article thumbnail

6 Ways To Make You An Entrepreneur Before The Product

Startup Professionals Musings

Many of the entrepreneurs I advise or invest with spend considerable time on the Internet, keeping up with technology, customers, and competitors, but very few feel the need for an early personal presence. In fact, some totally avoid it, assuming their product or solution will speak for itself later.

Product 127
article thumbnail

Apply Hospitality-Driven Thinking to Your New Venture

Startup Professionals Musings

Tech may be the tool, but hospitality – making life a little easier, more comfortable, and more enjoyable for your customer, is the winning focus. Unfortunately, too many of the technical entrepreneurs I mentor and advise are focused on their technology, and assume that the value will be self-evident to customers.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

5 Priorities For New Business Leader Self-Development

Startup Professionals Musings

In my business of mentoring new entrepreneurs and advising small company owners, I recognize that most don’t start as experienced leaders, and most don’t realize that people leadership is a primary key to their future success. Building a business is not a one-person job, and leading by edict rarely works today.

Develop 124
article thumbnail

8 Career Advancement Principles Of Ownership Thinking

Startup Professionals Musings

Steve Jobs started his technical career creating circuit boards at Atari, before joining Steve Wozniak to build personal computers in his garage. If your job is processing transactions, you need to work on ways of enhancing transactions from a customer perspective and how to attract more business, rather than just counting transactions.

article thumbnail

7 Signals Of A Future Startup Founder From Corporate

Startup Professionals Musings

I made the jump myself from IBM several years ago, and now have a satisfying startup advising small businesses and mentoring entrepreneurs. I look for interests and plans that ignite a fire inside you every day, solves a real problem in the marketplace, and can attract customers with money to spend.

Startup 52
article thumbnail

10 Marketing Lessons for Early-Stage Tech Startups

Both Sides of the Table

Most people totally advise against stealth. They certainly struggle to find mentors as there is nothing more frustrating than trying to help a company who is afraid to tell you anything. You always have too much technical debt, too many problems, staff members quitting, not enough capital, customer complaints, etc.

Marketing 380
article thumbnail

8 Strategies For Sustaining Momentum In Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

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 first on finding more of the right customers.