If you’re working on a start-up or have an established company, there will come a time when you’ll need to evaluate your competitors. There are three components to a good competitive analysis: (1) defining the metrics and identifying the competitors you’re comparing, (2) gathering the data, and (3) the analysis.

How do you begin? What are the relevant factors that you should be comparing? And what conclusions can/should you draw from the data? Here are 10 tips (from my own experience) for evaluating your competitors.

1. Define WHAT metrics are important.

If you pick the wrong metrics, you can still make a competitive analysis – but it will not be particularly meaningful to you.

2. Look at recent trends.

Recent trends are important because they paint a picture of what’s happening now.

3. Evaluate historical trends.

Historical trends are important because they help you to understand not only the speed of growth but also to see if the same events impact both entities equally.

4. Don’t Forget Monthly and Annual Growth.

Rapid monthly growth is meaningful but can be deceptive if the annual rates paint a different picture.

Watch the video for more detail on these four tips, plus six more.

When perusing our galleries here on crowdSPRING, we see some amazing work submitted in the projects. Today, we recognize this gem submitted in this logo project:

The challenge of this project was to create a logo for a Seattle law firm that didn’t blend in with all their competitors. This (literal) gem of a logo caught their attention and ours too!

Let us start the slow clap for mandex. Check out more great work on mandex’s profile page.

Nicely done, mandex, nicely done!

Email marketing continues to be an important marketing channel for small businesses and startups. That’s because 81% of US consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on an email.

New technologies have improved email automation, tracking, and innovation, and these changes have created interesting new possibilities for smart marketers.

Complex marketing campaigns are no longer exclusive to the Fortune 500. These new technologies are becoming more affordable and accessible and as a result, smart startups and small businesses should consider them as part of their marketing toolset.

To help you step-up your email marketing game in 2017, let’s look at 5 of the biggest changes we expect to see – and what you can do to stay ahead of the curve.

1. Use Vendor Stacks

According to a Campaign Monitor study, “Most marketers stitch together the technologies they need to automate complex tasks and deliver personalized, relevant experiences to customers.”

The study found that 82% of marketers at small to medium sized businesses use “best of breed technology stacks” in order to create and execute their email marketing strategies. The technology stacks reflect different email marketing vendors that marketers connect together to create a customized email marketing flow.

Previously, a business would have to hire a large marketing company to execute all of its email marketing strategies. As you can imagine, hiring a large marketing firm can be very costly for small businesses and startups and most simply couldn’t afford the expense.

Today, instead of hiring a big marketing firm, marketers are able to choose which services they will actually need and use and buy those services when they need them. By only paying for the services they need, marketers can save their companies a lot of money!

With 251 email marketing software options, there’s a good mix for your company.

For more information on affordable marketing stacks for small businesses and startups, check out $9 Marketing Stack: A Step-by-Step Guide.

2. Strong Design Is Important

Despite concerns that people are flooded with email, email marketing will continue to be an important marketing tool. But, companies will need to step-up their email marketing game to stand out.

Consumers receive an average of 416 commercial emails per month, making their inboxes noisy and full. Smart companies will focusing on improving email content, calls to action, and importantly, the design of their emails.

In fact, according to Kevin George from EmailMonks, good email design is critical.

Emails of 2016 have set a standard for how emails need to be in 2017. Engaging content paired with attractive design seasoned with some interactivity shall be necessary for your emails to STAND OUT in the inbox. Animation using Key frame, Live backgrounds, Cinemagraph GIFs are predicted to be the best elements to dazzle your subscribers as soon as the email is opened.

When it comes to design, you have several options. You can find or make cinemagraphs on Giphy and find email design inspiration from Hubspot and Really Good Emails. And of course, you can leverage crowdSPRING’s community of 200,000 creatives who’ve helped thousands of entrepreneurs and small businesses around the world with great custom design, including email campaigns.

3. Measure Success

As with any marketing campaign or strategy, it’s important to test whether or not your actions are meeting your goals and expectations.

In 2017, email marketing experts expect that how we measure email marketing success will change. Chad White discusses this change in the Litmus blog:

Click rates become a little less important and in-email engagement becomes more important. And you need to measure that in-email engagement using new metrics like email interactions, which are special opens that are triggered by engaging with interactive email elements.

By focusing more on engagement, companies can better determine how to follow-up with their customers and prospects, what messages actually received a response, and gauge if people truly spent time reading and interacting with the content.

If people don’t feel compelled to click on the call-to-action in the message, then they are not likely to become a customer and probably didn’t care for the content of the email. Measuring interaction gives marketers a deeper look at what consumers actually respond to.

For more information on measuring email engagement check out 6 advanced KPIs for measuring email engagement.

4. Don’t Leave Timing To Chance

Consumers are extremely sensitive to the timing and frequency of emails, and are easily annoyed or ignore excessive amounts of email.
Jordie van Rijn, an independent email marketing and marketing automation consultant, tells his clients to not leave timing to chance. He emphasizes the idea that the smarter people and email marketing programs become, the harder it will be to succeed in email marketing without a specifically timed game plan.

The future is bright for those that make email marketing a priority. Based on the 200+ email marketing trends for 2017 I collected, it is still one of the best channels to invest in. Smart marketers should include more event-triggered emails into their strategy. The goal is to make the subscriber/customer press send on the moments that matter to them so they are always timed perfectly. Don’t leave your timing to chance!

For more information on event triggered automation, read Triggered Email: The Killer Conversion App.

5. Collect Information To Segment Campaigns

In the past, marketers have focused on collecting email addresses in order to create a big bank of emails to which they can blast their campaigns.

But not all customers are alike. Different customers will pay attention to different emails, proven by the 100.95% increase in click rates on segmented email campaigns.

It’s important for marketers to understand how to cater to their specific niche audiences. Marketers refer to this as segmentation, which lets them separate customers into smaller, more focused groups and target them in different ways.

Mail on the Mark explains why collecting more information makes such a big difference, and where companies can begin.

You need to collect (or build) beyond just an email address. In the past several years, many companies have asked for the most minimal amount of information: just an email address. But if you don’t collect any other data, you cannot do any segmentation or personalization. Think about what other information would help you. It doesn’t have to be full contact information (as people don’t like to share that), but consider adding a question about their area of interest, their industry or their general geographic location.

For ideas on how to collect email addresses, take a look at 29 Ways to Collect Email Addresses for Your Newsletter. For guidance on what type of information to collect, check out 10 Questions to Ask When Collecting Customer Data.

Trends in email marketing are constantly changing. Let us know what email marketing strategies you are using to stay ahead of the competition.

Image source: Olu Eletu

If you are ready to launch your business and want help creating quality branding for your business, consider enlisting the help of crowdSPRING’s network of 200,000 creatives to give you great options. crowdSPRING projects offer step-by-step creative briefs that help you outline your company’s needs and allows you to select from over 100 entries on average.

In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING creative community of 200,000+ designers & writers from 200 countries. Today we feature Natalia, who goes by the username kokoyangkoo.

Natalia is a book-loving designer from Indonesia that has been on crowdSPRING for three years. During that time, Natalia has participated in over 200 projects with a focus on logo design and redesign. We asked Natalia 12 Questions about design, creative inspiration, and what it’s like working on crowdSPRING:

1. Please tell us about yourself.

Hello! I’m Natalia, a freelance graphic designer from Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia. I currently live in Yogyakarta City, a historical city full of cultural events and great talents in arts. I studied Visual Communication Design at the Indonesian Institute of The Arts (ISI) in Yogyakarta.

2. How did you become interested in design?

I have been interested in design for as long as I can remember. My father worked from home as an offset print-maker and was always reading novels, poetry, comics, and newspapers, which I think influenced me. I was always around so much artwork and design that I decided that maybe I could be someone who produced artwork someday.

3. What led you to start using crowdSPRING?

Originally, I wasn’t interested in freelance work because my day job as a graphic designer at a book publisher took a lot of my creative energy. I had some close friends who were creatives on crowdSPRING and I could see that the work was quite exciting. A few years later when I decided to make the jump to freelance design and that’s when I began working on crowdSPRING.

4. What inspires you?

Most of my inspiration comes from books I’ve read. My favorite books are focused on either design or history. I like to learn how people grow from their natural environment and how different time periods affected taste, lifestyle, and mindset. That is an important source for me to understand what people want in their designs. I’m also constantly inspired by people on social media, especially Instagram!

5. How would you describe your style?

I am pretty flexible with my design style. In fact, as a designer, I think we should not be constrained by style. I think it is great to know/master a variety of design styles so that you can be more flexible in working on various design projects. The most important thing is not your personal style, but to answer the needs of clients with visual solutions.

6. What is the design process like for you? How do you start?

I think the design process is actually something that is unique because you take something abstract like a concept or feeling and turn it into something visual.

Normally, I do research for the project first. I always read the brief from the client multiple times, check the visual references, and research the company or industry to find information related to the project. If I do not immediately find the idea to be executed, I normally walk away from the project for a while or look for ideas by sketching on paper. Only when there is an idea I return to do the work on the computer.

7. What do you do with your free time?

I love doing anything creative. When I’m not working in front of a laptop, I spend mot of my free time making crafts like stitching and binding books. When I’m not doing crafts, I also enjoy reading, especially the works of Haruki Murakami and books published by my friends.

8. What is your most memorable project on crowdSPRING?

My favorite project was a logo for a photography website called “Nature Travel Culture“. I remember after reading the brief, I immediately got the idea for the logo. After researching for a while and getting to work on the computer, a few hours later the logo was finished and the client loved it.

Although the shape was simple and just took a few hours to make, the logo is probably one of the best logos I have created so far. The client is still using the logo and includes it as a watermark in all his photographs. The logo was even featured on the crowdSPRING blog as a Fresh from SPRING!

9. Tell us what you’ve learned since joining crowdSPRING.

After three years with crowdSPRING, I believe that luck takes preparation, success needs a process, patience will bear fruit, and freedom is worth fighting for

10. What is your favorite part about working on crowdSPRING?

My favorite moment is when the client is happy with your work and gives good feedback. Professional design work can sometimes be draining, but when the client is satisfied and appreciates your work, it reinvigorates you and makes you ready to work again.

