June 2024

For business owners, few aspects matter more than credibility. Entrepreneurs who don’t take time to maximize their credibility will struggle to win favorable terms with suppliers, attract investors, retain existing clients and land new business. Through personal experience, and the annual B2B BuyerSCAN survey conducted by my company, I have studied how credibility is killed and how to recover.

Below, I’ll share seven credibility killers entrepreneurs need to be aware of.

1. Not being findable through an online search

Upon encountering a potential business partner, employer or seller, the first step many businesspeople take is to conduct an online search. In our AI-prevalent world, people want assurances that they are dealing with a legitimate company and person.

They’re seeking information on capability and likeability and asking themselves: Is this person or company legitimate? Is this someone I want to spend time with and work with? If they can’t find you online, your credibility comes into question.

Because many of us have common names, it’s worth taking the time to create a unique profile. For example, there are many Lee Smiths in the world, including one very famous baseball relief pitcher. But I have crafted my professional profile using C. Lee Smith, which makes finding me online a bit easier.

I also ask my team members to create a professional profile on sites like LinkedIn when they connect to my company. This strategy makes my employees easily findable.

A while back, we hired a sales professional who kept changing his name on his LinkedIn page. Some days, he used only his first name. Other days, he left off the fact that he was employed by my company. This behavior is a sure way to confuse prospects and drive away business. Many of us wondered who he was hiding from because he certainly wasn’t making it easy to be found. That sales professional didn’t last long at my company.

Related: Want to Earn Trust? Don’t Break Any of These 4 Links in the Chain of Credibility.

2. Failing to know the prospect’s line of business/company

If you hope to provide your product or service to another organization, avoid this opening line: “Tell me about your business.”

This statement tells the prospect you haven’t bothered to research them. Clearly, you don’t understand their business problems or how your solution can help them.

As an entrepreneur, you are the chief salesperson for your organization. B2B buyers don’t want to educate the seller. They expect the seller to know about their line of business. Our research shows that 46% of surveyed B2B buyers look for how many years of experience a seller has in their industry. Unfortunately, 65% of sellers don’t even check the buyers’ website before they make their pitch.

If you don’t have specific experience in the prospect’s line of business, do your homework. Start following trends in their industry. Comment on other people’s LinkedIn posts regarding the industry. Being supportive, instead of self-serving, will increase your credibility.

3. Not being responsive

Decision-makers are busy people. They may not get back to a potential buyer or a business partner right away. As they prioritize their daily activity, for example, they may let the top candidate for an open position wait a day before they return a call.

As a seller, you must put up with this kind of buyer behavior. But buyers will not tolerate it from you.

When you ignore their outreach, you’re letting them know they’re not important to you. With that attitude, you’ll find it hard to succeed.

4. Pressing for a decision

Many entrepreneurs are driven and impatient. But when that impatience leads to rushing a decision-maker, you start to lose credibility.

Your pushiness reeks of desperation, showing you care only about yourself or need to wrap things up quickly before new information comes to light. In fact, 38% of B2B buyers have told us that pushy salesperson behavior can be a deal-breaker.

Related: Every Brand and Business Person Should Do This to Ensure Their Credibility

5. Posting unsavory content or behaving badly online

Your online profiles can destroy any credibility you may have built up with prospects. You should be particularly careful with your LinkedIn presence. I ask my employees to keep their personal social media profiles separate from their professional listings. They are instructed to avoid listing our company name or website in their personal social media.

This rule came about after one of my best friends was considering using a real estate agent in her hometown. While the agent’s bio page looked professional, this individual’s X feed was peppered with lewd and explicit content that was highly offensive. She quickly decided to move on to another agent.

To protect your credibility, consider using a personal social media profile that is not connected to your full name. Even then, temper the tone of your online remarks. You can disagree with another person respectfully and still make your point.

6. Working with a disreputable company — or having done so in the past

Half of B2B buyers make it clear they will not even take a call or meet with someone who is associated with a business that has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, either currently or in a previous job.

If you have had a past professional connection with a disreputable company, don’t try to cover it up. A determined buyer will find evidence of what you’d like to hide. A better strategy is to be aggressive about damage control. I recommend developing a breakup story.

For example, you might say that as soon as you learned of the trouble, you began looking for a new job. Or you might point out, that if you had known what was happening, you never would have accepted a position with the company.

