The recent rise and fall of Bitcoin (slight uptick recently), should give you pause for thought and help you understand where the real potential might be. While the future potential of secure digital payments through crypto currency remains to be seen, the focus should be on building blockchain based platforms and marketplaces. The rapid rise and fall in Bitcoin should remind us of the early Internet days when a new technology arrives but no one really knows how to use it. Early websites were nothing more than brochure ware while companies like Amazon saw the real potential to conduct enterprise-based ecommerce in entirely new ways.  Sometimes, it’s not about the product but about the technology. And in this case, that is blockchain.

Here is a simple definition of blockchain. A blockchain is a digital record of transactions. The name comes from its structure, in which individual records, called blocks, are linked together in single list, called a chain. Blockchain can be used for recording transactions made with crypto currencies, such as Bitcoin, but have many other powerful applications. Each transaction added to a blockchain is validated by multiple computers on the Internet. These systems, which are configured to monitor specific types of blockchain transactions, form a peer-to-peer network. They work together to ensure each transaction is valid before it is added to the blockchain. This decentralized network of computers ensures a single system cannot add invalid blocks to the chain.

So why should you as an entrepreneur or investor care more about blockchain than Bitcoin?  Bitcoin is still a speculation on a future crypto currency that the world may not yet adopt. Maybe in the future, maybe not. But blockchain is a serious technology that can provide a variety of solutions. Imagine you are an automotive manufacturer and you have a product quality problem. Rather than recall thousands or millions of cars, you can simply recall the cars whose part is potentially defective based on blockchain identification and tracking. Or perhaps you need to track a product or good all the way through the supply chain to verify its source or heritage. Think heirloom tomatoes or cannabis where absolute tracking is critical.

The real potential for blockchain will come from existing companies or startups that actually build the new platforms and marketplaces of the future. Using tokens (values of an asset), here are four potential solutions that companies can build using blockchain.

Source: forbes

The latest 2019 LinkedIn statistics support the importance to companies of having a well-established presence on LinkedIn:

• LinkedIn has more than 30 million companies on its platform.
• LinkedIn is almost three times (277 percent) more effective in generating leads than Twitter and Facebook.

Even though LinkedIn can recognize Boolean operators and filter results according to the user’s search requirements to bring up the name of the company in the search results, companies still need to optimize their company page on the platform.

With a focus on following LinkedIn company page best practices and increased competition as the LinkedIn algorithm continues to evolve, here are the top five ways that companies can optimize a company page on LinkedIn in 2019:

1. Optimize for SEO.

Companies need to optimize their company page on LinkedIn for SEO. An SEO-friendly LinkedIn profile will increase online visibility among users searching for information on them, such as the types of products they offer and the services they provide. Companies can optimize their LinkedIn profile doing the following:

• Inserting keywords and phrases into their company profile.
• Creating links to their company profile by adding it to their official website, blog and other marketing and promotional material.
• Sharing relevant and engaging content on a regular basis

2. Create a visually compelling company profile.

Companies need to create a visually compelling LinkedIn profile by combining text with an image -- recommended size is 1200 x 627 pixels. Since the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than words, adding images will provide companies with 94 percent more views.

Consequently, a company needs to take proactive measures in ensuring that they upload articles with pictures, infographics, charts, presentations and more. They can also consider creating and uploading videos on LinkedIn. They can publish these visuals with text on LinkedIn’s publishing platform as well as on their company page.

Another way a business can create visual interest is to design an appealing header image, changing it after every six months. Lastly, businesses can use their banner image for various promotional services, such as advertising upcoming events, highlighting various teams in the company and announcing seasonal campaigns.

3. Publish and share content on LinkedIn.

Publishing and sharing content on various social media websites, not just LinkedIn, has become pertinent for targeting the right demographic for a company's brand. Companies need to take advantage of this by regularly (two to four times per week) creating and publishing media ranging from articles, slideshows and videos to infographics and more on LinkedIn. The objective of content creation is to engage the audience, compelling them to return.

Further confirming the power of content creation is the statistics, stating that content receives 9 billion impression each week. However, only 3 million users share content each week, and LinkedIn has more than 500 million profiles.

4. Add strategic hashtags to posts.

LinkedIn has encouraged users to post and search for industry-specific hashtags to add to shared posts and comments. The professional networking platform provides users with a maximum of 200 hashtag categories.

Here are a few different ways businesses can use hashtags on the professional networking platform:

• Add tags based on location locally, nationally, or internationally.
• Use hashtags to keep track of clients.
• Create hashtags for prospects  businesses can create hashtags for potential clients they want to attract with content creation.
• Reach out to Influencers businesses can create a list of influencers in their industry, using hashtags to draw their attention.

5. Follow the four-one-one rule.

For every four pieces of new content companies publish, they need to repost one post and one self-serving post:

• Companies do not need to create freshly curated content each time but can share content from another website or blog that they perceive as interesting and relevant to their target market. The content shared is classified as new because it has not been introduced to their audience.
• Companies can repost posts of another user that they found as intriguing read or watch with their target market, which allows businesses to build relationships with people and brands.
• Companies can create self-serving posts that have the role of promoting their business to their audience. Self-serving posts include announcements, links to
• content they have created or links to their website. 

Finally, as a last hurrah to ensure your company page make a lasting impression, gather recommendations by engaging directly with clients and followers. If someone comments on an article you’ve shared on your Company Page or messages you with an inquiry, use it as an opportunity to create a dialogue and win an endorsement winning.

Source: entrepreneur

When you have a great idea for a business, the thrill can drive you headlong into an energetic launch. But wait. Statistics show that over 50% of businesses fail in their first five years– with 30% failing in the first year alone.

There are several reasons why businesses go down, but this early failure rate is usually the result of poor planning. For a business idea to succeed, you need to follow methodical procedures to ensure you launch from a firm base. And the first question to ask is whether your idea is as smart and original as you think.

1. Research the market You may think you’ve come up with a fool-proof idea, but is there a market for it? Many businesses launch, only to find someone else has already had the same idea and has got into the market first. Or the potential market is so small that you’re never going to be able to make a sustainable income from it. You need to carry out a full market analysis of your idea and the target audience to ensure your idea is really going to fulfil a need.

Start by doing a SWOT analysis on your proposal, defining all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with it. Involve all your business associates, or friends and family members if you’re working alone. Going through the process will help you to evaluate and refine the concept at a high level- questions to ask include:

• What demand is there for your idea?
• If it is a product, who will buy it?
• If it is a service, who will use it?
• Who else in the UAE does this already?
• Are they successful and, if so, why?
• What price can you put on your product or service?

As you build up answers to these questions, you will form a clearer picture of whether or not your idea is sound. If it’s not, let it go.

