You Built a Successful Business — But Your Inner Self Got Neglected in the Process. Here’s What You Can Do About It Now.

Key Takeaways

  • Your inner self often gets neglected while you’re designing your business and putting most of your focus on business and work.
  • To take back control of your inner design, you must self-reflect, question your motives and practice saying the positive things about yourself out loud.

There’s something powerful about creating and designing your own business that gives us entrepreneurs a sense of pride and accomplishment. From the earliest days of planning out a product or service to building the marketing strategy to landing your very first contract, each of those moments began with a design.

And it’s this design that’s held near our innermost parts — the reason we often call our businesses our babies. We put so much thought into how we want our brand and business to be perceived, so much so that we stay up at night working long days and fine-tuning every aspect of our brand. All the while, we’re losing sleep, not eating right, or worse, our stresses alter our perception of ourselves.

A question that recently came up in a conversation with colleagues was, “How did I become this person? When and where did I change throughout this process?” After we’ve built businesses and developed well-defined brands, how did we lose steam when designing ourselves? What does it mean to design yourself? Well, we are human, not business entities after all. However, much of our inner selves is heavily designed and shaped by our environments, childhoods, life experiences and relationships.

And adding on to that, the changes that can take place during the times we’re focused on business and work can sneak up on us, which is when we tend to disconnect from the person we were before designing our business. The disconnect can feel like a place of unfamiliarity and stagnation. There is good news: When we take back control of this design, it can lead to massive transformations.

Related: How This Female Founder Never Lost Herself When Starting a Successful Business

Who really designed you?

As I talked with that colleague about who we’ve become over the years, she said she didn’t recognize this person who had become so wrapped up in work anymore. We chatted about the topic longer, and I listened as she dissected all of the voices and experiences that have shaped this new person — someone she didn’t like. I asked a simple question, “Who do you say that you are?” She was stunned and stumbled over her words a bit. It became apparent to me that the inner self often gets neglected while we’re designing other aspects of our lives — especially our businesses.

We’re told things like, “You don’t have the skills for that,” or “You’re not a good fit” or my favorite, “I don’t see the value in your service.” Ouch. These phrases can sting, or worse, leave gaps where our minds try to fill in with assumptions and negative thoughts. Sit for a moment and think about how anything you’ve heard from clients, competitors or naysayers might’ve translated into your inner design. How do you feel about that? Do you believe the things that have been said?

Taking control of your design

Regaining control over your inner design may sound like a daunting task. But don’t be discouraged! While I can’t promise overnight results, I’ll offer some tips that may help you dig deeper into this phenomenon and hopefully push you to think about how to take back control of your design.

1. Self-reflect: What traits do you love about yourself? What traits do you want to improve upon? Why do you like certain parts of yourself, or why not? Really start thinking about these questions and forming answers that you believe in. For example, during a training session years ago when I was selling jewelry, I was coached on how to approach customers. I was told that I was too quiet and passive. I needed to be more aggressive if I wanted to see sales conversions.

The feedback was a little more harsh than that, if I recall! I went home and was upset for a while, thinking, “I don’t like aggressive sales tactics.” Why? Because I knew that I wouldn’t like it as a customer, so why would I do it to others? In short, I decided that I liked the way I sold. Low pressure and listening to what the customer wanted was my method. And guess what? Within just a few months, I had become the highest-selling gold jewelry salesperson. I didn’t want my coach’s voice dictating who I needed to be in order to be successful. Ask yourself the hard questions, give yourself an answer and live it.

Related: Are You Living Your Most Authentic Self?

2. Question your motives: Why are you working so hard? Who are you trying to impress? Are you working on a relationship for the wrong reasons? Yes, this is more reflection with a twist! What I’ve found over the years is that often our motives can tell us a lot about who we are. Our motives are held close to our chests, and we rarely reveal them to others. But if we practice the art of questioning why we do what we do, we might find that our motives could be holding us back from living our true design.

As an example, I was in a situation where I wasn’t quite getting what I wanted out of a relationship in a new field. You see, I was just starting to become familiar with folks in the fashion scene here in Chicago, and I was going to multiple events per day. It was burning me out. I had to stop and ask myself: Why was I doing this? My answer shifted something inside me. I peeled back an answer — a truth that I felt I wasn’t well known — I was a nobody in the fashion world. And I was living for a world that, in part, I had built up within my mind.

I felt the need to show up as much as possible so I could get ahead in this “world.” I was draining myself and putting stress on people close to me with the motive of trying to appear as a fashion person. I listened to the voice telling me that I was nobody. My motive made me realize that I wasn’t truly in control of my design. I was trying to appear as someone I was not (I changed my focus to building solid relationships authentically). Relationships with boundaries that I dictate. Question your motives and answer honestly. The answer might take some time to come to you. When it does reveal itself, things in your life might begin to make more sense.

3. Practice saying the positive out loud: Yes, say it out loud into the world. Imagine your business growing in a void — it can’t! Your business grew and developed because you spoke about its design, you shared your ideas, and you were excited to explore everything your business had to offer the world. Now, when we think about ourselves, how often do we say things in our heads (some good, but mostly bad)? Get out of your head. Find those things you like about yourself and say them out loud. Create an inner-self elevator pitch that you feel good about repeating.

For a practical example that doesn’t just involve repeating affirmations in a mirror or regurgitating items on your resume, try speaking things out loud as if you were speaking on behalf of yourself to a new person. Try saying something like, “DeAnna has a quiet confidence, and she really holds herself to a high standard in life. You can trust her because she’s a pretty honest person.” Oh, I’m blushing!

Compare this type of self-dialogue to, “I have strong client services experience, and I’ve helped companies navigate internal concerns. I have excellent communication skills. I am kind, and loved, and I deserve this life!” Bleh, generic (I mean absolutely no offense to you if these are your affirmations). If you’ve been able to get through steps one and two, you will be able to speak honestly and truthfully about your inner design. You’ll be able to speak from a place that is real — a place that you love.

Related: 6 Essential Mantras to Refocus Your Life and Business

The power of your inner design

This is the power that allows you to walk into a business meeting, an interview, a prospect call or any room and confidently know who you are, regardless of what others may think. You can be the big fish; you can be the pond for all I know. You can be the person you’ve designed. Building on the conversation I had with my friend, even someone who feels they’ve lost their sense of identity can still design and create who they want to be. It’s called storytelling for a reason; you tell the story of you.

Being in a strong state of awareness is a major power source that has driven some of the most influential people in history to their success. That same power is something you have access to. And it starts with your thoughtful design. As entrepreneurs, we can’t just wander through business — we’ll be walked over. I personally don’t want that for any of you. I want to see you all living the design of your life to the best of your ability. Keep in mind that your design may require some updates and improvements along the way. As long as you remain in control of those changes, you won’t lose yourself again.

How would you design your inner self? Or, how do you like your current design?

I Made Our Company Culture Public. Here’s What Happened to My Business

Key Takeaways

  • Company culture is now a livestream for employees, candidates, customers and competitors.
  • Public culture-building can follow product-building: start small, test, adjust.
  • When private words go public, leadership must evolve.

I was doing walk-and-talk check-ins with our Seoul team. The first meeting went great, a check-in over iced Americanos.

The second employee walked in and answered the same question I’d asked her teammate, word for word. They’d traded texts in the 75 seconds between meetings. That moment showed me: internal information moves faster than management.

Employees share everything now, including their 360s. We can pretend we control the narrative while employees screenshot Slack messages and share salary data. Or we can lead by setting the terms of transparency ourselves. Culture leaks through Glassdoor, LinkedIn and group chats. Why not build with intention?