11. If you weren’t designing on crowdSPRING, what would you be doing?

I have always liked history and visual arts, especially when the two combine in paintings, book covers, and old buildings so I think I would enjoy teaching art or history. I could also see myself being librarian because I really enjoy reading and prefer working in a quiet place.

12. How do you see graphic design changing in 2017?

I’m more interested in something that is classic and I think some things should never change. I love old buildings, paintings by the masters, logos, posters or anything that still looks good after tens or hundreds of years. Whatever will come out throughout 2017 I hope it is a lasting work, not just a momentary trend. I hope this is true not just in design but also in music and other arts. I think it is always better to create something that can be enjoyed for a long time, not something trendy.

See more of kokoyangkoo’s work here.

Start a 1-to-1 project with kokoyangkoo here.

Thousands of businesses have turned to creatives like Natalia to create professional, unique designs for their company for as little as $199. crowdSPRING’s Graphic Design Service offers a step-by-step creative brief that helps you outline your company’s needs and allows you to select from over 100 entries on average.

There are lots of reasons that a business may be in need of a rebrand, we wrote about six of them in the article “Six Reasons Your Logo Might Need a Makeover.” If you have decided that it’s time to refresh your brand, keep in mind that giving the customers something new does not always mean they will love it.

Rebranding can be a powerful but tricky tool to execute. When done properly, a rebranding effort can help your business realign with your target audience, embrace a new direction, build consumer buy-in and drive sales. When done wrong, rebranding can, at best, go unnoticed and make no impact. At worst, you run the risk of alienating consumers and causing profits to dive.

So, we’ve gathered together a list of five rebranding failures so that you can gracefully avoid these rebranding pitfalls yourself.

Radio Shack

With the halcyon days of gathering around the family radio long past, Radio Shack is no longer a name that conjures images of cutting edge technology. When Lee Applbaum stepped in as Radio Shack’s chief marketing officer in 2008, he sought to distance the brand from its more antiquated roots by rebranding as “The Shack”.

Tech reviewers panned the new nickname. Charlie Sorrel of Wired called it “…an attempt to be down with the kids. It’s almost embarrassing…” while Joshua Topolski of Engadget pointed out that it caused one to “…immediately picture a remote location where very, very bad things happen.” Ultimately, the consumers agreed.

Despite a new focus on wireless technologies in their retail locations to accompany the new name (and a small bump in profits immediately following the rebrand) Radio Shack continued to decline and “The Shack” was abandoned. In retrospect, Applbaum realized that the silly nickname was not their only mistake: “We had alienated the very consumer that had given us that core credibility in electronics.”

Radio Shack had established itself as a resource for DIY electronics enthusiasts and that consumer niche had kept them aloft for years. When they rebranded as “The Shack” they turned their back on those DIY hobbyists to pursue modern tech-savvy consumers. However, the broader tech competition proved too stiff and Radio Shack filed for bankruptcy in February 2015.

How to avoid this:

Choose a new name, logo and corporate identity that won’t alienate your most profitable audience.

And, if you’re going fishing for a new audience, make sure it’s a fish you can catch.

Tropicana

On January 8th, 2009, Tropicana revealed a new packaging design for their Pure Premium orange juice; on February 23rd, 2009, they announced that they would return to their original design. What went wrong and how did it happen so quickly? Let’s take a look.

The original Tropicana logo featured a unique, signature design— an orange punctured by a straw. The logo implied that Tropicana’s juice was fresh, undiluted and direct from the orange. The singularity and playfulness of the orange and straw visual made for a very strong brand image. It was instantly recognizable on the shelves and had had years to establish a relationship of trust with Tropicana’s consumers. The new packaging design discarded the time-tested logo and font… and failed to replace them with much of anything at all.

The new image for Tropicana’s packaging depicted a large glass of orange juice; which unfortunately read as a flat, orange gradient. The traditional Tropicana font was traded for a more streamlined modern font and every last bit of recognizable character was lost. Founder of thebrandingjournal.com, Marion, pointed out “Tropicana, while trying to modernize the brand, didn’t respect one of the most important branding rules any company should consider: the product identification and recognition by the consumer.”

It’s possible that some consumers couldn’t even find Tropicana on the shelves because of how stark the differences in packaging were. Those who did find the newly packaged Tropicana strongly disapproved. Information Resource, Inc. reported that Tropicana’s sales dropped by 20% immediately following their brand relaunch.

How to avoid this:

Aim for a signature look that says something about who your company is. If you already have one, abandoning your signature look for a nondescript design is a step in the wrong direction. Keep what works for you and discard what doesn’t.

PricewaterhouseCoopers

PricewaterhouseCoopers took the rebranding plunge in 2002 when they decided to sell off the consulting branch of their business. Bizarrely, they chose to name their new consulting offshoot after a day of the week: Monday. The strangely vague and unrelated new name was met with immediate ridicule and was abandoned within a year. There are two valuable lessons to be learned from this rebranding flop.

The first lesson is purely common sense— a name that has nothing to do with your business tells your audience nothing about your business; and, consequently, nothing about why they should care.

The second lesson is all about search engine optimization. Andrew Shotland of Search Engine Land urges his readers to avoid changing their business name to avoid what he calls, “the SEO equivalent of root canal.” In other words, keeping the same business and domain name ensures that consumers can find you after you’ve unveiled your new brand identity. It probably goes without saying then, that it’s not a great idea to both change your website’s domain name and select a new name that’s so ubiquitous that your business will never be found in a Google search again.

“Monday” is not specifically related to PwC’s financial consulting business, nor is it unique enough to make a useful search engine term. Potential clients would be forced to comb through pages and pages of “Monday” results before they finally stumbled upon the Monday they were looking for. They would most likely give up long before then.

How to avoid this:

Uniqueness and Specificity are key. Select a name that will allow your audience to find you in the online crowd.

And, for goodness’ sakes, if changing your name is part of your rebranding plans, choose a name that reflects who your company is and what you do.

Hershey’s

Hershey’s is a company well-known for their sweet chocolate confections. Sadly, their 2009 rebrand drew lots of attention; but the reason wasn’t sweet. Hershey’s goal for their rebrand was to embrace their past while preparing for their future with a new, more modern logo design.

According to Mike Wege, Hershey’s Chief Growth and Marketing Officer, “We have an amazing portfolio of iconic brands in confectionery and snacking. Our updated company brand and refreshed visual identity is an expression of our progression to a modern, innovative company.”

Hershey’s original logo featured a 3-dimensional design depicting their name and a dainty, silver-wrapped Hershey’s Kiss at the far right side. Their new logo, while utilizing a flat, modern style and font, remains reminiscent of the previous, well-known logo. However, the reworked Kiss strongly resembles a brown, stylized steaming pile of poo. This did not go unnoticed.

The new Hershey Kiss emblem has been widely mocked on the web. Rich Duprey of The Motley Fool noted, “Having your chocolates associated with a pile of poo isn’t typically seen as a key to successful brand marketing.” It should come as no surprise that the Kiss emblem has been disconnected from the main logo and banished from Hershey’s website.

How to avoid this:

Apply a critical eye to potential rebranding visuals for inappropriate faux pas. In a world dominated by social media, consumer opinion travels at the speed of light, making it even more important than ever to ensure that the face your business puts forward will not invite outright mockery or scorn.

Mozilla

Mozilla, creator of the popular open design web browser Firefox, executed a rebrand of their own in January 2017. The new logo reads “moz://a”, incorporating a fragment of URL code in place of letters. Mozilla’s creative director Tim Murray says, “Because it has a portion of URL embedded in the middle of the logo, you know this must be some kind of internet company,” Some feel that this is too heavy-handed.

Alex Crantz of Gizmodo had this to say, “Yes, Tim. That was a good plan twenty years ago… But we live in 2017 Tim, and instead of sounding or looking cool, Mozilla just appears painfully out of touch.” Crantz goes on to point out that by harkening back to Mozilla’s more successful earlier days it simply underscores how painfully their business has waned since then.

Chris Merriman of The Inquirer echoed the sentiment, saying, “Mozilla really has come roaring into the noughties – probably around 2003 to be precise.” and “Mozilla… has a lot of work to do with its current market share for its flagship product, Firefox in the doldrums… and so making it fodder for just about every tech journalist to mock (and believe me, we’re not alone) is not going to help matters.”

Ultimately, it’s too early to tell if Mozilla’s new identity will succeed or fail. But, if reactions in the Tech community are any sign, it’s not looking good for these open design internet trailblazers.

How to avoid this:

Choose a new branding identity that focuses your consumer on where your company is going and avoid call-backs that might point out that you’re not where you want to be.

It’s also important to remember that the success or failure of a rebrand can be subjective. What matters most is to keep your target audience in mind at every step of the way.

If a rebrand is in your business’s future, learn from the mistakes above and take a look at the Branding category in our Small Business Resource Center for more branding resources. Also, consider enlisting the help of our community of over 200,00 creatives that have worked with thousands of business to build standout branding. With the right guidance, you can tackle your rebranding adventure and create a new identity for your business.

Women start over 1,000 new businesses every day in the United States. During the last decade, the number of women-owned companies has grown five times faster than the national average, according to the 2016 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report from American Express Open.

According to American Express Open’s 2016 Report: 11.3 million U.S. businesses are currently owned by women. Together, these businesses employ nearly 9 million people and generate more than $1.6 trillion in revenue. One in five firms with revenue of $1 million or more is woman-owned.

About half of the 200,000 designers and writers who work on crowdSPRING are women building their freelancing businesses.

It’s a great time to be a woman entrepreneur.

To celebrate this, we partnered with Jill Salzman, creator of The Founding Moms, to create an ebook for women entrepreneurs that want to start a new business or grow an existing business while raising a family. We met Jill about six years ago and have been big fans of her work with The Founding Moms Community ever since. Jill’s energy and drive to help women around the world is remarkable, and we’re thrilled to work on this ebook with her.

