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pawcarebooking ¡ 7 months ago
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Groomer’s Lung: What You Need to Know & How to Cope
Groomer’s lung, a lesser-known occupational hazard, arises from prolonged exposure to pet dander, hair, and other allergens. This condition can lead to respiratory issues, including asthma and bronchitis, among grooming professionals. Awareness of this risk is crucial for groomers to prioritize their health and well-being.
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orbemnews ¡ 4 years ago
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Rosalind Brewer officially takes the helm at Walgreens, becoming the only Black woman Fortune 500 CEO Former Xerox chief executive Ursula Burns became the first in 2007 before stepping down in 2017. Ex-Bed, Bath and Beyond chief executive Mary Winston’s interim tenure only lasted about six months in 2019 before she was replaced by former Target chief merchandising officer Mark Tritton. Today, there are only four total African Americans actively serving as Fortune 500 CEOs, including Brewer. Kenneth Frazier has served as head of Merck since 2011. There’s also Lowe’s chief executive Marvin Ellison and TIAA-CREF CEO Roger Ferguson Jr. who is stepping down. JPMorgan Chase executive Thasunda Brown Duckett, a Black woman, is set to replace Ferguson on May 1. Duckett and Brewer are among the paltry 3.3% of Black senior and executive leaders presently working in corporate America, according to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data. A new Black woman CEO is a game-changer for Black leaders and the corporate world, according to Michael C. Hyter, president and CEO of the Executive Leadership Council, a non-profit that works to increase the number of Black C-suite and boardroom executives. “Diversity at the top drives diversity throughout the corporation,” Hyter told CNN Business over the weekend. “There is a tendency among CEOs to groom senior executives who look like themselves, requiring intentional efforts to seed succession plans with more diverse candidates with proven track records.” Who is Rosalind Brewer? Brewer, 59, is the youngest of five children born to General Motors factory workers George and Sally Gates in her Detroit hometown in 1962. She grew up in the Motor City before attending Spelman College — one of the nation’s top Historically Black colleges and universities — in Atlanta, where she earned a B.S. in chemistry in 1984. The married mother of two also attended the advanced management program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of business and earned additional degrees from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Stanford Law School’s Directors’ College. She spent 22 years working for paper manufacturer Kimberly-Clark (KMB) where she started as a research technician and later took on an administrative role. At Kimberly, she developed a strong understanding of consumer packaged goods and eventually became the company’s president of manufacturing and global operations. In 2006, Brewer left Kimberly-Clark to become a vice president at Walmart (WMT), where she again climbed the corporate ladder over the course of six years. Eventually she was named president of the Walmart US East business unit, leading a team responsible for more than $100 billion in annual revenue. Sam’s Club history maker Brewer made history in 2012 when she was named CEO of Sam’s Club, which is owned by Walmart, becoming the first woman and the first African American ever to lead the membership-only warehouse company. “I’ve also been struck by Roz’s servant leadership when I have visited stores with her,” former Walmart President and CEO Mike Duke said of Brewer at the time. “She always lets her team do the talking, with her focus being on how to better support their needs. … She has strong strategic, analytical and operational skills and has successfully managed a large and complex business.” Starbucks’ ‘glass ceiling slayer’ In 2017, Starbucks tapped Brewer to become its group president and chief operating officer, leading the company’s global marketing, technology, supply chain, product innovation, and store development organization functions. During her tenure in 2018, the coffeemaker expanded its already-massive global retail footprint and entered a global coffee alliance deal with Nestle to increase the global reach of its consumer packaged goods. Brewer also helped Starbucks maximize its online retail and marketing efforts as well as its customer engagement experiences. The company expanded its delivery service in China and other east Asian countries in 2018 and opened its 30,000th global store in March 2019. Starbucks’ hard digital pivot came in handy in 2020, when Covid-19 forced it to shutter hundreds of stores and shift to a curbside pickup strategy. Champion of diversity Throughout her career, Brewer has also been an unapologetic champion of diversity in the corporate world. In 2015, she took heat online from conservatives following an interview with CNN anchor Poppy Harlow after telling a story about the concern she felt when a Sam’s Club supplier sent a group comprised entirely of White men to meet with her. She was concerned the supplier’s commitment to diversity didn’t match her own, so she called one of the company’s leaders to address the issue. “Every now and then you have to nudge your partners,” Brewer said during the interview. “You have to speak up and speak out. And I try to use my platform for that.” The details of the conversation weren’t revealed during the interview, which caught the attention of conservatives on Twitter. Walmart’s president and CEO Doug McMillon defended Brewer from critics who suggested her comments were somehow racist. “Roz was simply trying to reiterate that we believe diverse and inclusive teams make for a stronger business,” McMillon wrote in a statement. “That’s all there is to it and I support that important ideal.” Why Walgreens? In addition to overseeing Walgreens’ vaccine rollout, which is already in high gear, Brewer is expected to drive the company’s digital retail expansion. “That’s clearly one area of expertise where she specifically should bring some institutional knowledge that should be helpful,” said Michael Cherny, a health care technology and distribution analyst at Bank of America. Outgoing Walgreens CEO Steffano Pessina had high praise for Brewer’s focus on customer experience and her e-commerce acumen in January when her looming appointment was announced. “Her relentless focus on the customer, talent development, operational rigor and strong expertise in digital and technological transformation are exactly what [Walgreens] needs as the company enters its next chapter,” Pessina said. Source link Orbem News #becomingtheonlyBlackwomanFortune500CEO-CNN #Black #Brewer #Business #CEO #fortune #helm #officially #Rosalind #RosalindBrewerofficiallytakesthehelmatWalgreens #Takes #Walgreens #Woman
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dipulb3 ¡ 4 years ago
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Rosalind Brewer officially takes the helm at Walgreens, becoming the only Black woman Fortune 500 CEO
New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/rosalind-brewer-officially-takes-the-helm-at-walgreens-becoming-the-only-black-woman-fortune-500-ceo/
Rosalind Brewer officially takes the helm at Walgreens, becoming the only Black woman Fortune 500 CEO
Former Xerox chief executive Ursula Burns became the first in 2007 before stepping down in 2017. Ex-Bed, Bath and Beyond chief executive Mary Winston’s interim tenure only lasted about six months in 2019 before she was replaced by former Target chief merchandising officer Mark Tritton.
Today, there are only four total African Americans actively serving as Fortune 500 CEOs, including Brewer. Kenneth Frazier has served as head of Merck since 2011. There’s also Lowe’s chief executive Marvin Ellison and TIAA-CREF CEO Roger Ferguson Jr. who is stepping down. JPMorgan Chase executive Thasunda Brown Duckett, a Black woman, is set to replace Ferguson on May 1.
Duckett and Brewer are among the paltry 3.3% of Black senior and executive leaders presently working in corporate America, according to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data.
A new Black woman CEO is a game-changer for Black leaders and the corporate world, according to Michael C. Hyter, president and CEO of the Executive Leadership Council, a non-profit that works to increase the number of Black C-suite and boardroom executives.
“Diversity at the top drives diversity throughout the corporation,” Hyter told Appradab Business over the weekend. “There is a tendency among CEOs to groom senior executives who look like themselves, requiring intentional efforts to seed succession plans with more diverse candidates with proven track records.”
Who is Rosalind Brewer?
Brewer, 59, is the youngest of five children born to General Motors factory workers George and Sally Gates in her Detroit hometown in 1962. She grew up in the Motor City before attending Spelman College — one of the nation’s top Historically Black colleges and universities — in Atlanta, where she earned a B.S. in chemistry in 1984.
The married mother of two also attended the advanced management program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of business and earned additional degrees from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Stanford Law School’s Directors’ College.
