Podcast Ads Explained

Podcast Ads Explained

by | Jun 21, 2021 | Business, Podcasting

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21 JUNE 2021

written by Mike

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ads explained

Let’s talk about the monetisation of your show. 

First of all, if you are starting a podcast with a goal that will make you loads of money, you may be heading for disappointment.

Older articles say podcast advertising reached around $670 million in 2019, and it’s heading towards 1 billion in 2021. It sounds like a lot of cash, but at the same time, radio advertising was around $14.5 billion in 2019. 

That makes podcast advertising 4.6% of audio radio ads revenue, a small number. And this number is usually centralised at the top of the charting shows.

It took us a long time to be a self-sustaining business with a lot of free work and a lot of luck.

It’s not impossible, of course! 

However, let’s be realistic if you are here for money, there are much better ways for you to earn it and much easier ways like e-commerce or good-paying jobs.

But! 

Let’s talk about how ads on podcasts work.

Love it or hate it – ads on podcasts are still the primary revenue stream for people who make a living in the space. Of course, there are experiments with paying for content, exclusive shows and premium services; however, just like with Youtube – if you want to watch or listen to content for free, be ready to watch and listen to some ads, or as some people call it – sponsorships.

For podcasts, ads are calculated on CPM, which is a cost per mille. Which means a cost per 1000 listens.

So $20 CPM means that for every 1000 listens, you will get $20

10,000 – you will get $200

100,000 – $2000

1,000,000 – $20000 although no one will pay that much for an ad

Ads can be placed at the beginning of the episode, called pre-roll

In the middle of the episode – called mid-roll

Or at the end – called post-roll

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Midroll ads are best paid as people are less likely to skip them; it’s easy to skip pre and post rolls, but if you are listening to podcasts and there is a midroll, you are likely to leave it on as it means you would need to unblock your phone, access the app and manually skip the ad – it’s just a hassle.

Ads themselves also have a few categories, and the best paid are what’s called host read baked in ads. This means that the ad would be recorded by you and exported on your podcast MP3 file – it’s part of that until you manually edit that out and replace the episode with an ad-free version.

This is possible after negotiated time passes or after it reaches a negotiated amount of impressions.

Another category is dynamically ad-injected campaigns, the host read.

Host read campaigns are what it means – ready by you. However, these are not baked but inserted by the system on your episodes (as pre-rolls or mid-rolls), and they switch off after a set date or set impression amount.

These will be paid less than the baked-in ads.

The third is also dynamically ad-injected campaigns but radio-style. These aren’t recorded by the host and are the same as the ads you hear on the radio. 

They will run for a certain amount of time or impressions and often are geo-targeted – so, for example, they will only run for listeners in New York or London.

I like the idea of dynamic campaigns because it means that you will still be paid for your old content, which can get significant download numbers when your show gets popular as people go back to the old episodes.

With baked-in ads, they only get paid once, and you are banking on new content all the time and that people will listen to it.

Geo-targeting also becomes more common, and it’s a question of time when advertisers will be able to target gender, age and other variables like on social media or Google.

Ok, so now you have an idea how the ads work; the second part of the lecture is – how to get sponsors!

In most cases, the way it works now is YOUR SHOW – PODCAST NETWORK – AD AGENCY – COMPANY.

The company pays the marketing budget to the ad agency, which contacts podcast networks that select shows and books the ads.

As you probably think, the initial money is getting smaller with each step.

The ideal scenario would be to go directly to companies. This is, of course, possible, but it means selling on your end – contacting prospects and getting the deals ready in place.

Last time I checked, there are plans for some sort of open platforms where smaller companies can directly sign with podcasts, but as of now, it’s still just an idea with lots of potential problems – like lying with stats and accountability.

Going directly to an ad agency won’t work in most cases as these guys work with networks; they don’t want to deal with individual shows.

The option left on the table is to join a podcast network or sign a deal with a hosting agency.

As I mentioned before, most hosting companies act as networks because they know the numbers and analytics and have access to loads of shows.

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Therefore when you start hosting your show, it’s good to see if the company also can sell ads and if they are doing it well, as there are stories from the past where people weren’t getting paid and had their funds withheld.

Before you get ads on your show, you will need numbers, so focus on growing your podcast and make it sound good.

Once you have your numbers, I guarantee that you will be contacted by your hosting service and offered ad sales; you will also get approached by several other podcast networks and offer advertising deals.