This book will help you learn how to:

• Discover your great business idea (Chapter 1)
• Measure whether the market is big enough (Chapter 2)
• Name your new company (Chapter 3)
• Get a great logo (Chapter 4)
• Market in the 21st Century (Chapter 5)
• Raise money for your business (Chapter 6)
• Build a support network (Chapter 7)
• Build a business while raising a family (Chapter 8)
• Hire employees (Chapter 9)
• Fire employees (Chapter 10)
• Accelerate growth (Chapter 11)
• Avoid the paralyzing fear of failure (Chapter 12)

A Sample Chapter from the Book:

Here’s a peek at a page from the first chapter of the book: Discover your great business idea.

Whether you are a single mom, married with children, or considering starting a family in the future, this book has actionable advice for starting, growing, and managing a successful business. You can read the book from beginning to end or pick the chapters most relevant to you right now. If you’ve been dreaming about starting a new business or growing your existing business, remember that success doesn’t happen by chance. You can network, read and plan to start your business, but the only real and meaningful step forward is to actually start.

What are you waiting for? Download the ebook now.

Public awareness of company rebrands in recent years is high, and with good reason: A good rebrand can shed new light on a company, connecting it with consumers in new and effective ways. No one wants their rebrand to become the next headline or subject of public ridicule like the brands outlined in our previous post “5 Major Rebranding Failures and What You Can Learn from Them.

In order to avoid this, here are examples of brands that used proven strategies in their rebrands to excellent effect.

Mailchimp – The design is in the details

We tend to notice big redesigns and rebranding disasters, but sometimes small tweaks and restraint are more effective. Taking stock of what’s there, optimizing it, and then distilling it is often a better strategy than a complete overhaul.

Mailchimp is a web-based email marketing service that is used by, in their words, “more than 15 million people and businesses around the world.” Their features and integrations allow marketing emails, automated messages, and targeted campaigns to be sent out to customers, with detailed reports to track progress.

Designer Jessica Hische covered every little change in her post about the redesign. For a rebrand that was all about the details, this was rather fitting. “They just wanted a facelift—one of those classy facelifts that make your friends ask you if you’ve been sleeping better lately or lost some weight because you look like a more vivacious version of yourself and not like a different person.”

The subtle evolution was not missed by those in the know. Leading design website Brand New raved that it was “[A] Fantastic evolution that maintains the character of the original with enhanced performance,” and Design Taxi called it a “subtle but refreshing makeover.”

Strategy:

If your current brand works for you, don’t mess with success. Consider improving and tweaking what you already have to make it clearer and more refined.

Kodak – Going backward can move you forward

Sometimes subtle changes are all you need, but sometimes a dramatic reboot is in order. After the lamentable death of film, Kodak had almost completely disappeared from the consumer market, finding most of its success in large scale printing systems and the enterprise market. Kodak’s first rebrand since 2006 heralded its return to selling directly to consumers.

“I don’t think of what we’re doing as ‘bringing back’ the iconic identity of Kodak, because in people’s hearts and minds, I don’t think it really went away… The latest iteration needed to feel fresh, yet classic, yet sit harmoniously alongside a range of logos that you still see on signage and packaging around the world. Our goal is to amplify what is already memorable and resonant around the world.” – Steven Overman, Kodak Chief Marketing Officer

Kodak sought to embrace its rich tradition with their updated logo. New York, NY-based design agency Work-Order wrote of its goals: “…We seek a dialogue about honoring a legacy and letting a company rebuild with integrity and dignity.” Kodak didn’t want to toss out their iconic brand for something foreign and instead chose to incorporate the company’s storied history into their new design. The results were met with acclaim, with Under Consideration describing it as “…a great redesign or reboot or restart or whichever way this wants to be positioned. It capitalizes on the current acceptance of nostalgia by bringing back a classic icon and it builds on it with a simple, confident aesthetic.”

It was a savvy strategy for Kodak to evoke their original branding in the redesign. By including their instantly recognizable color scheme into their rebrand, they were able to keep their company’s legacy at the forefront of their customer’s minds.

Strategy:

Sometimes looking to the past can help you update for the present. Using visual and design cues from your company’s history can help make your current brand more relevant.

Google – Be mobile, consistent, and cross-platform friendly

Updating for the present may be an important part of your goals, but thinking about the future and the longevity of your rebranding efforts is important, too. Google’s redesign of their ubiquitous multicolored sans-serif logo was highly publicized and roundly criticized when it was first released. The web was flooded with people carping about how terrible the new logo was, but Armin Vit’s review was clear and prescient: “The official, short verdict from me is that this is great. Really great. It’s not a groundbreaking logo but it doesn’t need to be. It’s the system and cohesive thinking about it that stands out and may be hard to get excited about for the general public.”

The logo redesign capped off a year of transformation at Google, including the introduction of their Material Design system used in their Android mobile operating system and across all of their apps. “It’s really about much more than a logo, and more about kind of a smart system,” says Geoff Cook, a founding partner at Base Design.

Google has been reinventing itself to meet the challenges of mobile devices, and the logo redesign was part of this process. Google reaffirmed this in their original announcement of the redesigned logo, saying “our brand should express the same simplicity and delight they expect from our homepage, while fully embracing the opportunities offered by each new device and surface.”

“We think we’ve taken the best of Google (simple, uncluttered, colorful, friendly),” the brand’s leadership team writes, “and recast it not just for the Google of today, but for the Google of the future.” Slate agreed with this, writing that “Google’s new logo isn’t just about looks, it’s about the web’s future.” Google’s redesign honored the character of their original logo and managed to push it into the future; this was a notable success of incorporating existing history into your brand’s strategies for moving forward.

Strategy:

Think about where this redesign fits within your entire branding system, and make sure you consider cross-platform and future usage possibilities.

Airbnb: embrace your critics and roll with the punches

Here’s a warning: many of the links in this section about Airbnb’s rebranding are “not safe for work”, but what else could you expect from a rebranding that was likened to a ‘sexual rorschach test for our time‘? That rebranding was Airbnb’s 2014 release of their infamous “Bélo.”

Airbnb’s original goals for the new logo were lofty: “It’s a symbol that, like us, can belong wherever it happens to be… It’s a symbol for people who want to welcome into their home new experiences, new cultures, and new conversations. We’re proud to introduce the Bélo: the universal symbol of belonging.”

Reaction was swift, and as is the way with the internet, vicious, with Gizmodo ridiculing: “The “Bélo” (NOT MAKING THIS UP), as Airbnb refers to the mark “internally” (NOT MAKING THIS UP), is supposed to reflect the “hierarchy of decisions” that users make when booking a place to stay. But for most of us, it just reflects genitalia.” The new icon trended on Twitter for eight hours, and was mocked and parodied mercilessly, including the inevitable (and NSFW) tumblr site filled with parodies.

Airbnb cleverly anticipated the reaction to the new brand, creating a microsite allowing people to create their own versions of the Bélo, called Create Airbnb. Co-founder Brian Chesky declared: “With Create Airbnb, we’re letting everyone create their own unique symbol under our shared banner. This homemade symbol can be as unique as every one of us, and it will always be a little different whenever you meet it… Create Airbnb is a recognition that our identity simply cannot be separated from all of you.”

Airbnb’s bold attempt to welcome mashups and personalization of their brand was not missed by many, including Andrew Leonard from Slate proclaiming “Who cares what it looks like? Airbnb’s new logo is pure genius.” He wrote, “If Airbnb’s goal was to get people talking about Airbnb, then this campaign is pure genius, and can only be considered a massive success. The sheer velocity of the snarking is a sign that Airbnb, like Apple, plays an important role in our emerging culture.”

Brand Union’s creative director Sam Becker had a similar reaction to how Airbnb handled the launch of their rebrand: “So far, Airbnb has done an excellent job responding to these observations with light-hearted acknowledgment. They’ve also continued to back the brand with confidence. Showing any weakness at this point would be tantamount to giving up.” Knowing how to work criticism into your branding efforts with humor and grace is an excellent strategy for turning a potentially negative situation into a positive and memorable experience.

Strategy:

Have a plan for how you’re going to handle the response to your rebranding efforts, and try to anticipate and integrate criticism and comments into the overall branding story you’ve created.

Mozilla: Open by default

Newton’s third law states that “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Newton was probably not talking about logos and design, but he might as well have been. As every rebrand we’ve looked at here shows, the public response to a redesign can be highly varied. You can easily find opinions both for and against almost any redesign–even between friends at crowdSPRING.

Web browser pioneer Mozilla’s recent rebranding didn’t just anticipate the inevitable criticism, their entire process was built on the input and critiques of their community. Kicked off in June of 2016 by Mozilla and London, UK-based brand consultancy Johnson Banks, the entire process of redesigning Mozilla’s brand was done publicly and in the open. The result of this unprecedented public collaboration was Mozilla’s new logo.

Many high profile design thinkers thought it was a success, including ex-NYT’s creative director Khoi Vinh, who remarked, “My first impression was that this is a bit of a groaner—the visual pun struck me as the tech/design equivalent of dad humor (as a dad myself, I should know). But it didn’t take me long to warm up to it. I’m a fan of its utter lack of pretension, and how unabashedly it embraces the organization’s geeky legacy. Overall, thumbs up.”

Brand New’s Armin Vit had an equally effusive response: “Overall, it’s amazing that this open process that actively requested and implemented feedback from hundreds of people led to a logo that not only DOESN’T suck but one that has a strong idea, a fresh execution, a promising flexibility, and, that all of it together, sometimes subtly and sometimes overtly, manages to communicate what Mozilla is about. Power to the peop/e!”

Strategy:

While not every organization can do what Mozilla did, incorporating feedback from your target audience and customers is something every successful rebranding effort should do.

A good redesign for your company is a challenge, but with a thorough evaluation of what your brand represents and how you want to best reflect that, it’s not an impossible one. Keeping what’s working for you already, a flexible attitude toward criticism, and good communication with your user base can all go a long way in helping you achieve your branding goals.

