Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business.

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business.

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. But the “no sales people” mantra isn’t what I’m here to take on. Let me explain why: 1.

Startup 403

Startup Sales Software Review Technical Review 403

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2023

Entrepreneurs need to document a process of responding to a market need, sizing opportunity, assigning a specific business model, and planning for marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation. Solution development and delivery.

Outsource Development 115

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 115

Southern California Edison Blog

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

Any interruption in service can have drastic effects on productivity, customer service, and on your bottom line. Government agencies such as police and fire departments, schools, and hospitals and medical facilities cannot risk a service outage of any duration. Scalability and Flexibility.

Services 64

Services Southern California Alhambra Technical Review 64

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Santa Monica-based TaskUs , the fast growing provider of outsourced customer experience and back end services for online companies, said it has hired three new executives on Thursday, to help it with its growth efforts. McLaughlin-Brooks was at YapStone, and also served at Parallels, Business Objects and Yahoo!

Outsource 100

Outsource Santa Monica Yahoo Sales 100

socalTECH

DECEMBER 17, 2015

Santa Monica-based customer support outsourcing provider TaskUs --which is based in Santa Monica, but has a vast operation in the Philippines--said it has opened up a new office in Melbourne, Australia. Financial details of the deal with Nimble were not announced, but TaskUs said it will provide 24/7 customer support for the company.

Santa Monica 100

Santa Monica Outsource Customer Custom 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business.

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2020

I suggest looking for painful problems to solve, rather than “easier to use” or “nice to have” solutions, for customers with money. Customers line up to believe and buy from people who are viewed as leaders or experts relative to a specific solution. Collaborate with customers to tune your solution.

Outsource Development 154

Outsource Development Social Media Software Review Customer 154

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 19, 2020

Most consulting services, like marketing, are not scalable, since they must be delivered by experts, and cloning experts is slow and expensive. Investors don’t invest in services startups. I see too many business plans that are really product plans for customers, touting free services and long feature lists.

Startup 154

Startup Outsource Ideas Research 154

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

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. You can now skip the mandatory office space rental, with secretary and bookkeeping staff, or outsourcing. Social media facilitates marketing and sales.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Outsource Development 162

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2016

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business.

Services 61

Services Startup Training Writing 61

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2016

For too many small businesses, customer service is still seen as a “burden.” Entrepreneurs don’t realize that this burden is actually costing them over $200 billion in repeat sales, according to a recent study by the W. These days, relationships and online reviews are key drivers for over 80 percent of new customers.

Customer 56

Customer Custom Startup Satisfaction 56

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2014

The days are gone when a techie or a genius could build things in his garage and customers would find and buy the product, based purely on the “wow factor” of the technology. Thus customers and partners rely more and more on personal engagement with people. Sell yourself as the expert, and business sales will follow.

Customer 99

Customer Custom Startup Content 99

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2022

Very few entrepreneurs have the range of skills and experience to be the solution creator as well as business creator, or operational as well as sales leader. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. The challenge is to recognize and recruit that ideal partner match early with minimal cost and risk.

Software Review 154

Software Review CTO Hire Outsource Development Startup 154

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2019

It’s always tempting to think that more product variations will satisfy more customers and lead to new sales. Yet I still see expense budgets based on traditional channels, with no strict metrics on cost of customer acquisition by channel, or lifetime customer value. Outsourcing services that could be done in-house.

Outsource Development 122

Outsource Development Outsource Metrics Technical Review 122

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2020

Entrepreneurs need to document a process of responding to a market need, sizing opportunity, assigning a specific business model, and planning for marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation. Solution development and delivery.

Entrepreneur 131

Entrepreneur Outsource Development Startup Competition 131

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2012

As I visit the websites of many startups, as well as more mature businesses, I still too often see a “contact” page offering nothing but a sterile form for customers to submit, never to be heard from again. Customers are not all like you, and they have choices, so a “one size fits all” customer service is no longer a viable option.

Social Media 91

Social Media Customer Custom Media 91

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2013

As I visit the websites of many startups, as well as more mature businesses, I still too often see a “contact” page offering nothing but a sterile form for customers to submit, never to be heard from again. Customers are not all like you, and they have choices, so a “one size fits all” customer service is no longer a viable option.

Social Media 99

Social Media Customer Custom Media 99

socalTECH

DECEMBER 12, 2014

John Tomich: OneStop Internet is an e-commerce services company. We provide a turnkey, back end, managed service offering for brands and retailers on an outsourced basis. We are an option for brands who don''t want to build it themselves in-house, from soup to nuts, or don''t want to outsource to a single vendor.

Commerce 203

Commerce Venture Capital Internet Brands Startup 203

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2021

Provide website forums to help customers solve their own problems. Use free e-commerce software and services like PayPal before building an expensive customized solution. Use the Internet to outsource staff. Finally, use customer feedback or promotions to attract more and more customers with less and less effort.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Case Study Software Review Startup 124

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 5, 2010

You attend five customer meetings together over a two-week period and after each meeting you replay the results in the office about what it meant. The conversations bleed into the sales messages the next time, they wend their way into software designs and form the plan of attach against competition. What about outsourcing?