She spent 22 years working for paper manufacturer Kimberly-Clark (KMB) where she started as a research technician and later took on an administrative role. At Kimberly, she developed a strong understanding of consumer packaged goods and eventually became the company’s president of manufacturing and global operations.
In 2006, Brewer left Kimberly-Clark to become a vice president at Walmart (WMT), where she again climbed the corporate ladder over the course of six years. Eventually she was named president of the Walmart US East business unit, leading a team responsible for more than $100 billion in annual revenue.
Sam’s Club history maker
Brewer made history in 2012 when she was named CEO of Sam’s Club, which is owned by Walmart, becoming the first woman and the first African American ever to lead the membership-only warehouse company.
“I’ve also been struck by Roz’s servant leadership when I have visited stores with her,” former Walmart President and CEO Mike Duke said of Brewer at the time. “She always lets her team do the talking, with her focus being on how to better support their needs. … She has strong strategic, analytical and operational skills and has successfully managed a large and complex business.”
Starbucks’ ‘glass ceiling slayer’
In 2017, Starbucks tapped Brewer to become its group president and chief operating officer, leading the company’s global marketing, technology, supply chain, product innovation, and store development organization functions. During her tenure in 2018, the coffeemaker expanded its already-massive global retail footprint and entered a global coffee alliance deal with Nestle to increase the global reach of its consumer packaged goods.
Brewer also helped Starbucks maximize its online retail and marketing efforts as well as its customer engagement experiences. The company expanded its delivery service in China and other east Asian countries in 2018 and opened its 30,000th global store in March 2019.
Starbucks’ hard digital pivot came in handy in 2020, when Covid-19 forced it to shutter hundreds of stores and shift to a curbside pickup strategy.
Champion of diversity
Throughout her career, Brewer has also been an unapologetic champion of diversity in the corporate world. In 2015, she took heat online from conservatives following an interview with Appradab anchor Poppy Harlow after telling a story about the concern she felt when a Sam’s Club supplier sent a group comprised entirely of White men to meet with her.
She was concerned the supplier’s commitment to diversity didn’t match her own, so she called one of the company’s leaders to address the issue.
“Every now and then you have to nudge your partners,” Brewer said during the interview. “You have to speak up and speak out. And I try to use my platform for that.”
The details of the conversation weren’t revealed during the interview, which caught the attention of conservatives on Twitter. Walmart’s president and CEO Doug McMillon defended Brewer from critics who suggested her comments were somehow racist.
“Roz was simply trying to reiterate that we believe diverse and inclusive teams make for a stronger business,” McMillon wrote in a statement. “That’s all there is to it and I support that important ideal.”
Why Walgreens?
In addition to overseeing Walgreens’ vaccine rollout, which is already in high gear, Brewer is expected to drive the company’s digital retail expansion.
“That’s clearly one area of expertise where she specifically should bring some institutional knowledge that should be helpful,” said Michael Cherny, a health care technology and distribution analyst at Bank of America.
Outgoing Walgreens CEO Steffano Pessina had high praise for Brewer’s focus on customer experience and her e-commerce acumen in January when her looming appointment was announced.
“Her relentless focus on the customer, talent development, operational rigor and strong expertise in digital and technological transformation are exactly what [Walgreens] needs as the company enters its next chapter,” Pessina said.
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xccentric-services-blog ¡ 4 years ago
Text
WHY E-STORES, UNIFIED COMMERCE APPROACH, AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ARE IMPORTANT FOR CPG IN THE CURRENT COVID SITUATION?
As the influence of COVID-19 continues to grow across oceans, leaders are reflecting over the impacts that it has on their businesses. The stay-at-home regulations and shutdowns imposed on many businesses are encouraging business leaders to discover brand-new E-Commerce Website Development and Digital Media Marketing ways to reach out to the consumers.
As before-mentioned, the demand for fast-moving consumer goods has also been affected. In massively affected countries, the need for Consumer Packaged Goods – CPG, proceeds to escalate sharply, and there has been a notable surge in spending on household goods as well.
To lessen their chances of contracting the virus, people are reducing their frequent runs to the grocery stores. While the lockdown resorts some to hoarding toilet paper, grooming products, water, and food, others are using Magento E-Commerce Development to buy for their needs and more. Hence, the shift in buying patterns has made retailers rethink their dependence on in-store shopping.
Buyers’ Habits are Evolving Rapidly
An online survey reveals that home delivery and store pickup online grocery sales reached another 30-day record for April, striking $6.2 billion and denoting a 38% expansion from $4.5 billion in March. As indicated by information, online sales of CPG became 56% in the week closing April 18.
The volume of consumers requesting a necessary food item online has grown as well in April. It is surprising to note that 35% of these are first-ever online purchases made by people to buy basic food. Reasonably speaking, this unusual shopping behavior could become the modern standard for satisfied customers. Hence, opening an extremely convincing door for retailers to opt for advanced Digital Installations and Dynamics E-Commerce arrangements.
The Rescuer; E-Commerce
While Amazon persists as a go-to Best CRM for E-Commerceplatform, conventional brick-and-mortar retailers have also considered capturing this opportunity by digitizing their online presence with Digital Marketing Services in Chicago and Microsoft Dynamics E-Commerce. Walmart, for instance, has developed Walmart.com. Similarly, the leading brand Target Corp. is modifying in diverse ways to keep up with the wave in sales of products like food, beverages, health, and beauty essentials.
However, in fresh produce categories, Dynamics 365 E-Commerce is currently struggling. Retailers are searching for robust E-Commerce Platform Integration Services that will help them deliver seamless omnichannel experiences across channels.
Though according to a report, even if the conventional physical retail stores open up, digital sales are still going to be skyrocketing. Hence, now is the time to turn towards Magento E-Commerce Development Services.
Prepare-up to face some real CHALLENGES
There’s no doubt about the fact that every tech advancement and valuable innovation comes with its own set of unique challenges and obstacles that every business has to overcome. In this article, we’ve wrapped up some current challenges that come up while you sell digitally.  So let’s read through what’s about to come your way!
1.      Interrupted Supply Chains
The lockdown has put immense stress on the supply chain of businesses, especially groceries, fresh produces, and staples. These essential items, needed every day by millions of isolated citizens, are required to be delivered with minimum human-to-human contact. Due to obstructed supply chains and a drop in imports, raw materials supplies might be an added influential challenge for preferred categories in retail and durables.
Read more!
0 notes
xcentric-services ¡ 4 years ago
Text
WHY E-STORES, UNIFIED COMMERCE APPROACH, AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ARE IMPORTANT FOR CPG IN THE CURRENT COVID SITUATION?
As the influence of COVID-19 continues to grow across oceans, leaders are reflecting over the impacts that it has on their businesses. The stay-at-home regulations and shutdowns imposed on many businesses are encouraging business leaders to discover brand-new E-Commerce Website Development and Digital Media Marketing ways to reach out to the consumers.
As before-mentioned, the demand for fast-moving consumer goods has also been affected. In massively affected countries, the need for Consumer Packaged Goods – CPG, proceeds to escalate sharply, and there has been a notable surge in spending on household goods as well.
To lessen their chances of contracting the virus, people are reducing their frequent runs to the grocery stores. While the lockdown resorts some to hoarding toilet paper, grooming products, water, and food, others are using Magento E-Commerce Development to buy for their needs and more. Hence, the shift in buying patterns has made retailers rethink their dependence on in-store shopping.
Buyers’ Habits are Evolving Rapidly
An online survey reveals that home delivery and store pickup online grocery sales reached another 30-day record for April, striking $6.2 billion and denoting a 38% expansion from $4.5 billion in March. As indicated by information, online sales of CPG became 56% in the week closing April 18.
