Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2018

The market is changing so fast these days, and if you are not planning a solution today for tomorrow’s customers, you may be setting yourself up for failure and don’t even realize it. There are many free generalized tools, including Google Trends , which can be used to track customer behavior in looking for things that don’t exist yet.

Customer 57

Customer Custom Technical Review Software Review 57

Berkonomics

MAY 8, 2014

I am chairman of a company that, as I write this, is twelve years old and has not yet taken a dollar of outside investment. The company grows in value to its customers and to prospective buyers of the business, but without any dilution of control or ownership for the founders. Grant writing takes skill and immense amounts of time.

Company 166

Company Companies Writing Education 166

Eric Greenspan

MAY 29, 2010

Using social media to increase your company’s touch and reach with each of your customers may be the most important reason to jump in to this game changing strategy. Social media can help bridge a long standing gap between customers and the companies they trust with their hard earned cash. 40,000) to join me on Facebook.

Social Media 214

Social Media Customer Custom Media 214

Berkonomics

MARCH 5, 2020

One way to mitigate this is by using early money to create a prototype, to perform market research, to complete the first generation of the product, or to deliver the service to a satisfied customer. Second: Market risk. . Are you ahead or behind the market with your product or service? And fifth: Competitive risk. .

Outsource Development 156

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 156

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 26, 2022

Most business advisors I know will say that writing a business plan is the first step to starting your own business, but I believe that a better first step is to do a self-analysis of your real drivers, strengths, and assumptions before committing to this lifestyle. You can’t really succeed in life if you are not happy.

Social Media 105

Social Media Writing Ideas Resource 105

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 17, 2020

I believe the old adage that you don’t know what you don’t know until you try to write it down. The discipline of writing down your plan is the best way to make sure you understand how to transform your idea into a business, and how to communicate it. Offer free solutions to bring in more customers.

Startup 174

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Ideas 174

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2021

Litan, former VP of research at the Kauffman Foundation, that these are exceptions to the rule, rather than a model to emulate. Don’t forget business writing and communication. Most universities have formal incubator and business development organizations that focus on coaching, grant writing and technology licensing.

Entrepreneur 149

Entrepreneur Tips Writing Coach 149

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2023

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. Don’t be totally driven by your own passions, the emotional enthusiasm of friends, or even third-party research.

Startup 142

Startup Capital Resource Research 142

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 4, 2021

It pays only if a customer clicks through AND takes a further action (conversion), such as buying a product or filling out a web form. Keyword research and budget forecasting. PPC experts charge you to research, analyze, and estimate hit ratios, to optimize your success and set a campaign spending budget for you.

PPC 154

PPC SEO Paid Search Search Engine Optimization 154

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

I will add to this as I write more in the coming weeks on the topic. The funding rounds will also build customer confidence and they’ll help journalists feel air cover in writing your more important pieces when you brag about customers, traction, revenue or whatever. Should I Bundle it With More Juicy News?

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

Berkonomics

MARCH 14, 2019

One way to mitigate this is by using early money to create a prototype, to perform market research, to complete the first generation of the product, or to deliver the service to a satisfied customer. Is the product or service possible to produce at all, let alone economically enough to compete in the marketplace? Second: Market risk.

Outsource Development 120

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 120

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 9, 2017

If you’ve taken the steps to research your market and niche, the chances are that you’re taking your business seriously. Keep your customer in mind. Here’s a quick nod to the folks at Colour Graphics for urging me to write this insight. You’ll Think more deeply. Will this campaign reach the audience I intend?”. – Dave.

Marketing 266

Marketing Resource Advertising Social Media 266

socalTECH

JANUARY 18, 2011

What that did, is it helped us to expand the service to help publishers do the following: identify what content to write, how to distribute that content to various mediums, and how to monetize that content. Journalists are notorious for not wanting to write based on revenues or commercial intersts, or having anyone tell them what to write.

Marketing 232

Marketing Funding Content Writing 232

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2019

You can jump into social media with a poor brand definition, poorly focused content, unrealistic expectations of customer service, or be killed by malware or viruses. For some customers and many investors, a heavy focus on social networks and viral marketing may be a negative, rather than a positive.

Social Media 79

Social Media Media Invest Platform 79

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2021

You need to have business relationships with team members, investors, customers, and a myriad of other support people. They never call, they never write, and wait for you to make the first move. You can’t win as an entrepreneur working alone. That doesn’t mean you have to be a social butterfly to succeed, or introverts need not apply.

Entrepreneur 140

Entrepreneur Startup Social Network Mentor 140

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2022

If you can explain the problem to a mentor, or even write it down, you will more likely get to the root cause quickly, and avoid emotional and blame-infused responses. Listen to your customers to arrive at acceptable and marketable solutions. Verbalize the problem to fully understand it and why it’s occurring.

Startup 135

Startup Mentor Entrepreneur Technical Review 135

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 26, 2011

Each new customer, each mention in the press or online adds to the feeling of early accomplishment. This moment is not to be spoiled by such mundane warnings from advisors or consultants to plan carefully, research the market and competition, and execute the plan with tenacity and enthusiasm. But the excitement begins much earlier.

Press 149

Press Hollywood Writing Startup 149

Berkonomics

MARCH 15, 2012

One way to mitigate this is by using early money to create a prototype, to perform market research, to complete the first generation of the product, or to deliver the service to a satisfied customer. Second: Market risk. Are you ahead or behind the market with your product or service? And fifth: Competitive risk.

