This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.

Original link：https://www.shopify.com/blog/what-is-an-entrepreneurAfter studying some of the one million business owners who use Shopify, we discovered that founder types tend to fall into one of five personality types. Which one are you? Start with our quiz.

Imposter syndrome. Self doubt. The urge to give up. We bet you’ve experienced these feelings at some point, Stargazer. If you’re lucky, you’re surrounded by people who affirm your talents at work. But what if you’re a company of one?

Natalie Gill started her fresh flower business from her apartment, relying on savings to bridge the gap after she quit a soulless corporate job. She survived on little sleep and at times an $11 per week food budget. She lost weight—and friends. But she persevered through the toughest points of her journey (hello, self doubt) to build Native Poppy, a successful multi-location retail business.

There’s no question that Natalie is an entrepreneur today, but I’ll argue that she’s always deserved the title—even before she quit her job, even before her first sale.

What makes a person an entrepreneur? We’ll explore the meaning of entrepreneurship, what it takes to be an entrepreneur, and the unique traits of each entrepreneur personality type (including yours). Think of us as the invisible passenger along for the ride on your business journey, here with affirmation and support to help you live your truth—as an entrepreneur.

✨ Shortcuts

What is an entrepreneur?
What are the personality traits of an entrepreneur?
How do I become an entrepreneur?
Finding your inner entrepreneur—advice for every Founder Sign

What is an entrepreneur?

An entrepreneur is, by conventional definition, someone who starts and runs a business, maybe taking on financial or personal risk in the process. But this description of entrepreneurship ignores the more nuanced aspects—the passion, the grit, the desire to bring ideas to life, the drive to solve a problem.

Over time, the creator economy and the gig economy helped to broaden the scope of what it means to be an entrepreneur.

Over time, the creator economy and the gig economy helped to broaden the scope of what it means to be an entrepreneur. Maybe you’re assembling furniture or designing merch for a local band in your studio apartment. Either way, you’re working for yourself and taking your future into your own hands.

The pandemic brought devastation to the entrepreneurship community through 2020—3.3 million businesses in the US closed between February and April. Yet, entrepreneurship offered a path for those looking to supplement loss of work, combat isolation boredom, or react to opportunities created by changing consumer trends. While business as a whole decreased during 2020, entrepreneurial spirit surged.

And our definition of “entrepreneur” is forever changed.

What are the personality traits of an entrepreneur?

Earlier in our series we discussed the unique entrepreneur personality traits of each Founder Sign. There is no single personality profile that determines success potential. Each Sign demonstrates strength in specific areas, each with a unique superpower that defines how they run and think about their businesses.

Top entrepreneur traits:

Risk tolerance
Passion
Vision
Discipline
Self reliance

Other helpful traits for entrepreneurs include perseverance, versatility, ambition, critical thinking, and attention to detail. Chances are you possess some of these qualities. Maybe you’re risk averse but have excellent discipline and attention to detail—your strength will lie in building a steady business slowly with a solid safety net. Or maybe you’re not overly disciplined or focused on detail but you’re bursting with passion and vision—you’d make a great leader, bringing on skilled partners attracted to your ideas and enthusiasm.

So, how do I become an entrepreneur?

Simple: just start. There’s no test (unless you count the test of your will as you navigate the uncertain startup phase). There’s no required degree or years of work experience. When you’re your own boss, you make the rules. Lean on your best entrepreneur trait and take your business idea to the streets.

The downside is there’s also no guarantee, no steady paycheck. In most cases, though, the reward trumps the risk. Best case scenario, you build a life on your terms. If you fail, you’ll dust yourself off and, armed with experience and thicker skin, try again.

Finding your inner entrepreneur—advice for every Founder Sign

Entrepreneur mindset is a combination of beliefs, knowledge, and a way of thinking that allows you to approach challenges, act on ideas, and balance risk. It can be achieved regardless of the strengths you were born with. Personal growth exercises and trial and error will help build your entrepreneur muscle.

This month’s business horoscope centers on how to achieve an entrepreneur mindset and start a small business with confidence—no matter what your personality. (Don’t know your sign? Start here.)

The Cartographer
The Trailblazer
The Outsider
The Mountaineer
The Firestarter

Feature sign: The Cartographer

There’s a lot to work with here, Cartographer. For one, you have a great mind for business because you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and put in the work. You’re an excellent planner and a natural at spotting pitfalls before they happen. You’d pause before calling yourself an entrepreneur, though, because you see it as just doing what you love.

Entrepreneurship often involves some risk—and that’s not really your playground. You’re drawn to predictability and income you can rely on. But your curiosity and passion for your craft tends to get the better of you. If you’re scared to make the leap, start small. Know that you can be an entrepreneur at heart before you even launch that website or make your first sale. Be confident in your abilities.

Become an entrepreneur and build a business around a cause

If anything is going to tip you into the entrepreneurial pool, it’s your passion. Are there social or environmental causes that inspire you? The pandemic has accelerated the interest in businesses that have a sustainable bent or social mission. Now is the time, Cartographer. Get your feet wet.

The Trailblazer

This month, Trailblazer, take the opportunity to allow your ideas to bloom even before buds appear on the trees. You’ll be ready to burst into spring with the energy and passion to act on those ideas.

You are a born entrepreneur, with your penchant for detouring from the well-trodden path and making your own. Success will come to you if you understand how to harness that explosive energy of yours. Be an entrepreneur who understands your shortcomings. You’re best to focus on what you’re passionate about and leave the rest to others. You’ll need that passion to get you through the most overgrown paths.

Become an entrepreneur with a better way of doing things

The pandemic has created opportunities to build new businesses around changing needs. Disruptors like Uber and Slack emerged from the last recession. What will you build to change something for the better in a post-pandemic new world?

The Outsider

Your natural entrepreneur ability lies in your quiet solitude and steady determination. You want things done right, and you’re the best person to make that happen. While you may lack some of the conventional traits that we apply to entrepreneurs—passion and risk-taking—you have unmatched patience and dedication to your craft.

You’re the type, Outsider, who tends to undersell yourself. To you, you’re just one person making a living doing what you’re good at. But your entrepreneur story is one of the oldest—the roots of entrepreneurship and early trade were motivated by necessity.

Become an entrepreneur by monetizing your craft

Focus on what you do best, Outsider, and build it slowly. You’re likely not one to bring on a partner or even staff, but you can patch the holes in your skill set by consulting experts, outsourcing admin tasks, or learning new tools that automate some of your processes. The pandemic brought a lot of change, rapidly accelerating the shift to online. Don’t get left behind by being stuck in “the way things always were.”

The Mountaineer

When we look to the entrepreneurial greats of the past century, we see your face, Mountaineer. Many business leaders of our time share your vision and unrelenting pursuit of big ideas. You’re a natural. You have an entrepreneur mindset built in, but it’s always something you can hone. So you’re an entrepreneur in spirit? Take this month before spring lures us outdoors to make a leap toward that great idea.

Build an audience first, then become an entrepreneur

You’re a self-starter, there’s no question, but you can’t do it on your own. You thrive in the company of people. So start there. Use your natural people skills to build a following around your idea or brand and nurture that audience before you launch. Gather energy from the company of others to take your idea from hypothetical to reality.

The Firestarter

Your personality makes you a natural fit for entrepreneurship—you take risks, spot opportunities everywhere, and close deals in your sleep. Entrepreneurship is probably already on your resume—even if you didn’t know it. If you haven’t officially started your own business, this lull between the winter holidays and the first signs of spring (while we’re all stuck in lockdown) is the perfect time to put your ideas to paper and take action.

Become an entrepreneur by jumping at opportunity

If there’s a silver lining to be found after a year of pandemic life, it’s that new opportunities are everywhere. Creator tools and new technology rushed to market to address changing consumer needs, making it easier than ever to bring your ideas to life. The world will be forever changed, and you’re just the personality type to join the legion of the entrepreneurs of the future.

If you’ve yet to determine your Founder Sign, take our quiz, then sign up for our newsletter. The Founder’s Zodiac runs every month and offers up advice and relevant content curated just for your type.

Illustrations by by Alice Mollon

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The 21 Best Business Podcasts to Listen to in 2021

May 7, 2021 Business Podcasts, Elksourcing by 露露

This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.

Original link：https://www.shopify.com/blog/business-podcasts

Ask anyone at the top of their field how they got there or how they found success in business and chances are you’ll find overlapping patterns of hard work, long hours, and—perhaps most important—continual self-education.

Experience, books, blog posts, and videos usually make up the curriculum of the self-taught entrepreneur, but podcasts offer their own distinct value: they let you listen, learn, and grow while you’re getting ready in the morning, going for a jog, driving around, or even working on your business.

Some business podcasts are in-depth conversations with experts, recorded and released. Others take the form of audio documentaries that pull you in with captivating stories. There are a lot of options out there.

That’s why we rounded up 21 of the best business podcasts for aspiring and established entrepreneurs, whether you’re looking for practical marketing advice or a motivational push.

The best business podcasts for busy entrepreneurs

1. Shopify Masters

Hosted by: Felix Thea

Made for: Entrepreneurs looking for a complete series on everything ecommerce, shown through the lenses of fellow merchants, sharing the most important lessons they’ve learned along the way.

On this official Shopify podcast, host Felix Thea interviews experienced Shopify store owners from all over the world, working in a variety of industries. Some have left six-figure salaries to become entrepreneurs. Others started small on Etsy and were forced to grow when success came as a surprise.

What makes Shopify Masters unique is it doesn’t rely on well-known names in business to garner attention. Instead, it features the everyday entrepreneurs who are experts in their own right and have proven their mettle in running a business on and offline.

Anything to do with running a business on Shopify is up for grabs on this show, from how this direct to consumer brand disrupted the cookware industry to the journey of building a cause driven business to running a successful Kickstarter campaign.

The podcast takes on a case study format, with guests offering a transparent look at the strategies, tools, and Shopify apps that power their businesses. Shopify Masters is for anyone interested in running or currently running a business on Shopify—especially if you want to go beyond what works “in theory” to learn about what works in practice. Merchants often share their revenue, email pitches that helped them win opportunities, and other information in the show notes—something you usually won’t get from other business podcasts.

Shopify Masters is a weekly podcast featuring practical and proven ecommerce business advice from successful store owners.

Noteworthy episode: Check out our recap of the most memorable episodes from 2019.

2. Oberlo’s Start Yours

Hosted by: David Vranicar

Made for: Ecommerce entrepreneurs who want to start and scale a dropshipping store.

Oberlo’s Start Yours isn’t the type of business podcast you listen to once. It’s more the kind you bookmark for whenever you need an emotional and mental boost.

Start Yours rounds up what’s worth talking about in dropshipping and ecommerce and consistently features guest appearances by ambitious entrepreneurs and ecommerce legends, like John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneurs on Fire. The content is story driven—covering the headaches and triumphs of running a dropshipping store—and presented in a light and entertaining way that encourages you to apply the lessons learned to both your work and lifestyle.

Noteworthy episode: Entrepreneurial Mindset: How Entrepreneurs Think Differently

3. Duct Tape Marketing

Hosted by: John Jantsch

Made for: Small business owners of all kinds looking to learn more about marketing on a budget.

John Jantsch has been running this weekly podcast for more than a decade, interviewing experts, authors, and thought leaders.

There’s so much valuable content here on subjects in all areas of marketing. The podcast dives deep into the technical, like getting more results from Google Ads, as well as the more abstract, like building a memorable brand or and the role of authenticity in marketing.

You’ll not only learn how to differentiate yourself from the competition and make your business truly unique, but also to check out content covering everything from new trends in marketing (like voice search) to increasing productivity.

Noteworthy episode: How GDPR Highlights How We Should Be Marketing

4. HBR IdeaCast

Hosted by: Sarah Green Carmichael

Made for: Entrepreneurs who are scaling their business and running into growing pains, especially when it comes to building a team.

The Harvard Business Review’s IdeaCast features weekly discussions about business management, often through interviews with industry experts.

It’s not much of a surprise that it has exceptional advice on everything from networking to business management. This podcast shines most, perhaps, when talking about managing a team of employees and contractors. If you’re planning on growing your team to scale your business (or if you’ve already done so), these episodes are a must-listen.

In order to make the information being shared more valuable and easier to grasp, the host often frames advice firmly around real-life case studies we all could learn from.

Noteworthy episode: How Some Companies Beat the Competition…for Centuries

5. The $100 MBA Show

Hosted by: Omar Zenhom

Made for: Entrepreneurs who want to learn more about the actual process of running an efficient business, not just growing one.

The $100 MBA Show attracts 50,000 listeners daily while discussing actionable advice about how to build a business using predictable patterns to your advantage.

Host Omar Zenhom is always upbeat and energetic, and his clear passion for creating efficient processes translates into interesting and valuable information entrepreneurs can use to build a better marketing flywheel or improve business operations.

In addition to growth, this podcast also frequently looks at how to avoid or resolve common problems that likely will pop up along the way.

If business owners are feeling stumped, they can also submit questions for possible inclusion in an upcoming podcast.

This podcast has featured a long list of engaging experts, and even if they’re not all big names, they’re excellent guests who offer valuable insight. This is reflected in the podcast’s wide acclaim, with awards or mentions from outlets like Forbes and Inc. magazine and iTunes.

Noteworthy episode: How to Price Your Services

6. The Copywriter Club

Hosted by: Kira Hug and Rob Marsh

Made for: Business owners doing their own copywriting or who want to learn more about the craft of high-converting writing.

Every week, catch an in-depth interview with experts on how to write compelling copy that converts for individualized brands.

Great copywriting bolsters nearly every marketing activity: from your product descriptions, site copy, email marketing, PPC campaigns, and more. Marketing still lives and dies on the words you use to communicate. Having a strong understanding of what makes great copy stand out will allow you to better write your own or identify great copy written by someone else.

This podcast can help you understand how to write copy that converts, including product descriptions and marketing campaigns. In addition to this huge perk, it also talks a lot about how to run and market small businesses, which will be directly relevant to a number of audiences.

Noteworthy episode: SnapShot Copywriting

7. Mixergy

Hosted by: Andrew Warner

Made for: “Big picture” entrepreneurs who love learning about and borrowing ideas from different industries.

Airing several times a week, Mixergy features interviews with people at the top of their very diverse fields.