If a rebrand is in your business’s future, take a cue from the branding triumphs above and take a look at the Branding category in our Small Business Resource Center for more branding resources. Also, consider enlisting the help of our community of over 200,00 creatives that have worked with thousands of business to build standout branding. With the right guidance, you can tackle your rebranding adventure and create a new identity for your business.

When perusing our galleries here on crowdSPRING, we see some amazing work submitted in the projects. Today, we recognize this gem submitted in this book cover project:

The book is a chef’s collection of stories from kitchens around the world. The challenge of this project was to create a cover based on an unfortunate incident on a cruise ship. This entry made quite a splash.

Let us start the slow clap for HambaAllah. Check out more great work on HambaAllah’s profile page.

Nicely done, HambaAllah, nicely done!

Picking a good name for your business can be one of the most difficult parts of building brand identity, but also one of the most important. As Dharmesh Shah, Hubspot CTO and Founder puts it, “A great name reduces the friction between your company and the market. It makes it easier for people to find you. Easier for people to talk about you. Sometimes, even easier for people to trust you.”

If you need help naming your company, you might find the following tips useful:

1. Think about what you want your company name to convey.

2. Brainstorm to identify name possibilities.

3. Keep the name short, simple, and easy to write and remember. Also, consider acronyms of the name.

4. Avoid names that are too narrow or too literal.

Watch the video for more detail on these four tips, plus six more.

You’ve toyed with the idea of starting your own business or have an idea you’re passionate about, and the thought just keeps creeping back. “What if?” you say.

“What if?”, indeed. Now’s the time to find out.

There has never been a better time for a woman to become an entrepreneur. According to the American Express OPEN 2016 State of Women-owned Businesses Report:

“Between 2007 and 2016, the number of women-owned firms increased by 45%, compared to just a 9% increase among all businesses. Therefore, over the past nine years, the number of women-owned firms has grown at a rate fully five times faster than the national average.”

What makes this time so ripe for female entrepreneurs? There are a number of factors in your favor.

You have more support than ever before.

It’s faster and easier than ever to become an entrepreneur thanks to helpful resources available online. Let’s face it- most modern women don’t have the time to build a business infrastructure from the ground up. We’re busy working, raising a family and generally, well… living.

The great news is that now you don’t have to build your business infrastructure from the ground up. Online services like Gusto can help you manage your human resource tasks like payroll and health benefits management. Need a logo, company name, or marketing copy? crowdSPRING can help you quickly and easily crowdsource the creative work you need.

Best of all, more resources exist than ever before that cater to supporting women in business. Ali Brown, Kathy Caprino and Patty Lennon offer business coaching for female entrepreneurs. The Founding Moms is a collective of offline meetups and online resources for mom entrepreneurs.

Image courtesy of The Founding Moms

The growth of women-owned businesses over the past ten years has created more momentum for women entrepreneurs than ever before. Women are starting businesses, succeeding, and encouraging other to join them.

You can provide your own financial stability.

The world has always been an uncertain place. We’re at the mercy of economic forces beyond our control. Wages and salaries don’t always fairly compensate for work performed.

Per a study published by Pew Research Center in 2016, women only earn 58% – 87% as much as white males. Starting your own business gives you the ability to take control of your own financial future.

Lucia Mutikani of Reuters reports that while jobs have continued to grow in the US, wage growth has largely stagnated. Wage stagnation, combined with consistently lower wages paid to women, presents a compelling reason for more women to take on leadership roles in business. Starting your own business ensures that you can provide yourself and others a fair wage.

Some women entrepreneurs are trying to create financial stability for both themselves and other by reinvigorating their local economies. Molly Hemstreet is the founder of textile manufacturing cooperative Opportunity Threads. Molly saw the waning economy in her North Carolina community and wondered what she could do to help.

Image courtesy of Community-Wealth

In an interview with Community-Wealth, Molly talked about the inception of her business:“But it all came back to the question… how do you build primary income?” She realized that the answer had been in Burke County all along. “I’ve lived most of my life here… in many of our communities, we’ve been makers. We can produce just about anything, especially textiles…”

Molly decided to revitalize the industry by founding a textile cooperative. Each employee is also an owner in the business. In an industry that is increasingly shipping work offshore, Molly and the members of her cooperative have become a bastion of customized textile manufacturing. Molly’s members are paid at or above the industry average, are offered employee-elected benefits, and the business is growing.

Each employee is also an owner in the business. In an industry that is increasingly shipping work offshore, Molly and the members of her cooperative have become a bastion of customized textile manufacturing. Molly’s members are paid at or above the industry average, are offered employee-elected benefits, and the business is growing.

“We are in a place of profitability, so hopefully at the end of the year we will either turn that back into dividends to people, or… we might really take that next leap and purchase more machinery and grow the business.”

Whether you want to be paid a fair wage or lift your local economy up with you, becoming an entrepreneur helps you take control of your finances today and create a more stable economic future.

Niche businesses are primed for success.

Image courtesy of the Bookings Institute

According to a report from the Brookings Institute, entrepreneurship in the United States has been on the decline for decades. With fewer small businesses, a larger proportion of American businesses are large-scale corporations. These corporations can cast a wide net due to their larger resources. This means that small businesses have a fantastic opportunity to grow under the radar by focusing on a specific niche.

For women who want to build their own business around their unique passions, this is great news. A niche business provides a very specific product or service catered to a very specific customer base. This specificity will support your chances of success. Nicole Kohler outlined the benefits of a niche business in her article “Why finding a niche is the key to small business success:”

1: There’s a ton of competition out there, and it can be a challenge to stand out with limited resources

2: Having a specific product category or interest makes it easier to describe what you do, and

3: Targeting a niche gets your site in front of online searchers who are almost ready to buy instead of casually browsing.

So, don’t be afraid that your idea is too small. As niche marketing expert Lynda Falkenstein says, “Smaller is bigger in business, and smaller is not all over the map; it’s highly focused.”

You can help create the world you want to see.

Starting a business doesn’t only have to be about making money. This is a time of great political awareness in the United States. The participation of roughly 3.2 million marchers in the historic Women’s March on January 21st indicated that many women feel that they are not being fairly represented in our country. Many people asked the questions, “What next? What happens after all the marchers go home?” One possible answer is to become an entrepreneur. Starting your own business allows you to help shape the world as you think it ought to be.

Vimala Rajendran is the owner of the award-winning Vimala’s Curryblossom Cafe in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Curryblossom isn’t just a restaurant— it’s a restaurant with a mission. Vimala’s focus is on running a business; and, more importantly, growing a community.

Image courtesy of Curryblossom Cafe

At Vimala’s Curryblossom Cafe, “We prioritize worker, environmental, and social justice; accessibility through affordability; and sustainability at every level. We pay a living wage. Our producers are local, our investors local, and our long-term goals are about transforming the local economy.”

Vimala ensures that her employees can support themselves, that her business helps sustain other local businesses, and that no one is turned away hungry from her restaurant. She runs a successful business that makes the changes in the world that she wants to see.

What changes do you want to see in your world?

Funding is More Accessible than Ever.

Acquiring funding for any business can be a daunting hurdle, but it has historically been even more difficult for women.

“Women entrepreneurs have less confidence about asking for money, feel they have to have a perfect business before they can ask, and would rather not ask if they think they will get a no. To make matters worse, when they do ask, the deck is stacked against them because of gender bias.” says capital raising expert Jenny Kassan.

The good news is that thanks to some fantastic new resources this is starting to change. With the rise of crowdfunding to the mainstream, some women have embraced the opportunity to create new models for fundraising.

Kickstarter is always an option, but now there are also group investment networks and crowdfunding sites specifically dedicated to supporting women in business. Plum Alley Investments, a company that connects investors with talented female entrepreneurs, was co-founded in 2015 by Deborah Jackson and Andrea Turner Moffatt. Trish Costello is the CEO and founder of Portfolia, a social network of investors with the aim of connecting (primarily women) entrepreneur investors with worthwhile up-and-coming businesses. Finally, iFundWomen.com is a new crowdfunding platform created by Karen Cahn to raise funds for female founders and entrepreneurs.

There are also grants available for small businesses (check out the Small Business Innovation Research program and Mission Main St. Grants), and female-run businesses in particular, like the Eileen Fisher Women-Owned Business Grant. Eileen Fisher, a 30-year veteran entrepreneur, selects up to ten women-owned companies for a minimum grant reward of $10,000 each year.

Amy Chasan, founder of NYC bakery and youth organization Sweet Generation, was one such recipient. Chasan opened her first storefront in January of 2015. Since then Sweet Generation has established a reputation as one of the best bakeries in NYC. They’ve been awarded “Best Cupcake” in NYC, and been featured in Time Out, The Village Voice and made several appearances on Bravo TV’s “Blood, Sweat & Heels”.

Image courtesy of Sweet Generation

These fantastic financial services and grants designed to uplift female entrepreneurs are yet another reason why this is the best time in history for women to take the plunge and start their own business.

What are you waiting for?

If you’re excited by the opportunities you’ve read about here today, if you’re ready to find out “what if?” then download the new e-book What Are You Waiting For? A Guide for Mom Entrepreneurs on Starting, Growing and Managing a Successful Business to help you get started. You’ll learn how to discover your great business idea, name your company, find a logo, raise money, market, build a support network and more. It has never been a better time to be a female entrepreneur.

Download the ebook now.

At every turn, companies and organizations are competing for our attention. How many of them actually get it? To fight against the white noise of impersonal marketing, companies are increasingly turning toward chatbots. For marketing professionals, this is an exciting way to reach their target audience. Who doesn’t love a memorable conversation? Building rapport with your customers helps generate brand loyalty, and that translates into revenue for you. That’s where chatbots come into play.

Going where the (inter)action is

Image courtesy of Pexels

Chatbots give you access to where your customers are: messaging apps. Over 2.5 billion people are using at least one chat based app, and they are outpacing the growth of the four largest social networks. “People are now spending more time in messaging apps than in social media and that is a huge turning point. Messaging apps are the platforms of the future and bots will be how their users access all sorts of services,” says Peter Rojas, Entrepreneur in Residence at Betaworks. It’s clear that taking advantage of these chat interfaces is the way of the marketing future.

