Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2021

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. For market changing products, build first a minimally viable product (MVP), and never build products for sale until you have real orders in hand. Inventory and features added too soon.

Startup 161

Startup Resource Training Entrepreneur 161

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2023

Every business wants and needs top performers, but most entrepreneurs and executives assume that if they hire and train the smartest and most experienced people, they will get exceptional performance. Thus paying only for sales volume, when you desire high customer satisfaction, is not productive.

Coach 93

Coach Satisfaction Resource Entrepreneur 93

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2020

You can’t hold your sales team accountable for manufacturing quality, but they should be responsible for profitability and volume. Provide resources and training to enable accountability. Other necessary resources include training, reasonable financial leeway, mentoring, and access to relevant executives.

Startup 147

Startup Resource Training Tool 147

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2021

They run into difficulty when their business reaches the $1-2 million annual sales range, or their employee count exceeds 5-10. It means not only hiring, but training and measuring performance. It means mentoring less experienced team members, and quickly replacing incompetent staff members. Staff properly at every level.

Startup 171

Startup Organization Training Entrepreneur 171

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. Growing the company means growing people through mentoring and training.

Startup 125

Startup Training Entrepreneur Organization 125

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

As an introvert myself, I remember worrying that I could never be comfortable giving a sales pitch, or networking to find clients. Yet I soon found that knowledge is power, and a little training and determination goes a long way toward removing the qualms. Turn existing connections into productive relationships.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Mentor Activity Startup 104

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2020

Every business wants and needs top performers, but most entrepreneurs and executives assume that if they hire and train the smartest and most experienced people, they will get exceptional performance. Thus paying only for sales volume, when you desire high customer satisfaction, is not productive.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Coach Satisfaction Resource 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2021

As a long-time business advisor and mentor to entrepreneurs, I consistently find that the most thriving businesses are people-centric, and those team members create the best processes, rather than the other way around. Obviously, both are required for a company to stay healthy and growing.

Satisfaction 154

Satisfaction Demand Resource Competition 154

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2022

Dini, tied together several threads I have often seen in my own experience of mentoring and helping aspiring entrepreneurs. Farmers are the management that comes after the hunt, to build repeatable processes, do seasonal planning, and make sure all employees are well-fed and trained.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Marketing News Slides 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2019

In my view, Bill failed on an earlier project, despite being a technical visionary, before he teamed with Steve Ballmer, who was trained at Procter and Gamble on business and marketing. Recruit the best talent and promote/train team managers. Lead and mentor team members to run all business areas.

Company 99

Company Companies Technical Review Startup 99

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2015

As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I often get asked what you can do to build the right culture. Mentoring and training programs need to be put in place early. Technology can be used to facilitate customer support and sales, as well as enhance your product. The simple answer is effective communication and leadership.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Technical Review Mentor Training 102

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2019

In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences. In the end, engagement drives customer retention, sales, growth and profit. Priority is placed on employee mentoring and coaching. Leaders need direct and open team communication.

Coach 94

Coach Organization Mentor Startup 94

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2022

As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. The other four are: new product development, writing, time management, and sales/marketing.

Marketing 113

Marketing Entrepreneur Customer Custom 113

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2018

You can’t hold your sales team accountable for manufacturing quality, but they should be responsible for profitability and volume. Provide resources and training to enable accountability. Other necessary resources include training, reasonable financial leeway, mentoring, and access to relevant executives.

Startup 96

Startup Resource Training Tool 96

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. As your business grows, you need employees who can execute quickly and consistently, with minimal training.

Metrics 86

Metrics Startup Training Customer 86

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2020

These will almost always be related to sales and marketing, since they must tie back to cash flow. Increase you focus on coaching, training, and mentoring. This is the stage where you move from managing by your gut to managing by numbers. Stay connected and engaged with your employees.

Metrics 140

Metrics Entrepreneur Coach Satisfaction 140

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2017

In fact, I just finished a new book, “ Winning from Failing ,” by business development and sales productivity expert Josh Seibert, which extends this principle as well to large corporate organizations seeking to improve their productivity and success. Establish mentoring and coaching relationships.

Coach 57

Coach Mentor Organization Entrepreneur 57

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2017

In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences. In the end, engagement drives customer retention, sales, growth and profit. Priority is placed on employee mentoring and coaching. Leaders need direct and open team communication.

Entrepreneur 78

Entrepreneur Coach Organization Mentor 78

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2016

You can’t hold your sales team accountable for manufacturing quality, but they should be responsible for profitability and volume. Provide resources and training to enable accountability. Other necessary resources include training, reasonable financial leeway, mentoring, and access to relevant executives.