After experimenting with transparency for thirteen months, I’m learning the rules.

Related: My Employee Used AI to Ask for a Raise. So I Used AI to Say No — Here’s What Happened Next

From building products to building culture in public

Developers pioneered “building in public.” They tweeted revenue charts and shared prototype GIFs. Their transparency attracted users, generated feedback and built investor trust.

Company culture can follow the same path, with one crucial difference: culture affects people, not code. The stakes are exponentially higher. A software bug breaks, you fix the code. Cultural transparency goes wrong, and you damage careers, relationships and safety at work.

Start small and test everything

Treat each disclosure as a product feature. Start with the smallest public unit you can handle. Measure impact. Iterate. We tied our company values to specific projects on our website. We showed how those values played out in practice.

Then we showed our salary band and had an open Q&A Zoom. The feedback was immediate. Employees appreciated knowing where they stood, compensation-wise. They had pointed out questions about the increase and advancement criteria we hadn’t communicated.

Transparency isn’t a virtue; it’s just a tool for building trust. Trust fuels team performance, retention and honest feedback loops that strengthen organizations. As you experiment with transparency, you’ll make mistakes. That’s where the next principle becomes crucial.

Related: Full Transparency Is More Than a Morale Booster — It’s a Critical Growth Driver. Here’s How to Embrace It.

Humility as your operating system

Humility is your primary tool. I share my leadership missteps. Employees see that mistakes are normal, not fatal.

Recent example: I posted preliminary customer renewal data in Slack without context. Teams panicked, assuming crisis mode. Within an hour, I followed up with seasonal context and historical comparisons. I acknowledged my error and explained what I’d learned.

Lesson: add narrative, not numbers. Data without a story creates anxiety, not insight. When you mess up transparently, fix it transparently.

Outcome focus prevents performance art

Company transparency risks becoming performative with sharing happening for sharing’s sake. The cure: relentless outcome focus. Track how openness impacts business metrics: project cycle times, employee satisfaction scores, Glassdoor ratings and retention rates.

We share monthly business metrics with the entire team, not leadership alone. The team appreciates joining the conversation. Our employee net promoter scores have increased 12%, although it’s hard to attribute all the rise to one change.

But tracking outcomes is only half the equation. The other half is preparing your leadership team for a world where their every conversation might become public.

Retraining leadership for the public era

This approach requires retraining managers. Old coaching models assumed closed doors. Now, tough feedback conversations resurface as screenshots in group chats.

We teach managers to:

Related: How Companies Can Develop Leaders Who Actually Deliver Results

When to pause

Even with seasoned managers, there will be situations when transparency becomes counterproductive. That’s why defining clear boundaries is essential.

We’ve laid out stop conditions. Active deals or employee safety threats require pausing disclosure. And we try to talk about scars more than active wounds.

People prefer hearing about resolved challenges rather than ongoing crises. Traumatic personal situations make strong disclosures, but only after resolution.

Transparency builds trust and alignment. It’s not a religious commitment overriding safety and judgment.

Not everything belongs in public. We distinguish transparency that builds trust from exposure that breaks it. Performance conversations stay private; public critique without consent is cruelty, not culture. Layoff discussions stay confidential until we notify affected employees.

We share salary bands, not individual salaries. We publish promotion criteria, not candidates under consideration. We’re transparent about strategic priorities, not M&A targets.

The test: Does sharing help our team make decisions, or create anxiety and speculation? Transparency empowers. It doesn’t paralyze.

The competitive advantage of transparency

Visible culture can’t be faked. You build the workplace you claim, not write mission statements.

Candidates self-select based on facts, not marketing. People who join know what they’re signing up for. Culture fit improves. Early turnover decreases.

The ongoing experiment

I don’t have a final blueprint. I have experiments, data points and faith that it’s what the company needs. You don’t build culture to publicize it. You publicize it to force yourself to build it. Your culture is already public. The only real question is: will you shape that or let it shape you?

I’m still figuring it out. But I’d rather build in the open than pretend in private.

How to Identify the Patent-Worthy Innovations in Your Business

Key Takeaways

  • Startups often rush into patents — either too early or for ideas that never deliver business value. Some patents don’t even get granted; others do, but bring zero return.
  • To avoid burning $20K-$30K on dead-end IP, founders should vet innovations using a five-question filter that will lead to smarter, more strategic patent decisions.

Startups often rush to file patents while their product is still taking shape. The pressure can come from investor expectations or the instinct to claim a patent early. But I’ve seen too many founders spend $20,000 … $30,000 … protecting ideas that never reach the market.

Being selective avoids that capital drain. A rushed filing may feel safe, but if product plans change or the market shifts, you’ve locked in a cost with little return.

After 25+ years of helping startups protect what matters, I’ve developed a five-question filter to make smarter, more strategic patent decisions:

  1. Does it solve a technical problem with a technical solution?

  2. Will it still matter to the business in 2-20 years?

  3. Can it become foundational and reusable across products?

  4. Does it offer market differentiators over competitors?

  5. What are its chances of getting your application issued from the patent office?

Here’s how to think through these five questions.

Related: The Basics of Protecting Your Intellectual Property, Explained

1. Is this innovation solving a technical problem with a technical solution?

To ease pushback from the patent office, your invention should solve a technical problem with a technical solution. It must go beyond abstract ideas or human-centered processes to improve how a system, product or service functions.

If it has advantages over known solutions, for example, efficient data processing, improved mechanical reliability or strengthening a component’s structure, you’re likely on solid ground. These differences affect how a product performs, not just what it does.

In contrast, innovations focused on managing human activity, solving business problems or directing human effort are typically seen as business methods. The patent office applies a skeptical eye on these innovations such that a patent is unlikely.

Take this case: Your delivery drone overheats on long routes. You redesign the motor housing to improve airflow and prevent failure. That’s a concrete technical solution to a real technical problem and likely meets the first test for patent eligibility.

Next, ask if it will still matter over time.

2. Will this innovation still matter to our Business in two to 20 years from now?

Patents aren’t overnight wins; most take two to three years — sometimes longer — to grant. By the time one is approved, will the idea still be relevant to your products and the industry?

Many startups file early with a sense of urgency, but products evolve, markets shift, and priorities change. That innovative feature users love today may be irrelevant next year.

That’s why I always ask: Does this idea support your long-term business goals? Could it remain part of your core offering even if your roadmap changes?

If the answer is yes, the idea is worth serious consideration. If not, you may be better off holding back your patent budget for the next big innovation.

Related: 3.6 Million Patents Were Filed in 2023 Alone — This Is How the Most Successful Ones Got Approved

3. Could this innovation become foundational to be reused across multiple product lines?

Some of the strongest patents I’ve seen aren’t tied to a single product. They solve a technical problem that is foundational to the platform underlying entirely different product lines. Once issued, the patent strengthens the company’s foundation.

That’s what I mean by “foundational.” Maybe it starts in your core product but later shows up in a mobile app, internal dashboard or enterprise version. Same core capability reused again and again. If your team keeps finding new ways to build on it, it’s likely worth protecting.

A good example is Dyson‘s digital motor technology. It started in vacuum cleaners, then powered bladeless fans, hand dryers and hair tools. One patent family protected a core capability reused across distinct product lines, making it fundamental to the company’s growth.

If an innovation has that kind of scale, it’s a strong patent candidate. Next, think about how it might give you leverage in the market.

