Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 1, 2022

In my role as a mentor, I challenge every business leader to be more open-minded as they face the challenges of change and new competitors entering their space. Winning business owners really listen and act on feedback from customers and advisors. Don’t be totally driven by a key customer. Listening to customers also helps.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Customer Custom Social Media 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2021

As a mentor to many entrepreneurs, I also encourage an entrepreneur exit focus early, and I really like the specific steps outlined in the classic book, “ Exit Signs ,” by Pamela Dennis, who has helped companies through this critical transition for decades. New startup founders keep all the operating metrics they need in their head.

Startup 173

Startup Entrepreneur Metrics Acquisition 173

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2020

For the business to prosper, every employee, and your customers, must know and relate to your core values, such as product excellence, care for the environment, and personal integrity. Implement the key business metrices you will live by. These will almost always be related to sales and marketing, since they must tie back to cash flow.

Metrics 140

Metrics Entrepreneur Coach Satisfaction 140

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.

Metrics 86

Metrics Startup Training Customer 86

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I tend to see many of the same obstacles appearing in every new startup, and since I don’t want to appear to be a downer , I’m not sure how to properly warn people ahead of time to be on the alert for these challenges. Funding is depleted before customer sales ramp up.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Customer 131

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2023

He also still gets excited to donate one percent of sales to environmental groups around the world. Assess who you can get for value and mentoring. These relationships must be nurtured over time, balanced against your personal life, and grow to include major customers, competitors, and potential acquirers.

Startup 94

Startup Ideas Metrics Entrepreneur 94

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 11, 2019

Every entrepreneur and business leader believes that he or she has the full trust of their team and their customers, and in fact most do in the beginning. Unfortunately, many aspiring leaders I mentor are not aware of the signals people are looking for, or are not attuned to the subtleties of their own actions.

Mentor 98

Mentor News Summary Coach 98

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.

Marketing 123

Marketing Technical Review Customer Custom 123

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2018

In fact, most see a more direct relationship between customers and their business success, so employee focus by default will end up in third place. Once this product-first, customer-second, and employee-last culture is set, it is extremely hard to change. Establish metrics on the culture, as well as the product.

Metrics 57

Metrics Startup Netflix Customer 57

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 15, 2020

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.

Startup 125

Startup Training Entrepreneur Organization 125

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2018

As a long-time advisor to entrepreneurs and business owners, I rarely find someone who doesn’t proclaim that the business world is changing rapidly, with new technology, new customer expectations, and new cultures. Others still routinely have phone hold queues for customer contact that can last up to an hour, with no alternative options.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Customer Custom Startup 84

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2015

In my perspective as an advisor and mentor to many entrepreneurs, there are a set of basic strategies that can be applied to every startup to dramatically improve the odds of success, no matter what the business domain. Maybe more important, you need domain knowledge, relationships and lots of potential customers.

Startup 101

Startup Metrics Resource Mentor 101

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 22, 2014

In my experience as a mentor, I find that keeping creative thinking in the balance is a challenge for every startup, due to the natural employee tendency to resist change. Using data metrics alone for decisions, without seeking the root problem and alternative solutions, kills creativity. Tricked by recency. Not always to good effect.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Metrics Demand Statistics 113

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.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2013

In my experience as a mentor, I find that keeping creative thinking in the balance is a challenge for every startup, due to the natural employee tendency to resist change. Using data metrics alone for decisions, without seeking the root problem and alternative solutions, kills creativity. Tricked by recency. Not always to good effect.

Metrics 110

Metrics Entrepreneur Demand Statistics 110

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2015

That means practicing non-defensive listening to key advisors, team members and customers. Don’t hesitate to call in an experienced advisor or mentor to help. If everyone is incented to find new customers, there will be little focus on resolving problems with current ones. You can’t solve a problem if you don’t see one.

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Satisfaction Metrics 100

Jason Nazar

MAY 1, 2016

I’ve been a part of dozens (maybe hundreds) of product launches And in each of these cases I ask my team to put together a simple dashboard of a small set of metrics for our paid and free products that let me know the success of our efforts. For startup entrepreneurs, you can also track these metrics with Google analytics.

Marketing 40

Marketing CPC Metrics .Net 40

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2015

The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Waste in a startup is any activity that spends resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers. Then always measure customer results, not work.

Resource 105

Resource Startup Entrepreneur Training 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2016

In my experience as a mentor, I find that keeping creative thinking in the balance is a challenge for every startup, due to the natural employee tendency to resist change. Using data metrics alone for decisions, without seeking the root problem and alternative solutions, kills creativity. Tricked by recency. Not always to good effect.

Metrics 60

Metrics Demand Statistics Sales 60

Jason Nazar

NOVEMBER 1, 2015

I’ve been a part of dozens (maybe hundreds) of product launches And in each of these cases I ask my team to put together a simple dashboard of a small set of metrics for our paid and free products that let me know the success of our efforts. For startup entrepreneurs, you can also track these metrics with Google analytics.

Marketing 40

Marketing CPC Metrics .Net 40

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2014

The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Waste in a startup is any activity that absorbs resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers. Then always measure customer results, not work.

Entrepreneur 115

Entrepreneur Resource Training Product 115

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

As a mentor to many entrepreneurs, I also encourage an entrepreneur exit focus early, and I really like the specific steps outlined in the new book, “ Exit Signs ,” by Pamela Dennis, who has helped companies through this critical transition for decades. New startup founders keep all the operating metrics they need in their head.

Startup 98

Startup Entrepreneur Metrics Acquisition 98

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2018

The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Waste in a startup is any activity that spends resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers. Then always measure customer results, not work.

Resource 52

Resource Training Entrepreneur Activity 52

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

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 9, 2014

This was a chance to blow open the story on their companies, to address a room full of potential investors, mentors, partners, customers, and press. About $37B worth of lost sales a year, worldwide. They showed very impressive average customer repurchases. Rapt.FM – Rap battles over live chat.

Startup 111

Startup Mobile Commerce Education 111

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

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

Through ongoing analysis and refinement of existing processes, establishment of standards and metrics, team building and mentoring, Sergey has established a foundation and culture in which developers can flourish. Bobby’s strong sales acumen, genuine charisma and leadership abilities make him an invaluable asset to the founding team.

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 92

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 13, 2013

What we are spending money and time on is onboarding customers on one end and on the other end onboarding providers. My every day is trying to fundraise, reaching, re-reaching out, and trying to keep people updated with metrics. We haven’t had any capital to really test customer acquisition strategies.

Technical Review 87

Technical Review Mobile Startup Los Angeles 87

Berkonomics

JANUARY 16, 2014

community in many ways, including his weekly Internet TV program on entrepreneurism, and participation in several mentoring programs. . Create roles and guidelines in the potential partnership: What role and responsibility will each of the partners have including operation, financial, sales, marketing, etc.? Is it by committee?

Technical Review 204

Technical Review Startup Examples Metrics 204

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2019

Yet if you run a business, you know things won’t get done, and most customers won’t buy, unless they trust you. According to current reports , both your employees and your customers have to feel they know you, and you know them, before levels of trust can accrue. Make sure your team and your customers have a role.

Customer 92

Customer Custom Mentor Training 92

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Though this was 2000 , and all startup & VC blogs we've grown to love didn't exist yet, I did have mentors available. Metrics availability. 0160; If I need $250,000 to get to 100 customers, or $1 million to get to X, and I can raise both amounts from either Angels or VCs, where do we turn? Customer Care Today.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217