Related: 10 Ways to Build Trust and Credibility With Your Customers

7. Treating support staff poorly

When I’m vetting a potential employee, vendor or business partner, I like to see how they behave in a non-professional setting. I ask them to meet me at a restaurant if they’re in town.

I arrive early and ask the maître d’ to observe my lunch companion’s behavior. If I learn the person is rude to employees who are bussing or waiting tables, I have an indication of their attitude regarding people in serving roles. Rudeness is a problem, and I don’t want arrogance to reflect poorly on me.

Remember that your visibility to an organization begins the moment you interact with anyone on the staff. Any negative behavior will work its way up the chain of command. Simply put, treating the support staff poorly will not build your credibility with decision-makers.

Entrepreneurs face an endless list of tasks. Despite the daily challenges you must address, building and maintaining credibility is too important to overlook. One small misstep could require the investment of additional time and energy to restore your loss of credibility.

In a work-from-home and hybrid world, many employees look for ways to cut corners and make it look like they’re at their computers even when they’re not actually attentive to the work at hand.

Such was the case for more than a dozen Wells Fargo wealth and investment management workers, who were caught and subsequently fired last month for faking keyboard strokes on their computers to make it look like they were working when they weren’t.

Related: Wells Fargo To Pay Record $3.7 Billion For ‘Illegal Activity’

“Wells Fargo holds employees to the highest standards and does not tolerate unethical behavior,” Wells Fargo told Bloomberg in a statement.

Per termination disclosures filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the reason given for the employees’ terminations was that they were “discharged after review of allegations involving simulation of keyboard activity creating impression of active work.”

It was not specified how they faked the keyboard strokes or if the employees did so while in the office.

Some remote workers use devices called “mouse jigglers” to simulate movement on a computer’s keyboard, indicating to employers and managers that they’re using their device even if they are away from it at the time.

Related: Bye Bye Summer Fridays: Goldman Sachs Employees Mandated to Return to Office 5 Days a Week Amid Turmoil

Wells Fargo currently operates under a hybrid model in which the majority of employees are expected to be in the office at least three times a week, though workers at different levels (such as management) are expected to be in four or more days.

The bank’s policy is relatively more lax than others in the industry, such as Goldman Sachs, which mandated a five-days-a-week return to the office for employees at the end of last summer.

These days, everybody relies heavily on their devices. As an entrepreneur, the lifeblood of your business is likely on your devices. You need to be able to get in touch with the right people and do your work efficiently, whether you’re at the office or on the road.

That means you always need battery power, and when you’re away from an outlet, the last thing you want is a low battery warning. Fortunately, with the 50,000mAh Portable Power Bank with PD 30W and QC 4.0 fast charging, you’ll always have backup power available.

This massive capacity power bank offers 50,000mAh battery power, which is enough to charge your iPhone or Android phone multiple times over and even fully charge a laptop from 0% battery. Thanks to a USB-C and three USB-A ports, you can connect up to four devices simultaneously. The USB-C port also features PD 30W charging, allowing you to get your phone from 0% to 55% in as little as 30 minutes, the company says.

This power bank is universally compatible with any device that supports USB charging. It has a range of built-in safety features, like over-voltage protection, overcharge protection, over-discharge protection, high-temperature protection, short circuit protection, and over-power protection to keep your devices safe when charging. It’s an extremely powerful tool to have in your everyday carry and will give you the flexibility you need to always stay on the grid.

Power up everything easier.

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With so many calls and meetings taking place remotely these days, serious entrepreneurs and business leaders need reliable headphone options for blocking out distractions and zoning in on work. For those who are on the hunt for a highly capable piece of tech that’s also affordable, this deal is worth checking out.

For a limited time only, these new, open-box JBL Tune 510BT Wireless On-Ear Headphones are on sale for only $24.99 (reg. $49). An open-box deal typically means the product was excess inventory from store shelves, and it also means that these headphones have been inspected and verified to work like new.

So, with impressive savings on a fully capable pair of 2021 headphones, you can count on powerful and deep bass when listening to music. It also features quick switches to make switching from listening to a tune while you get through busy work to taking an unexpected and important call from a prospective client seamless.