Outsource Development 200

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 200

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

Having paying “Customers” is what makes the cash register roar. An entrepreneur having low self worth is the number one deterrent for a potential customer not buying into what you are selling. Using your service or owning your product isn’t why a person buys, it’s the experience your customer will have. Second, how to get leads.

Customer 85

Customer Custom Marketing SEO 85

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). In a startup this is a mistake. In a startup this is a mistake.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

socalTECH

AUGUST 27, 2014

We spoke with one of those companies-- El Segundo-based ConsumerTrack (www.consumertrack.com)--which is a $30M, bootstrapped an online marketing company which is driving millions of customers to big name, financial customers. What is ConsumerTrack all about? Brett Rossman: ConsumerTrack is a performance-based, online marketing company.

Startup 239

Startup El Segundo Marketing Media 239

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2020

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. Don’t be totally driven by your own passions, the emotional enthusiasm of friends, or even third-party research.

Startup 143

Startup Capital Resource Research 143

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent. You need somebody who REALLY understands your company, its customers and its competitors. I write on my blog how I think in my head.

Startup 349

Startup Writing Press Blogging 349

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

I’m writing this post to make sure you’re all on that same playing field. One of our core tasks was “market analysis,&# which consistent of: market sizing, market forecasts, competitive analysis and then instructing customers on which direction to take. So, where is this all coming from, Mark? What are you on about?

Statistics 415

Statistics Startup Report Research 415

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

Let’s say you have built a SaaS company where a large part of the early revenue comes from a few big customers or a large part of the revenue is services based vs. software based. The investor is a customer and they have money to spend but only for a limited number of companies. Let me give you an example. just don’t lead with them!

Funding 236

Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 236

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 28, 2018

Litan, former VP of research at the Kauffman Foundation, that these are exceptions to the rule, rather than a model to emulate. Don’t forget business writing and communication. Most universities have formal incubator and business development organizations that focus on coaching, grant writing and technology licensing.

Startup 97

Startup Writing Coach Incubator 97

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2018

And my specific response that I recommended was to say, “I can send you our standard data pack but honestly I have too many other firms asking for customized data and we simply can’t send each person custom reports. This is part of a series I’ve been writing on fund raising. We don’t think we work that way, we do.

Funding 217

Funding Newsletter Venture Capital Email 217

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2021

Write down your top 5 core values and review them often. Since business is generally not rocket science, relationships with peers, partners, and customers are often more important than skills. Pressure and emotion in business is often an indication of core value conflicts. We all need a buffer to handle those special cases.

Coach 137

Coach Training Satisfaction Mentor 137

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2015

they can visit the directory of government grant alternatives, which is searchable and features more than a thousand federal programs, or more locally the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), with opportunities for high technology startups. This requires heavy research and lots of time. In the U.S.

Pricing 100

Pricing Equity Technical Review Research 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2017

You can jump into social media with a poor brand definition, poorly focused content, unrealistic expectations of customer service, or be killed by malware or viruses. For some customers and many investors, a heavy focus on social networks and viral marketing may be a negative, rather than a positive.

Social Media 66

Social Media Media Tips Platform 66

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

In my experience, the key steps I look for always include the following: Testing the idea against customers who have money to spend. I suggest you use social media, blogging, crowdfunding, or documented research to quantify a real demand from people who can afford it, and don’t have a better alternative already out there.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2013

You can jump into social media with a poor brand definition, poorly focused content, unrealistic expectations of customer service, or be killed by malware or viruses. For some customers and many investors, a heavy focus on social networks and viral marketing may be a negative, rather than a positive.

Social Media 101

Social Media Media Entrepreneur Metrics 101

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2015

I believe the old adage that you don’t know what you don’t know until you try to write it down. The discipline of writing down your plan is the best way to make sure you understand how to transform your idea into a business, and how to communicate it. Offer free solutions to bring in more customers.

Startup 105

Startup Entrepreneur Writing Ideas 105

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2016

Litan, former VP of research at the Kauffman Foundation, that these are exceptions to the rule, rather than a model to emulate. Don’t forget business writing and communication. Most universities have formal incubator and business development organizations that focus on coaching, grant writing and technology licensing.

Entrepreneur 98

Entrepreneur Tips Writing Coach 98

socalTECH

OCTOBER 28, 2010

So, I ended up writing that first book, and Bruce helped me with the research, and that was one way we got to know each other before we were even dating. It was just us doing everything--cleaning the floors, setting up the computers, writing the curriculum, and teaching the classes. At the time, I got Lynda.com.

Startup 242

Startup Web Design Writing Web 242

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 8, 2017

You can jump into social media with a poor brand definition, poorly focused content, unrealistic expectations of customer service, or be killed by malware or viruses. For some customers and many investors, a heavy focus on social networks and viral marketing may be a negative, rather than a positive.

Social Media 58

Social Media Media Platform Tool 58

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

Let’s assume you run a Customer Support software company. Do you simply begin by asking, “I’d love to understand what your objectives are in customer support? You need to identify a customer problem and talk about how your solution meets the needs of that problem. Where are your current pains?&#.

Sales 314

Sales Startup Venture Capital Customer 314