The volume of consumers requesting a necessary food item online has grown as well in April. It is surprising to note that 35% of these are first-ever online purchases made by people to buy basic food. Reasonably speaking, this unusual shopping behavior could become the modern standard for satisfied customers. Hence, opening an extremely convincing door for retailers to opt for advanced Digital Installations and Dynamics E-Commerce arrangements.
The Rescuer; E-Commerce
While Amazon persists as a go-to Best CRM for E-Commerceplatform, conventional brick-and-mortar retailers have also considered capturing this opportunity by digitizing their online presence with Digital Marketing Services in Chicago and Microsoft Dynamics E-Commerce. Walmart, for instance, has developed Walmart.com. Similarly, the leading brand Target Corp. is modifying in diverse ways to keep up with the wave in sales of products like food, beverages, health, and beauty essentials.
However, in fresh produce categories, Dynamics 365 E-Commerce is currently struggling. Retailers are searching for robust E-Commerce Platform Integration Services that will help them deliver seamless omnichannel experiences across channels.
Though according to a report, even if the conventional physical retail stores open up, digital sales are still going to be skyrocketing. Hence, now is the time to turn towards Magento E-Commerce Development Services.
Prepare-up to face some real CHALLENGES
There’s no doubt about the fact that every tech advancement and valuable innovation comes with its own set of unique challenges and obstacles that every business has to overcome. In this article, we’ve wrapped up some current challenges that come up while you sell digitally.  So let’s read through what’s about to come your way!
1.      Interrupted Supply Chains
The lockdown has put immense stress on the supply chain of businesses, especially groceries, fresh produces, and staples. These essential items, needed every day by millions of isolated citizens, are required to be delivered with minimum human-to-human contact. Due to obstructed supply chains and a drop in imports, raw materials supplies might be an added influential challenge for preferred categories in retail and durables.
Read more!
0 notes
williamroy1 ¡ 5 years ago
Text
The way to get a high paying digital marketing jobs
Job gives a real platform to show your mighty, understanding, and ability with tested effects. Polishing self is the key to get hooked via recruiters. That is the task intention one should have earlier  Digital Marketing Companies Chicago than in search of a high paying job. And digital marketing jobs are no distinctive. I have seen most of the kids are moving toward virtual advertising jobs. Yes!!! Being a excessive paying job, virtual advertising and marketing is drawing the most interest than every other platform. Browsing outcomes also are in its favor. Scope of digital advertising and marketing jobs the way to get a excessive paying digital advertising jobs why to select virtual advertising as career? Digital advertising jobs pay more profits – rs 412,492 per yr in india. More activity openings than different it professions- once i searched “ scope of digital marketing job openings in 2018”, certainly the following consequences popped up on the top of search engine result page (serp). Full-time job (5349)
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to fulfill the evolving craze of digital enterprise, bunch of virtual advertising education institutes have stroked the advertising. Now not all, however a few of those are providing satisfactory virtual advertising and marketing schooling with placement help to fresh graduates. But before going for an digital advertising and marketing training, “self-instruction” is important and that we're going to focus in today’s article. Permit’s take a glance –
we are hearing aboutdigital advertising trend and from numerous assets, from technical magazines, from any tech blog, buddy zone or social media. Prevent yourself from going for walks behind and begin studies by way of yourself. Not like clinical or mechanic engineering, digital advertising can be self-learnt. Heaps of relevant tutorials, youtube films and slide stocks are available on-line for reference. You could be part of virtual advertising and marketing forums in linkedin for today's virtual advertising and marketing news and techniques. Furthermore, diverse virtual marketing practice pattern questions and quizzes are available online, which may help you exercise to your own. Begin your own
surf out internet and collect information on digital advertising and marketing. Add on information after which start blogging. These days private blogs are the important thing to target company world. It offers you a space of your own to show off your knowledge and glance toward digital marketing. Training from virtual advertising specialists
at the side of thoughts-mapping, knowledge on marketing equipment is vital. Absolutely some of those are available free of charge on line however some top rate subscriptions are hard to get. At this point of time, an virtual advertising education institute allows you out. Few days in the past, i got a promotional mail claiming to provide complete virtual marketing courses with device assessment, schooling cloth assistance, and placement help. For this reason, it is simple if you want to get a high paying activity with a certification of virtual advertising and marketing. Enterprise networking
the knowledge acquisition team or human resource management group in an company first looks for referral candidates before browsing from process portals. Hence, it's far beneficial to develop your community via talking to buddies’ circle, and likeminded people. By using this, there may be a better hazard to be hooked at satisfactory agency with a good-looking salary. Attitude subjects
your non-public blogs, web sites, social media communicate approximately your digital advertising and marketing information and your  Digital Marketing Company in Chicago frame language, writing flow, and networking states your mind-set. This is the key-word you could say by using which there may be a higher risk of being noticed with the aid of recruiters. In interviews, employers compare a candidate based totally on the mind-set and ardour closer to the paintings. Bring an inviting character and groom yourself earlier than attending an interview.
Resource:- https://william4roy.blogspot.com/2020/02/how-great-web-site-design-can-enhance.html
Follow US:-  Facebook,  Twitter,  LinkedIn , YouTube
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radlybatescapital-blog ¡ 6 years ago
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Adam Radly Bob Bates: 6 Secrets for Giving Your New Business the Momentum to Keep Growing
Adam Radly Bob Bates: They have started many businesses-this is an interesting strategic article
6 Secrets for Giving Your New Business the Momentum to Keep Growing
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Image credit: Mitchell Funk | Getty Images  
Network-effect businesses and how they work
If you're launching a network-effect business -- one for which the network is more valuable as more users or customers join -- it can be especially challenging. If you don't play your cards right, you run the risk of forever rolling the boulder up the hill, never achieving positive momentum. Built and scaled properly, network-effect entrepreneurs are able to crest the hill and achieve the positive momentum of the boulder rolling down the other side: Your target users join of their own volition with little or no impetus from your company. Generally speaking, we're talking about two types of businesses here: one-sided networks, and two- or multi-sided networks. A classic (albeit ancient) single-sided network would be the original, landline telephone. (They're in old movies; they plugged into the wall and had those adorable rotary dials.) Being one of the first owners of a telephone had to have been pretty useless, since you had nobody to call and nobody to call you. At that point, the network had negative inertia and was a difficult boulder to budge. But, once the number of users on the network reached critical mass -- probably city by city -- everyone "needed" to install a phone because it became the standard medium for remote, real-time communication. With the advent of email, we encountered the same phenomenon. Until lots of people in your circle used it, it wasn't a useful medium to send and receive messages, but once email had accumulated a critical mass of business and personal users, it became a "must-have" communication medium. When Nextdoor launched as a hyper-local, private social network for neighborhoods, it couldn't simply launch in, for instance, greater Chicago. Rather, it needed to develop a critical mass of residents in each of dozens of individual neighborhoods, from Lincoln Park to Little Village, Montclair to Mayfair, Pill Hill to Pullman. (And that's just Chicago.) Multi-sided network-effect businesses are very popular today, yet they're equally as challenging to get off the ground. Think of some typical examples. The value of Airbnb was quite limited at first, before there was much "inventory" of properties for rent; vacationers or travelers might log on and fail to find a satisfying amount or quality of listings in their target location. Hailing an Uber in your city of choice wasn't always possible, and there had to be a balance of drivers and passengers; too many of the former would lead to dissatisfied drivers unable to earn a living, while an inadequate supply of drivers could quickly lead to dissatisfied passengers. Similarly, when Apple first launched the iPhone, there were only a relative handful of apps; it only became the pocket supercomputer cum Swiss Army knife it represents today once many tens of thousands of app developers had made their wares available to users on the App Store. EBay needed to have a balance of sellers and buyers in each product category to create a vibrant marketplace.