These on-ear headphones also support Siri and Hey Google. With these tools, you can activate hands-free calling with a simple request and control sound settings and other functions with voice commands. They also offer a quick five-minute recharge feature that gives you two additional hours of music, which is great when you’re in a bind.

Busy entrepreneurs need the freedom to take calls while keeping their hands on their keyboards. Make your access to calls and meetings a lot better with these JBL Tune on-ear headphones.

During a special limited-time sale, these open-box JBL Tune 510BT Wireless On-Ear Headphones are on sale for only $24.99 (reg. $49).

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An annual financial plan can help you regulate cash flow, cut costs, manage taxes and generate growth. But no matter how thorough that plan is, it is important to set up regular checkpoints to review it throughout the year. By June, you should have a good idea of how your business is performing against your annual plan and what to expect for the remainder of the fiscal year. Now is a great time to take a deeper look, assess your business’ performance and adjust.

Here are five questions to ask at midyear to maintain a healthy financial plan:

1. Are you tracking on budget?

Review your income statement to see how you are performing against your forecasted budget. Are revenues, expenses and net profit or loss where you thought they would be? Why or why not?

If you don’t already have an operating system for budgeting and monthly reporting, or you’re falling behind, it may be time to seek external support.

Related: 6 Critical Questions Your Business Plan Must Answer

2. How’s your cash flow and runway?

Throughout the year, the flow and timing of cash in and out of the business is an important health indicator. At midyear, take a closer look at your cash flow statement to understand where money is coming from and where it is going. Review things like the cost of operations, working capital and incoming cash from current contracts so you can make changes if necessary. Here are a few questions to consider:

• Do you have outstanding bills that need attention now?
• Are you on track to meet your target income?
• What planned expenses are coming up that you’ll need to prepare for (for example, equipment purchases, headcount, conferences, training)?
• Do you need to increase your rates to better align with the market?

Related: 10 Expert Tips on Managing Cash Flow as a New Business

3. Do you want to make new investments next quarter?

It may be time to reinvest cash in the business if you have cash available. Do you want to make major purchases, increase hiring or invest in R&D before the end of the year? If so, the third quarter will be the best time for this because you have a better sense of how the year is going.

4. Are you paying the right amount in quarterly taxes?

Now that you have two-quarters of tax payments, you can see how these payments are tracked with actual tax obligations. Are you paying enough to cover your annual tax obligations, or must you adjust? Conversely, you may be paying too much or find that there are tax obligations that can be put off until next year. In this case, you could revise your quarterly tax payments and free up cash for business investments in the year’s second half.

Related: Must-Know Tips for Navigating Tax Season With a Side Hustle

5. Are you paying enough attention to tax laws?

Tax laws are always changing. Depending on your company structure and industry, you may be eligible for more benefits than last year or have to pay more for certain expenses. For example, in 2023, the rules around R&D costs changed for certain businesses. Tech companies are now being forced to capitalize on a larger percentage of these costs than ever before, and this can have drastic tax implications for venture-backed startups. They now need to plan to set aside 30 or 35% of their revenue for taxes, which takes away from what can be spent on the business.

To mitigate these issues, establish a good relationship with a tax expert. Schedule regular check-ins with your advisor so you can revise payments as needed, reallocate cash and monitor tax law changes as they occur.

It’s always hard to find the time for a financial health check in the middle of the year. But right now is the perfect time to review your budget, cash flow and tax planning to ensure you’re still tracking with the goals you set out in late 2023. Chances are good that you’ll uncover new insights about your business and be able to make critical adjustments to see you through the remainder of the year.

Ah, innovation! It is that flair in the entrepreneurs’ eyes, the burning desire in their belly, the wind that supports their startup’s takeoff. But here’s the kicker: Real innovation isn’t just about looking into the future; it is also about considering looking around. Envision a world where ideas are like bees, which fly from one field to another and exchange pollen as they go, giving the flowery landscape of interconnected innovations.

Let’s dive into the notion of cross-pollination for innovation, where the dissimilarities in the field aren’t just accepted; they are the preferred mode of operation.

So, before we get to the topic itself, I want to clarify things here. This isn’t your usual “go against the flow” sermon. Nope. We are going to get down to the nitty-gritty of walking-your-talk, boots-on-the-ground entrepreneurship to make innovation your business’s bread and butter — and not just any type of innovation, but the kind of innovation that can make one say: “Now, why didn’t I think of that?”

