Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 20, 2023

For example, consider Whole Foods , whose focus on healthy foods and a sustainable environment is legendary, even though their prices are often a bit higher. Quantify the results, and avoid any fuzzy words, such as better usability, advanced technology, or more productivity. Put operational systems and metrics in place early.

Marketing 116

Marketing Resource Training Startup 116

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2021

Too many founders have learned that passion and free beta products do not imply a sustainable business. Proof of any business model starts with a finished product or solution, sold to a new customer for full price, with high satisfaction for the value received. Marketing is everything these days. Plan for a real revenue model.

Sales 165

Sales Customer Custom Social Media 165

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. Growth is more than simply repackaging existing products, and adding bells and whistles or slick incentives. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Managing business growth is more than metrics.

Sales 147

Sales Metrics Guide Startup 147

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

Some objections are real and they end up becoming changes to your product, your service plan or your pricing / bundling. As a founder, when you’ve been dealing with these kinds of objections for a couple of years it becomes natural and you easily handle objections on price, product & competition without much thought.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2019

Image via Pixabay As a mentor to many small business owners, I always caution them that you can never relax completely, just because your initial solution or product set appears to be getting traction, and the market buzz is positive. Control costs and adjust prices to maintain your margin.

Metrics 86

Metrics Startup Training Customer 86

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2023

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? You know the basic ingredients, and you can visualize the results you want. But don’t practice too long.

Startup 112

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 112

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

Many entrepreneurs never get past their first-stage focus on their innovative product, to scaling the business globally, organizing a structure to handle thousands of employees, and concentrating their focus “on the business” rather than working “in the business.” Switch your focus from product development to sales.

Startup 151

Startup Course Sales Entrepreneur 151

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2020

Products and services for a business need to be attuned to customer requirements, cost and quality tradeoffs, with milestones for pricing and completion. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation. Show that you have a process to hire, fire, and train others as required.

Entrepreneur 131

Entrepreneur Outsource Development Startup Competition 131

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? You know the basic ingredients, and you can visualize the results you want. But don’t practice too long.

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. Growth is more than simply repackaging existing products, and adding bells and whistles or slick incentives. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Managing business growth is more than metrics.

Startup 97

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 97

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2019

Now, if your web site is not clear and clean, or you don’t have a chat robot for a product question online, you may be abandoned as providing poor customer service, just as certainly as having to wait in a long product exchange line after the holidays. The marketing metrics covers support as part of experience.

Customer 84

Customer Custom Company Companies 84

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

An alternate outcome that I also unfortunately observe in some cases are companies who had extreme early success with an initial product adoption but failed in key areas that limited the growth and therefore the ultimate financial outcomes. How profitable is my product or service? As an early-stage VC I love this phase.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2020

In the short term you need customers to find you at any price, and in the longer term you need revenue, profit, and return loyalty. By being proactive, and empowering and rewarding your frontline employees for improving processes, you will enhance your business productivity and growth in both the short term as well as the long term.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Layoffs Social Media Metrics 124

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. You can be pissed off, but I don’t set prices. That’s stupid.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2015

Too many founders have learned that passion and free beta products do not imply a sustainable business. Proof of any business model starts with a finished product or solution, sold to a new customer for full price, with high satisfaction for the value received. Marketing is everything these days. Plan for a real revenue model.

Startup 107

Startup Sales Customer Custom 107

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2018

The intent is to indicate that founder passion is not a substitute for real customers buying the product. I learned this the hard way a few years ago in a startup where customers loved our idea and the free prototype, but we couldn’t sell one for the full price needed to meet our financial projections.

Customer 59

Customer Custom Pricing Startup 59

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2015

Products and services for a business need to be attuned to customer requirements, cost and quality tradeoffs, with milestones for pricing and completion. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation. Show that you have a process to hire, fire, and train others as required.

