Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 12, 2021
If customers don’t know you exist, you can’t solve their problem, they won’t buy. Getting customer attention often takes more innovation today than solving the tough technical problems. As a business adviser, I still see too many new venture founders who skimp on their marketing focus, or start too late.
Both Sides of the Table
JULY 23, 2013
I have long advised startup companies that if you don’t control your messaging somebody else will and your potential customers will form impressions of you shaped by somebody else or by nobody at all. Yet as obvious as it is to create messaging for your company, many people don’t consider their personal brands.
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Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 28, 2014
But what IS the right amount of burn for a company? Burn rate in case you don’t know is the amount of money a company is either spending (gross) or losing (net) per month. (it Conversely if you’re burning $600,000 per month (yes, some companies do) then you only have 5 months of cash left. Gross Burn vs. Net Burn.
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 8, 2020
As an advisor to entrepreneurs, I often hear the desire to run their own company, to avoid having someone else telling them how to run the business. Although board members should be compensated to assure commitment, I suggest company shares rather than cash. Avoid family members and close personal friends.
Startup Professionals Musings
NOVEMBER 5, 2018
As a self-made entrepreneur and former chairman of Diamond Resorts International, he asserts that the five biggest companies by market value today, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, aren’t really tech, but hospitality companies. Customer needs and expectations are changing faster than ever these days.
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 19, 2020
In my business of mentoring new entrepreneurs and advising small company owners, I recognize that most don’t start as experienced leaders, and most don’t realize that people leadership is a primary key to their future success. Building a business is not a one-person job, and leading by edict rarely works today.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 1, 2019
Steve Jobs started his technical career creating circuit boards at Atari, before joining Steve Wozniak to build personal computers in his garage. If your job is processing transactions, you need to work on ways of enhancing transactions from a customer perspective and how to attract more business, rather than just counting transactions.
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