Secrets for successfully launching your network-effect business
Each of the examples we've touched on so far clearly managed to roll the proverbial boulder over the crest of the hill and achieve the glorious positive inertia that comes with a critical mass of users: More users automatically join the network, and rapid growth just seems to magically happen with dramatically less work, time and expense on the part of the company. So how do we, as entrepreneurs starting our own network-effect businesses, achieve that momentum? Here are some suggestions based on observing hundreds of startups and large businesses through the years: 1. Roll out geographically. Let's say you're launching a vertical marketplace to match owners of pet hamsters with hamster walkers. (Hey, it could happen.) Do you launch nationally at first? The problem there is that a hamster owner in, say, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., may not find a sufficient local supply of hamster walkers, while conversely a plethora of walkers in Kalamazoo, Mich., might struggle to find sufficient pet owners to generate business. If you choose to roll the boulder up the hill nationally (forget globally), you're taking on a gargantuan -- and probably lengthy and costly -- challenge. But, if you break it down by geography, you're tackling a series of much smaller hills. That is, building a critical mass of people on each side of the network, for each locale, becomes a far more manageable task. In this case, instead of needing to recruit tens or hundreds of thousands each of hamster owners and walkers nationally, you might need only a dozen walkers to launch successfully in Poughkeepsie and attract owner-clients. Then, once you've successfully created a local network effect in your chosen launch city, you can expand. 2. Roll out by category. Whether your network-effect startup is geography-dependent such as our hamster example or Nextdoor, you may also want to consider rolling out by category. A site specifically for buying and selling band instruments, for instance, may want to start with woodwinds, or narrow it even further to clarinets, and only expand from there once you've developed a critical mass of buyers and sellers in that focused category. 3. Create a playbook. As you're working to build a two-sided marketplace effect at your selected local launch site, take the view that this is a national (or global) business in which best practices will be captured and replicated. From the outset, develop a playbook for how you're going to roll out in each local area. Do you build up a critical mass of walkers first before "going live" in a new locale and promoting to pet owners? How? Going door-to-door in hamster-friendly neighborhoods? Craigslist ads? Similarly, if you're launching a non-geography-based business -- let's go back to our musical instrument example -- be sure to develop a dynamic playbook so you can apply best practices from clarinets to other woodwinds such as saxophones, flutes and oboes, and how to apply lessons learned from the broader woodwind category to expand into brass instruments when the time is right. 4. Be deliberate, but also opportunistic. While being very intentional about rolling out your network by geography and/or product/service category can reduce launch costs and help ensure success, you can still leave some things open to chance. For instance, in parallel with your deliberate hamster-walking roll-out city-by-city, you may wish to also encourage users to "plant seeds," suggesting or even launching a new area for you. If you're starting your hamster network in Poughkeepsie and a couple of service providers want to offer their hamster-walking services in El Paso, Tex., you may want to be geographically opportunistic. By the same token, you may find unanticipated user demand for new product or service categories such as buying and selling gerbil-walking or snake-grooming services. (Who knew?) While you need to be careful about diluting your focus, listening to your customers as you grow might suggest opportunistic paths you hadn't originally considered. 5. Make it viral. WhatsApp no longer needs to overspend on marketing, since its users do it for them. Expats, international students, travelers, virtually anyone with family and friends in other countries, seems to flock toward the platform as an easy, cheap way to communicate globally. As another viral example, Instagram is the social app du jour for millennials -- in niches ranging from foodies to fitness fanatics, it's established itself as the place to see and be seen. Even for niche network-effect businesses, it's critical to look for characteristics that can make your service viral within its target audience. For instance, can you provide discounts or other financial incentives for users to recruit their friends and family, or even for service/product providers to recruit their erstwhile competitors (e.g., hamster-walkers in adjacent neighborhoods of the same city)? Borrow a page from Yelp and offer incentives for "power reviewers"? Be creative. 6. Don't get out over your skis. Entrepreneurs who get out over their skis lose their balance and face-plant; that can be painful, or even ruinous, to your startup. So, as optimistic as we all tend to be, exercise caution as you expand to new geographic markets or categories, making sure you always offer a critical mass on both sides of your network. Listen to your customers and ensure customer satisfaction. Finally, as you launch and scale your network-effect business, remember that there is no formulaic "correct answer" to many of the variables that will create success. Whether you live in Rochester, N.Y., or Rochester, Minn., or Rochester, Mich., it's OK to consider starting your business where you live and then expanding in a logical way. If you're connecting buyers and sellers of used band instruments and are a passionate trumpeter, you may want to start there. If, alternatively, you've found a great source for used alto saxophones, that may dictate a logical starting point. As important as it is to be thoughtful and considered, don't overthink things looking for a magical right answer. Radly Bates affiliates: S7 Group Radly Bates Index Radly Bates Consulting Radly Bates Capital Radly Bates Associates Radly Bates Digital Radly Bates Valuations Follow us on social: https://issuu.com/radlybatesconsulting https://issuu.com/radlybatescapital https://issuu.com/radlybatesdigital https://issuu.com/radlybatesassociates. https://issuu.com/radlybatesvaluations https://issuu.com/s7loans
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radlybatesvaluations-blog ¡ 6 years ago
Text
Adam Radly Bob Bates: 6 Secrets for Giving Your New Business the Momentum to Keep Growing
Adam Radly Bob Bates: They have started many businesses-this is an interesting strategic article
6 Secrets for Giving Your New Business the Momentum to Keep Growing
Tumblr media
Image credit: Mitchell Funk | Getty Images  
Network-effect businesses and how they work
If you're launching a network-effect business -- one for which the network is more valuable as more users or customers join -- it can be especially challenging. If you don't play your cards right, you run the risk of forever rolling the boulder up the hill, never achieving positive momentum. Built and scaled properly, network-effect entrepreneurs are able to crest the hill and achieve the positive momentum of the boulder rolling down the other side: Your target users join of their own volition with little or no impetus from your company. Generally speaking, we're talking about two types of businesses here: one-sided networks, and two- or multi-sided networks. A classic (albeit ancient) single-sided network would be the original, landline telephone. (They're in old movies; they plugged into the wall and had those adorable rotary dials.) Being one of the first owners of a telephone had to have been pretty useless, since you had nobody to call and nobody to call you. At that point, the network had negative inertia and was a difficult boulder to budge. But, once the number of users on the network reached critical mass -- probably city by city -- everyone "needed" to install a phone because it became the standard medium for remote, real-time communication. With the advent of email, we encountered the same phenomenon. Until lots of people in your circle used it, it wasn't a useful medium to send and receive messages, but once email had accumulated a critical mass of business and personal users, it became a "must-have" communication medium. When Nextdoor launched as a hyper-local, private social network for neighborhoods, it couldn't simply launch in, for instance, greater Chicago. Rather, it needed to develop a critical mass of residents in each of dozens of individual neighborhoods, from Lincoln Park to Little Village, Montclair to Mayfair, Pill Hill to Pullman. (And that's just Chicago.) Multi-sided network-effect businesses are very popular today, yet they're equally as challenging to get off the ground. Think of some typical examples. The value of Airbnb was quite limited at first, before there was much "inventory" of properties for rent; vacationers or travelers might log on and fail to find a satisfying amount or quality of listings in their target location. Hailing an Uber in your city of choice wasn't always possible, and there had to be a balance of drivers and passengers; too many of the former would lead to dissatisfied drivers unable to earn a living, while an inadequate supply of drivers could quickly lead to dissatisfied passengers. Similarly, when Apple first launched the iPhone, there were only a relative handful of apps; it only became the pocket supercomputer cum Swiss Army knife it represents today once many tens of thousands of app developers had made their wares available to users on the App Store. EBay needed to have a balance of sellers and buyers in each product category to create a vibrant marketplace.
