More women than men earn college degrees, but many still struggle to reach leadership roles. Rather than try to compete in the corporate world, more women are starting their own businesses according to data compiled by software firm Intuit.

Weighing data from 48 major U.S. cities, Intuit created a list of the top 10 U.S. cities for women entrepreneurs. The criteria included the average income of residents, the unemployment rate and the percentage of businesses owned by women, among other factors.

Tech meccas San Francisco and Seattle came out on top. The list also includes some lesser known startup hubs like Raleigh, N.C. and Atlanta, Ga.

Two important steps to successfully starting up are finding a mentor and building a network of fellow female entrepreneurs that you can turn to for advice and referrals. Launching a business in a city with a thriving community of women entrepreneurs is a good place to start.

Take a look at the infographic below for details on the top 10 cities and more tips for aspiring female entrepreneurs.

BY Kathleen Davis

Corrections & Amplifications: An earlier version of the graphic misstated Denver’s unemployment rate. It was 9.1% as of February 2013 when the infographic data was compiled.

Thousands of logos compete for our attention every day. While we may not always consciously recognize their importance, when a change is made to the logo of a brand we love, collective protest is often the result.

In a much-publicized case a couple of years ago, Gap unveiled a new logo that was widely maligned. More recently, theUniversity of California introduced a logo that represented a stylistic shift from the previous traditional look; the gradient effect on the C quickly became the focus of criticism, even motivating several online petitions calling for a repeal. In both cases, the organizations buckled under public scrutiny and reverted to their original designs.

Clearly we care about logos. But what makes a great logo? And how can you make one that not only stands out, but also cultivates a loyal following?

Experts note there are at least three necessary traits: It must be distinct from other logos (especially those of competitors), instantly recognizable (imagine it on a neon sign in Times Square) and legible at all sizes (from billboards to mobile devices). That said, there are many ineffective logos that follow these rules. What sets the great ones apart is that they help audiences connect with the organization’s mission or personality in a meaningful way.

A memorable logo might be deceptively simple. Or it might have multiple levels of interpretation that allow us to fall in love with it over time, as we see it applied to advertising, business cards and websites. And while there is no certainty that a logo will stand the test of time, one way to prevent it from quickly becoming dated is to eliminate unnecessary content and to resist anything trendy.

The 20 logos showcased on the following pages were thoughtfully crafted with unique characteristics and wit that lend them eye-catching appeal and longevity. Let them be an inspiration as you create the public face of your own organization.

Click Here for 20 Brilliant Brand Logos

Courtesy of Entreprenuer.com

Courtesy of: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225615
BY DJ WALDOW | January 30, 2013

When it comes to email marketing, you can craft the ideal subject line, creative copy and a great offer. But if you don’t have an extensive list of active email subscribers to send your message to, nothing else really matters.

How do you expand your email list? What are the rules you should follow?

You can include a “Sign Up For Our Email Newsletter” link on your site, and you can collect email addresses when someone creates an account or makes a purchase. But if you really want to build a larger list, consider rejecting — yes, rejecting — some of the traditional practices of email marketing.

Here are three email marketing rules you should break, and explanations for why you should do so:

1. Never use a popup to collect email addresses. Remember the early days of the internet when your monitor would suddenly be flooded with popups, those annoying boxes that seemed impossible to close without a CTR-ALT_DEL reboot? Well, popups are still around, but thanks to popup blockers, people can easily avoid them.

Now, marketers are using a more sophisticated, less intrusive form of the popup: the popover. A popover is a box that appears on a website asking viewers if they want to be added to an email list. These popovers are customizable — they can be set to appear only after a certain number of page views, only after a certain time period or only with people who haven’t visited the site in a set number of days.

Many companies are finding success with popovers. Patrick Starzan, vice president of marketing and distribution at the comedy video website Funny or Die, says nearly 80 percent of subscribers signed up in response to the popovers the site has been using for more than four years. The popovers appear only after someone has visited at least three pages on the site, and Starzan says he hasn’t received any negative feedback about them.

Popovers work best if they’re simple, direct and include a bit of humor. So, don’t clutter your popover with a lot of words. Keep the language light and fun, and give people a reason to opt in.

