June, 2023

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Can you guess 10 tests for your success?

Berkonomics

Your success must be based upon data that is solid and sometimes flexible enough to pass several critical tests if it is to guide a business enterprise to greatness. Here in brief are ten tests for your business success. Try these on for size, and test yourself for attractiveness to the marketplace, to investors and to history. Ten tests for your business success: Is your market identifiable and accessible?

Patents 286
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6 Keys To Creating An Impressive Purchaser Experience

Startup Professionals Musings

For decades, efforts to satisfy customers have been built around demographics – capitalizing on race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other attributes. Today, in this age of pervasive social media and two-way communication, the focus needs to get beyond demographics into personalities. Customer personalities define customer experience, and sets what they love, and what they hate.

Customer 131
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Hello world!

Eric Greenspan

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!

Writing 100
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Building a Community Driven Marketplace with Joline Mann Founder of Purposer

Startup San Diego

Purposer is a marketplace platform with a vision is to provide conscious consumers with a rewarding online shopping experience.

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Can You Ask for Office Rent Relief? How to Manage Your Lease During COVID-19

Office leases are one of companies’ largest expenses, and if your whole team is working from home with no clear end in sight, you may be wondering what to do about your lease.

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Fewer words, greater effect.

Berkonomics

I have a good business friend, an experienced manager and teacher with a Harvard MBA, whose creativity and intelligence are admired by many. But he dilutes his effectiveness with wordy PowerPoint presentations. It has become a long running joke between us, as I often remind him that most of us have a very limited attention span and ability to recall important points from a presentation.

Writing 177
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So, what’s the plan?

Berkonomics

It’s time to speak of some sort of business plan. As a professional investor in early-stage companies, I have long discounted long, detailed business plans in favor of a concise “executive summary” followed by a believable spreadsheet-based financial forecast projecting three to five years into the future. Yes, everything does change between drafting that plan and its successful execution.

Summary 156

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Could you be the next Ford, Jobs or Musk?

Berkonomics

Well, it’s a fair question. Note that none of these three famous innovators were inventors like Thomas Edison, but visionaries who see a new marketplace or niche or how to reach the mass market in ways not previously attempted. Innovation does not always equal invention. Leaders and companies that innovate new products, services and methods of delivery are the ones that stand out in a crowded business world, especially when attempting to gain recognition among the throngs of competitors visible

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5 Relationship Stages That Determine Business Success

Startup Professionals Musings

In the world of entrepreneurs and startups, high level relationships are everything. You can’t start a business alone. You need partners, team members, investors, vendors, and customers. But people don’t realize that all relationships are not the same. There are people you only recognize on the street, business friends, and then close friends whom you can always count on to help.

Startup 127
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5 Strategies To Counter Your Urge To Quit A Business

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the biggest impediments to starting a new venture is the “ terror barrier ,” as popularized by Bob Proctor, a 85-year-old millionaire and world renowned entrepreneur. This is the imaginary barrier that always seems to appear at the critical point where we would step out ahead of peers or competitors, but fear causes us to stop short. Everyone has a comfort zone, or level of risk, where they feel in control.

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7 Keys To Results From People With The Right Approach

Startup Professionals Musings

Isn’t it amazing that some people you know always seem to be working hard, but never seem to get anything done? As an entrepreneur, you need to avoid partnering with these people, or hiring them into your startup. The challenge is to find people who get things done, as well as work hard. LinkedIn profiles and resumes still focus too much on responsibilities rather than results.

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How To Build A Great Startup In The Age Of Disruption

Startup Professionals Musings

The cost of entry to the entrepreneur lifestyle is at an all-time low, but the challenge of winning and success is at an all-time high. Anyone can build a new web site, or publish a smartphone app for a few thousand dollars, but getting market penetration requires a lot more. Customers have come to expect disruptive change, so yet another social network is not the way to get traction.

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6 Ways To Build A Business Based On A Higher Purpose

Startup Professionals Musings

Commonly, I find that business owners and entrepreneurs look first at solutions which solve painful problems, or have high profit margins, regardless of their own commitment to a higher purpose, such as saving the environment or helping the underserved. For your own happiness and satisfaction, I recommend you start instead working from that higher purpose and passion.

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7 Ways To Improve Your Team Member Experience At Work

Startup Professionals Musings

A common initiative I hear from business owners today is their effort to improve the customer experience. Some are doing this at the expense of employee experience , which I believe is one of the major causes of employee dissatisfaction and exit of good employees today. To achieve real growth, business leaders need to improve both employee as well as customer experiences.

Customer 113
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5 Steps To An Innovative And Winning New Venture Plan

Startup Professionals Musings

I realized a while back that creating a new company for the first time is a lot like whipping up a great dinner entree for the first time – you need a recipe, even though it may look simple. You know the basic ingredients, and you can visualize the results you want. Yet you may not be so sure where to start, and how to put it all together. In all cases, don’t skip the basic training.