4. Would this innovation give us leverage against competitors?

One of the smartest things you can do as a startup founder is study your competitors’ product strategy. What are they filing patents upon? What products are they prioritizing? And more importantly, what gaps are they missing?

Filing into a soon-to-be-developed area can shift the power dynamic. You could secure a patent covering a capability they’ll eventually need, and now you know the path they are pursuing. That opens the door to licensing discussions, cross-licensing deals or defensive leverage when the competition heats up.

Because in competitive markets, patents aren’t just legal protections. They’re business tools. They create options for partnerships, revenue or pressure at the negotiating table.

However, even the best-positioned idea can fail not because of merit but because of where it lands in the patent office for examination. Your odds drop sharply if your application is assigned to a technology area with a near-zero allowance rate.

That’s why this final question matters before you file.

Related: 5 Ways to Improve Your Chances of Getting Patents

5. What are the odds of success for this idea at the patent office?

Before you file, know how the idea is likely to perform at the patent office. That insight is now available long before a single claim is drafted.

Modern predictor tools can now predict which USPTO art unit will handle your application with just a rough idea.

These units vary widely in allowance rates, timelines and examiner behavior. Knowing where your application is likely to be assigned gives you a strategic edge.

This becomes the final filter in identifying patent-worthy innovations.

Prioritize ideas likely to land in favorable groups. Drop the ones facing rejection-heavy examiners and drawn-out prosecution. Predictor tools can help you refocus your claim direction in one that is likely to see more favorable consideration.

No startup can afford to chase patents that burn time and budget.

I strongly believe great ideas earn protection not just by being smart but by standing up to scrutiny from every angle.

That’s what true vetting looks like. Engineers weigh feasibility. Business teams assess strategic value. IP counsel analyzes legal strength. When all these perspectives align, strong patent decisions emerge.

The five questions above are your shared framework. Answered across disciplines, they help surface innovations worth the time, cost and protection.

How to Tell If Your Marketing Is Driving Real Business Results

Key Takeaways

  • Track outcomes, not impressions, to align marketing with real ROI.
  • Avoid vanity metrics — measure engagement that drives pipeline and revenue.
  • Sync marketing, sales and finance to prove business impact clearly.

If you are an entrepreneur, I’m sure you are aware that things can change in an instant. With shifting market conditions, evolving consumer behaviors and constant technological advancements, leaders need to stay on their toes. This makes it essential to check if your marketing strategies are still effective regularly.

So, how can business leaders determine if their marketing efforts are really paying off? It’s all about understanding customer engagement, tracking return on investment and using practical methods to ensure that your marketing approach not only matches current trends but also aligns with your long-term business goals.

Let’s dive into some actionable strategies to help you keep your marketing on point.

Related: I Made $1 Million in Profit With My Startup — Then This Mistake Stalled My $10 Million Dream

Marketing missteps

Effective marketing results from a clear alignment with business objectives and customer needs, relevance and good timing. Some common pitfalls include limited or surface-level metrics, misalignment with sales and with what really drives buyer decisions. Others include:

Related: 5 Critical Marketing Strategies for Product Promotions

The best customer behaviors to look for

It starts with closely understanding and tracking high-value customer behaviors that are tied directly to business outcomes like sustained interaction or movement along the buyer’s journey. These include:

Effective marketing should be rooted in a deeper understanding of customer behavior, authentic connection and linking behavior to intent and outcomes. That requires integrated tools, smart data interpretation and continuous refinement based on what’s working and what isn’t.

Click-through rates are overrated. On their own, they tell you very little about actual impact. Focus on post-click behavior and conversion quality, like:

How to link marketing ROI to strategic business goals

Connect marketing activities directly to finding new leads, revenue impact and customer lifetime value. The key is to speak the language of the business (growth, efficiency and profitability). Here’s how to do it effectively:

1. Tie campaigns to the pipeline to track which campaigns generate opportunities, not just leads. For example, which publications are sending the most traffic back to your website? What were the topics of the articles whose links were clicked on? Those are insights you can use to reveal what your prospects are finding valuable and what their concerns are. Report on:

2. Map marketing metrics to business key performance indicators. What are the ARR goals in your annual plan, for example? Make sure your results are tied to how you’re helping achieve those goals.

Show how marketing efforts support core business objectives like:

3. Integrate financial metrics. Quantify ROI using real financial data, such as cost per opportunity or cost per closed deal, as well as campaign ROI.

4. Create a marketing scorecard for the C-suite. Build a simple, recurring report that aligns marketing impact to business outcomes using terms like:

5. Involve the sales and finance teams early on. Work with sales and finance to validate attribution models and forecasting assumptions. This builds credibility and ensures alignment on what “value” looks like across departments.

Monitor your marketing strategy to know when to pivot

Real-time data analysis, ongoing customer feedback and strategic benchmarking are key. Don’t just track performance metrics; actively monitor changes in how your audience is engaging, deciding and buying across channels and content formats and adjust as needed.

Are competitors gaining traction in new platforms, formats or thought leadership conversations where you’re absent? Monitoring industry trends and share of voice can reveal where attention is shifting. When you’re still generating leads but sales reports show lower lead quality or longer deal cycles, this may indicate that your strategy is attracting the wrong audience or failing to address evolving buyer needs.

Your sales reps, customer success, surveys or interviews can uncover subtle but critical changes in priorities, buying triggers or objections that your strategy may be missing. The more things change, the more sound marketing practices will serve you. The need to demonstrate ROI is a growing business imperative.

Consumers and Employees Still Want Diversity — Here’s How Businesses Can Get It Right

Key Takeaways

  • Authentic, consistent DEI practices drive long-term business success and loyalty.
  • Diversity initiatives fail when reduced to quotas or performative gestures.
  • Linking DEI to ROI makes it a business imperative, not optional.

Something doesn’t add up here.

This year, almost 40% of US companies planned to cut back on sponsorships and other external engagements related to Pride Week. But recent surveys show that — despite the apparent outcry — consumers and employees across the ideological spectrum firmly support DEI.

To me, it’s a classic case of perception versus reality. Rather than listen to their stakeholders, companies are catering to shifting political winds, something that may prove dangerously shortsighted.

Flip-flopping is never a good look, especially when it comes to values. A business risks being perceived as not standing for anything and alienating the very people who build its value: employees and customers.

We’ve taken a different approach. From the beginning, before it was called DEI, diversity was part of our company DNA. The original team of four was LGBTQ+, and our location in Montreal’s Gay Village helped us attract talent from a wide range of other identities and backgrounds.

For two decades, as we’ve grown to thousands of employees and $1-billion-plus in annual revenue, welcoming and celebrating diversity has made our business stronger. We’re not about to stop because of political pressure.

That doesn’t mean DEI programs are perfect — far from it. In fact, the current debate is an opportunity for companies to refocus by addressing those flaws. Here’s why DEI has sometimes fallen short — and what I’ve learned about how to make it work.

Quotas and lip service: The challenges of DEI

Diversity is usually treated as just another corporate mandate — a box to be ticked in the name of compliance. And that’s where problems start.

For starters, DEI at many companies has been reduced to quotas. Simply setting numerical targets for hiring people from underrepresented groups doesn’t add up to diversity.

Not only do companies give opponents ammo to question fairness and effectiveness, but “diversity hires” often end up marginalized and isolated, limiting their effectiveness.

Equally damaging has been the lip service paid to diversity, going through the motions without deeper value alignment. Trotting out rainbow flags once a year is neither meaningful nor progressive. It comes off for what it is — window dressing — and turns off customers, employees and other stakeholders who are left wondering, “What does this have to do with the brand?”

