Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Today’s customers demand more than a good product; they expect a great customer experience. A few companies are leading the way, including Apple with their iPad and iPhone, offering irresistible stores with friendly experts, elegant packaging, and customer service that never ends.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 23, 2021

Yet, as a business consultant, I often find minimal focus on improving employee engagement and assessing their customer-facing performance. For example, I commonly see metrics to keep track of revenue per employee, overtime, and absenteeism, but I don’t often see measures of overall customer satisfaction with individual employees.

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socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 6, 2019

El Segundo-based online postage provider Stamps.com said late Thursday that it has launched a new, international shipping service with GlobalPost, which will help ease its customer's uncertainty about possible international shipping disruptions due to the possibility of the United States leaving the Universal Postal Union (UPU).

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El Segundo Services Competition Customer 113

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 22, 2021

As I talk to many of you in my role as business advisor, I still often hear the concern for maximum return to the business and stakeholders, more than a passion for sustainably enriching the lives of your customers and team. This applies to your own team, as well as customers. Make every customer experience memorable.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2020

They forget that adapting their company and themselves as their customers evolve is the key to long-term survival. Think of Blockbuster and Toys ‘R’ Us , both of whom missed customer changes and the move to online. Create an overt strategy to react to emerging customer trends. Remember when you were a startup?

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2017

With the advent of the Internet, social media, and instant communication via texting, customer expectations for service, as part of their entire customer experience, have changed. They expect you to be there, to know their history as a customer, and to treat them with priority and respect.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 12, 2021

Even with product businesses, it’s the ultimate way to build your brand credibility, bring in customer leads, and get feedback from your target market. Blogs help because sites that update data frequently get higher SEO rankings. Add content regularly. Anchor the blog in your domain name. Conversational style. Add outgoing links.

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Blogging Services Search Engine Optimization Web 135

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Photo by Vanna Phon on Unsplash Customer acquisition is the lifeblood of many startups from e-commerce to gaming to marketplace companies, among others. that’s where the customers are. But if you ask anyone in the ecosystem of customer acquisition?—?founders, no surprise?—?that’s founders, marketers, investors?—?and

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2020

That means starting your search through contract services sites, rather than conventional career hiring sites. Freelancers and consultants have to demonstrate results, without training and mentoring, so they can help you more quickly and probably at a lower total cost. This lets you evolve your strategy with the market.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2012

You hear a lot of talk these days about the importance of customer satisfaction, but customer loyalty is the real win. A satisfied customer is necessary, but not sufficient, to be a loyal customer who will come back repeatedly, refer their friends and family to you, and be faithful even when your price is not the lowest.

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socalTECH

OCTOBER 19, 2018

Earlier this month, Los Angeles-based Catalog (www.catalog.cc), a startup developing artificial intelligence software to help independent visual artists scale their content production efforts, announced it raised $1.5M To bundle all of these components requires you to have customers with similar needs. in a seed funding round.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2019

Image via Flickr by jardenberg Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. Everyone assumes their product or service is so great that “word-of-mouth” will carry the day for them. Educational. Make sure your paragraphs are short.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. Every entrepreneur assumes their product or service is so great that “word-of-mouth” will carry the day for them. The eye is just as important as the mind when it comes to customers.

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socalTECH

MAY 28, 2013

However, rather than travel services, it''s for products. You put your price into our gauge, which has the colors red, yellow, and green to help guide consumers in making the most appropriate offers. That gauge helps make sure the offers that consumers place are realistic, for example, not offering $200 for a $2000 Canon camera.

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TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 30, 2019

The company used its overdraft protection service and money management display to shift customers’ focus away from the total balance that their account would show by giving them a sense of how much was actually left in their accounts once debits were included in their statements.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2019

Much has been written recently about the requirement to focus today on the total customer experience, as a competitive edge or even for survival. The challenge I hear from savvy business owners and entrepreneurs operating on a shoestring is that providing a superior customer experience costs money.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2014

Michael Chasin: LawKick.com is essentially a marketplace that makes it easier than ever to find legal help. How the website works, is the client goes to the website, and indicates what they need help with. How has the attorney response been to your service? We''re a free service for clients, and don''t charge them.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2021

For example, I believe that Starbucks surprised most people by proving that they could take a commodity business, a coffee shop, and make it a worldwide profit winner, just by justifying premium pricing with a quality product, the right locations, personalized service, and appealing to the professional customer personas.