2. Always require a double opt-in. Imagine this: You’re ready to buy a new iPad Mini. You walk into a store, grab the tablet off the shelf, walk to the register and pull out your credit card. Then, the clerk says, “Before you give us your money, we’re going to send you an email. Please open it and click the link. Then, and only then, can you buy this tablet.”

Crazy, right? You are ready to buy, but the seller is putting an obstacle in your way. This scenario reminds me of the websites that require people to click a link in an email they have received before they can be confirmed and added to their email marketing list. As my former sales boss used to say, “Stop when they say yes.”

Not only does a double opt-in create an unnecessary barrier, but there’s also the possibility that the confirmation email won’t reach the intended recipient. According to Return Path’s Global Email Deliverability Benchmark Report for the second half of 2011, nearly a quarter of all emails never reach their target. Are you willing to take your chances by sending out a confirmation email?

Instead, consider sending a welcome or thank you email to new subscribers after they opt in to your marketing list. The email confirms that the new subscriber’s email address is valid, and it also can give people an idea of the type of content they’ll be receiving.

3. Never send an email without first getting explicit permission. One of the biggest misconceptions about the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 — the first national standards for the sending commercial email in the U.S. — is that you need permission before sending an email to someone. While the laws in some countries, such as Canada, are changing to require permission, it is still legal to send emails in the U.S. without explicit consent from the recipient.

Rather than require people to opt in, you can give them the choice of opting out. When media company KSL.com added a “group deals” email to its marketing mix, it could have sent an email asking subscribers to opt in to receive it. Instead, it decided to send an opt-out email to give people the opportunity to unsubscribe from the group deals list. It turned out that most people did not opt out. But if KSL had chosen to get explicit permission before adding everyone to the new list, many people might not have taken time to respond, substantially reducing the audience for the group deals.

When Janine Benyus coined the term biomimicry in 1997 to describe how nature can inspire innovation, she never expected her phone to start ringing off the hook. Since then, such companies as Procter & Gamble, Boeing, General Electric, Herman Miller, Nike and Levi Strauss have called, wanting to know how they can use nature as inspiration for new products.

While large corporations approached her initially, Benyus, cofounder of the Missoula, Mont.-based consulting firm Biomimicry 3.8, says entrepreneurs are often the ones developing the kind of nature-inspired innovations these large companies are after.

Why the business interest in nature? “Every single problem faced by humans today has been solved by nature,” says Jay Harman, CEO of PAX Scientific, a San Rafael Calif.-based firm that conducts biomimicry research. “It has millions of years of trial and error with an open resource and development budget.”

If you’re interested in seeking inspiration in nature for your next business idea, here are three areas to investigate:

1. Elements like water and wind

Designs inspired by nature are effective because they aim to use the least amount of energy, says Philip O’Connor, co-founder of the San Rafael, Calif.-based company PAX Pure. His company is developing a water purification technology that simulates high altitude environments. This allows water to boil at lower temperatures, minimizes energy use and doesn’t require the expensive metal materials used in traditional approaches to purification. O’Connor was introduced to the purification method while he was an MBA student at Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco where he was given the task of developing a business model for the technology, originally invented by Harman at PAX Scientific. In May 2012, O’Connor and four partners founded PAX Pure.

This year, they plan to raise $6 million in funding and are reaching out to oil and gas companies–large producers of contaminated water–to begin pilot testing the technology. “If you look at the way nature does anything, it’s done with the least amount of energy possible,” O’Connor says. “We are surrounded by the genius of nature and we have looked past it for so long.”

2. The way wildlife works

Plants and animals have evolved over the centuries to their most resilient form. That’s why it makes sense for entrepreneurs to look to wildlife for inspiration in developing their products. In 2007, Mark Spiecker and his three business partners at the time, hooked up with Anthony Brennan, a biomedical engineer at the University of Florida, to see if they could help market Brennan’s technology, a material that mimics the pattern on bacteria-repellent sharkskin. That year, they founded Sharklet Technologies in Aurora, Colo., offering an adhesive film that stays sanitary, not by killing, but rather by repelling bacteria. Brennan had developed the technology as a way to keep algae from growing on the bottom of naval ships, but when Spiecker began pitching the idea to investors, their interest in using the technology in hospitals and for medical devices was clear.

