Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2022

Every entrepreneur can learn from a mentor, no matter how confident or successful they have been to date. Yet most entrepreneurs simply don’t know how to work with a mentor. Some of the best mentoring relationships don’t involve monetary compensation, but none are free. Agree on specific objectives and time frames.

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Mentor Develop Development Startup 101

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 4, 2020

One of the biggest impediments to starting a new venture is the “ terror barrier ,” as popularized by Bob Proctor, a 85-year-old millionaire and world renowned entrepreneur. If you want to be an entrepreneur and start a new business, you must be willing and able to break through your terror barrier. Work on one step at a time.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 1, 2023

You’ve probably already made your resolutions for 2023, but if not, I suggest a renewed commitment to finding happiness and satisfaction in your chosen business lifestyle. The right reason to start a business is not the money, challenge, or the prestige, but the chance to follow your dream. Keep track of your wins.

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Satisfaction Entrepreneur Mentor Writing 119

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2020

There has long been a big debate about the best approach to starting a new business. Some argue the only way to start is to drop everything and jump in with both feet, while others recommend an overlapped approach to the lifestyle, including not quitting your day job until you have revenue and a proven business model.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2023

Over my many years of mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs and business professionals, I often hear a desire to start a new business, with a big hesitation while waiting for that perfect idea and perfect alignment of the stars. Start today building a bigger network. Success requires a great amount of hard work.

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Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur Software Review 149

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

My internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. Very few founder CEOs go into the job ever expecting to give up their seat. So give up the CEO role? It’s your baby.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2019

Every entrepreneur can learn from a mentor, no matter how confident or successful they have been to date. Yet most entrepreneurs simply don’t know how to work with a mentor. Some of the best mentoring relationships don’t involve monetary compensation, but none are free. Agree on specific objectives and time frames.

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Mentor Startup Summary Satisfaction 85

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2021

Ironically, as a startup investor and mentor, I have seen too many failures caused by just the opposite – too much money spent too soon, taking time to get product perfection, and assuming customers will wait. How many times have you actually made up work to keep an idle person busy? It’s still a hard road to success.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2021

Unfortunately, these goals are often mutually exclusive, and focusing on the wrong ones won’t bring you that business success and satisfaction you crave. Timing is critical for every startup. Of course, if you wait for the perfect time, you may never start. Should I start out alone, or assemble a team first?

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2022

Perhaps sparked by the recent pandemic, I’m seeing a new era of the entrepreneur, with startups springing up all around. Based on my own mentoring and investing experience, the best entrepreneurs are pragmatic problem solvers. Problems will occur in every startup, simply because you are stepping into uncharted territory.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

One of the great joys of doing the web series This Week in VC every week is that I get to spend time with great people debating the issues of our day including how our industry is evolving as well as insights into how companies got started, got their initial traction and dealt with adversities. We then spoke about startups.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2022

Yet as I mentor entrepreneurs around the country, crowdfunding still seems to be one of the least understood approaches to startup funding, with more myths than accredited angels and professional venture capital investors combined. The crowd gets the satisfaction of helping, with minimal risk, and no expectation of any high return.

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Funding Startup Outsource Development Satisfaction 141

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2020

If you are seriously looking to start the next billion-dollar startup, you need to get beyond the realm of enhancing a current solution. Rather than starting from a mindset of pushing the limits of technology, be determined to first find a customer need that can only be solved by the technology you know.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

As a long-time mentor to new entrepreneurs and business owners, I have noticed that many no longer associate more fulfillment and satisfaction with more money, power, and success. Before you start your business, think hard about your vision for fulfillment, and write it down. Mentor others to share what you have learned.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

One of the most stressful and unanticipated challenges that comes with starting a new business is hiring and managing employees. 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.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

In my own business career, many years as a business advisor, and mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I have validated the following strategies to practice and guide you. Each of these will help you in achieving success and satisfaction while tackling your toughest business issues: Stop attacking symptoms – dig first for the root cause.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

Utilize outside expertise and mentoring. No matter how much energy, experience, and passion you have, there is always more you can learn from an Advisory Board of external experts or a mentor. Your long-term success and satisfaction depends on it. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 12/22/2020.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2020

