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6 Cost-Cutting Recommendations For New Entrepreneurs

Startup Professionals Musings

It wasn’t so many years ago that starting a new e-commerce business on the Internet was a complex custom development project, usually costing a million dollars or more. Now you can do it for free, or a few hundred dollars, with one of the many web building tools available, like Shopify or Weebly.

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6 Key Rules To Stay Competitive In The Digital World

Startup Professionals Musings

I like the summary of the competitive reality in a new book, “ Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age ,” by Ram Charan, who relates a wealth of current experience from global clients: Customers expect a personalized experience. Features, availability, and brand are just the price of entry.

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5 Steps To Locking In The Right New Venture Partner

Startup Professionals Musings

An excellent example is the initiative by Elon Musk and Tesla Motors a few years ago to give away their battery patents, to infrastructure and competitive car providers, without transactional agreements. Another partnering model example is the IBM Watson Group $1 billion investment to share cloud-based development and super-computing tools.

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7 Goodwill Factors Will Raise Your Business Valuation

Startup Professionals Musings

Make sure they have the tools to support them. With today’s worldwide Internet and social media, your brand impact is not set by what you say, but by numbers of followers, influencers, and satisfied customers. Just be aware that building your customer base first requires deep pockets, or many investors.

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5 Tips To Keep Your Startup Productive, Not Just Busy

Startup Professionals Musings

For example, you may feel you are saving money by doing all your own administrative work and monitoring social media feedback. Yet if that leaves you with no documented business plan or unclear strategy, most investors and even customers will walk away. Use technology and tools, but don’t let them sink you.

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8 Key Rules for Starting a Business on a Shoestring

Startup Professionals Musings

A few years ago, before the Internet was pervasive, before everyone carried a smartphone and before do-it-yourself software tools were available for free, it was difficult to reach a critical mass of new customers without spending a million dollars on a website, custom software and television advertising.

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Entrepreneurs Today Don’t Need A Big Budget To Start

Startup Professionals Musings

It wasn’t so many years ago that starting a new e-commerce business on the Internet was a complex custom development project, usually costing a million dollars or more. Now you can do it for free, or a few hundred dollars, with one of the many web building tools available, like Shopify or Weebly Store.