Month: June 2026
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Best Social Media Influencer Agencies for 2026 Success
You've got a product you believe in. Maybe you're boxing orders on your kitchen table in Chicago. Maybe you're still tweaking the first version in a garage in Indiana, Wisconsin, or Michigan. Either way, you've hit the same wall most founders hit. You need attention, and paid ads feel expensive, crowded, and easy to burn…
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Electronic Commerce Conference: Founder’s Guide to ROI
Most conference advice is backwards. People tell you to show up open-minded, wander the floor, and “network.” That's how you burn cash, lose three days, and come home with a tote bag full of flyers you'll never read. I treat an electronic commerce conference like a field operation. You have a target, a budget, and…
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Formula for Break Even Price: A Founder’s Guide
You're probably staring at a spreadsheet right now, bouncing between tabs, trying to pick a price that won't scare buyers away or slowly erode your margin. I know that feeling. The cursor blinks in the price cell, and suddenly every guess feels expensive. Most founders treat pricing like a branding decision. It isn't. It's math…
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Referral Fees Amazon
You get your first few Amazon orders, feel pretty good, then open the payout report and think, wait, where did the money go? I've seen that look before. I've had that look before. New founders usually assume the pain came from shipping or ads. A lot of the time, the first punch to the gut…
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10 Team Building Strategies for Founders in 2026
Team building is broken because most of it has nothing to do with how real teams work under pressure. Trust falls, awkward icebreakers, and forced happy hours don't help you ship faster, solve conflict, or keep good people when things get hard. They give you a brief sugar high, then everybody goes back to hiding…
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How to Become Business Manager: Your 2026 Career Path
Most advice on how to become a business manager is too clean, too expensive, and too slow. It usually goes like this: get the degree, maybe get the MBA, wait your turn, then maybe somebody lets you run a team. That advice isn't wrong. It's incomplete. If you're in Chicago, the Midwest, or anywhere people…
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Idea Week Chicago: A Founder’s No-Nonsense Playbook
Most advice about Idea Week Chicago is wrong. People tell you to “stay open,” “follow your curiosity,” and “meet as many people as possible.” That's how you spend a full day listening to smart people, eating a stale cookie, and going home with nothing you can use on Monday. I want you to do the…
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Ungating on Amazon: A Founder’s No-BS Guide
You're probably in one of two spots right now. You found a product that looks promising, clicked into Seller Central, and got hit with “Apply to sell.” Or you already bought inventory because some YouTube clip made ungating sound easy, and now you're praying Amazon accepts your paperwork. I'll save you some pain. Ungating on…
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Sourcing of Products: A Founder’s No-BS Guide
You're in your kitchen at 11 p.m., staring at a sketch, a sample from Amazon, and a spreadsheet that already looks uglier than your original idea. The product still feels exciting. The sourcing part does not. Now you have to trust someone you've never met to make the thing that will represent your brand on…
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10 Market Research Methods for Founders in 2026
Stop guessing. Most companies already know they need market research. In fact, nearly 80% of businesses conduct it to understand customers, competitors, and performance, according to Hanover Research's overview of market research. That should tell you something simple: the winners usually aren't smarter. They just stop building on vibes alone. Big agencies and consultants will…
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