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Entrepreneurs can harness the power of silence to improve decision-making, enhance communication, and build stronger relationships. Silence can also be a strategic tool in negotiations, creating space for thoughtful responses and increasing the chances of a favorable outcome. In his latest book, High-Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard, he talks about how transitional states can change and improve our lives. If you are wondering what a transitional state actually is, it is the state that creates a split between two dimensions. No, not like Star Wars teleportation; but rather like the transition for ordinary humans. For instance, when you move from one room to another, the door is your transition object. The trick is to pause between the transitions and in that pause, motivate yourself to do the next thing. For instance, if the purpose of entering the next room is to catch a bite, it is prudent to visualize yourself having the best meal of your life. This might not seem like a big thing, but when done right, it can help you get your mind off the negativity in your life and start over fresh. In his book “Four Seconds”, Peter Bregman talks about pausing for a second and introspecting before making a decision. For instance, each response we give ensuing an incident comes with its own set of repercussions and outcomes. Given a different response, a new story would have unfolded. Now, Peter talks about repositioning the process. When an incident happens, think about the outcome you want to yield from the incident and respond accordingly. This will help you calm your mind and think for a second before making an impetuous decision. Mel Robbins, in her book “The 5 Second Rule”, also talks about how Entrepreneurs have been using the power of 5 seconds to make big decisions in their lives. She writes about how before taking any big decision, Richard Branson closes his eyes and listens to his gut, and the same goes for Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. This 5-second break is to let your inner voice take precedence and do what feels right instinctively.

5-minute Technique That Can Help You Make Big Decisions

Most Entrepreneurs make decisions based on their gut feeling. When Google aimed to expand, Jeff Bezos took a split-second decision to invest, based-upon his gut instinct. Peter Thiel, in his best-seller book “Zero to One”, talks about starting a venture right from his home based upon what he felt right at the moment. This is the power of silence, which has always helped Entrepreneurs in the past and is still helping them. In the TV series “TVF Pitchers”, the main lead Naveen Bansal made his decisions through something called the ‘The Jury Room’. When all the members of the team got exasperated about not being in the know, they asked him about the jury room. He told of a simple process that he often adhered to, to take the most important decisions pertaining to his startup. When he was faced with a huge decision or a challenge, for instance, whether to give away a major chunk of his venture to an investor who didn’t know anything about the startup, he went into a room this is what he did. He took a coin and tossed it. Heads for investing, and Tails for not giving away his venture. Even though he seemed partial to the outcome, in the mere fraction of the seconds that the coin was flipping through the air, his heart ached for tails. And that is what he got. Yes, his gut made the right decision. And by the end of the TV series, we saw why this decision was so accurate. I am an Entrepreneur myself and I have used this technique dozens of times. The thing is, it is not just whether your luck hands out more heads or tails, it is about what your heart desires when the coin is in the air. This is the power of silence. When you silence your mind for even a few minutes, your subconscious mind gets a moment to wander off and scrutinize the problem. Most of you might not agree with me here, but trust me, this is a technique which has guided me to make the right decisions even in the most distressed situations.

To Wrap it All Up

"Go with your gut," is occasionally a bit of good advice. And in that moment of silence, you get that gut feeling that makes all the difference. However, better advice is to "invest in making your gut smarter." The world is a lot more complex than our gut is likely to comprehend, at least without training. Train your gut to receive better instincts. Practice going with your instincts in private. Every day, make a judgment call. Make ten. Make predictions about what's going to happen next, who's got a hit, what designs are going to resonate, which videos will go viral, which hires are going to work out. Write them down or they don't count. It makes no sense to refuse to practice your instinct and to only use it when the stakes are high.

Women entrepreneurs in great numbers have risen in the last few years from all over the world. If we say, that women are now leading men in many fields then it will not be wrong at all. From the tech industry to health care, women are recreating the ecosystems. Women have been doing wonders in most of the fields of life. We see excellent women doctors all over the world like Tamika Cross who are serving humanity in an inspirational way. Also, we see excellent women athletes like Maria Sharapova who are making women proud in a way that they are not far behind men in sports. We see top businesswomen like Sheryl Sandberg who are a role model for not only girls but men as well. Also Read: Women's Entrepreneurship Role in UX and The Challenges

Top 20 Women Entrepreneurs Who You Should Follow in the Year 2018

In this post, you will find such top 20 women entrepreneurs who you should follow in New upcoming year 2018.

1. Beth Niebuhr:

Beth Niebuhr belongs to Prescott, Arizona. She is a mentor, coach, and most importantly CEO of “Encore Women”, a firm which helps women entrepreneurs fulfill their dreams through business growth. She is a lover of arts, aviation, and last but not least her family.

2. Jennifer Hyman:

Jennifer Hyman is the CEO and Co-founder of “Renttherunway” and “projectentrepreneur.org” which are renting services and women entrepreneurs facilitating firms. She belongs to New York City, USA.

3. Brittney Castro, CFP:

Brittney Castro is the CEO and founder of “Financially Wise Women” which is basically a financial planning firm. It helps women in financial management. She is also an excellent speaker and partner at entrepreneur.com.

