April 9, 2020 3 min read If you’re an entrepreneur who gets clients through cold pitches, you might wonder: Is it still OK to pitch at a time like this? The answer: Yes, but you need to think differently about your offering and your approach. To dig into the details, I arranged a coaching session between an entrepreneur and an industry expert—and filmed it so you can watch. Dwaynia Wilkerson runs the content writing company Prose and Pens; she gets most of her clients through cold pitches, but is nervous about pitching now. Adam Bornstein, an Entrepreneur magazine columnist and…

Health insurance premiums are set to rise as non-life insurance companies and standalone health insurance firms scurry to revamp their products to include the modifications mandated by insurance regulator Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI). The rise in premiums could be in the range of 5-25 per cent, depending on the features that each insurance company adds on its products. Insurance firms have been given time till September 30 to include modifications mandated by the regulator. From October 1, the products must have the suggested modifications of the regulator. Insurers are using this time…

The BSE has cautioned market intermediaries against malicious cyber attacks amid increased usage of mobile phones and tabs in the wake of the lockdown to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE: Global death toll crosses 100,000; US, Italy worst hit Many organisations have switched to work-from-home, due to outbreak of the pandemic, with employees using mobile phones, tabs and personal laptops in order to maintain business continuity. This has resulted in unprecedented increase in dependency on digital means by many folds and resulting in many operations that may…

Social ads take amount of work, but done correctly they can significantly impact ROI. April 9, 2020 4 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. With 97 percent of digital consumers on some form of social media, you can’t afford not to invest in social ads. And with the latest forecasts predicting a 20 percent rise in social ad spending (up to $4.3 billion) in 2020, you also can’t afford to make mistakes on your social ad strategy. Just because everyone is jumping on the opportunity to advertise socially doesn’t mean it should be done hastily. First,…

A crisis brings values to the fore. Though executives were talking urgently about the purpose of business before COVID-19, the topic is even more important now. Organizations across all sectors have a part to play in the shared goal of flattening the disease’s growth curve. At healthcare organizations, of course, employees are aware of their critical role. But the same mentality extends to enterprises of all types. Scholastic is creating new at-home teaching materials. Clorox is expanding production capacity of and consumer access to germ-killing products. And just about every food retailer is staying open, despite the danger, to ensure…

Equity and credit markets can go back to their recent lows, and probably slip even further if the infections caused by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic do not peak out by April-end, wrote Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies in GREED & fear, his weekly note to investors. “In the unlikely case where infection rates do not peak out by the end of April, stock markets and credit markets will re-test recent lows and worse. At that point, there will be growing pressure for people to return to work because at a certain point…

April 8, 2020 5 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The following excerpt is from Robert W. Bly’s The Content Marketing Handbook. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble  Webinars have long been an effective content marketing tactic. Your prospects can hear you talk and see your slides right on their com­puter screens. A typical sales funnel for a content marketing campaign incorporating a free webinar is:Put up a webinar registration page. Drive traffic to the registration page with an email invitation. Hold the webinar. Make a special offer at the close of…

With the coronavirus-related lockdown hitting cash flows, many companies have announced salary cuts and even layoffs. This has had a knock-on effect on systematic investment plans (SIPs) of mutual funds, with many investors looking to pause or stop them. If you wish to pause your SIP, check with your fund house whether it offers this facility. Only a limited number of fund houses do so at present. Many that don’t have the pause facility at all are scrambling to offer it at the earliest, as it works in their favour if their customers pause, and not…