The other thing is money, when and how you will get paid.

Well, read T&Cs! It is changing now as the industry is becoming standardised, but I remember when we first sold ads, we got money after like 6 or 7 months! That meant working for free (well, working on other jobs) until the check cleared.

Why was that?

The ad agency had 30 days to pay after the campaign ended (which was 30 days) so suddenly it was 60 days, then the hosting company had, I think, 90 days for the payment to clear.

I can’t remember now, but it was long before we saw any money.

Thankfully most services are much better now, and you get paid within 30 or 60 days but double-check the terms.

As far as the split goes, it can be from 50-50 to 80-20 (in your favour).

So let’s say you can grow your show to over 100k downloads, with around 20$ CPM

That’s 20×100 = 2k per ad

If you decide to have one pre-roll and maybe two midroll ads, that means 6 thousand per episode, and let’s say you have four episodes per month. That’s 24 thousand per month; with a 70-30 split, you would still clear 16,800 per month. 

Easier said than done, but not impossible.

Some advertisers will book 3 or 4 ads as a campaign, and then CPM goes out of the window because they will get a discounted rate. So instead of 2k, they may pay 1.5k per ad; however, they book it on five episodes. So you give away a bit of money but for long term stability.

They may still cancel them, but there is a deadline.

Getting sponsorships on your podcast is a goal for many aspiring podcasters, and many will get to do this. However, it shouldn’t be on your mind when you are starting. As you learned, it isn’t as easy as it looks, so focus on making great content, and the money will come in due time!

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How to grow a podcast

How to grow a podcast

by | Apr 17, 2021 | Business, Podcasting

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17 APRIL 2021

written by Mike

HOW TO

GROW A PODCAST

After over five years of working in the podcasting space, we grew our main show Casefile to hundreds of millions of downloads and consistently feature on top of the charts. We also successfully launched several podcasts under Casefile Presents umbrella and hopefully continue to do so for a long time.

Exact success is never replicable because there are too many variables to copy. However, there are a few general rules that I think can help in achieving long term success. At least they worked for us.

I want to go through 3 of them and break them down further.

CONTENT

Content is and always will be the king. Podcasting is no different, and the content will always win in the long run. I want to discuss what I think is relevant to podcasts.

The first one is the voice. Podcasting is all about the audio and developing the connection through sound. And just like with radio the host or hosts’ voice is crucial.

The voice needs to be likeable, easy to listen to, soothing or fun, or dramatic – there are many angles to it. However, no matter the style, people have to like the voice and want to listen to it, sometimes for hours.

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The second part is storytelling. The most important part of the whole podcasting thing is the story – the rest supports this centrepiece. The voice, the production, the team – everything exist to help the story. 

It could be a comedy story, a true crime, fiction, an interview with guests, a chat show – whatever. However, there needs to be a point to the episode, a narrative and a timeline of what’s going on.

If it’s just two buddies talking about nothing, then it won’t be easy to keep the listener interested.

The story needs to grab from the beginning and hold the listener until the end. Don’t take anybody’s time for granted – it is our most precious resource.

And the third one is consistency. There are so many channels and platforms that a person who clicks on your show needs to know why they are here and what they will listen to. If you want to talk about true crime in one episode and then comment on movies in another and games in the third it will be pretty challenging to build a dedicated audience.

Big personalities or celebrities are exemptions to the rule and people tune in just to hear them talking about whatever.

However, for most of us, consistency will be the key to growth and developing a listenership.

Let’s now talk about

AUDIO QUALITY

Podcasting is all about sound. There seems to be an opinion, at least in some corners, that podcasting is easy – you record, upload and people will listen to whatever.

Now ask yourself this: 

Why would you spend your time listening or watching or reading some poorly produced thing?

There are plenty of good quality pieces of art or content that the bad ones don’t deserve anyone’s attention.

Now, don’t get me wrong – the story will always win. If you have the most expensive show with a bad story, the production quality won’t save you.

But if you have a great story with so and so audio quality, you can still get people interested.

However, to scale up and win in the long run you need both – great stories and great quality.

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Let’s start with recording.

Ideally, you have a nice microphone and a quiet set up. You also keep it in the same position and always use the same settings. It’s worth reading and watching basic recording tutorials and techniques. The way you speak to the microphone matters but the choice of the microphone matters even more! You don’t need a professional studio or a microphone worth thousands of pounds, but don’t think you can get away with a $20 one.