There are episodes on how to reinvent classic experiences like wedding dress shopping or whether parking tech will have a future in autonomous vehicles.

Andrew Warner often is celebrated for his exhaustive research of his guests and his bulldog approach to interviews. He usually doesn’t let people off with easy answers and always drills down with follow-up questions.

There are also a lot of case studies in this podcast with different owners about the businesses they have grown, and tons of valuable information to show entrepreneurs that there is no one right way to run a business.

Noteworthy episode: Is Heart-Led Entrepreneurship Good for Business?

8. The Jason and Scot Show

Hosted by: Jason Goldberg and Scot Wingo

Made for: Entrepreneurs interested in and selling in the ever-changing world of commerce and retail.

Jason (also known as the Retail Geek) and Scot started this weekly show to share some of the high-level debates and conversations they were having about the future of retail and commerce.

Their podcast is unique for its focus on what’s making headlines in the worlds of ecommerce and physical retail.

Jason and Scot’s interview-style episodes share interesting insights from industry veterans, but it’s their deep dives that are especially worth listening to for what’s going on right now in retail. Whether it’s Amazon’s latest experiment or the trend toward VR/AR, listening to these two friends talk is always a good time.

Noteworthy episode: Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Deep Dive

9. Creative Empire

Hosted by: Reina Palmer and Christina Scalera

Made for: Entrepreneurs in creative fields or entrepreneurs who want to get more creative with their marketing.

Every week, this show examines how to not only build a creative business but how to turn it into an empire.

Are you selling your own paintings, home-cooked baked goods, floral arrangements, or handmade clothing? You have a creative business, and while a lot of business podcasts may not vibe with you, Creative Empire will.

Each week, Creative Empire features guests who chat about how you can combine creative goods with the business side of things to make a cohesive enterprise that will thrive. And even better, they tell you you can do this without hindering your vision or your business and staying true to what you want.

The hosts talk a lot about unique marketing strategies, like how to create engaging quizzes or how to become a podcast guest.

Noteworthy episode: Mentoring Session: Baby-Proofing Your Business with Rachel Brumely

10. Nerd Marketing

Hosted by: Drew Sanocki

Made for: All business owners who see themselves as entrepreneurs too.

Marketing is part of this podcast’s name, but Drew regularly discusses his current experiences with new businesses and other insights into how to be a successful entrepreneur.

Nerd Marketing goes over everything you’d expect from a marketing podcast. There is a lot of advice about how to start, grow, and market your small business, with plenty of ecommerce-specific content, like how to increase your average order value with different targeted strategies.

Sanocki takes things a step further, however. He also offers “insider” knowledge, like how to sell a business, and his favorite resources and private equity contacts.

Noteworthy episode: How You Sell a Business—“The Deal Process”

11. eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast

Hosted by: Chloe Thomas

Made for: All ecommerce business owners, especially those who want to develop plans for customer retention or relationship building.

For 30 minutes a week, the Ecommerce MasterPlan Podcast gives you actionable insights on how to get more customers and make more meaningful relationships with them.

While there are a variety of different topics discussed, the show’s strength is easily the frequent deep dives into everything customer-centric: acquisition, retention, and loyalty building. Not many podcasts will focus on this the same way and with the same frequency.

The podcast also features great information on the latest ecommerce tech and offers tips on subjects like how to maximize profit and save money.

Noteworthy episode: 40% Year on Year Growth by Focusing on Customer Service with Gary Amstutz of Sticker and Label

12. The Social Media Marketing Talk Show

Hosted by: Eric Fisher

Made for: Small businesses doing their own social media marketing.

This weekly show is produced by the Social Media Examiner team to discuss all the changes happening in social media on a weekly basis.

Ever feel like you get whiplash from all the new features and changes coming to different social media channels? The Social Media Marketing Talk Show will help you stay up to date while explaining what all of the changes mean for you.

The podcast is hosted by Eric Fisher, a member of the Social Media Examiner staff, but regularly features other members, along with experts like Andrea Vahl and Madalyn Sklar. They’ll make the changes happening in social media feel more accessible, so you’ll know exactly how to get started.

Noteworthy episode: Live Video Updates and Facebook Ad Creation

13. eCommerce Fuel

Hosted by: Andrew Youderian

Made for: Six-and seven-figure ecommerce store owners looking to scale.

Andrew Youderian has built several million-dollar ecommerce businesses, so he’s an excellent go-to guy to talk about everything happening in that world.

This podcast, unsurprisingly, features a lot of discussion about managing online businesses, but there’s also a lot of emphasis on how to get to six or seven figures with your business—and then grow some more.

The podcast reminds you that the sky’s the limit, and it shows you how to get there. If you want to think big and take home a pretty good chunk of change too, this should be at the top of your listening list.

Noteworthy episode: Selling Physical Products with a 100% Remote Team

14. The Goal Digger Podcast

Hosted by: Jenna Kutcher

Made for: Women entrepreneurs who are ready to rock their business lives and their personal lives.

Instead of a traditional talk-and-interview format, this several-times-a-week podcast takes on the feel of a live workshop.

There’s no doubt that Jenna Kutcher knows her stuff, but this podcast feels different than the others because Kutcher herself isn’t the typical business person you’d expect. Each episode feels like she’s your best friend cheering you on in life and business. She’s an engaging host, and the podcast provides specific strategies that entrepreneurs can use to market their businesses.

In addition to dishing out marketing advice in areas of expertise like SEO and Instagram marketing, Kutcher goes deep into subjects that other podcasts stay away from, like work-life balance as a CEO and a mom, and how to make your brand more inclusive.

Want more of the Goal Digger podcast? Kutcher has a private Facebook group.

Noteworthy episode: The #1 Way to Be More Inclusive

15. How I Built This

Hosted by: Guy Raz

Made for: Anyone who loves a good entrepreneurial origin story.

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely endeavor, especially in the early days.

How I Built This, produced by NPR, helps you feel like you’re not so alone by sharing the struggles and defining aha moments of the founders behind the companies you know and love.

Guy Raz is a compelling and curious host, adept at drawing out untold stories you won’t find on a company’s About page.

Unlike other podcasts on this list, and despite its name, How I Built This is less about the tactics and more about the journey. However, a lot of thought and care goes into each episode, and Guy Raz’s narrative approach to podcasting is definitely unique among interview-style shows.

The spin-off series How You Built That is also noteworthy, for its focus on innovative small businesses you may not have heard of.

Noteworthy episode: Honest Tea: Seth Goldman

16. Unthinkable

Hosted by: Jay Acunzo

Made for: Entrepreneurs who want to challenge conventional thinking and get creative to grow their business.

Every week, Jay Acunzo and his guests discuss entrepreneur stories that aren’t being talked about today but have a big impact on how we run our businesses and our lives. The scope of the podcast is focused on people who break away from industry best practices—you’ll hear stories about risky, rebellious, unconventional, and intuition-driven paths to success.

If you’re bored of the same old entrepreneur success stories, Unthinkable is the perfect podcast for getting inside the minds of daring business leaders and listening to something worth your time.

Noteworthy episode: The Man Bun

17. Honest Ecommerce

Hosted by: Chase Clymer

Made for: Anyone in ecommerce who wants real-life examples of proven marketing tactics.

Whether you’re just getting started in ecommerce or are a seasoned vet, you’ll want to add Honest Ecommerce to your must-listen list.

This weekly podcast gives a satisfyingly candid look at the work behind experts ecommerce and digital marketing. There are lots of laughs, insights, and value bombs from host Chase Clymer and his guests as they share first-hand accounts of how these tactics work in real-life marketing situations.

The series details how to tackle everyday challenges for online stores—from customer retention to omnichannel marketing and conversion rate optimization to product sourcing—leaving you with a ton of actionable ideas to build a thriving ecommerce business.

Noteworthy episode: Carving Out A Niche and Being a Leader on Subscription/Delivery Services with Mark Fachler

18. The Unofficial Shopify Podcast

Hosted by: Kurt Elster

Made for: Ecommerce entrepreneurs who want to grow their Shopify stores.

If you’re a longtime ecommerce store owner, you might have seen The Unofficial Shopify Podcast around once or twice.

Each installment takes on specific challenges Shopify store owners face—like increasing average order value, using content to boost sales, machine learning, and rebranding—and digs into ways you can apply them to your store. Hosted by Kurt Elster, founder of Shopify agency Ethercycle and an ecommerce legend, this podcast is perfect for people who want to turn their Shopify stores into revenue-generating machines.

Noteworthy episode: Profitable Facebook Ads & Audiences Decoded with Kurt Bullock

19. OMG Commerce’s eCommerce Evolution

Hosted by: Brett Curry

Made for: Ecommerce store owners who want an in-depth look at what’s new and what’s next in the industry.

ECommerce Evolution is a weekly podcast from OMG Commerce, a marketing agency with a focus on search campaigns and multichannel selling. It dives into topics that typically fly under the radar, like B2B ecommerce and story selling, and features inspiring stories about entrepreneurs who’ve sold stores for a million dollars in 12 months.

Host Brett Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce, interviews merchants, vendors, and experts influencing the industry. Each episode is packed with actionable tips and advice you can use to take your business to the next level.

Noteworthy Episode: Success with Marketplaces and Multichannel Selling with Mike Ugino of Sellbrite

20. Entrepreneurs On Fire

Hosted by: John Lee Dumas

Made for: Anyone who needs a little inspiration on their entrepreneurial journey by listening to real stories from top business leaders.

John Lee Dumas has been running Entrepreneurs on Fire since September 2012. He sets himself apart from other business podcasts by launching a new episode every day. His style is casual and engaging, and there are over 2,100 old and new installments.

John’s interviewed top leaders and innovators, including Tony Robbins, Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Barbara Corcoran, Tim Ferriss. The stories are insightful, interesting, and have helped millions of listeners succeed as entrepreneurs.

If you want daily practical tactics and tips to help grow your business, Entrepreneurs On Fire is the podcast for you.

Noteworthy episode: 3 Ways to Avoid Being an Unhealthy Entrepreneur with Eric Martinez

21. Playing for Keeps

Hosted by: Kristen LaFrance

Made for: Ecommerce business owners who want real-life strategies that build brand affinity and reduce churn.

For a well-thought, strategic look at what’s going on in the crowded world of DTC ecommerce, look no further than Playing for Keeps. Customer churn specialist Kristen LaFrance dissects the latest retention and customer success tactics from a thoughtful point of view.

Leaning toward subscription-based businesses, Kristen draws links between ecommerce companies and how they get (and retain) their most successful customers for the long haul. She injects a powerful yet light-hearted and down-to-earth personality into the show, covering topics such as customer habits, buying triggers, increasing average order values, and more.

With new episodes weekly, you’ll constantly walk away with endless strategies to find and keep your best customers and grow a more profitable online business.

Noteworthy episode: MeUndies on shifting to membership with TJ Stein

What business podcasts do you listen to?

When it comes to business podcasts, you’ll likely find you prefer certain hosts over others, or certain formats and lengths. But whatever your preference, podcasts can be helpful companions on your entrepreneurial journey.

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The 32 Best Entrepreneur Books of All Time

May 6, 2021 Elksourcing, Entrepreneur Books by 露露

This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.

Original link：https://www.shopify.com/blog/books-for-entrepreneurs

Are you looking for advice on boosting your small business and improving your life?

We’ve compiled a list of the best books by renowned business leaders, novelists, and successful entrepreneurs, packed with practical advice on becoming an industry innovator and finding your passion through meaningful work. With these books, you too can build your own business and thrive.

We encourage you to find a local bookstore that offers delivery or curbside pickup. Check IndieBound if you truly don’t have local options, or consider purchasing from Bookshop, an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores.

32 must-read entrepreneur books for 2020

1. The Power of Broke

Author: Daymond John

Daymond John is an influential voice for founders who don’t have a ton of money to get their small business started. In his bestselling The Power of Broke, he discusses how being broke and on a tight budget can motivate you to achieve great things—as long as you’re hungry for success.

2. Behold the Dreamers

Author: Imbolo Mbue

Behold the Dreamers inspires with its timeless plea for courage. Set during the 2008 financial crisis, this New York Times bestselling novel is told through the eyes of a young Cameroonian woman and shines a light on the immigrant experience with a wit and compassion that’s lacking in today’s political conversation. The story feels more relevant than ever as equality movements redefine what it means to be an immigrant living in the United States.

3. The Virgin Way

Author: Richard Branson

Richard Branson was just 16 years old when he dropped out of school and started working for himself. Some 40 years later, his Virgin Group is an international brand. This is the playbook for leadership, showing how family, fun, passion, and listening are key to creating a successful, worldwide team of employees.

4. Steve Jobs

Author: Walter Isaacson

Anyone involved in business has heard at least a few stories about Apple founder Steve Jobs. Walter Isaacson’s riveting biography of the Silicon Valley icon will inspire you to build and create products that people want, to test the boundaries of innovation, and to become an entrepreneurial success with a business plan to change the world.

5. Year of Yes

Author: Shonda Rhimes

Leading Hollywood producer Shonda Rhimes, best known for her hit series Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, lets readers in on her personal industry experiences in Year of Yes. Rhimes shares her journey from being a shy and nervous introvert who turned down endless opportunities to becoming a confident speaker and authoritative figure who said yes to everything that came her way. This book is for anyone who wants to bust out of their shell and bring their voice into the world.

6. Beating the Odds

Author: Eddie Brown

Philanthropist and business magnate Eddie Brown walks you through how he built and maintained Brown Capital Management through hard times, like 9/11 and the 2008 recession. In his autobiography, Beating the Odds, Brown offers a fascinating look at being born in the rural South to a 13-year-old mother who died shortly after his birth. Brown tells how, despite endless hardships, he created his own life path—graduating college, joining the Army, and becoming an engineer at IBM—and eventually built his billion-dollar company.

7. Female Innovators at Work

Author: Danielle Newnham

Female Innovators At Work is a must-read for all current and aspiring leaders of women-owned businesses. Danielle Newnham’s book is full of inspiring interviews and case studies from female CEOs, founders, and inventors from various different areas of tech, as they share their experiences, challenges, and lessons learned on their journeys through entrepreneurship.