4. Holly Worton:

Holly Worton is an author, podcaster, and businesswoman. She has the goal of mentoring women entrepreneurs.  And she is from Surrey, UK. She has been in business since 1999. Her first business was related to hospitality.

5. CAMILITA NUTTALL:

Camilita Nuttall is well known as a Rock Star international speaker. She is an excellent motivator and award-winning corporate sales and business growth specialist; she is an entrepreneur, who teaches the world to live like a champion.

6. Nancy Hayes:

Nancy Hayes provides consultancy on career and leadership. She mentors women entrepreneurs. Also, she is an active angel investor. She has been CEO of a nonprofit organization, Starbright. She believes in developing quality leaders.

7. Cameka Smith:

Cameka Smith is an influencer, excellent speaker, and co-founder of The Boss Network, a community for women entrepreneurs. She has been among the top 10 businesswomen on Forbes and Inc.

8. Nina Kaufman:

Nina Kaufman is among 30 women entrepreneurs according to Forbes. She is an excellent speaker and blogger. Also, she is from New York City. She is running a blog askthebussinesslawyer.com. She aims to provide counseling to women entrepreneurs.

9. Nancy Chorpenning:

Nancy Chorpenning loves helping women entrepreneurs re-setting their vision. She is an advocate for women entrepreneurs. Also, she helps women whose businesses are in a growth phase. She is co-founder and managing director of “C-suite advisors”. She is also from Atlanta.

10. Nicholla Henerson:

Nicholla Henerson interviews women entrepreneurs in the Middle East. She is running the “learning curve podcast” which features female talent in entrepreneurship.

11. Kelli Thomas Drake:

Kelli Thomas Drake is the founder of a health app “My Purple Folder”. She is a very renowned personality among women in the tech industry. she belongs to Dallas, San Francisco.

12. Holly Ransom:

Holly Ransom is the CEO of “Emergent”, a firm which works on disruptive strategy and capacity building for change management. She is a very experienced director in public and private organizations.  She belongs to Australia.

13. Allison Maslan:

Allison Maslan is another name among top women entrepreneurs. She has been the number 1 bestselling author and has built 110 successful companies. Also, she is the CEO of Allison Maslan, a business coaching agency. She is from San Diego, Canada.

14. Ingrid Vanderveldt:

Ingrid Vanderveldt is the founder of ebw2020, which has the vision to empower women entrepreneurs by 2020.  She is also the 1st entrepreneur in residence at Dell. Also, she has been a TV show host and investor. She is from Austin, Texas.

15. Lashanda Henry:

Lashanda Henry is from NYC, USA. She is the founder of Sistasense which helps women to earn money online. And she is a mentor to women entrepreneurs online. She has been working great to empower black women entrepreneurs.

16. Alexa Von Tobel:

Alexa Von Tobel is the founder and CEO of “Learnwest”, a company to give financial advice to millions of Americans. She has been an NYC bestselling author. She belongs to New York.

17. Laura Fitton:

Laura Fitton is the CEO and founder of One Forty which was later acquired by HubSpot. She works on Inbound for Hubspot.  She is from Boston, MA.

18. Olga:

Olga is the CEO and founder of Shoptiques, a company to innovates the online shopping experience. This young lady is also from New York.

19. Julia Hartz:

Julia Hartz is the CEO and co-founder of Eventbrite, a platform to build, manage and grow events. She is from San Francisco, CA.

20. Gina Bianchini:

Gina Bianchini is the founder and CEO of “Mighty Networks”, a social network which enables to transformation of fans into a community. She is from Palo Alto, CA.

End Note:

The above 20 women entrepreneurs have no doubt performed a tremendous job, but there are many other names which are also performing great and are empowering women with their efforts and services. Thanks to every single lady who is an entrepreneur in any corner of the world.

The wall-street landscape is filled with visionaries aspiring to change how we use products, services, and ideas. However, life is not all about Rainbows & Brownies. Plenty of startups fail within the first 5 years of the creation. Their ideas might be extraordinary, but what these young Entrepreneurs lack, is pitching to investors. Entrepreneurs should avoid mistakes while pitching their ideas to investors. Most mistakes are just blunders that are made by founders who don’t know well about their investors. The good is, you can avoid these blunders & get you’re a-game started. As a serial Entrepreneur, know what it takes to pitch your idea to the investor. You need to create that perfect pitch to inspire your investor. After listening to hundreds of pitches, some amazing, and others boring, I’ve brainstormed some ideas that can help the young Entrepreneurs, or the startups to avoid these mistakes while pitching the idea to the investors.

The Whole Team is Present But Only Your CEO is Speaking

Finding an investor is like finding a new family for your business. And the more your investor knows about your team members, the better. Give an introduction to every team member & let them speak. Don’t intervene while your team member is speaking. In this way, your investor will be comfortable with all your team members.

Telling a Engaging Story

What most of the Entrepreneurs need to learn is the art of storytelling. Everyone can tell a dull story, but it takes practice to tell an engaging story. The art of storytelling is one vital skill for every Entrepreneur.  By laying down a powerful story you can convey your message with passion & enthusiasm. Whether you believe it or not, we humans are social animals that are touched by emotions. Investors will be looking forward to your big idea to unleash in a story that they can relate to. Whether we like it or not, we are all somewhat emotional creatures, investors included. Engaging your audience with a good story they can relate to captures their attention and opens them up to want to learn more. A use case is a great way to structure a story and allows the investor to visualize how your customers could use and benefit from your solution.