Image courtesy of Business Insider

The number of people communicating via chat interfaces is astonishing:  Whatsapp boasted that they had 1.2 billion monthly active users as of January 2017, and as of July 2016, Facebook Messenger had 1 billion monthly active users worldwide. Following this trend, companies are turning to chatbots to reach customers using something that feels very natural to them: conversation. “It’s more of a cultural shift,” says Mike Roberts, head of Messenger at Kik. “Users are now so used to chatting with their friends via SMS and messengers that they feel comfortable with that same interface delivering an app experience.”

What does the bot say?

It’s fitting, then, that chatbots are tiny apps that live inside messenger apps.  True to their name, chatbots talk to you in fun, personable ways–just like a real person. Poncho, for example, is a chatbot that lives in the Viber chat service. It dispenses weather and commuting information in a snappy, irreverent voice, offering gems like “I can’t promise your commute won’t suck, but forewarned is forearmed.” By listening to a person’s likes and dislikes, chatbots can inform your marketing strategy across all channels – from social media and email newsletters to print and radio ads.

Chatbots aren’t just clever apps that are fun to talk to. They are also valuable marketing tools that can help customers find relevant products or services. Customers demand fast, personalized service, and chatbots make answering these demands easier.  “We’re trying to serve the customer in this more conversational way,” Matthew Sueoka, VP of digital partnerships and development at American Express, said in Adweek.

There’s a bot for that

Image courtesy of Pexels

Mark Zuckerberg is continuing with his plans to monetize Facebook by betting large on bots in Facebook’s Messenger platform. Major players like American Express and Burger King are taking notice, throwing their hats into the digital ring. Feeling a little cabin fever? Talking to American Express’s Facebook Messenger bot allows you to buy plane tickets, sending a receipt along with recommendations for restaurants. Craving a Whopper? The Burger King bot lets you order, pay through the app, and tells you where to pick it up.

Kik’s Bot Shop allows users to find chatbots from marketers like H&M, Sephora and the Weather Channel. Kik CEO Ted Livingston says, “I think the cool things about bots is…everyone is spending all their time on their phone, but nobody is downloading apps. Bots become a way to get software in front of people.” H&M’s chatbot helps you search their catalog, directing you to the items you like for easy purchasing. Looking for the shade of lipstick Emma Stone wore to the Oscars? Sephora has a bot for that. The Weather Channel’s bot hilariously intones, “Stay dry and prosper, human.” These helpful little robots make otherwise dry tasks surprising and fun, like chatting with a (possibly nerdy) friend.

The success of chatbots operating within messaging systems is becoming more obvious, with many organizations reaping their rewards. The Sun’s Facebook chatbot drove almost half of its users back to their site: at peak, 43 percent of chatbot subscribers clicked through to the main site.

With vinyl record store The Edit, chatbots act like a record store clerk in your phone. The bot takes user input and creates music recommendations based on your preferences, then provides a link for purchase.

Image courtesy of AdAge

Before the end of their first year, The Edit recorded a million dollars in sales from their bot. David Cotter, former Amazon.com general manager, attributes much of the site’s success to their chatbot. “Sixty-eight percent of our [subscribers] have purchased,” Cotter said. “Twenty-eight percent have purchased six or more albums in their first 180 days.”

Your turn at bot!

Image courtesy of Pexels

Research firm Gartner predicts that only one-third of customer service interactions will involve human interaction in 2017. That means the rest is up to our cheeky AI counterparts. So how can you get involved? It’s a brave new world, but getting started with chatbots isn’t as intimidating as you might think. There are a number of services available that let you create chatbots without needing to know how to program, which is great for those of us who didn’t go to school for that. Chatfuel can build a bot without any coding, offering a full featured bot in seven minutes.

If you’re not interested in creating your own chatbot yet, there are plenty of marketing bots out there to help you build your brand. GrowthBot is designed for marketing professionals and startups. It connects to a number of systems like HubSpot and Google Analytics, giving you quick access to information and services. It even tells jokes! (Not promising they’re any good, though.) GoalBot lets marketers set goals, accomplish more, and create actionable plans to achieve those goals. Sure lets marketers register their business, identify their target consumer, and get their company on a list of suggested retailers for customers.

Robots Rule 

Chatbots are fun, interactive characters that allow consumers to actively participate with your brand, making them much more personally invested in your company. Take a cue from some of the success stories we mentioned above and consider being the first business in your industry to utilize chatbots. You’ll create a unique experience for your customers that could differentiate you from the competition.

If you’re a mom and you’re thinking about starting a new business or growing your existing business, you are not alone.

According to the International Finance Corporation, female owned businesses make up 37% of businesses globally. In fact, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, women are more likely to reinvest in their businesses, create more jobs, and be more innovative than men. It’s no wonder that female entrepreneurs are changing entrepreneurship and setting the bar for success even higher.

Fortunately, as more women have become entrepreneurs, there are also more networks, support systems and resources to help them succeed.

One of our favorite resources for female entrepreneurs is Jill Salzman’s The Founding Moms, a community that enables mom entrepreneurs to connect with each other for support and advice. We recently collaborated with Jill on a free eBook to help women entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses.

Jill is a mom and a serial entrepreneur. We asked Jill to share her insights on how women entrepreneurs can raise a family while building a great business. Here’s what she had to say:

1. What were you doing before you started The Founding Moms?

I was running two unrelated businesses. My first was a music management company that I started in 2005. I sent bands out on tour. And since it was my first business, I should have called it Mistakes, Incorporated. Two years into that, I decided to start selling baby jewelry. By the time I (accidentally) launched The Founding Moms, I was running two unrelated businesses with two small children in one home office.

2. Had you always seen yourself as an entrepreneur?

Absolutely. There was never a time I was not starting a business. In elementary school I co-founded a catering-for-parents company. By the end of high school I was editing, publishing and selling my own fanzine. I also attempted a record label but I sucked at it so it never got off the ground.

3. What inspired you to start The Founding Moms?

My hunger to meet just one other woman who had a business and a baby. I didn’t know any. So I launched a coffee get-together on Meetup.com to meet a couple. That “couple” turned into 10,000+ women 7 years later. It’s amazing how many of us are hungry to connect with one another to build better businesses.

4. What was your biggest challenge with starting The Founding Moms?

Figuring out how to make it a business. I knew these women wanted to get together. I didn’t know how to formalize it in a way where people could have success because of it and I could make money because of it. To be frank, I’m still working on it and figuring it out. Every. Single. Day.

5. What is an average workday like for you? Does it change day to day?

There is no such thing in my universe. It changes hour to hour. Things get moved, kids get sick, and/or opportunities pop up that I want to chase.

6. What do you think made you a successful entrepreneur?

Persistence. The more I persist and ask and go for it, the more success I have. It’s gradual, and it’s 100% true for everyone.

7. What was your biggest challenge being a mom entrepreneur?

My biggest challenge was figuring out how to get work done with the kids in tow. Before the Children (B.C.), I had all the hours in every day to get things done. After they Did arrive (A.D.), scheduling was a nightmare and so, too, was my ability to stay awake.

8. How do you balance work, a family, and yourself? Do you have any tips for other mom entrepreneurs on how to achieve that balance?

I have so many tips! My number one tip is to go and meet other mom entrepreneurs (at a Founding Moms’ Exchange) because hearing from other women about how they are doing it — in person — helps tremendously to instill confidence in the fact that you can do this, and fill your head with great ideas on how to figure out what works for your business and your family.

9. Did you ever experience or have someone ask about “mommy guilt”? How did you deal with it? How do you suggest other women deal with it?

Everyone talks about mommy guilt. In fact, not enough women talk about it. We all have it or have had it at one point. I ended up eradicating it from my life by talking directly to my kids about it. They were 6 months and 2 when I launched The Founding Moms and as my guilt grew, I was too ashamed to talk about it with adults. So I began to introduce what Mama does during the day to my kids. They are now 7 and 9 and have a pretty good understanding of what I do, why I am busy when I am busy, and they help me to put my phone away now which gives them attention and me a work break. It’s fantastic, actually.

10. How do you stay productive and focused while managing many responsibilities?

A little coffee, a short workout, and many breaks throughout the day. It sounds counterintuitive but I’ve learned over time that the less I stress, the more I get done — so bring on the breaks!

11. What is the best piece of advice you ever received? Given?

Best advice ever received: “It takes time.”
Best advice ever given: “It takes time.”

12. Why is it important to have content and resources tailored to mom entrepreneurs?

Mom entrepreneurs understand the crazy that we all go through in raising a family and building a business — at the same time. We are entrepreneurs like the rest of ‘em — but we tend to be raised up by emotionally supporting one another, not assuming that our brains came out with the baby, and knowing that we can handle a lot at once. And I mean a lot.

13. Why did you collaborate with crowdSPRING on an eBook for mom entrepreneurs?

crowdSPRING has a solid understanding of how to build a business, and their unique perspective on how to do it while raising a family is what drew me to working with them on our eBook. They’re the experts at helping folks build brands, and we mom entrepreneurs pay a lot of attention to the brands we build. Our businesses are excellent companions for one another and I think that’s reflected in the companion guide we created together.

14. What do you hope a mom entrepreneur will take away from the book?

Confidence to grow her business the right way — for her. There is no right way. But if we can guide small business owners in the right direction, her business will flourish. And we’ll be thrilled to hear about it!

For more insight into female entrepreneurship, check out the ebook we created alongside Jill titled “What Are You Waiting For? A Guide for Mom Entrepreneurs on Starting, Growing and Managing a Successful Business.”

Download the Ebook Now

Image source: The Founding Moms

There are more women entrepreneurs starting new businesses today than at any point in history.

We will all benefit as a result of this trend. Women are more likely to see and fix industry gaps than men are, making them more likely to identify business ideas that will succeed and help others.

And while it’s always challenging to start and grow a new business, there are many terrific resources tailored to help women entrepreneurs start, run and grow their businesses more quickly. As a result, women have founded very diverse businesses, across many industries.