8. In the Company of Women

Author: Grace Bonney

In the Company of Women shares and highlights inspiring advice and life stories from women entrepreneurs across various industries, careers, backgrounds, races, and places, showing how visibility is the key to success for women leaders today. If you want to gain new perspectives and soak up some inspiration, this is one of the best entrepreneur books to check out.

9. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Author: Angela Duckworth

Many of us know persistence and effort are key to success. Those who “make it” aren’t always the ones with the best ideas or resources. They’re the ones who work and improve every day—no matter what. This is what Grit is about. In this New York Times bestseller, Angela Duckworth teaches business owners how to cultivate more grit in themselves and the people around them.

10. The Last Black Unicorn

Author: Tiffany Haddish

In this autobiography, actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish shares her rags-to-riches story. The Last Black Unicorn is a powerful and personal tale of how you can come from nothing and make it to the top by following your dreams and being true to who you are. If you want to have a good laugh and a dose of inspiration, this is your must-read book of the year.

11. Girl Code

Author: Cara Alwill Leyba

One of the many tough parts of being a female entrepreneur can be dealing with other women. But when women show up for and support each other, amazing things happen. In this powerful book for female entrepreneurs, Cara Alwill Leyba shares the secrets to building confidence and empowering other women. Girl Code helps you connect with why you do what you do in your life and business, handle jealousy, burn out, and self care, and find out what success means to you.

12. David and Goliath

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

Each of Malcolm Gladwell’s books are riveting. In David and Goliath, heexamines how we think about challenges and disadvantages while offering a new look at what it means to be discriminated against, lose a parent, attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of life setbacks. Learn about the success of the Impressionists, the history of the full-court press, and why you should avoid elite colleges like Harvard and Brown.

13. The 4-Hour Workweek

Author: Timothy Ferriss

If you follow the Shopify blog, you’re aware of Timothy Ferriss. In this book, you’ll learn how he went from working 80 hours a week and earning $40,000 a year to earning $40,000 a month working only four hours a week.

14. All Marketers Are Liars

Author: Seth Godin

Great marketers don’t talk about features or benefits. They tell stories. In All Marketers Are Liars, Seth Godin shines some new light on this industry, discussing how marketers think and create stores—as well as lies and frauds— that have an impact on the lives of many, for better or for worse. His book will also teach you how to build a brand and craft your story.

15. Purple Cow

Author: Seth Godin

Purple Cow, another book by Seth Godin, showcases one core principle of marketing: be remarkable. Godin discusses how the old way of building a business—making safe, average products then advertising them on TV—is long gone. Instead, he argues here, you need to stop advertising, start innovating, and build remarkable products.

16. The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Author: Ben Horowitz

Does the name Horowitz seem familiar? Ben Horowitz is one half of Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most respected VCs in Silicon Valley. Here, Horowitz offers essential advice on founding and running a startup, as well as practical wisdom for navigating the biggest challenges business schools don’t cover.

17. Rework

Authors: Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

In Rework, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson convincingly show that most of what we regard as obstacles—hiring staff, dealing with paperwork, decision making, time management, renting an office—are simply excuses not to get started. With its direct language and simple-is-better technique, Rework is the best playbook for anyone who’s dreamed of running a successful business of their own.

18. Trust Me, I’m Lying

Author: Ryan Holiday

Do you want to know how the media really works? Ryan Holiday claims to know. As a media manipulator, he uses blogging to control and distort the news, as much as any one person can. Trust Me, I’m Lying shows you how he does it. But be careful—the information provided here is dangerous.

19. The Lean Startup

Author: Eric Ries

Rather than waste your time creating a big business plan, The Lean Startup offers companies of all sizes a new way to test their vision, adjust, and adapt—fast. Eric Ries provides a scientific approach to creating a successful startup—whether founded in a Fortune 100 boardroom or a garage, like Amazon—in a time when companies need to innovate to thrive.

20. The Startup Owner’s Manual

Authors: Steve Blank and Bob Dorf

The Startup Owner’s Manual is a 608-page how-to guide on how to run a startup. If you like charts, graphs, diagrams, and unlocking the secrets to building a successful, scalable company, this is the business book for you.

21. Crush It!

Author: Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk discovered the possibilities of sales through the internet earlier than many. In Crush It!, you’ll learn his advice for turning your web presence into a personal brand—just like Vaynerchuk did when he grew his family’s wine business from a $4-million venture to a $60-million one.

22. The Tipping Point

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point is Malcolm Gladwell’s seminal book about how small changes can prompt big ones. In this bestseller, Gladwell explores and explains the “tipping point phenomenon,” which changed how people throughout the world think about selling products and sharing ideas. You’ve heard about it. Now it’s time to read it.

23. Good to Great

Author: Jim Collins

In Good to Great, Jim Collins profiles major companies such as Intel, Coca-Cola, and Merck to discover how they took quantum leaps ahead of their competitors. To find out what makes a company great, Collins and his 21-person research team read and coded 6,000 articles, produced more than 2,000 pages of interview transcripts, and created 384 megabytes of computer data over the course of five years. Their findings are presented in this intriguing business book.

24. Getting to Yes

Author: Roger Fisher and William Ury

Getting to Yes is based on the work of the Harvard Negotiation project, a group that deals with all levels of negotiation and conflict resolution. This book has been published continuously for 30 years, teaching business owners a step-by-step strategy for coming to mutual agreements in every sort of conflict. Not many business books can claim the same.

25. The Power of Visual Storytelling

Author: Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Gioglio

The Power of Visual Storytelling is one-of-a-kind guide to developing powerful marketing programs using visual storytelling. In this book, you’ll learn how to grow your business and strengthen your brand by leveraging photos, videos, infographics, presentations, and other rich media.

26. Hooked

Author: Nir Eyal

Looking for a product to sell and open to trying anything? Consult Nir Eyal’s Hook Model, a four-step process to build customer habits and learn how to build products that people can’t put down.

27. Ogilvy on Advertising

Author: David Ogilvy

Ogilvy on Advertising is a classic book for entrepreneurs, written by David Ogilvy, one of the co-founders of Ogilvy & Mather who’s also been called the original Mad Man.

28. How to Win Friends and Influence People

Author: Dale Carnegie

Since 1936, How to Win Friends and Influence People has sold more than 15 million copies. This timeless bestseller is packed with actionable advice that has carried hundreds of thousands of successful people through their business and personal lives. It can teach you some new people skills and how to achieve maximum potential in a noisy and competitive age.

29. The Art of the Start

Author: Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki was one of the first marketers for Apple, where he cultivated the ability to put ideas into action. From raising money to hiring the right people, defining your position and building a brand, creating hype and fostering a community, this business book will guide you through the journey of starting a business.

30. Start With Why

Author: Simon Sinek

Start With Why takes you inside the minds of business leaders who’ve had the greatest influence on the world. Simon Sinek explores how they think, act, and communicate. Pulling from real-life experiences, he brings together a clear playbook for what it takes to lead and inspire. If you want to inspire others, or learn how to find a mentor who inspires you, this book will show you how.

31. Rich Dad Poor Dad

Author: Robert T. Kiyosaki

Rich Dad Poor Dad tells Robert Kiyosaki’s story of growing up with two dads: his biological father and his fathers’ best friend—his “rich dad.” Kiyosaki shares how both men shaped his thoughts about money and investing. He also explores the myth of earning a high income to become rich and shows how you can use money to work for you, rather than constantly working for money.

32. Zero to One

Author: Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, explores how to build a better future in his bestselling book, Zero to One. Thiel presents a positive look into the future of America’s tech world and offers a new way of thinking about innovation—learning how to ask the right questions that lead you to discover value in the most unexpected places.

What are the best entrepreneur books you’re reading?

When it comes to entrepreneur books, you may find some topics more interesting or practical than others. Regardless, reading these types of books helps you learn from other successful entrepreneurs’ mistakes and take advantage of their lessons, so you too can build a profitable business of your own.

If you want to learn more about entrepreneurship, check out these top business podcasts to explore more tips, tricks, challenges, and lessons.

Shopify Tutorial

How to Support Small Businesses—with 100+ Gift Ideas to Get You Started

May 6, 2021 Elksourcing, Small Businesses by 露露

This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.

Original link：https://www.shopify.com/blog/why-support-small-businesses

The busiest shopping season of the year is upon us. Our inboxes are brimming with deals from businesses vying for our dollars. While there’s no indication that the pandemic will stop the Black Friday Cyber Monday surge, the way we shop has changed forever.

An increase in online shopping and adoption of alternative delivery methods are the most obvious trends. But what the pandemic has also uncovered—call it a silver lining—is an increased sense of community. We are all in this together. And our communities rely on the small businesses at the heart of them.

Go Forth Goods

Small business owners have been hit especially hard by the measures and government mandates set to keep people safe. Many have been forced to close their doors. According to one report, during the first three months of the pandemic’s surge in the US, small business revenues were down 40% overall, and 40% of small businesses closed. Some may not reopen. Others have made clever pivots to service their customers without human contact.

We have choices right now.

We, as a global community, can secure the futures of those resilient small businesses and help them shine. This BFCM, consider diverting your dollars from big-box stores to local businesses—you may even discover a new favorite destination for buying gifts.

While the need to help the independent business community is most immediately obvious, the benefits of shopping small extend beyond times of crisis.

While the need to support small businesses is most immediately obvious, the benefits of shopping small extend beyond times of crisis. We’ll illustrate why shopping at small businesses is good for everyone at all times and give you plenty of tips on how to do it—even at a distance.

Why support small businesses
5 ways to support small businesses while social distancing
The ultimate independent gift guide—100+ ideas
Staff picks: even more gift ideas

Why support small businesses

Burst

Beyond their size, small businesses are defined by their spirit. And at the helm are their intrepid founders—scrappy, ambitious, and resilient. They invent and build things despite uncertainty, because it’s what drives them. Their risks lead to innovation that moves the world forward. And we need them.

Small businesses are important to the economic and social fabric of our society, and we all play a part in their survival.

Competition from chain stores, skyrocketing retail leases, and struggles to secure funding or manage cash flow all contribute to well-known small-business failure rates. But small businesses are important to the economic and social fabric of our society. Here’s why it’s important to support them.

1. They make a positive impact to the local economy

The spread of the global pandemic has undoubtedly affected the economy. We cannot stop this, but we can make a choice with our dollars to help local economies stay afloat and give small businesses a fighting chance to rebound when we emerge from our homes.

Growing companies, some that started in garages or coffee shops, foster eco-systems that enable other small businesses to thrive in their wake. Entrepreneurship inspires and facilitates more entrepreneurship—think online curators, who amplify even more small brands, bringing their products to new audiences.

When you shop local, your dollars stay in the community and help local development.

In terms of local businesses, the impact is even more obvious. When you shop local, your dollars stay in the community and help local development. This is called the multiplier effect. For example, a restaurant buying ingredients from local producers uses a local insurance broker and hires a local design firm, building symbiotic relationships that help the whole business community prosper.

2. They support communities and job creation

Small businesses, especially in the case of retail stores, are often major contributors to the heart of a community. “Main Street” becomes a hub of activity, where stores, business associations, and local government work collectively to create and preserve the character of their town or neighbourhood. A deliberate focus on supporting local business helps drive up the appeal of the shopping area and attracts tourism dollars into the community. The effect has a positive impact on adjacent hotels, attractions, and tours.

A healthy presence of small businesses in communities also helps people learn on-the-job business skills, empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Small businesses also create local jobs. As of 2015, US small businesses employed 58 million people, or 48% of the private workforce. A healthy presence of small businesses in communities also helps people learn on-the-job business skills, empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs.

3. They are often sustainable shopping alternatives

Handmade sustainable chair. Masaya & Co.

While not true in every case, smaller businesses may have a shorter manufacturer-to-consumer journey, meaning there is more transparency in ingredients, materials, and the source of the products you buy. Small businesses are often makers, producing goods locally. Or they are resellers of products made by small-batch brands.

Smaller businesses often have the means to manufacture and source locally and ethically because of smaller quantities. You may pay more for these goods versus similar items at chain retailers, but you’re paying for the peace of mind that comes with ethical production.

4. They put customer experience first

Large brands have recognized that immersive experiences win in retail, but the intimacy and personalized care of small businesses is hard to scale. Many new business owners launch alone and fill every role in the business, including customer service. Without the layers of management and corporate policy, small business owners can make their own rules. The good ones will bend over backward for each shopper—because every customer matters when you’re small.

Every customer matters when you’re small.

Shopping with small businesses is often a point of discovery. Smaller, local, and handmade goods brands often can’t fulfill wholesale orders for larger chains, and their goods generally can only be bought direct from the business’s own website or sales channels, or in independent retailers. Where department stores win on volume, small businesses shine in diversity and uniqueness.

5 ways to support small businesses while social distancing

Moorea Seal

There are many ways your dollars—not being spent on bars or movies—can be diverted to small businesses. From pandemic survival basics to unique gifts, independent shops have you covered. Now that you know why it’s important to support small businesses, here’s how to do it.

1. Discover new brands

Take a look around while you’re out walking in your neighborhood. Is there a small grocer you haven’t noticed before? An independent bookstore you haven’t visited? Check with neighbors and review sites to discover local businesses that may become your new favorites.

You can also download the Shop app. It not only tracks all your orders from all online sources in one place, it’s also a great way to discover local and curated businesses and get notified when your favorite brands have new products in stock.

2. Buy gift cards

Good Neighbour

We’ll get through this. And once the lockdowns have been lifted, you’ll be back to your usual routine, visiting your favorite sandwich shop, taking a hot yoga class, or buying candles at the maker space. Help your usual haunts make it through the lockdown by paying for products and services in advance. Check their websites to see if they offer gift cards or class packs.

On Instagram, Good Neighbour founder Aziz Alam says, “We will dearly miss seeing our wonderful neighbours during this challenging time. As a small, family owned business that relies on foot traffic to keep things running smoothly we greatly appreciate your support [online]. Gift cards can also go a long way.”

3. Share your favorite stores in your social networks

Did your favorite small business close? Is it paying its employees anyway? Help it stay afloat by paying forward its goodwill. Tell your followers about ways they can support it, like buying gift cards for future purchases.

While others in your circles may be looking for gift ideas of their own, share your unboxing experiences or short reviews of products you’ve purchased from small businesses.