Startup 112
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6 Keys To Retaining Your Top Performing Team Members

Startup Professionals Musings

Since the recent pandemic, I find that business leaders are fighting to retain and attract new talent to recover from necessary attrition losses and team members quitting due to personal priorities. In the wake of recent struggles , the people you need and want are looking for a new human focus from their leaders and managers in today’s chaotic and competitive labor market.

Help 111
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10 Bad Habits That May Be Stopping You From Finishing

Startup Professionals Musings

Based on my work as a business consultant, I find a growing challenge in getting employees to complete their commitments on time, or even finish a task before moving on to new work. After digging deeper, I find that most of these cases are not intentional , and the guilty may not even be aware of bad habits which are hurting their image and antagonizing management and customers.

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8 Keys To Maximizing Your Business Networking Results

Startup Professionals Musings

Many business owners and professionals I know claim they are too busy in their jobs and not interested in taking part in any networking events. They don’t realize that success in business and their career is dependent on the right relationships as well as hard work. In addition, relationships found through networking can make your life a lot more satisfying as well as more productive.

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Entrepreneur Discipline Necessary For Business Growth

Startup Professionals Musings

Entrepreneurs seem more quickly frustrated these days when their “million-dollar idea” doesn’t turn into a sustainable business overnight. They don’t realize that it takes many skills to build a business under the best of circumstances, and today’s world of instant gratification doesn’t leave room for the patience and practice to develop these skills.

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8 Attributes Of Entrepreneurs Who Transform Society

Startup Professionals Musings

Every entrepreneur has an idea for transforming a market with innovative new technology, or transforming society with a new process. But unfortunately, most of these ideas fail at the execution level, or are not truly innovative. Entrepreneurs who have been really transformative, like Steve Jobs and Walt Disney, seemed to know how to deal with all the right elements.

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7 Indications Your New Venture May Not Be Investable

Startup Professionals Musings

If you aren’t willing to take some risk as an entrepreneur, then don’t expect any gain. Yet everyone has limits, and every investor implicitly has similar limits on what makes a startup investable, or one to avoid at all costs. If you need investors, it’s important that you understand their filters, and even if you are funding your own efforts, you need to recognize the red flags.

Invest 98
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8 Keys To Ensuring Accountability In Your New Venture

Startup Professionals Musings

Maybe it’s just me, but I sometimes feel that accountability is a rare talent in business today. In big businesses, people are quick to defer with “that’s not my department,” and even startup founders too often blame failures on the economy or the lack of investors. As an investor and advisor to entrepreneurs, I see accountability, or lack of it, as an override to even the best idea.

Startup 96
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How To Identify New Venture Assistance Organizations

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the reasons that now is the time to be an entrepreneur is the explosion of startup assistance organizations, usually called incubators or accelerators. According to the International Business Innovation Association ( InBIA ), there are over 2,000 of these locations worldwide, and new online versions springing up all over the place, like Founders Space in Silicon Valley.

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7 Keys To Making A Team And Customers Feel Respected

Startup Professionals Musings

Investors invest in people, not ideas. Customers buy from people, not companies. Employees rally for a great leader, not a brand. As an entrepreneur, you need relationships to succeed. That means relationships with team members, investors, customers, and vendors. One of the best ways to build a good relationship with anyone is to make them feel important.

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Startup San Diego Hosts 1st Mondays June 2023 – Full Recap

Startup San Diego

Over 300+ startup community members came together for a curated event on AI and networking at HomeLab. Check out the full recap & pictures.

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7 Steps To Assuring Me You Are A Serious Entrepreneur

Startup Professionals Musings

Willingness to take a risk is the hallmark of a serious entrepreneur. That’s why one of the first questions that potential investors ask is “How much of your own money, and friends and family, have you put into the new business?” If you won’t risk yours, you won’t get investors to risk theirs. A few years ago I was impressed with the classic book “ When Turtles Fly ” by Nikki Stone, an Olympic champion, which explains this well.

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10 Ways To Become A Web Influencer In Today’s Market

Startup Professionals Musings

Traditional marketing says you have to “push” your message out to customers, over and over again, to get you remembered. A more effective approach in today’s Internet and interactive culture is to use “pull” technology to bring customers and clients to your story. You influence people in by providing new content with real value on your website at least every few days.

Web 96
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8 Essentials To Qualify Your Startup For A Bank Loan

Startup Professionals Musings

A common question I get is “How do I get a bank loan to fund my startup?” The default answer is that it probably won’t happen, because most banks just don’t make bank loans to startups. The failure rate is just too high, and startups typically don’t have the assets or revenue stream to back up the loan. That’s why angel and equity investors are so sought after by entrepreneurs.

Startup 117
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10 Ways To Use Social Media To Be Authentic and Open

Startup Professionals Musings

The pervasiveness of social networking and the Internet has caused a new focus and value on “openness,” which leads to a new element of leadership, called “open leadership.” The mantra of open leadership is “Be Open, Be Transparent, and Be Authentic.” This is counter to the traditional business premise of “control,” so many companies are still pushing back.