 Image credit: Hive Boxx on Unsplash How do you know you've reached a turning point in your life? How can you recognise that maybe you need a change? Entrepreneur Europe has 5 signs for you...
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 Image credit: Magda Ehlers on Pexels Getting older shouldn’t be something to be frightened of. With older age comes the possibility of having more time for yourself, a greater appreciation for your family, and opportunities to explore new challenges and adventures! To make sure you’re as prepared as you can be, check out these tips:
1. Prioritize your health Getting old can be a seriously joyous thing, but enjoying your life to the max is easier if you’re healthy. So, taking regular exercise (you can even do it from home thanks to online courses and programs) and eating well is all part of the package. After all, you want to make sure you’re in tip-top condition while you’re off exploring, don’t you? 2. Be organized Ensuring all your documents and plans are in a safe place is one of the kindest things you can do. This means that no matter the scenario, a trusted person or loved one will have all the paperwork they need. This will take a load off your mind, and you can move on to enjoying more exciting things! 3. Pick up new hobbies Your latter years are a great time to spend time on new hobbies and skills. Exercise your brain and indulge passion projects that you’ve always considered. Have you always wanted to try fishing? Is salsa your thing? Do you think you might want to speak French? There are so many online and offline courses out there to choose from. And if that’s not your thing, then it’s time to get out there and try it on your own. 4. Upgrade your home Making a couple of sensible changes to your home can make all the difference to your comfort in the years to come. That doesn’t mean moving straight into a bungalow or installing a stairlift, but it does mean making a few adjustments. Consider including a few pieces of handcrafted pieces, like Crown Furniture, to create an environment that’s safe, chic, and easy to use. 5. Mindfulness matters Keeping your brain supple is key, but so is keeping your mental health strong. Practicing mindfulness can be a great way to live in the moment and help relieve any stress. It also has the benefits of lowering blood pressure, improving sleep, and generally improving all-round health. To get started, you can choose from a number of apps and courses. Hopefully, you will enjoy the benefits of decreased stress and anxiety and improved focus. 6. Try yoga It’s true that falls pose a danger to older adults, so to mitigate the risk, try picking up yoga. It helps strengthen core muscles and works on balance and flexibility. Not to mention, it’s a very calming and healthy activity. Adding yoga into your routine is a great way to keep yourself fit and healthy, well into older adulthood. Hopefully, this article has given you some tips and tricks that will help you ‘age well’ and enjoy your later years.  Image credit: pixelcreature on Pixabay When you’re running a blog for your brand, the number one priority should be producing good quality content that has value to the readers, and also helps to contribute to your goals, whether it’s growing recognition or generating sales. But what about when you’ve successfully done that and notice a post taking off, outperforming both your expectations and your other posts? Should you simply let it enjoy the spotlight or is there some way you can capitalize on it? Make sure it leads to something good
If you haven’t already connected your successful post to something that translates to value for your business, now is the time. You can use it to increase blog traffic by following up on it if that’s your aim. However, for many businesses, their mind is going to be on conversion first and foremost. An edit after it has taken off, just slipping in a call to action towards the end might be all that it takes. Grow from it First of all, find out whether or not your content is evergreen. This means it’s not likely to lose value or purpose over time, rather than being particularly pertinent in a moment in time. It doesn’t always work, but you can work with content writers who can find new ways to iterate on that content over time, adjusting it to suit different business periods or topics, for instance. Convert it into even more engaging content Aside from making your content evergreen, you can also look into translating it into forms of media that tend to be even more successful. If a text post version does well, just imagine how well it might work as an infographic or, better yet, a video. Turning a good post into a video isn’t simply as easy as reading it out over imagery, but working with a professional video production agency can help. The better you translate it from one form to the other, the more likely it is to keep the momentum going. Build a personal brand off of it Not only does the brand of the blog, website, or business benefit from a really great and insightful post. It can help position you, the writer, as a person of authority, as well. If your post goes viral due to the insight it offers, then you can seek out other media opportunities, such as guest posting on respectable publications or attending talks. Adopt elements of that post in others If a post does well, it’s often not only because the topic hit the nail on the head for the audience. There’s a good chance it was written and formatted in a particularly engaging manner, as well. To that end, try to find what was great about your post and take elements to incorporate in other posts. You can even try different combinations of stylistic, language, and formatting choices, keeping an eye on your analytics to see if it results in a bump in engagements. A post that gets a lot of reads, generates conversations, or even goes viral is an opportunity just waiting to be taken.  