Keep the Presentation Duration Less Than a Minute

Most young Entrepreneurs feel like, a long email will help to impress the investors. This is a total myth. Your presentation should be short & simple. You need to divide the presentation among your team members so all can speak and there is some diversity for the investors to keep the conversation engaging. Even if you’re pitching the investor via email, make sure it is a short one. No need to give the full details in the email. Just give an overview of your business idea and save the curiosity for the presentation.

Lack of Clear Direction & Strategy

What most Entrepreneurs fail to realize is that investors are visionaries too. If you’re willing to get something from the investor, you need to be specific about where you want your business to be in the next 5 years. The investor needs to know your growth plan & strategy you will be using to move your business to the next level. And one thing more. You need to ensure that all your team members are on the same page. When in front of the investor, do not argue or negate your team member. But make sure you all know where you want your business in the next 5 – 10 years.

Features, Not Benefits Will Level Up Your Game

Another mistake which entrepreneurs make when creating their pitch is to list a ton of features and technical terms. Sure, the investors are smart, but some of them lack the technical know-how and the jargon. Do not impress them with the technical lingo. Entrepreneurs make the mistake of focusing on the benefits rather than the features of the product. Your investors and even the customers don’t care what benefits they are getting. What they need is what features are there that can help them solve their problem. How you share that with the investor will help the investor in making the right decision.

Ignoring the Competition

It is surprising how many startup decks do not even mention competition. Some claim to have no competition while some claim minimal competition. This is where you start losing trust with your investors. Look at the market in the totality and mention all your competitor names. You can then go niche, talk about a sub-segment, and highlight the absence of competition there. For 99% of businesses in the world, there is always competition. As one investor told me, “If there is really no competition, I might not even want to invest.”

Lack of Communication Skills

It doesn’t matter if it is your idea or not, if you cannot put your idea in the right words in front of the investor, all your efforts will go unnoticed. Many founders have no negotiation skills or lack confidence in what they are worth. They’re often unable to sell the product – especially techies who have this problem – or unable to sell the company to investors in a persuasive manner. On the other hand, they don’t see they are not unique, many ignore the market. They often ask for too much while not having a clear vision of how to spend the money.

To Conclude it All

To end it all. Pitching is one of the most difficult parts of the puzzle. But if you go well-prepared you will be able to pull off the deal. These are proven tips that have worked for me, and my friends. Try them out and let us know the result.

This post focuses on strategies to help creative professionals overcome procrastination and boost productivity. You remember the famous speech of Martin Luther King. The night before the speech. Martin Luther King was busy re-writing the speech till 3 am in the morning. And right before he was about to give the speech, sitting in the audience he was still editing the draft. I am sure, he was not correcting his grammar. 11 minutes on the stage, he said the historical 4 words, ‘I have a dream’ and the best part, these words were not even in the speech which he wrote. So, where did the words come from? Yes, Martin Luther King did deliberate procrastination to unleash his creative genius.

"You call it procrastinating I call it thinking." ~Aaron Sorkin

Procrastination is labeled as a negative word. But William Shakespeare said it best "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so." As an Entrepreneur, you will be twisted, crippled, rejected, and often misunderstood. But your will to succeed at any given moment will decide the length you’ll go on your journey.

To procrastinate creatively, you need to first understand the creative process.

The Creative Process Goes Like

• This is an awesome idea.
• This sounds tricky.
• This is crap.
• I am crap.
• This might be okay.
• This is awesome.

When you’re doing creative procrastination, you will have to skip the ‘I am crap’ part. When you are about to do the thinking process, pick an idea and follow the following thought process:

• This is an awesome idea.
• This sounds tricky.
• This is crap.
• This might be okay.
• This is awesome.

Tip 1: Write Everything Down

No matter how great your IQ is, or your much you can remember, as an Entrepreneur, you need to write everything down. Start with personal journaling and move it into creative writing. To start off with, write everything that goes into your day. After you establish that habit of writing everything down, you will be able to take down ideas from it. You will perform best when you will do it when you are procrastinating. While procrastinating your mind will be relaxed & you will come up with great ideas. You can also plan your day. Jot down the to-do of the day or whatever needs to be done.

Tip 2: Make Deadlines

Another way Entrepreneurs can shine while procrastinating is by adding deadlines to their projects. For me, deadlines provide greater clarity of what I want to achieve. Having deadlines gives you the sense of urgency you need to get the important tasks done. For instance, I always find it very boring to prepare project reports. At Branex we prepare project reports for all projects that are successfully completed. These reports include time spent on the project, screenshots of the final designs, color codes, font names, a creative brief, and customer details. Apart from motivation, these reports provide us with a way to stick to heavy deadlines and do things on time. I use Outlook calendar heavily for managing my tasks and my deadlines.