For example, what do a fitness expert, sustainable apparel enthusiast, online magazine owner, media co-founder, and two crowdSPRING creatives have in common? They are all trailblazing, empowered, and highly successful female entrepreneurs that have worked hard to carve their own unique paths in the business world.

We spoke to 6 female entrepreneurs about their experiences with starting their own businesses, raising families, and their overall journey as female entrepreneurs. With years of wisdom, different industries, and different ages, these women represent a glimpse into what being an entrepreneur is really like. Here are the important insights they wanted to share with you.

1. Lisa Druxman,
FIT4MOM

As the founder of a fitness community for moms that includes classes, support, and a community of fit moms, Lisa has become an expert in leveraging 21st century marketing for her unique audience.

I have been marketing my company via word of mom for over a decade. The social media platforms may change but the talk has always been based on the story of moms. When moms like something, they talk. When they don’t like something, they talk. It doesn’t matter where or on what they talk, what matters is that they talk. We have made sure to create a very special business that moms want to talk about in a positive light.

When it comes to female entrepreneurship in general, Lisa has one big tip: know your purpose. With FIT4MOM, Lisa’s purpose is to empower mothers to lead healthy, active lives while caring for their children. But for aspiring entrepreneurs, knowing your “why” is Lisa’s biggest tip.

First, figure out your why. When you know your why and you are totally committed to it, you can get through any obstacle. Think about what you want your life to look like. If you want to be a remote entrepreneur and work from your laptop, then you probably don’t want to start a brick and mortar business. Figure out what you are most passionate about and see how you can bring that together with your purpose.

2. Paula Haunit,
Sheer Apparel

Sheer Apparel focuses on providing consumers with a central, online location to purchase fair and sustainable clothing. Paula wanted to bring transparency to the clothing industry- something that others have struggled and failed to do in the past. While starting such a new venture, Paula learned a lot about funding her business.

For now, my business is self-funded. Although that won’t work forever or for any type of company, it keeps you disciplined, makes sure you spend money in a smart way, and shows a future investor that you are literally invested in the business- you aren’t just saying that you are. Also, people who are just starting out can sometimes forget that raising money, be it from Angel investors or through crowdfunding takes time and effort, so inevitably it’ll take you away from the day to day running of your business. So if you can, I suggest trying to start out self-funded.

Paula echoes what many other successful entrepreneurs say: entrepreneurship is a lonely, difficult road- though worthwhile! She suggests building a support network and anticipating the unexpected and the underestimated, especially for first time entrepreneurs.

I’d give female entrepreneurs the same advice I give to any entrepreneur, male or female: surround yourself with smart people who will challenge you when you are becoming too comfortable and will support you when you are being too hard on yourself. Also, everything will take twice as long and cost twice as much as you thought, plan for that.

3. Sallee Poinsette-Nash,
Tall Guides

Sallee has built her business based on an online magazine surrounded by a community of women seeking empowerment. When it comes to building a support network, Sallee is all too familiar with just how important it is to be surrounded by a support system.

Trust is the magic ingredient for building community. Although we say build a community, in actual fact what we’re doing is tapping into a community that already exists. Social media and the world wide web gives us all the tools we need for finding our community, our tribe. Before that happens, it’s essential to figure out who your people are. When you know who they are and where they are likely to be hanging out, finding them is going to be so much easier! My top tip: When you’ve found your people, ask them if there is anyone else they know who would benefit from your product or service… If people like what you’re offering, you might be pleasantly surprised by just how far this one question can travel!

When it comes to entrepreneurship in general, Sallee reiterates the idea of building and relying on a community of people to create a team.

Be yourself and don’t try and do this alone. Surround yourself with people – business owners, startups, mentors, communities, friends and family…whoever you need. I learned a valuable lesson from creating #TEAMTALL, which is that we’re a TEAM for a reason. The reason is that “Together Everyone Achieves More” and that is a beautiful thing worth sharing.

4. Annie Wang,
Her Campus

Annie Wang, Her Campus

As co-founder of a growing media platform for college-aged women, Annie understands the value of a strong brand. From day one, Annie and her team focused on building a reliable brand that women could rely on for content and suggestions.

Winning brands put their audience first and always strive to provide value and service to their users regardless of what else is going on. Developing brand loyalty is critically important in today’s fast-paced, constantly changing environment. As platforms and trends come and go, having a user base that is loyal and enthusiastic is incredibly powerful. Some of the most important investments you make will be on initiatives that don’t have an apparent direct connection to revenue, but that generate deep trust and even love from your users; that always pays for itself down the line.

Annie is also familiar with starting a business when the odds are against you. She urges other female entrepreneurs to embrace the fear and doubt and use it as a motivator when starting a business.

Persist! A big part of entrepreneurship is simply outlasting the competition, the skeptics, and your own doubts and worries. This cannot be understated. My co-founders and I started our business with no money and no business experience, and while we were still college students. We did not view these as obstacles and pushed through by sheer hard work and willingness to learn. Now get out there and get started!

5. Janis Aydelette,
Smiling Artist

Janis started her freelance business some years ago when she first became a crowdSPRING creative. While being a freelance entrepreneur may be difficult, Janis manages her business by jumping headfirst into her work. When faced with the potential to fail, Janis looks at it from a different perspective.

I try not to fight my fear of failure. In my opinion, fear is a great motivator! One of my favorite quotes is about art and failure. It is posted on my profile at crowdSPRING: “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” –Scott Adams

When working on her business, Janis often spends a lot of time perfecting her designs or reaching out to find clients. Her advice to other female entrepreneurs? Love your business, or you’ll be miserable.

As cliché as it sounds, it cannot be overstated: do what you love and love what you do! You will be spending many hours working on your business so it must be something you are passionate about!

6. Lynn Swords,
Smiling Artist

Lynn is also a crowdSPRING creative, and runs her own business, Ink & Key. She juggles her business, design work, and being a mom- often all in one day. Like many other mom entrepreneurs, Lynn finds time to balance everything by prioritizing.

I have a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old who are both super-busy and involved in their own lives, so it’s a lot easier now than it would have been had I tried this when they were small. I make an effort to connect with my kids whenever they’re around. My son owns his own business and is in his first year of college and my daughter is busy with high school and ballet, so I try to involve myself in what’s important to them as much as I can. It really helps that they are supportive of what I’m doing and cheering me on. I try to take extra time on the weekends to bake something yummy for them, which helps bring us together as a family and is a practical way I can love them. I know that every mom’s situation is unique, but I believe that no matter what season of motherhood we’re in, through trial and error we can all find a daily and weekly rhythm that works.

With so much going on, Lynn says it’s natural to turn to blogs and entrepreneurial coaches to help with business success. But she warns other female entrepreneurs against using comparison, instead focusing on self-growth.

We are all bombarded on a regular basis with blogs, articles and emails like “The 5 Best Ways to Do Everything Perfectly.” Everyone is telling us how to be uber-successful. I’m not knocking the folks who are gifted at training entrepreneurs, but please don’t spend too much time attempting to do what other people are doing to be successful. Gain wisdom where you can, but please don’t compare yourselves to others. Comparison rarely leads to encouragement. Instead, learn through your successes and failures what works best for you and your unique situation, and then create and practice habits to support that.

For more insight into female entrepreneurship, check out our free 70+ page eBook (we collaborated with The Founding Moms to create this ebook) What Are You Waiting For? A Guide for Mom Entrepreneurs on Starting, Growing and Managing a Successful Business.

Image source: Eutah Mizushima

When perusing our galleries here on crowdSPRING, we see some amazing work submitted in the projects. Today, we recognize this gem submitted in this logo project:

The challenge of this project was to create a timeless logo for an event rental business that specializes in vintage, rustic and quality hand crafted products.

Let us start the slow clap for nhr. Check out more great work on nhr’s profile page.

Nicely done, nhr, nicely done!

Protecting your brand is an important part of building your business and maintaining your customers’ trust.

A trademark identifies the product your company sells. For example, Apple is a trade name, while the iPhone is a trademark for the smartphones sold by Apple.

Crucial brand elements like your company’s name, logo and tagline should be protected so that no other company can enter the market and use your identity to sell their product or service. One of the earliest steps you can take to protect your brand is to register your trademark.

Start protecting your brand and products with these five practical tips about trademark law:

1. Do a trademark search before you settle on a trade name (company name) and/or logo.

2. Register your trademark.

3. Maintain your trademark if you’ve registered it.

4. You can file a trademark application before you use a mark in commerce.

5. Understand the Permitted and Prohibited Uses When You Use Another Company’s trade name or logo.

Watch the video for more detail on these five tips, plus the basics of trademark law for business.

Entrepreneurs are widely viewed as visionaries; the women and men who dare to gaze beyond what is, at what could be. But when you’re busy envisioning potentials (and managing the trillions of real world details of running an actual business) it can be easy to overlook things that are a little closer to home. Things like your own mental and physical well-being.

You’re busy! We get that. But at the end of the day, neither you nor your business will thrive if you neglect your health. So we’ve compiled a few pro tips from entrepreneurs just like you. Tips for how to take care of yourself in the midst of taking care of everything else.

Make Self-Care a Priority

“It’s not personal, it’s business.” the old adage goes. But, entrepreneurs are people. You are a person. And you deserve to take care of yourself, even in the midst of working or running a business. Not only that, if you’re not feeling your best you work will suffer. And as an entrepreneur, if your work suffers, so does your business.

“The best thing you can do for your business as an entrepreneur is to make your health a priority,” says Holly J Kile, president of HJK Global Solutions. This means creating a practice of self-care.

Self-care is defined as “choosing behaviors that balance the effects of emotional and physical stressors: exercising, eating healthy foods, getting enough sleep, practicing yoga or meditation or relaxation techniques.” Well, that sounds easy enough, but how does one actually implement a self-care practice with so many other priorities to juggle?

Holly advises “Schedule time for wellness. Make time in your calendar where taking care of you is your only commitment. Whether it’s making time in your calendar daily to work out or weekly to get a massage, self-care is one of the keys to survival.”

Nicole LaBonde, founder and Master Instructor of CABARRET agrees. “Put your workout on your calendar, just like any other appointment you have. You wouldn’t break a business meeting with a client or partner, so don’t break one with yourself! Your health is actually critical to running your business… So, give it the same consideration as your other business activities.”