Image credit: geralt on Pixabay Developing a new product is the cornerstone of any successful business, especially startups. You need to create something that meets the needs of consumers while also turning over a healthy profit for you. Getting to that point, however, can be a challenge. Building a product isn’t just a matter of getting out there and doing the work - it requires time and patience to get right. The failure rate for new products and services is notoriously high. In some quarters, it is north of 90 percent, meaning that that majority of new products on the market fail. So what’s the key here? How can you nail your product development cycle and deliver something that will generate substantial profits? Start By Satisfying A Need New products don’t just emerge out of the ether - they come from the fact that they solve problems that consumers have. We already have a highly sophisticated economy, churning out millions of different goods each year for these needs. So there is a lot of knowledge already about what customers want. The market is already excellent at determining their needs and satisfying them. Any new product, therefore, needs to fit into this context. It must understand how the market is currently failing consumers and how the new product can compete. And it needs to improve on whatever is already out there in some way. The most successful products, therefore, aren’t always something entirely novel. Instead, they find a way to improve on an existing formula while preserving their competitive advantage. Find Out How Much The Opportunity Is Worth You might have an excellent idea for a niche product, but if the market for it is small, you might not make a return on your original investment. Ideally, you want to figure out which market segments are most likely to consume whatever you build. Then you need to determine whether you will generate sufficient revenue for it to be worth your time.  Image credit: Mohamed _hassan on Pixabay User research platform, Userzoom, says that companies should try to understand the needs of users before building a new product or service and then validate prototypes. This approach helps to reduce risks and ensure that there is a feasible market out, therefore, for the products when you finally decide to scale.
Working out the size of the opportunity is, therefore, vital. You might have a product that a particular niche wants, but if there are too few people, you’ll ultimately wind up out of pocket. Figure Out How You Will Develop The Product The best way to work out how to develop a product is to look at how the market operates already. Look at the methods that companies already use to ship new goods and services to their customers and actually make it happen. Ask yourself the following questions:
Test Your Prototype In As Many Ways As You Can Prototypes are an essential stage in producing a successful product. They are the point where you find out whether you will be able to deliver something the market will accept or not. Companies tend, however, to look at their products through rose-tinted glasses. They see them as to how they want to see them, rather than how actual customers will. Regular people are the harshest critics of what you sell. If there’s a slight weakness or flaw, they’ll find it and let you know in online reviews. Prototyping, therefore, is your opportunity to wipe out as many of these concerns as possible. Be brutal with your product. Test it to its limits. If you find a flaw, plot a course of action to fix it. Ask yourself whether the product is robust enough, fast enough, or sufficiently flexible. Be honest with yourself about whether it offers customers enough features, or if there are too many. Also, question whether you can deliver it to the market on time. Many companies work to strict time constraints. There is a window of opportunity that they must exploit if they want their enterprise to thrive. If they miss it, then the profit opportunity will vanish. A prototype, therefore, could have all the bells and whistles imaginable. Still, if it is going to take years to bring to scale, then it is not fulfilling the needs of the business. Long development cycles are often what kills new companies. The chance for the product to shine passes. Figure Out How To Position The Product Once you’ve designed the product and studied your market thoroughly, the next step is to position it ready for launch. Companies need to have a good sense of where their product fits alongside the other options available in the marketplace. Positioning the product is essential and usually requires some pretty savvy marketing. For instance, is your product designed for a premium audience? Or are you looking to target people on a budget? Does your product offer superior technology than its competitors? Or does it do the same thing, but at a lower price? Finally, how will you use your brand image to sell the product? Will you use a value-driven approach where you talk about the broader benefits of your product? Or will you tap into different customer philosophies? Remember, your advertising doesn’t have to focus on product features. Instead, you can simply focus on how your company makes people feel. Coca-Cola, for instance, doesn’t talk about the high sugar content of its drinks. Instead, it just associates its brand with having a good time.  You can post as much inspirational and motivational stuff as you can but sometimes, taking a look into what the real world looks like for someone that dedicates their day to being the best they can will have a bigger impact. Mark Wahlberg revealed his daily routine back in December 2018, this followed after Wahlberg was named the highest paid Hollywood actor in 2017. BBC News had the story back then..
 While your blunt friends might come across as a little embarrassing from time to time, overall they’re probably the best friends you have. They come in handy for a number of reasons and are almost always there when you need them, aren’t they? Awareness Act has a great feature to tell you more!
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Author - Chris
Author, Editor, Creator of Learn Develop Live Archives
September 2020
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