Secrets for successfully launching your network-effect business
Each of the examples we've touched on so far clearly managed to roll the proverbial boulder over the crest of the hill and achieve the glorious positive inertia that comes with a critical mass of users: More users automatically join the network, and rapid growth just seems to magically happen with dramatically less work, time and expense on the part of the company. So how do we, as entrepreneurs starting our own network-effect businesses, achieve that momentum? Here are some suggestions based on observing hundreds of startups and large businesses through the years: 1. Roll out geographically. Let's say you're launching a vertical marketplace to match owners of pet hamsters with hamster walkers. (Hey, it could happen.) Do you launch nationally at first? The problem there is that a hamster owner in, say, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., may not find a sufficient local supply of hamster walkers, while conversely a plethora of walkers in Kalamazoo, Mich., might struggle to find sufficient pet owners to generate business. If you choose to roll the boulder up the hill nationally (forget globally), you're taking on a gargantuan -- and probably lengthy and costly -- challenge. But, if you break it down by geography, you're tackling a series of much smaller hills. That is, building a critical mass of people on each side of the network, for each locale, becomes a far more manageable task. In this case, instead of needing to recruit tens or hundreds of thousands each of hamster owners and walkers nationally, you might need only a dozen walkers to launch successfully in Poughkeepsie and attract owner-clients. Then, once you've successfully created a local network effect in your chosen launch city, you can expand. 2. Roll out by category. Whether your network-effect startup is geography-dependent such as our hamster example or Nextdoor, you may also want to consider rolling out by category. A site specifically for buying and selling band instruments, for instance, may want to start with woodwinds, or narrow it even further to clarinets, and only expand from there once you've developed a critical mass of buyers and sellers in that focused category. 3. Create a playbook. As you're working to build a two-sided marketplace effect at your selected local launch site, take the view that this is a national (or global) business in which best practices will be captured and replicated. From the outset, develop a playbook for how you're going to roll out in each local area. Do you build up a critical mass of walkers first before "going live" in a new locale and promoting to pet owners? How? Going door-to-door in hamster-friendly neighborhoods? Craigslist ads? Similarly, if you're launching a non-geography-based business -- let's go back to our musical instrument example -- be sure to develop a dynamic playbook so you can apply best practices from clarinets to other woodwinds such as saxophones, flutes and oboes, and how to apply lessons learned from the broader woodwind category to expand into brass instruments when the time is right. 4. Be deliberate, but also opportunistic. While being very intentional about rolling out your network by geography and/or product/service category can reduce launch costs and help ensure success, you can still leave some things open to chance. For instance, in parallel with your deliberate hamster-walking roll-out city-by-city, you may wish to also encourage users to "plant seeds," suggesting or even launching a new area for you. If you're starting your hamster network in Poughkeepsie and a couple of service providers want to offer their hamster-walking services in El Paso, Tex., you may want to be geographically opportunistic. By the same token, you may find unanticipated user demand for new product or service categories such as buying and selling gerbil-walking or snake-grooming services. (Who knew?) While you need to be careful about diluting your focus, listening to your customers as you grow might suggest opportunistic paths you hadn't originally considered. 5. Make it viral. WhatsApp no longer needs to overspend on marketing, since its users do it for them. Expats, international students, travelers, virtually anyone with family and friends in other countries, seems to flock toward the platform as an easy, cheap way to communicate globally. As another viral example, Instagram is the social app du jour for millennials -- in niches ranging from foodies to fitness fanatics, it's established itself as the place to see and be seen. Even for niche network-effect businesses, it's critical to look for characteristics that can make your service viral within its target audience. For instance, can you provide discounts or other financial incentives for users to recruit their friends and family, or even for service/product providers to recruit their erstwhile competitors (e.g., hamster-walkers in adjacent neighborhoods of the same city)? Borrow a page from Yelp and offer incentives for "power reviewers"? Be creative. 6. Don't get out over your skis. Entrepreneurs who get out over their skis lose their balance and face-plant; that can be painful, or even ruinous, to your startup. So, as optimistic as we all tend to be, exercise caution as you expand to new geographic markets or categories, making sure you always offer a critical mass on both sides of your network. Listen to your customers and ensure customer satisfaction. Finally, as you launch and scale your network-effect business, remember that there is no formulaic "correct answer" to many of the variables that will create success. Whether you live in Rochester, N.Y., or Rochester, Minn., or Rochester, Mich., it's OK to consider starting your business where you live and then expanding in a logical way. If you're connecting buyers and sellers of used band instruments and are a passionate trumpeter, you may want to start there. If, alternatively, you've found a great source for used alto saxophones, that may dictate a logical starting point. As important as it is to be thoughtful and considered, don't overthink things looking for a magical right answer. Radly Bates affiliates: S7 Group Radly Bates Index Radly Bates Consulting Radly Bates Capital Radly Bates Associates Radly Bates Digital Radly Bates Valuations Follow us on social: https://issuu.com/radlybatesconsulting https://issuu.com/radlybatescapital https://issuu.com/radlybatesdigital https://issuu.com/radlybatesassociates. https://issuu.com/radlybatesvaluations https://issuu.com/s7loans
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radlybatesconsulting-blog ¡ 6 years ago
Text
Adam Radly Bob Bates: 6 Secrets for Giving Your New Business the Momentum to Keep Growing
Adam Radly Bob Bates: They have started many businesses-this is an interesting strategic article
6 Secrets for Giving Your New Business the Momentum to Keep Growing
Tumblr media
Image credit: Mitchell Funk | Getty Images  
Network-effect businesses and how they work
If you're launching a network-effect business -- one for which the network is more valuable as more users or customers join -- it can be especially challenging. If you don't play your cards right, you run the risk of forever rolling the boulder up the hill, never achieving positive momentum. Built and scaled properly, network-effect entrepreneurs are able to crest the hill and achieve the positive momentum of the boulder rolling down the other side: Your target users join of their own volition with little or no impetus from your company. Generally speaking, we're talking about two types of businesses here: one-sided networks, and two- or multi-sided networks. A classic (albeit ancient) single-sided network would be the original, landline telephone. (They're in old movies; they plugged into the wall and had those adorable rotary dials.) Being one of the first owners of a telephone had to have been pretty useless, since you had nobody to call and nobody to call you. At that point, the network had negative inertia and was a difficult boulder to budge. But, once the number of users on the network reached critical mass -- probably city by city -- everyone "needed" to install a phone because it became the standard medium for remote, real-time communication. With the advent of email, we encountered the same phenomenon. Until lots of people in your circle used it, it wasn't a useful medium to send and receive messages, but once email had accumulated a critical mass of business and personal users, it became a "must-have" communication medium. When Nextdoor launched as a hyper-local, private social network for neighborhoods, it couldn't simply launch in, for instance, greater Chicago. Rather, it needed to develop a critical mass of residents in each of dozens of individual neighborhoods, from Lincoln Park to Little Village, Montclair to Mayfair, Pill Hill to Pullman. (And that's just Chicago.) Multi-sided network-effect businesses are very popular today, yet they're equally as challenging to get off the ground. Think of some typical examples. The value of Airbnb was quite limited at first, before there was much "inventory" of properties for rent; vacationers or travelers might log on and fail to find a satisfying amount or quality of listings in their target location. Hailing an Uber in your city of choice wasn't always possible, and there had to be a balance of drivers and passengers; too many of the former would lead to dissatisfied drivers unable to earn a living, while an inadequate supply of drivers could quickly lead to dissatisfied passengers. Similarly, when Apple first launched the iPhone, there were only a relative handful of apps; it only became the pocket supercomputer cum Swiss Army knife it represents today once many tens of thousands of app developers had made their wares available to users on the App Store. EBay needed to have a balance of sellers and buyers in each product category to create a vibrant marketplace.
