our employees.” Dustin Wax

·“While much emphasis is placed on verbal and listening skills in communication, writing also conveys messages internally and externally for an organization.” Neil Kokemuller

·“The writing skills you develop now will impact your future job applications, promotions, career advancements, and even our economy.” Allison VanNest

·“Professionals spend more time each day writing and are inundated with written communications, so it is imperative that employees be able to write succinctly and write well.” Joyce E.A. Russell

·"Bad writing can have a wide-ranging, negative effect on your business, from creating a less-than-coherent business plan and hampering your efforts to attract investors, to communicating with employees, vendors and even your customers.” Lauren Simonds 

·“Writing doesn’t just communicate ideas; it generates them. If you’re bad at writing and don’t like to do it, you’ll miss out on most of the ideas writing would have generated.” Paul Graham

·"Today, writing well is more important than ever. Far from being the province of a select few as it was in Hemingway’s day, writing is a daily occupation for all of us — in email, on blogs, and through social media.” Jocelyn K. Glei

·“Sharp writing conveys the impression that a sharp mind composed the words. Sloppy writing, on the other hand, can make others conclude that the creator is not intelligent. Some might even question their job-related competence.” Brian Hill

·“Your professional image is impacted by your writing skills. The better your skills are, the better your image is.” Serena Franken

·“Good writing skills are a key asset at every stage of your career, from the moment you write your very first cover letter and resume/CV until your retirement party.” Robert Hosking

PS4 or XBOX One - Who wins the Console War this Christmas?

So, after a bit more than a year on the market, who is leading the console game war – Sony’s Playstation 4 or Microsoft’s XBOX One? Set aside for a moment the notion that console gaming is on borrowed time. In fact marinate on this: between the two, the gaming answer to Hatfield and McCoy have sold a whopping 24 million units … in the first year alone. Before you say, “well, really, how many is that,” think about this – that’s a 70% increase over the sales of the equally lauded PS3 and XBOX 360.

 

Here’s the thing…the race for supremacy isn’t, at this point, very close. To date, Sony has sold about 14 million units while Microsoft has shipped roughly ten million. Why the gap? Well, the knock on XBOX is that it’s too general of a machine. Sony went after gamers primarily while Microsoft chased the larger streaming entertainment audience. Nobody needs to tell anyone just how crowded that particular marketplace is at the moment. Also, let’s not forget that the One cost $100 more than the 4 when it hit the market. Sure, XBOX eventually relented, offering a cheaper version without the Kinect camera – which is actually pretty cool, but nobody really cared overmuch about.

 

Slowly, Microsoft began to catch up. Now, with the 2014 holiday season looming, consumers who decided to get another year out of their PS3 or 360 might be tempted to upgrade. Still, that scenario offers no clear favorites. For every Only One Console Halo or Bloodborne, there are a host of games whose designers have refused to be relegated to only half the market.

 

But what could give one or the other the advantage this holiday season? Well, first, consider Sony’s new “Playstation Vue,” which is planned to compete with standard cable. Sony hopes this will entice gamers to use their PS4’s even more and to encourage non-gamers to buy into what Sony is offering from a streaming platform.

 

But the real question will once again be just how ready the market is to give up on gaming consoles altogether. Is the age of the mobile-gamer finally here? Will both Playstation and XBOX be as current as Sega come next January? Don’t laugh, both GTA5 and Destiny had strong digital download numbers, and other games maintain strong fan followings. Wherever the market turns, one thing is certain: both Sony and Microsoft will have to weather the onslaught of wireless gaming while keeping an eye on each other.

What makes a great leader? Inspirational Quotes Curated by Gennady Barsky

Leaders aren't born, nor are they made over night. If you study the great leaders - you can establish the Do's and Don'ts for becoming a leader. We have invited Gennady Barsky to curate the best quotes on What makes a Leader. Hopefully this will provide great inspiration for those who want to be leaders of people.

What constitutes a great leader – here are some quotes on the issue:

·        “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” Warren Bennis

·       “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.” Norman Schwarzkopf

·       “Leaders do not proclaim themselves as leaders – they simply are that.”  Jonah Engler

·       “Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” Peter Drucker

·       “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” Ralph Nader

·       “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” Kenneth Blanchard

·       “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” General Dwight Eisenhower

·       “Education is the mother of leadership.” Wendell Willkie

·       “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” John F. Kennedy

·       “Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise.” Woodrow Wilson

·       “To have long term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way.” Pat Riley

·       “True leadership lies in guiding others to success. In ensuring that everyone is performing at their best, doing the work they are pledged to do and doing it well.” Bill Owens

·       “Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.” John C. Maxwell

·       “The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.” Tony Blair

·       “Leaders simply go out and make it happen.” Gennady Barsky

·        “The challenge of leadership is to be strong but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” Jim Rohn

·        “Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.” Stephen Covey

·       “The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.” John Buchan

·       “Leadership is intentional influence.” Michael McKinney

·       “Leadership is the ability to establish standards and manage a creative climate where people are self-motivated toward the mastery of long term constructive goals, in a participatory environment of mutual respect, compatible with personal values.” Mike Vance

·     “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.” Father Theodore M. Hesburgh