2. Compile a financial plan If your market research is positive, and you decide to proceed, the next step is to put together a financial forecast. This will become a valuable guide when you’re up and running and is essential if you’re applying for funding. The more thorough your market research and your financial plan, the better chance you stand of securing investment. This also applies if you’re relying on friends and family for launch capital– often the preferable option because the terms are more favorable. But take a professional approach and make sure you have an agreement in writing. There’s nothing like unpaid debts to turn a relationship sour.

Your financial plan is a key part of your overall business plan, forecasting how the figures will add up. It needs to include sound estimates of overheads, cash flow, income, profit/loss and investment stages, usually projected over three to five years. Of course, these figures will be largely theoretical, but they need to be based on reality, so do your research. An accountant or business startup consultant will be able to help you.

3. Position your product or service So, you’ve ascertained that there is a market for your idea, and that the figures work out. Now it’s time to prepare your idea for market. You need to be able to describe quickly and clearly what it is you’re selling. Potential customers have a very short attention span, so you need to grab them in a matter of seconds.

Start with the benefits. What will your product or service do for its customers? What need or problem will it satisfy? Explain it in language that your target customers will understand in under 30 seconds. When Steve Jobs of Apple launched the iPod in 2001, he didn’t describe the new device as an MP3 player with a 5GB hard drive. He introduced it as “a thousand songs in your pocket.” The audience understood the proposition immediately. When you’re happy with your messaging, test it on friends and family, or your startup consultant.

4. Build your brand The most successful businesses are instantly recognizable in many ways: their name and logo, their strapline, their colors, their use of imagery, their tone of voice. All these factors make up their brand. You don’t have to be a large, established company to have a strong brand. By paying attention to all these aspects, you can build a new brand that quickly catches on and gains recognition.

Consistency is key. Your brand needs to be an unwavering reflection of your values, but it also needs to reflect the values of your target customers. You can develop your brand personality by thinking of your product or service as a person or an animal, for example.

With the help of a branding expert, you can translate your brand personality into a look and feel and tone of voice, with brand guidelines to follow for consistency. It’s the consistent application of these guidelines across all your marketing that gives your idea life as a brand.

5. Set up a legal company With your big idea developed and tested, you’re now at the stage to formally set up your business. There are various ways you can do this in the UAE. Cutting corners, though, could jeopardize your company before it even starts. The best approach to setting up a legal company is to use a reputable company formation specialist. They will listen to your needs, explain the options and propose the best way forward. They can also complete all the paperwork, set up a corporate bank account and make sure you stay legally compliant.

Patience is the key when turning a business idea into reality. Applying the above steps in order should help avoid the pitfalls of building your house on flimsy foundations. Most importantly, share the process. Listen to constructive criticism and take professional advice. After all, this could be a life-defining venture.

Source: entrepreneur

Over the years, I have become a “data hound” looking for every morsel of wisdom I can ge to help me make smarter decisions. The good news here: accurate data is king.

 You can’t effectively manage your business without accurate data. Getting it is not always easy but without it you risk making the wrong business decisions -- hurting your business when you thought you were helping it. Allow me to explain.

Managing a sales pipeline.

In B2B businesses with long sales cycle the only way to assess the effectiveness of your sales team and predict future revenue is based on data your sales team enters into your CRM. 

Watch if a salesperson’s number of accounts is growing, how those leads are working their way through the sales funnel and total dollar value of the pipeline being managed.

But, think about what I just said: you are evaluating the success of your sales team based on the data they are entering (or not entering) in the CRM system. That creates multiple problems.

I have seen situations where salespeople enter false information to look more successful to save their jobs.

More generally, there is plenty of room for error any time you rely on humans for data.

For example, did the salesperson remember to enter a new lead into the CRM? Did they remember to update the status of a lead (e.g., from active to dead)? Did they update the dollar value of that lead from $20,000 to $10,000 after they learned the client didn’t need as many products as they first thought? Did they update the expected close date from April to June, after they learned the project has been delayed?

You get the point. Most businesses are making mission critical decisions based on future expected revenues from this data. More often than not, the data is not very accurate, updated or reliable.

If your CRM suggests you are working with more than $1,000,000 of potential leads, and your normal conversion rate is 20 percent, you would think there is a reasonable chance to close $200,000 in sales. That's money you count on to run the business, pay your bills and meet payroll. 

Bad data could put you in an illiquid position, unless you have a cash reserve cover the $200,000 that didn’t show up as predicted.

You need to scrub the data when managing a sales pipelines. Every week, remind your salespeople to update their data. In your one-on-one meetings with the team, talk through their list, line by line, to ensure what the system data is telling you is reality. Where you can, build automated systems that update data for any actions made (e.g., as new email leads come into business, they automatically get entered in CRM). 

This includes building in automated tasks and reminders to make sure the leads are moving forward and the salespeople are getting system-triggered actions they need to take for each lead.

Managing marketing spend.

The quality of your marketing efforts depends on the quality of the data being managed and studied. Typically, there are two problems. First, is your marketing team managing towards the right data metrics in the first place.

Second, is credit being given to the marketing channel that actually drove the lead? In a multi-device world it's not easy to get proper attribution.

Recently we hired an ad agency to manage our paid search campaign. We told them the key metric to drive was immediate return on ad spend (ROAS), defined as clearly attributed revenues from the campaign divided by marketing cost of campaign. 

A strange thing started to happen in our business: our low ticket, online ecommerce transactions started to take off, but our desired high ticket, offline B2B transactions were not growing at all.

 By telling our agency to focus on “immediate” ROAS, the only way they could hit the desired target was by focusing on smaller orders that were immediately ready to book online. 

That excluded the desired longer sales cycle leads we really wanted to be growing.

So, after six months of these learnings, we switched directions. We told the agency immediate ROAS was no longer the goal. We would be happy waiting until the end of our three-month sales cycle before studying our ROAS.

We switched the key metric to immediate B2B leads from the marketing effort. As soon as we made that change our quick, low ticket sales fell back to normal levels but our desired B2B leads rose to record highs. 

We were thrilled, thinking we had finally “cracked the code” to scaling our business.

But, did we? We did a retroactive cohort analysis of all B2B leads that came into the business over our normal three month booking window. What we learned was concerning: the B2B leads were coming into the business in record numbers, but were converting into sales at levels far lower than our typical conversion rates.

 After researching this further with our sales team we learned the leads coming in were very price sensitive.

They were shopping many websites for the lowest price and often needed last-minute deliveries that were impossible to fulfill in time.

So, now we are back to the drawing board, trying to figure out the right metric to find leads we can actually work with and properly attribute the leads so we are not missing anything important. 

We also want to be careful not to “throw the baby out with the bath water”. Maybe the marketing agency is actually doing a great job and something operational is getting in the way of sales converting. Time will tell.

These are examples in sales and marketing but I easily could have given you data-driven examples from operations, finance, human resources or technology.

 You are living in a world where accurate data is king. Be sure your business is driven by the metrics that are the most important and reliable for predicting and driving desired outcomes. The data is only as good as the effort you put into it.