Casual policy reversals have only further devalued DEI. There have been so many examples of businesses that “championed” DEI initiatives for years — only to abruptly remove info about diversity programs from their website, stop sponsoring internal and external events and shed employees linked to those efforts. The takeaway message: This work doesn’t matter, and it never really did.

Related: DEI Is In The Firing Line – But At What Cost?

Rethinking DEI: A few learnings and insights

There can be a better way forward here for companies and leaders who truly care about diversity.

Every company is on its own journey and will have to learn its own lessons, but these are some insights we’ve gained over the past 20 years:

All of these steps are valuable, but there’s one critical element of effective DEI that’s too often overlooked: business outcomes.

Related: Why Letting Go of Full Control of My Business Was the Hardest — and Smartest — Move I Ever Made

Why there’s no DEI without ROI

DEI can and should be an end in itself. But cementing its place in corporate life requires a ruthlessly pragmatic step that too many companies avoid — drawing a direct line from diversity initiatives to ROI. Without making this direct link between “values” and “value,” it’s all too easy to dismiss diversity as a mere nice-to-have rather than a business-critical necessity.

That’s too bad, because there’s plenty of evidence that DEI is good for business. In one global study of some 1,200 companies, those in the top quartile for gender and ethnic diversity were almost 40% more likely to outperform financially than their peers at the bottom. Organizations with inclusive cultures are also six times more likely to be innovative and agile, and eight times more likely to achieve better business outcomes.

Among the most palpable ways to tie diversity to business outcomes is by looking at the impact on employee retention and engagement. The upside of a truly welcoming culture? Companies attract and keep quality people who want to build their careers. When employees feel a sense of ownership and know they can make an impact, they’re more invested in the business.

As a leader, I’ve seen how celebrating diversity and inclusion isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s also strategically sound. Ultimately, the best concepts come from a marketplace of ideas where distinct points of view are represented. It’s no accident that companies with above-average diversity generate almost twice as much revenue from innovation as their below-average peers.

For any company navigating the current DEI minefield, it’s important to remember that people haven’t really changed. They still value authenticity and opportunity for themselves and their neighbors — hardly controversial concepts. Those are common truths that people share, no matter where the political pendulum swings. Companies that honor them will gather goodwill, attract the best employees, build customer loyalty, and thrive in shifting winds. It all adds up.

Social Media Secrets Every Entrepreneur Should Know in 2025

Key Takeaways

  • If your social strategy still looks like it did two years ago, it’s probably broken.
  • The businesses winning in 2025 aren’t necessarily the loudest.
  • You don’t need to post more, but you need to do this one specific thing.

If you think social media is just a place to share selfies or cat videos, you’re missing the big picture. Social is now a search engine. A storefront. A hiring hub. A sales machine. And in 2025, it’s changing fast — faster than most businesses can keep up with.

If you’re an entrepreneur trying to make sense of it all, this guide is your shortcut. These aren’t tired tips like “post more often.” These are practical, money-making strategies we’re seeing work right now. Let’s get into it.

Related: This One Google Feature Is Eating Away at Your Online Traffic — Here’s How to Fight Back

The harsh truth is that organic reach is tanking

Posting and hoping is a losing game. Organic reach across most platforms has nosedived. Facebook and X sit at about 0.15% engagement. Instagram’s not much better. TikTok? That’s where the action is. It’s still holding strong at around 2.5% engagement. But engagement doesn’t pay the bills. Revenue does, which is why smart businesses are moving toward paid social. And they’re doing it differently in 2025.

Why most business owners are getting social media wrong (and how you can do it right)

Let’s be honest. Social media can feel like a waste of time. You post. You get a few likes. Maybe a comment. But not much else.

Meanwhile, your competitors seem to be everywhere. Their content gets shared. Their ads are slick. Their followers actually buy. Social media can drive serious growth, but only if you treat it like a business channel and not a side hustle.

That means knowing which platforms are worth your time, which trends are actually profitable and how to turn content into conversions. I’ve spent years working with thousands of brands across industries. If you’re a business owner looking to get more out of your social efforts without wasting time or money, you’re in the right place.

Let’s break down the real social media secrets you need to know in 2025.

1. Pay to play, but smarter

We’ve established that paid marketing is key to getting the maximum value out of social. The thing is, you don’t need a massive ad budget. You need a strategy.

Here’s what’s working:

Even big dogs like Meta use predictive AI to help with this, but don’t go full autopilot. Human input still matters, especially for creative.

We recommend using AI to enhance your best-performing human-created ads. Your content still needs to connect emotionally and visually. Use tools like Adobe Firefly or Midjourney to scale fast, but keep the human touch. Authenticity wins. In our internal tests, AI-modified versions outperformed standalone AI ads by 75.7%.

Related: I Trusted the Wrong Marketing Metrics for Years — Here’s What I Track Now Instead

2. Pinterest: The underrated powerhouse

Pinterest has moved far beyond just DIY and recipe boards. Look at these user metrics:

This is your chance to rank for buyer-intent searches without competing against massive brand budgets. As an added bonus, it’s still cheaper than Meta or Google Ads.

With that said, you need to meet the preferences of Pinterest users, or you won’t see these benefits. Formats that work include:

Pinterest also offers advanced ad options and creative support.

3. Your employees are your secret weapon

You’ve seen user-generated content (UGC) work. Now take it a step further with employee-generated content (EGC).

People trust people. And when your employees show up as real humans on LinkedIn or TikTok, it builds:

Encourage team members to share behind-the-scenes moments, wins, product demos — whatever feels authentic.

And yes, this works in B2B, too. My agency, NP Digital, has several employees regularly posting industry insights and content on social platforms, boosting their own thought leadership profiles while putting a face to useful information.

Related: I Have Over 214,000 Followers on TikTok. Here’s What I’m Doing Right Now In Case a Ban Happens.

4. Micro-influencers are driving sales

Forget celebrity influencers. The real action is happening with micro-influencers — the ones with loyal niche followings (generally between 10,000 and 100,000 followers).

Why? Higher trust, more engagement and better cost efficiency. Just make sure you’re choosing influencers who match your target audience and values. Then get strategic:

5. Short-form video still rules but long form is making a comeback

TikTok. Reels. Shorts. You know the drill. Short-form video is still the best way to grab attention. But don’t sleep on long-form content. Platforms are leaning in because long-form content can hold attention longer, fit more ads and build brand depth. TikTok now allows 10-minute uploads. YouTube is prioritizing Shorts and long-form content in its algorithm. Here are some ways you can take advantage:

6. Social shopping is exploding

Social shopping isn’t just for e-commerce brands anymore. According to Salsify:

Platforms like TikTok and Instagram are doubling down on shopping features like live sales, in-app checkouts and influencer storefronts.

You’re leaving revenue on the table if you’re not integrating social commerce.

Bonus tip: Prioritize video content in your product listings. Short-form product demos can double conversions.

7. LinkedIn is more than just a resume hub

If you want to make a B2B impact, LinkedIn should be your home base for your social media strategy. The professional networking platform:

Effective content tips here include:

Even LinkedIn ads, while smaller in scale, are seeing higher engagement with lower competition.

Related: How to Keep Eyes on Your Business Even When Google’s Algorithm Changes, According to a Marketing Expert

8. Don’t ignore niche networks

Reddit, Threads, Discord and Facebook Groups are where some of the most passionate conversations are happening.

