Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

One of the big differences between an entrepreneur and an employee of a big business is that employees tend to have a very narrow focus on their job, while entrepreneurs have to keep the broader focus on business. Both want personal satisfaction and financial success. Know your peers and build your competitive advantage.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Satisfaction Customer Custom 93

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2023

Creating the right company culture must be a top priority of every entrepreneur and business leader. Most entrepreneurs start from a base of one or two co-founders, and their vision and focus is on developing an innovative solution, rather than developing people. Don’t confuse engagement or satisfaction surveys with culture surveys.

Organization 108

Organization Startup Satisfaction Customer 108

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2023

I recognize that entrepreneurs tend to substitute vision and passion for formal processes, but using no discipline or process in building something new is a sure way to spend money, rather than see any return and build a self-sustaining business. No mention usually means no plan and not competitive. Solution development and delivery.

Outsource Development 115

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 115

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2023

Most entrepreneurs relish being their own boss, but find the transition to “ownership thinking” to be more difficult than anticipated. Incidentally, if you never thought of yourself as being an A-Player employee, you probably will struggle even more in the competitive entrepreneur world.

Entrepreneur 85

Entrepreneur Customer Custom Competition 85

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2022

Entrepreneurs that are not listening, not engaging, and not changing are destined to be left behind even in the best of times. If you as an entrepreneur are not “listening” to your online reviews, and not moving quickly to make changes, you are losing ground. Let your continuous innovation become your sustainable competitive advantage.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Organization Social Media Entrepreneur 151

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 31, 2022

Trying to do everything is a sure way to maximize stress, lower job satisfaction, and minimize productivity. Idea people often don’t get funded as entrepreneurs, because a new business is all about results, not just ideas. In my experience, competition is the biggest challenge here. Enablement: provide support and human capital.

Activity 108

Activity Satisfaction Metrics Startup 108

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Most entrepreneurs relish being their own boss, but find the transition to “ownership thinking” to be more difficult than anticipated. Incidentally, if you never thought of yourself as being an A-Player employee, you probably will struggle even more in the competitive entrepreneur world.

Entrepreneur 159

Entrepreneur Customer Custom Competition 159

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. That might start with the CEO giving the investor pitch to the whole organization, and distributing the current business plan document to everyone.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 118

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2015

One of the realities of being an entrepreneur is that you have to keep learning and changing to survive. Risks to the business drift off their radar screen, resulting in poor business decisions, as well as less job satisfaction and declining professional success. Mature organizations forget that change is an opportunity, not a threat.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Satisfaction Customer Custom 106

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

Business success is all about having the best team, yet the average entrepreneur has little prior experience with hiring people and building top-notch teams. Most new entrepreneurs assume their passion will attract and motivate the right team members. Hiring before organizational structure is defined. It won’t happen by default.

Organization 104

Organization Satisfaction Entrepreneur Screening 104

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2020

Creating the right company culture must be a top priority of every entrepreneur and business leader. Most entrepreneurs start from a base of one or two co-founders, and their vision and focus is on developing an innovative solution, rather than developing people. Don’t confuse engagement or satisfaction surveys with culture surveys.

Organization 160

Organization Startup Entrepreneur Satisfaction 160

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2020

One of the realities of being an entrepreneur is that you have to keep learning and changing to survive. Risks to the business drift off their radar screen, resulting in poor business decisions, as well as less job satisfaction and declining professional success. Mature organizations forget that change is an opportunity, not a threat.

Satisfaction 124

Satisfaction Organization Customer Custom 124

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023

Whether you are an entrepreneur starting a new business, or a corporate executive seeking to revitalize a mature business, the challenge is the same – to become the obvious choice within the hearts and minds of your customers, your employees, and your chosen communities. Be known for your expertise by broadly sharing the message.

Company 116

Company Companies Customer Custom 116

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. For example, both need to provide exemplary customer service, build customer loyalty, and provide real value for a competitive price. You have no shelf life, so you can’t make money while you sleep.

Startup 111

Startup Training Services Writing 111

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2020

Business success is all about having the best team, yet the average entrepreneur has little prior experience with hiring people and building top-notch teams. Most new entrepreneurs assume their passion will attract and motivate the right team members. Hiring before organizational structure is defined. It won’t happen by default.

Organization 135

Organization Satisfaction Entrepreneur Screening 135

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. For example, both need to provide exemplary customer service, build customer loyalty, and provide real value for a competitive price. You have no shelf life, so you can’t make money while you sleep.

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2022

Entrepreneurs are now measured against the “triple bottom line” (TBL or 3BL) of people, planet, and profit. How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics? Starting and running any business is hard work, so the last thing you need is “success” with no satisfaction.

Startup 110

Startup Entrepreneur Capital Examples 110

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2022

Even entrepreneurs who have built many startups, or sold their last one for millions of dollars, know they make occasional people leadership mistakes. Thankfully, most mistakes won’t be as spectacular as the America Online merger with Time Warner for $350 billion, back in 2000, engineered by then superstar entrepreneurs Stephen M.