Source: Entrepreneur

   يمتلك العديد من رواد الأعمال الجدد أفكار مذهلة لمشاريع ريادية لكن الكثير من تلك الأفكار لا ترى النور لعدم قدرتهم على إقناع الجهات الممولة بها، وبذلك تبقى الفكرة حبيسه رؤوسهم إلى أن تتبدد بالكامل بعد اليأس من إمكانية إقناع جهة ما بتمويلها، وهنا تكمن الفجوة بين امتلاك فكرة والقدرة على تنفيذها.

   تركز معظم المقالات التي تتناول هذا الموضوع على أسلوب العرض والحالة النفسية التي يجب أن تمتلكها خلال تقديم فكرة المشروع أمام الجهة الممولة، كالثقة بالنفس واقتناعك بفكرة المشروع والحماس والايجاز...الخ، وإن كان أسلوب العرض والحضور النفسي عند تقديم فكرة المشروع لا يخلو من الأهمية إلا أن الجهة الممولة يهمها أولاً وأخيراً معرفة إذا كان المشروع سوف يدر عليها الربح أم لا، بكلمات أخرى ما هي الجدوى الاقتصادية من المشروع؟

في هذا المقال نقدم لك عرضاً موجزاً لأهم النقاط التي يجب أن يتضمنها تقريرك أو عرضك المقدم إلى الجهة الممولة لكي يكون مقنعاً بما فيه الكفاية للحصول على التمويل، وذلك من خلال تضمين عرضك الإجابة عن الأسئلة التالية:

• هل فكرة المشروع قانونية؟

مدى قانونية المشروع هو جواب حاسم عن أهلية إقامة المشروع من عدمه، وعادةً ما تتم دراسة الناحية القانونية للمشروع قبل الشروع بدراسة الجدوى التفصيلية، لذلك عليك التأكد أولاً من أن القوانين الناظمة في البلد الذي سيُقام فيه المشروع لا تضع عوائق قانونية أمام فكرة مشروعك.

   إن الإشارة لقانونية مشروعك تمنح ارتياحاً للجهة الممولة، قد لا تجد قانوناً ناظماً لهذا النوع من الأفكار، في هذا الحالة من الأفضل الحصول على استشارة قانونية من مختصين.

• هل فكرة المشروع مقبولة اجتماعياً؟

قد تكون استلهمت فكرة مشروعك من تجربة لاقت نجاحاً في إحدى الدول أو أنك تريد نقل فكرة أحد المشاريع إلى بلدك. لكن عليك الانتباه فالكثير من تلك المشاريع قد تكون مرفوضة اجتماعيا لأسباب تتعلق بالعادات والتقاليد أو الدين أو الاخلاق أو ربما حداثة عهد الفكرة التي قد لا تتناسب والعقلية السائدة في المجتمع، إن كنت ترى في فكرة مشروعك أنها ذات منفعة اجتماعية أو قد يكون مُرحباً بها داخل المجتمع فإنها تعتبر نقطة إضافية في تقريرك، ومن الأفضل إن كنت تقدم المشروع بشكل شفهي أن تعرض الفكرة كقصة، من خلال طرح أسئلة من قبيل: لماذا يعتبر مشروعك مقبول اجتماعياً؟ لماذا الناس بحاجة لمثل هذا المشروع؟ كيف يمكن أن يحقق نفع اجتماعي عام؟ إن طرح فكرة المشروع بهذه الطريقة لا يفيد بتأكيد مدى قابلية المشروع للنجاح فحسب بل يعطي فكرة عن حجم السوق المتوقع، تظهر شركة (Blabla car) الفرنسية كمثال رائع عن قدرة رائد الأعمال لتحويل مشكلة اجتماعية إلى مشروع رابح حيث تعود فكرة المشروع إلى عام 2003 عندما كان فريدريك ما زيلا، عائداً بسيارة أخته إلى منزله وذلك بعد أن انقطعت فيه سبل العودة إلى المنزل بسبب شغول رحلات القطار في يوم عيد الميلاد، في طريق العودة لاحظ فريدريك وهو يراقب السيارات العابرة ما نلاحظه في أي رحله عادية، هنالك مقاعد فارغة في السيارات! هنا لمعت الفكرة في رأس ما زيلا، حسناً لماذا لا نضع المقاعد الشاغرة للسيارات في محركات البحث وربطها مع الأشخاص الذي يريدون توصيله للمكان نفسه؟ عندما أجرى ما زيلا بحثاً عبر الانترنت لم يصدق أنه لا يوجد شركة تقدم هذه الخدمة! استطاع فريدريك ما زيلا من الحصول على التمويل من جهات متعددة إلى أن وصلت شركته إلى ما هي عليه اليوم 70 مليون مشترك في أكثر من 22 دولة، 600 موظف وأرباح تفوق المئة مليون يورو، هذا هو تماماً المقصود بوجود فجوة في سوق، مشكلة ما، وهي أفضل طريقة لعرض فكرتك على الجهات الممولة لتكون مقنعاً.

لقراءة القصة الكاملة لشركة (Blabla car) انقر هنا

• ما هي المتطلبات الفنية للمشروع؟

ما هي التكنولوجيا المطلوبة لتنفيذ المشروع؟ ما هي المتطلبات الفنية الواجب توفرها بطاقم العمل؟ ما هي مستلزمات الإنتاج من مواد أولية وآلات ومعدات...إن الإجابة عن تلك الأسئلة تعطي انطباعاً جيداً بأنك على دراية كاملة بكيفية تنفيذ المشروع وتزييل العوائق التي قد تخطر في ذهن الجهة الممولة عن توفر الإمكانيات الفنية لتنفيذ المشروع.

• ما هي العوائد المتوقعة للمشروع؟

تقع الأسئلة السابقة في خانة الدراسة المبدئية وهي تحدد فيما إذا كان المشروع قابلاً للتنفيذ نظرياً أم لا، فإذا كانت الإجابات حول الأسئلة السابقة إيجابية، نكون قد وصلنا إلى السؤال المتعلق بالعوائد المتوقعة للمشروع أي ما هي الأرباح التي يمكن أن يحققها المشروع؟ حسناً كيف يمكن احتساب ذلك، في الحقيقة هنالك العديد من المعايير التي يمكن استخدامها في تحديد عوائد المشروع المالية من أهمها:

• فترة الاسترداد.
• تحليل تعادل.
• العائد على حقوق الملكية.

أما عن معيار فترة الاسترداد فيقصد به الفترة الزمنية اللازمة لكي تستعيد الجهة الممولة الأموال التي انفقتها خلال فترة تأسيس المشروع، وهو مؤشر يهم المستثمرين الغير متحمسين للمخاطرة بمشروع ريادي أو لنقل المستثمر المتحفظ، أما المعيار الثاني فهو نقطة التعادل وهي النقطة التي تحدد كمية المبيعات التي إذا وصل إليها المشروع فإنه لن يحقق ربحاً أو خسارة، إن انخفاض نقطة التعادل يعطي مؤشراً على إمكانية تحقيق الأرباح بالحدود الدنيا للمبيع وبالتالي انخفاض مخاطر الوقوع في الخسائر.