Investors were drawn to the understandable and compelling analogy to sharkskin, and to date, Sharklet has raised $5.1 million in funding. While the product is currently sold online to consumers who use it to keep residential and office spaces sanitary, Spiecker is in negotiations with hospitals and medical device companies interested in buying it. Spiecker, who has no scientific training, says entrepreneurs can find inspiration in nature by reaching out to technology transfer offices at universities where there are often ideas waiting to be snapped up.

3. The human body as a blueprint

Biomimicry is a way to develop technologies that simulate what’s happening in the human body, making them more precise and attentive to human needs. Lloyd Watts was studying computer programming and speech coding when he realized: “There’s something biology can do that engineering can’t.”

For example, why could a small child detect the sound of his mother’s voice in a noisy room, but a software program couldn’t? In 2000, he founded Audience in Mountain View, Calif., and developed technology that reverse engineered the way the ear works when recognizing voices. Watts was all set to try marketing the technology as a way to improve voice recognition software on computers, but potential investors told him he had his market wrong. Watts brought on Peter Santos, a marketing expert and now Audience’s CEO, who said the best market for the sound-recognition chip was cell phones.

“You’ve got a great science thing,” Watts says. “But you need a great marketing person to turn this into a business.” Last year, the mobile phone market produced $144 million in revenue for Audience.

BY JANE PORTER | February 19, 2013

It’s that time of year again, another new year. If you have read any popular blogs lately, seems like everyone is talking about “the time to set goals.” Even one visit to a local bookstore will remind you what you already know: “You can be better, successful, healthy, and rich, if only you’ll set goals and work toward them.”

Why is it, then, that people we all know (maybe you included) fail to achieve new year’s resolutions? Many people simply don’t even make them anymore. Perhaps the idea itself has a bad reputation. Let’s start with the word itself:

Resolution comes from the Latin word: resolvere. Break it down, and you get: “re- (expressing intensive force) + solvere ‘loosen.’”

Uh-oh, when we make a new year’s resolution, we’re actually “loosening” ourselves up to step in to something new.

What does the word resolution mean to you? To me, when I resolve to do something, I make a firm decision and declaration of intent to achieve the goal, to finish the project, to ship the product. To do that, to achieve any goal really, requires that I look around and “let go” of some things, not do as much in some areas of my work and my life, and to delegate or forget doing some of the tasks that no longer are a part of moving the mission forward.

It’s simple to make a resolution (Scroll down, review the prompts below, and pick one or two that you’d like to achieve.). It isn’t always easy to move from “thought to achievement” on the “big, hairy, audacious goals” that so many entrepreneurs are fond of setting.

For many entrepreneurs, life is getting only busier. At the same time, the stakes are getting higher. Managing yourself well through your year is more important than ever. One way to do that is to reduce the “friction to implementation.” Simply, make your goals easier to achieve, celebrate your achievements more often, and reset your goals to be directional instead of destination-oriented.

What’s the secret? Unlike the Nike quote where you “just sit down and do it,” actually making significant, lasting change is going come down to two concepts: Focus and Iteration.

Take for example the typical resolution of “I’m going to manage physical inventory better” or “Finally, I’m going to get organized.” Both of these are uniquely “un-doable.” Meaning, there is not a clear-cut, objective “there” you’re going to get to.

What do you do? Start by focusing on the intention underneath the resolution. Take for example the idea of managing inventory. What are seven to 10 reasons you have for wanting to take on that goal? One could be: “We want to be more responsive to customers’ needs.” Another: “We want to more effectively manage our cash flow.” Now, when you reflect back (once a week, once a month) on the “new year’s” resolution to “better manage inventory,” you have some more objective line items to which to compare your progress over time.

Which leads to the next idea of effective goal management: efficient resolution-setting. Iterative improvement is important to study, understand and work with throughout the year. One of the common misconnections of traditional goal-setting work that people do is to “assume” that once they achieve the stated goal, it will be obvious that it’s time to reset the goal, to state the next resolution.

What I know about how this works is this: As you get closer to realizing an intention, you need to already start iterating, already begin re-calibrating your focus on the “next-next” thing. This does not mean that you’re “never satisfied.” Instead, it represents your focus and responsiveness to the dynamics of the market, social shifts, changes in the way your customers operate.
It is that time of year again. Use it to your advantage. Focus on the things you see that need your attention. As an entrepreneur you know how important it is to choose what needs to be fixed. Pick your areas of opportunity, state your intention, and use focus and iteration to get more done.