Tip 3: Change Your Environment

Sometimes it is not the project itself, it is the environment that makes all the difference. If you want to procrastinate creatively you need to change your environment. By changing the environment, you can procrastinate in some different surroundings which will activate the creative juices in your brain. In our firm, bloggers are the creative types. They are often found wandering all over the place, and what they get by wandering? An awesome blog idea.

Tip 4: Don’t be a Perfectionist

You don’t need to be perfect. Sometimes a half-baked product is a great way to unleash your creative genius.

Also Read: 7 Productivity Hacks for Lazy Entrepreneurs

Instead of spending hours trying to get the color to match exactly, try to get the closest match and show it to your client. This will enable you to get that task done and allow your client to evaluate the color and tell you if they want a closer match.

Tip 5: Execute Now & Figure Out Later

Not everything can be figured out right at the time. Sometimes you need to execute things and pivot them later. While you are busy procrastinating for the next idea. Go ahead and launch it. Running a successful online creative/design business means that you will have to work on both interesting and the no-so interesting projects. You must take on the tasks and do them with a positive attitude. Take everything with a positive attitude. You don’t need to jump to conclusions. Just let the creativity come naturally.

Turning sales prospects into actual customers is not an easy feat. There’s no better feeling in business than that moment when you convert a prospect into a customer. And to do that, you need to do a lot of things right all at once to close the deal. But where do you start?  These savvy entrepreneurs share how to discuss the plan to make your negotiations more profitable and how to get that handshake that will close the qualified lead for sales.  Also Read: 5 Life Lessons Learn From Highly Successful Entrepreneurs

Be Omnipresent to Nurture Opportunities 

Tom Ferry, CEO and Founder of Tom Ferry International, author of “Life! By Design” shared the secret to close significant deals. According to him, you need four things to close leads that can give you good business opportunities. 

• List down the big companies or entrepreneurs you want to work closely with. Figure out their pain points and what matters most to them. Then, create content that clearly depicts how you will solve their problems faster, with better customer service at a fair price. Knowing the sales value of one deal makes it easier for you to spend on your prospects per annum.

• Build a pipeline to foster more opportunities. Take every chance, attend every meeting, and accept every project regardless of its worth, just to show how you offer immense value. This way, your prospects eventually take notice. Make contacts and foster relationships. Don’t forget to ask for testimonials.

• Do something very inspiring to stay at the forefront of your prospects’ minds. Stay up-to-date with all the significant opportunities that you can get to work with those big-deal decision-makers.

• Work hard and become a reliable name in the business industry. Mention your success stories and wins on social media - no matter how big or small, that show your team's efforts and products. Big companies that close huge deals want to work with winners.

Communicate Positively

Grant Cardone, Top Sales Expert, NYT- Bestselling Author of “Be Obsessed or Be Average” believes that while closing a deal of any size, you should communicate confidently and clearly, otherwise, people won’t trust you. He uses recorders and videos to ensure his communication comes across the way he intended. He believes that he will reach an agreement, no matter what the buyer or other people say. The approach of knowing each other to close the agreement requires you to remove all negativity from your surroundings as it is a fatal disease. Grant always remains positive no matter how the buyer behaves, he keeps things light, always smiles, and maintains a can-do attitude throughout the process of negotiations. Grant thinks when you succumb to negativity, there will be an outcome that is not good. Communicate positively and practice smiling with every buyer in every situation you come across. Repeat the steps until you can negotiate and close the deal.

Negotiate for Fair Value

Tai Lopez, investor and Advisor to Million-Dollar Businesses, learned three tips that school doesn’t prepare you for doing deals.

• If your first offer is accepted, you probably won’t negotiate enough. However, don’t be upset if they don’t accept your initial offer.

• Don’t always try to get the best deal. Warren Buffett – the billionaire says, it’s better to pay a fair price for a quality product than a few bucks for a piece of crap. Tai says that sometimes he waited for too long to negotiate the business deal and ended up with nothing. It’s far better to pay a little more to have real investments.

• Read the agreement before signing. Many people sign anything without even bothering to read the document. He advised business founders and salespersons to read the contract in a relaxed, calm way and carefully know what they are signing. If possible, let some other people spot things that you might miss.   

Learn to Compromise

Com Mirza, CEO of Mirza Holdings, $500 Million Man, believes that big deals don’t come around very often. And when they do, think carefully to create a mutually beneficial contract. He follows some simple rules:

• If your terms and conditions are not met, be ready to withdraw. The deal only makes sense if you get what you are trying to achieve, otherwise, it’s useless.

• Always willing to compromise on your lower-priority terms and conditions. Once you get what you want to achieve, make sure the clients get what they want. Sometimes, you have to show that you care by negotiating on an unimportant part and confusing the other side about what matters to you.

• Focus intensely on creating a win-win situation for everyone involved in the deal. Because if a single person finds that the deal is not a win-win, they disrupt the deal.

Strengthening Relationships

Chris Plough, Author, Speaker, and Founder Partner of ExponentialU, says that he closed six, seven, and even eight-figure deals. Some deals were easy, and took days to close, while others were very difficult, and took months. It is always important to reach a mutually beneficial agreement that fosters the relationship between you and your client. He wants business owners and salespersons to remember three things.

