Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Companies that say they’re ready to grow are usually just ready to spend — and scaling a weak strategic foundation only accelerates its weaknesses. Real growth comes from six strategic moves, not bigger budgets: mapping the true customer journey, sharpening personas, investing in advocacy, de-risking positioning, protecting differentiators and enforcing trade-offs. Your business is ready for growth. You are past the launch phase. You have hired your first employees. You are ready to grow monthly revenue. But how? What are the next steps with the best ROI for the right…
Author: Staff Writer
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways AI is a powerful tool, not an independent thinker. AI does not possess logic, strategy or a mental model of cause and effect. When you start a brand-new conversation with a clean slate, the AI is incredibly capable. But as the conversation goes on, it begins to lose the plot and starts generating repetitive, low-quality nonsense. You should not fear AI, nor should you blindly trust it. You must manage it with a strict framework. Treat every conversation as highly disposable, give it permission to fail, and isolate your projects.…
QUESTION: Marty, would you do an update on the Dow? As you’ve often said, when the Dow leads the NASDAQ, it is typically a sign that institutional and foreign capital is moving into the market. Socrates called the July low, and the Directional Change during the week of July 27 turned the market back up. You have also explained on your podcasts that when geopolitical tensions intensify, foreign capital tends to seek the relative safety of the United States. With three major elections approaching and geopolitics returning to the forefront in August, does this still support the traditional pattern of…
Key Takeaways Galgano founded Serpentine Jewels after her ecommerce jewelry brand was acquired. She launched Serpentine to be a modern private jeweler focused on lifelong relationships. Here’s how she establishes trust to meet high expectations for ongoing growth. This as-told-story is based on a conversation with Ali Galgano, founder of Serpentine Jewels. Image Credit: Serpentine Jewels. Ali Galgano. After graduating from Cornell University, Galgano launched her career at Goldman Sachs and developed her passion for jewelry on the side. Galgano earned her Graduate Gemologist (G.G.) diploma from the Gemological Institute of America and completed formal training in jewelry design. In…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Leaders often get caught in the reactive trap when it comes to their company’s reputation. They feel like they are forever reacting to crises instead of getting ahead of them. A company that only acts when something breaks is always paying the premium price — negotiating from weakness, on someone else’s timeline, in front of an audience that’s already formed an opinion. Take a proactive approach instead. It’s a discipline with real mechanics, and those mechanics come from the marriage of online reputation management (ORM) and search engine optimization. The…
Key Takeaways Dating has become a financial luxury for Gen Z and young millennials. In a recent survey, more than half of unmarried 22- to 35-year-olds said that lack of money was their biggest barrier to going on dates. Many young adults say they would like a partner partly to cope with high living costs, yet they can’t afford the upfront cost of dating to find one. Gen Z is increasingly choosing not to date because of the high cost of going out. According to a national research project from Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institute and the Institute for Family…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways As leaders, we have two responsibilities: one, understand perception, and two, decide intentionally whether to reinforce or challenge it. My client’s perception of me made me question whether I had blurred the lines between motherhood and leadership. But I came to realize they aren’t competing identities but harmonious, complementary ones. When women realize that truth, the assumptions built to shame women begin to lose their power. “You’re just a mom with a side hustle.” His words shook me to my core. Our client was canceling his contract with us. In…
ASIA: The major Asian stock markets had a mixed day today: • NIKKEI 225 decreased 607.12 points or -0.94% to 63,754.90 • Shanghai decreased 22.60 points or -0.59% to 3,809.663 • Hang Seng increased 124.97 points or 0.48% to 26,009.40 • ASX 200 increased 42.50 points or 0.47% to 9,019.30 • SENSEX increased 544.39 points or 0.70% to 78,639.03 • Nifty50 increased 390.70 points or 1.60% to 24,774.30 The major Asian currency markets had a mixed day today: • AUDUSD decreased 0.00221 or -0.31% to 0.69961 • NZDUSD decreased 0.00149 or -0.25% to 0.58641 • USDJPY decreased 0.541 or -0.34%…
Your daily diet soda fix could be doing more harm than good. Hardly the first study to scrutinize the health issues related to artificial sweeteners, a recent study has found that consuming high amounts of low- and no-calorie sweeteners is associated with an accelerated rate of cognitive decline. That led the researchers behind an updated study, published last month in the journal Neurology, concluded that there could be long-term harm from regular consumption of these sweeteners. Based on a roughly eight-year study, the team tracked the cognitive decline of nearly 13,000 adults in Brazil based on how much low- and…
Flo Rida’s got a good feeling about smoothies. The Grammy-nominated artist has joined Beyond Juicery + Eatery as an equity stakeholder, backing the fast-casual chain’s expansion into South Florida and its broader national growth strategy. This isn’t Flo Rida’s first move in the business world. He was an early Celsius Energy Drink endorser who helped grow the brand before a contract dispute. In 2023, a Florida jury awarded him $82.6 million after finding Celsius had breached the deal. He’s since put that windfall to work, including a new beverage brand and now Beyond Juicery + Eatery. “I love that you…