Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2017

Julie is known as the entrepreneur’s selling mentor, for both men and women. Make it real for your customers with professionally finished collateral and proposals. Always treat customers with respect, honesty, and warmth to make the selling process more enjoyable, fun and delightful. Craft your irresistible pitch.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2017

Based on my own experience mentoring entrepreneurs, I see the same things, and recommend the following principles for every aspiring business leader today: Communication must address content and relationship. Either can get you valued and followed, or rejected by your team and your customers. The same concept applies to customers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2017

Yet, in my experience as a mentor to entrepreneurs, the majority of failures I see are related to starting and growing the business, not developing the solution. In fact, I can condense the sum of my business experiences into eight key disciplines: Start with a total and ongoing customer focus. Demonstrate an ongoing sense of urgency.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2017

I was mentoring some graduate students at a local university recently, and I sensed again that profit seems to be a dirty word these days to many aspiring entrepreneurs. I’m certainly not a fan of customer rip-offs, but even non-profits have to be cash-flow positive, or have deep pockets, to help anyone for long.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2017

Based on my current role as a mentor to entrepreneurs, I will paraphrase and recommend Whiddon’s top techniques in business terms: Build an image of likability and rapport. In today’s customer context, you can foster rapport by dressing like them, making every effort to look attractive, offering compliments, and listening intensely.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2017

If team members and customers can’t relate to your purpose, or don’t agree with it, your business will not thrive. It’s important to involve your team in the definition of purpose, and agree it is consistent with a viable business model, including opportunity, customer need, and a positive return.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2017

As a mentor to many aspiring entrepreneurs, I often get asked for next sure-fire idea. They will also amplify your inspiration to your customers, and keep it growing in your own mind. These people need to cover the gamut from partners, marketers, suppliers, to customers. Create a great customer experience, not just a product.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2017

In my role as a mentor to entrepreneurs and an angel investor, I find that too many are stuck in this myth that a good pitch, and good marketing content, should consist of more product features, and more hype on customer benefits. Customers buy from people they trust, respect, and admire.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2017

In my experience, and from the thoughts of others who have “been there and done that,” here is my list of the top elements you should be looking for: Focused on customers and team, rather than “me, myself, and I.” These will provide the competitive edge you need with customers and less-focused team members. Never makes excuses.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2017

In my role as a mentor to entrepreneurs, I often recommend attacking bad habits and efforts to improve using the six basic strategies outlined by the authors. Be honest with yourself about small habits you have which may irritate your direct reports, coworkers, or customers. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 02/22/2017.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Based on my experience as an angel investor and a mentor to dozens of entrepreneurs, having no business plan is the quickest way to define yourself as just a dreamer, or at best a hobbyist. Providing your product or service free to customers may sound attractive in marketing materials, but you need revenue sources to survive.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2017

The bad news is we have to think like a business, with all the implications of branding, finding customers, and competitors. She speaks from years of experience mentoring and facilitating independent contractors and helping large companies, since well before the term “gig economy” was even coined.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2017

After the hire comes mentoring and continuous training as the key to engagement. Your company’s success is dependent on your customer’s happiness, which is set primarily by engaged employees. Today, every company needs a value-driven culture that is shared by employees, customers, and shareholders.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2017

Business leaders must convince the team that the decision makers today are customers, the marketplace, competition, feedback, innovation, and breakthroughs. Develop accountability through coaching and mentoring. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 10/13/2017.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2017

In my experience as an advisor and mentor to entrepreneurs in business, one of the biggest failures I see is a lack of self-leadership. Your character, as a business leader, will determine your perceived reputation by peers in business, team members, and customers. Marty Zwilling First published on Huffington Post on 11/10/2017.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 28, 2017

Focus on products and customers, and trust your accountant. The accountant may accurately record every transaction, but only you can make the strategic tradeoffs on marketing costs versus customer revenue, product quality versus support, and so forth. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 07/14/2017.