Technical Advisors 335

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Offshore Startup 335

socalTECH

OCTOBER 7, 2013

RampRate Sourcing Advisors is a leading IT sourcing advisor with a proprietary index and close network of partners designed to perform fast, efficient IT services transactions. We were recently named Top 10 IT Outsourcing Advisor and Top 5 Boutique Sourcing Advisory recently. Our average client revenue in in the millions.

SoCalTech 138

SoCalTech Outsource SaaS Report 138

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 13, 2009

Customer Service – As newspaper boys were the face of their employers, savvy carriers learned to establish healthy customer relationships to facilitate timely collections and generous tips. Unfortunately, the paperboy has met the same fate as the iceman, milkman and diaper services. Make Money – Get Prizes. Boys To Men.

Web 2.0 222

Web 2.0 Web Sales Outsource Development 222

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. Fallacy: Startup ventures tend to evolve, especially after you begin speaking with pesky customers and demanding partners. Public relations at a startup is a sales process. Perform China Syndrome Market Analysis.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 2, 2009

As noted in Pour and Stir Part I , the key to the successful execution of this strategy is managing the following equation: The cost to acquire a customer < lifetime value of a customer. Decreasing Your Customer Acquisition Costs. This is equivalent to being handed a free customer for every ten customers you acquire.

Customer 164

Customer Custom Advertising SEM 164

socalTECH

MARCH 5, 2014

So, how do you help ease enterprise customers into the cloud--or at least, help them use cloud technology to help them with their business goals? It''s all custom, technology agnostic, and very flexible. Companies were saying--we want to outsource these kinds of things, because they''re not our core competency.

Cloud Computing 217

Cloud Computing Outsource Development Outsource Startup 217

socalTECH

APRIL 30, 2018

For this morning's interview, we caught up with Elizabeth Cholawsky , the new CEO of Santa Barbara-based HG Data (www.hgdata.com), which develops software which helps marketers and salespeople understand the "technology stack" of their potential customers and prospects. Those are just two examples of the customers we well directly to.

Santa Barbara 113

Santa Barbara High Tech Outsource Development Startup 113

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

I recently did a post for startups on understanding sales people. I know this will fall like a lead balloon to the many people who believe it is possible to have a [insert: startup incubator or technology accelerator or technology consultant or outsource firm] build your technology. I don’t believe that one exists.

CTO Hire 400

CTO Hire Fractional VPE Startup Outsource Development 400

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

1) Expect Independent Channel Sales Reps To Perform Missionary Sales. Rationale: I cannot afford to hire a direct sales force. Fallacy: Third-party, OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) representatives succeed once the sales process is defined, proven and documented. Public relations at a startup is a sales process.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 24, 2015

The HTML5 platform that we use is also available as a self service tool to customers. We offer up customers a high impact creative which is not bounded by the box. They wanted something custom, to close the deal. At Jetpack, we don't outsource production, and we manage all of the software development within Jetpack.

Buzznet 100

Buzznet Outsource Development Design HTML 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2015

Most consulting services, like marketing, are not scalable, since they must be delivered by experts, and cloning experts is slow and expensive. Investors don’t invest in services startups. I see too many business plans that are really product plans for customers, touting free services and long feature lists.

Startup 103

Startup Outsource Invest Ideas 103

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2012

You can’t succeed in business without an operational model that delivers value to customers at a reasonable price, with an underlying cost that allows you to make a profit. A target market is the group of customers that the startup plans to attract through marketing and sales their product or service. Sales/Marketing.

Sales 97

Sales Customer Custom Outsource 97

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2020

After investigating these successes, I have isolated certain strategy elements which I now offer to you as expeditors of success in starting a new business, independent of the product or service you are offering, as well as the market segment you are targeting. Focus on communication and responsibility assignment.

Startup 123

Startup Outsource Development Entrepreneur Outsource 123

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2019

Very few entrepreneurs have the range of skills and experience to be the solution creator as well as business creator, or operational as well as sales leader. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. The challenge is to recognize and recruit that ideal partner match early with minimal cost and risk.

Software Review 88

Software Review CTO Hire Outsource Development Startup 88

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 5, 2019

Provide website forums to help customers solve their own problems. Use free e-commerce software and services like PayPal before building an expensive customized solution. Use the Internet to outsource staff. Finally, use customer feedback or promotions to attract more and more customers with less and less effort.

Technical Review 97

Technical Review Case Study Software Review Startup 97

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

Having paying “Customers” is what makes the cash register roar. This article will cover two things; First, the top mistakes small business owners make that end with inquiries leading you to the exit door before making a sale. Using your service or owning your product isn’t why a person buys, it’s the experience your customer will have.

Customer 85

Customer Custom Marketing SEO 85