Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

One of the most stressful and unanticipated challenges that comes with starting a new business is hiring and managing employees. While this approach appears to cost more on the surface, it often actually costs you less, when you consider the hidden costs of rework, poor customer satisfaction, employee management, and training required.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 25, 2022

As an advisor to many startups, I’m convinced it’s an expensive and painful approach, but I do see it used all too often. In the rush of a startup, it’s tempting to start spending the money you expect any day from a rich uncle or a major new customer. But things do go wrong, and you will be left holding the bag.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 7, 2022

Startup work environments are always chaos, but they can still be great environments to work in, or they can be terrible. Whether yours is terrible or great, that same tone flows out to your customers, and regulates your productivity inside. You as the founder are the starting point and definer, so you need to get it right.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

Every new business I know dreams of building momentum in their business, where growth continues to increase, customers become your best advocates, and employee motivation is high. Unfortunately, with limited resources, this isn’t possible, and it frustrates customers and the team. Focus on the mainstream customer majority.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2022

Every new entrepreneur has to initiate the right actions to be perceived as a leader in their chosen business domain by their team and by their customers, or the road to success and satisfaction will be lost along the way. Authentic leaders are willing to open up and establish a connection with everyone around them.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Start with a service you know and love. The customer experience is more than the service.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2019

Many experts have tried to clearly lay out the criteria for survival in a way that allows you to judge your own situation and your own temperament, and make a rational decision before starting down this path. In other words, make sure your solution will scale up. In a startup, the entrepreneur leader has to do two things.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2015

Most entrepreneur that fail are quick to offer a litany of constraints that caused their demise – not enough money, time, customers, or support from the right players. The result, called resourcefulness, allows entrepreneurs to create opportunities in the face of scarcity. Startups funded by rich uncles rarely think about productivity.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2022

Passion is great, but it must be backed by data, confirming a real problem and customers willing and able to pay for your solution. In my view, too many businesses fail, simply because founders give up too early. Starting many initiatives, and hoping that one will stick, is not a formula for success. Recognize limited resources.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2021

Jim Sterne, who has written many books on Internet advertising, marketing, and customer service, tackled this complex world of social media metrics in a classic book titled simply " Social Media Metrics." Social media is the realm of public opinion and customer conversations. Measure customer response and action.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2019

Many entrepreneurs think that adapting to the new technologies, like smart phones and Internet commerce, are the key to attracting new customers. High-technology product startups, without customers, don’t make a business. During today’s dynamic customer journey, consumers often find themselves at a point of indecision.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2020

It may not be as sexy, but starting a new business which builds on an existing technology or business model is usually less risky than introducing that ultimate new disruptive technology. Many of the major business successes started this way. Many of the major business successes started this way.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2021

By definition, all of you entrepreneurs are leaders, by taking the initiative to start a new company. Yet I have learned over the years as a startup advisor that all business leaders are not the same. Create innovative change from existing resources. You generally don’t fix things by throwing them away and starting over.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2021

Great entrepreneurs pride themselves on their ability to isolate opportunities that have minimal risk, by virtue of their trusted relationships, their own expertise, and access to resources. Don’t look to customers for breakthrough ideas. Advanced degrees won’t help you run your startup. Today’s world will continue to evolve.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2023

For your own happiness and satisfaction, I recommend you start instead working from that higher purpose and passion. Test specifics and potential on friends, advisors, and potential customers. Make sure your plan makes business sense before committing real resources. Measure customer value perception at every stage.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2022

Perhaps sparked by the recent pandemic, I’m seeing a new era of the entrepreneur, with startups springing up all around. After some review of available resources, I’m convinced that problem solving is a learnable trait, rather than just a birthright. Listen to your customers to arrive at acceptable and marketable solutions.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2020

Hopefully, between the two of us, more of you with big business dreams will follow the leads and generate more successful business results: Start by getting your hands dirty. A business entity has to be created and real resources applied. Never give up in the face of adversity. The time to get started is now.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2023

For example, a while back a passionate entrepreneur approached me with an innovative solution for reducing world hunger, but hadn’t focused on the fact that hungry people often don’t have any money, and governments are not easy customers. Find market evidence of customers with means who are willing to pay for a solution.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Start with a service you know and love. The customer experience is more than the service.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2020

Otherwise, in my experience, the startup will fail. I recommend his checklist as a starting point for developing team connections and building engaged team members as a key step in becoming an effective team leader, even if your team is spread all over the country: Consciously reduce time spent on outside activities.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2020

