Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO)’s purpose is to help entrepreneurs achieve their full potential by enabling life-enhancing connections, designing shared experiences and providing collaborative learning.
EO’s quarterly Impact Day events, as part of the sustainability plan, including “Reimagine Success” and “Designing Your Future,” focus on our planet and the vital role businesses play in building a sustainable future.
During the recent Reimagine Success event, one of the featured speakers was Yiannis Chrysostomidis, managing director of Sustainable Futures, a boutique sustainability management consultancy in London. Yiannis and his company helped to develop a sustainability framework for EO to manage its environmental and social impact, and inspire EO members to engage with the organization’s sustainability agenda.
Contributed by Rich Mulholland, an EO member in Cape Town and founder of Missing Link.
On 15 March 2020, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa–like many other world leaders–declared a national State of Disaster. This meant that there would be no public gatherings and that a lockdown was imminent. That’s bad news if you make your living from live conferences, like we did.
By the end of the day on the 16 March, 100 percent of our upcoming jobs were cancelled, and we hit revenue-zero.
I don’t remember being more excited in years!
With challenge comes opportunity
This was opportunity. You see, what I realized that week was that for the first time in my career, there were no experts. Nobody knew where to look. So I stood up.
Contributed by Steffen Schebesta, CEO of Sendinblue and a member of EO Toronto.
With Valentine’s Day upon us, now is the perfect time to make consumers fall in love with your brand. Sounds easy, right? Actually it’s much more complicated than sending your customers a birthday card in the mail.
According to a recent study, 31 percent of participants love between three and five brands, while 18 percent love between one and two. So, as a small business, how do you become one of the top brands consumers fall in love with?
When I think back to brands I’ve fallen in love with, they typically have a few things in common: trust, personalization and convenience.
Contributed by Steffen Schebesta, CEO of Sendinblue and a member of EO Toronto.
With Valentine’s Day upon us, now is the perfect time to make consumers fall in love with your brand. Sounds easy, right? Actually it’s much more complicated than sending your customers a birthday card in the mail.
According to a recent study, 31 percent of participants love between three and five brands, while 18 percent love between one and two. So, as a small business, how do you become one of the top brands consumers fall in love with?
When I think back to brands I’ve fallen in love with, they typically have a few things in common: trust, personalization and convenience.
“Get your core values down on paper.” I’ve always lived by my core values, but operationalizing them is a different story. Once we figured out the core values we truly believe in at Media Bridge, they became a filter for everything we do.
“Size doesn’t matter.” I used to think the measure of success in advertising was having hundreds of employees and multiple departments. Now I know that it’s having a team of unicorns who you love to work with, and doing a select group of things exceptionally well.
“Breathe. Nobody dies in marketing.” I used to be obsessed with getting people answers in half a second. It’s important to be hyper-responsive, but it’s also important to take a step back and think things through.
“You have no idea how amazing it’s going to be to see your employees grow personally and professionally.” This has been my greatest joy in being an entrepreneur. I aggressively invest in people. And seeing them hit their stride, find their passion and thrive in our culture is beyond fulfilling.
Erich Joachimsthaler, founder and CEO of VIVALDI envisions a new business model—one that creates shared value for all. Companies that embrace this new model, called interaction field companies, generate, facilitate and benefit from interactions and data exchanges among multiple people and groups—from customers and stakeholders, but also from those you wouldn’t expect to be in the mix, like suppliers, software developers, regulators and even competitors.
Read on to learn why Joachimsthaler believes this framework encourages innovation more than any other business model.
With many brick-and-mortar stores closed this Black Friday, businesses are gearing up for a digital shopping weekend unlike any in previous years.
Black Friday holds additional pressure—and opportunity—this year after the challenges many small businesses have experienced due to the pandemic. Traffic to the top 100 shopping sites increased by 137 percent on 2019 Black Friday and companies will be looking to capitalise on this surge in traffic and convert customers to make a sale.
At EO, we celebrate entrepreneurs every day. But with Women’s Entrepreneurship Day taking place this week, we’re directing our applause to all the entrepreneurs who are women! What better way to recognize these hard-working innovators than by showcasing female founders who have been featured on EO’s Wonder podcast?