• Getting what you want starts before the deal. Negotiating and signing a contract is a small part of the whole process. Knowing people before closing the deal provides a foundation of trust and understanding to begin negotiations.
• While finalizing the deal, it is important to keep in mind what matters most to you and the other party. Ask the other party what is important to them, and give importance to what they value most. This may cost you little, but it can make you money.
• Work as a team once you finalize the deal. Build a strong relationship, no matter how difficult the negotiations. Work with the right people and foster a relationship, as it carries you through difficult times and influences your success.

Follow the steps these entrepreneurs take to grow your business and reach new heights of success.

“When I am out there walking, cycling, or just sitting appreciating the view around me, I am actually looking for opportunities to capture images for my Instagram feed. All I require is an iPhone or an iPod, which helps me capture and post my inspiration right on the spot,” Jamie Oliver, the celebrity Chef and Entrepreneur. Jamie is not an ordinary chef. If you look at his Instagram followers, you will get the idea of how smartly he is using images to market his brand online. With a humongous following of 412,000+ followers and still counting, Jamie knows the power of engagement, which can be done with the power of visual content. While the iPhone only takes ordinary images, Instagram further adds a ‘zing’ factor to that ordinary photo and converts it into an extraordinary image.

• In an analysis of over 1 million articles, BuzzSumo found that articles with an image once every 75-100 words received double the social media shares as articles with fewer images.
• Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images.

You can see images all around the internet and with Pinterest and Snapchat changing the way we used to see images, it is now up to Entrepreneurs how they use the power of visuals to leverage their ecommerce websites.

How Visual Marketing Affects the Natural Power of the Brain

Once upon a time communication between people was done purely on the basis of symbols. People used to share ideas and thoughts based on whose content was rich with meaning and the entire thought was conveyed with a single symbol. Now, although letters are also considered symbols, they must be placed together with words to make sense, and those words are put into a sentence to understand the context of those words.

The Modern Way to Express Symbols Via Infographics

If you are a modern Entrepreneur, you probably see a humongous amount of Infographics popping up every single day. This is because an infographic is an effective way to convey a large amount of data in one single image. In one way, you can consider infographics as complex information compressed into a format that allows users to grab information at a glance. New York University psychologist Jerome Bruner has discussed studies that look at the correlation between human brains, visually, and learning. The results show that people only remember 10% of what they hear and 20% of what they read, but about 80% of what they see. In his The Complete Guide to Understanding Consumer Psychology, Neil Patel adds that 92.6% of people say the visual dimension is the #1 influencing factor affecting their purchase decision (over factors like taste and smell).

Why Visual Content Matters For Entrepreneurs?

To start with Instagram itself is a prodigy. Passing the 300 million user mark and surpassing Twitter and its 284 million active users. As per the Instagram website, there are approximately 70 million photos shared each day on Instagram. “As an Entrepreneur, I started my second venture on Instagram and from there onwards it was all easy to get orders without spending a dime on marketing,” says Yousuf Rafi, Serial Entrepreneur and Digital Strategist at Branex. If you are still not convinced about using visual content for your next venture. Here are some more stats. With Instagram, there are 216,000 photos posted, and Pinterest users pin 3,467 images. As for videos, 8,333 videos are uploaded and shared on YouTube and Vine per minute. If we keep in mind that 277,000 tweets and 2,460,000 posts are shared on Twitter and Facebook every sixty seconds, the numbers make a strong case for Entrepreneurs to use images and leverage their content to promote their activities online. Last year, folks at Buzzsumo shared results of 100 million articles, the purpose of those articles is to note what factors make content viral. And as you might have guessed it, it was visual content. However, one mistake Entrepreneurs make while going for visual content is to grab images that appear first on Google and share them on all the various Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter without following a proper strategy. Some share the low-resolution image, which nearly kills the purpose of going for visual content in the first place. So, as an Entrepreneur, you might be wondering how you create images that entice your customers to buy from you. Well, for starters, there are tools that you can use to create fantastic images yourself.

Web-based Tools for Creating Eye-catching Images

You can label Canva as a Swiss army knife for visual content creation, a must for every Entrepreneur going for visual images. Often called ‘the easiest design program for visual markers’ even if they don’t know how to design. You can create Facebook covers or perhaps a Twitter header, this tool will be enough for you to start. And the best thing about Canva is that it automatically optimizes images for every platform. PicMonkey is another alternative to Adobe Photoshop which lets you quickly edit, touch up images, and create some ravishing collages all without the need to sign up for the process. Just start with uploading images from your computer and you can do most of the Photoshop things like adding a canvas, applying a frame, or even adding an overlay to images right with just a few clicks. Quotes Cover is one of my personal favorite tools that I still use. The good thing is that you need zero design skills for this tool. You simply add some text, and this amazing tool will create fantastic images out of it. You have control over the background and colors that go with the text, which makes it even easier.

To Conclude It All

We are living in an age where it is nearly impossible to compete. But Entrepreneurs have the advantage of using tools which make everyday things so simple. So if you are a startup, do tell us what tools you are using to save your time because, in the end, sharing is caring.

