Blog

Business ideas worth sharing

Creativity

No Rockstars, No Ninjas, No Gurus

As the UX (user experience) strategist at Fowardslash, Sholom leads a team of researchers, web developers, copywriters, and designers to create conversion-focused, strategy-driven websites that result in optimal conversions for our clients. He’s also Chief of Making-It-Happen-in-the-Most-Efficent-Way-Possible and is always educating himself and the team on what’s next in the digital space.

I asked him if he’d share a taste of his vast web wisdom—and here’s what he had to say.

Read more

Owlee Audio: Designed to Give a Hoot

With a name like Owlee, it called for ‘Give a Hoot’ as its tagline. Because ain’t that the best option for a sound company who cares about being on the forward trend of creating beautiful sound for its consumers?

We got the products raw from the team at Owlee and developed the brand, packaging and sometimes informing the design of the product itself. The products hung around the office, where we got to wear them, play them, test them out, hold them in hand and on occasion casually adopt them (shhh, I think they’re still looking for the Raven).

Read more

Top 4 Reasons to Visit the Ptex Office

Here’s why you should be coming to visit the Ptex office.

It’s not just because of the award winning office environment (Great Places to Work 2016), the limited edition Brooklyn Bridge letterpress print hanging in the foyer (which took Cameron Moll over 300 hours to create), the open interiors designed by RMWong, Yossi’s fish tank with exotic species such as the clownfish and angelfish, or the occasional Cholent Fest on a nondescript Thursday.

While those are all solid reasons to stop by, it’s what’s going on right outside the touch-free, hand-censored glass doors that makes it worth the trip: the lunch options. Read more

Stop Perfecting Failure!

Reid Hoffman (no relation), co-founder of LinkedIn, has a famous quote which resonates with entrepreneurs:

If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.

It’s a simple but revealing maxim. And, truth be told, it’s one not reserved for entrepreneurs orbusiness owners, but applicable to every single one of us.

Many people tinker and re-tinker with their assignment, their product or their business – all in the name of “making it perfect”. In reality, though, that perfectionism is just procrastination in disguise.

The reason people procrastinate?

Read more

Before You Pitch…

Let’s start with the obvious: the Launch Pad is the perfect, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to present, and ultimately increase, your business.

Now, the not-so-obvious: How do you land that coveted investment?

The answer to that goes far beyond simply applying to the event. You need that compelling pitch the investor cannot turn down.

In order to prevent potential investors from saying “pch” to your presentation, you must dot the ‘i’ and cross the ‘t’ that make up the “it” factor of your pitch – what separates you from the pack.

Here are some helpful tips for crafting that million-dollar pitch:

Read more

Black Friday Is Not Dead: 7 Funky Ideas To Rejuvenate It

The reports of Black Friday’s death have been greatly exaggerated. I’ve borrowed Mark Twain’s famously derisive line to challenge the media’s contention that Black Friday is losing its luster.

Yes, I know that folks are claiming Black Friday sales were down 11%. But I don’t buy it (no pun intended). Take a closer look and you’ll see these numbers are skewed. While the value of an average online order did indeed drop by 1.8% compared to last year’s figures, actual online sales increased by a whopping 9.5%.

So you tell me: Is Black Friday a failure? Hardly!

Read more

The Big Idea: My Little Secret

The campaign was a knockout. Accolades pour in from all sides. People call to congratulate our marketing agency, rave about how intrigued they were by the theme, and of course ask the inevitable question I’ve heard so many times over the years: “So how’d you come up with the big idea?”

This ostensibly innocent little inquiry irks me to no end.

As if I pulled a furry pink Energizer Bunny out of a magician’s top hat. As if I snapped my fingers at the mustachioed maître d’ in a snobbish steakhouse and the big idea was ceremoniously carried in on a gleaming silver tray, resting neatly alongside a fresh mound of mashed potatoes and steamed artichoke. As if I sat down at my desk, gave my pneumatic chair two swift pumps, rolled up my shirtsleeves, and knocked out the idea in five minutes flat.

Wouldn’t that be sweet.

Read more