المعيار الثالث هو معدل العائد على حقوق الملكية، وهو يحدد معدل صافي الأرباح التي سوف يحققها المشروع نسبةً إلى الأموال المستثمرة فيه، وبالطبع إذا كان المعدل مرتفعاً فهذا يشير إلى الربحية المرتفعة للمشروع بالمقارنة مع المبالغ المستثمرة فيه.

سواء أعددت التقرير بنفسك أو استعنت بخبراء احرص على الحصول على الإجابات السابقة.

Procrastination hurts. Hitting next episode on Netflix can provide momentary relief, but it’s a fleeting high. Whether you’re avoiding a sink full of dishes, a new presentation deck, or a date with the treadmill, delay has the power to transform a simple task into a Mount Everest of a to-do list.

Research shows that in the long term, procrastination significantly decreases our health, wealth, and happiness. For example, in a survey of 10,000 people by Carleton University’s Procrastination Research Group, 94 percent of respondents said that procrastination negatively affects their happiness. A full 19 percent said the effect is extremely negative.

The flip side of procrastination is motivation. According to Psychology Today, “motivation is literally the desire to act and move toward a goal.” When you’re building a business, that desire is essential -- and it can also be infuriatingly evasive.

But success doesn’t always start with extraordinary motivation. Just like a snowball gathering speed, sometimes motivation builds after we begin. I’ve experienced this phenomenon firsthand. For example, I’m not a highly motivated person. I don’t leap out of bed at 6 am, I don’t love swinging kettle bells, and I don’t read 100 books a year.

Yet, I’ve slowly grown my startup, JotForm, into a company with over 4.3 million users and 130 employees. I usually manage to squeeze in a daily workout as well.

My point? Accomplishing our goals simply doesn’t require consistent motivation. We can achieve big things, even when we don’t feel like doing the day-to-day tasks.

End the destructive cycle of procrastination.

Avoidance gradually increases our anxiety, making us even more likely to procrastinate, and then the pattern escalates. To end this vicious cycle, it’s important to identify why we’re dodging a specific activity.

Heidi Grant Halvorson and E. Tory Higgins, co-authors of “Focus: Use Different Ways of Seeing the World to Power Success and Influence,” explain that motivational focus affects how we approach life’s challenges. “Promotion-focused people see their goals as creating a path to gain or advancement and concentrate on the rewards that will accrue when they achieve them,” Grant Halvorson and Higgins write in Harvard Business Review.

"Prevention-focused people, in contrast, see their goals as responsibilities, and they concentrate on staying safe. They worry about what might go wrong if they don’t work hard enough or aren’t careful enough.”

These two types can also affect how we procrastinate. Prevention-focused avoidance is about preventing a loss. For example, you need to hire your first employee, but you’re worried about choosing the wrong person. A mis-hire would drain time and money, so you postpone the process entirely.

Promotion-focused procrastination occurs when we see a task as a way to level up, but we still can’t summon the drive to get started. For example, you might believe that yoga would offset some entrepreneurial stress, but you reach for an espresso every morning instead of the mat.

Clearly, our emotions are tangled up in both promotion and prevention focus. On either side of the equation, the “feeling like it” part becomes a slippery slope. But as Melissa Dahl wrote in a 2016 article for The Cut: “You don’t have to feel like getting something done in order to actually get it done.”

Let that soak in for a moment. When you’d rather visit the dentist than tackle analytics or spreadsheets, cut your feelings out of the equation. Decide in advance exactly where and when you’ll dig in and then forget about emotions. Don’t think about it or weigh the pros and cons. If you planned to start at 3 pm, simply start. Commit to the schedule you created.

Harness the power of momentum.

Every morning, I spend at least an hour writing morning pages. This daily routine creates motivation for my day. I don’t summon the inspiration for this practice; I just do it, and then I start to feel excited about the projects ahead.

Once we take even the tiniest step forward, momentum will soon keep you rolling. That’s because sustained momentum toward a goal creates a compound effect -- the principle that consistent, incremental effort can produce dramatic changes over time.

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett is one of the world’s most successful investors, and the third-wealthiest person on the globe. He also provides a prime case study in the compound effect.

Between age 32 and 44, Buffett grew his net worth by 1,267 percent. That’s a pretty impressive number, until you look at his next12 years. From 44 to 56, he increased his net worth by a staggering 7,268 percent. He built his chain of investments, and never looked back.

Don’t break your chain.

We often hear about the “Seinfeld Strategy,” which the comedian used to hone his famous skills. Years ago, he hung a wall calendar in a prominent location and drew a big, red “X” through the day if he had written new jokes. As the X's began to pile up, his motivation grew. “You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt,” Jerry Seinfeld told a young comedian. “Your only job is to not break the chain.”

Many people now use this strategy to track everything from jogging to cooking to saving money and working on their startups. Author James Clear says the Physics of Productivity -- that is, Newton’s First Law applied to habit formation -- explains why this tactic is often successful. “Objects in motion tend to stay in motion,” Clear writes. “Once a task has begun, it is easier to continue moving it forward.”

Taking initial action, like starting the job description or emailing a colleague for references, makes it easier to continue that dreaded hiring process. Routines can also enhance the power of forward motion. If you want to write a blog post, choose a time each day when you’ll write just one paragraph. Maintain this routine until you’re done.

Want to accelerate your momentum? Create a ritual to pair with the routine. Do five minutes of mindful breathing. Open a “chill out” channel on Spotify and plug in your headphones. Or pour a fresh cup of coffee, then get started.

The act you choose is far less important than the ritual itself, because daily repetition “primes” your brain to tackle the task. Over time, a pleasant ritual can even create positive anticipation around the work, rather than a death spiral of procrastination.

Sparking the flames of progress.

Motivation isn’t the fire that will fuel your success. It’s not willpower or restraint, either. According to Jeff Haden, author of The Motivation Myth, motivation is a result, not an elusive state that precedes meaningful activity. Motivation is “the fire that starts burning after you manually, painfully, coax it into existence, and it feeds on the satisfaction of seeing yourself make progress,” writes Haden.

The drive to pursue a difficult, yet desirable goal often shows up after we get down to work. The first step might be small, but it’s a massive leap toward whatever you desire. So, do whatever you can to start.

Determine what compels you to hit the brakes, create firm schedules to dodge procrastination, and establish rituals that feel good. When we get out of our own way, progress is almost inevitable. A tiny spark quickly grows into a fire.

source: Entrepreneur

Have heard of BlaBlaCar?

It’s a French ridesharing app startup, born in 2006 that turned into a million euro company.

Though it was not an overnight success. BlaBlaCar founders had to go through many critical crossroads to find success.