The constellation of web design tools is always in a state of flux and growing with each passing moment. Thanks to ever-evolving technology that keeps on enhancing and upgrading, standards keep on changing, and every month new tools are popping up for you to try out that can enhance your capabilities as a designer, or developer or give you insights into the world of designing that help you a lot in crafting the perfect product design if you’re on a solo flight as an entrepreneur. So, whether you’re a front-end designer in a web design agency, a freelancer, a web developer, or an entrepreneur exploring ways to launch your business on the web, you need a variety of tools to help you become more efficient. There are loads of DIY website builders, logo generators, social media image makers, video editors, and much more, but how do you know which one is actually the right choice for your brand? Scroll down and you will find a list of the most 18 useful web design, development, and testing tools for beginners to try out and see how they work for you.

SmartMockups

There are a lot of images you can use on your website such as images of products, images of satisfied customers, or anything that represents your company culture. To make your life easier, you can use SmartMockups. All you need to simply upload your app’s screenshot and download a mockup. No need to use Photoshop, no hassle at all.

Peek

What’s the point of creating a visually appealing website if it has usability issues? Peek is a free tool that provides you with a 5-minute review of your website. It highlights all the glaring UX issues so that you can fix them and make your website functional.

Browser Calories

In this day and age, when all of us are using smartphones for browsing, as a designer, developer, or business owner, you need to keep an eye on page weights. This icon, placed next to the address bar, lets you know the page weight of anything you are looking at.

Cool Text

This free tool helps you generate graphics for websites and logos without overburdening you with the design work. You can simply choose the type of image you like most, fill out a form, and your custom-made image is done.

LucidPress

If you are looking for an elegant digital or print design for a brochure, flyer, or newsletter, then using LucidPress is a wise choice. It is an easy-to-use tool that has a drag-and-drop capability which makes text, photo, and video layout a lot easier.

Inspectlet

This amazing tool provides a great way to analyze how your visitors engage with your website. You can easily watch how far they scroll, on which section they click, and even on which page they spend their time most. This will help you optimize your website design and content to get maximum user engagement.

Frontify Style Guide

It provides an outstanding solution to all your functional, and visual needs. With Frontify you can easily create professional design guidelines for your brand. No matter if it is a logo, image, color, font, digital and print content, it can manage files as easily as you would expect.

ScreenFlow

In the realm of video editing, if you are facing difficulty in finding a perfect app that can help you create GIFs, don’t worry, ScreenFlow is here to help you out. With this simple interface, you can animate, edit, and even shoot screens.

Photodex

You will find this app simply amazing. This tool lets you stitch together images and graphics into a video. It’s free version allows you to use up to 15 images which is perfect for a simple YouTube video.

HTML5 UP

Believe it or not, templates are lifesavers. If you are a design noob, you will surely find HTML5 UP very useful. It offers well-designed and properly coded templates to help you create your landing pages.

WebFlow

This great tool offers a lot of unexpected features like CMS and advanced animations along with an option of HTML exports. The tool has a free plan available.

Pexels

Stock images can make your website design more appealing and attention-grabbing. Pexels is an amazing tool that allows you to search through a lot of sources of free stock images. You can choose photos of your choice, it has something for everyone.

Visual Website Optimizer

A/B testing is a must for your website, and Visual Website Optimizer is an amazing tool that offers a simple way to set up A/B tests. Try it out as it is very promising and affordable.

Canva

Canva is a great, free tool for creating simple graphics for blog posts, content marketing, social media marketing, newsletters, and so on.

15. TypeGenius

Using the right type of font is important for your website. TypeGenius is an amazing tool that suggests perfect font combinations based on your choice.  

Foundation

This prototyping tool serves as a blueprint for your responsive website. The latest version offers an easy-grid structure that makes styling even more flexible and convenient. It works great with CSS and SASS.

Load Impact

In this competitive business world, your website needs to load faster and quickly. Load Impact is a cloud-based service that lets you test how your website, mobile app, or API is performing with a million concurrent users. It makes load testing and website optimization easier to generate traffic load from existing users.

Pingdom

It is a service that can easily monitor the uptime, downtime, and performance of your website. All you need to upload a full image in HTML and it will mimic the loading process of your website while incorporating all the elements such as RSS, CSS, images, etc. This way you can check and track the efficiency of your website.

Final Words

This list could be much bigger as there are a lot of great tools and services available and it’s almost impossible to get them all in one blog post. But the above-mentioned tools are the best options to try out for beginners, designers, developers, and small business owners. So, use these handy tools and improve your website quality in terms of design, functionality, and coding.