The second step is production. Audio production is not easy. The basics are not super difficult either but don’t think you can record and upload. 

What about editing, the volume levels, EQa and compression? 

You want your listeners to understand at least what is being said. If you want to add music on top of the dialogues, then at least you need basic mixing techniques.

You don’t need an expensive set up as everything can be done on your computer with a nice pair of headphones.

But production takes time and it’s slow work, so many people just skim it.

You wouldn’t believe the number of expensive shoes that I check and think to myself – did no one listened to this before the release? 

And that leads to my last point and that is consistency. As you learn you will upgrade your set up and make your show sound better but you should always strive for consistency. In volume levels, in recording settings, in your production template.

You want the listener to go from one episode to the next seamlessly and you don’t want them to adjust the volume during listening. You want people to have a smooth listening experience every time they click play!

TEAMWORK

The third leg of podcasting success, in my opinion, is teamwork. To grow and sustain a popular show, you will need a team of people who will support you and work together on bringing the episodes out.

It’s easy to start alone, but it’s rare, and I would argue, impossible, to achieve something great by yourself. 

A dedicated team of people makes it easier when times get tough.

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To have the right team, you got to have the right people – but once you gather them around your show, you also need to work on the team from within.

One is feedback – there needs to be an open feedback platform to give their opinion – good and bad. Feedback needs to be discussed by the rest, and if necessary, the changes implemented straight away. When team members feel like they don’t have a voice, they will grow in resentment and sabotage everything from the centre: feedback, even most trivial, needs to be heard.

The same goes for ideas. To stop growing is to die. You have to keep moving, keep experimenting to some degree and try out new things. It’s a fine balance between doing what is working and still improving and evolving. It doesn’t matter if a person is a senior or new to the team – ideas just like feedback need to be heard and discussed calmly.

Some will be good, some will be bad but don’t even think you found a winning formula and can now coast and relax. The thing that is winning at this moment may not be the best strategy in the future. Keep the team talking and brainstorming, and don’t criticise anyone for their ideas.

The last thing when it comes to right teamwork is dedication. You want people to care about the show and their work. To do so you need to learn what motivates each individual as it won’t be the same. For some is money, for others, flexibility and freedom, someone else thrives on getting the credit and so on. Once you discover the right incentive it will be much easier to get people pumped up to care about the work. Personally, I think that money is only the first and most obvious one, but once that is covered you still need to dig deeper and discover the why.

Those are the three elements that I think are needed for a successful podcast. However, there is something else that I value, and it is necessary to talk about.

LUCK

I’m a big proponent of randomness and luck. I do agree with the saying – the harder you work, the luckier you get. However, most of the things are outside of our control and are driven by random events. You can have the best team, work hard, produce awesome content – and still, no luck.

Or you can start a podcast from your bedroom and straight away grow and gain a huge audience.

Sometimes we get lucky or unlucky, and remembering that, in my opinion, will keep you humble.

Because if you do get success and attribute some of it to luck – you know that you shouldn’t be boasting or thinking you are the best in the world.

Same if you get unlucky even though you worked hard – it doesn’t mean you suck, it doesn’t mean you are stupid, it just means that this time it didn’t work out.

As the ancient saying goes, sometimes Lady Luck gives, sometimes she takes it away!

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Pros and Cons of Working From Home

Pros and Cons of Working From Home

by | Jun 16, 2019 | Business, Freelancing

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16 JUNE 2019

written by Mike

PROS AND CONS OF

WORKING FROM HOME

 

One of the recent changes in how people work is the focus on flexibility as well as comfort and working from home seems to tick these two boxes.

There aren’t many more comfortable places than our own homes and having an office next to your bedroom (or in your bedroom) offers a lot of flexibility with your day.

In the past, working from home meant running a business and being self-employed; however, this is also changing. More and more companies, especially ones that operate on the internet, allow their employees to do some work from home. It may be an occasional day here and there or a flexible schedule, but, I can see these options available more easily now.

Working from home still seems like a dream come through for many people, and they envy those who have that opportunity. It means having no boss, no schedule and of course no dress code as you can do your task in PJs and no one will mind a thing.

From my personal experience, after 3.5 years of working from the comfort of my home, I can say that I have a good comparison to the standard office environment.

I have had many jobs before, and in different places and even though working from home does have a lot of upside and positives, like, with everything else, it has its downsides too.