Today, the company has basically created a community where it pairs people travelling between cities and drivers with empty seats in their cars. According to the latest news from TechCrunch, the French startup, BlaBlaCar, is announcing its plans to acquire Ouibus, the bus division of France’s national railway company SNCF. For the very first time, the company is moving to carpool and plans to provide both long-distance carpooling rides and bus rides.

BlaBlaCar’s Success Story

BlaBlaCar was born from a personal need.

During the Christmas time in 2003, Frederic Mazzella, co-founder and CEO of BlaBlaCar, committed to going home for Christmas. But, since he was super busy with his work at Kabira Technologies, he had left his travel plan to last minute.

With the French trains fully booked in the holiday seasons, and only a couple of days to go until the holiday season arrives, he started to worry.

He didn’t have a car, so the options for getting from Paris to his family home, which was 420 kilometres away, were limited. However, her sister Lucie agreed to take a detour to pick him up.

But during the ride, something happened. An idea clicked!

While they were heading down the A10, he looked around and observed that most of the cars had no passengers. He thought, “If I put all those cars with empty seats in a search engine so that people can search the available seats in cars, just like they do when booking the train.”

After reaching, he just couldn’t get the idea out of his head for the first few nights. “I remember waking up and saying, this is not possible, it must exist. But then, he was like, ‘If this has existed, there is no way I couldn’t know of it because I travel a lot.” he says.

Frederic knew that if there were such a thing as online ride sharing service, it would be massive. So, as soon as he returned, he did his research. He found couple of sites such as Craigslist, but it was not what he had imagined. So, he finally contacted a friend, shared his idea, and they got to coding.

Today, 12 years later, Frederic has successfully established his successful ride hailing app startup – BlaBlaCar.

His best ride sharing app startup now counts more than 10 million users in 14 countries. In fact, BlaBlaCar, in June 2014, raised $100 million fundings from blue-chip venture-capital firms including Index, ISAI, and Accel to fuel its growth, and the company now employs 230+ employees all around the globe.

Recently, the company has acquired a Russian Internet giant Mail.Ru’s relatively recent rival offering, BeepCar, in order to develop carpooling services in Russia and address growing Russian demand for a convenient and reliable long-distance mobility solution.

Nicolas Brusson, COO and co-founder of BlaBlaCar, who joined in 2011 after working behind-the-scenes for years says, “What we’re doing is tapping into empty seats in cars, and there maybe 10x times more empty seats in cars travelling between Paris and Brussels than the seats in buses or trains.”

But, there is still an important question that needed to be answered.

How many people are going to adapt this new way of travel?

A lot.

There are already a lot of people who’ve adapted their service.

In fact, BlaBlaCar membership has increased from 6 million in April 2014 to more than 10 million.

Today, traveling in a BlaBlaCar from Paris to Brussels would cost €20, where the train costs €80. Or, if you’re planning a long drive somewhere, you can post your trip details and cost per seat. Though, you won’t make any profit (as it’s against the rules), but taking passengers can offset costs for drivers.

In the 10+ years of journey, BlaBlaCar changed their business model few times to survive.

In the beginning, they deployed a Premium Model, where the overall service remained free yet users had to sign up for additional services. By paying a monthly or annual subscription fees, users can get the benefit of having their posts ranked first in search engine.

However, they soon realized that it was unfair for someone to be at top because they had paid, nor it was financially viable for long run.

After that, they also implemented a Monthly Plan with a flat fee, but it was also discarded quickly. So, like many internet players, BlaBlaCar also tested the advertising model.

But, with trust being fundamental to BlaBlaCar, few concerns were raised that users’ personal data may be passed on to affiliates for advertising purpose so that decision was also taken out.

Then, the Phone Bridge Model came in.

In this model, users could choose to hide their contact numbers while remaining reachable via a pay telephone bridge. But again, with users paying for phone-bridge connection, revenue would also split between the operator and the platform. In addition, it wasn’t scalable globally due to various telephone payment methods being in place across different countries.

Despite all these, BlaBlaCar didn’t gave up.

Frederic once asked his MBA professor at INSEAD business school whether it was possible to have a business model where it’s possible to provide a carpooling app service for free.

“You need a business model or you’ll die!”

This was the response he got.

However, it was the motivation that was needed to explore other options and to begin taking risks.

Creating a business model which would allow a sustainable economic path along with creating value for its customers of the community ended up taking 5 years.

In this five years, the team opened up to failures, tested six different business models, and gained invaluable learnings from each.

Back in 2007, after one year when the company was born, there were many requests from external companies around France interested in integrating a ride sharing application platform in their corporate intranet.

These companies wanted to provide their employees a platform to facilitate travel back home and from home to work.

Despite being this off-track from the main idea of long-distance ride hailing service, BlaBlaCar realized that companies were willing to adopt this kind of business-to-business ride sharing service and pay for it too.

Carrefour, IKEA, and many hospitals were among the first buyers of BlaBlaCar, and additional 200 more companies signed up for it over the years.

Though, a source of revenue of BlaBlaCar until 2011 were being spent on delivering these multiple customized platforms to various companies, and there was no scalable solution as every customer had different requirements.

So, soon enough, they realized that this business-to-business model would not work out in long run and phased it out in 2012.

Now, with today’s business model, they successfully established a mutual commitment between passenger and driver. And, as a result, the inefficiencies faced in all previous models are erased, and number of cancellations were reduced from 35% to less than 3%.

Not only this new business model is transparent and fair, but it’s also scalable that brought growth, reliability and rolled out internationally.

Fail. Learn. Succeed.

Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

While it’s true, but its opposite is encouraged at BlaBlaCar.

According to them, “Fail. Learn. Succeed.” is what drives innovation.

Everyday the BlaBlaCar team continuously evolves the product through iterative processes.

Everyday, everyone at BlaBlaCar are not shy about their failures, but they rather embrace another core values of BlaBlaCar.

By analyzing honestly why something failed, and taking time to investigate what actually went wrong, everyone gets to the root of the problem, learns from it and shares it with others so that they don’t repeat the same mistake.

Similarly, if you ever plan to build ride sharing app, this mindset is what you should have to have.

Why?

Well, first of all, it’s not necessary that the idea you’ve will succeed.

BlaBlaCar succeeded because they iterated until they got it right.

Moreover, even if you don’t have a business model in mind and just want to create a ride sharing app like Uber or BlaBlaCar, it’s still possible to make a business out of it.

Research about your top competitors, from their ideas to where they provide their services, you need to get all information. Then, find out whether they’ve any negative points or suggestions given by their users.

If so, understand the suggestions, and think about how you can solve it and provide it smoothly. However, remember that when it comes to developing your ride sharing app, compromising on its quality can lead to failure for sure.

If you don’t have a technical background, leave it to the experts. Find a top mobile app development company and consult with them. Share them your idea and ask the necessary questions.

What would be the cost for building a ride sharing app like BlaBlaCar?

How much time it takes to build the MVP?

And so on.

