These thoughts are my own and are not necessarily those of the Startup Sioux Falls, the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship or any other organization I may be involved with. With the launch of the new Zeal + Startup Sioux Falls website, the merger between the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship and Startup Sioux Falls is now …
How Younger Donors are Changing the Face of Charitable Giving in Sioux Falls.
A while back, I was invited to participate in a focus group of business leaders for the Sioux Falls Brand project which is a collaboration of the City, the Chamber, and the Development Foundation to develop a consistent brand and logo to use when promoting the city. The consultants asked our group several questions about …
How to be an Effective Non-Profit Board Member
There are more than 500 non-profits that have 501c3 status in the Sioux Falls metro. The IRS requires each 501c3 to have a governing board of at least three members to maintain their tax-exempt status. Some non-profit boards exist in name only and others are high-profile, high-effort volunteer roles that require a significant commitment but …
Moving is Better Than Shaking: What I’ve Learned about Personal Branding from Kevin Tupy
(Watch this Video on YouTube) A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to attend a Christmas party that entrepreneur Kevin Tupy held for his real estate and business development firm, Cresten Capital Holdings. It was held at the new Tavern 180 restaurant and the food was top-notch (try the Chicken Parmesan, you won’t regret …
My Quarterly Update: Q4 2019
It’s Christmas Eve as I publish this. MarketBeat’s work has largely wrapped up for the year. Our startup community events are on pause until mid-January. The never-ending buzz of social media has slowed to a crawl and my email inbox is surprisingly empty. Our kids are eagerly awaiting their Christmas presents and Micah is excited …
Why “Skip the Latte” is Terrible Financial Advice
(Watch this Video on YouTube) Financial author David Bach is famous for teaching a concept called “The Latte Factor,” which is the idea that recurring small purchases like coffee, cigarettes and ordering pizza add up to a ridiculous amount of money over the course of a lifetime. For example, if you were to buy a …
How MarketBeat is Preparing for the Next Recession and How You Can Prepare Your Business Too
(Watch this Video on YouTube) 2008 was a very bad year for many industries. The financial media space, which MarketBeat operates in, was perhaps the worst hit. Investors took money out of the stock market in droves as the S&P 500 lost 50% of its value during the 18-month bear market that lasted between October …
What to Do When Your Email Campaigns Are Hitting the Spam Folder
By the end of 2019, MarketBeat will have sent over 1.5 billion emails since I launched the business in 2011. We’re currently sending out more than 60 million emails per month to our 1.25 million subscribers. Our ability to send large amounts of email to our customers has scaled nicely over the years, but it …
Seven Volunteer Opportunities to Help Lead Sioux Falls’ Startup Ecosystem
In the last couple of weeks, our startup community has welcomed a fresh set of eyes that has provided a very helpful outside perspective on the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities that our startup ecosystem has. Zeal has brought on Kate Flemming, who was most recently the director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Millikin University, …