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Basics of Startup Financial Planning

What goes into a useful set of financial projections for a startup?

How do you go about building a set of projections that meet your needs and best position you for success?

In this free webinar, Tom Schryver, Visiting Lecturer of Management at Cornell University, provides an overview of financial modeling and planning principles for startups. This session includes:

• How different reviewers of these projections look at them, and what they look for
• A high level overview of how to construct a set of projections
• How to break down the components of financial projections into actionable blocks

Tom is an experienced entrepreneur, having served as a startup founder and senior executive of high-growth companies. He has successfully structured new companies and raised capital in the form of private venture capital and venture debt as well as grants and loans from local, state and federal agencies. He has managed accounting and compliance functions from initial startup through successful financial audits by national accounting firms, and helped guide company strategy, growth and development.

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HR Technology In the Era of Drones, Robots, and Infinite Data

Amazon.com delivery drones, robotic co-workers, Google’s self-driving cars… How will these new technologies impact workforce and HR functions over the next few years?

Recently, we’ve seen quick adoption of mobile technologies, real-time performance analytics, and automated recruitment/retention platforms that we couldn’t have predicted just a few years ago. So it’s safe to assume we’ll see even bigger advancements in HR tech in the months and years to come.

While it’s tough to predict exactly where we’re headed, failure to embrace new workplace technologies could leave not only you, but your entire organization underperforming and lagging behind your competitors. In this one-hour webinar, Steve Boese (HR Technology Conference Co-Chair, host of the The HR Happy Hour Podcast):

  • reviews and recommends technologies that simplify and automate HR workflows and functions.
  • highlights business technologies that are fundamentally changing the way people work.
  • provides info and resources to help you stay ahead of the curve and at the forefront of modern HR practice.

 

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Still Selling Like It’s 1999? Meet the Modern Buyer

Face it: Nobody wants to be sold to. 
Today’s modern buyer is mobile, digitally driven, and socially connected — able to make informed purchasing decisions without the influence of a salesperson. In fact, 57% of buying decisions are made before a salesperson is engaged. The modern buyer rarely buys anything without researching it thoroughly. 

Forget “selling.” The role of the modern seller is to educate and empower the buyer with information. Potential customers must trust you before they trust your brand. If you’ve helped them make the right buying decision, you’ll have a customer for life — better yet, a digital evangelist who will effectively do the selling for you. 

In this webinar, Jill shows you how to: 

  • Create and curate content that empowers and enables prospects.
  • Feed your sales pipeline with people who will contact you when they’re ready to buy.
  • Leverage social networks to your advantage.
  • Stop using LinkedIn as your online resume.

Jill Rowley is a social-selling advocate, a speaker, and a trainer. Companies like Eloqua, Salesforce.com, and Oracle have enlisted Jill to help transform their lead-management processes.

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The Influence Of Reputation Analytics On Hotel Revenue and Financial Performance

In his landmark study comparing Global Review IndexTM (GRI) scores with ADR, occupancy and RevPAR performance, Cornell’s Chris Anderson proved what intuition told every savvy revenue manager:

A hotel’s online reputation significantly impacts revenue potential.

Chris Anderson, Associate Professor at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and RJ Friedlander, CEO of ReviewPro, show how hoteliers across all segments of the industry are leveraging online reputation analytics to improve guest satisfaction, revenue and financial performance.

This fast-paced webinar offers a first-time look at Chris’s most recent research project which explores the relationship between review scores and REIT stock performance. You won’t want to miss listening to Chris discuss the results of this study and the potential game-changing impact the Global Review IndexTM could have on identifying under-/over-valued investments.

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Battle Mediocrity with Change Management Process

You’ve heard plenty of sayings, mantras and inspirational quotes about the power and necessity of change.

Here’s one more.

“Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.”
– Robert Kennedy

One of the enemies of change in business – perhaps its greatest – is a lack of process.

For effective leadership, understanding the change management process is critical.

Change is necessary for organizations to meet long-term goals and help employees reach their highest potential. Having a formal process can help leaders celebrate accomplishments and keep their vision organized and action-oriented.Read More

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What We Follow Fridays

Welcome to What We Follow Friday! The internet is teeming with new data, interesting stories, breaking news and so much more every single day and it’s easy for the important information to get lost in the noise. That’s why we’re sharing some of our favorites from around the web with you every Friday.