Have a clear ride sharing app development plan, talk to your hired team and make sure they as well you test your app completely before the launch.

Imagine you’ve downloaded a taxi app that provides cheaper service than Uber or any other similar platform and booked a taxi from it to get to a place. You waited 30 minutes but no car arrived. The driver didn’t get your request due to technical problems.

How would you feel here as a customer?

Will you ever use the app again?

Guess not, right?

Similarly, ensure that you hire app development company that has tested your app multiple times. A good mobile app development company always takes care of it.

Moreover, you should have an experience of your app prior of how the users will see your app. It needs to be efficient, easy to use, and should deliver high performance. In fact, testing it before the launch will allow you to iron out minor bugs before it reaches to the mass market.

Lastly, remember that there is no sure shot success pill to anything, but giving your idea a go and learning from failures could lead you to establishing a successful product-based ride sharing app business.

source: spaceotechnologies

Search engine algorithms are ever changing, which means that anyone with a website needs to stay up to date on today’s SEO marketing trends. Not only is new technology changing the way humans search, but search engines crawlers are using different criteria to rank your website.

Implementing these SEO marketing trends will help any business stay competitive in 2019.

1. Consider search engines other than Google.

While Google is inarguably still king of search, don’t forget about optimizing your content for Apple and Amazon’s search engines.

Amazon is the most valuable public company on the planet. This means that anyone with a product to sell should conduct Amazon keyword research.

Similarly, Apple’s App Store is increasingly important for driving traffic. Today, over 60 percent of online traffic comes from mobile. But 90 percent of the time people spend browsing on their phones occurs on apps. The future of mobile search could be the App store, not Google.

From a business’ perspective, the increasing importance of the App store means understanding its unique organic search algorithms. These value factors like app click-through rate, engagement and whether keywords match search queries.

2. Quality content is worth more than quantity.

One of the most important Google search algorithm updates in 2018 shifted the search engine’s attention towards content quality. This trend will persist in 2019.

Though backlinks remain important, Google is getting more sophisticated when it comes to determining how good your website content is. Of course, the amount of content you produce is still important. But one of the most significant SEO marketing trends of 2019 is prioritizing quality more than ever before.

Specifically, this means writing long-form content and not misleading search engines or the consumer. In 2019, entrepreneurs should place special attention to on-page SEO. Increasingly sophisticated crawlers are paying special attention to user-friendly URLs, optimizing images, and internal structure and linking.

3. Website speed affects UX and rankings.

Increasing website speed is one of the most important SEO marketing trends in 2019. Luckily, with all the SEO tools available on the market, it’s easy to check just how fast your website is.

Speed is more important than ever thanks to Google’s mobile-first index policy. Of course, website speed has always been an important aspect of user experience. Today, it’s important for Google crawlers, too. Ideally, a website should take less than a second to load, which can be hard to accomplish without the assistance of a qualified SEO firm.

And the faster your website is, the higher Google will rank it.

4. Voice search is no longer a novelty.

With the rise of technology like Siri, Google Home and Alexa, voice search already represents 20 percent of total mobile search. It’s predicted to reach 50 percent by 2020.

In other words, integrating voice-search optimized keywords is among the leading SEO marketing trends of this year. Voice search keywords are often shorter, more colloquial, and in the form of commands or questions.

5. Don’t dismiss linkless mentions.

As its name would suggest, a linkless mention is when your brand is referenced without a link being attached.

While backlinks are still an important factor used by search engines to determine content quality, linkless mentions are given more weight than ever before. This is partially due to the perception is that linkless mentions are more genuine, unlike black hat SEO techniques like paid links. Social media mentions are also playing an increasingly important role in evaluating website quality.

In a Google patent, the company even classifies “implied links” as a subset of a type of links.

6. Structured data is more important than ever.

Structured data is an overarching term for organizing website data. For example, information that you see included along with a website's meta description is structured data. The knowledge graph that appears on the right-hand side of Google is another type.

Its purpose is to make it easier and faster for search engines to crawl your website.

So whether you’re including online reviews or more detail about your content, structured data is one of the top SEO marketing trends to help Google classify your information in 2019.

7. SEO marketing trends for Google and beyond.

Virtually every business in the world is competing for Google rankings. On top of that, Google regularly changes its algorithms and the technology we favor for search will continue to evolve.

The biggest takeaway for 2019 is that mobile is more important than ever. This has a ripple effect: Entrepreneurs must optimize their content for Apple’s algorithms too, as well as follow Google’s mobile updates that prioritize speed and structured data.

Not only that, but other tech giants like Amazon and devices that include voice search are changing what ‘optimization’ means. But above all, a website’s overarching goal should always be to appeal to its audience. The better your content is, the higher Google will rank it.

source: Entrepreneur

أدى الانتشار الكثيف للمعلومات عبر شبكة الانترنت، وفي ظل تنوع المرجعيات العلمية، الى ايجاد فوضى معرفية حول العديد من المفاهيم العلمية المنتشرة عبر الشبكة، ولعل المفاهيم المرتبطة بالعلوم الاجتماعية كانت الأكثر عرضة للفوضى المعرفية التي تسبب سوء فهم وخلط مفاهيمي، فبخلاف العلوم التطبيقية فإن العلوم الاجتماعية تعتمد على الفهم الذاتي المستمد من الواقع المعاش وهو ما يختلف من بقعة جغرافية الى أخرى ناهيك عن المشكلات المتعلقة بالترجمة والمعاني المختلفة التي تحملها اللغات والنظم الاجتماعية المتنوعة، ولقد كان لمفهوم الاقتصاد الرقمي نصيبه من سوء الفهم هذا. نحاول في هذا المقال الوصل الى فهم أفضل لمفهوم الاقتصاد الرقمي وأهم مظاهره والفرص الاستثمارية التي قد يخلقها لرواد الأعمال في العالم العربي.