4. Reach out

Burst

You may have built relationships with some of the small business owners where you usually shop. Reach out and ask what they need right now. If you’re a business owner too, stick together and support your fellow founders—like Pause Beauty, which has committed to giving free pedicures to frontline workers when the risk is over. Think of the online business community as one big self-sustaining Main Street.

In a recent Instagram post, Noah Clothing founder Brendon Babenzien urged his followers to “buy something. Not necessarily from us, but from any independent businesses or creative enterprises you believe in, and preferably those that’ve made positive, ethical choices in the ways they create and operate.”

5. Buy holiday gifts from small businesses

Larger retailers have made it easy to shop, with incentives like free next-day shipping. But if you have a little more time to wait, you can find unique, handmade, or sustainable alternatives at small businesses. Give twice with every gift—your business means a lot to independent brands, especially now. Read on to discover dozens of ideas for feel-good gift giving.

The ultimate independent gift guide—100+ ideas for every occasion, everyone on your list

Gift ideas from (left to right) Clean Beauty Box, Harry Barker, Octave Jewelry, Brooklyn Bicycle Co., and ART ARK

Gifts for your bestie, gifts for your stepmom, gifts for yourself. Whomever you’re buying for and whatever the occasion, there’s an independent business with the perfect gift. To get you started, we’ve picked 100+ ideas to kick off your BFCM and holiday shopping adventure.

Gifts for foodies
Gifts for makers
Gifts for fitness buffs
Good gifts that give back
Gifts for entrepreneurs
Tech gifts
Kid gifts
Gifts for coffee and tea lovers
Gifts for self care
Fashion gifts
Gifts for rainy Sundays
Gifts for pets and their people
Custom gifts
Beauty gifts
Gifts for grounded travellers
Gifts for outdoorsy types
Gifts for hunkering down for a long winter

Gifts for foodies

Old World Kitchen

Many restaurants are closed for dine-in, but check in to see if any are offering delivery as an alternative. Gift cards to your favorite eateries make great gifts. Otherwise, get inspired by those hours of Top Chef you’ve been binging in isolation.

Handcrafted wooden cooking tools from the family behind Old World Kitchen ( Read their story)
Professional-grade pots and pans by Saflon
Zesters, pinch bowls, and other baking tools from Pot & Pantry
Global inspiration (even if you can’t travel right now) inside a Mediterranean cookbook from Goods
A trip to Italy in your own kitchen with virtual cooking classes by Nonna Live ( Read Nonna’s story)

Gifts for makers

Friday Pattern Company

Nine months into this thing, I think we’re all makers now. Give gifts for idle hands with easy-to-follow kits and supplies for more advanced DIY.

Sew-your-own clothing patterns by Friday Pattern Company
Simple wooden cross-stitch kits for tiny hands from Stitched Modern
Artist-quality tools and brushes from Martha Mae
Yarn and knitting supplies by The Knitting Tree, LA
Architectural scale-model building kits for kids and adults alike by Arckit
Indoor gardening tech by SmallGarden

Gifts for fitness buffs

York Athletics Mfg.

Replicating the gym or yoga studio experience at home requires gear. Stock up on gifts for fitness lovers from these independent businesses.

Cork yoga mats by Mukta Being
Kettlebells and weight-lifting equipment from Fringe Sport
Exercise bikes and home gyms from G&G Fitness
Footwear by YORK Athletics Mfg. ( Read their story)
Fitness wear by Superfit Hero and Manduka
Anywhere, anytime fitness with virtual classes by BodyLove Pilates, P.volve, and Hyl Fitness

Good gifts that give back

Nisolo

Supporting small businesses is already an act of kindness, but you can go a step further by shopping from sustainable and ethical independent brands. Here are a few that offer great gift ideas, too.

Vegan, paleo, and delicious chocolate bars by Rescue Chocolate that support animal rescue organizations
Ethically sourced Australian Aboriginal art from ART ARK
Luxurious organic cotton sheet sets by Alterra Pure
Organic MoonWomb nursing pillows by The Sustainable Baby Co.
Grow Anthology long boards made in the US from Richlite recycled paper (a tree is planted for every deck sold!)
Ethically produced footwear, socks, and accessories by Nisolo

Gifts for entrepreneurs (and remote working life)

George & Willy

Working from home? Same. Now we’ve all joined the reality of the many entrepreneurs who start businesses from their kitchen tables. Give meaningful gifts that make the work-from-home experience more ergonomic and professional.

Unique laptop stands by MOFT and Masaya
Sustainable wood desks by From the Source
Heated coffee mug by Ember
Wall-mounted paper rollers by George & Willy
Window-mounted standing desk by DeskView
A gift for the aspiring entrepreneur: their very own business from Shopify’s Exchange marketplace

Tech gifts

Momentum Home Automation

Shop gear and gadgets that automate tasks, keep your loved ones safe, and teach kids the basics of tech, all from independent brands.

GPS tracking watches for kids by Lil Tracker
Noise-cancelling earbuds by PaMu
STEM kits for young people by Makey Makey
Smart home security cameras by Momentum
Retro flip clock by Schoolhouse

Kid gifts

The Bee & the Fox

Swimming in plastic junk and stumped for gift ideas for kids who have everything? Get creative with ideas from small businesses that aim to spark creativity, encourage movement, and expand growing minds.

Inclusive jigsaw puzzles featuring diverse characters from Puzzle Huddle
Statement tees for future activists by The Bee & the Fox ( Read their story)
Jewellery designed for kids by kids from Gunner & Lux ( Read their story)
Cozy bamboo and cotton basics for active play by Little & Lively
Fort building and construction kits by Fort Magic
Kids’ music player by Jooki

Gifts for coffee and tea lovers

Detour Coffee Roasters

Local cafes may be closed, and free-flowing office coffee sources have gone dry, but you don’t need to resort to instant coffee. Please, I beg you. Shop these online retailers to send some caffeinated SOS to those you love:

Pour-over coffee maker and accessories from Melodrip (or try the single-serve portable version by One Fresh Cup)
Tea by BLK & BOLD ( Listen to their story)
Beans by Detour Coffee Roasters and Rwanda Bean
Grinders and espresso machines from Clive Coffee
Handmade pottery coffee mugs by Red Bison Studio

Gifts for self care

Walls of Benin

We’re nine months into pandemic isolation—that’s still very challenging for some. Stay in tune with your mental health and access resources available to you. It’s also a good time to treat yourself.

Luxe loungewear by Walls of Benin
Cozy and cute slippers from BureBure and Patricia Green
Self-care subscriptions by Lunarly
52 Lists books by Moorea Seal ( Read her story)
Home mists and essential oil diffusers by Vitruvi
Sleep machines and accessories by Yogasleep

Fashion gifts

OKAY OK

We’re all spending a little more time in loungewear these days, but for those who haven’t given up on “hard clothes” altogether, there are plenty of independent fashion brands selling apparel that’s cool and comfy, too.

Non-frumpy sweats by Ijji and OKAYOK
Loafers by Blackstock & Weber
Clothing for transgender girls by RUBIES ( Read their story)
Drop earrings by Octave Jewelry
Cozy statement sweaters by SheNative Goods ( Read their story)
Apparel printed with designs by those with developmental disabilities by Alivia

Gifts for rainy Sundays

Four Point Puzzles

It might be a while before we can all escape the isolation and return to our book clubs or coding classes. In the meantime, give the gift of a new hobby or pastime with these picks from small businesses.

Outdoor space explorer coloring book by Ooly
Designer puzzles for the whole family by Four Point Puzzles
Beer-making kits—chocolate maple porter and jalapeno saison, to name a few—by Brooklyn Brew Shop
Custom board game shelves by BoxThrone ( Listen to their story)
A subscription to Mouse Book Club—get portable versions of book classics and new favorites four times a year

Gifts for pets and their people

Wild One

Pets are the real winners this year, basking in the love of their humans who have no choice but to be home bestowing pets all day. That doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a treat, too. These independent businesses sell everything from cookies to toys to custom pet-themed art.

Ropes, balls, and stuffies for dogs by Harry Barker
Healthy pet food and treats by Farm to Paw
Custom pet portraits by Royal Pet Pawtrait or My Pooch Face
Orthopedic dogs beds by Big Barker
Colorful matching leads and harnesses by Wild One

Custom gifts

Happy Box Store

Nothing says “I’m thinking about you” more than a truly personal gift. These independent businesses help you create one-of-a-kind gifts with your loved one in mind.

Custom neon signs by Neon Mfg or MK Neon
Build-your-own gift boxes by Happy Box
Mystery book bags, based on your preferences, by Type Books

Beauty gifts

Then I Met You

How else would we survive a year like 2020 without a little self care? For some, that means indulging in at-home spa rituals or even something as simple as wearing lipstick in a work Zoom meeting. For gift ideas for the beauty worshippers on your list, consult the experts: these independent skincare and cosmetics brands.

Skincare by Then I Met You ( Read their story)
Lipsticks curated for darker skin tones by MFMG (Makeup for Melanin Girls) Cosmetics ( Listen to their story)
Monthly subscription box filled with good-for-you and good-for-the-earth beauty products by The Clean Beauty Box
Skincare for men of color by Ceylon ( Listen to their story)
Pillowcases that combat dry skin and tangled hair by Madison & White

Gifts for grounded travellers

Grand Trunk

I’m as gutted as you are that I haven’t explored outside my own city’s limits for the better part of the year. For others with an unsatisfied hunger for travel, give a gift that reminds them of faraway places or helps them explore safely.

Backyard hammocks (in lieu of that resort vacation they’d planned) by Grand Trunk
Hand-drawn maps to plan the next adventure by Xplorer Maps
Custom-city-map etched glassware by Well Told
National Parks notebooks from City Bird
Backpacks for local hikes and urban exploration—neutral packs by Go Forth Goods or colorful packs by Cotopaxi
Bikes for shorter trips around the neighbourhood by Brooklyn Bicycle Co. ( Listen to their story)

Gifts for outdoorsy types

Brant & Cochran

We’re not saying you should panic, but preparedness never hurt anyone. These shops have everything you need to go on an extended off-grid stay in the woods—social distancing at its finest.

Survival kits and gear from My Patriot Supply and Uncharted Supply Co.
Axes for camping and chopping wood for the stove by Brant & Cochran ( Read their story)
Portable campfires for anywhere, anytime camping by Radiate Portable Campfire
Fishing and hunting apparel by Habit Outdoors
Garden kits and accessories by Coco and Seed

Gifts for hunkering down for a long (and socially distanced) winter

Mi Cocina

Soon we’ll say goodbye to socially distanced driveway hangs and hunker into full isolation for the winter. Give gifts that bring comfort to lonely souls and cold feet.

Cozi Throw by Johanna Howard Home
Denim and leather log-carrying bag for indoor fires by Mi Cocina
Light therapy lamps by Verilux
Luxuriously soft robes from All You Are
Elf-Care Kit by Pinch Provisions

BONUS: Staff picks for independent gifting

My favorite little independent video rental spot closed last year (yes, it was so magical, it lasted until 2019). What was so special about it, like many other independent businesses, was the personal touch that Blockbuster could never replicate to scale—handwritten signs, weathered wood shelves, and best of all, the staff picks. The store was staffed by true film lovers, and I relied on the staff pick shelf to discover hidden gems.

In that spirit, I asked some of my colleagues to share their own gift ideas from independent businesses. Here are our personal picks from some of our favorite Shopify stores.

Braveen’s pick

Wooden desk accessories by Grovemade

Grove Made

“I spend a lot of time in my home office (like a lot of people these days). So I decided to invest a bit into my workspace to make it more comfortable and more organized with Grovemade’s products.” —Braveen Kumar

Desirae’s pick

Cocktail kits by Bar from Afar

Bar from Afar

“Bar from Afar delivers high quality cocktail kits so you can recreate the fancy drink experience at home with no equipment or experience!” —Desirae Odjick

Shuang’s pick

Bath and body products by Alaffia

Alaffia

“Alaffia is one of my favourite gift shops. They sell bath and body products infused with Indigenous West African ingredients made by women in Togo through a cooperative that empowers women and kids.” —Shuang Esther Shan

Dayna’s pick

Vibrant cotton and linen bedding by Maison Tess

Maison Tess

“I bought the cotton amber bedspread from Maison Tess and the richness of the color was even better in person.” —Dayna Winter

Adam’s pick

Handcrafted home decor by Timber Made Design Co.

Timber Made Design Co.

“As I moved recently, I discovered Timber Made Design Co., a small wood workshop that makes beautiful home decor.” —Adam Rogers

Feature illustration by Isabella Fassler

Shopify dropshipping

12 Time Management Apps to Organize Your Life and Keep You on Track

May 6, 2021 Elksourcing, Time Management by 露露

This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.

Original link：https://www.shopify.com/blog/time-management-apps

No matter who you are, you probably wish there were more hours in a day.

Time is a precious resource—you can’t stop using it and you can’t find more of it, but you need it to do absolutely everything. From scheduling meetings to fulfilling orders, time is behind every aspect of running a business and you can’t afford to manage it poorly.

Ineffective time management can take many forms. Whether it’s procrastination, personal distractions, or projects that take more time than they should, there are tons of things that waste our time every day. Wasted time means rushed deadlines, a work-life imbalance, and more stress and anxiety.

When it comes down to it, you just need to use the time that you have more effectively.

Thankfully, opportunities to manage your time better are everywhere. Here are 12 time management apps to help you free up your schedule, find time for your personal life, and focus on getting your work done.

Best time management apps for 2019

Toggl
Workflow
Shift
RescueTime
Timely
Trello
MyLifeOrganized
Focus@will
Pocket
Todoist
Remember The Milk
Harvest

1. Toggl

Toggl is an app you can use to track time spent on tasks, as well as manually add entries. Keep your entries organized by team, client, project, or tag. Add notes to the description so you can recall what you were doing at a later date.

If you’re managing a team, you can invite them to your project and keep everyone’s time in one place. Detailed reports will show you where you’re spending the most time. Paid users also get detailed insights from Toggl about how to better optimize their time based on their log.

Toggl is available on iOS and Android, as well as Mac. There is a free version, or you can upgrade to a Starter ($9/user/month), Premium ($18/user/month), or an Enterprise account (custom pricing).

Why Toggl?

See who’s spending time doing what and find ways to optimize time spent on those tasks.
Review your week, month, or even year to see what’s been dragging you down for extended periods of time.
Track everything, everywhere. With mobile apps, desktop apps, and browser add-on extensions, you can sync Toggl across devices and never miss a minute.

