Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2016

Others do far too little, assuming the viral effect and word-of-mouth will soon kick in, and sales will suddenly grow exponentially. There is no magic lever for growth, so several initiatives are required, with metrics to assess value returned. Ask every employee to focus on sales. Shorten the close cycle to grow faster.

Search Engine Optimization 57

Search Engine Optimization Startup Social Media Metrics 57

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2016

As a business advisor, I have too often seen technical entrepreneurs get a product or service off the ground with ease, but then struggle mightily when their business reaches a couple of million in annual sales, or the employee count grows beyond a handful. Implement metrics and set objectives for every organization.

Entrepreneur 55

Entrepreneur Training Organization Examples 55

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2016

As the business grows, it pays to learn how to use automated financial tools, and review the key financial metrics daily. As any business grows, you need help to make it happen, and new employees don’t have the background knowledge, training, or the problem-solving ability you have developed. That’s a win-win combination for everyone.

Startup 57

Startup Training Entrepreneur Customer 57

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2016

Identify your built-in biases and define compensating development and marketing strategies. I’m talking about highly targeted efforts on specific demographics with pre-defined metrics, not the “spray and pray” -- spray your message broadly and hope it sticks somewhere -- approach. Extend your solution features to meet new interests.

Customer 55

Customer Custom Marketing Social Media 55

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2016

Most begin by doing the product development, marketing and sales alone, but struggle making the transition to hiring and coaching others, defining repeatable processes and focusing on future strategy. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 04/29/2016. Not every entrepreneur needs to scale.

Social Network 59

Social Network Startup Demand Entrepreneur 59

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

billion in sales and thus controls less than 10% of the market. The metrics were good but we wondered how much better they would be when we expanded our product. But that’s harder to build in 2016 than it was in say 2005. The top 5 players combined control less than 25% of the market.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

Define and use metrics to measure your progress. If your comfort zone is relying on gut reactions, it’s time to stretch your understanding of what constitutes customer acquisition cost, margins, pipeline closure rates, and sales ROI. Marty Zwilling First published on Forbes on 09/13/2016. Grow the business, not the solution.

Social Network 94

Social Network Startup Ideas Entrepreneur 94