If you serve a niche, chances are your audience is already active in one of these places. Jump in. Contribute. Start a conversation. Also, direct messages (DMs) are your underrated sales tool. Slide into DMs after high-engagement posts or poll responses. That’s how you turn attention into leads. We’ve closed deals on leads that originated from one comment reply. No ads. No funnel. Just smart, human engagement.

9. Find opportunities to repurpose content

Don’t create more content. Remix what’s working.

That killer quote? Make it a LinkedIn carousel. That viral tweet? Turn it into a Reel. Your customer’s review? Drop it into a voiceover TikTok.

Repurposing multiplies your reach. According to our internal studies, it drives 2.5 times more views, often with a fraction of the effort.

10. Know what your audience actually wants

Different generations use social media very differently. You’re wasting effort if you push the same content across all platforms, hoping it sticks.

Here’s what we’ve seen work, broken down by age group:

The takeaway: You can’t copy-paste content and expect results. Match the format to the audience, or you’ll miss the mark completely.

11. Get strategic with when (and how often) you post

Posting every day doesn’t guarantee growth. Posting smart does. What we’ve found from testing across industries is this: Timing and frequency can make or break your visibility. Here’s what matters:

And don’t overthink the algorithm. Start with consistent, helpful content. Then use performance data to fine-tune your schedule.

Conclusion

If your social strategy still looks like it did two years ago, it’s probably broken.

You don’t need to post more. You need to post smarter.

You don’t need bigger budgets. You need better targeting, better creative and better data.
And you don’t need to chase every trend. Focus on what drives revenue.

The businesses winning in 2025 aren’t necessarily the loudest. They’re the most strategic.

Content Without Strategy Is Boring Noise — Here’s Why Clear Messaging Is Your Startup’s Most Overlooked Growth Lever

Key Takeaways

  • Define a core message before publishing — it sharpens focus and drives strategic content decisions.
  • Consistency across platforms builds brand trust; strategy and clarity convert impressions into results.

Publishing content without a clear strategy is like running a business without a plan — chaotic, costly and destined to stall. 47% of top-performing B2B marketers say having a documented content strategy is the key to their success. That’s not just a best practice, but a competitive advantage.

I’ve built digital strategies for global brands and startups alike, and one mistake I see far too often is the ‘publish and pray’ approach. Businesses push out content in bulk, hoping something sticks. It rarely does.

So, how do you make content work for your business? The key lies in developing a smart, goal-oriented messaging strategy that aligns with your brand, audience and buyer journey.

Define your core message before creating content

The most successful content is the clearest. And clarity starts with defining your core message. Ask yourself: What do we stand for? What pain point are we solving? What’s our unique approach?

Your message must be specific enough to differentiate you, but broad enough to scale. For example, when I launched Digital Silk, we didn’t just promote “web design.” We focused on growth-driving digital strategies, and that position allowed us to speak to enterprise executives across design, marketing and development.

Trying to serve everyone will dilute your message. Smart content starts with smart positioning.

Clarifying your core message also simplifies future decisions. It helps your team evaluate what to publish, how to position your services and even what clients to pursue. Without this clarity, every piece of content becomes a debate, and that slows everything down.

Related: Fix This First to Make Every Ad Dollar Count

Match your content to your audience’s stage

Content without context is just noise. A common mistake is pushing bottom-funnel CTAs to cold audiences. But someone discovering your brand for the first time doesn’t want a demo — they want answers.

Make sure to map every content asset to the buyer journey:

This structure supports what Google calls the “messy middle” — the complex, looping process consumers go through when making decisions. Think with Google research shows that people loop between exploration and evaluation before taking action. By mapping content to each stage of this journey, you can guide decisions and build trust at every turn.

Different platforms serve different stages. Your organic search content may attract top-of-funnel users, while email campaigns nurture the middle. LinkedIn? Great for both. A strong strategy considers not just the message, but the medium.


Related: How to Craft a Sales Funnel That Meets Your Business Needs

Leverage data to sharpen your message

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. 68% of businesses have reported an increase in content marketing ROI by utilizing AI tools. This highlights the growing emphasis on leveraging technology to enhance content performance and measurement.

Smart founders go beyond vanity metrics and track these:

These insights help refine tone, format and distribution. If your target audience is dropping off halfway through your thought leadership piece, maybe it’s too long or missing relevance. Strategy lives in those signals.

Data also reveals hidden opportunities. If certain blog posts are generating high assisted conversions, consider turning them into lead magnets or email sequences. Let performance guide promotion.

Related: Why Your Marketing Strategy Needs a Data-Driven Overhaul

Use fewer words, with more impact

Long-winded messaging dilutes trust. Today’s decision-makers are scanning, not reading. According to Nielsen Norman Group, users typically read only 20–28% of the words on a web page.

Your message needs to land fast.

Here’s how to tighten it:

One rule I recommend content creators follow is this: every sentence must earn its place. If it doesn’t drive clarity or persuasion, it gets cut.

Remember: clarity builds trust. And trust builds momentum. If you’re struggling to simplify, ask someone outside your industry to read your content. If they don’t get it, then rewrite it.

Related: Stop Storytelling and Start Having Brand Conversations That Convert

Build consistency across every touchpoint

One-off content doesn’t build brands. Repetition does. Your homepage, blog, LinkedIn posts, ad copy and email sequences should echo the same core value proposition. That consistency is what turns impressions into trust.

Remember: branding lives in the details. If your sales team is telling a different story than your website, or your ad copy promises what your product doesn’t deliver, trust erodes fast.

Audit your messaging quarterly. Review key assets and align them with your brand promise. Inconsistent language doesn’t just confuse, but also repels.

Related: Building Meaningful Brand Experiences: The How-To

The most overlooked growth lever in business

Founders often ask me, “What’s the most underrated growth lever?” My answer: a clear, consistent, strategically crafted message. Messaging is a leadership function. It impacts your positioning, sales enablement, hiring, fundraising and client retention. Get it right, and everything downstream performs better. Content without strategy is noise. But content powered by smart messaging? That’s momentum.

Don’t Wait For Customers to Find You — Here’s How to Go to Them Instead

Key Takeaways

  • Proactive customer engagement is essential in a world where consumer attention is scattered and marketing noise is high.
  • Simple, strategic tools like browser extensions and personalized notifications can significantly boost a brand’s visibility and relevance.
  • Forward-thinking engagement strategies can help even small businesses forge stronger customer relationships and improve retention.

For years, online businesses, especially smaller ones, have followed a somewhat passive model of customer engagement. The site is live, and the digital storefront is effectively “open.” The expectation is that customers will visit when their need arises, reacting to the demand created by external marketing.

This “wait and see” approach, while foundational, is becoming insufficient in a hyper-connected world where consumers are bombarded with messaging at every turn. Instead, the new model of customer engagement demands a shift from being reactive to actively meeting customers where they are, when they need it. This evolution, powered by new technologies, can be a game-changer, even for small startups lacking armies of development resources.

Related: Is Your Company Hitting These Engagement Metrics? If Not, You’re Going to Lose Customers.

The limitations of the passive approach

The limitations of solely relying on so-called inbound website traffic are becoming clearer. Consumers belong to numerous loyalty programs (on average, over 15) but actively engage with fewer than half of them. There are many reasons for the lack of engagement: Their attention is extremely fragmented, and the sheer volume of our modern world’s digital noise makes it challenging to stand out when a customer finally remembers or searches for a company’s products. It can feel like a shot in the dark.

Banks, for instance, face the reality that users often check their banking apps infrequently (four times per month or less). This highlights a fundamental challenge: How do businesses break through the noise and become more relevant to their customers’ everyday experiences?