Once you’ve decided to make your health a priority and scheduled the time to do it, you’ve taken the most important step. After that, you can determine what form self-care will take for you.

Bust Stress with Meditation

Entrepreneurs have stress, and frequently, lots of it. Being the person in charge has definite perks, but excessive stress is not one of them. The American Psychological Association notes, “Chronic stress, experiencing stressors over a prolonged period of time, can result in a long-term drain on the body.” Side effects of chronic stress can include increased inflammation, tension headaches and migraines, labored breathing, heart attack and many others. Amy Kuretsky, owner of Amy K. Acupuncture recommends meditation. “I spend time every day meditating. Sometimes it’s a restorative 30 minutes, while other days I make sure to at least get in a quick 5 min before I jump in the shower.”

Annie Lawless, co-founder of Suja Juice likes to start her day with meditation. “I wake up super early, around 5 a.m., and like to meditate first thing before I do anything else. I take about 30 minutes to close my eyes and put myself in the present moment, allowing my thoughts to pass me by and get my body and mind centered to take on the day.”

But why meditate? According to Harvard Medical School neuroscientist Sara Lazar, “I did a literature search of the science, and saw evidence that meditation had been associated with decreased stress, decreased depression, anxiety, pain and insomnia, and an increased quality of life.” Intrigued by the implications of her research, Sara conducted studies of her own. She discovered that a consistent meditation practice could physically change your brain in positive, measurable ways.

Sara discovered thickening in four areas of the brain- areas responsible for emotional regulation, empathy, compassion, perspective-taking, learning, cognition, and memory. She also found that the amygdala, which controls humans’ “fight or flight” instinct and influences fear and stress, shrank.

The Mayo Clinic acknowledges that meditation can have a positive effect on emotions; as well as managing physical symptoms of a number of diseases and disorders, including asthma, cancer, anxiety and depression, heart disease, and high blood pressure.

Best of all, starting a meditation practice doesn’t cost a dime and you can do it anywhere. This flexibility makes it a great activity for busy people with packed schedules. With such compelling benefits, meditation seems like a real no-brainer.

Fight the Effects of Excessive Sitting

Excessive sitting, which might sound harmless, has recently been identified as a serious danger to our health. Office workers, entrepreneurs included, are at risk of developing negative side effects caused by sitting in front of our computers for too long.

James A. Levine M.D., Ph.D. of Mayo Clinic tells us, “Research has linked sitting for long periods of time with a number of health concerns, including obesity and metabolic syndrome — a cluster of conditions that includes increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels. Too much sitting also seems to increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.”

Furthermore, all of this sitting can do dreadful things to our posture and musculoskeletal system. James McIntosh of Medical News Today reports that various sitting positions can lead to lower back pressure, damaged ligaments, muscle imbalances, pain and stiffness. So what can we do?

You can bypass the excessive sitting trap by investing in a standing desk. Jonathan Long, founder of Domination Media is a standing desk convert. “I’ll admit that I was a bit skeptical at first — I had many questions and concerns. Would I be as productive standing as I worked? Could I comfortably do my daily tasks on my feet? But now, the results are in. And, in short, I’ll never go back to a regular desk.” Jonathan has experienced increased productivity, decreased back pain, and better sleep at night since making the switch to a standing desk.

While cutting back on your sitting time is ideal, sometimes we can’t get around it. What then?

Rachel Leung of Fitness Training with Philip Leung advocates for yoga. “I do yoga and hoop after! Yoga helps correct my posture after looking at a computer all day. It also helps me clear my mind and reduce the stressful things plaguing me that day.”

Social media specialist Jamie Samples prefers another route. “I LOVE LOVE LOVE my chiropractor – that is the one thing I do weekly to make sure my body stays in peak wellness!”

Whether you embrace the standing desk lifestyle; or opt for yoga, pilates or a chiropractor, be mindful of how much time you spend sitting.

Block Blue Light when Working at Night

Being an entrepreneur often means that your work day isn’t limited to a convenient 9-5 schedule. And, if you’re like most modern businessmen and women, you spend a lot of time staring at computer, smartphone and tablet screens.

A Harvard Health Letter warns of the effects light can have on sleeping patterns: “At night, light throws the body’s biological clock—the circadian rhythm—out of whack. Sleep suffers. Worse, research shows that it may contribute to the causation of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.”

In addition to throwing off our sleep cycles, light from digital devices can have other negative effects. Staring at a screen for too long can lead to temporary eyestrain. And certain types of light can actually damage our eyes. As optometrist Dr. Matthew Alpert explains:

“Even though blue light is nothing new, the biggest issue is the amount of blue light exposure that we get each day through digital device use. With this exposure increasing over time, we are actually causing permanent damage to our eyes. But unlike digital eye strain, the effects of blue light are cumulative and can lead to eye diseases like macular degeneration… cutting back on tech use at night means getting better sleep, making people more productive at both work and school.”

Many of us would prefer not to have to work at night, but sometimes that can’t be avoided.  Amanda Eilian, founder of Videolicious, shares “I almost always eat dinner with my husband and kids, but that usually means I’m finishing up work after they’ve gone to sleep.” This combination of nighttime work hours and light exposure from our trusty screened devices isn’t so great for our health.

But even if you’re a night owl you’ll still need protection for your eyes. Amanda found a great working solution. “To mitigate some of the damage, I wear blue-light-blocking glasses after 8 p.m. and also have a blue-light shield on all of my electronic devices.” It may also help to set aside ‘no screen time’ about an hour before bed. This gives your body time to detox from the blue light, allowing you to fall asleep more easily.

Putting down your iPhone an hour before bed and investing in a pair of blue-light blocking glasses or a few screen shields are easy solutions. And, with your eyesight and sleep hanging in the balance, it seems silly not to.

With that in mind…

Get Enough Quality Sleep

We know this goes without saying, but lacking sleep is bad for your health and your business.

Don’t believe me? Ask Eric J. Olson, M.D. of Mayo Clinic. “Yes, lack of sleep can affect your immune system. Studies show that people who don’t get quality sleep or enough sleep are more likely to get sick after being exposed to a virus, such as a common cold virus. Lack of sleep can also affect how fast you recover if you do get sick.”

But, the bad news doesn’t stop there. Dr. Sheldon Sheps of Mayo Clinic also reports that lack of sleep may also reduce your blood’s ability to regulate stress hormones. And, if you’re getting less than six good hours of sleep a night you may be at higher risk of developing high blood pressure. Need we say more? Sleep is vital to your health and well-being.

Professional writer and founder of Work.O, Brittany Taylor is already in on the sleep secret. “I sleep–as late as I want, as often as I need to. As a writer, if my brain isn’t working, I’ve got nothing. Even a 20 minute nap can help me hit a higher gear.”

Josh York, Founder and CEO of GYMGUYZ has some excellent suggestions on how you can optimize your sleep, “It is important to make sure your quality of sleep is as high as possible, even if the quantity can’t be. Close every curtain and shade to make the room as dark as possible, make use of your smartphone’s “Do Not Disturb” function, and put your laptop and phone out of reach so that you’re not tempted to waste time on them all hours of the night.”

Getting enough sleep, particularly good sleep, sets you up for success from the moment you open your eyes. A well-rested mind and body is better equipped to tackle each day. And you know there’s a lot to tackle. But more important than that, you deserve it.

It can be hard to put yourself first; especially with so much on your plate. But, following in the footsteps of the wellness-minded entrepreneurs you’ve met here is worth it. Your body, your mind and, yes, your business will thank you.

If you are ready to launch your business and want help creating quality branding for your business, consider enlisting the help of crowdSPRING’s network of 200,000 creatives to give you great options. crowdSPRING projects offer step-by-step creative briefs that help you outline your company’s needs and allows you to select from over 100 entries on average.

Ever dreamed of the chance to shout the iconic “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!”? Well, that may still be out of reach. The good news, though, is that broadcasting before a live audience has never been easier. With a little planning, you could be reaching an audience almost as large as an SNL episode.

Facebook Live lets you stream–you guessed it!–live video, completely in real time, to your followers. It gives you a chance to break the fourth wall between you and your customers, sharing the unedited, real-life version of you. Nothing warms people to a brand more than authenticity, and Facebook Live is a great medium to convey yours to your followers.

What’s in it for You?

Stephanie Abrams Cartin and Courtney Spritzer are co-founders of Socialfly, a New York-based social media and marketing agency. They get straight to the point with the importance of video for your brand:“Let’s get clear: if your brand isn’t already creating video content for social, it’s behind the times…it’s more important than ever to produce video content if you want to stay relevant and keep up with your competition.”

“Let’s get clear: if your brand isn’t already creating video content for social, it’s behind the times…it’s more important than ever to produce video content if you want to stay relevant and keep up with your competition.”

Cartin and Spritzer are right. When it comes to engagement and sharing, video outpaces everything else. Video solutions provider Brightcove reports that social video generates 1,200% more shares than images or text combined. Combined!

Facebook Live takes advantage of people’s love of video, giving everyone the opportunity to connect in a compelling way. And with Facebook’s 1.23 billion daily active users, well…it’s kind of like shooting fish in a barrel.

It’s Not (Just) Personal

Creating personal relationships with your consumers is important, but don’t think Facebook Live’s purpose is limited to that. Live video increases your chances of breaking through to an audience overwhelmed by other types of content. Facebook shared in a blog post that people are three times more likely to watch a video if it’s live. Consequently, Facebook’s algorithm ranks live videos higher in the newsfeed—meaning you’ll get far more attention from a live video than from a status update or cute photo.

76.5% of marketers and small business owners who have used video marketing said it had a direct and positive impact on their business, according to a recent Animoto survey. If you’re interested in finding ways to reach your audience and extend awareness of your brand, Facebook Live is a powerful tool to help you do that. Equip yourself with some of these strategies, and don’t forget to smile!