Secrets for successfully launching your network-effect business
Each of the examples we've touched on so far clearly managed to roll the proverbial boulder over the crest of the hill and achieve the glorious positive inertia that comes with a critical mass of users: More users automatically join the network, and rapid growth just seems to magically happen with dramatically less work, time and expense on the part of the company. So how do we, as entrepreneurs starting our own network-effect businesses, achieve that momentum? Here are some suggestions based on observing hundreds of startups and large businesses through the years: 1. Roll out geographically. Let's say you're launching a vertical marketplace to match owners of pet hamsters with hamster walkers. (Hey, it could happen.) Do you launch nationally at first? The problem there is that a hamster owner in, say, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., may not find a sufficient local supply of hamster walkers, while conversely a plethora of walkers in Kalamazoo, Mich., might struggle to find sufficient pet owners to generate business. If you choose to roll the boulder up the hill nationally (forget globally), you're taking on a gargantuan -- and probably lengthy and costly -- challenge. But, if you break it down by geography, you're tackling a series of much smaller hills. That is, building a critical mass of people on each side of the network, for each locale, becomes a far more manageable task. In this case, instead of needing to recruit tens or hundreds of thousands each of hamster owners and walkers nationally, you might need only a dozen walkers to launch successfully in Poughkeepsie and attract owner-clients. Then, once you've successfully created a local network effect in your chosen launch city, you can expand. 2. Roll out by category. Whether your network-effect startup is geography-dependent such as our hamster example or Nextdoor, you may also want to consider rolling out by category. A site specifically for buying and selling band instruments, for instance, may want to start with woodwinds, or narrow it even further to clarinets, and only expand from there once you've developed a critical mass of buyers and sellers in that focused category. 3. Create a playbook. As you're working to build a two-sided marketplace effect at your selected local launch site, take the view that this is a national (or global) business in which best practices will be captured and replicated. From the outset, develop a playbook for how you're going to roll out in each local area. Do you build up a critical mass of walkers first before "going live" in a new locale and promoting to pet owners? How? Going door-to-door in hamster-friendly neighborhoods? Craigslist ads? Similarly, if you're launching a non-geography-based business -- let's go back to our musical instrument example -- be sure to develop a dynamic playbook so you can apply best practices from clarinets to other woodwinds such as saxophones, flutes and oboes, and how to apply lessons learned from the broader woodwind category to expand into brass instruments when the time is right. 4. Be deliberate, but also opportunistic. While being very intentional about rolling out your network by geography and/or product/service category can reduce launch costs and help ensure success, you can still leave some things open to chance. For instance, in parallel with your deliberate hamster-walking roll-out city-by-city, you may wish to also encourage users to "plant seeds," suggesting or even launching a new area for you. If you're starting your hamster network in Poughkeepsie and a couple of service providers want to offer their hamster-walking services in El Paso, Tex., you may want to be geographically opportunistic. By the same token, you may find unanticipated user demand for new product or service categories such as buying and selling gerbil-walking or snake-grooming services. (Who knew?) While you need to be careful about diluting your focus, listening to your customers as you grow might suggest opportunistic paths you hadn't originally considered. 5. Make it viral. WhatsApp no longer needs to overspend on marketing, since its users do it for them. Expats, international students, travelers, virtually anyone with family and friends in other countries, seems to flock toward the platform as an easy, cheap way to communicate globally. As another viral example, Instagram is the social app du jour for millennials -- in niches ranging from foodies to fitness fanatics, it's established itself as the place to see and be seen. Even for niche network-effect businesses, it's critical to look for characteristics that can make your service viral within its target audience. For instance, can you provide discounts or other financial incentives for users to recruit their friends and family, or even for service/product providers to recruit their erstwhile competitors (e.g., hamster-walkers in adjacent neighborhoods of the same city)? Borrow a page from Yelp and offer incentives for "power reviewers"? Be creative. 6. Don't get out over your skis. Entrepreneurs who get out over their skis lose their balance and face-plant; that can be painful, or even ruinous, to your startup. So, as optimistic as we all tend to be, exercise caution as you expand to new geographic markets or categories, making sure you always offer a critical mass on both sides of your network. Listen to your customers and ensure customer satisfaction. Finally, as you launch and scale your network-effect business, remember that there is no formulaic "correct answer" to many of the variables that will create success. Whether you live in Rochester, N.Y., or Rochester, Minn., or Rochester, Mich., it's OK to consider starting your business where you live and then expanding in a logical way. If you're connecting buyers and sellers of used band instruments and are a passionate trumpeter, you may want to start there. If, alternatively, you've found a great source for used alto saxophones, that may dictate a logical starting point. As important as it is to be thoughtful and considered, don't overthink things looking for a magical right answer. Radly Bates affiliates: S7 Group Radly Bates Index Radly Bates Consulting Radly Bates Capital Radly Bates Associates Radly Bates Digital Radly Bates Valuations Follow us on social: https://issuu.com/radlybatesconsulting https://issuu.com/radlybatescapital https://issuu.com/radlybatesdigital https://issuu.com/radlybatesassociates. https://issuu.com/radlybatesvaluations https://issuu.com/s7loans
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s7groupinc-blog ¡ 6 years ago
Text
Adam Radly Bob Bates: 6 Secrets for Giving Your New Business the Momentum to Keep Growing
Adam Radly Bob Bates: They have started many businesses-this is an interesting strategic article
6 Secrets for Giving Your New Business the Momentum to Keep Growing
Tumblr media
Image credit: Mitchell Funk | Getty Images  
Network-effect businesses and how they work
If you're launching a network-effect business -- one for which the network is more valuable as more users or customers join -- it can be especially challenging. If you don't play your cards right, you run the risk of forever rolling the boulder up the hill, never achieving positive momentum. Built and scaled properly, network-effect entrepreneurs are able to crest the hill and achieve the positive momentum of the boulder rolling down the other side: Your target users join of their own volition with little or no impetus from your company. Generally speaking, we're talking about two types of businesses here: one-sided networks, and two- or multi-sided networks. A classic (albeit ancient) single-sided network would be the original, landline telephone. (They're in old movies; they plugged into the wall and had those adorable rotary dials.) Being one of the first owners of a telephone had to have been pretty useless, since you had nobody to call and nobody to call you. At that point, the network had negative inertia and was a difficult boulder to budge. But, once the number of users on the network reached critical mass -- probably city by city -- everyone "needed" to install a phone because it became the standard medium for remote, real-time communication. With the advent of email, we encountered the same phenomenon. Until lots of people in your circle used it, it wasn't a useful medium to send and receive messages, but once email had accumulated a critical mass of business and personal users, it became a "must-have" communication medium. When Nextdoor launched as a hyper-local, private social network for neighborhoods, it couldn't simply launch in, for instance, greater Chicago. Rather, it needed to develop a critical mass of residents in each of dozens of individual neighborhoods, from Lincoln Park to Little Village, Montclair to Mayfair, Pill Hill to Pullman. (And that's just Chicago.) Multi-sided network-effect businesses are very popular today, yet they're equally as challenging to get off the ground. Think of some typical examples. The value of Airbnb was quite limited at first, before there was much "inventory" of properties for rent; vacationers or travelers might log on and fail to find a satisfying amount or quality of listings in their target location. Hailing an Uber in your city of choice wasn't always possible, and there had to be a balance of drivers and passengers; too many of the former would lead to dissatisfied drivers unable to earn a living, while an inadequate supply of drivers could quickly lead to dissatisfied passengers. Similarly, when Apple first launched the iPhone, there were only a relative handful of apps; it only became the pocket supercomputer cum Swiss Army knife it represents today once many tens of thousands of app developers had made their wares available to users on the App Store. EBay needed to have a balance of sellers and buyers in each product category to create a vibrant marketplace.
