Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2019

In this era of rapid change, you can’t afford to stop learning, or you will find that your competitors, your customers, and your team, may soon be following someone else. Most people agree that leadership is primarily a set of behaviors that capitalize on relationships and a current market and customer understanding in a complex world.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2019

They don’t recognize that employees drive customer growth, improve productivity, and drive company success. Keeping employees in the dark on business problems and customer issues is a sure way to lose their trust and their engagement in the business. Hire and mentor people who show engagement in prior roles.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2019

In my role as a small business consultant and mentor to many entrepreneurs, I recommend the following key considerations for the best strategy to pursue for outside funding, if you choose not to fund the business yourself: Consumer products and trends need market validation. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 11/21/2019.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2019

I loved it when my boss gave me the additional responsibility of mentoring others in solving tough problems. Attempting to make a job more challenging, as well as to improve productivity, managers may sometimes ask for higher outputs, such as 15 customer support calls per hour rather than 10. Focus on role enrichment, not more work.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2019

Image via Pixabay Everyone has heard about the big potential for using artificial intelligence (AI) to expand your business, but many of the small businesses I mentor are still wary of embracing it, because they don’t understand how it works, and fear losing control and unintended consequences. Human employees and customers still need roles.

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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. Other customers routinely pay late, or only after they receive one or more prompts from you.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2019

Yet your creativity in solving customer concerns may have far more potential in boosting your career. Pick a relaxing and friendly environment, perhaps with a mentor or friend over a cup of coffee. Best of all, these will improve your image and credibility in the eyes of your customers and your employer.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

There are lots of resources available for the challenge of that activity, including the Internet and mentors like me. In my experience, the key steps I look for always include the following: Testing the idea against customers who have money to spend. Prepare your marketing story for customers and investors.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2019

Your biggest challenge may be members of your own family, some of your best customers, or a key business partner or investor. You have to manage your business with more people not like you, as well as a more diverse set of customers. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 08/06/2019.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

The realm of an entrepreneur is all about change, but in my experience as a mentor to business founders, I hear too much about incremental change, and not enough about revolutionary change. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 09/10/2019. The diversity of ideas, cultures, and motivations is a powerful change agent.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

That can’t possibly be healthy for employee morale, productivity, or customer focus. If you don’t regularly invest in employees through training and mentoring, they won’t invest in you by stretching themselves, and tackling risky but critical business change challenges. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 02-04-2019.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2019

You need healthy conflict to get people to face their limitations, and to fully understand customer and operational issues. People often ask me about the difference between coaching and mentoring. I see these as two different disciplines - a business mentor helps to fill an experience gap, while a business coach helps fill a skill gap.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 7, 2019

In my role as a mentor to many business professionals, I still see some who have no idea how to adapt to the new realities. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 06/21/2019. The simple answer is that we all have to start thinking like entrepreneurs, rather than entitled employees.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2019

Bill Gates , for example, shared a common curiosity and mentoring relationship with Warren Buffet, although their business domains were quite different. Build connections with key customers and competitors. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 09/27/2019. Connections across business domains are even better.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 28, 2019

Often the lowest level customer-facing team members have a better idea of trends and competitive alternatives in the marketplace. The best training is always learning by doing, with mentoring, for understanding alternatives and the ability to reach agreement faster. Marty Zwilling First published on CayenneConsulting on 01/09/2019.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2019

Jack Welch , one of the most successful executives in American history, set up a “reverse mentoring” process by pairing younger, more internet-adept employees with he and older members of senior management so that the former could teach the latter about new technology. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 10/16/2019.

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Tech.Co

MARCH 1, 2018

The event is open to tech enthusiasts who want to join an event filled with some of the top leaders, investors and mentors from tech industry to network, find mentors and build their companies. The Mentor Method (Washington, D.C.). For retailers, this will mean selling more product, fewer returns and happier customers.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

In those years I learned to properly build product, price products, sell products and serve customers. I had realized that I didn’t have it within me to be as good of a player as many of them did but I had the skills to help as mentor, coach, friend, sparing partner and patient capital provider. Up and to the right or perish.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2019

As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I often get asked for the magic that has made Amazon the world's most valuable brand , from a total unknown only twenty years ago. My simple answer is that they keep their focus on customers, rather than technology. Jeff Bezos has kept his focus on customers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2019

Yet I find that most employees I know limit their scope of thinking to the specific role they are assigned, and rarely tune their thinking and results to the following key principles that every business owner can relate to: Connect every action to a business focus on customers. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 03/18/2019.

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