Startup 99

Startup Resource Training Tool 99

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

The best ones bring in more executive leadership so you can appropriate allocate resources across sales, marketing, product, engineering and support. If it’s an enterprise software company you can no longer rely on tacit knowledge to win sales campaigns. Objection Handling training. And then there is the C round.

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

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. For market changing products, build first a minimally viable product (MVP), and never build products for sale until you have real orders in hand. Inventory and features added too soon.

Resource 105

Resource Startup Entrepreneur Training 105

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2018

The best companies have found that it’s important to constantly prepare team members for moving to the next level, through mentoring and training, rather than trying to keep them in their current role. Foster a learning and change culture in employees. Plan to upgrade all processes without waiting for a crisis.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Customer Custom Startup 84

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

Dini, tied together several threads I have often seen in my own experience of mentoring and helping aspiring entrepreneurs. Farmers are the management that comes after the hunt, to build repeatable processes, do seasonal planning, and make sure all employees are well-fed and trained.

Entrepreneur 95

Entrepreneur News Slides Startup 95

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2010

Fariborz Maseeh: All of my training is in engineering. Mentors outside of the university will come and help the innovators and students who have come up with their new ideas, and help them to convert those into professionally prepared business plans. Here, the mentors come and focus on what the innovators want to do.

Competition 154

Competition Southern California Mentor USC 154

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. For market changing products, build first a minimally viable product (MVP), and never build products for sale until you have real orders in hand. Inventory and features added too soon.

Entrepreneur 115

Entrepreneur Resource Training Product 115

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2015

Don’t hesitate to call in an experienced advisor or mentor to help. Usually it pays to dig deeper on lost sales opportunities and negative customer reviews to resolve a deep-seated product deficiency or delivery channel issue. Make sure processes are updated, training is improved or priorities are communicated as required.

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Satisfaction Metrics 100

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

The fitness professional network develops business tools that make it easier for fitness professionals to run their businesses and keep their clients engaged between training sessions. We knew there’s a better personal training experience to be had, so we set out to create one. We just found this hole in the fitness industry.

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 92

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. For market changing products, build first a minimally viable product (MVP), and never build products for sale until you have real orders in hand. Inventory and features added too soon.

Resource 52

Resource Training Entrepreneur Activity 52

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

in sales last year, what he learned from his experience at TechStars, and where he's going with Fanmix. million in sales last year, with great margins, and it's profitable, with a team of ten people. We have some great mentors now. We heard form Alex to learn how SocialEngine was bootstrapped to $1.4M

Startup 242

Startup CTO Coach Blogging Social Media 242

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2018

During my early years of managing in business, I always assumed that if I hired and trained the smartest and most experienced people I could find, I would get outstanding productivity. Give team members the training, tools, and data to do the job. They need your mentoring, tools, and historical data to be a top performer.

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup Training Netflix 51

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2019

Image via Wikipedia As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. The other four are: new product development, writing, time management, and sales/marketing.

Entrepreneur 87

Entrepreneur Customer Custom Guide 87

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

If a team member has a plan that is too ambitious and likely to set them up for failure, he or she needs your direct mentoring to dial it back. Too many entrepreneurs are reluctant to start the sales process, preferring to tweak and refine the product. Check your ego at the door. Build relationships through “hands-on” assistance.

Startup 103

Startup Entrepreneur Template Mentor 103

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2017

As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. The other four are: new product development, writing, time management, and sales/marketing.

Company 97

Company Companies Entrepreneur Customer 97

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. Growing the company means growing people through mentoring and training.

Entrepreneur 55

Entrepreneur Training Organization Examples 55

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2013

They run into difficulty when their business reaches the $1-2 million annual sales range, or their employee count exceeds 5-10. It means not only hiring, but training and measuring performance. It means mentoring less experienced team members, and quickly replacing incompetent staff members. Staff properly at every level.

Startup 109

Startup Entrepreneur Organization Training 109

Tech.Co

NOVEMBER 28, 2017

Composed of a three-month boot camp , the program aims to help startups build their brand while figuring out the nitty gritty of finance, manufacture, distribution and sales. Minnesota food and agriculture brand Land O’Lakes — yes, the one you know from butter packages — launched an accelerator in July 2017. The goal: Dairy innovation.

Incubator 70

Incubator Santa Clarita Technical Advisors FAQ 70

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 28, 2015

Dini, tied together several threads I have often seen in my own experience of mentoring and helping aspiring entrepreneurs. Farmers are the management that comes after the hunt, to build repeatable processes, do seasonal planning, and make sure all employees are well-fed and trained.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur News Slides Startup 106