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Tech.Co

APRIL 24, 2018

Being one small company amongst the sea of thousands of startups vying for customers, capital, and talent, the way to get noticed above the crowd, connect with that next big partner, and raise some capital is to throw your hat in the ring to compete at Startup of the Year.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2017

In this age of interactive social media, your culture image quickly spreads to customers, and determines their loyalty. He cites eight leadership actions, which I also recommend, from a non-scientific perspective, as a mentor to entrepreneurs. Marty Zwilling First published on Huffington Post on 01/21/2017.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2017

In my years of mentoring and advising business leaders, I find that real planning for the future always gets the short shrift. The command and control leadership of the past is proving to be too inflexible, devoid of values, and not empathic to people issues – customers, employees, and partners.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 28, 2017

We all face pressure in our lives, but there’s nothing like that of an entrepreneur facing customer crises and the competitive challenges of a new business. Humor has been proven to provide numerous business benefits, including customer loyalty, productivity, and reduced absenteeism. Reframe from tension to humor in your approach.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2017

Ask for help from advisors and mentor your team. Thus you need to listen and learn the current reality from your customers, your team, advisors, and experts. In business, to get from dreams to reality, it takes effective communication with many others, including your team, customers, investors, and partners.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2017

With real-time online reviews and feedback via the Internet, and instant relationships via social media, a voice from the top that is inconsistent with what is heard from the firing line defines a dysfunctional and noncompetitive company for today’s customer. Marty Zwilling First published on Huffington Post on 02/12/2017.

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Netflix Social Media Startup Mentor 62

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 10, 2017

Even after many years mentoring entrepreneurs and advising businesses, I continue to be surprised by the primary focus on products and processes, and the often incidental attention to hiring and nurturing the right people. It’s the same for customers and products, where analytics have long proven their value.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2017

Based on my years of experience mentoring and advising entrepreneurs, you need to attack problems and challenges with a mindset of success, or it is unlikely that you or your business will survive. Don’t try to be the lone hero – it pays to listen to other members of your team, who may be closer to the customer, and have better insights.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

Take the time to listen fully to the voices that really count, including your team leaders and customers. The best mentors in business often find themselves learning as much as their mentees. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 10/23/2017. If you are concentrating on too many things, creativity will not come.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 28, 2017

I can certainly attest that my own efforts to coach and mentor aspiring entrepreneurs have taught me much about business and people. The key to success as a startup is finding like-minded people, and it can work on the front-end with sponsors, before you have back-end customers for revenue. You learn as much as a coach as the student.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2017

In fact, I’m a strong proponent of coaching and mentoring in the workplace, but I recognize that these efforts can only go so far in eliminating your human resources problems, and increasing team morale and performance. Look for natural-born leaders with drive, vision, purpose, and a focus on the customer.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 29, 2017

It also means setting up a personalized coaching and mentoring system, and accelerated rotations for top talent. Inspirational leaders are the ones with the greatest connection to customers and mission, a large set of relevant strengths, and active engagement with team members. Build a culture guided by principles, not rules.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2017

That means that you need to overtly market yourself, rather than wait and hope that the right people or customers will find you. In my long-time role as a mentor and business advisor, I still see too many people who are waiting to be found as a candidate for their dream role, or waiting for investors to find their startup.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2017

In the same way, you may think that people assessment is all about skills and experience, but as a mentor to business owners, I have learned to look more for the right attitude, persistence, and determination, as success factors. They see customer support as positive lessons to improve quality and processes.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2017

Trust is the key to productive relationships, and relationships with peers, constituents and customers are key to great businesses. The best leaders spend more time supporting and mentoring their constituents to develop their competence and confidence, and then delegate effectively with accountability.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2017

Businesses can only succeed if they can make customers see a win-win situation by working together. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 04/11/2017. Favor people with a perpetually optimistic bias. Coaches can only help if they have the power to make people see a tomorrow that is better than today.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2017

As a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, the most common question I get is, “I want to be an entrepreneur -- how do I start?” You have to enjoy working with people -- partners, customers, investors and more -- as well as products to start a business. Marty Zwilling First published on Huffington Post on 12/23/2017.

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