Now, with full faith, we’ll be setting off, my fellow groundbreakers of the future, on this voyage of exploration and discovery. The following list is what I call the ten commandments of cross-pollination that will spark innovation.

Related: How to Transform Your Workplace Culture with Cross-Pollination

1. Celebrate the renaissance spirit

Leonardo da Vinci, the one and only Renaissance man, was not merely engaged in art and science for the fun of it. He realized the world was all interconnected. Here, the most important thing is forming a Renaissance team. Invite team members to pursue their side hustles, hobbies and other interests. The coder, who also is a photographer, can bring a unique feel to UI design. DJ and marketing moonlighters could have a bird’s eye view of consumer behavior. Diversity of thought and experience is the soil for innovative ideas to grow.

2. Industry immersion sessions

One day each month, dive deep into an industry that is completely different from yours. If you are in tech, switch to hospitality. In finance? Look at what is happening in healthcare. Make a workshop where the team members will be able to share their ideas and together think of ways to apply them to your projects. Such sessions will be your innovation incubators.

3. “What if?” workshops

Wonder is the birth of invention, isn’t it? Conduct frequent “What if?” workshops, in which the only rule is that there are no wrong ideas. What if we copied the fast-food model into personal finance? What if the next time we designed software interfaces, we did it like a theme park map? This is where you encourage dreaming of flying in a blue sky and then work backward to find out if a practical application exists.

4. Cross-industry mentorship

Set up mentorship programs with professionals from other industries. These can be informal coffee talks or more structured mastermind sessions. The aim is to give a chance to discuss ideas, problems and solutions that can encourage innovation. A mentor from the fashion area could help a tech entrepreneur to realize that aesthetics are equally important as functionality.

5. The remix technique

“Nothing is ever original,” they say — and they are actually right. Innovation in this case means taking old ideas and recombining them. Tell your team to take two things that are seemingly unrelated and combine them. It’s like a food fusion of your business model (Thai tacos, anyone?).

Related: Great Minds Think Unalike — 3 Ways to Drive True Innovation Through Diversity

6. Fail forward

The fear of failure is innovation’s greatest enemy. Establish a culture where failure is seen as a stepping stone to success. Talk about failures and lessons learned. When your team doesn’t mind failing, they are more likely to take risks that will result in extraordinary advancements.

7. External idea incubators

You don’t need to be restricted to the premises of your office while thinking of ideas. Engage in hackathons, industry meetups and innovation centers. These are the places where you have the chance to observe people outside of your own circle and how they come up with ideas and solutions. Moreover, it is a wonderful way to find possible co-creators or even future teammates.

8. Customer collaboration

Your customers serve as a repository of fresh ideas. Such customer input can be harnessed through the creation of forums, surveys or innovation labs in which customers can contribute ideas or feedback on new products or services. The benefits are not limited to a simple analysis of what your market wants, rather, it nurtures a feeling of belonging and oneness.

9. The sabbatical scheme

Google’s “‘20% time” policy illustrates how much employees can benefit from having the freedom to develop their own projects. Give it a shot, regardless of how much time you can devote to it, be it a few hours per week or a year-long sabbatical every couple of years. Such intermittency from usual activities could sometimes become the source of the most innovative ideas of your company.

10. The global gaze

Innovation knows no boundaries, so who are you to stop it? Look globally for inspiration. How do other countries go about solving business problems? What is recently produced there that is trending overseas? You might have missed some solutions if you have not been taught to consider the world as a whole.

Related: 5 Key Ways to Create an Innovation Culture

Innovation is a team-based game, not a solo sport. The diversity of mankind is a colorful and turbulent dance of thoughts, sensations and points of view. Through this nurturing of cross-pollination, you’re not only sowing the seeds of innovation; you are kindling an entire habitat of creativity and advancement. So, join forces with the unfamiliar, and see how your enterprise will bloom into a genuinely game-changing entity. The world has opened up like an oyster, and the innovation pearl is the cross-pollination within. We are making it shine together.