Interested in exploring how to build your own app for Shopify? Learn how to build a Shopify app on the Web Design and Development Blog.

2. Workflow

Workflow is a highly customizable app that shaves time off of the complicated things you do every day. With Workflow, you can create unique home screen shortcuts on your phone that perform batches of tasks with one tap.

Whether you want Google Maps to automatically pull up directions for your next meeting or you need to back all your photos up on Dropbox, you’ll be able to create custom apps to do it for you. Workflow boasts actions and integrations with apps like Facebook, Uber, and YouTube.

Workflow is one of the free time management apps, and it’s only available on iOS devices.

Why Workflow?

Workflow cuts down on wasted time by automating complex tasks you do on your phone.
Workflow is quick and easy, letting you create new apps and shortcuts with simple drag-and-drop commands.
Workflow is versatile and can operate from inside other apps like Safari and Evernote.

3. Shift

Shift is a desktop tool with a main focus to help you organize your email, especially if you have multiple accounts. But it also integrates with apps like Trello, Calendly, and even Airbnb.

The idea is that you can quickly shift from one account to another, with a single click. This will switch you over to your other account entirely, rather than logging out and logging back in for each platform individually. If you pivot from project to project multiple times a day, Shift can help you maintain your sanity.

Shift Basic is available for free on Mac computers, or you can upgrade to Pro for $29.99/year or Advanced for $99.99/year.

Why Shift?

Shift is a reliable way to free up your inbox and help you spend less time going through email.
Shift helps you focus on the task at hand instead of jumping from project to project.
Shift will keep your team organized and streamline access to different tools and apps across your business.

4. RescueTime

RescueTime is a time-tracking app that records how and where you spend your time online. The productivity app analyzes everything you do in a day—from which other apps you use to how much time you spend on your favourite websites.

If you want to eliminate the distractions in your life and get your work done quicker, RescueTime is a fantastic way to discover exactly which behaviours have been holding you back. To help you focus on hitting your goals, RescueTime Premium can even temporarily block your go-to procrastination websites.

RescueTime is available for iOS and Android; OS X, Windows, and Linux. RescueTime Lite is free, or you can pay $9/month (or $72 for the year upfront) to access Premium features.

Why RescueTime?

RescueTime stops you from wasting time with reminders that alert you when you’re spending too much time on a specific task.
RescueTime helps you understand how you spent your day by providing you with in-depth reports and daily highlights.
RescueTime helps you get stuff done quicker by finding new ways for you to organize your day and spend your time properly.

5. Timely

Timely is an innovative time-tracking and schedule app that not only keeps tabs on how long projects take, but also helps you organize your workweek more efficiently.

The app lays out your workweek in advance and lets you estimate how much time you’ll need to set aside to tackle your daily tasks. As you track your time, you’ll be able to compare your predictions with how long it actually took you and plan your schedule better in the future.

This top-down approach to time-tracking lets you manage your time more effectively and put an end to projects that run wild and out-of-scope.

Timely is available for iOS and Android, Mac and Windows, and as a browser application. Solo plans for individual users start at $7/month.

Why Timely?

Timely keeps your team on track and gives you a more realistic idea of how much time projects eat up.
Timely holds you accountable to the amount of time that you set aside for work.
Timely helps you understand how your workweek plays out and helps you plan your next one.

6. Trello

Trello is a flexible project management web application that lets you easily sort through your tasks and collaborate with your teammates. Instead of getting lost in a mess of emails or a confusing spreadsheet, Trello visualizes your projects as lists pinned to digital bulletin boards.

Each list is made of individual posts called cards, which can represent anything from tasks to ideas to goals. Team members can add comments, attachments, checklists, and custom labels to cards, keeping everyone on the same page.

Whether you’re looking for a way to track the progress of big projects or organize your latest brainstorming session, Trello can be customized to fit your team.

Trello is available on iOS and Android, as well as Mac and Windows. There’s a free version, or you can upgrade for more features with a Business Class or Enterprise account.

Why Trello?

Trello is fully customizable. Every business is different and Trello adapts to your needs, whatever they may be.
Trello keeps you organized by consolidating all of your projects and team communication into a single environment.
Trello makes every project easy to follow and lets your digest entire workflows at a glance.

7. MyLifeOrganized

MyLifeOrganized is more than just a to-do list. Use the daily planner app to easily drag and drop, star, flag, and organize tasks in a simple, elegant interface. If one of your tasks is so big it’s daunting, use the app to create subtasks to help motivate yourself to make progress.

Some of MyLifeOrganized’s paid features include automated “smart lists”—essentially, the app uses the deadlines, tasks, and prioritizations you’ve put in to determine which items need your immediate attention. You can also use it to set geo-based reminders, so the app will ping you whenever you’re near one of your indicated locations.

MyLifeOrganized is available for both iOS, Android, and Windows. There are several pricing options available, ranging from free to $59.95.

Why MyLifeOrganized?

Let MyLifeOrganized keep you on task. Instead of tracking your own progress, the app will break down big projects into more digestible steps and let you know when you need to do something right away.
Quickly add new tasks without entering the app. Send MyLifeOrganized an email, and the app will take care of the rest.
Stay on task across devices. Paid subscribers also get cloud-based access.

8. Focus@will

Focus@will is a unique time management app in that it helps you maximize your time better. The app plays music and soothing sounds which are scientifically proven to boost productivity and focus.

Choose playlists based on what you do (entrepreneur vs. student) or the type of learner and worker you are (creative vs. logical). According to the company, there’s a specific type of music for each individual that will put them into their “flow state.” By entering a bit of information about yourself, focus@will will play music optimized for you. Then hit play and get to work!

Focus@will is currently available for Android and Mac, and the iOS app will be released soon. You can sign up for an individual account at $8.33/month if you pay for the whole year, or $9.95/month if billed monthly. There are also team accounts available.

Why focus@will?

It’s completely customized to your unique productivity style. Find the music and sounds that make you do your best.
Science has confirmed it. focus@will has read up on studies and conducted a few of their own, like this one. The common consensus is that you can boost your productivity by up to 4x.
Use focus@will across devices, uninterrupted. Whether you’re working from home or listening to headphones at the office, you can pick back up where you left off.

9. Pocket

Pocket is a bookmarking app that lets you save web content to come back to later. Even on your most productive days, it’s easy to be thrown off track by one interesting article. Pocket lets you save everything in one place so you can read or watch it later, after you’ve gotten your work out of the way first.

Not working? Stay unplugged and save work-related content to refer back to when you are in the office so you can enjoy your time off.

You can also browse content within Pocket, which will serve up recommendations based on your preferences. The app works with over 1500 different apps, so no matter where you find interesting content, you’ll be able to save it for later.

Pocket is available for Android and iOS, Mac and Windows, and has several browser extensions. You can sign up for a free plan or choose to pay $5/month or $45/year for access to more features and no ads.

Why Pocket?

Pocket stops you from getting distracted by giving you the option to save what you’re looking at for later and make the most of your time.
Pocket helps you organize your day and separate work time from learning time.
Pocket makes it easy to discover new content, so when you do finally decide to dive in, you’ll have no shortage of reading material.

10. Todoist

Todoist is another task-management and organizer app that can help you stay on top of everything that needs to get done. You can also use the calendar view to get a glance at your week or month ahead.

Add daily habits and recurring tasks and deadlines so you don’t have to manually input repetitive tasks every time. Use color-coded prioritization, and get the satisfaction of seeing your progress toward task completion.

Todoist is available on Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, and browser add-ons. Like many of these time management apps, Todoist has both free and paid options. Todoist Premium starts at $3/month for individual accounts, and Business accounts start at $5/user/month.

Why Todoist?

Todoist integrates with hundreds of apps so you can stay on top of everything you’re doing.
Offload some of your tasks with Todoist’s team delegation features.
Todoist has several templates to choose from. You don’t need to start from scratch to build your to-do list dashboard.

11. Remember The Milk

Ever run to the grocery store for milk and get everything but the milk? That’s the premise Remember The Milk was built on, and it’s expanded beyond just grocery shopping lists. The time management app will help you stay on top of the milk and much more.

Remember The Milk is a to-do list app that allows you to organize tasks by color-coded tags, as well as break larger projects down into subtasks. Attach files from Google Drive or Dropbox and share you lists with others so they stay on the same page. The app can send reminders via email, text, IM, and even Twitter.

Remember The Milk is available for Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, and browser extensions. There’s a free version available, and paid access starts at $40/year.

Why Remember The Milk?

Organize multiple task lists and use the app’s Smart Lists feature to create new lists based off of searches.
Stay connected even when you’re not. Remember The Milk syncs across all devices, even when they’re offline.
Never stop building lists. Remember The Milk will let you create an unlimited number of lists, so go crazy!

12. Harvest

Harvest is a time- and expense-tracking app that can help you shift your mindset and start thinking about time as a finite resource. The app has robust time-tracking features, and it’ll share easy-to-understand visual reports on how you and your team are spending your time.

The app integrates with tons of other tools, like Asana, Trello, and GitHub, among others. Plus, it can help you track billable time so you can make sure you account for every minute.

You can download Harvest on iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows devices. There are also several browser add-ons available. Harvest costs $12/user/month.

Why Harvest?

Harvest helps you get paid by tracking billable time and allowing you to instantly create invoices to send to clients for that time.
Plan for the future with forecasting functionality and make sure you and your team have enough time to complete all of your planned projects.
See if projects are on budget with a glance. Know if you need to pivot before it’s too late.

`Time management is everything`

Spending your time effectively isn’t just the key to a more productive life, it’s also the secret to a happier one.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in work, especially if you aren’t managing your time effectively. You could miss out on opportunities to spend quality time with your friends and family. Maintaining a proper work-life balance is at the heart of your personal and professional success, so you need to make better use of your time whenever possible.

With these time management apps in your toolkit, you’ll be better equipped to streamline your life for more productivity and less stress.

Shopify Tutorial

Get Inspired: 200+ Motivational Quotes To Encourage Your Success

May 6, 2021 Elksourcing, Motivational Quotes by 露露

This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.

Original link：https://www.shopify.com/blog/motivational-quotesWhat is it about motivational quotes that make them so endearing? Every driven person eventually figures out that there’s a whole lot of feel-good time wasters out there that suck us because they feel like work, and browsing endless lists of motivational phrases are no exception. And yet, there’s hidden value in finding a concise expression that perfectly distills our own beliefs.

Quotes often feel like our own opinions making a return visit, just augmented by someone with writing talent. And the right quote at the right time can change things—words matter, and motivating phrases can encourage us to get up, overcome tough times, take action, stop procrastinating, escape our comfort zone, invest in personal growth, and do the hard work that needs doing.

Even genuinely successful people show some reverence to a favorite inspirational quote or two—to get through hard times, remember an important personal principle, or even get some inspiration to be more productive while working from home. In business and life, quotes are short bits of wit and wisdom that are easy to revisit when we need them.

That said, here are a few of our favorite motivational and inspiring quotes from a wide variety of sources. We hope you find a few you like and can revisit often to stay motivated.

200+ Motivational quotes to inspire your life in 2021

Deep motivational quotes
Motivational quotes for success
Motivational quotes for life
Motivational quotes for work
Motivational quotes for women
Motivational quotes for men
Motivational quotes for students
Funny motivational quotes
Team motivational quotes
Short motivational quotes
Motivational Monday quotes
Friday motivational quotes
Best motivational quotes to start your day
Positive quotes for motivation
Daily motivational quotes
Inspirational quotes
Positive quotes
Encouraging quotes
Motivation quotes
Quote about life
Best motivational quotes
Inspirational new year quotes
Quotes about success

Deep motivational quotes

“We cannot solve problems with the kind of thinking we employed when we came up with them.” — Albert Einstein
“Learn as if you will live forever, live like you will die tomorrow.” — Mahatma Gandhi
“Stay away from those people who try to disparage your ambitions. Small minds will always do that, but great minds will give you a feeling that you can become great too.” — Mark Twain
“When you give joy to other people, you get more joy in return. You should give a good thought to happiness that you can give out.”— Eleanor Roosevelt
“When you change your thoughts, remember to also change your world.”—Norman Vincent Peale
“It is only when we take chances, when our lives improve. The initial and the most difficult risk that we need to take is to become honest. —Walter Anderson
“Nature has given us all the pieces required to achieve exceptional wellness and health, but has left it to us to put these pieces together.”—Diane McLaren

Motivational quotes for success

“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston S. Churchill
“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” — Herman Melville
“The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” — Colin R. Davis
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy looking for it.” — Henry David Thoreau
“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” —Dale Carnegie
“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” —Calvin Coolidge
“There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.” —Mister Rogers
“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.” —John Wooden
“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” —Estée Lauder
“Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.” ―W. P. Kinsella

Motivational quotes for life

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill
“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.” — Will Rogers
“You learn more from failure than from success. Don’t let it stop you. Failure builds character.” — Unknown
“If you are working on something that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.” — Steve Jobs
“Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.” ―Vernon Sanders Law
“To know how much there is to know is the beginning of learning to live.” —Dorothy West
“Goal setting is the secret to a compelling future.” — Tony Robbins

Motivational quotes for work

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. “ — Alexander Graham Bell
“Either you run the day or the day runs you.” — Jim Rohn
“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” — Thomas Jefferson
“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” — Paulo Coelho
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” — Thomas Edison
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” — Tony Robbins
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” — Steve Jobs
“It’s not about better time management. It’s about better life management” — Alexandra of The Productivity Zone

Motivational quotes for women

Women challenge the status quo because we are never it.” — Cindy Gallop
We don’t just sit around and wait for other people. We just make, and we do.” — Arlan Hamilton
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.” — Oprah Winfrey
“The strongest actions for a woman is to love herself, be herself and shine amongst those who never believed she could.” — Unknown
“Whenever you see a successful woman, look out for three men who are going out of their way to try to block her.” – Yulia Tymoshenko
“Some women choose to follow men, and some choose to follow their dreams. If you’re wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn’t love you anymore.” — Lady Gaga
“The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it. ” ― Roseanne Barr
“No woman wants to be in submission to a man who isn’t in submission to God!” ― T D Jakes
“A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power.” ― George Meredith
“When a woman becomes her own best friend life is easier.” – Diane Von Furstenberg
“If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.” – Margaret Thatcher
“We need women at all levels, including the top, to change the dynamic, reshape the conversation, to make sure women’s voices are heard and heeded, not overlooked and ignored.” – Sheryl Sandberg
“It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.” – Madeleine Albright
“Women must learn to play the game as men do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” — Ayn Rand