Here are some ways to think about using those two concepts: Focus and iteration.

Don’t “Write a book.”
• Do write one story about a memory.

Don’t “Get in shape.”
• Do pick a 5K run to train for and complete.

Don’t “Get rid of debt.”
• Do pay an extra 5% of what you owe next time.

Don’t “Get organized.”
• Do review, purge and clean one shelf (drawer, closet).

Don’t “Manage your time better.”
• Do get used to working in blocks of 15 minutes (1% of your day).

Don’t “Become a better person.”
• Do schedule the “next” volunteer event to spend a half-day helping.

Don’t “Learn more.”
• Do invite someone you respect to meet for a coffee or lunch five times over the year.

Courtesy of Entrepreneur.com

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225363

People have a tendency to get online at random times and start clicking away. Then something mysterious happens to the space-time continuum, and all of a sudden two hours goes and they have nothing to show for it. But it’s fairly easy to avoid falling victim to that trap–have a plan and stick to it!

The key to success with social media is to outline a strategy which considers the amount of time you can realistically dedicate each day to your online marketing efforts. If you plan your activities, use time-saving tools and make sure your ROI expectations are reasonable you’ll be in a good position to succeed at social networking.

Find the social network that’s right for you.
Everything that follows hinges upon this point. And let me add, it’s not all about Facebook. Some businesses will benefit more from concentrating on niche networks that may have less traffic, but more are targeted to that particular brand’s consumer.

Planning ahead makes you efficient.
Map out a weekly schedule that outlines the specific days and times you will spend on social media. Figure out what’s realistic and what makes sense for your company and go from there. Here’s a sample weekly schedule.

• Everyday: You post one update at 9 a.m., one at 1 p.m. and one at 5 p.m.
• Mondays and Wednesdays: You dedicate 10 minutes to responding to comments and direct messages at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
• Tuesdays and Thursdays: You dedicate 10 minutes at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to retweeting people’s comments and thanking people for mentioning you or retweeting your posts.

This is just an example, but you should definitely take the time to devise a social media strategy that makes sense for you.

Use tools to save time.
Take advantage of the various social media tools that are designed specifically to save you time. For example, sites like ping.fm, www.seesmic.com and www.tweetdeck.com help you by sending updates to multiple social networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook, with one click.

Some sites–like atomkeep.com–even allow you to link multiple Facebook and Twitter accounts to one desktop application where you can post updates to all profiles, as well as view and respond to your friends’ posts. This means no more logging-in to multiple social networking sites.

Also, sites like www.cotweet.com let you schedule updates in advance, so your profiles can be updated even when you’re not online. This is a useful tool for all your road-warriors.

Check your ROI expectations.
Once you have a strategy in place, you’ll no doubt be anxious to start seeing a return on your social media networking investment. It’s very important to remember one thing: Networking takes time. Rather than expecting to see a surge in sales, you should hope to see people interacting with your brand.

Building relationships with people and credibility for your brand doesn’t happen overnight.

If your network is a mile wide and an inch deep (meaning you’ve hoarded followers but they aren’t engaged with your brand on a personal level), it will not be successful. Rather than a big pool of followers, it’s important that you create a network of depth and meaningful relationships. You do this by being visible and engaging in conversations. Over time, these activities give you credibility; which in turn leads to building your brand and your sales.

Remember these helpful don’ts.
So, you’ve learned what you should do to carry out an effective and profitable social media campaign for your business, but there are also some things you should be sure to avoid.

Below are the five most common mistakes that people and businesses make when it comes to social media networking.

1. Spending too much time on sites you enjoy and not fully evaluating whether or not that particular site is the most effective one for your efforts.
2. Visiting a site for “work” and then running down rabbit holes, getting distracted by interesting posts.
3. Not recognizing when it’s time to delegate certain social media responsibilities to a consultant, agency, or simply another person.
4. Setting up a blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter page and then not keeping it populated–consistency and fresh content matter.
5. Forgetting that social media is about engaging in the conversation and not just about selling.