Secrets for successfully launching your network-effect business
Each of the examples we've touched on so far clearly managed to roll the proverbial boulder over the crest of the hill and achieve the glorious positive inertia that comes with a critical mass of users: More users automatically join the network, and rapid growth just seems to magically happen with dramatically less work, time and expense on the part of the company. So how do we, as entrepreneurs starting our own network-effect businesses, achieve that momentum? Here are some suggestions based on observing hundreds of startups and large businesses through the years: 1. Roll out geographically. Let's say you're launching a vertical marketplace to match owners of pet hamsters with hamster walkers. (Hey, it could happen.) Do you launch nationally at first? The problem there is that a hamster owner in, say, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., may not find a sufficient local supply of hamster walkers, while conversely a plethora of walkers in Kalamazoo, Mich., might struggle to find sufficient pet owners to generate business. If you choose to roll the boulder up the hill nationally (forget globally), you're taking on a gargantuan -- and probably lengthy and costly -- challenge. But, if you break it down by geography, you're tackling a series of much smaller hills. That is, building a critical mass of people on each side of the network, for each locale, becomes a far more manageable task. In this case, instead of needing to recruit tens or hundreds of thousands each of hamster owners and walkers nationally, you might need only a dozen walkers to launch successfully in Poughkeepsie and attract owner-clients. Then, once you've successfully created a local network effect in your chosen launch city, you can expand. 2. Roll out by category. Whether your network-effect startup is geography-dependent such as our hamster example or Nextdoor, you may also want to consider rolling out by category. A site specifically for buying and selling band instruments, for instance, may want to start with woodwinds, or narrow it even further to clarinets, and only expand from there once you've developed a critical mass of buyers and sellers in that focused category. 3. Create a playbook. As you're working to build a two-sided marketplace effect at your selected local launch site, take the view that this is a national (or global) business in which best practices will be captured and replicated. From the outset, develop a playbook for how you're going to roll out in each local area. Do you build up a critical mass of walkers first before "going live" in a new locale and promoting to pet owners? How? Going door-to-door in hamster-friendly neighborhoods? Craigslist ads? Similarly, if you're launching a non-geography-based business -- let's go back to our musical instrument example -- be sure to develop a dynamic playbook so you can apply best practices from clarinets to other woodwinds such as saxophones, flutes and oboes, and how to apply lessons learned from the broader woodwind category to expand into brass instruments when the time is right. 4. Be deliberate, but also opportunistic. While being very intentional about rolling out your network by geography and/or product/service category can reduce launch costs and help ensure success, you can still leave some things open to chance. For instance, in parallel with your deliberate hamster-walking roll-out city-by-city, you may wish to also encourage users to "plant seeds," suggesting or even launching a new area for you. If you're starting your hamster network in Poughkeepsie and a couple of service providers want to offer their hamster-walking services in El Paso, Tex., you may want to be geographically opportunistic. By the same token, you may find unanticipated user demand for new product or service categories such as buying and selling gerbil-walking or snake-grooming services. (Who knew?) While you need to be careful about diluting your focus, listening to your customers as you grow might suggest opportunistic paths you hadn't originally considered. 5. Make it viral. WhatsApp no longer needs to overspend on marketing, since its users do it for them. Expats, international students, travelers, virtually anyone with family and friends in other countries, seems to flock toward the platform as an easy, cheap way to communicate globally. As another viral example, Instagram is the social app du jour for millennials -- in niches ranging from foodies to fitness fanatics, it's established itself as the place to see and be seen. Even for niche network-effect businesses, it's critical to look for characteristics that can make your service viral within its target audience. For instance, can you provide discounts or other financial incentives for users to recruit their friends and family, or even for service/product providers to recruit their erstwhile competitors (e.g., hamster-walkers in adjacent neighborhoods of the same city)? Borrow a page from Yelp and offer incentives for "power reviewers"? Be creative. 6. Don't get out over your skis. Entrepreneurs who get out over their skis lose their balance and face-plant; that can be painful, or even ruinous, to your startup. So, as optimistic as we all tend to be, exercise caution as you expand to new geographic markets or categories, making sure you always offer a critical mass on both sides of your network. Listen to your customers and ensure customer satisfaction. Finally, as you launch and scale your network-effect business, remember that there is no formulaic "correct answer" to many of the variables that will create success. Whether you live in Rochester, N.Y., or Rochester, Minn., or Rochester, Mich., it's OK to consider starting your business where you live and then expanding in a logical way. If you're connecting buyers and sellers of used band instruments and are a passionate trumpeter, you may want to start there. If, alternatively, you've found a great source for used alto saxophones, that may dictate a logical starting point. As important as it is to be thoughtful and considered, don't overthink things looking for a magical right answer. Radly Bates affiliates: S7 Group Radly Bates Index Radly Bates Consulting Radly Bates Capital Radly Bates Associates Radly Bates Digital Radly Bates Valuations Follow us on social: https://issuu.com/radlybatesconsulting https://issuu.com/radlybatescapital https://issuu.com/radlybatesdigital https://issuu.com/radlybatesassociates. https://issuu.com/radlybatesvaluations https://issuu.com/s7loans
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pawcarebooking ¡ 7 months ago
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The Key to Successfully Scaling Your Dog Grooming Business
Unlock the secrets to scaling your dog grooming business with our expert tips and strategies. From optimizing your workflow to leveraging technology, discover how to efficiently expand your operations while maintaining top-notch service quality.
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payment-providers ¡ 6 years ago
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New Post has been published on Payment-Providers.com
New Post has been published on https://payment-providers.com/retail-pet-owners-splurge-on-animals-needs/
Retail: Pet Owners Splurge on Animals' Needs
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Here at PYMNTS, we see it all, often in the form of press releases – most of which claim to be the next big thing in retail, commerce and financial services. These days, those ideas are often associated with crypto.
But this week, the press release that we thought was pretty cool was from startup Bristly, letting us know that they had invested “the world’s most effective toothbrush for dogs.”
They also promised us a “cool video already going viral.”
We were a little dubious, since even the most dedicated dog owner in the office, a person who cooks their dogs a rotisserie chicken every other night for dinner, remarked that they drew the line at brushing a dog’s teeth.
Undeterred by this remarkably odd sample of one, we checked out the site anyway. There, we learned two things.
The first is that the video is cool – and if we could embed it, we would.
The second is that after only a few days, Bristly has raised over $175,000 on Kickstarter from more than 4,000 people. The goal for their Kickstarter round was $15,000, meaning they’ve exceeded their goal by more than tenfold and counting.
The people have spoken – and they want a better way to brush their dog’s teeth, a revelation we found surprising, but perhaps shouldn’t have.
By the numbers, commerce is literally going to the dogs.
Human beings have always had pets and have always loved them, of course, but in recent years that love has evolved to an entirely new level.
“America’s house pets have worked their way into a new place in the hearts, homes and wallets of their owners,” Michael Schaffer wrote in his book “One Nation Under Dog: America’s Love Affair With Our Dogs” – and data backs up that assertion. According to VIP Petcare’s data, 84 percent of pet owners consider themselves “pet parents,” which kind of explains how the term “fur babies” came into vogue.