Motivational quotes for men

“He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.” — Confucius
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
“One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it is committing another mistake.” – Confucius Kongzi
“The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.” – Dale Carnegie
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David Brinkley
“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” – Epictetus

Motivational quotes for students

“You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” — George Lorimer
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” —Amelia Earhart
“You’ll find that education is just about the only thing lying around loose in this world, and it’s about the only thing a fellow can have as much of as he’s willing to haul away.” —John Graham
“Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.” —Augustine Og Mandino

Funny motivational quotes

“The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs, one step at a time.” — Joe Girard
“Be a positive energy trampoline – absorb what you need and rebound more back.” — Dave Carolan
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” — Zig Ziglar
“Work until your bank account looks like a phone number.” — Unknown
“I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.” — Oscar Wilde
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” — Winnie the Pooh
“Life is like a sewer… what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.” — Tom Lehrer
“I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realise I should have been more specific.” — Lily Tomlin

Team motivational quotes

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” — Michael Jordan
“Individual commitment to a group effort—that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilisation work.” — Vince Lombardi
“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” — Andrew Carnegie
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” — Henry Ford
“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” — Helen Keller
“Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.” — Patrick Lencioni
“I invite everyone to choose forgiveness rather than division, teamwork over personal ambition.” — Jean-Francois Cope

Short motivational quotes

“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.” — Dalai Lama
“Opportunities don’t happen, you create them.” — Chris Grosser
“Love your family, work super hard, live your passion.” — Gary Vaynerchuk
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” — George Eliot
“Don’t let someone else’s opinion of you become your reality” — Les Brown
“If you’re not positive energy, you’re negative energy.” Mark Cuban
“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” — Stephen R. Covey

Motivational Monday quotes

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.” — William James
“One of the differences between some successful and unsuccessful people is that one group is full of doers, while the other is full of wishers.” — Edmond Mbiaka
“I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.” —Lucille Ball
“You cannot plow a field by turning it over in your mind. To begin, begin.” ―Gordon B. Hinckley
“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love…” – Marcus Aurelius
“Mondays are the start of the work week which offer new beginnings 52 times a year!“ – David Dweck
“Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.” – Wayne Dyer
“Your Monday morning thoughts set the tone for your whole week. See yourself getting stronger, and living a fulfilling, happier & healthier life.” – Germany Kent

Friday motivational quotes

“Friday sees more smiles than any other day of the workweek!”—Kate Summers
“Oh! It’s Friday again. Share the love that was missing during the week. In a worthy moment of peace and bliss.” —S. O’Sade
“Every Friday, I like to high five myself for getting through another week on little more than caffeine, willpower, and inappropriate humor.” —Nanea Hoffman
“Make a Friday a day to celebrate work well done that you can be proud of knowing that you just didn’t put in time to the next paycheck.” —Byron Pulsifer
“When you leave work on Friday, leave work. Don’t let technology follow you throughout your weekend (answering text messages and emails) take a break you will be more refreshed to begin the workweek if you have had a break.” —Catherine Pulsifer

Best motivational quotes to start your day

“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” —Zig Ziglar
“Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working.” —Pablo Picasso
“Don’t settle for average. Bring your best to the moment. Then, whether it fails or succeeds, at least you know you gave all you had.” —Angela Bassett
“Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too.” —Isabel Allende
“Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ballpark. Aim for the company of immortals.” ―David Ogilvy
“I have stood on a mountain of no’s for one yes.” —Barbara Elaine Smith
“If you believe something needs to exist, if it’s something you want to use yourself, don’t let anyone ever stop you from doing it.” —Tobias Lütke

Positive quotes for motivation

“Don’t look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.” ―Anne Lamott
“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” —Warren Buffet
“True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.” ―Mortimer J. Adler
“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” ―A.A. Milne
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.” ―Martha Graham
“Small is not just a stepping-stone. Small is a great destination itself.” ―Jason Fried
“He that can have patience can have what he will.” ―Benjamin Franklin
“The only one who can tell you “you can’t win” is you and you don’t have to listen.” —Jessica Ennis
“Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.” —Bo Jackson
“Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don’t settle for them.” —Mia Hamm

Daily motivational quotes

“Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” —Steve Jobs
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” —Albert Einstein
“What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” —Mark Twain
“If you can’t yet do great things, do small things in a great way.” ―Napoleon Hill
“If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.” ―Jim Rohn
“Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.” ―Abraham Lincoln
“Live out of your imagination, not your history.” —Stephen Covey
“Do not wait for the perfect time and place to enter, for you are already onstage.” —Unknown
“The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.” ―Epicurus
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is a quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” —Mary Anne Radmacher
“If the decisions you make about where you invest your blood, sweat, and tears are not consistent with the person you aspire to be, you’ll never become that person.” ―Clayton M. Christensen

Inspirational quotes

“Fear of what other people will think is the single most paralyzing dynamic in business and in life. The best moment of my life was the day I realized that I no longer give a damn what anybody thinks. That’s enormously liberating and freeing, and it’s the only way to live your life and do your business” — Cindy Gallop
“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” ―Arthur C. Clarke
“Worry is a misuse of imagination.” —Unknown
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” ―Maya Angelou
“I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now.” —Edna Mode
“A year from now you will wish you had started today.” —Unknown
“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.” —Steve Furtick
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” —Carl Sagan
“I will not lose, for even in defeat, there’s a valuable lesson learned, so it evens up for me.” —Jay-Z
“I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.” —Arianna Huffington
“If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.” —Erica Jong

Positive quotes

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” — Henry Ford
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Confucius
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Wayne Dyer
“We must reach out our hand in friendship and dignity both to those who would befriend us and those who would be our enemy.” — Arthur Ashe
“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” — Bill Gates

Encouraging quotes

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been given a no. Only to find that a better, brighter, bigger yes was right around the corner.” — Arlan Hamilton
“We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes – understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.” — Ariana Huffington
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” — Henry Ford
“You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside.” — Wayne Dyer
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Aristotle
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe
“Hustle beats talent when talent doesn’t hustle” – Ross Simmonds

Motivation quotes

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is sitting on the other side of fear.” — George Addair
“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” — Ayn Rand
“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” — Babe Ruth
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” — Thomas A. Edison
“Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.” —Drew Houston
“You carry the passport to your own happiness.” —Diane von Furstenberg
“Never let success get to your head and never let failure get to your heart.” —Drake
“Ideation without execution is delusion.” — Robin Sharma

Quotes about life

“Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.” —Laird Hamilton
“It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.” —Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“For the great doesn’t happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together.” —Vincent van Gogh
“If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.” —Maria Edgeworth
“Resilience is when you address uncertainty with flexibility.” —Unknown
“Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.” —Raymond Joseph Teller
“It’s not the will to win that matters—everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.” —Paul Bryant
“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” —Henry David Thoreau
“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” —Earl Nightingale
“True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.” — C.S. Lewis

Best motivational quotes

“The two most important days in your life are the day you’re born and the day you find out why.” – Mark Twain
“Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.” – Pema Chodron
‘We can see through others only when we can see through ourselves.” – Bruce Lee
“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice.” ―Octavia Butler
“The best way out is always through.” ―Robert Frost
“The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself—the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us—that’s where it’s at.” —Jesse Owens
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” —Frederick Douglass
“Someone will declare, “I am the leader!” and expect everyone to get in line and follow him or her to the gates of heaven or hell. My experience is that it doesn’t happen that way. Others follow you based on the quality of your actions rather than the magnitude of your declarations.” ―Bill Walsh
“Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it by use.” —Ruth Gordo
“Relentlessly prune bullshit, don’t wait to do things that matter, and savor the time you have. That’s what you do when life is short.” —Paul Graham
“More is lost by indecision than wrong decision.” —Marcus Tullius Cicero
“If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.” —Thomas Aquinas
“You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.” —Dita Von Teese
“Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden.” ―Cormac McCarthy

Inspirational new year quotes

You’ll never get bored when you try something new. There’s really no limit to what you can do.” — Dr. Seuss
“I think it’s intoxicating when somebody is so unapologetically who they are.” —Don Cheadle
“You can never leave footprints that last if you are always walking on tiptoe.” —Leymah Gbowee
“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” —Dolly Parton
“If it makes you nervous, you’re doing it right.” —Childish Gambino
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” —Jane Goodall
“I choose to make the rest of my life the best of my life.” —Louise Hay
“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.” —Coco Chanel
“Anything can make me stop and look and wonder, and sometimes learn.” —Kurt Vonnegut
“People’s passion and desire for authenticity is strong.” —Constance Wu
“A surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence.” —Sonia Sotomayor
“Doubt is a killer. You just have to know who you are and what you stand for.” —Jennifer Lopez
“No one changes the world who isn’t obsessed.” —Billie Jean King
“I learned a long time ago that there is something worse than missing the goal, and that’s not pulling the trigger.” —Mia Hamm
“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” —Michael Jordan

Quotes about success

“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.” —Charlie Munger
“You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.” —Tina Fey
“When I believe in something, I’m like a dog with a bone.” —Melissa McCarthy
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” —Anaïs Nin
“The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept.” —David Hurley
“I’ve searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees.” —Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” ―Winston Churchill
“Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.” ―Theodore Roosevelt
“Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence.” ―Eleanor Roosevelt
“Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” —Vince Lombardi
“Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it’s done right.” —Walt Disney
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” —Helen Keller

Using inspirational quotes in your day to day life

Whether you’re a budding entrepreneur or eCommerce veteran, learning how to deal with stress while running a business will always be challenging.

Inspirational quotes are one way to help stay positive, productive, and happy as you move along your journey. Even saying one daily motivational quote in the mirror each more can make a huge impact on your day-to-day life.

As you move through the day and in your business, my hope for you is that you feel powerful. That you use these quotes to connect with yourself, clear your mind, and move into the world with self-confidence and appreciation for yourself and the world around you.

Shopify Tutorial

The Beginner’s Guide to Analyzing Shopify Reports and Analytics

May 6, 2021 Elksourcing, Shopify Reports and Analytics by 露露

This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.

Original link：https://www.shopify.com/blog/analyzing-shopify-reportsWhat sites are referring traffic to your store? Where in the world are your visitors? How did your Black Friday Cyber Monday marketing campaign perform last year? What products are people searching for most?

You have a lot of questions about your business, your customers and your marketing efforts.

Fortunately, answers to many of those questions are in your Shopify reports and analytics.

Reporting vs. analysis

It’s the end of the day (or week, or month) so you open up your analytics tool and jot down some key metrics. “Traffic is up 2% week over week. Nice!” You pat yourself on the back, maybe do a little dance in your chair.

That’s data reporting. Up is good, down is bad.

You have to think of data and analytics the way you think of an iceberg. Sure, you can see a few shiny metrics above the water, but there’s so much hiding just below the surface.

Analysis is the process of diving below the surface and uncovering meaningful insights about your business. So instead of just getting the “what” from basic ecommerce metrics, you start exploring the “why” and “so what”.

Analytics are a lot more complex than “up is good, down is bad”. But that added complexity of looking below the surface can be overwhelming, whether you’re using Google Analytics or Shopify analytics.

Still, we must persist because below the surface, you’ll find:

The answers to meaningful business questions (and new questions to ask, too).
Problem areas you aren’t aware of that are costing you money.
Quick wins and fixes to improve your user experience (UX) and conversion rate.

Asking the right questions of your data

So, we all want those insights hidden below the surface. The question becomes: how do you get below the surface? By asking meaningful questions about your store.

If you open up your analytics, you’re going to be staring down a lot of data. That kind of volume gets overwhelming quickly. To focus your efforts, it helps to have a list of questions that you want answered.

That way, you’re not clicking around waiting for insights to pop out at you. (This doesn’t happen, though it would be nice.) You need a purpose.

So, what’s a good question, then? Good question.

When you think you’ve got a good question, ask yourself: “What am I going to change based on the answer to this question?” If the answer is nothing, it’s not a good question.

Try to come up with an “if this, then that” scenario for each question. If the answer is yes, then this. If the answer is no, then this.

Here’s a simple process for coming up with meaningful questions to ask of your data:

Walk through your site looking for problem areas. Basically, you’re trying to break your store, to find something that’s not working as expected.
Write down the problem areas, concerns, questions, etc. that you identify during the walkthrough.
Turn to your analytics to confirm the problem areas and concerns, and answer the questions.

For step one, it helps to have a structured walkthrough process. For example, set a few important factors ahead of time to eliminate your subjective opinion and biases:

Friction: is anything difficult? How can you make it easier? Is anything preventing your visitors from buying?
Distraction: is anything distracting your visitors from taking your most wanted action, whatever that might be? For example, adding a product to cart or checking out.
Motivation: what’s adding to or subtracting from the motivation of the visitor? Are they motivated enough to complete your most wanted action?
Relevancy: is everything on the page relevant? Is there anything that’s irrelevant or unimportant? Is everything on the page working in favor of the most wanted action?
Clarity: is the value of the product or service clear? Is the next step clear? Is the most wanted action clear? Is anything confusing?

After the walkthrough, you’ll undoubtedly have a big list of meaningful questions to ask of your data.

One thing to note, though. There’s this old saying in statistics, inspired by Ronald H. Coase, “Torture data long enough and it’ll confess to anything.”

If you go looking for a specific answer, you’ll find it. Eliminating cognitive biases during analytics analysis is actually quite difficult, but try to put emphasis on your questions, not your presumed answers.

What’s a good X?

What’s a good amount of monthly traffic? What’s a good conversion rate? What’s a good average order value? What’s a good…?

There’s no real answer to these questions. There are, of course, industry benchmarks and averages that you can turn to, but they are often more interesting than actionable.

For example, what will you change about your business knowing that the average store in your industry gets 100,000 visitors per month?

If you have fewer than 100,000 visitors per month, maybe you’ll vow to increase your monthly traffic. But aren’t we always trying to increase traffic? If you have more than 100,000 visitors per month, will you forget all about increasing traffic?