BY IVAN MISNER

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/206500

Naming a business is by far the hardest task for startups when it comes to branding. It’s permanent, or at least feels that way. Somehow renaming a company seems like a much bigger deal than a logo redesign, although neither should be undertaken lightly.

Naming a company is also high stakes. A name is the primary calling card of a business, and shows up places that even a logo doesn’t. In casual conversation, for instance. It’s also highly emotional. Think about people’s gut reactions to baby names. Everyone has a different association or interpretation (“That name picked its nose in third grade!”). And don’t even get me started on finding an available URL without resorting to some wacky misspelling.

When it comes to brainstorming company names, often quantity matters more than quality — at least at the start of the process. Here are a few guidelines for generating a whole lot of quantity. Once you have at least a handful of solid contenders, you can decide on the quality.

1. Gather the right people and materials.
Get a good group in the room — five to eight is about the right number. It’s helpful to have a mix of team members and outsiders. Invite copywriters or even just friends who are really good with language. You should have some way to display all the names being generated in real time. For example, go old school with huge pieces of paper stuck to the wall and magic markers. You will also need blank pieces of paper and pens for everyone involved.

2. Loosen up.
Start with a few word-association exercises to get everyone’s minds working and generate stimuli for the next step. Typically, we’ll choose two to three topics related to the business idea. So let’s say you’re launching a business that facilitates mobile payment. You might do one word association around the idea of “payment,” and one around the idea of “on the go.”

Everyone in the room is encouraged to shout out any words that come to mind from these concepts. So for payment you’d get answers like: bank, money, dollar, exchange, change, cash register, merchant and others. Someone should be capturing these words in a way that’s visible to everyone, and you continue until you’ve filled a large page, and then move on to the next. Ideally at the end of this exercise, you’ll have a few large sheets filled with words on the wall.

3. Start generating.
With a blank piece of paper in front of them, everyone now has to individually come up with 10 names in 10 minutes. This is an incredibly short amount of time to come up with 10 names, and that’s on purpose. It’s so people can’t get bogged down trying to come up with the perfect name, and instead just start getting names on paper. No one has time to overthink or be self-conscious. (There are no bad ideas.) If it’s helpful, they can use the words from the first exercise as inspiration.

4. Generate some more.
Next, everyone passes their sheet of paper to the person to the left, and each person has to come up with five more names in seven minutes that build upon the names in front of them. This provides each person with concrete stimuli for inspiration and allows them to expand creatively on the thinking of their neighbor.

Related: A Quick Guide to Naming Your Business

5. Share and build.
Papers get passed one more time to the left. Now each person, with 15 new names in front of them, circles their five favorites and shares with the group. As everyone is sharing, names should get visibly captured and people should be encouraged to build upon these names as they’re read aloud.

At this point, you will have tons of names on the wall, and even more written down on sheets of paper. Many will be terrible, though often gems do emerge. But this doesn’t mean you’re done. It’s helpful to have everyone vote for their top three favorites, and then end the meeting.

In the next few weeks, sort through every name (including those that weren’t read out loud). Type your favorites on individual sheets of paper. (It can be hard to evaluate names on an Excel spreadsheet of hundreds.) Check whether the URL is available, even though this process can be excruciating.

At that point, sift through the names again. Set short deadlines — perhaps one name per day — for team members to generate five more names each and add them to the list.

Then make a short list. Sit with it. Remember that there’s no such thing as the “perfect” name that tells your entire story and that everyone will fall in love with on first sight, especially in the absence of a brand experience. You just need a good, solid name that is own-able, pronounce-able, spell-able, and doesn’t have any obvious negative connotations. Branding can take care of the rest.

-BY EMILY HEYWARD
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/223694

There may be only one day a year devoted to giving thanks. But expressing thanks regularly — year round — and doing it well is one of the most profitable business strategies you can have.

Study after study reveals that when you say “Thank you” to your customers, they both spend more money and tell their friends about the exceptional service and products you deliver, increasing your profits. Volumes chronicle how employee productivity zooms when appreciation is expressed, raising your margins. Vendors go the extra mile to extend credit and deliver “just in time” when they hear gratitude regularly, not just in November, and keep your cash flowing.