Startup 118

Startup Case Study Competition Entrepreneur 118

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 4, 2014

As a startup advisor, I see many aspiring entrepreneurs whose primary motivation seems to be to work part time, or get rich quick, or avoid anyone else telling them what to do. Yet, for those with more realistic expectations and the right motivation, the entrepreneur lifestyle can be the dream life you envisioned.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Organization Customer Custom 102

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. That might start with the CEO giving the investor pitch to the whole organization, and distributing the current business plan document to everyone.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 151

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2015

Most entrepreneurs I know want to do the right thing for their businesses, as well as themselves, but they are not always sure what that means. Communicate personally and interactively with your constituents, both inside and outside the organization. Don’t allow anonymous and impersonal messages to go out, and always ask for feedback.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Training Demand Customer 102

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2022

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders quandaries in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. If you prefer a private company with organic growth, keep control within friends and family, and prepare for the long haul.

Startup 130

Startup USC Entrepreneur Statistics 130

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2020

Entrepreneurs that are not listening, not engaging, and not changing are destined to be left behind even in the best of times. If you as an entrepreneur are not “listening” to your online reviews, and not moving quickly to make changes, you are losing ground. Let your continuous innovation become your sustainable competitive advantage.

Tips 126

Tips Technical Review Organization Social Media 126

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2014

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup Founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. If you prefer a private company with organic growth, keep control within friends and family, and prepare for the long haul.

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Statistics Equity Satisfaction 107

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2020

Whether you are an entrepreneur starting a new business, or a corporate executive seeking to revitalize a mature business, the challenge is the same – to become the obvious choice within the hearts and minds of your customers, your employees, and your chosen communities. Be known for your expertise by broadly sharing the message.

Customer 167

Customer Custom Satisfaction Marketing 167

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2021

Many entrepreneurs waste too much time on low-priority administrative tasks, procrastinating on higher priority but tougher tasks, resulting in last minute crises, and failure to complete the critical work that people are really expecting of them. Making the time to organize yourself will save you time.

Product 153

Product Email Customer Custom 153

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 8, 2013

Even entrepreneurs who have built many startups, or sold their last one for millions of dollars, know they make occasional people leadership mistakes. Thankfully, most mistakes won’t be as spectacular as the America Online merger with Time Warner for $350 billion, back in 2000, engineered by then superstar entrepreneurs Stephen M.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Startup Case Study Competition 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2013

Entrepreneurs are now measured against the “triple bottom line” (TBL or 3BL) of people, planet, and profit. How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics? Starting and running any business is hard work, so the last thing you need is “success” with no satisfaction.

Entrepreneur 98

Entrepreneur Startup Examples Satisfaction 98

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2017

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. If you prefer a private company with organic growth, keep control within friends and family, and prepare for the long haul.

Entrepreneur 57

Entrepreneur USC Statistics Equity 57

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2012

Many entrepreneurs waste too much time on low-priority administrative tasks, procrastinating on higher priority but tougher tasks, resulting in last minute crises, and failure to complete the critical work that people are really expecting of them. Making the time to organize yourself will save you time.

Product 117

Product Entrepreneur Email Customer 117

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 29, 2014

Outbehave Your Competition to Create Customers for Life ,” offers eight key principles for defining and managing the experience to keep it consistent and profitable: Keep every employee on stage, delivering an experience. They have to out-behave and outperform your competition. No more gamed employee satisfaction surveys.

Customer 106

Customer Custom Training Satisfaction 106

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 28, 2019

Entrepreneurs are now measured against the “triple bottom line” (TBL or 3BL) of people, planet, and profit. How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics? Starting and running any business is hard work, so the last thing you need is “success” with no satisfaction.

Startup 93

Startup Entrepreneur Capital Examples 93

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2018

One of the realities of being an entrepreneur is that you have to keep learning and changing to survive. Risks to the business drift off their radar screen, resulting in poor business decisions, as well as less job satisfaction and declining professional success. Mature organizations forget that change is an opportunity, not a threat.

Satisfaction 57

Satisfaction Customer Custom Organization 57

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2018

I find that the most successful entrepreneurs have mastered the art and skill of building and managing relationships. In my role as a mentor to business professionals and entrepreneurs over the years, I have found that it’s important to take a hard look at the relationships around you on a regular basis.

Tips 95

Tips Mentor Coach Activity 95

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

One of the realities of being an entrepreneur is that you have to keep learning and changing to survive. Risks to the business drift off their radar screen, resulting in poor business decisions, as well as less job satisfaction and declining professional success. Mature organizations forget that change is an opportunity, not a threat.

Satisfaction 106

Satisfaction Organization Customer Custom 106

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. Another risk with taking capital is that we would grow the organization quickly and sales might lag behind expenses. I’ve been there.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2012

Did you ever wonder how a new entrepreneur knows how to “do the right thing” for his business? Align the organization to your values and goals. Your appreciation of your customers and focus on delivering value to them is a pre-requisite to customer satisfaction, growth, and success. Balance work and life. Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 97

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Satisfaction 97