Embracing proactive engagement

The answer is embracing proactive engagement. This means strategically integrating into the customer’s existing digital journey. Imagine a scenario where, instead of waiting for a customer to visit your website then decide to make a purchase, your brand subtly surfaces relevant information or reminders within the customer’s normal online activity flow. This could take the form of helpful notifications or unobtrusive integrations from tools such as browser extensions that can provide added value in real-time. The core principle is to invert the engagement model: Instead of expecting users to seek you out, your brand “comes to them” at the most opportune moments.

This shift is about more than just being there; essentially, it means delivering contextually relevant value too. For example, a customer browsing for car rentals online could be gently reminded of free loss damage waiver insurance benefits associated with a premium credit card they frequently use. Similarly, someone researching concert tickets might receive a timely notification about exclusive presale access linked to a particular loyalty program, right when they are visiting a ticketing site.

These examples of “always-on” experiences provide genuine value and usefulness because they help customers realize the full potential of the benefits and services they already have access to, when they need it most.

In fact, consumers often fail to take full advantage of the existing benefits that come with their loyalty programs or premium credit cards. Capgemini reported that customers might sign up for credit cards based on attractive incentives, but will quickly disengage if their overall experience falls short of expectations. The report also notes that only 44% of respondents received recommendations to use the complementary products that add value to their cards.

Related: 3 Effective Engagement Tactics to Help Small Businesses Create Authentic Connections With Customers

A playbook for proactive engagement

For small businesses and startups, the prospect of building sophisticated, proactive engagement tools might seem daunting. However, many effective strategies can potentially be implemented without a big development team. Here’s a mini-playbook to get started:

There are numerous benefits to moving beyond a reactive approach with customers. By proactively engaging customers, businesses can increase brand visibility at crucial decision steps and deliver immediate value that strengthens the customer relationship. This ultimately fosters deeper loyalty. When a business demonstrably helps customers save time, money or make smarter choices within their existing online activities, it moves from being just another option to becoming a trusted companion. This approach can also help address key company priorities, such as the expansion of your brand’s ancillary products or services, by offering relevant cross-selling messages at opportune times.

The future of customer engagement belongs to those who understand the power of being present and helpful as the customer goes about their daily lives. By proactively delivering value, even small businesses can forge stronger customer connections and drive greater utilization of their offerings, improving customer retention even as competition grows.

The era of simply waiting for customers to arrive is over. The shift to always-on, value-driven experiences that meet them where they are is underway.

Learn From Top Nonfiction Books Without Reading Them All With This App

Nearly 60% of entrepreneurs struggle to switch off from work at the end of the day, according to data from education and career platform Zipdo. That means they’re likely not settling in with a good book, which is where Headway comes in. This app offers a convenient way to work on your self-growth, with access to summaries of some of the world’s best nonfiction.

Right now, you can take advantage of a lifetime subscription to Headway Premium for just $47.99 (reg. $299.95) with code READ20, the lowest price ever, through July 20.

Join more than 15 million people learning in their free time

With Headway Premium, you can learn something new in just 15 minutes, with bite-size summaries of nonfiction books that fit into even the busiest entrepreneur’s schedule.

You can choose to listen to a professionally narrated audio summary, whether on your commute, at the gym, or in line at the grocery store. Or, if you’d prefer to read, there are written summaries available as well.

More than 1,500 summaries are already available, with more added each month. You’ll never run out of content, with plenty to peruse in categories like personal development, business strategies, health, and wellness.

Aside from providing a boost of knowledge when you have a few minutes, Headway keeps you invested with a game-like approach. You can earn achievements and master new skills as you use the app.

Headway’s summaries give you the key ideas and principles from nonfiction books, though they aren’t a substitute for reading the full version. It’s a great way to discover new interests, so you can potentially dig into the whole book or dive deeper into a topic.

Take advantage of this lifetime subscription to Headway Premium, now just $47.99 (reg. $299.95) with code READ20, the lowest price ever, until July 20.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Selling as a Founder Is Brutal — It Was Also the Reason We Reached $400M in Revenue

Key Takeaways

  • Startups must embrace selling as a key skill, acknowledging that founders often begin with little sales expertise.
  • Through targeted approaches like embedding messages where customers are active, founders can generate interest and understand customer needs.
  • Before hiring a sales team, founders should create a repeatable sales process and treat sales as an integral extension of the product.

When you’re building a startup from scratch, there are two things nobody warns you about enough: one, you’re going to have to sell. And, two, you’re probably going to be terrible at it at first.

I know I was. I didn’t have sales experience when I launched my previous company, Vungle. But we had no sales team, no leads and no brand to fall back on. If I wanted the company to survive, I had to learn to sell anyway.

I can say now, given hindsight, that the process of figuring it out the hard way is what set the foundation for what came later. Within a few years, we had grown to 250 employees across eight offices, with over $400 million in annual revenue. None of that would have happened if I hadn’t done the early sales myself.

Below are sales lessons I learned from those years, plus tactical tips any founder can apply, especially when no one’s answering your messages.

Related: 4 Steps to Becoming a Sales-Focused Founder (and Why It’s Important)

Find ways to show up where your customers already are

In our earliest days, we were trying to get mobile game developers to use Vungle’s ad tech, and cold outreach just wasn’t cutting it.

So we did something unconventional: We started playing the games themselves. Our team would log hours on popular titles just to land on the leaderboards. Once we were ranked, we’d change our usernames to short custom messages like “FromVungle_Please_Call_Us.”

This approach got us into conversations with developers who would’ve ignored us otherwise. In a sea of templated outreach, we stood out by embedding our message in the experience our customers were already having.

Now, I’m not saying that you should gamify your every outreach (unless, maybe, if your users are gamers). What I am suggesting is, if your cold outreach is falling flat, ask yourself: Are you showing up where your users are already engaged? Or are you just sending emails they didn’t ask for?

Stop talking about your product

Founders love talking about their product. That’s understandable given how this product is probably your labor of love. The catch is, in a cold message, your product isn’t the hook — your user’s pain is. For Vungle, one of the best-performing openers was something along the lines of:

“Hi, I saw your app on the charts. We’ve helped other developers boost revenue by 20% without changing the user experience. Worth a quick chat?”

See how we didn’t list our credentials or explain our tech stack? Instead, we led with something our audience cared about: incremental revenue for minimal effort.

If you’re doing cold outreach, assume the person reading your message has no context on who you are and doesn’t care yet. You need to earn that interest.

This matters more than it seems. Per a 2024 Salesforce report, 86% of business buyers are more likely to buy when their goals are understood. That means most early founders are leaving opportunities on the table by focusing their pitch too much on themselves and empathizing with their customers too little.

When you take time to craft your first message without thinking of it from the lens of a sales email, it’s proof you care enough to be relevant. That’s how you earn the right to pitch later.

Related: Give Your Employees The 3-Point Strategy They Need To Drive Sales

Build a repeatable engine first before you hand it off

It’s tempting to hire a salesperson the moment you feel overwhelmed. But hiring too early is one of the biggest mistakes I see founders make.

At Vungle, we didn’t hire a full-time salesperson until we’d already built a repeatable script and could train them on what worked. Until then, we built documentation like we’d build product docs: call flows, objection handling, competitive comparisons, sales enablement materials.

That’s what allowed us to scale sales from $850,000 to $15 million in one year, and then to $56 million the next.

If you don’t do this, you risk churning through sales hires. In that scenario, it’s very tempting to blame it on “bad fit.” In reality, you most likely just didn’t have a system.