من اقتصاد المعرفة الى نموذج أعمال جديد

قبل حوالي العقد من الآن سيطر مفهوم اقتصاد المعرفة للإشارة للتحولات التي أحدثتها تكنولوجيا المعلومات وسرعة ومدى الاتصال عبر الانترنت الذي أحدث بدوره تحولاً في طبيعة القيمة والنشاط الاقتصادي المبني على المعرفة وليس على عملية الإنتاج الكثيف وعوامل الإنتاج الأخرى (الطبيعة, رأس المال) حيث أصبحت المعرفة المتمثلة بالعامل البشري المورد الأعلى ثمناً في إنتاج الثروة من خلال قدرتها على إبداع الابتكارات العلمية التي من الممكن أن تحقق أرباحاً مرتفعة دون الحاجة لتوفر رأس مال مالي ضخم فمن أهم خصائص اقتصاد المعرفة أن تكلفة إعادة إنتاج المنتج تكون منخفضة جداً (كإعادة نسخ البرمجيات الجديدة لبيعها مع الاحتفاظ بحق الملكية الفكرية لها) وبالرغم من عدم حداثة هذا المفهوم حيث بدء استخدامه منذ منتصف القرن العشرين إلا أن التطورات المتلاحقة في حجم ونوعية الاتصالات الشبكية والتكنولوجية جعلت من عملية استخدامه أكثر إلحاحاً، وعادةً ما تقدم شركة مايكروسوفت وابل وغيرها من الشركات البرمجية على أنها نماذج عن اقتصاد المعرفة أما الاقتصاد الرقمي فهو الاقتصاد الذي يعتمد على استخدام التكنولوجيا الرقمية التفاعلية والخدمات الالكترونية لتغيير الأعمال وتأسيس نماذج أعمال جديدة تعتمد على التكنولوجيا بشكل أساسي لتحفيز الإنتاجية في القطاعات المختلفة بما ينعكس على تطور الاقتصاد وبناء مجتمع جاذب للشركات والأعمال والأفراد والاستثمار والمعرفة، اذاً ما هو الاختلاف بين المفهومين السابقين؟ يظهر الاختلاف بالانتقال نحو نموذج العمل الجديد الذي يحدثه الاقتصاد الرقمي فالتحول الرقمي يمكن أن يحدث في أي منشأة مهما كانت طبيعة عملها وذلك من خلال الاستفادة من الفرص التي يُتيحها الاتصال السريع وتطبيقات الهواتف الذكية ووسائل التواصل الاجتماعي والمنصات التفاعلية التي تجعل من عملية الإنتاج والإدارة والترويج مرقمنة وتفاعلية مع المستهلكين. باختصار هو تحول جذري في نموذج العمل إلى نموذج عمل جديد يواكب البيئة التكنولوجية الحديثة وبهذا المعنى يمكن لمحال الوجبات السريعة أن تكون جزءً من الاقتصاد الرقمي أي أن تعمد للتحول الرقمي من خلال التغيير الشامل في نموذج عملها، وهو ما يشكل الفرق الجوهري بين مفهوم الاقتصاد الرقمي واقتصاد المعرفة ومصطلحات أخرى كاقتصاد الانترنت (القيمة الاقتصادية المستمدة من الاتصال على الانترنت كالتجارة الإلكترونية) فالتحول الرقمي يعد المظلة التي تشتمل على المفاهيم الأُخرى من قبيل اقتصاد المعرفة والتجارة الإلكترونية واقتصاد الانترنت كما يمكن اعتبار الثورة الصناعية الرابعة التي تشكل البيانات الكبيرة، وانترنت الأشياء، وتطبيقات الهواتف المحمولة، ووسائل التواصل الاجتماعي، والحوسبة السحابية الشق المادي للاقتصاد الرقمي الذي يمكن أن يحدث في أي نوع من المشاريع باختلاف نوعية نشاطها سواء اكان خدمي أو سلعي.

   إن التحول الرقمي يجب أن يكون عملية شاملة واستراتيجية وليس مجرد تغيير تكتيكي في أحد نشاطاتها، وعلى الرغم من أن بعض المنظمات والأفراد يستخدمون التقنيات لمجرد تنفيذ المهام الحالية على الكمبيوتر، فإن الاقتصاد الرقمي أكثر تقدماً من ذلك. وهو لا يستخدم ببساطة جهاز كمبيوتر لإجراء المهام بصورة تقليدية كان يتم إجراؤها يدوياً أو على أجهزة تمثيلية كإحلال البرامج المحاسبية بدلاً من المحاسبة الورقية. فالتحول الرقمي في قطاع الخدمات لم يعد يعني التجارة الإلكترونية بمفهومها التقليدي بل تذهب الرقمنة الخدمية إلى ما هو أبعد من ذلك فهي تعني القدرة على التفاعل مع الزبون من خلال تحليل البيانات الخاصة به ومعرفة تفضيلاته وتقديم النصائح والارشادات له عبر تطبيقات الهواتف الذكية ووسائل التواصل الاجتماعي والمنصات التفاعلية.

وهنا يُطرح التساؤل هل التحول إلى نموذج الأعمال الرقمي ضرورة؟ أي لماذا يجب على الشركات التي لم تتحول بعد إلى النموذج الرقمي أن تجري هذه العملية؟ يكمن الجواب بالتكلفة والمنافسة فمكننة الإجراءات الداخلية واستخدام التكنولوجيا الحديثة تخفض من تكاليف الشركة في المدى البعيد، فحسب موقع TechCrunch المختص بقضايا الاقتصاد الرقمي فإن شركة علي بابا، أكبر شركات التجارة الإلكترونية لا تملك أي مخازن، كما ان Uber، أكبر شركة سيارات أجرة في العالم، لا تملك أي مركبات. وAirbnb، أكبر شركات تأجير العقارات، لا تملك أي عقارات وكما هو معروف فإن فيسبوك، صاحب أكبر شبكة تواصل اجتماعي حول العالم لا يخلق أي محتوى.

إن نموذج العمل الذي تقوم عليه تلك الشركات هو بالذات ما منحها الميزة التنافسية في السوق فالزبائن اليوم تبحث عن الشركات التي تسهل وتخفض من تكلفة تقديم الخدمة لها وتمنحها القدرة التفاعلية في اختيار الخدمات أو المنتجات التي تقدمها. فالشركات المنافسة تعمل على تحديث منتجاتها أو تحديث الطريقة التي تقدم فيها تلك المنتجات وإشراك الزبائن في اختيار عملية تقديم تلك الخدمة أو المنتج أي تقدم مزايا إضافية للزبون تدفعه للتخلي عن منتجات أو خدمات الشركات التقليدية التي اعتاد الشراء منها وبالتالي سوف تخسر تلك الشركات زبونها الحالي وزبائن محتملين أي تنخفض حصتها في السوق، بل وربما تخرج من السوق بشكل نهائي، وهو ما حدث فعلاً للعديد من الشركات خاصةً في الدول المتقدمة، ففي قطاع الخدمات على سبيل المثال خرجت الكثير من وكالات الحجوزات والرحلات السياحية ومكاتب تأجير السيارات والعقارات التي تعمل وفق الطرق التقليدية من السوق بعد أن حلت مكانها الشركات التي تعمل وفقاً لنموذج الأعمال الرقمي أو تلك التي تحولت لذلك النموذج فهي وبخلاف الشركات التقليدية، تمتلك منصات تفاعلية مع الزبائن وتطبيقات برمجية تعمل على الهواتف الذكية حيث أصبحت تقدم خدماتها عبر الانترنت وباستخدام الخوارزميات والذكاء الصناعي التي جعلت من الزبون أكثر قدرة على معرفة تفاصيل الخدمة المقدمة ومنحته خيارات أوسع من ناحية انتقاء شكل ونوع الخدمة. فالرحلات السياحية التي كانت تنظمها الشركات التقليدية كانت مجهولة من قبل الزبون أما اليوم فبإمكانه اختيار الحجوزات التي تناسبه ومسار رحلته فقط عبر بضعة ضغطات على المنصات التفاعلية، وهنا يبرز التحول الرقمي في قطاع الخدمات بشكل واضح حيث انتفت الحاجة لشركات الوساطة التقليدية وحل مكانها الشركات الرقمية الرائدة التي تربط أصحاب الخدمة (مالكي الأصول، عقارات وسائل نقل البضائع...) والزبائن.