A good amount of monthly traffic is more traffic than you had last month. The same is true of every other metric you’re tracking.

It’s all about what’s good for you and your store.

Start where the value is

If you’re wondering where to start your walkthrough because you don’t have time to run through the entire store right now, start where the biggest opportunities are. That boils down to three categories:

High volume, low value pages. These are pages that get a lot of traffic, but aren’t bringing in much revenue. So, for example, this might be an old blog post.
Low volume, high value pages. These are pages that get a smaller amount of traffic, but that traffic is higher quality and more likely to convert. For example, your checkout page.
Your funnel. Break your purchase funnel down into definitive steps. For example: the homepage is step one, the collection page is step two, the product page is step three, the cart is step four, and the checkout is step five. Linear funnels are on their way out, so you can likely think of multiple routes your visitors will take to purchase.

Funnels are particularly interesting. If you gather data for each step of the funnel, you can pinpoint exactly where your funnel is “leaking”. That is, where people are falling off most frequently. For example:

100 people make it to a collection page.
50 people make it to a product page.
40 people add a product to their cart.

You can see from this (super basic) funnel example that the biggest leak is on your collection page because you lose 50% of visitors there. So, that’s a good place to start digging around for questions, which you will use to analyze your data later.

Note that the further down the funnel you go, the smaller the necessary impact. For example:

100 people make it to a collection page.
50 people make it to a product page.
40 people add a product to their cart.
20 people click checkout.
4 people complete the checkout.

In this example, imagine increasing four completed checkouts to six. That’s a 50% increase very close to your bottom line. Now imagine increasing 50 people making it to a product page to 52. Much smaller impact because it’s higher up the funnel.

That’s why perfecting the bottom of your funnel can be so valuable.

Analyzing 3 core Shopify report categories

You’ll find both analytics dashboards and full analytics reports in Shopify:

Different reports are available to you depending on your Shopify plan. Everyone has access to the Overview dashboard and the Finances reports. If you’re on the Shopify plan or above, you also have access to three other report categories: acquisition, behavior, and marketing.

1. Acquisition reports

Acquisition reports focus on visitors to your website. A couple important things to note:

The number of visits and visitors are based on cookies, one that identifies the device (visitor) and one that identifies the length of the visit. So, to be clear, one visitor can generate multiple visits.
A visit automatically ends after 30 minutes of no activity or at midnight UTC.

Visits over time

You’ll find this report under “Acquisition” in the “Reports” overview:

Visits over time shows you the number of visitors and sessions during the specified time period:

You’ll notice the bar graph visualization above the data table for easier interpretation.

You can click the data table’s column headers to sort ascending or descending. So, for example, you could bring the days with the most visitors to the top of the data table or simply order the days in chronological order.

Note that you can dig deeper beyond the default time period:

Compare the last 30 days to the 30 days prior. Compare Q3 this year with Q3 last year. The more you slice and dice your data, the more you dig, the more you will undercover.

It’s also important to prioritize trends. Data will fluctuate. The last week often matters much less than the how that week compares to the eight previous weeks. Don’t look for minor fluctuations, look for trends that are developing.

Visitors by referrer

You’ll find this report under “Acquisition” in the “Reports” overview as well.

Visitors by referrer shows you the number of visitors and sessions referred by source:

In this case, Google search is the most popular referral source. Google has referred 574 visitors to this store, who have generated 604 sessions.

Note that referral source is broken out by referral name. You can use the column header sorting to end up with something like this:

Now it’s easier to see that Facebook is the top social referral source, for example.

This report adds another layer to the simple visits over time report. Not only do you know who is visiting your site and how often, but you know where they’re coming from as well.

This is important for deciding where to invest your marketing time and money. You’re a busy entrepreneur who can’t be everywhere at once. Pay attention to what’s paying off and double down. Or, better yet, experiment with a new referral source and track how effectively it referred traffic to your site during the experiment period.

Be sure to note the difference between visitors and sessions. If the number of visitors from a referral source is high and the number of sessions from the same referral source is on par, it’s not inherently bad, but it may indicate lower traffic quality or engagement.

Visitors by location

You’ll find this report under “Acquisition” in the “Reports” overview as well.

Visitors by location shows you the number of visitors and sessions from various countries:

Not only is it interesting to know which countries people are accessing your store from, but geographic information can be quite insightful, too.

For example, let’s say you’re running Facebook ads to your most popular product’s page. Now you know exactly where to target your ads:

Or perhaps you’ll break up the ad campaigns by country to see which refers the most traffic to your store. You might even put some ad spend on a country that looks promising, like the Philippines, which generated only 5 visitors, but 11 sessions.

You can also use geographic information to inform things like spelling and grammar, cultural references, and imagery (skin tones, faces, etc.) Go a step further and let it inform your shipping and pricing.

2. Behavior reports

Behavior reports focus on the actions your visitors take. A couple important things to note:

The website cart analysis report also falls under this category, but is only available to those on the Shopify plan or higher.
Half of these reports require that you use a theme with a search bar. If you don’t, two of the following four reports will not have any data to display.

Visitors by landing page

You’ll find this report under “Behavior” in the “Reports” overview as well.

Visitors by landing page shows you the pages visitors first arrive to your store on:

In the example above, the blog is bringing in the most traffic followed by product pages and the homepage. You might decide, based on this data, that you should double down on blogging efforts because it’s working to bring visitors to your site. Or you might note that your Pinterest ads to your product pages are working well.

Of course, you’ll also uncover what’s not working well.

Be sure to compare current performance (the last seven to 30 days) with long-term performance. Is a new landing page up and coming? Has a previously successful landing page fallen off your radar?

This can help you decide where to spend your landing page optimization time and effort. If a landing page performed well in the past, but doesn’t anymore, there’s likely friction on the page. If a landing page performed ok in the past, but is booming now, prioritize it during your walkthrough.

This is especially useful if you’re running dedicated landing page tests, like for Black Friday Cyber Monday, for example. You can sort by the “Landing page type” column header and see which BFCM landing page performs the best (e.g. variation A vs. variation B or men’s clothing vs. women’s clothing).

Visitors by device

You’ll find this report under “Behavior” in the “Reports” overview as well.

Visitors by device shows you the device types being used to access your store:

Why does this matter? It might seem, at first glance, that this report is filled with “nice to know” data, but it’s actually quite an actionable report. Here’s how:

Ad targeting. Most major ad platforms will ask whether you’d like to create desktop ads, mobile ads or both. This report will help inform that decision. Using the data above, mobile ads and desktop ads seem fairly even, both appearing to be a solid choice.
UX differs. A good mobile UX looks and feels very different than a good desktop UX. That’s something a lot of people neglect. Responsive design is a step in the right direction, but you need to go a step further. With mobile, you need to think about things like button size, keyboard style, swiping, tapping, etc. A navigation that’s intuitive on desktop might be infuriating on mobile. This report will help you flag potential UX issues on desktop and mobile.
Separate testing. Because desktop and mobile are so different, it’s important to test and experiment with them separately. Having a report broken out by device type will make that much easier.

3. Marketing reports

Marketing reports focus on the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. A couple important things to note:

Four other reports also fall under this category, but they’re only available to those on the Shopify plan or higher.
Marketing reports summarize data from all Online Store channel orders.

Visitors by marketing campaign

You’ll find this report under “Marketing” in the “Reports” overview:

Visitors by marketing campaign shows you the number of visitors generated by a UTM marketing campaign:

If you’re unfamiliar with UTM campaigns, this is a great guide to get you started. Here are the basics:

UTM parameters are small pieces of information that can be added to links so that you have a more holistic view of your marketing efforts.
You’ll see three parameters most often:
- Source (utm_source): This is generally used to define the site the link is placed on. For example, utm_source=shopify or utm_source=newsletter.
- Medium (utm_medium): This is generally used to define the marketing effort. For example, utm_medium=paid.
- Campaign (utm_campaign): This is generally used to define the specific campaign you’re running. For example, utm_campaign=bfcm or utm_campaign=summer17.

In the end, your UTM campaign link might look something like this:

www.yoursite.com?utm_source=shopify&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=bfcm

Now, when you open up the visitors by marketing campaign report, you can pull that UTM parameter information. You now have a comprehensive understanding of how your marketing efforts, from your newsletter to your paid campaigns, are performing.

Note that UTM parameters are automatically applied by Integrated Marketing Apps.

Understanding columns and filters

As you can see, there’s a lot of useful data within Shopify analytics. Your list of problem areas or areas to explore during your site walkthrough is probably pretty long already.

But we still haven’t even scratched the surface. There’s still a ton of insight hiding below the proverbial water.

How do you dive into that data? Through segmentation.

Segmentation is a scary word, but it’s really quite straightforward. Let’s say you have a pack of Smarties. Do you ever separate the Smarties out by color? That’s segmentation.

With Shopify analytics, you have two options: filters and columns.

Filters allow you to isolate a specific portion of the report’s data (e.g. only the red Smarties). There are three key components of filters:

Name: identifies the filter and corresponds with a column. For example, “Device type” or “City”.
Operator: this is where you’ll select “is” (meaning “equal to”) or “is not”.
Values: identifies the specific words or numbers you want to filter based on. For example, “Mobile” or “Toronto”.

To the top left of your data tables, you’ll find a “Manage filters” button, which will open a popup:

You can add and remove a variety of filters from categories like device, landing page, location, marketing campaign, referrer, returned results, etc.

Note that some reports will offer you unique filtering options, like the search bar reports:

You can add multiple filters as well. The more you slice and dice your data using filters, the more likely it is that you’ll find those below the surface insights.

Columns allow you to show more data than is displayed by default. You’re essentially adding and removing the column headers we’ve been using to sort the data tables.

Simply click the “Edit columns” button to trigger a dropdown, where you’ll see all of the available columns:

You can add and remove a variety of columns from categories like device, landing page, location, marketing campaign, referrer, time, visits, etc.

Note that some reports will offer you unique column options as well, like the search bar reports:

So, let’s see this stuff in action, shall we?

Remember the visitors by location report? We can use filters and columns to segment the data and dive deeper into the insights:

Now you’re looking at cities in the United States (filter) that have generated visitors, cart additions (column) and checkouts (column).

Note that it’s always a good idea to measure close to the money. So, for example, checkouts is a stronger indicator of success than visitors.

Remember the visitors by landing page report? It’s the perfect report to show you why bottom of the funnel metrics like checkouts are more insightful than top of the funnel metrics like visitors:

All I’ve done here is add a “Checkouts” column and the insights have changed drastically. When we were only looking at sessions, we figured we should focus on writing more blogs since it generated the most visitors.

Now we know that blog articles generate visitors, but not a lot of sales. How can we improve the conversion rate from the blog, then? Let’s add that to our walkthrough list.

More visitors are nice, but more money is the goal. Low quality traffic that won’t convert is a waste of marketing time and money.

Ok, one more. Remember the visitors by device report? Here it is now with some new filters and columns:

I’ve added two filters, one to isolate mobile and one to isolate visitors using iOS. So the data table is showing me information exclusively about mobile iOS users.

I’ve also added three new columns, one to tell us the version of iOS, one to tell us how long the average session duration is and one to tell us the number of checkouts.

This report is useful for a couple reasons:

It will surprise you how many people are using old operating system versions and browser versions (you can recreate this report for browsers as well) you consider irrelevant. Do you know that your custom theme looks good and works well on a mobile operating system from 2013? Because 143 visitors arrived via iOS 7.1.
If a device operating system version has a much lower average session time or checkout count, it could be an indication that UX issues exist on that version. Make sure you’re always comparing within the same family though. For example, I’ve purposefully isolated only iOS. I would never compare iOS to Android, only iOS to iOS and Android to Android.
It’s very time-consuming to check how well your store works in dozens of device versions and browser versions. This report can help you find the most popular (and most concerning) versions for your store, so you know exactly where to start.

You can also export reports to CSV:

This can be helpful to those who prefer to analyze their data in Excel, an incredible tool for more advanced data analysts.

As you continue experimenting with filters and columns, segmentation ideas will just start popping to mind. I’m not exaggerating when I say the options are endless. Practice makes perfect!

Analyzing and optimizing your business is an ongoing process

Inevitably, the answers to your burning questions will lead to even more questions.

Analyzing reports is a continuous process of asking questions, digging for answers (both in reports and on your site) and asking more informed questions next time.

Keep slicing and dicing, experimenting with filters and columns. Resist the urge to simply report on what’s above the surface.

Shopify Tutorial

67 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Ecommerce

May 6, 2021 Ecommerce, Elksourcing, KPI by 露露

This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.

Original link：https://www.shopify.com/blog/7365564-32-key-performance-indicators-kpis-for-ecommerce

Performance should inform business decisions, and KPIs should drive actions.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are like milestones on the road to online retail success. Monitoring them will help ecommerce entrepreneurs identify progress toward sales, marketing, and customer service goals.

KPIs should be chosen and monitored depending on your unique business goals. Certain KPIs support some goals while they’re irrelevant for others. With the idea that KPIs should differ based on the goal being measured, it’s possible to consider a set of common performance indicators for ecommerce.

Table of Contents

What is a performance indicator?
What is a key performance indicator?
Why are key performance indicators important?
What is the difference between a SLA and a KPI?
Types of key performance indicators
67 key performance indicator examples for ecommerce
How do I create a KPI?

Here is the definition of key performance indicators, types of key performance indicators, and 67 examples of ecommerce key performance indicators.

What is a performance indicator?

A performance indicator is a quantifiable measurement or data point used to gauge performance relative to some goal. As an example, some online retailers may have a goal to increase site traffic 50% in the next year.

Relative to this goal, a performance indicator might be the number of unique visitors the site receives daily or which traffic sources send visitors (paid advertising, search engine optimization, brand or display advertising, a YouTube video, etc.)

What is a key performance indicator?

For most goals there could be many performance indicators — often too many — so often people narrow it down to just two or three impactful data points known as key performance indicators. KPIs are those measurements that most accurately and succinctly show whether or not a business in progressing toward its goal.

Why are key performance indicators important?

KPIs are important just like strategy and goal setting are important. Without KPIs, it’s difficult to gauge progress over time. You’d be making decisions based on gut instinct, personal preference or belief, or other unfounded hypotheses. KPIs tell you more information about your business and your customers, so you can make informed and strategic decisions.