Giving thanks works in business. But you’re already doing more with less and the last thing you want is another item on your to-do list. So what are the most effective and efficient ways for you to express gratitude to these important players in your business’ success?

Here are some tips you can use to develop the profitable habit of saying “Thank you” to your customers, employees, and vendors not just in November, but year-round:

• Be specific in your thanks. It’s one thing to say, “I appreciate what you did today. Thanks a lot.” That’s a soap-bubble comment. Pretty while it lasts, but gone in seconds. It’s general and vague. When you thank them for something specific, that’s Velcro. That’s a thanks they remember because it sticks. You hook your gratitude to something the employee did. For instance, an employee just handled a difficult phone call with a customer really well. Thank them for that specific activity.
• Appreciate the process. Target your appreciation on what the employee or vendor did. Let’s go back to the worker who took the phone call. Avoid telling the employee, “Thanks for helping me keep that customer.” That’s just an outcome that benefits you. Say, “I like how you hung in there when that customer was being difficult. You were really patient and respectful.” The same type of strategy goes for vendors. Give thanks for doing something that was an extra-mile effort for them, recognizing the above-and-beyond work.
• It’s about them, not you. Showing that you know something about them, and that you’re able to place yourself in their shoes, is incredibly valuable. Connect your gift-giving with life beyond the business walls. If a vendor became a grandpa, give him a copy of “Goodnight, Moon” to read to the little one. If an employee’s mother died of breast cancer this year, make an end-of -the-year donation to Race for the Cure in her name. Such intimacy breaks the relationship ice in a transformational, not just transactional, direction which is the game-changing pathway to greater profits.
• Go old school with your thanks. In this pixelated world of emails and texts, Facebook and Twitter, the simple and quick act of writing a handwritten expression of gratitude can go a long way. There’s something special today about a handwritten note. I keep a stack of cards and envelopes with me to write thank you notes on a flight when returning from a workshop or coaching session. It takes about three minutes per card. You create return business when you take pen in hand and write, “Thank you,” to your customers. Just say, “I know you could do business with others, but you chose us. Thank you! We treasure our relationship.” (**See Ldesign Company Special on custom Thank You cards)

Implement these tips, and your business will likely say “Thank you” back to you as you increase your profits year-round.

Courtesy: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220770

Holiday parties mean much more than free food and fun. They also can bring entrepreneurs a host of new opportunities to network and build relationships.

Most people think of networking only through the traditional venues, whether chamber of commerce events, business contact referral groups, or online sites such as LinkedIn. But holiday parties, including professional and industry social events where you can network with people outside your business, can be an even better time to introduce yourself to a new contact or share a friendly conversation with someone you already know.

To make the most of holiday party networking, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Be prepared. Try to learn in advance the names of people you will likely chat with, their jobs and their recent accomplishments. You will need to do a little homework, perhaps a Google search and a look at their LinkedIn or Facebook pages. Use the information you glean to break the ice.

• Ask good questions. From the CEO to intern level, people love to talk about themselves. Here are some suggested conversation starters: How did you get started? What were some of the challenges with. . . ? Have you read any good books lately? My favorite is: How can I help you?

• Have a “teaser” topic ready. Approaching the end of the year, every business executive is thinking about how to increase profits and performance in the new year. Have an idea ready that describes the steps you’d take to improve your networking contact’s business. Make this research part of the homework you do ahead of time. But don’t give away the goose; save the details for a later conversation.

• Don’t have more than a couple of drinks. It’s a party, but you don’t want to smell of liquor or be too relaxed when you approach people you want to connect with. Impressions count. Make the right one.

• Be confident of your value. Introducing yourself to an executive can be an intimidating experience, so give yourself a pep talk before the party. Make a list of your accomplishments over the past year and figure out how you might weave them into conversations. Once you’ve got that down, you should feel good about yourself.

• Use the introduction to segue to a future meeting. You don’t want to end your chat at the party. The endgame here is to open the door for a follow-up meeting one-to-one. But remember that a party is a social gathering, so keep it natural and leave them intrigued.

• Honor the event. This is really important. Make sure that when networking at a holiday party — or any nontraditional networking event for that matter — you don’t treat it like a business mixer. Show finesse. Yes, it is a great networking opportunity, but if you overtly sell, you may turn people off. After all, it is a holiday.

courtesy:http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220784