How I see it, your biggest responsibility as a founder leading sales is actually NOT closing deals but writing the playbook. Until you’ve closed 10–20 deals yourself and can explain how you did it, you’re not ready to outsource.

Treat your sales outreach like an extension of product (because it is)

Founders often treat sales as something separate from product work. But early-stage selling is one of the fastest ways to refine your product. It shows you what customers actually care about. What they’re confused by. What they’re willing to pay for.

For instance, we thought our value proposition at Vungle was around the speed of integration. But during sales calls, we kept hearing that development teams were worried about crash rates and performance. We shifted our pitch — and later, our product roadmap — around those insights. That realignment made a huge difference in our win rates.

Early customer conversations reveal the “why” behind objections. It’s going to be very validating listening for praise. But resist the temptation. Instead tune in closer for confusion, hesitation and indifference. That’s the true product goldmine.

Related: How to Avoid These Costly Mistakes in Your Startup’s Sales Strategy

Reps > theory

If there’s one truth I’ve seen across every startup I’ve advised or invested in, it’s this: You can’t learn founder-led sales by reading about it. You have to do the reps.

Even as you outgrow founder-led sales, you’ll see that “sales” is actually not a temporary phase. It’s the muscle that helps you discover new markets and opportunities, raise money, recruit talent, and evangelize your mission. The sooner you build it, the more compound interest you’ll get on every part of your company.

All that’s to say: yes, founder-led sales is hard! It’s humbling. But it’s also the best path to real traction. If you’re in the early grind, remember that the best founders likely weren’t naturals either. They just cared and hustled enough to put in the reps

Meta Is Reportedly Planning to Release New AI Smart Glasses With Oakley and Prada

Key Takeaways

  • Meta is reportedly expanding its smart glasses lineup to include Oakley and Prada.
  • Meta has sold millions of pairs of Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

Following the unexpected success of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which have sold two million pairs since launch in late 2023, Meta is releasing new versions of its AI smart glasses under the Oakley and Prada brands.

According to a CNBC report released Tuesday, Meta is expanding its partnership with EssilorLuxottica, the parent company that owns Ray-Ban and Oakley and has a licensing agreement with Prada. The new Oakley Meta smart glasses will target athletes and active customers, while the Prada partnership will give Meta a high-end deal with a notable fashion house.

Related: Apple Is Reportedly Developing AI Smart Glasses to Compete with Meta and Google

The Oakley glasses will reportedly start at $360, a higher price point than the $299 Ray-Ban Metas, but have a more weather-resistant style, a source told CNBC. The glasses will be able to take photos and videos, make calls and send text messages through voice commands, livestream content, and play music, just like the Ray-Ban Metas. They will also have AI capabilities, so users can ask questions through a “Hey Meta” voice command.

Bloomberg also reported in January that the Oakley glasses were set to be released later this year, and the camera will be in the center of the frame instead of on the side, like the Ray-Ban Metas, so that “cyclists and other athletes” could record footage.

Meta previewed the Oakley partnership on social media on Monday by creating a new Instagram account for “Oakley | Meta” with one post that reads: “The next evolution is coming on June 20.”

A post shared by Oakley | Meta (@oakleymeta)

Prada, meanwhile, renewed its eyewear licensing agreement with Luxottica for the next decade in December. Former Meta employees told CNBC that Prada eyewear designs were a good fit for Meta because the glasses feature thick temples that can house more technology.

Meta has yet to announce the Prada deal or a timeline for when the smart glasses will hit the market.

Related: Google Is Making AI ‘Intelligent Eyewear’ With Warby Parker After Eyeing Meta’s Ray-Ban Success

EssilorLuxottica and Meta first joined forces in 2019 to work on the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. Meta released a first-generation pair in 2021 and a second-generation pair in 2023.

The second-generation glasses took off; EssilorLuxottica CEO Francesco Milleri said during an earnings call in February that the AI smart glasses were “a great success” and that the company plans to produce 10 million of them by the end of next year.

Meta, meanwhile, is also making a broader push into artificial intelligence. The company announced last week that it would invest $14.3 billion in AI data labeling startup, Scale AI, in exchange for a 49% stake. Some Scale AI employees, including CEO Alexandr Wang, will join Meta as part of the move.

Venetians Are Protesting the Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sánchez Wedding —Though Some Local Businesses Are Wondering Why

The lavish wedding of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and book author and helicopter pilot, Lauren Sánchez, is expected to take place next week in Venice. Most reports say the event will host 200 guests and last three days, from June 24 to June 26, though the couple has not confirmed.

But Venice residents have been protesting against overcrowding and mass tourism, something that they say is negatively affecting the small (the main island is about 2 square miles) city that receives about 20 million visitors yearly. The overcrowding has become so bad that the city charges a 5 Euro daily entrance fee on some high-season dates. (It’s also not just Venice — in Spain, tourists are being shot with water guns on crowded streets.)

Related: Jeff Bezos’ Neighbors Just Sold Their Land. Here’s How Much It Costs to Live Next to the Amazon Founder.

And now the Bezos-Sánchez wedding is in the crosshairs.

People gather to protest against the wedding of Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez in Venice on June 13, 2025. ANDREA PATTARO/AFP | Getty Images

For the past few days leading up to the wedding, protesters have been making signs and chanting, “No space for Bezos,” in an obvious play on words regarding the space company Bezos founded, Blue Origin.

However, the AP reports that, despite the protests, the betrothed have used local vendors for about 80% of the provisions, and the businesses they spoke to were happy about the extra orders.

The 6th-generation owner of Rosa Salva, a bakery that has been making pastries since 1876, told the AP that his business made a selection of items for the goody bags for the wedding and was happy to see the city in the national spotlight.

“Events like this bring quality tourism to Venice,” he said. “I don’t see how an event with 200 people can create disruptions. It’s responsible tourism. It’s prestigious that a couple like this, who can go anywhere in the world, are getting married in the city.”

A post shared by Rosa Salva (@rosa_salva)

The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, is also excited for the event.

Brugnaro told the AP this week that it was “an honor” that Bezos and Sánchez chose Venice.

“Venice once again reveals itself to be a global stage,” he said.

Related: Jeff Bezos Is Selling Billions Worth of Amazon Stock, According to a New Filing

How to Know When It’s Time to Sell Your Business — Before It’s Too Late

Key Takeaways

  • What to do if you see the signs

Every business owner knows the day will come when they either sell their company or pass it on. What’s harder to accept is when that day is today.

Waiting too long can mean declining profits, dwindling energy or a missed opportunity to maximize your exit. But leaving too soon can stir doubt — what if the next owner hits record growth?

While there’s no perfect formula for timing your exit, there are signs. If you’re starting to wonder whether it’s time to move on, these three signals may offer the clarity you need.

Related: When Should You Get Your Business Ready to Sell? The Best Time to Start Is Now — Here’s Why.

1. You feel drained instead of driven

Remember when you used to wake up energized by possibility? When you loved solving customer problems or brainstorming with your team? If that drive has turned into dread, take notice.

Many founders dismiss this phase as temporary burnout. But if you’re going through the motions day after day — uninspired and emotionally checked out — it’s not just a rough patch. It’s a sign that your time in the business may be up.

Hanging on to a company you no longer love doesn’t just affect your mood — it chips away at the business’s value. Culture suffers. Growth stalls. And by the time you decide to sell, it may be worth far less than if you had exited earlier.