Host and EO member Kalika Yap launched the podcast as a way to share stories that empower women entrepreneurs to change the world. At the very core of Kalika’s work is the belief that empowered women empower women.
Her guests include the women driving innovation, evolution and revolution in every industry imaginable—including IT, fitness, marketing, nutrition, finance and fashion.
Check out our top five Wonder women, and get ready to be empowered!
1. Lauren Messiah: This Los Angeles–based EO member has built a robust business at the intersection of personal development and personal style. Lauren believes the way you dress is more than the clothes you’re wearing. Discover—and own—your style and you’ll realize an unparalleled level of self-confidence and empowerment. In her interview on Wonder, she talks about racism in all of its forms, her experience as a black female founder and how she’s using her position to make a difference. Listen here.
2. Heidi Zak: Meet the woman who turned the bra industry upside down. Heidi Zak launched ThirdLove with Ra’el Cohen in 2013 with the (revolutionary) core belief: Every woman deserves to be comfortable and confident. Little did she know that inventing half cup sizes would lead to a whole, empowering movement. Heidi talks brand, innovation, fundraising, financing and the myth of balance. Listen here.
3. Debbie Goodman-Bhyat: How do you find yourself studying law while pursuing a career in dance at one moment and then becoming a serial entrepreneur focused on talent acquisition and executive coaching the next? You say yes, says Debbie Goodman-Bhyat. This EO member shares her unique journey and emphasizes the power of taking risks in her conversation with Kalika. Listen here.
4. Kathy David: From waitress to bank manager to CEO of her own IT security company—Kathy’s journey is a lesson in perseverance. In her conversation with Kalika, she describes making the leap from working at a bank to co-founding an IT solutions business. Listen here.
5. Heidi Golledge: As a child, Heid Golledge was determined to make money to help her family. She decided that learning computer coding and practicing her sales abilities were two steps toward that. Those skills serve her well to this day in her role as founder and CEO at Jobot—a career platform that connects AI and experienced recruiters to fill jobs. What can you learn about hiring, raising capita and employee engagement from this award-winning entrepreneur? Listen here.
For more insights and inspiration from today’s leading entrepreneurs, check out EO on Inc. and more articles from the EO blog.
Nearly 100,000 businesses have permanently closed due to COVID-19. And with no end in sight for returning to business as usual, that number can be intimidating to anyone who’s considering opening their own business or entrepreneurs hoping to survive the next year.
If there’s one thing that the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us, it’s that you can’t predict the future but a little preparation can go a long way.
A total of 233 EO-member companies were named to the 2020 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest growing, privately held companies. We asked these elite leaders how being a member of EO has impacted their success.
We spotted a common theme in many answers: learning—whether it’s incidental learning among peers or formal education at events. Learning to improve your leadership, your business practices, your focus, your relationships is a hallmark of EO’s benefits and a significant driver in the success of any business.
Here’s what our members say about learning through EO.
Many business leaders pride themselves on perpetuating the “workaholic” lifestyle. They assume that an always-on, always-available mentality is a prerequisite for success, so they slog through 80-hour workweeks and glue their eyes to their desks, laptops and cellphones.
I take a different leadership approach. Instead of constantly immersing myself in work, I try to take several breaks every day, limit my availability for meetings and make time to travel. This allows me to get in much-needed rest and relaxation. More importantly, it helps me become a better leader and more innovative entrepreneur.
When I unplug from the minutiae of daily business, I develop fresh ideas and perspectives.
Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO)’s purpose is to help entrepreneurs achieve their full potential by enabling life-enhancing connections, designing shared experiences and providing collaborative learning.
Contributed by Rich Mulholland, an EO member in Cape Town and founder of 
With many brick-and-mortar stores closed this Black Friday, businesses are gearing up for a digital shopping weekend unlike any in previous years. 
At EO, we celebrate entrepreneurs every day. But with 
Contributed by Alexis Maness, contributing editor at 
Contributed by