Here is a list of good and less ideal things that I found after a few years of having the office less than three steps away from my bed.

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PROS

No schedule

Matthew Walker is a scientist and professor who researches sleep, and in his book Why We Sleep, he demonstrates that we are not all wired in the same way. Naturally, some people prefer to work in the mornings, but there are also those who need a later start. Unfortunately, most companies (and services) favour a morning 9-5 routine, which for many people means a grumpy way to start a day. The obvious positive of working from home is that you can set a schedule that works for you. You can set the hours that you prefer and take as many breaks as you want.

No dress code

Not everyone likes to dress up every day, put on makeup and iron a fresh shirt. No dress code is even better than a casual one, because you can work in your PJs or your robe or wear nothing at all! No one will look at you or comment behind your back.

Services and appointment

Most people work 9-5, which means that necessary services like health appointments are either busy, closed or available for you on weekends. Same goes for gyms, restaurants and cinemas. Having your schedule means that you can book these appointments during day hours when there is little queuing. Gyms and cinemas are empty, and restaurants offer more deals as they want customers during quiet periods. It is honestly one of the best things that you gain when working from home.

 

No unnecessary meetings

Anyone who ever worked in the office understands the pain of pointless meetings, and the time wasted on gossiping near the coffee machine and just general unproductive activities that happen during office hours.

When working from home, there is none of that. When you had enough, you can stop and do what you want to do – go shopping, read a book or watch a movie. There is no need to sit idly in front of the screen staring at the clock.

No pressure

Of course, there is always a bit of pressure when working with clients however when a deadline approaches and you work alongside other people the stress feeds on itself and it is very easy to be consumed by the bubble of pressure, stress and anxiety. I find working from home much more relaxed than the office or any other work environment.

When I’m stressed, I know, it is me who spreads the pressure around, and I can’t blame anyone else.

 

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It would be to easy to list all the good things when you can sit at home and do your work. Like most things in life, working from home isn’t for everyone, and it has some consequences. Here are five things that I noted about having an office at your home that you may not enjoy.

CONS

No schedule

I am a believer that routines help to guide our days and to improve skills, develop projects and make us healthier in the long run. However, with no schedule set by managers, this goes out of the window, and it can have a negative effect on your life.

When you have flexibility with your time, there is always an opportunity to move things to another hour, another day. You can sleep how much you want, take naps, favour pleasure over work and get little done.

To combat that I have my schedule that I stick to every day and in some ways, it is more rigid that schedules I had when I worked somewhere else.

No dress code

Sitting in your robe or PJs all day may seem like a good idea; however, it can also lead to stopping in taking care of yourself. Most of us like to look good in the mirror, but when day after day, there is no reason for it, it can develop in a bad habit. It’s all about balance, I tend to work in regular clothes rather than sweatpants, but my partner likes to work in her PJs in the morning. However, we still dress up when we leave the house.

No reason to leave the house

When working from home, and especially when you are busy with work, there may be days that you spend between your four walls. Even if you live in your perfect place, be it a centre of a bustling city or a quiet residential part, you are still confined to your home office.

Add to that no need to dress up every day, leaving the house may become problematic. It’s great that you can be more productive at home, but it is so easy to sit in front of the screen all day and then watch some TV show in the evening when suddenly realising that last time you opened your front door was two days ago.

 

It gets lonely

The unnecessary meetings are annoying, and you may not like the gossiping near the coffee machine, but with time, you start to miss it. You begin to miss the chitchat with your workmates, meeting new people in person and everyday banter. Working at home gets lonely. I am lucky that my partner also works at home, but it means that we get lonely together.

The crucial bit is to go out of your comfort zone, join some activities and clubs in your area and meet people there. It is much more challenging to do when you do your work from home, and it’s harder to make new friends. 

Feedback and ideas

It is much easier to offer feedback when the person is sitting next to you.

Emails get lost, multiple time zones play their role too and, with time, you forget what you wanted to say in the first place.

Another thing is that creativity can also suffer, having multiple people in the office means bouncing ideas off each other, trying new things, listening to different opinions. When you work from home, even with a team of people over the internet, it is much harder to create that environment.

 

After a few years of working from home, I can now see that it is not for everyone. It requires discipline as well as a proper willingness to leave the house. To meet new people, you have to get out of your comfort zone, join local clubs and pick up new activities.

