On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Farmers Branch Elementary. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Farmers Branch Elementary. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Farmers Branch Elementary. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Farmers Branch Elementary. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Farmers Branch Elementary. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Farmers Branch Elementary. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Farmers Branch Elementary. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Farmers Branch Elementary. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Farmers Branch Elementary. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Farmers Branch Elementary. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

Every startup is unique in its own right. What takes one to the pinnacle of success serves as an inspiration to others. However, it’s impossible to replicate the same success with the exact strategies and tactics.

Yet, it’s possible to create your own success story if you know which are the key areas to focus on when starting a business.

As part of a team that serves startup founders for more than 5 years, I’ve seen my fair share of success stories.

What I can personally testify is that those that have found success work through their plan methodologically. They share common points in the steps taken to turn an idea into a successful startup.

With this experience, I’ve prepared a checklist that will get you started on the right foot when starting a business. The checklist was never meant to be a shortcut nor a guarantee for success.

You’re free to use it as you see fit and innovate upon it. That’s what entrepreneurship is all about.

Now, let’s kick off with the startup checklist.

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Idea Screening

You don’t wake up with an idea and immediately build a product around it. While it’s true that great ideas are the foundation for startup success, it’s not enough that the greatness is solely your imagination.

Therefore, it’s important to consider if the idea is feasible before following up with concrete action. As exciting as it is, your idea needs to solve real problems or fulfill existing market needs. If it fails to do both, you’re unlikely to be successful if you insist on pursuing it.

Before you fixate on your idea, you’ll want to find out if it’s feasible to move forward. You need to ask hard questions and give honest answers.

For example:

What problems am I trying to solve?

How do I understand it’s successful?

How would people feel about my ideas?

After thoughtful considerations, you ought to be able to provide clear answers to those questions. If you can’t, it’s likely that your idea is not viable for a startup. Only commit resources to your idea once it’s proven to be viable.

Checkpoints

Make sure your heart is in it. Bringing an idea to life involves many challenges. You need to be 100% committed to the journey that lies ahead.

Learn how to start a business. Wearing multiple hats as an entrepreneur is not easy. Beef up your knowledge by picking up the experience of other entrepreneurs.

Be prepared to invest time and money - It takes time to be profitable. Until then, you’ll need to put in efforts and resources into your business.

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According to the latest CB Insights study, 35% of startups failed because of a lack of market need. That’s the kind of blunder you want to avoid when taking your product to the market. It’s important to ensure the right product/market fit before you even start building the product.

Therefore, you’ll need to conduct proper market research to gain insight into your target audience and competitors. Having such information helps to mitigate risks when you launch the product. Market research puts you in a strategic position when selling the product.

Checkpoints

Evaluate the size of the target market. There needs to be sufficient demand to generate sustainable sales and ensure profitability.

Explore the competitors. Chances are, there are already competitors offering their products to the same target audience. Find out who they are and how your startup compares against them.

Find out the competitors’ weaknesses. You’ll have a distinct advantage if you can figure out what they are and capitalize against them.

Look for opportunities for improvement. There’s always room for improvement. The onus is for you to identify them and innovate with the product.

Ensure that idea’s viability is backed by market needs. Don’t leave room for assumptions because they can be misleading.

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Your product’s success hinges on the users. If the users fail to find value in your products, everything that you’ve done would have been for nothing. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that your product is aligned with the user's needs while you’re building it by conducting user research.

Making user research as part of the development strategy ensures that you’re getting feedback early on in the process. Any teething problems can be identified and ironed out at the minimum cost.

By holding regular face-to-face meetings and interviews with the users, you get to know if you’re progressing in the right direction as far as the product is concerned. You need to prove that your product is capable of solving user's problems before it hits the market.

Checkpoint

Get a list of your potential customers. You need to know who’s problems you are solving.

Create a proto persona to review users’ needs and pains. Proto personas allow you to quickly get an idea of your target demographic.

Conduct interviews with users. Get feedback with a direct conversation with users who are likely to use your product.

Create Customer Journey Map (CJM) to review how users interact with your product. User experience is pivotal for success and CJM helps identify opportunities for improvisation.

Create a value proposition canvas (VPC). It helps to ensure that your startup’s value proposition is meeting the pain and gain of the customers.

Create prototypes. It’s a cost-efficient way to help you validate assumptions.

Validate prototypes with user testing. Ensure that design assumptions and hypotheses are tested by real users.

Ensure that the idea is viable with users. It’s important that users find your product is adding real value to their life and are happy to pay for it.

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Owais Zaidi is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of CreditPer (CreditFix) and the Executive Chairman of The Hive. He is also an Independent Director of The Organic Meat Company Limited and a Charter Member of OPEN Islamabad. Prior to that, Owais is a Consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Mr. Zaidi attended the Institute of BusinessAdministration and Karachi University.

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Venture Builder | MBA, Consulting, Strategy | Blockchain | Tokenization | Fintech | M&A.

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Once you have a clear sight of the product, you’ll need strategies to build, deliver and market it to the target audience. Without proper strategies, you’ll be at the mercy of various factors that could derail your startup ambition.

For startups, part of winning the game is to get the sales and marketing strategies right. You need to plan how you’ll reach out to your audience. Is social media marketing the best option? Or should you engage in a long-term SEO campaign?

Strategizing your moves ahead lets you identify opportunities and challenges. It allows you to play to your strengths and weaknesses. You don’t need a thick pile of business plans to strategize. For startups, the lean canvas is a great place to start.

Checkpoints

Determine business goals and objectives. Have clarity on what your startup intends to achieve in the short, mid, and long term.

Focus on product areas. Set sight on which segment that you want to expand on.

Determine product features. Research on which features will make the most impact on the users and are less costly to implement.

