Entrepreneur Magazine December 2022

THERE’S A THING that most of us do: Whenever we get someone’s attention, we go into what I like to call “Density Mode.” We think in ideas per second, and value per word. If we have a minute of someone’s time, we’ll talk fast to squeeze in more facts. If we’re giving a presentation, we’ll stuff it full of charts and graphs. But consider this: What if, no matter what, your audience will only remember one thing you said or did? If you knew that ahead of time, how might it change your approach? I can tell you—because I’ve been operating under this assumption for years. I first thought about it in 2011, as my wife and I planned our wedding. We were caught up in a million little decisions, so I thought back to…

How do you save a brand that everyone knows, but not everybody likes? Back in 2014, the toy company Mattel needed an answer to that question—fast. It owns popular brands like Hot Wheels and Fisher-Price, but one of its consistently top-selling products has long been Barbie. The tall, blonde doll enjoyed ubiquity for over half a century, but her popularity was slipping. To many people, Barbie had come to represent outdated standards of beauty and gender norms, and sales had dropped 20% in the prior two years alone. So the company called Richard Dickson, a former Mattel executive who’d left to run a fashion brand, and asked him to come back and save the famed doll. “We were in a real moment of truth around the brand’s continued evolution,” Dickson says.…

1 / Commit to a mission. “Since becoming B Corp certified in 2020, we’ve retained almost three-fourths of our first 50 employees and attracted our next 50 ‘keepers.’ Through employee surveys, we’ve learned that our B Corp status and our mission-led approach are a key driver for bright, competitive talent to join our team. Great people want to work for companies that walk the talk.” —TOMÁS FROES, founder and CEO, Kencko 2 / Put employees first. “I know I’ll only get good work out of my team if other aspects of their lives are relatively stable, so I give people a lot of rope. I don’t micromanage, and I give people the time and flexibility they need to take good care of the important things in their lives. I trust that they will reciprocate…

Here’s what Ryan Begin knew: Food waste is a big problem—which meant, potentially, a big business opportunity. “Have you ever seen the back room of a grocery store?” he asks. “It’s really scary the food we throw away.” The thing he didn’t know? What kind of business actually solves this problem. That turned out to be OK. Many entrepreneurs begin with a product or service, and then convince people to buy it. But many other smart founders take the opposite path: They start with a problem, then refine a solution until it clicks. That’s how Begin and his cofounder Nick Whitman built Divert, which has taken on many forms and tried many models, and now has more than 250 employees and serves 5,500 retail locations including Target, CVS, Albertsons, and Kroger. Here’s…

As a founder, you and your company’s origin stories are more important than you think. Yes, that’s become conventional wisdom in entrepreneurship circles—but it is now being backed by emerging research, including my own work at the University of Iowa and colleagues’ work elsewhere. Data shows that a founder’s story isn’t just appealing; it is central to whether consumers buy what you’re selling. There’s a good reason for this. We live in an age of manufacturing excellence, where what differentiates a product is not necessarily its quality or durability, or even its specific functionality. Instead, it is a story: Where the product comes from, what makes it unique, and who inspired it. Consider Toms canvas shoes. Why would a consumer choose Toms over other canvas shoes? Keds and Vans have been around for…

Entrepreneurs can be impatient. When we have a great idea, we want to make it happen now. But I’ve learned that patience—taking time to convince resistant customers, or to prove your concept to dubious investors—can create an outcome much truer to your vision. Seven years ago, I began trying to open a coffee shop in New York City. I had long worked as a barista, and imagined a café that treated coffee like a performance—the bar acting as a stage, where baristas would pull the espresso shot, weigh it, and heat it to a precise temperature, all while telling the origin story of the beans. I wanted the shop’s sounds and smells and visuals to envelop each customer. I’d call it White Noise Coffee Company. The trouble was, no one would rent…