This week features stories about how our mornings look across the globe, companies that changed the world (the list may surprise you!), why being charitable is good for your business’s bottom line and more. Check them out:

The Making of a Great Logo
“Your company’s logo is the foundation of your business branding. It is probably the first interaction that you will have with your customers. An effective logo can establish the right tone and set the proper ethos. After years of crafting logos for different projects, I’ve come up with a set of questions that I always ask myself before delivering a new logo.”

Why Giving Back is Good for Business [Infographic]
“Companies that have increased their corporate giving in recent years are seeing a return on their investment in the form of higher revenues.  Among other causes, support for community and economic development programs has grown the most since 2010.”

27 Companies that Changed the World
“Business is the instrument that mankind has settled on to propagate change. Take a long step back and what do you see? A world of invention and unintended consequences.”

Ikea Knows How You Wake Up
“What do people on the other side of the globe eat, drink, do for fun?  In its latest Life at Home report, Ikea decided to look at how people wake up in eight different cities: Berlin, London, Moscow, Mumbai, Paris, Shanghai, Stockholm, and New York. New Yorkers, for instance, along with Stockholmers, are more likely than residents of any other surveyed city to work on the toilet. Who knew?”

Millennials Check Their Phones 43 Times a Day. Here’s What They Are Looking For. [Infographic]
“Millennials are a marketer’s dream: they are always plugged in. They are also a marketer’s nightmare: they have seen it all and have no patience. Across the globe, people between the ages of 18 and 36 check their phone 43 times a day on average, according to a survey of 1,800 millennials conducted by web analytics company SDL.”

If you come across an article you think we should be reading, tweet it to us, post it to our Facebook page, or leave us a comment at the bottom of the page!

 

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The Influence Of Reputation Analytics On Hotel Revenue and Financial Performance

In his landmark study comparing Global Review IndexTM (GRI) scores with ADR, occupancy and RevPAR performance, Cornell’s Chris Anderson proved what intuition told every savvy revenue manager:

A hotel’s online reputation significantly impacts revenue potential.

Join Chris Anderson, Associate Professor at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and RJ Friedlander, CEO of ReviewPro, to learn how hoteliers across all segments of the industry are leveraging online reputation analytics to improve guest satisfaction, revenue and financial performance on 6/19/14 from 10:00 – 10:45AM EDT. If you are unable to attend, you can still register and receive a video and slide deck from the presentation via email.

This fast-paced session will offer a first-time look at Chris’s most recent research project which explores the relationship between review scores and REIT stock performance. You won’t want to miss listening to Chris discuss the results of this study and the potential game-changing impact the Global Review IndexTM could have on identifying under-/over-valued investments.

Chris Anderson is an associate professor at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. His main research focus is on revenue management and service pricing. He actively works with industry, across numerous industry types, in the application and development of RM, having worked with a variety of hotels, airlines, rental car and tour companies as well as numerous consumer packaged goods and financial services firms. At the School of Hotel Administration, he teaches courses in revenue management and service operations management.

RJ Friedlander is the founder and CEO of ReviewPro. The company enables hoteliers and restaurateurs to increase guest satisfaction and grow revenue by proactively managing and improving their online reputation. The company’s suite of web-based tools, including the Revenue Optimizer, Advanced Guest Satisfaction Survey solution and Hotel Analysis Reports, provide the analysis, customer intelligence, competitive benchmarking and reporting needed to help hospitality professionals maximize their organization’s performance.

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What We Follow Fridays

Welcome to What We Follow Friday! The internet is teeming with new data, interesting stories, breaking news and so much more every single day and it’s easy for the important information to get lost in the noise. That’s why we’re sharing some of our favorites from around the web with you every Friday.

Here’s what we’ve picked this week:

The Innovation Strategies That Lead to Success (Infographic)
“Most companies acknowledge that innovation is vital to achieving success, yet more than half of businesses don’t have any innovation strategies in place. The reality is that there are some true roadblocks–like resource and budget constraints–which get in the way of focused innovation efforts. However there are other factors, such as strong and visionary leadership, that can foster innovation within a business.”

