Are You Going to Start a Business in 2024?

Five Things To Know This Week:

1) Are You Going to Start a Business in 2023?
2) 8 Bold Tech Predictions for 2023
3) Managing Your Marketing Budget in an Uncertain Economy
4) Are You Putting Obstacles in Your Own Path?
5) Business Owner Spotlight: Geoff Foster, Core Technology Molding Corporation

Happy Tuesday, January 17th!

I’m making a change to the “5 Things” newsletter. Previously, I posted great resources for business owners. Now, I want to put the spotlight on great business owners. Each week, I will introduce you to business owners who do amazing things somewhere across the country, or around the world. There are millions of great stories; my goal is to share some of them with you.

On a different note, I intend to continue using this letter to bring you positive, motivational, and inspirational messages. You never know when the right message, delivered at the right time, to the right person, can change someone’s life.

Today’s message is about mantras. A mantra is a positive affirmation; a reminder that helps us remember something important to us. I have several three-word mantras for 2023, and will share one of them with you: “Gratitude Changes Everything.”

This mantra reminds me that while bad things may happen in life, it’s my choice how I respond to them. Looking at life through a lens of gratitude makes the bad things tolerable, the good things great, and the great things priceless.

Gratitude also reminds me to focus on what’s happening right now. I can’t change the past, and I refuse to worry about the future. I will simply do the best that I can do in this moment and enjoy every minute of it…like writing this note to you!

Let me know your 3-word mantras for 2023. What do you want to be reminded of today?

Thanks,

Brian

Brian Moran, CEO
Small Business Edge
Brian Moran & Associates
brian@smallbusinessedge.com

Are You Going to Start a Business in 2023?

We’re running out of time to talk about 2023 predictions, so I want to share some more. If you’re considering starting a business this year, check out these seven startup predictions from crunchbase.
My favorite? Originality is in. Copycat ideas are out.

Read more startup predictions for 2023.

8 Bold Tech Predictions for 2023

As MUO (Make Use of) notes, “If 2022 taught us anything, it’s how fast things can change. Within a span of a year, we saw some of the biggest tech giants struggle to stay afloat, new rivals enter the market, and what appears to be the beginning of the AI revolution.”

So what’s in store for tech in 2023? MUO shares eight bold predictions.

Learn more about tech trends for 2023.

Managing Your Marketing Budget in an Uncertain Economy

The beginning of a year is not only the time for making (and breaking) resolutions and reading expert predictions about the year ahead. It’s also time to deal with the “b-word”—budgets.

If you’re a B2B company, you’ll want to check out this post about managing your B2B marketing budget in 2023. There are a lot of smart, actionable tips here.

Learn more about how to manage your budget in an unpredictable year.

Are You Putting Obstacles in Your Own Path?

Should you live where your business is, or can you effectively run a startup remotely? This crucial question was posed by Steve Blank, Stanford professor and “father of modern entrepreneurship,” to a former student and founder of a new tech startup. Most of her clients were in New York, while she lived 3,000 miles away in the Silicon Valley.

In his column on the readwrite website, Blank explains that scaling a business remotely is not the best way to grow and that “exponential growth requires relentless execution.” There are a lot of other valuable lessons here—that apply to entrepreneurs in all fields.

Read more about scaling and growing and how to get out of your own way.

Business Owner Spotlight: Geoff Foster

This week we are shining a spotlight is on Geoff Foster, Co-Founder and CEO of Core Molding Technology Corporation in North Carolina.

Geoff started the company with his wife Tonya in 2006; they currently have 45 employees. The business focuses largely on the automotive and pharmaceutical industries, and ships products to clients in 120+ countries. A key to their success is their incredibly positive company culture. They were able to greatly increase revenue during the pandemic through teamwork and perseverance.