Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2021

Don’t look to customers for breakthrough ideas. Steve Jobs and Henry Ford are famous for their assertion that, contrary to popular belief, the customer isn't always right about what they want next. You now have many bosses, including partners, investors, and customers. There will be time for friends later.

Entrepreneur 171

Entrepreneur Satisfaction Demand Customer 171

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2021

Every one of you business leaders I know struggles with the competing demands of finding and keeping employees motivated and satisfied, versus building and enforcing a set of repeatable processes that work. Leaders who focus on team communication are also more successful in dealing with partners and customers.

Satisfaction 154

Satisfaction Demand Resource Competition 154

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2013

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience continues to decline. You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen.

Customer 92

Customer Custom Startup Services 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2021

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved. You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen.

Startup 154

Startup Training Customer Custom 154

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

But very quickly, it is becoming obvious to startups that the value and satisfaction exceeds the costs. Even without B-Corp status, entrepreneurs are speaking out more on the positives to support business models that benefit not just shareholders, but customers, workforce, the environment, and the greater community.

Startup 149

Startup Organization Customer Custom 149

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2014

There is more and more evidence that a more human-centered or heart-centered leadership yields the best results with your team and with customers in the long run. Demand for coaching, counseling, and discipline training is high. Customer relationships culture is slipping.

Demand 92

Demand Entrepreneur Startup Training 92

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2020

You need a faster and more flexible on-demand hiring strategy, based on the current gig-economy of remote freelancers, contract personnel, and specialists. Higher worker engagement and satisfaction. You can advertise your “greener” strategy, which today will get you greater customer loyalty and advocacy.

Competition 168

Competition Startup Demand Training 168

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

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.

Technical Review 160

Technical Review Technical Advisors Startup Mentor 160

Berkonomics

MARCH 26, 2020

The bottleneck itself strains to keep up with demand, often to the point of reducing its own efficiency in the process of attempting to keep up with demand. The effect of your action is magnified several-fold at the output stage of your business, leading to increased customer satisfaction and increased profits.

Organization 156

Organization Demand Satisfaction Training 156

InfoChachkie

JUNE 2, 2014

The gowns are then dry cleaned and readied for the next customer, in the spirit of the emerging sharing economy in which goods are communally used multiple times. We keep our eye on a handful of metrics, but we’re focused on customer satisfaction. We will be moving into other categories based on customer demand.

Design 208

Design Customer Custom Satisfaction 208

InfoChachkie

JULY 4, 2011

The story begins with the unwitting, future customer relaxing and reading the paper. Rather, the Prospect’s kneejerk rejection of Sam is a coping mechanism that many people utilize to deal with the competing demands on their time. For sake of grammatical convenience, I will refer to Sam as a male in the remainder of this entry.

Sales 219

Sales Entrepreneur Startup Product 219

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

In other words, how do you recognize the challenges that really need your leadership , versus the less critical demands that seem to always bubble to the top? Customer feedback in the form of online reviews and poor customer service is often rationalized as unreasonable expectations or one or two crazy individuals.

Coach 120

Coach Satisfaction Customer Custom 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2022

Too many customers have long felt distanced from many successful brands, seeing them as closed and mysterious environments, focused only on profits and killing competitors. These are responding to the demands of this new world for collaboration, trust, and transparency. Shared leadership (member and customer led).

Organization 126

Organization Social Media Examples Customer 126

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 11, 2022

The canvas is a visual chart with elements describing your value proposition, structure, finances, and customers, to help companies identify and align business activities. I look for evidence of the nine major elements of the model canvas, as paraphrased here from the author’s key points and how they apply to teams: Customer segments.

Funding 133

Funding Activity Customer Custom 133

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 6, 2020

Here are some of the key indications that you might be a good match for a lifestyle business, for you to compare and consider against your own objectives and strengths: Enjoy interacting with customers and products every day. If your passion is customers, you definitely will be happier as a lifestyle entrepreneur.

Statistics 124

Statistics Equity Satisfaction Entrepreneur 124

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2023

Leading change is even harder, trying to balance the demands of the customers against the needs and expectations of employees. In parallel with fulfilling your own needs, always use your power to fulfill the needs of customers and team members. But you have to change to survive and thrive.

Satisfaction 130

Satisfaction IBM IBM Summary 130

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2022

The challenge is that every new business needs to be innovative and different, in order to rise above the crowd, bring real change to the world, and give you the satisfaction you seek. Every entrepreneur needs to leverage social media for better marketing, requirements, and customer service. I wish it was that easy. Cloud Computing.

Technology 133

Technology Cloud Computing Social Media Networking 133

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2023

These haven’t changed much over the years, but still seem to be often overlooked by business professionals and leaders in their haste to keep up with peers, competitors, and customers in today’s volatile environment. Timely follow-up on customer and team member requests. Stretch here also increases job satisfaction.

Startup 121

Startup Satisfaction Technical Review Ideas 121

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 21, 2019

The company is actually based out of LA, too, but has completed its initial launch in Minnesota, where there’s greater demand for short-term bus travel. HappyOrNot nabs $25M for its customer satisfaction terminals . The business has closed a $3.85 Landline isn’t just a few buses with startup branding.