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Pricing Startup Competition Examples 145

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

From apps to hardware, to KickStarter successes and international startups, we’re inching closer to finding out who will take home the title of Startup of the Year competition at our annual Celebrate Conference in October. Among the dozens of participants that applied for the online competitions, only a few progressed into the semifinals.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2014

In their passion and excitement about a new product or service, entrepreneurs tend to continually narrow the scope of potential competitors, and often claim to have no direct competitors. A narrow scope doesn’t help your case either. Non-specific terms, like better usability and low cost don’t incite customers to action these days.

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Competition Startup Patents Slides 93

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 11, 2023

Most new business owners I know feel the challenges of not enough time, money, and resources, and see these as problems rather than a competitive advantage. People respond to positives, such as new growth, versus problems implying costs and loss of customers. Share constraint info and ask team to help.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2022

You may feel good when that first burst of customers arrives, but don’t assume that “ word of mouth ” and those early adopters will grow your business to match your dreams of success. In these days of global competition via multiple channels, you need continuous marketing to find more customers. They won’t find you.

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socalTECH

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

DogVacay , the online peer-to-peer marketplace which helps pet owners find dog sitters, has been one of the favorites of local Los Angeles investors, having picked up funding from such firms as Science Inc., Andreessen Horowitz, Baroda Ventures, Benchmark Capital, First Round Capital, and others.

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Competition Funding Los Angeles Capital 159

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

In their passion and excitement about a new product or service, entrepreneurs tend to continually narrow the scope of potential competitors, and often claim to have no direct competitors. A narrow scope doesn’t help your case either. Non-specific terms, like better usability and low cost don’t incite customers to action these days.

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Competition Funding Startup Patents 166

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2022

You can’t succeed in business without an operational model that delivers value to customers at a reasonable price, with an underlying cost that allows you to make a profit. A target market is the group of customers that the startup plans to attract through marketing and sales their product or service. Competition.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2023

So before you decide to move your manufacturing, software development, or call center out of town, make sure you understand the following considerations: Don’t give someone else control of your competitive advantage. Saving cost won’t help you if you can’t make the daily innovations required to stay competitive.

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Software Review Technical Review Outsource Development Outsource 114

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 2, 2014

Most startups are happy to find any customer, and will hang on for dear life to every one. Only later do they realize that some of these cost more than they are worth, or lead into commitments they can’t sustain, but no business wants to violate the golden rule that every customer needs to be treated as if they were the only customer.

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Berkonomics

JUNE 2, 2022

Few of your contacts will be willing to use their valuable social or political capital helping you with a sales effort, and you will definitely strain your relationship with the intermediary if not a close friend. After all, you have a paying relationship with these resources, and asking for help is not considered a daunting request.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2021

But in addition I’ve always found it helpful to provide a simple checklist for new venture founders and new business owners to make sure they have covered all the key bases correctly, including the following: Define and focus on a single customer segment. Quantify your value proposition for customers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 15, 2022

Digital commerce: infinite options for buying goods and services online. More and more company and personal services are being virtualized to the Cloud. This gives rise to the personalization and customization that we all want. Crowdsource: putting your audience to work beyond customers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2021

Waste in a startup is any activity that burns resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers. Trying to do too many things with too few resources, usually means the startup will not shine at anything, and will not survive the competition. Hire real help and learn to delegate.

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Startup Resource Training Entrepreneur 161

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Good Eggs says that in the past year, revenue has grown to the nine figures (more than $100 million), hired more than 400 employees and nearly doubled its customer base. We are excited to partner with their team to help drive future growth and expansion.” Image Credits: Good Eggs.

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Southern California Edison Blog

NOVEMBER 3, 2021

Telecom carriers looking to stay competitive should continue strengthening their network infrastructure and adding greater flexibility to their service offerings to provide reliable and high-performance connectivity for their customers. Offer Greater Service Flexibility. Stay Data-Driven. Increase Consumer Targeting.

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Tech.Co

MAY 31, 2023

But while competition remains fierce, the advancement and accessibility of smart solutions are making it easy than ever for startups to find their feet. Business tools — from customer relationship management ( CRM ) platforms to accounting software — help to save startups time and money by automating key processes and maximizing efficiency.

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Tool Startup Software Review Technical Review 128

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

They helped create over 5 million new businesses in 2022, a forty percent increase over the previous year. Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever. Just make sure you can fill in all the details.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2013

As I visit the websites of many startups, as well as more mature businesses, I still too often see a “contact” page offering nothing but a sterile form for customers to submit, never to be heard from again. Customers are not all like you, and they have choices, so a “one size fits all” customer service is no longer a viable option.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2016

A few are still trying to make a profitable business out of nurturing startups, but it’s a challenge to make money when your customer startups don’t have many resources to give. I believe their competitive advantage is their top on-site leadership, exclusivity, and connections to investors.

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Incubator Startup Help Resource 106