Today’s business leaders, owners, entrepreneurs, and top-level managers need to use every tool at their disposal to survive in a highly competitive marketplace. Creative leadership means leveraging the power of more than one technique at a time, staying informed about the newest developments in technology, and honing fundraising skills to deliver a steady stream of working capital. How do they get the job done?
In addition to using crowdfunding platforms to raise much needed cash for startups and smaller firms, modern business leaders free up personal financial resources and use the money to support their organizations’ efforts to earn profits. Other unique but effective weapons in the war to win customers include viral marketing tactics, virtual teams, MBO (management by objectives), and employee ownership. Most use one or more of the following strategies to gin up profits and stay afloat.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding platforms are the go-to solution for micro businesses, small startups, and sole proprietorships in the 2020s. Well directed efforts can deliver excellent results for founders of smaller entities that have few other sources of initial capital. Many creative enterprises, like engineering firms, inventors, and architects, turn to crowdfunding as a way not only to raise money but to advertise their latest projects. Successful campaigns have raised amounts more than $1 million for prototypes, e-commerce products, and sophisticated manufacturing processes.
Refinancing College Loans
Entrepreneurs who want to free up as much capital for their organizations as possible have several options. One of the most effective ones is to refinance any of their remaining college loans. The decision to choose a refinanced student loan variable or fixed rate is just one of the decisions that go with setting up a refi. One of the main benefits of refinancing education loans is that business owners can free up a significant amount of money by getting lower monthly loan payments.
Fortunately, the process of creating a new loan that replaces the old ones is relatively simple. Not only do borrowers cut their recurring expenses, but they also get a chance to readjust repayment periods, interest rates, and terms. It’s imperative to review a complete guide that shows how to decide between variable and fixed loans, how to initiate the refi, and more. Leaders who operate small companies can gain plenty of financial breathing room when they refinance their existing education debt.
Gonzo Marketing & Promotion
This type of marketing has long been a mainstay of the resourceful manager’s arsenal. In the digital age, it makes sense to leverage the power of the internet to create viral videos that promote a company’s products and services. Related approaches include hiring professional commenters, reviewers, and super fans who use their own websites and online interactions to talk up a business’s wares.
Assembling Virtual Teams
For entrepreneurial leaders who prefer to launch startups without spending a fortune on overhead, virtual teams are part of the new wave. Without offices, furniture, parking garages, or company politics, virtual firms solve many problems at once. Leaders write a business plan and immediately set out to assemble a paid team to do the work. Nearly all early profits and seed money goes into online advertising. Minimum expenses can help deliver substantial profits for virtual companies in varied fields, particularly in accounting and financial services. Are virtual firms the wave of the future? Even if they aren’t, the trend toward all-online companies is a powerful one.
Employee Ownership
For smaller organizations, an employee ownership structure can work well by helping to incentivize everyone to work toward a common goal. While founders and top managers tend to hold most of the stock in these types of companies, the unique feature of the arrangement is that all employees are also stockholders. Workers can opt to purchase shares at a discount from the market price.
Employee-owned businesses are much more common in Europe than in the US or anywhere else, but there’s a trend toward the structure in small US businesses that employ fewer than 100 workers. When everyone has skin in the game, corporate goals are shared by all workers, from entry-level trainees to upper management operatives. While setting up the initial EO company can be a complex undertaking, most founders work closely with commercial lawyers who specialize in designing stock purchase plans for workers, creating contracts for the ongoing issue of shares as the company grows, and setting discounted rates of buy-in for team members.
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