Services 207

Services Startup Venture Capital Redpoint 207

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2015

Does it mean the right thing from a customer perspective, societal impact, maximizing business returns or personal benefit? Another article indicates that 80 percent of customers continue to base some portion of their buying decisions on their perceptions of the company’s ethics. You must be the model of the culture you want.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Training Demand Customer 102

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2022

Passion is great, but it must be backed by data, confirming a real problem and customers willing and able to pay for your solution. Too many business people let the daily challenges cause them to revert to emotional and autocratic demands, failure to communicate, and inability to coach and mentor team members.

Startup 143

Startup Competition Coach Satisfaction 143

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2022

There is more and more evidence that a more human-centered or heart-centered leadership yields the best results with your team and with customers in the long run. Demand for coaching, counseling, and discipline training is high. Customer relationships culture is slipping.

Training 142

Training Coach Startup Entrepreneur 142

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved. You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen.

Competition 99

Competition Services Startup Training 99

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2013

But very quickly, it is becoming obvious to startups that the value and satisfaction exceeds the costs. Even without B-Corp status, entrepreneurs are speaking out more on the positives to support business models that benefit not just shareholders, but customers, workforce, the environment, and the greater community.

Startup 101

Startup Organization Entrepreneur Customer 101

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 24, 2012

But very quickly, it is becoming obvious to startups that the value and satisfaction exceeds the costs. Even without B-Corp status, entrepreneurs are speaking out more on the positives to support business models that benefit not just shareholders, but customers, workforce, the environment, and the greater community.

Startup 100

Startup Organization Customer Custom 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

While this approach appears to cost more on the surface, it often actually costs you less, when you consider the hidden costs of rework, poor customer satisfaction, employee management, and training required. Direct customer-facing non-technical roles should be the last ones outsourced. Startups all need that flexibility.

Outsource 123

Outsource Startup Technical Review Training 123

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2015

Too many customers have long felt distanced from many successful brands, seeing them as closed and mysterious environments, focused only on profits and killing competitors. These are responding to the demands of this new world for collaboration, trust, and transparency. Shared leadership (member and customer led).

Startup 99

Startup Organization Social Media Customer 99

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2020

It should convince you that no matter how much you know about technology, leading a team, as well as vendors and customers, is a whole new challenge. Over time, I learned that I could get more personal results, as well as satisfaction, by enlisting the natural strengths of others. Practice deep empathy for everyone on your team.

Develop 124

Develop Development Technical Advisors Satisfaction 124

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

Look for validation from your mainstream customers. No matter how passionately you believe that everyone needs one, and positive feedback from friends and early adopters (false positives), before you invest in scaling the business, make sure you set and meet good metrics in cost of customer acquisition, recurring sales, and margin.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2020

People see you as great for demanding customers and team bonding. Being reward-driven , you are driven to win money, customers, applause, and the admiration of others. These people define their roles in terms of their customers’ or employees’ or coworkers’ needs, not their own.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Organization Customer Custom 126

TechEmpower

OCTOBER 9, 2023

With Generative AI and LLMs, new avenues for improving operational efficiency and user satisfaction are emerging every day. In layman's terms, while conventional search mechanisms demand exact phrases or keywords to return relevant results, LLMs can understand and interpret the intent and context behind a query.

Generative AI 348

Generative AI Artificial Inteligence Tool Knowledge Base 348

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2019

The canvas is a visual chart with elements describing your value proposition, structure, finances, and customers, to help companies identify and align business activities. I look for evidence of the nine major elements of the model canvas, as paraphrased here from the author’s key points and how they apply to teams: Customer segments.

Activity 100

Activity Customer Custom Resource 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2014

Too many customers have long felt distanced from many successful brands, seeing them as closed and mysterious environments, focused only on profits and killing competitors. These are responding to the demands of this new world for collaboration, trust, and transparency. Shared leadership (member and customer led).

Organization 93

Organization Social Media Customer Custom 93

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2022

As you look forward from where you are today, I recommend that each of you consider the following points that the authors and I all agree are key to your satisfaction, as well as your success in business: You love solution creation more than managing business. No one else can do the solution delivery like you can.

Satisfaction 92

Satisfaction Training Customer Custom 92

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 28, 2020

Instead of counting and working more hours, I believe there are better ways to improve your productivity, as well as employee satisfaction, in growing your business: Create relevant result targets for all key employees. For example, for a sales person, this metric number would likely measure new revenue or new customers.

Metrics 124

Metrics Entrepreneur Satisfaction Study 124

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2012

It seems like some CEOs are just more tuned in to the market realities, customer dynamics, people interactions, and are better leaders. Here is a summary of seven maxims that I excerpted from their e-book, which you can use in your startup and every entrepreneurial initiative: Work as a trusted customer advisor. Simple is smart.

Customer 89

Customer Custom Organization Summary 89

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 21, 2019

There is more and more evidence that a more human-centered or heart-centered leadership yields the best results with your team and with customers in the long run. Demand for coaching, counseling, and discipline training is high. Customer relationships culture is slipping.

Training 123

Training Coach Startup Entrepreneur 123