Although it is a myth, sometimes myths teach us lifelong lessons, too. The legendary story goes like this: Pablo Picasso was sketching in the park when a bold woman approached him. “It’s you — Picasso, the great artist! Oh, you must sketch my portrait! I insist.” So Picasso agreed to sketch her. After studying her for a moment, he used a single pencil stroke to create her portrait. He handed the woman his work of art. “It’s perfect!” she gushed. “You managed to capture my essence with one stroke, in one moment. Thank you! How much do I owe you?” “Five thousand dollars,” the artist replied. “But, what?” the woman sputtered. “How could you want so much money for this picture? It only took you a second to draw it!” To which Picasso responded, “Madame, it took me my entire life.” It's like Picasso was born an artist: his first word was "piz," short of lápizthe Spanish word for 'pencil.' His father Ruiz, an artist and art professor, gave him a formal education in art starting from the age of 7. By 13, Ruiz vowed to give up painting as he felt that Pablo had surpassed him. Pablo Picasso was one of the most creative, generative, and influential artists ever lived. A man who created his own destiny – who constantly outperformed himself every time he did the brush stroke. Regardless of what critics think said, he was creating marvelous masterpieces and had fun doing it. So, how does that relate to Entrepreneurship, well, of course, you will have to find out by reading this blog till the end. Also Read: 5 Lifelong Lessons You Can Learn From Highly Successful Entrepreneurs I believe that the personal philosophies of Pablo Picasso can teach young Entrepreneurs a bundle of lessons. Here is how:

1. Work Like a Child

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” ~ Picasso Do you remember when you were a child and you had no limits to creativity? You were given a paper and you scribbled some random things on the paper. You had no concept of good or bad so you drew whatever you thought was right. But as we grow old, we tend to lose that inner child. We lose that creative juice when people decide what we need to think & what we don’t need to think. As an Entrepreneur, you will be faced with decisions every day. Decisions, that can either make or break your venture. If you do some brainstorming, you will realize that the best solutions will come to you when you think like a child. Drifting away in the Himalayas away from Earth, into a new dimension, that will unleash the child within. “It took me four years to paint like Rafael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” ~ Pablo Picasso For most Entrepreneurs, we learn the rules and follow them. But what about unlearning the rules and creating some new ones?

2. Steal Like an Artist

As the master himself says “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” Basically, it is not stealing, it is merely exploring the ideas and adding your flavor to them. It is often said that nothing is original, everything is a remix. For an Entrepreneur, there are thousands of ideas on the internet and in our daily lives. There are hundreds of ways to solve a problem, but what new we bring to the table is the question we all need to be asking. Finding a solution to complex problems is what entrepreneurs do, and then they learn how to earn with that solution.

3. Use What To Have to Get Wherever You Want To Go

“If I don’t have red, I use blue.” – Picasso Picasso was well known for going through certain phases— when he would only paint with a certain color or hue. For example, during Picasso’s “Blue Period” (Período Azul) he only made monochromatic paintings with cold blue/blue-green colors. These paintings tended to be on the moody and melancholy side. The same goes for Entrepreneurs. For them, it is like starting something they don’t know and finding the solutions as they walk on this earth. Many times, you will be faced with problems that require certain expertise, but at times you do not possess those special traits, so what do you do? You focus on your strengths and outsmart the competition with your strengths.

4. Eliminate the Unnecessary

“Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.” – Picasso One good example of Picasso’s working method was his studies on the “deconstruction of a bull.” You see how he started off with a realistic form of a bull and kept subtracting until he was left with what he considered the “essence” of the bull. Just like Picasso did, you as an Entrepreneur need to focus on what is most important for your business. Not your parents, not your neighbors, not your annoying high school friend, it is you who needs to do what is good for your business. And how to do that. Simply, write the pros and cons before making any decisions and then follow your gut to eliminate what you think is not right for your business.

5. Giving Your Gift Away

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” ~ Picasso We all have a gift that we can use to help others. We have a gift to give others— a gift that can empower others to become the best version of themselves. As an Entrepreneur, it is wise to share your learning with the world. Great, a tribe and the young chaps are on their way up. Of course, do not charge them for the lessons you gave because these lessons are your gift to them. As per the words of Tony Robbins, “The gift of giving is the greatest gift one can give to others.” Picasso was an exceptional man who lived according to his standards and was creative until he died. He left nothing undone. He stretched and pushed his artistic boundaries and was prolific as hell. He played like a child, experimented, and always questioned authority and the “rules.” We can all live a creative life like Picasso. It just means reconnecting with our inner child and seeing our creative work like play. It means not compromising with our artistic standards, and making the best art regardless of our situation in life. Oh, btw, if you are willing to get some roof-raising, cool custom-based website for your new venture, do connect with us. Branex is helping brands turn their websites into a fully-featured mobile app that gets diversified traffic & you will get some strong leads too.

Over the past two years, eCommerce took a mammoth turn. With eCommerce sales rising to $300 billion, we are on the verge of eCommerce evolution. By the year 2020, it is estimated that eCommerce sales will rise to $12 trillion, according to Frost & Sullivan. It is important to mention here that the volume of transactions will vary between B2B and B2C. If you are an Entrepreneur and willing to start your eCommerce store, now is the best time to do so. If you have the next big idea, now is the time to turn it into gold. “You could be the next person to succeed if you choose to learn from successful people instead of being envious of them. Moreover, aren't they successful because they learned and continue to learn from others?”  ~ Edmond Mbiaka Here at Branex, we have compiled a checklist that can be a guideline for you to start your business from scratch.