2. You’ve stopped getting excited about growth

New partnership? Big client? Expansion opportunity? If those words once lit a fire in you but now just sound like more work, you’re not alone.

When you no longer feel pulled toward opportunity — and instead feel trapped by it — it’s a strong indicator that your motivation has run dry. And motivation is fuel. Without it, growth halts and momentum fades.

Declining revenue is the death knell of a strong sale. Buyers pay for potential, not stagnation. So if you feel like you have nothing more to give, don’t wait for the numbers to reflect that. Move before they do.

3. Your business is booming

Ironically, one of the best times to sell is when everything’s going right. Profits are strong, clients are happy, and you’re at the top of your game.

So why would you even consider leaving?

Because that’s exactly when your business is most attractive to buyers — when there’s still room to grow. Smart owners don’t wait to “ride it out a few more years.” They sell while the company is on the upswing, not after it peaks.

We worked with a client who planned to sell in 24 months. But when the time came, he delayed. Again and again. By the time he was ready, his energy was gone, performance had slipped and the business sold for far less than it could have.

Waiting for the “perfect” moment is how many owners miss the best one.

Related: Sell Your Company When You Least Expect It — How to Properly Scale and Sell Your Business

What to do if you see the signs

These signals are emotional and internal — but your next step should be grounded in data. If any of these signs resonate, get a business valuation or exit assessment. Know what your company is worth today and what’s at stake if you wait.

Most importantly, don’t wait until you’re exhausted to begin the process. Selling a business takes time and energy — two things in short supply once burnout sets in.

You don’t need a crystal ball to time your exit well. You just need to trust your instincts — the same ones that helped you build this business in the first place.

Why New Tax Rules Could Be a Game Changer for Your Business

Key Takeaways

  • The government wants you to invest in your business — now more than ever
  • The government is shifting what it wants you to invest in
  • Personal tax changes will impact you and your employees
  • Thinking of starting a business? Now may be the best time

No entrepreneur wants a surprise tax bill — especially when every dollar matters for growth. Staying ahead of tax policy changes is one of the smartest ways to protect your bottom line and avoid disruptions.

With the Senate now reviewing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Congress is moving closer to enacting one of the most significant shifts in U.S. tax policy in recent history. If passed, the legislation would expand — and in many cases, strengthen — existing incentives for entrepreneurs to reinvest in equipment, hire more staff, and scale with confidence.

Here’s what’s coming — and how you can position your business for what’s next.

Related: 4 Tax Strategies Every High-Earning Entrepreneur Needs to Know for 2025

The government wants you to invest in your business — now more than ever

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) brought sweeping changes to the tax code, many of which aimed to boost business investment. But those provisions were set to expire by the end of this year.

The new House bill extends and enhances several of those benefits. One major update? The Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction gives many sole proprietors, partnerships, S corporations, and some trusts and estates a tax break. Under the TCJA, that deduction was 20%. The new legislation would increase it to 23% and make it permanent, putting more cash directly into the hands of small business owners.

Another key change: entrepreneurs could again deduct domestic R&D expenses immediately, restoring a popular provision that had expired. While this update would only run from 2025 through 2029, it marks a meaningful shift. Countries like South Africa and Singapore already offer enhanced R&D deductions of 150% to 400% — this change helps U.S. businesses stay globally competitive.

The bill also brings back full bonus depreciation, allowing businesses to deduct 100% of qualifying assets like equipment, software, and property at the time of purchase. That means you won’t need to spread deductions out over time — you get the full benefit upfront.

The government is shifting what it wants you to invest in

Governments shape economic behavior through tax policy. In recent years, U.S. incentives have focused heavily on renewable energy and emissions reduction. Business owners have used tax credits to install solar panels or invest in electric vehicles at lower costs.

But the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, backed by the Trump administration and a Republican-led Congress, signals a pivot. Incentives are shifting toward American manufacturing and domestic fossil fuel production.

That means it’s time to reexamine your tax strategy. If you’ve invested in green initiatives — or plan to — you’ll want to understand how these new priorities could affect your bottom line. For example, while EV tax breaks may fade, the bill introduces a new $10,000 deduction on loans for vehicles assembled in the U.S. Make sure your strategy aligns with these evolving incentives.

Personal tax changes will impact you and your employees

The bill also raises the standard deduction to $16,000 for individual filers and $32,000 for joint filers — up by $1,000 and $2,000, respectively. That’s welcome news for many employees and for entrepreneurs who don’t itemize.

Seniors get an even better break. The legislation includes a temporary $4,000 bonus deduction for individuals over 65 with a modified AGI under $75,000 (or $150,000 for joint filers). However, that bonus expires in 2028.

If you live in a high-tax state, you’ll want to note the changes to the SALT deduction (state and local tax). The current $10,000 cap would jump to $40,000 in 2025 for households earning under $500,000 and gradually increase through 2033. Above that threshold, the deduction phases out entirely.

There are also proposed exemptions for tips and overtime pay, which could change how you approach payroll and compensation. These details are worth discussing with a tax advisor to ensure you’re optimizing for both compliance and competitive hiring.

Related: 4 Tax Tips That Will Give Your Business an Edge and Save You Money in 2025

Thinking of starting a business? Now may be the best time

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Duracell Accuses Energizer of ‘Blatantly False Advertising’ in Latest Legal Battle

Key Takeaways

  • Duracell filed a complaint in federal court in Manhattan last week over Energizer’s claim in an ad that its Max batteries last longer than Duracell Power Boost batteries.
  • Energizer and Duracell previously sued each other over advertising claims in 2019 and 2020.

Duracell, the company known for its copper-and-black-colored batteries, is suing rival Energizer, known for its bunny mascot, over what it claims is a “confusing and misleading” television and online advertising campaign.

The complaint, which Duracell filed in federal court in Manhattan last week, took fault with Energizer’s statement in a new ad campaign that Energizer Max batteries last 10% longer than Duracell Power Boost batteries.

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Duracell claims that Energizer only took one industry standard into account when making the statement, and that battery performance is also determined through other standards.

Duracell claims to have suffered “irreparable reputational harm” due to the ad campaign, which Energizer launched earlier this month on TV, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

“The Energizer Max false advertising is a clear effort by Energizer to expand its market share — at Duracell’s expense — by confusing and misleading consumers about the comparative performance of Energizer Max batteries and Duracell Power Boost batteries with blatantly false advertising in a transparent, and unfair, effort to drive sales,” the complaint read.

One YouTube ad from Energizer from June 2 shows the company claiming: “There’s no competition. Energizer Max outlasts Duracell Power Boost by 10%.”

Duracell wants Energizer to pay monetary damages and stop running the ads.

This is the latest legal battle between Duracell and Energizer — the companies have been suing each other over advertising claims for years.

Energizer sued Duracell in September 2019 over Duracell’s claim that its Optimum batteries lasted longer than rival batteries. Duracell filed a legal complaint against Energizer a year later over claims that Energizer Max batteries lasted up to 50% longer than other batteries.

In December 2020, Duracell and Energizer agreed to voluntarily dismiss their lawsuits.

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Energizer brought in revenue of $2.887 billion in 2024 compared to Duracell’s $2 billion. However, Duracell claims to have a greater U.S. market share. The company said in 2020 that it had a 45% share of the U.S. market for alkaline household batteries compared to Energizer’s 26% share, per Reuters.

Duracell is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which bought Duracell from Procter & Gamble in 2014. The deal added Duracell to Berkshire’s portfolio of more than 60 businesses, including Dairy Queen ice cream, Geico auto insurance, and Benjamin Moore paint.