Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2016

As a business advisor, I have too often seen technical entrepreneurs get a product or service off the ground with ease, but then struggle mightily when their business reaches a couple of million in annual sales, or the employee count grows beyond a handful. True entrepreneurs love the tactical and problem solving challenges.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2016

As a startup advisor and investor, I find that more and more entrepreneurs avoid using the term “profit” in pitching their new venture. Thus I was pleased and a bit surprised to see a new book, “ The Purpose Is Profit ,” by Ed “Skip” McLaughlin, an entrepreneur who has both succeeded and failed in starting multiple businesses.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2016

In reality, that’s the definition of a successful startup these days, so every aspiring entrepreneur should take note, as well as every existing corporate executive. I like their seven step approach, which I have paraphrased here for entrepreneurs as follows: Pull together a great multi-functional team. A dream is not enough.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2016

A common pain of startups after an exhilarating first surge of early adopters is a long and frustrating plateau of slow growth, where it seems like nothing you do will get your business to profitability. There is no magic lever for growth, so several initiatives are required, with metrics to assess value returned.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 23, 2016

Things change so fast these days in business that your first priority as an entrepreneur is to stay current, by talking to customers, peers, and experts. The days are gone when growing a business meant putting repeatable processes in place, settling into a groove, and simply cranking up volume. No change means falling behind.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2016

It’s easy to declare yourself an entrepreneur, but it’s not so easy to convince investors, your team and customers that you are that special one to fund and follow. If you don’t consistently display the right entrepreneur mindset traits, people won’t follow and business success will likely elude you.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2016

If you can’t provide a memorable customer experience, your startup won’t survive very long these days. The bar is being raised, so every entrepreneur needs new initiatives just to stay in the ballgame. Here are some key ideas to get you started: It all starts with the right people on your team.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

In the same way, great entrepreneurs and company leaders should no longer rely on faceless and nameless processes to drive business strategy and innovation to stay competitive. Here is my adaptation of his engagement principles for all the aspiring entrepreneurs I advise: Learn to adopt an outsider’s perspective.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2016

Good entrepreneurs are all about managing change, but too many forget that they have to change themselves as their dream evolves from a startup to a scalable business. For example, there once was a social network called Friendster , often credited with starting the social networking boom way back in 2002. It’s a big change.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 30, 2017

Jay Goss , CEO of the startup--who is a veteran startup CEO here in Southern California-- talked to us about the new startup, which was developed by the technical co-founder of AskJeeves. Jay Goss: I got involved around April of 2016, as the company was putting the final pieces together on the app. What is exactly.me?

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2017

Most startups, and many big businesses, still don’t have a clue on how to use social media productively for marketing their business. The first thing that entrepreneurs need to realize is that the process and framework for making social media marketing work are different from traditional marketing, and trial and error certainly doesn’t work.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 7, 2016

Every startup begins with an idea, but from that point forward, it’s all about execution. Investors have also learned not to invest in ideas but only in entrepreneurs and teams who can deliver solutions. Smart entrepreneurs architect a value chain that includes customers, partners and vendors, based on market dynamics.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2016

Why is it that only the most successful entrepreneurs , including Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Richard Branson, admit to having a mentor and actually use them? Starting a new business is tough, and the last thing you need is to suffer the same mistakes that have killed businesses like yours before you.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2017

People who are good at solving problems for other people make great entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are often too passionate and impatient. Clearly assign solution implementation and follow-up. Establish metrics to assure solution and prevent recurrence. Establish metrics to assure solution and prevent recurrence.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2016

Entrepreneurs don’t realize that Facebook spent over $100 million, before revenues from advertising turned cash positive. You need metrics to show dominant penetration of the relevant customer demographic, added value over existing media, and real customer testimonials of value. Business founders need deep pockets for this model.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2016

Many entrepreneurs assume that everyone will love their solution as much as they do, so they tune their marketing focus based on their own needs and wants. That’s the right place to start, but real growth and scale requires attracting customers who are not like you. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 03/16/2016.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2016

Too many entrepreneurs still believe that “if we build it, they will come.” Digital marketing is the cost-effective place to start, utilizing the internet, mobile phones, display advertising, and other digital mediums. The challenge is where to put those limited resources of every startup, to get the biggest return for your investment.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2016

Every entrepreneur I know feels the pressure of the thousands of things that need to get done, all seemingly at the same time. Start each day with the highest priority task you need done that day, and leave the emails and phone calls till the end of the day, if you have time. Define clear goals and metrics for your productivity.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

As an entrepreneur looking for an idea, it makes sense to explore problem areas within your knowledge comfort zone, but when you are building a business with the solution, you have to stretch your comfort zone to keep up with the market and stay ahead of competitors. Stop talking and start executing.

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