نحو اقتصاد جديد

نحيا اليوم في عصر التغيرات الاقتصادية والاجتماعية التي احدثتها ثورة علمية وتقنية جارفة فإن البقاء على الطرق التقليدية في العمل أصبحت تعني بالضرورة الخروج من السوق بعد فترة قد لا تطول فسرعة انتقال التكنولوجيا لم تعد تسمح للطرق القديمة بالاستمرار لوقت طويل كما كان قبل عصر الثورة التكنولوجية، فإذا كنت من أصحاب مشاريع بيع التجزئة ولا تتوفر لديك منصات لعرض المنتجات على شبكات التواصل الاجتماعي وموقع خاص على الانترنت فإنك سوف تكون بالكاد مرئي لمعظم الزبائن المحتملين لمنتجاتك، فالمستهلك اليوم لم يعد يبحث عن المعلومات المتوفرة في السوق (وفقا للمفهوم التقليدي للسوق) فالسوق قد انتقل لمكان اخر، والمقصود بذلك طبعا هو الانترنت.

إن الانتقال نحو رقمنة النشاط الاقتصادي أصبحت ضرورة لرجال الأعمال التقليديين كما تشكل في الوقت نفسه فرصة لرواد الأعمال العصريين في البدء بمشروعهم الريادي القائم على الرقمنة فالأسواق العربية تعتبر أرض خصبة وغير مستثمرة في الوقت نفسه لهذا النوع من الاستثمارات الريادية مع عدد مستخدمين لشبكة الانترنت يصل الى 266 مليون مستخدم وبمعدلات نمو في عدد المستخدمين هي الأعلى في العالم كما تشير التقديرات الى تضاعف معدل تدفق البيانات عبر الحدود التي تربط الشرق الأوسط ببقية دول العالم خلال العقد الماضي بما يتجاوز 150 ضعفًا بالرغم من ان استخدم الانترنت وشبكات التواصل الاجتماعي والتكنولوجيا الرقمية عموما قائم على تداول الاخبار والتواصل والترفيه أي مازال استهلاكيا بالدرجة الأولى لكن وبالرغم من سلبية نوعية الاستخدام إلا انها تعني أيضا وجود فرص متاحة وغير مستثمرة، بالمقابل تبدي بعض الدول العربية ولا سيما دولة الامارات العربية المتحدة تقدما ملحوظا نحو الانتقال الرقمي مع وصول نسبة مساهمة الاقتصاد الرقمي من اجمالي الناتج المحلي الى 4.3% (إحصاءات عام 2017) مع نمو مرتفع يفوق باقي القطاعات الاقتصادية، كما وصل عدد مستخدمي الهواتف الذكية في الامارات الى 100% منهم 72% يستخدمون شبكات التواصل الاجتماعي وهي معدلات تفوق نظيرتها في الولايات المتحدة الامريكية، كما اطلقت عدد من دول مجلس التعاون الخليجي كالبحرين والسعودية عدد من المبادرات المعنية بالتحول الرقمي.

إن رائد الأعمال بحاجة دائماً للبقاء على تواصل مع آخر الابتكارات العلمية كما يجب أن يتصف بالجرأة والاستعداد للتجريب وهو بالذات ما يفتقره العالم العربي لاسيما على المستوى الاقتصادي، فالتجريب هو أساس الابتكار، فيمكن لتلك التجربة أن تكون بدايتك لإطلاق مشروعك الريادي.

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• Even if you've invested 10 or 20 years in your current profession, you can still successfully pivot to become an entrepreneur.
• Starting a business is like having a baby—there never really is a “right” time.

You haven’t missed the boat

Many people think that entrepreneurship is a young person’s game. This assumption is probably because when people think of successful entrepreneurs, the ones that immediately come to mind are college dropouts like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg and Michael Dell. However, college dropout entrepreneurs are the exception, and there is data to back it up. A study by the Kauffman Foundation led by Syracuse University professor Carl Schramm revealed that the average entrepreneur was 39 when he or she started a company. Not only that, Schramm said that “Americans who are 35 or older are 50% more likely to start a business than are their younger counterparts”. Also, recent research led by Javier Miranda of the U.S. Census Bureau and Pierre Azoulay of MIT indicated that for the top 0.1% of fastest growing new businesses in the U.S., the average age of the founder in the business’ first year was 45. So, in a nutshell, it’s never too late to become an entrepreneur. In fact, it could be an advantage to start a business mid-career.

Mid-career entrepreneurs are more successful

Starting a business mid-career could be an advantage for many reasons. The Kauffman Foundation study found that entrepreneurs starting businesses mid-career were five times more likely to enjoy success five years later than entrepreneurs starting businesses right out of college. This is because management experience is great training to become an entrepreneur. Once you’re in your 30s or beyond, you’ve acquired strong skills, contacts and industry-specific knowledge that you can apply to a new business. You are more likely to be financially stable so that you can potentially self-fund your new company, allowing you to incur minimal debt and have greater stability. Mid-career entrepreneurs are also more successful than younger founders because it takes time to get to know yourself. Throughout your career, you learn what you like and don’t like with each position. By the time you launch your business, you have a better understanding of your strengths and weaknesses as well as what you need to feel fulfilled as a human being.

Noteworthy mid-career entrepreneurs

Even if you've invested 10 or 20 years in your current profession, you can still successfully pivot to become an entrepreneur. Here are some examples of people who famously shifted careers later in life:

• Vera Wang was an editor at Vogue for 17 years before she became a famous fashion designer at the age of 40.
• Jeff Bezos had a successful career in computer science on Wall Street and took on top roles at numerous financial firms before launching Amazon at the age of 31.
• Ray Kroc spent his career as a milkshake-device salesman before buying McDonald's at the age of 52.
• Bernard Marcus was fired from hardware store Handy Dan at the age of 48 along with his coworker Arthur Blank. The duo later started a rival retailer, Home Depot.

There is never a right time

Starting a business is like having a baby—there never really is a “right” time. It has nothing to do with how old you are, and most likely you will never feel completely ready. The biggest key to get started is to confront the initial fear associated with transitioning from a corporate career to entrepreneurship. Most people today can expect to change careers three to seven times during their working lives. Being in your 30s, 40s or beyond can be a great time to start a business, especially if you’ve planned ahead financially and have a solid support system around you. So, if you are considering becoming a mid-career entrepreneur, it’s never too late. As C.S. Lewis once said, “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” Dream big, plan well and great things will happen.

Caroline is a business & life coach who enjoys helping people escape their 9-5 jobs so.

Source: Forbes