Let Your Comments Be Your Guide

A great way to use Facebook Live for your business is to talk about what your customers are interested in. Maybe you recently wrote something for your blog and were bombarded with questions and comments. Great! Why not schedule a Facebook Live session and answer their questions over video? You can also read their comments as they come in during your stream, fostering an increased spirit of community between you and your following.

Makeup powerhouse Benefit does this well in their weekly “Tipsy Tricks.” The host polls the audience to determine which product they’d like to see them use in the makeup look they’re creating, allowing viewers to have a direct hand in the video’s direction. Being able to have a conversation like that through live streaming is an excellent way to foster brand loyalty, which is priceless.

Behind the Scenes Streaming

Go behind the scenes of your business! Is it time to make the donuts? Dunkin’ Donuts thought you’d like to watch, and more than 36,000 viewers tuned in to see donuts being made.

Want people to see how hilarious your company’s culture is? Check out Buzzfeed’s infamous watermelon video, where the peak of its 45-minute runtime saw 807,000 viewers tuning in.

Don’t be afraid to hit that Live button–people love watching things that are typically off limits to them, or that make them laugh. It can be a powerful bonding experience for your audience to see what you love and who you are in real-time.

V.I.P. Treatment

Product launches are exciting, and often, very exclusive. Traditionally, only VIPs and the press were granted access to these lux affairs. How cool would it be to feel like a VIP yourself by being given an invitation to a fancy event?

With a Facebook Live stream, you can invite all of your followers to your product launch, making them feel special and extra-valued. Show off your new product, and explain exactly how it will change your viewer’s lives for the better. Hold a Q&A where you let your customers lead the conversation. Answer their questions, find out how they feel about your product, and let them know their thoughts matter!

Still not sure? Chevrolet’s live stream unveiling the 2017 Bolt EV attracted over 55,000 views, showing how the platform can be used for a new product launch.

Pretty good numbers for a real-time event!

And… (Take) Action!

If you decide your marketing strategy will include Facebook Live, consider how you will engage with your audience during the broadcast. Besides creating a more personal connection with your audience, creating engagement is one of the primary ways to make sure your Live broadcast shows up in other people’s news feeds and increases your brand’s reach.

• Ask people to Like and share your live broadcast multiple times during the show. The more people who Like and share your live broadcast, the more it’ll show up in people’s News Feeds.
• Encourage people to ask questions and answer them live. The number of comments on your broadcast is another way to get Facebook to display your live broadcast on more people’s News Feeds.
• Ask your viewers to subscribe to live notifications by instructing them to click the small, downward-facing arrow in the top right-hand corner of the post, and choose “Turn On Notifications.” This will make it more likely that they will be notified of your next live broadcast.

So, now you know what Facebook Live is, why you should use it, and you’re well equipped with strategies for launching a super-successful video. If you decide to go for it, it can be a great tool to incorporate into your marketing and social media strategy. Don’t forget, more engagement and interaction with your audience is always a good thing. Good luck getting into that director’s chair. You’re going to nail it!

If you are ready to launch your business and want help creating quality branding for your business, consider enlisting the help of crowdSPRING’s network of 200,000 creatives to give you great options. crowdSPRING projects offer step-by-step creative briefs that help you outline your company’s needs and allows you to select from over 100 entries on average.

We’re fortunate to have built a great team at crowdSPRING.

What makes one employee highly effective and another average? For some of our job postings, crowdSPRING receives hundreds of resumes. How do we find the most effective people to join our team?

Contrary to the way most companies hire – we never hire the best candidate from a pool of candidates. We hire only when a candidate is the right fit for us. We’ve had hiring cycles where after reviewing hundreds of applications for a position, we elected not to hire anyone. We’ve also hired multiple people when looking for only a single hire. Ultimately, for us, it comes down to finding great people who we believe would be effective and who will make our team stronger.

When interviewing, I look for the following seven habits – every highly effective employee with whom I’ve worked (at crowdSPRING and elsewhere) possessed most of these habits:

1. Strong Self-Discipline
2. Welcome criticism
3. Embrace opportunities
4. Persistence
5. Decisiveness
6. Listen first
7. Know their limits

Watch the video for more detail on these seven habits and interview tips for identifying effective employees:

Successful entrepreneurs share a common trait: they are creative. As I wrote previously:

Startups are like roller-coasters. If you run or work at a startup, you experience many highs and lows and you can’t always anticipate what’s ahead. Education and experience help us overcome many difficult situations, but education and experience are rarely enough. To be successful, we also must be creative in the ways we face and overcome problems.

Creativity balances the analytical part of our brains and encourages us to take risks. While some entrepreneurs focus solely on crunching numbers and logistics, the most successful entrepreneurs are creative and look for a balance between their left and right brains.

Creativity and success are not cultural phenomena limited to a few countries and cultures. Because the crowdSPRING community is global (our clients come from over 100 countries and our creatives come from nearly every country on Earth), we pay attention to many different trends around the world. Regardless of culture, language or geography, we notice similarities among entrepreneurs.

For example, we’ve observed a revival in entrepreneurial activity in the United Kingdom over the past few years.

Independent studies confirm that unlike many other countries in Europe, entrepreneurship in the U.K. increased in 2016 and this trend has continued into 2017.

Recently, London was named “Most Innovative City.”

We wondered why the trend in the United Kingdom (and to a lesser degree, in France) differed from what we’ve been seeing in other counties over the past year. To help answer that question, we looked at what 5 successful entrepreneurs in the U.K. are doing to regularly spark their creativity.

1. Rosie Davies,
London Fashion Agency

Take a break!

As the founder and director of one of the UK’s leading PR agencies focused on independent brands, Rosie Davies built her business through creativity and innovation. Through her journey as an entrepreneur, Davies found that start-up guilt plays a major role in crushing creativity. Specifically, the pressure to build a successful that causes many entrepreneurs to stop innovating and become stuck in their own heads. To take some of that pressure away, Davies suggests taking a break:

The pressure of success can be overwhelming, but if it tells you anything else, it’s that taking a break every once in awhile may just be the best thing you can do for your business because it is no myth that a strong mind and happy self will produce better work.

Use that break time to do something fun! Our favorite ways to take a break include going for a bike ride, playing a board game, or even just talking a walk down the hall. When you actively engage in an activity, it makes it easy to let your mind wander.

2. Mark Shayler,
Do Lectures

Question yourself more.

For Mark, innovation is the foundation of business success. He’s found that while many large companies envy the ability of a startup to continuously be creative, many entrepreneurs still struggle to stay creative while running their companies. This is extremely important for entrepreneurs because startups require lots of creativity, patience, and testing in order to discover strategies that work. To stay creative, Shayler asks “why” a lot- and says to look for an unfair advantage:

We are lazy. Lots of us only innovate when we have to; only innovate when our back is against the wall. This wall could be commercial constraint, regulatory constraint, financial constraint. Whatever it is, use use it to help you. Use your opponent’s weight against them. Obstacles are the way…We ask: What if we had to do this ourselves, TODAY?

It’s important to think big! Making lists and doing extensive competitive research is already something entrepreneurs do for themselves and investors. When it comes to creativity, it’s simply a matter of flipping that research into a series of questions.

In fact, we’ve taken this advice even further at crowdSPRING by looking for ways we can compete with ourselves, and not just our competitors. More about this in our recent post on American Express’s Open Forum: How To Compete With Yourself.

3. Edward Relf,
Laundrapp

Do some research.

Often called “the Uber for laundry”, Laundrapp is disrupting the way that people do their laundry. After starting many businesses, Edward Relf has become a pro at innovation. He says his secret to the success of Laundrapp and his other startups was in his market research. According to Relf, when you look for gaps in a market, service, or industry you are able to see the issue from a different perspective and generate ideas. So whether you’re a serial entrepreneur or just looking to improve your startup, his advice can help spark your creativity too:

This is one of those opportunities where you look at the market, do your due diligence, and you actually talk to people. And then you realize it’s one of those penny drop moments where you say to yourself “Wow, I just can’t believe no one else has actually not done this before”…It’s the passion, the drive, the honesty, and the humility we have – these are massive drivers of innovation.

Again, the importance of research comes into play. While this may seem counterintuitive to creativity, research actually goes hand in hand with learning. The more knowledge you collect, the more you have to work with.

4. Avin Rabheru,
Housekeep

Read a book!

For Avin Rabheru, staying inspired is most important to keeping your creativity. While Rabheru usually brainstorms in a strategic, logical way to keep up with his busy life as an entrepreneur and investor, he still finds time to read a good book. Along with other forms of learning, books are what Rabheru credits as his main source of inspiration:

I love reading, whether long-form articles, fiction books or nonfiction books. Reading from great authors can take you away from your routine, giving you perspective and making you remember that there are many more things happening in the world than the details that occupy you day-to-day. I’m a particular fan of anything to do with science, technology, space and travel.

If you’re stuck looking for a book to read, places like Goodreads and Amazon are great for reading book reviews. Setting a reading goal helps too- it keeps you committed to searching for new inspiration.

5. Tom Ball,
NearDesk

Talk to people.

Most entrepreneurs try to gauge how good their ideas are by testing them in the market. They measure their findings in terms of monetary gain, often putting their ideas to a pause prematurely. For Tom Ball, talking to people is a better way of testing ideas, and can actually lead to more idea generation and creativity.

As you talk to lots of people about an idea, you notice what they love and what has no impact. It’s not the same as what will make money and what will not – but it helps shape an idea that will capture people’s imagination.

For many entrepreneurs, networking events or meetup sites are great ways to make those connections and get inspired by others. Social media can help too!

Share how you stay creative by letting us know in the comments! For more information on staying creative, check out The Scientific Approach to Fostering Durable Creativity (And How Crowdsourcing Can Help).

Image source: Tim Arterbury

When perusing our galleries here on crowdSPRING, we see some amazing work submitted in the projects. Today, we recognize this gem submitted in this logo project:

The challenge of this project was to create a feminine logo for a high end consignment store. This lovely entry has a modern look while still conveying the elegant vintage feel of yesteryear.

Let us start the slow clap for JACSDESIGN. Check out more great work on JACSDESIGN’s profile page.

Nicely done, JACSDESIGN, nicely done!