It is something that I didn’t think of at the beginning of my journey, and it is still something that I am working to fix in my own life. Looking at my sister and friends who lead busy lives in the centre of London, they love their office environment – the hustle and bustle of it.

My current work requires a quiet studio, so I’m glad I can do it from home and even that I’m on a different time zone than my teammates because I can do my job without too many disruptions.

However, it does get lonely, and sometimes I wish that I could attend a meeting or two, even if it were just a waste of time.

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Is Solopreneurship Worth It?

Is Solopreneurship Worth It?

by | Feb 19, 2019 | Business, Freelancing

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19 FEBRUARY 2019

written by Mike

IS SOLOPRENEURSHIP

WORTH IT?

 

You may have noticed that being an entrepreneur, running a business, even freelancing became quite trendy in recent years. It seems that everyone is working towards being their own boss, having freedom of choice and control over their day. Add to that, with the development of the internet and global economy the focus is on individuality, ‘I’ has a more strength that it used to in the past.

When I talk to my grandmother, who was a refugee during communist oppression, her growing up and later life was much different from mine. It was all about community, being together and working towards goals that helped everyone around. Today, it is still about community but we all have an individual voice and a platform to project it.

Is it for better or for worse?

I can’t be a judge of that, but what I have learned is that running a team, or business works better with the ‘old days’ mindset.

Being a part of a team means compromises. It means that you won’t always get your way, that sometimes you have to admit that your ideas may not be the best solution to a problem. 

When I left my job I knew that I wanted to do something on my own – to be my own boss, make my own decisions. However, I also understood the trap, working on the business is very different from working in the business. Creating a job for yourself is easy, but creating a self-sustaining machine that works without you – not so simple.

Being part of the team means synergy – a mix of ideas that bounce off each other, that grow together and form into one solution – it’s a creative process, and it comes with pain. Egos need to be stored away, individual ambitions left outside the door.

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It doesn’t matter if I’m talking about the bigger team which I was a part of in the past, or much smaller group working on Casefile podcast. The answer is clear – I wouldn’t be able to do it on my own.

I found that being a solopreneur offers freedom, but also has blind spots. Fortunately, when we left out jobs, it wasn’t just me – it was always my partner and I. If I wasn’t sure of something – she offered her point of view and vice versa.

Even a team of just two people had an exponential advantage over just being on my own. We tend to get fixated on ideas and develop a tunnel vision that omits better solutions to the problem. Another set of eyes and ears can and often will offer a fresh take on something that drives you mad for a long time.

Of course, some work can require the alone time – art, writing, composing to name a few. Once the tasks and goals are discussed between Casefile team, we go each way and do work on our own, without supervision. That’s where the creative process of being a solopreneur helps. In the above example, no one tells me how to edit, write music or mix the podcast – that’s my area of expertise.

After the tasks are completed, we get together again and offer feedback to each other – constructive input that it’s always welcomed. There may be something that I thought was a brilliant move, but other team members don’t think so we work hard to reach a consensus and make sure that the final, in this example podcast, is polished, so it satisfies all parties involved.

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Sometimes I like being alone, and other times I hate it. When I work I close the door and can get annoyed if someone interrupts my flow. However, I also need someone – a flatmate, my partner – to be in downstairs office. Someone I can ask for a second opinion and feedback when I get stuck.

It’s not always possible to have that, but the easiest way to overcome this is the internet. Besides being a part of a fantastic team and living with creative people, I’m also a part of online communities. There are so many people around the globe that share similar ideas and have the same problems.

It’s easy to post a question, a query and ask for feedback. There is a 99% chance that someone in the past had a similar problem to yours and found a solution. It’s much faster to follow that rather than spending time on finding the fix yourself.

We are tribal ‘animals’, communities and teams thrive when they work towards the same goals, the potential of group thinking is limitless.

Think about your favourite companies, music bands, films. It’s extremely rare that these projects came to fruition without any help, with just one person doing it all. Even authors have editors, marketers, PR companies and designers that help to publish a book. It may be just one name on the cover, but you can be sure that it was a team of dedicated people that helped to put it there.

Last but not least, running and being part of a team is difficult. I’m a fan of Ray Dalio’s take on that, his ideas of meritocracy and transparency. Dictatorships rarely work out, democracy can often lead to a standstill, but meritocracy can work wonders if done right. 

I don’t want to be negative on solopreneurs and like I said before, I enjoy being alone. However, my short professional experience taught me over and over again than having a team of people is always better than trying to figure out everything on my own.

