School for Startups Minutes

Another big advantage to the virtual assistant is that you get specialized global talent, and it makes a difference. We all know, of course, about India and their IT advantage. Also, Latin America has a huge advantage in design, and the Philippines have a huge advantage in customer support. All of those stereotypes are true, I have found, and it's a great way to get your talent.

Almost all VAs work overseas, which means you get a time zone advantage. I go to bed and wake up with all sorts of new work already done. For me, it's like I was working all night long, time zone advantage. A huge reason to get a VA.

Whenever you meet an incredibly productive person and ask, How is that person so productive? there's almost always the same answer: they get help. They have a virtual assistant, and that is what makes them so productive. This week, we're going to talk about five reasons you, yes, you! should get a virtual assistant. So, the first reason to have a virtual assistant is that you can lower your labor...

The other AI tool is Copy.ai, also known as Jasper. It is a marketing machine. It will help write sales copy, email sequences, product descriptions, and ad headlines in seconds. It is your pro-level marketing tool.

There's a new AI for video called Pictory, P-I-C-T-O-R-Y. It is a video content tool. It will turn your blog, a script, a note, or a webinar into a short, social-media-ready video in just seconds. You can even add captions. No editing is required, and it can make a short video for you that does whatever you want. Imagine a video of your family with everyone's hair on fire. It's a great tool. Check...

Zapier, Z-A-P-I-E-R, connects all of your apps together, your email, your customer list, your social accounts, your payments, all connected so that they can talk to each other. It automates repetitive tasks so you can focus on growing your business. This is one of the must-haves for a busy person. It's called Zapier.

Most of us use some form of a to-do list to keep organized. A new AI called Notion will read your emails and keep all of your messy business ideas, meeting summaries, and to-do lists in one place. It automatically updates so that you know exactly what you need to do and when. It's called Notion.

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is everywhere in the news right now. ChatGPT is probably the most famous and talked about. It is awesome. It can help you brainstorm, write emails, and build marketing copy. It can even code and write computer programs, but it's not the only one. This week, I'm going to introduce you to five other tools that are very useful and maybe even better at certain projects....

Artificial intelligence is great at making the now better. It makes processes faster, cheaper, and more efficient, but optimizing is only useful when it already exists, which requires visionary humans to go past incremental thinking and imagine a new and exciting future. Computers still don't do that. Thank goodness.

AI provides data, but humans develop trust based on personality and working with someone and shaking their hand. AI can present findings and give you information, but it doesn't inspire loyalty or share empathy, and you can't shake hands with it. Business depends on relationships that are forged over time, where credibility matters more than raw data. People want to work with leaders they like, no...

AI can brainstorm dozens of ideas in the same amount of time it takes a human to just sketch out one idea. It's a great tool for accelerating the creative process or overcoming the blank page syndrome, but originality comes from lived experience, curiosity, and intuition- things that AI does not have. Most of the disruptive ideas come from breaking the rules, and AI cannot do that.

Artificial intelligence is great at spotting trends or finding patterns in data. It can look through millions of transactions, detect anomalies, and highlight the relationships that no human could find. However, data without context is useless. Humans must step in to interpret the findings, connect them with real-world experience, ethics, and goals. A.I. gives a great "what," but you need a human...

The original Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Terminator is one of my absolute favorites, but with A.I. here now, it makes you think - are we in danger? Will A.I. replace humans this week? We're going to talk about it, and I'll give you five reasons why I don't think that will happen. We are safe, us humans. Artificial intelligence is great at doing repetitive tasks - the grunt work, the processing of...

Across the United States, there are organizations called accelerators or incubators. Their job is to accelerate your business or to incubate a new idea. Those programs have some sort of function at the end—a presentation where each group tells what they have accomplished during the program. In the audience are angels. Talk to those angels. Go to the events. See if you can get in an incubator, and...

If you look around in your city, you will find that there is some sort of entrepreneurial event every week - some competitions, demo days, networking days. There's something going on every week. Go to those religiously, and whenever you meet someone, ask them if they're interested in investing in your new business. Have a pitch deck and a business plan ready to show them, but use the events that h...

Perhaps the best way to find an angel is to tap into your professional network and to ask all of the rich people that you know, or just start talking to people at the bar. I have literally sat down at dinner at P.F. Chang's at the bar and walked out with fifty thousand dollars in my pocket from the guy next to me. At the bar, it sounds crazy, but start a conversation and see what happens.

In addition to the city clubs, there are also national organizations of angels. Go to the websites like AngelList Seed. Invest or Crowdcube are great places to find angels and hopefully angels in your area. Expect to give up 20–30 percent, but at least you can get your business started.

SFS Minutes 769: Local Angel Networks When you start a business, one of the hardest parts is getting the money. I hope, of course, that you bootstrap your business, which means using your own internal funds and spending as little money as possible. However, some businesses do require a lot of money, and the typical way to get that money is to go into what's called the angel network and get money f...

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is waiting until their product is perfect. They think it has to be absolutely flawless before they're willing to share it with others. But if you do that, you miss early feedback you could have gotten, and your competitors may be able to jump ahead. Don't waste months polishing the apple when all you need to do is get a minimally viable product out th...

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is ignoring cash flow. Just because you have revenue doesn't mean you have profit. You need cash to pay your bills, yet many entrepreneurs overspend on nonessential things—like securing office space before they actually need it—or fail to forecast unforeseen expenses. Pay close attention to cash flow.

It's a big mistake to think you can do everything alone. You can't—you'll burn out, risk your relationships, miss out on fun opportunities, and even lose valuable business opportunities. By not having other people to provide insight and guidance for your new business, you delay progress. You simply can't do it all alone.

Forgetting to talk to your customers leads to ignorance—and that's never helpful. It also results in a lack of a clear vision statement or value proposition for your business. What makes you unique? How are you different? How will customers differentiate you from all the competition? You've got to think about that early on.

When you're starting a new business, there are countless things that can go wrong, and many people will try to help you—just like in this segment. However, most entrepreneurs make a number of mistakes, especially in their first year, across every category—HR, marketing, finance, and more. This week, I'm going to walk you through some of the most common mistakes and how to prevent them. One of the...

My final AI tip of the week: ask it what it can do for you. Put your resume in and anything else you have about yourself, and say, What suggestions would you make for me? or How can you help me? or What do you see that I'm missing? It will start asking you questions and digging things out of you. It is amazing.

Two or three years ago, you paid a programmer to build a cool website for your business, but now you need to update it, and you can't get in touch with the guy. You have access to the back end with your password. Put ChatGPT on the case. Tell ChatGPT: "On this page..." Give it the URL: "I need to make the following changes. How do I do it?" It will tell you every single step you need to know, I pr...