Is For-Profit the Future of Non-Profit?
“Charity is for patsies. If you really care about making the world a better place, buy a trendy bag. That was the logic Lauren Bush Lauren articulated in a 2013 interview about FEED, a for-profit entity she founded that creates simple, eco-friendly tote bags whose price covers the cost of donating school meals to children in Rwanda via the UN World Food Program.”

Take a Tip from Bezos: Customers Always Need a Seat at the Table
“When starting a new business, it’s understandable that the main focus is to develop an innovative product or service that will cause the market to stand up and pay attention. It’s also clear that entrepreneurs need passion and endless supply of energy to create a new business from that innovation.”

Does Samsung’s New Stress Monitoring App Really Work?
“With little fanfare, Samsung this week added a curious new feature to the health-monitoring app that comes with its Galaxy S5 smartphone and Gear smartwatches. On top of the existing pedometer, heart-rate monitor and various other means of self-diagnosis, the “S Health” app now also offers a “stress monitor,” which promises to keep a log of how anxious you get during the day.”

Physicists Prove Surprising Rule of Threes
“More than 40 years after a Soviet nuclear physicist proposed an outlandish theory that trios of particles can arrange themselves in an infinite nesting-doll configuration, experimentalists have reported strong evidence that this bizarre state of matter is real.”

If you come across an article you think we should be reading, tweet it to us, post it to our Facebook page, or leave us a comment at the bottom of the page!

 

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TripAdvisor & eCornell Launch Free Reputation Management Course

“As travel planning and booking become more dependent on online traveler reviews and opinions, online reputation management is paramount for property owners.” – Brian Payea, Head of Industry Relations, TripAdvisor

Does your business have an online reputation strategy in place? Are you fully capitalizing on its online reputation? If you’re unsure, the Managing your Online Reputation with TripAdvisor course from TripAdvisor and eCornell is for you. This free course was co-developed by TripAdvisor and eCornell and leverages research from Cornell University’s world-renowned School of Hotel Administration and faculty insights.

In the three-hour course, hoteliers will receive guidance and learn best practices from Cornell and TripAdvisor industry leaders on how to monitor and improve their property’s online reputation. The course focuses on building strategies and action plans for reputation management that ultimately drive bookings and revenue. The following topics are addressed in the curriculum:

  • Explain the importance of online reputation management to colleagues and peers
  • Take steps to assess your online reputation
  • Use methods for responding to online customer feedback
  • Understand the correlation between online reputation and revenue
  • Employ helpful tactics for incorporating customer feedback into day-to-day operations
  • Develop an action plan for managing your property’s online reputation based on best practices from Cornell and TripAdvisor

Effective management of online reputation is critical to building and maintaining your hospitality business. Get the reputation management skills you need today to drive occupancy, revenue, and growth. Enroll now for free.

1 comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Sites, worldwide, December 2013

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The New Rules for Customer Engagement

Consumer behaviors have changed drastically in the last several years. You should know; you’re likely an online consumer yourself. So you know that reaching the modern buyer can be a daunting, seemingly impossible, proposition. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Mathew Sweezey, Marketing Evangelist for Salesforce.com and author of Marketing Automation for Dummies, provides an overview of modern customer engagement and shows you how to execute on an engagement strategy that drives lasting results.

During this webinar, you’ll learn:

  • How the modern consumer makes buying decisions
  • Lead nurturing best practices to increase lead flow
  • Social media tactics and strategies that get results
  • How to value and get buy-in for your efforts

Mathew is the head of thought leadership for B2B marketing at Salesforce.com. A consummate writer, he authors a column for Clickz.com on marketing automation, has been featured in publications such as Marketing Automation Times, DemandGen Report, Marketing Sherpa, ZDNet, and is the author of Marketing Automation for Dummies. Mathew speaks more than 50 times per year around the world at events such as Conversion Conference, Dreamforce, SugarCon, and to companies including Microsoft, Investec, NetJets, and Restaurants.com, to name a few.