Outsource Development 99

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 99

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. Growth is more than simply repackaging existing products, and adding bells and whistles or slick incentives. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Managing business growth is more than metrics.

Startup 108

Startup Sales Metrics Entrepreneur 108

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2018

You need to communicate quantified and updates goals quarterly, including the metrics to assess progress and success. The best companies have found that it’s important to constantly prepare team members for moving to the next level, through mentoring and training, rather than trying to keep them in their current role.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Customer Custom Startup 84

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2018

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. Have you set the right price for your entrée, and correctly included all costs? You know the basic ingredients, and you can visualize the results you want. But don’t practice too long.

Startup 81

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 81

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. Growth is more than simply repackaging existing products, and adding bells and whistles or slick incentives. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Managing business growth is more than metrics.

Startup 56

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 56

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2016

Products and services for a business need to be attuned to customer requirements, cost and quality tradeoffs, with milestones for pricing and completion. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation. Show that you have a process to hire, fire, and train others as required.

Ideas 62

Ideas Outsource Development Startup Competition 62

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2013

Train them fully, give them authority, make them accountable, and tie their pay to customer satisfaction. It must be understandable, written down, and verifiable, with regular measurements and metrics to make it real, benchmarked against the competition. Train and coach continuously. Know your customers intimately.

Customer 92

Customer Custom Startup Services 92

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. Have you set the right price for your entrée, and correctly included all costs? You know the basic ingredients, and you can visualize the results you want. But don’t practice too long.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 93

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. Growth is more than simply repackaging existing products, and adding bells and whistles or slick incentives. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Managing business growth is more than metrics.

Sales 96

Sales Metrics Startup Entrepreneur 96

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Jim Semick: I’ve been launching and managing software products for 15 years now, going back to when you and I worked together at Expertcity before it was acquired by Citrix. I have always worked on early stage products. Some of the products I’ve helped validate and launch include GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting and AppFolio.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2019

Too many employees expect a raise or promotion before they accept new responsibility, rather than demonstrating their value, getting training and experience first. Highlight your productivity and efficiency rather than workload. Help your owner get beyond the misleading metrics of employee overtime and salary increases.

Technical Advisors 75

Technical Advisors Startup Satisfaction Customer 75

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2016

You need metrics to show dominant penetration of the relevant customer demographic, added value over existing media, and real customer testimonials of value. Cultures and values are different, pricing norms are unique, and customer needs have to be validated in each location. Local businesses expect proof of value, not promises.

Advertising 63

Advertising Content Social Media Satisfaction 63

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2012

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? You know the basic ingredients, and you can visualize the results you want. then you can start writing a recipe.

Startup 96

Startup Writing Metrics Marketing 96

SoCal CTO

MARCH 5, 2007

One of his companies - Gluecode - was sold to IBM for a pretty good price. Common revenue streams are consulting, training, support, customization, upgraded versions for corporate applications, etc. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -.

Southern California 150

Southern California CTO Coach CTO Hire Social Media 150

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2011

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? You know the basic ingredients, and you can visualize the results you want. then you can start writing a recipe.

Entrepreneur 91

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Metrics 91

InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

The VC will recognize you as a productive and additive member of the online startup community. Such follow-up are akin to a train whistle. Each note alerts the investors that your venture is gaining momentum and creating value and they better jump aboard before the train leaves the station.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Capital Research Customer 236

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 25, 2014

It’d been a big year in tech, and the different supporting parts of team TZ – so what better way to kick off the festivities with an inaugural train-bound journey, courtesy of the good people at Amtrak. Erin Chase – Favado , combining price comparisons with grocery shopping. What I loved most about them?

Entertainment 99

Entertainment Google Entrepreneur Course 99

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

Customers buy solutions with value that's quantifiable to them today, meaning value which, compared to existing offerings, is half the cost or offers twice the productivity. Too many competitors or a product with minimal differentiation makes a startup risky. Solution production and support.

Pricing 100

Pricing Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup 100