Out of curiosity, I often ask aspiring entrepreneurs like you, who come to me for help, what drives them to take on the workload and risk of a new startup. Of course, drivers have to be backed up by some realities, like necessary resources, adequate skills, relentless determination, and a market of people interested in supporting your dream.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 2, 2021

Investors expect a great return for their risk, so they look for people who can look beyond the technology and their own passion to see a customer need that perhaps even the rest of us haven’t yet envisioned. The payoff will be a heightened personal satisfaction, as well as the resources you need to make it happen.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2015

Many startups and mature businesses have not yet accepted the fact that customer satisfaction and loyalty in this “always connected” age are about more than product and service quality. They are all about how customers broadcast their pleasure or unhappiness to others. Customer upsell: Sell more to existing customers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 30, 2020

As an advisor to many startups, I’m convinced it’s an expensive and painful approach, but I do see it used all too often. In the rush of a startup, it’s tempting to start spending the money you expect any day from a rich uncle or a major new customer. But things do go wrong, and you will be left holding the bag.

Startup 125

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Customer 125

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2021

Most of the entrepreneurs I meet as an investor and advisor have no shortage of right-brain thinking, showing vision and creativity, but often don’t realize that their potential is being limited by a balancing focus on results, metrics, and customer specifics. Listen to customer feedback and tune your vision.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 25, 2022

After many years working in business and investing in startups, I’m convinced that the primary reason for new business and career failures is NOT a lack of skill or money, but people giving up too quickly on their dreams and goals. He went on to start many successful companies, including General Electric.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2020

As a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always surprised by the fact that some never seem to be able to that first startup going, while many others never seem to stop, starting their second or third initiative before the first one is fully hatched. You can’t win a race that you never start.

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Entrepreneur Startup Ideas Software Review 131

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2013

Many entrepreneurs think that adapting to the new technologies, like smart phones and Internet commerce, are the key to attracting new customers. High-technology product startups, without customers, don’t make a business. During today’s dynamic customer journey, consumers often find themselves at a point of indecision.

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Customer Custom Startup Social Media 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 11, 2013

Many startups and mature businesses have not yet adapted to the fact that customer satisfaction in this “always connected” age is more than product and service quality. It’s more about which customers broadcast their pleasure or unhappiness to others. Customer upsell, selling more to existing customers.

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Customer Custom Satisfaction Social Media 97

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2023

Listen to your team, mentors, and customers to recognize real successes and failures, and surround yourself with people who can fill in the gaps. Allocate your time and resources to customer expectations and competitor challenges. Start with smaller opportunities, where if you were to fail, the loss would be less significant.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2016

In business, this means an entrepreneur who never says no to any customer is doomed to a hard life and some expensive mistakes. Many people will argue that total customer satisfaction is paramount, but I’m a pragmatist who believes that treating everyone the same really means treating all of them poorly.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 11, 2022

The canvas is a visual chart with elements describing your value proposition, structure, finances, and customers, to help companies identify and align business activities. I look for evidence of the nine major elements of the model canvas, as paraphrased here from the author’s key points and how they apply to teams: Customer segments.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2020

Of course, most of you expect that raising money will be difficult, as well as staving off competitors, and handling that occasional toxic customer. There are just not enough hours in a day, and knowledge available, to keep up with it all. Every startup is like a family, needing constant commitment to specific roles and priorities.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

Each of these will help you in achieving success and satisfaction while tackling your toughest business issues: Stop attacking symptoms – dig first for the root cause. A broken process or a subtle quality issue can generate a flood of customer satisfaction problems, cost overruns, and loss of market share.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2023

In my own role as advisor and mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, I was struck by how relevant and critical these same initiatives are to even the earliest stage businesses. Your startup’s survival, as well as people performance, is at stake. Make sure required data, resources, and tools are provided early.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2023

Most business professionals I know have been conditioned to think of inflation as highly negative, driving up their costs, and reducing customer buying. I see it as an opportunity to find new ways to attract customers , make long-needed changes to improve productivity, and lower your own costs of doing business.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 23, 2022

The result is fewer and fewer new ideas are volunteered by prospective leaders and key team members, and the business suffers from poor customer satisfaction or loss of market share. Input from outside experts and real customers is always a credibility booster. The suggested change won’t create desired results.

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