Entrepreneurs who want their businesses to be in a constant state of growth often try to take the same approach to their personal lives. The more you learn and take in, the more knowledge you’ll have to expand your business and find new opportunities. At the same time, running and starting businesses is time-consuming, so reading can be tough to fit in.

During a special, limited-time sale, you can get this lifetime subscription to Headway Premium on sale for only $59.99 (reg. $299).

Headway is a mobile app that gives users like busy entrepreneurs easy access to fun summaries of non-fiction bestsellers. These approximately 15-minute reads are designed to help you glean key insights and ideas from what’s being summarized.

Busy entrepreneurs can use this tool to pick up bits of knowledge in between meetings and to figure out which books are most likely worth taking the time to read in full. The app also makes it fun with daily insights, motivational widgets, and earning streaks based on how much you’re reading.

It’s important to note that these summaries are not replacements for full reads, but they can get you started and help you make a lot of fun discoveries. Headway is rated 4.5/5 stars on the App Store and 4.4/5 stars on the Google Play Store. It’s also used by more than 12 million people, which suggests there’s a lot to be valued here.

If you’re a busy professional looking to increase your reading and learning, consider this deal.

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Whether it’s important PDFs, presentations that you made for ongoing clients, or important contracts that would be detrimental to ongoing relationships if ever lost — there’s a lot of data your business needs to protect. That’s why it’s simply common practice for modern companies to have a number of verified and reliable cloud storage solutions.

If your team is in need of some space, here’s a great deal worth checking out. For a limited time only, you can get a lifetime subscription to 1TB of Koofr Cloud Storage for $119.97 (reg. $810) with code KOOFR. This single-payment deal features helpful access to a lot of space. A terabyte can hold roughly a quarter-million photos, 500 hours of HD video, and more than 6 million smaller file types like PDFs.

You can count on top-notch security when using Koofr because of advanced file encryption practices, the company says. They also have a zero-tracking policy, so you can rest assured that sensitive documents saved on Koofr will still remain private to your team or whoever you want to provide access to.

Koofr’s also great for companies because it’s compatible with other popular cloud accounts like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive, so adding it to the mix should be easy.

For those who want a little more reassurance, just take a look at Koofr’s scores among the most reputable tech review sites out there, including a 4.6/5-star average on G2, Capterra, and GetApp.

Make sure to do your business a favor and secure this lifetime subscription to 1TB of Koofr Cloud Storage for $119.97 (reg. $810) with code KOOFR.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Over the past several years, inflation has affected everything in American consumerism, from grocery store prices to restaurant closures to wages.

Now, a new study is showing that inflation has even affected prices at the Happiest Place on Earth.

New data from Finance Buzz shows that prices for concessions at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, have increased an average of 61% over the past 10 years — more than the average increase in a single park ticket, which has gone up 56% over the past decade.

Related: A Fifth Walt Disney World Theme Park Could Be Coming Soon — Here’s What We Know

Some notable fan favorites have risen in price by a brow-raising amount, like the Dole Whip dessert, which has gone up 58%, and the iconic Mickey Mouse-shaped ice cream bar, which has increased 63% in the past 10 years.

The highest single item increase on the list is the bread service at Animal Kingdom restaurant Sanaa, which has more than doubled in price from $9.99 to $22 since 2014.

“Prices for every single item have risen by at least $1.50, with most going up by at least $2 since 2014,” Finance Buzz wrote in its study. “But while food costs have skyrocketed, the base price for the most affordable Disney World tickets has remained remarkably stable, going up just $19 from 2014 to 2024.”

The financial research source collected its data by taking current food and beverage prices from the Walt Disney World website and comparing them to the old Disney website using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

Earlier this month, Disney and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) reached a unanimous agreement in a preliminary vote to approve a $17 billion expansion program for the Florida establishment, which could potentially include the development of a fifth Walt Disney World park.

Related: Peltz Sells Disney Stock After Board Fight, Makes $1 Billion

“We’re already hard at work at basically determining where we’re going to place our new investments and what they will be,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in February during a Q1 2024 earnings call. “You can pretty much conclude that they’ll be all over, meaning every single one of our locations will be the beneficiary of increased investment.”

The Walt Disney Co. was up over 8% year over year as of Friday afternoon.

Every ChatGPT user, heed this — a game-changing lawsuit is about to turn the AI world upside down, and it will impact how you use AI moving forward.

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