But KPIs aren’t important on their own. The real value lies in the actionable insights you take away from analyzing the data. You’ll be able to more accurately devise strategies to drive more online sales, as well as understand where there may problems in your business.

Plus, the data related to KPIs can be distributed to the larger team. This can be used to educate your employees and come together for critical problem-solving.

What is the difference between a SLA and a KPI?

SLA stands for service level agreement, while a KPI is a key performance indicator. A service level agreement in ecommerce establishes the scope for the working relationship between an online retailer and a vendor. For example, you might have a SLA with your manufacturer or digital marketing agency. A KPI, as we know, is a metric or data point related to some business operation. These are often quantifiable, but KPIs may also be qualitative.

Types of key performance indicators

There are many types of key performance indicators. They may be qualitative, quantitative, predictive of the future, or revealing of the past. KPIs also touch on various business operations. When it comes to ecommerce, KPIs generally fall into one of the following five categories:

Sales
Marketing
Customer service
Manufacturing
Project management

67 key performance indicator examples for ecommerce

Note: The performance indicators listed below are in no way an exhaustive list. There are an almost infinite number of KPIs to consider for your ecommerce business.

What are key performance indicators for sales?
What are key performance indicators for marketing?
What are key performance indicators for customer service?
What are key performance indicators for manufacturing?
What are key performance indicators for project management?

What are key performance indicators for sales?

Sales key performance indicators are measures that tell you how your business is doing in terms of conversions and revenue. You can look at sales KPIs related to a specific channel, time period, team, employee, etc. to inform business decisions.

Examples of key performance indicators for sales include:

Sales: Ecommerce retailers can monitor total sales by the hour, day, week, month, quarter, or year.
Average order size: Sometimes called average market basket, the average order size tells you how much a customer typically spends on a single order.
Gross profit: Calculate this KPI by subtracting the total cost of goods sold from total sales.
Average margin: Average margin, or average profit margin, is a percentage that represents your profit margin over a period of time.
Number of transactions: This is the total number of transactions. Use this KPI in conjunction with average order size or total number of site visitors for deeper insights.
Conversion rate: The conversion rate, also a percentage, is the rate at which users on your ecommerce site are converting (or buying). This is calculated by dividing the total number of visitors (to a site, page, category, or selection of pages) by the total number of conversions.
Shopping cart abandonment rate: The shopping cart abandonment rate tells you how many users are adding products to their shopping cart but not checking out. The lower this number, the better. If your cart abandonment rate is high, there may be too much friction in the checkout process.
New customer orders vs. returning customer orders: This metric shows a comparison between new and repeat customers. Many business owners focus only on customer acquisition, but customer retention can also drive loyalty, word of mouth marketing, and higher order values.
Cost of goods sold (COGS): COGS tells you how much you’re spending to sell a product. This includes manufacturing, employee wages, and overhead costs.
Total available market relative to a retailer’s share of market: Tracking this KPI will tell you how much your business is growing compared to others within your industry.
Product affinity: This KPI tells you which products are purchased together. This can and should inform cross-promotion strategies.
Product relationship: This is which products are viewed consecutively. Again, use this KPI to formulate effective cross-selling tactics.
Inventory levels: This KPI could tell you how much stock is on hand, how long product is sitting, how quickly product is selling, etc.
Competitive pricing: It’s important to gauge your success and growth against yourself and against your competitors. Monitor your competitors’ pricing strategies and compare them to your own.
Customer lifetime value (CLV): The CLV tells you how much a customer is worth to your business over the course of their relationship with your brand. You want to increase this number over time through strengthening relationships and focusing on customer loyalty.
Revenue per visitor (RPV): RPV gives you an average of how much a person spends during a single visit to your site. If this KPI is low, you can view website analytics to see how you can drive more online sales.
Churn rate: For an online retailer, the churn rate tells you how quickly customers are leaving your brand or canceling/failing to renew a subscription with your brand.
Customer acquisition cost (CAC): CAC tells you how much your company spends on acquiring a new customer. This is measured by looking at your marketing spend and how it breaks down per individual customer.

What are key performance indicators for marketing?

Key performance indicators for marketing tell you how well you’re doing in relation to your marketing and advertising goals. These also impact your sales KPIs. Marketers use KPIs to understand which products are selling, who’s buying them, how they’re buying them, and why they’re buying them. This can help you market more strategically in the future and inform product development.

Examples of key performance indicators for marketing include:

Site traffic: Site traffic refers to the total number of visits to your ecommerce site. More site traffic means more users are hitting your store.
New visitors vs. returning visitors: New site visitors are first-time visitors to your site. Returning visitors, on the other hand, have been to your site before. While looking at this metric alone won’t reveal much, it can help ecommerce retailers gauge success of digital marketing campaigns. If you’re running a retargeted ad, for example, returning visitors should be higher.
Time on site: This KPI tells you how much time visitors are spending on your website. Generally, more time spent means they’ve had deeper engagements with your brand. Usually, you’ll want to see more time spent on blog content and landing pages and less time spent through the checkout process.
Bounce rate: The bounce rate tells you how many users exit your site after viewing only one page. If this number is high, you’ll want to investigate why visitors are leaving your site instead of exploring.
Pageviews per visit: Pageviews per visit refers to the average number of pages a user will view on your site during each visit. Again, more pages usually means more engagement. However, if it’s taking users too many clicks to find the products they’re looking for, you want to revisit your site design.
Average session duration: The average amount of time a person spends on your site during a single visit is called the average session duration.
Traffic source: The traffic source KPI tells you where visitors are coming from or how they found your site. This will provide information about which channels are driving the most traffic, such as: organic search, paid ads, or social media.
Mobile site traffic: Monitor the total number of users who use mobile devices to access your store and make sure your site is optimized for mobile.
Day part monitoring: Looking at when site visitors come can tell you which are peak traffic times.
Newsletter subscribers: The number of newsletter subscribers refers to how many users have opted into your email marketing list. If you have more subscribers, you can reach more consumers. However, you’ll also want to look at related data, such as the demographics of your newsletter subscribers, to make sure you’re reaching your target audience.
Texting subscribers: Newer to digital marketing than email, ecommerce brands can reach consumers through SMS-based marketing. Texting subscribers refers to the number of customers on your text message contact list.
Subscriber growth rate: This tells you how quickly your subscriber list is growing. Pairing this KPI with the total number of subscribers will give you good insight into this channel.
Email open rate: This KPI tells you the percentage of subscribers that open your email. If you have a low email open rate, you could test new subject lines, or try cleaning your list for inactive or irrelevant subscribers.
Email click-through rate (CTR): While the open rate tells you the percentage of subscribers who open the email, the click-through rate tells you the percentage of those who actually clicked on a link after opening. This is arguably more important than the open rate because without clicks, you won’t drive any traffic to your site.
Unsubscribes: You can look at both the total number and the rate of unsubscriptions for your email list.
Chat sessions initiated: If you have live chat functionality on your ecommerce store, the number of chat sessions initiated tells you how many users engaged with the tool to speak to a virtual aide.
Social followers and fans: Whether you’re on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, or Snapchat (or a combination of a few), the number of followers or fans you have is a useful KPI to gauge customer loyalty and brand awareness. Many of those social media networks also have tools that ecommerce businesses can use to learn more about their social followers.
Social media engagement: Social media engagement tells you how actively your followers and fans are interacting with your brand on social media.
Clicks: The total number of clicks a link gets. You could measure this KPI almost anywhere: on your website, social media, email, display ads, PPC, etc.
Average CTR: The average click-through rate tells you the percentage of users on a page (or asset) who click on a link.
Average position: The average position KPI tells you about your site’s search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search performance. This demonstrates where you are on search engine results pages. Most online retailers have the goal of being number one for their targeted keywords.
Pay-per-click (PPC) traffic volume: If you’re running PPC campaigns, this tells you how much traffic you’re successfully driving to your site.
Blog traffic: You can find this KPI by simply creating a filtered view in your analytics tool. It’s also helpful to compare blog traffic to overall site traffic.
Number and quality of product reviews: Product reviews are great for a number of reasons: They provide social proof, they can help with SEO, and they give you valuable feedback for your business. The quantity and content of product reviews are important KPIs to track for your ecommerce business.
Banner or display advertising CTRs: The CTRs for your banner and display ads will tell you the percentage of viewers who have clicked on the ad. This KPI will give you insight into your copy, imagery, and offer performance.
Affiliate performance rates: If you engage in affiliate marketing, this KPI will help you understand which channels are most successful.

You can track your ecommerce marketing analytics in Google Analytics or using Shopify’s built-in analytics tools.

What are key performance indicators for customer service?

Customer service KPIs tell you how effective your customer service is and if you’re meeting expectations.You might be wondering: what should the KPIs be in our call center, for our email support team, for our social media support team, etc. Measuring and tracking these KPIs will help you ensure you’re providing a positive customer experience.

Key performance indicators for customer service include:

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) score: The CSAT KPI is typically measured by customer responses to a very common survey question: “How satisfied were you with your experience?” This is usually answered with a numbered scale.
Net promoter score (NPS): Your NPS KPI provides insight into your customer relationships and loyalty by telling you how likely customers are to recommend your brand to someone in their network.
Hit rate: Calculate your hit rate by taking the total number of sales of a single product and dividing it by the number of customers who have contacted your customer service team about said product.
Customer service email count: This is the number of emails your customer support team receives.
Customer service phone call count: Rather than email, this is how frequently your customer support team is reached via phone.
Customer service chat count: If you have live chat on your ecommerce site, you may have a customer service chat count.
First response time: First response time is the average amount of time it takes a customer to receive the first response to their query. Aim low!
Average resolution time: This is the amount of time it takes for a customer support issue to be resolved, starting from the point at which the customer reached out about the problem.
Active issues: The total number of active issues tells you how many queries are currently in progress.
Backlogs: Backlogs are when issues are getting backed up in your system. This could be caused by a number of factors.
Concern classification: Beyond the total number of customer support interactions, look at quantitative data around trends to see if you can be proactive and reduce customer support queries. You’ll classify the customer concerns which will help identify trends and your progress in solving issues.
Service escalation rate: The service escalation rate KPI tells you how many times a customer has asked a customer service representative to redirect them to a supervisor or other senior employee. You want to keep this number low.

What are key performance indicators for manufacturing?

Key performance indicators for manufacturing are, predictably, related to your supply chain and production processes. These may tell you where efficiencies and inefficiencies are, as well as help you understand productivity and expenses.

Key performance indicators for manufacturing in ecommerce include:

Cycle time: The cycle time manufacturing KPI tells you how long it takes to manufacture a single product from start to finish. Monitoring this KPI will give you insight into production efficiency.
Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE): The OEE KPI provides ecommerce businesses with insight into how well manufacturing equipment is performing.
Overall labor effectiveness (OLE): Just as you’ll want insight into your equipment, the OLE KPI will tell you how productive the staff operating the machines are.
Yield: Yield is a straightforward manufacturing KPI. It is the number of products you have manufactured. Consider analyzing the yield variance KPI in manufacturing, too, as that will tell you how much you deviate from your average.
First time yield (FTY) and first time through (FTT): FTY, also referred to as first pass yield, is a quality-based KPI. It tells you how wasteful your production processes are. To calculate FTY, divide the number of successfully manufactured units by the total number of units that started the process.
Number of non-compliance events or incidents: In manufacturing, there are several sets of regulations, licenses, and policies businesses must comply with. These are typically related to safety, working conditions, and quality. You’ll want to reduce this number to ensure you’re operating within the mandated guidelines.

What are key performance indicators for project management?

Key performance indicators for project management give you insight into how well your teams are performing and completing specific tasks. Each project or initiative within your ecommerce business has different goals, and must be managed with different processes and workflows. Project management KPIs tell you how well each team is working to achieve their respective goals and how well their processes are working to help them achieve those goals.

Key performance indicators for project management include:

Hours worked: The total hours worked tells you how much time a team put into a project. Project managers should also assess the variance in estimated vs. actual hours worked to better predict and resource future projects.
Budget: The budget indicates how much money you have allocated for the specific project. Project managers and ecommerce business owners will want to make sure that the budget is realistic; if you’re repeatedly over budget, some adjustments to your project planning need to be made.
Return on investment (ROI): The ROI KPI for project management tells you how much your efforts earned your business. The higher this number, the better. The ROI accounts for all of your expenses and earnings related to a project.
Cost variance: Just as it’s helpful to compare real vs. predicted timing and hours, you should examine the total cost against the predicted cost. This will help you understand where you need to reel it in and where you may want to invest more.
Cost performance index (CPI): The CPI for project management, like ROI, tells you how much your resource investment is worth. The CPI is calculated by dividing the earned value by the actual costs. If you come in under one, there’s room for improvement.

How do I create a KPI?

Selecting your KPIs begins with clearly stating your goals and understanding which areas of business impact those goals. Of course, KPIs for ecommerce can and should differ for each of your goals, whether they’re related to boosting sales, streamlining marketing, or improving customer service.

Key performance indicator templates

Here are a few key performance indicator templates, with examples of goals and the associated KPIs.

GOAL 1: Boost sales 10% in the next quarter.

KPI examples:

Daily sales.
Conversion rate.
Site traffic.

GOAL 2: Increase conversion rate 2% in the next year.

KPI examples:

Conversion rate.
Shopping cart abandonment rate.
Competitive pricing.

GOAL 3: Grow site traffic 20% in the next year.

KPI examples:

Site traffic.
Traffic sources.
Promotional click-through rates.
Social shares.
Bounce rates.

GOAL 4: Reduce customer service calls by half in the next 6 months.

KPI examples:

Service call classification.
Pages visited immediately before call.

There are many performance indicators and the value of those indicators is directly tied to the goal measured. Monitoring which page someone visited before initiating a customer service call makes sense as a KPI for GOAL 4 since it could help identify areas of confusion that, when corrected, would reduce customer service calls. But that same performance indicator would be useless for GOAL 3.

Once you have set goals and selected KPIs, monitoring those indicators should become an everyday exercise. Most importantly: Performance should inform business decisions and you should use KPIs to drive actions.

Illustration by Till Lauer

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12. David and Goliath

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18. Trust Me, I’m Lying

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21. Crush It!

22. The Tipping Point

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24. Getting to Yes

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26. Hooked

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`Time management is everything`