And where there is enthusiasm, there is also commerce – and, as it turns out, quite a lot of it.
“The humanization of pets has played well for brands and retailers that have developed or pivoted their strategies for consumers looking to treat their furry friends to the best that life has to offer,” Nielsen noted in its paper on pet care trends earlier this year.
And pet owners are willing to pay, usually quite a premium, for offering their pets the best lives possible. VIP Petcare estimates that the average pet owner spends a little over $2,000 a year caring for their fur baby, and Neilson notes that as of last year, Americans collectively spent about $69 billion on pet care. And the figure has been climbing sharply – by at least $2 billion each year – since the mid-1990s. In 2016, Americans spent $66.75 billion per year on their pets; as of 2007, pet owners spent $41.2 billion.
That’s a lot of dog treats.
Except, it actually isn’t.
When looking at the numbers, it isn’t that Americans are buying their pets much more to eat, as dog food and treat sales have been fairly flat in recent years – it’s that pet parents are buying their pets so, so many other things as well. Things like spa visits, acupuncture, glitter tattoos, non-medically necessary prostheses, subscription boxes, meal kits, rotisserie chickens and artisanal toys. One brave New York Times reporter with a new puppy who decided to embed himself deep into the pet pampering lifestyle – putatively for the cause of advancing journalism – discovered that the sky’s the limit when it comes to showing fur babies the love that is their due.
But while the options may be myriad, according to Nielsen, they are all guided by a common thread – one that is also central to the owners’ buying behaviors.
“Many of the trends we’re seeing in the pet category are ones we’ve been seeing in consumer categories over the past year or two: health and wellness,” Nielsen noted in its report. “Health and wellness is paramount to success in pet innovation, and pet trends are closely following human ones. In some cases, they’re even getting there first.”
Health and wellness, of course, is a wide-ranging category for humans – encompassing everything from skin creams, to cosmetics, to exercise, to apparel, to meal kits, to vitamin supplements to whatever witchcraft Gwyneth Paltrow is selling on Goop these days. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, it is equally wide-ranging when it comes to pets.
But some of the places where it ranges are legitimately pretty surprising. For example, according to Petplan, an insurance company for pets, pet parents dropped $62 million in 2011 on plastic surgery for their pets. Some of that surgery was for medically necessary reasons, but some was assuredly cosmetic. One such popular cosmetic procedure? The implantation of Neuticles, prosthetic testicles for neutered pets.
“Some people throw the dog in the car and have him turned into a eunuch because they don’t care. But there’s a certain segment of pet owners that do care, and that’s where Neuticles come in,” said Gregg A. Miller, who invented them in 1995.
That certain segment includes both Kim Kardashian and Larry Flynt, according to The New York Times. Fun fact, according to Miller: Kardashian did not demonstrate her normally high-end tastes when it came to buying for her pet boxer.
“They had ordered the cheapest ones possible – the hard ones, the clackers – and I thought, ‘Wow,’” Miller told CNBC. For reference, a top-of-the-line pair of Neuticals retails for $469.
And while that expenditure of funds may seem a bit strange, Miller is adamant that his invention helps dogs maintain their dignity in the aftermath of being neutered. And that concern for a dog’s dignity deserves at least some credit – particularly as one delves deeper into the wild world of pet-centric commerce. It is hard to imagine, on the other hand, the recent trend of “Asian fusion” dog grooming that is apparently sweeping the streets of New York among the painfully hip and extremely rich.
The term comes care of Jorge Bendersky, a New York dog groomer who charges around $300 an hour and counts like the likes of Gisele Bßndchen and P. Diddy among his clients. Asian fusion, he noted, is a dog styling method developed in Japan that has become popular stateside.
“That’s very short on the body and very long on the legs, like big bell bottoms, which gives them the opportunity to wear a dress or a sweater and necklace without messing up the hairstyle,” he noted.
In fairness, it is a terrible thing to have splurged on a $150,000 collar for one’s dog, and then have it clash with their haircut.
Mr. Bendersky further told about the times that he gets a lot of demand for French “pawdicures,” pink and purple highlights in fur, and, “for that extra rock ’n’ roll edge,” glitter tattoos.
And because a day at the salon can be taxing – particularly for a dog that got an elaborate manicure – there are also spas to help pets unwind. At The Barkley Pet Hotel and Day Spa in Westlake Village, California, dogs are given the options of mud baths, detox wraps, hot oil treatments, blueberry facials, deep sea mineral mud masks and oatmeal soaks.
At Oh My Dog! Boutique Hotel and Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona, canine patrons can choose to study dog yoga – which, yes, is called doga – or shop their dog-centric apparel boutique on site. For dogs that like their fashion less esoteric, more preppy, not to worry: Ralph Lauren’s Pets line features cashmere sweaters and polo shirts.
At the Stay Dog Hotel in Chicago, four-legged guests have riverfront suites and a lap pool.
And as it turns out, premium services for your pet don’t stop once they check out of the space. For example, for those who don’t want to feed their dog out of a bag but perhaps do not have time to cook their pet a full hot meal, there’s good news. JustFoodForDogs advertises themselves as “purveyors of handcrafted meals for dogs,” and will deliver those handcrafted meals straight to your door, featuring ingredients like venison and squash.
It sounds pretty good – but not to worry, even if one is perhaps limited to feeding their pet out of a bag, what’s in the bag is getting better. Though the amount of dog food people have been buying has been fairly flat in recent years, according to Nielsen, the demand for “higher-quality premium food” has boosted annual household spending on pet food by 36 percent over the last 10 years.
Plus, the better the dog food, it seems, the bigger the sales revenue. Nielsen’s number also indicated that “produce-derived superfoods like blueberries, cranberries and sweet potatoes” all seem to draw pet parent spending, as do “probiotics and products with functional ingredients.” When more premium features are added, such as “novel proteins” like quail or rabbit, Nielsen reported, brands see growth in “double and triple digits.”
In fact, the growth in dog food and its relative value has been so sharp in recent years that it has sparked the interest of various big consumer packaged goods players looking for more market touchpoints as consumer interests are evolving. In April, General Mills bought natural pet foods label Blue Buffalo for $8 billion, saying at the time the addition represented a “a compelling new growth platform.”
In May, J.M. Smucker bought Ainsworth Pet Nutrition, parent of the Rachael Ray Nutrish pet food brand, for about $1.7 billion, again in the name of accelerating “the growth profile” of its pet food/snacks business, which includes such labels as Meow Mix and Milk-Bone.
The biggest news in the sector of late, however, are the rumored intentions of international CPG giant Nestle to purchase Canada’s Champion Petfoods, which owns brands Orijen and Acana, for more than $2 billion. Nestle already owns the Purina pet food line, but has identified “pet care” as a high-growth area. Orijen is a premium dog food brand with an active online following, and is likely a consumer base to which Nestle would very much like to develop closer ties.
Dogs, of course, can never have too many things bought for them, as they are loyal, smart, kind and possibly the superior form of life on this planet (but for their unfortunate habit of destroying shoes from time to time). And while we might chuckle at deep sea purification masks for dogs – who, left to their own devices, will happily root through the trash and eat whatever they find there – the truth is we can’t help but applaud the commerce world’s dedication to finding new and inventive ways to make man’s best friend happy.
But we might really have to rethink the phrase “it’s a dog’s life.” These days, a dog’s life doesn’t sound so bad.
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consumer habits, dog supplies, ecommerce, Featured News, News, pet care, pet commerce, Pet Products, pet supplies, Retail, Saturday Feature
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