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When Do You Quit?

When Do You Quit?

by | Jan 17, 2019 | Business, Freelancing

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17 JANUARY 2019

written by Mike

WHEN DO YOU QUIT?

Running a business is hard, running a startup is even more difficult. But, you know what is even harder – running a failing business.

I heard somewhere that it is more rewarding to run a successful business that may not be in your area of interests than running a failing one, that you are passionate about. Reading through business books, blog and articles you may often stumble upon contradicting information. For some reason, catchy-sounding lines are the basis for the whole ideology. 

Have you ever read something in the lines of?

Fail fast.

Failure is a learning opportunity.

Don’t give up, push through mistakes.

Persistence is the key.

It’s always darkest before dawn, and it’s always hardest before the finish line.

I’m not saying I don’t agree with the above. I do think persistence is the key, and we shouldn’t frown upon failure. However, is it always the case? Is persistence always a virtue? A quote that I think could be the best answer to the questions is:

Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.

Most of us would agree that putting more money and effort into a failing project is not the smartest idea; however, we all do it. On the other hand, we read sayings like ‘most businesses take around 18 months to be profitable’.

Which one is true? When do you stop, when do you keep pushing?

The first step to understand the situation is understanding a common sunken cost fallacy.

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Sunken cost fallacy is a cognitive bias that, in summary, means an irrational clinging to things that have already cost you something. When you invested time, money and effort into something, it’s hard to let go. The aversion to loss and pain is strong and can distort your judgment.

The fallacy is around whenever you look. Relationships, careers, businesses – people are afraid to quit, even though the tough decision would work out for the better in the long run.

To know where to cut costs, exit the investment or quit the project, I have learned to look at the problem from different angles.

Would I invest in the business right now?

Would I choose the same career right now?

Do I want to do this a year from now?

I learned my lessons from many projects I started and quit, some in time, some a bit too late. However, I can guarantee that with time you will get better at noticing the signs, you will see if it’s worth pursuing your goal. I don’t want to end on a vague note so here are the most recent examples of ‘quitting’ that come to my mind.

A year or so ago, my brother, my partner and I decided to start an Amazon FBA business. After weeks of research, we found our first niche, the product and the manufacturer. We scouted the competition, we had a name and started working on website and packaging. We paid for samples, we have done tests and were ready to go.

However, we weren’t 100% happy with the numbers. We knew it wasn’t exactly what we had in mind, but we were so far already in the process. The decision? We scrapped the whole idea and decided to start from scratch.

Some older projects were a YouTube channel I started with my girlfriend – we run it for three months and shut it down.

I started a blog on sound engineering and decided to go Adsense route – to make money from advertising and grow the site. After months of creating the site and content – I scrapped it altogether.

We’ve started a design agency with a focus on fitness, which we ended only after a couple of months and working with few clients.

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There were many others, but you can see the pattern. The good thing about it is that from each project we had something that we could recycle into something else. The newest ideas usually stop at the research phase, in the past, it took us too long until we decided to pause.

I also have an unhappy example of a close family member who didn’t want to stop and with every loan, every contribution he made to his failing business it became harder and harder to quit. It eventually led to bankruptcy and debt.

Quitting is not as bad as it sounds, especially when you understand that it is better to pivot. Of course, with time and experience, it becomes much clearer when to do that. There are so many opportunities out there, the fear of missing out is real – diving straight into a new project may not always be the best way to do that.

For me, initial research is essential, if something feels off that this stage – it won’t be much better later on. Then it’s all about setting goals and sticking to them, give it time to develop but don’t go overboard. Some businesses can be profitable from the start, and most take some time to get there especially when you add the cost of labour, first promotion, marketing and growth.

Not too mention that first profit will usually be invested back into the business, therefore it can be difficult to wait that long.

There are few ways to do it though, starting a project on the side while working a job is one, getting investment is another option. However have it planned before and be always ready for the worst case scenario, because rarely things go our way.

Just a few days ago we got an email that prompted us to re-think the whole strategy for a new idea. Everything was ready, everything was in place, and yet the ‘black swan’ event appeared and put us on our toes. Always be prepared for the adjustment.

If you plan to test it out for three months and after that, you do not see the results, it’s time to re-think the strategy. It’s a delicate balance to know when to stop or keep going, in the end, it comes down to experience and doing it over and over again. At least that’s what works for my team and me.

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