Set sales and marketing goals. Identify realistic numbers of projected leads and conversions in the coming months.

Set up sales funnels. A website is mandatory, but a well-designed landing page can turn leads into paying customers.

Set up marketing channels. Users expect businesses to be omnipresent. Your startup needs to market on different social media and any platforms frequented by your target audience.

Develop a brand identity. You don’t want a one-time buyer, but a growing base of loyal customers. Pay attention to how you’re building a strong brand for your startup.

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#business #entrepreneur #marketing #success #smallbusiness #motivation #money #businessowner #entrepreneurship #love #digitalmarketing #instagram #startup #branding #instagood #mindset #finance #design #investment #inspiration #socialmedia #fashion #realestate #lifestyle #technology #work #businesswoman #socialmediamarketing #life #goals

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ABOUT OWAIS ZAIDI.

Leading ventures with a strategic focus, my role encompasses the growth of startups into thriving enterprises. At owaiszaidi.com and OURPOL, my expertise in customer relationship management and strategy fortifies the foundation of businesses in diverse sectors. With a strong grasp on real estate tokenisation, I steer ventures towards innovative solutions and sustainable success.

My current endeavors include co-founding ChargeUp, where we're revolutionizing expense management through a robust business credit card platform. This venture reflects my commitment to financial technology and enterprise development, utilizing strategic insight to navigate complex market challenges. Collaborating with teams, our collective efforts are geared towards building scalable, customer-centric products.

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#bhfyp #marketingdigital #follow #entrepreneurlife #art #b #investing #leadership #businessman #like #bitcoin #india #wealth #onlinebusiness #financialfreedom #motivationalquotes #photography #businesstips #trading #graphicdesign #sales #luxury #travel #hustle #advertising #ecommerce #seo #forex #networking #invest

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Farmers Branch Elementary. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Farmers Branch Elementary. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Farmers Branch Elementary. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Farmers Branch Elementary. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

My favorite thing we did this whole trip! And you can't actually see the Washington Monument in this photo—you can, however, see the Thomas Jefferson Memorial on the far side of the Tidal Basin—because the photo was taken from the Washington Monument. At the top!

Getting these tickets were by far the biggest challenge—even more so than getting White House tour tickets, which, strangely, you have to coordinate with one of your Congressional representatives (either the Representative from your U.S. House District or one of your Senators; I did that one through Representative Pramila Jayapal's office)—of any I managed to get for this trip. I didn't even get these tickets in advance, much as I tried: if you have a target date for when you want to go, tickets are released one month in advance online, and another 30 are released at 10 a.m. Eastern every day one day prior. I tried both of these approaches, two different times each, to no avail—tickets disappear quickly. We spoke to a park ranger at the Washington Monument (which, incidentally, is part of the National Parks system) on Thursday and she told us there are people who use AI to swoop in and grab huge swaths of tickets at a time and then attempt to sell them later, even though they are actually free. But, she said, 250 same-day tickets are released every morning at 8:45, and she recommended we get in line at least by 8:00 if we wanted to go that route.

It should come as no surprise to you that I am committed, and I don't mind waiting an hour in line for things. My only concern here was having to get up that early, as it meant getting out of bed at least by 6 a.m. Eastern, which is 3 a.m. Pacific. I had fairly acclimated to the time difference, though, and when I woke up and saw the clock around 6 a.m., I hopped right out of bed. By the time both of us were ready to walk the two miles from our hotel, we had enough time to get there and in line by 7:55 a.m. There were 26 people in line ahead of us, each with the ability to claim up to 6 tickets—we were safe; the ticket window opened on schedule at 8:45; and we snagged tickets for the earliest slot at 9 a.m.! I was beyond thrilled.

The Washington Monument is by a wide margin the tallest structure, excluding things like radio or TV towers in Washington, D.C., at 555 feet (169 m), and is only partly the reason everything else in D.C. is so much shorter: the Height of Buildings Act of 1899 established that no building could be taller than the Capitol (289 ft / 88 m), and the Height of Buildings Act of 1910 further restricted heights to no more than 20 ft taller than the width of the street it faces. The Washington Monument pre-dates all of this, having been constructed between 1848 and 1888 (with a hiatus 1854-1877 due to the Civil War), and so does the Old Post Office Pavilion (we'll discuss this later), and the Act has been updated a few times to grant minor exceptions depending on the circumstance and the location. But overall, the city has maintained the height restrictions to preserve the "light and airy" character envisioned of the city by Thomas Jefferson.

The result of all this, to this day, is a city skyline not only muted for a city its size: 702,000 in the city proper (compare to 781,000 in Seattle) and a metropolitan population of 6.3 million (7th-largest in the nation; compare to metro Seattle's 4 million, ranked 15th)—but truly unique and unusual. Almost all of Washington, D.C.'s downtown buildings are 12 or 13 stories tall; the only things sticking noticeably above them are the Washington Monument (555 ft / 169 m) near the west end of the National Mall; the U.S. Capitol (289 ft / 88 m) at the east end of the National Mall; and in the middle just north of the Mall in downtown, the Old Post Office Pavilion (with the clock tower, 315 ft / 96 m). Only the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception stands shorter than the Washington Monument but taller than the Old Post Office, its tower standing at 329 ft (100 m), but that stands about three and a half miles northeast of the Washington Monument. In any case, downtown Washington is barely recognizable as such compared to dozens of other, far taller cities, though it's an interesting experience walking down streets that create strangely uniform corridors of buildings as far as the eye can see that are all basically the same height.

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Vivian Field Middle School. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon

On Nov. 19, David Berliner, the author of "50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools," visited Farmers Branch Elementary. He met with community members as they toured the school and visited classrooms through a "Mythbusting Tour" to see the great things happening in public education and in CFB.

Photos by Shelley Gammon