Tips By Gary Vaynerchuk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoydAQlZlHY

Start with a Business Plan

Researchers say that “Business planning is positively related to business success. Entrepreneurs who start with a business plan are more likely to succeed in the real world. I still remember my last lecture on MBA. My professor came next to me and cursed me for not making a business plan for my first start. Which I later realized was the first step I missed. When you create a business plan, you give the impression that you are serious about your venture. You mean business. Yes, for some, this is a tedious job. Well, who is asking to go for complex novel-based documents? Your business plan can be as simple as a one-pager, which you and your stakeholders need to understand.

Pick a Catchy Domain Name

With over $1.17 billion people using Google to search and learn every day, it is nearly impossible for Entrepreneurs to pick a memorable domain name which then can later be optimized for search engines too. So, despite giving some thought to the domain name. Young Entrepreneurs make a very silly mistake. For instance, if you are willing to sell custom shoes, you will surely not find customshoes.com or custommadeshoes.com (which is quite long btw), so Entrepreneurs go with coolcustommadeshoes.com (Which is quite long and not cool at all). Got it, what do I mean? For domain names, do some research on the Internet. See what custom shoes translate to in different languages and pick that. Study the culture of your target market and pick some slang from the local market. There are tons of ideas you can use to pick a domain name, but just keep in mind that it should be short, easy to remember, easy to spell, and doesn’t sound awkward when translated into a different language.

Go for a Reliable Web Hosting Service

Your web host will be the nucleus of your business. I remember the first time my website went down and it took three business days for the web hosting company to get back up. While hosting companies charge a hefty fee for their services, make sure to run by all the services they are offering. Cheap hosting doesn’t really mean a reliable one. Read reviews, ask friends, and go for someone who is working for them. This is usually a one-time deal. You will choose a web hosting that will cater for a one-year or three-year period of time, so make sure to choose wisely.

Spend Time and Resources on Content Marketing

Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic. They are capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it at the same time. For most people, content marketing is just like putting words on the internet to support your SEO. Well, sorry to disappoint you guys. Content marketing is the modern-day golden chicken & egg. If you use it wisely, you can harness the power of lead generation & multiply your sales in no time. It is often good to invest in content marketing for some quality content. This will not just help bring some leads, it will also help you in your SEO.

Pick a Passionate Web Designer

I always respect people who do work just for the sake of work. Yes, go to Freelancer and you will find thousands of web designers who can make cheap web mock-ups for you. But, ask yourself this: will these designs catch the eye of your visitor? The survey suggests that a visitor takes only 5 seconds to judge your website. So, is it worth it to go for a designer who just works for money? I would suggest going for someone who is passionate about their work. Set a meeting with the designer and look into his eyes. Eyes are reflections of our souls. If he is thrilled about the design & feels excited about your project hire him on the spot.

Time to Pick an eCommerce CMS

An eCommerce CMS is the backbone of your ideas. It will display your dreams and manage the inventory of your products. Selecting the right eCommerce CMS is one hell of a job. In this, you need to take care of both the aspects, the developer and the customer side. Will the backhand be easy enough that your team can get along with the interface & will the customers find it easy to browse & search for their desired products? An ounce of research goes a long way. Google some eCommerce CMS and read what people are saying about them. Take notes of the pros and cons and go for that which is good for you.

Use a Secure Credit Card Merchant

While most of the customers will be paying via PayPal, still it is your responsibility to cater to all the visitors who drop to your website. Normally, Entrepreneurs run away from credit card merchant accounts because at the start it might seem pricey. Typically banks charge a set-up fee, a monthly fee, and a percentage of each transaction.

What About Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

What is the purpose of your website if it doesn’t show up on the first page of Google? Nowadays, people hire SEO gurus to fine-tune their websites to attain a high ranking in Google. If you do not know how to set up your SEO, you can always Google some articles and learn before you hire a specialist.

Shipping Rate Structure

Before you even step into your first order, ensure what you will charge for normal shipping, one-day shipping, and date-specific delivery. Even at first, if you lose some money to make some customers, it is quite a good deal. And also, even providing free shipping on certain items is a great way to attract some genuine customers.

To Conclude It All

A simple checklist is often good to keep in hand; this will protect you & your team from a massive amount of misery & slip-ups down the line, & will enable you to hit the ground running with your efforts to drive actual sales.

Don’t let stress corrode your mind into rust. Let the problems of yesterday shrivel & bite the dust. Don’t let uncertainties shatter your equilibrium. Let each new day. Make your life awesome with successful entrepreneurs. They say if you want to go somewhere then you need to ask someone for directions who has been there. Being an Entrepreneur is not an easy task. Trust me. I have been there. You have to do the daily groundwork to be someone. People will surely dislike you for following for dreams. But, if you’re determined enough to create a path of your own then these same people will ask you for help. Uber-successful entrepreneurs didn’t just wake up one day & announce themselves as successful. Infected these people adopted the rituals and practices that make them so. If you want to be one of them, you would have to be like them. Muhammad Ali beautifully said “Fake it till you make it” Yes you need to fake the rituals that successful Entrepreneurs are adopting until these habits become second nature to you. If we analyze the daily lives & rituals of the uber-successful entrepreneurs, this will give us an insight into how they were able to achieve the so-called overnight success in their lives. Therefore, Branex picks our favorite morning routines of successful entrepreneurs. Following them is sure to bring a positive transformation in your life.