Unfortunately many founders I work with as a mentor are experts on the technical side, but have no insight into leading a team. Otherwise, in my experience, the startup will fail. If you are not, your team will see right through it and you will be worse off than if you stayed locked up in your office.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2023

Similarly, it will be very satisfying to see the productivity increases from your leadership and mentoring. New business models that provide an ongoing revenue stream, or a secondary stream from advertising, raise your margins and can give you some additional satisfaction. Celebrate the ability to pay yourself a salary.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2020

Similarly, it will be very satisfying to see the productivity increases from your leadership and mentoring. New business models that provide an ongoing revenue stream, or a secondary stream from advertising, raise your margins and can give you some additional satisfaction. Celebrate the ability to pay yourself a salary.

Satisfaction 174

Satisfaction Customer Custom Outsource 174

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2021

It seems they are both looking for more personal satisfaction and sense of purpose for their efforts. Even the simplest of new technologies, such as Zoom for remote meetings, can be a detriment to work satisfaction if workers are not trained on how to use it effectively, causing video and sound problems, as well as background distractions.

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Tips Satisfaction Coach Mentor 159

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2020

Due to the pervasive Internet, the scope of most successful startup teams today has become global. According to recent reports , these come from all the way up and down the age and experience spectrum, including up to ninety percent of the current Baby Boomers, as well as Millennials. Higher worker engagement and satisfaction.

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Competition Startup Demand Training 168

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 10, 2013

No matter how smart or experienced this person may otherwise be, things must change or they will kill your startup. Make a concerted effort to wake yourself up to the positives, and re-engage in processes that once excited you. Start a log on your efforts and progress. Ask a mentor for support. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 101

Startup Mentor Satisfaction Writing 101

InfoChachkie

APRIL 21, 2014

It wasn''t until I turned 50 that I fully adopted basketball legend John Wooden''s definition of victory: "Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.". I travelled up the Killer Curve by incrementally celebrating extremely small successes.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2021

But privately, as a mentor to many entrepreneurs, I see mindsets and attributes that may be equally critical to success, but are not readily admitted, for fear of being too wacky. At some stage of your education, you realize that you can learn faster, and get more satisfaction, in the real world than in a academic environment.

Entrepreneur 171

Entrepreneur Satisfaction Demand Customer 171

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2015

By definition, every startup is predictably unpredictable, since new solutions have no proven track record, startups are usually building a new market, and the world around them is changing faster than ever. Bring in expert advisors and mentors to set initial goals, and build recovery plans. The solution fails to come together.

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Startup Entrepreneur Marketing Satisfaction 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2020

As a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always surprised by the fact that some never seem to be able to that first startup going, while many others never seem to stop, starting their second or third initiative before the first one is fully hatched. You can’t win a race that you never start.

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Entrepreneur Startup Ideas Software Review 131

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2022

In my view, too many businesses fail, simply because founders give up too early. Starting many initiatives, and hoping that one will stick, is not a formula for success. You should be ready with your personal anecdotes on achieving success through persistence, from non-business efforts as well as business.

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Startup Competition Coach Satisfaction 143

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 2, 2013

One of the biggest impediments to starting a new venture is the “terror barrier,” as popularized by Bob Proctor , a 75-year-old millionaire and world renowned entrepreneur. If you want to be an entrepreneur and start a new business, you must be willing and able to break through your terror barrier. Work on one step at a time.

Startup 96

Startup Satisfaction Entrepreneur Mentor 96

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2022

Most of you business professionals that I know have at least thought about or talked about starting their own business, to get more control, make more money, or to get more satisfaction out of their life. As a mentor to young aspiring entrepreneurs , I often get asked for tips on a strategy to get started.

Startup 114

Startup Tips Coach Satisfaction 114

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 22, 2021

No matter how smart or experienced this person may otherwise be, things must change or they will kill your startup. Make a concerted effort to wake yourself up to the positives, and re-engage in processes that once excited you. Start a log on your efforts and progress. Ask a mentor for support. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 129

Startup Mentor Satisfaction Writing 129

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 20, 2017

Every entrepreneur can learn from a mentor, no matter how confident or successful they have been to date. Yet most entrepreneurs simply don’t know how to work with a mentor. Some of the best mentoring relationships don’t involve monetary compensation, but none are free. Agree on specific objectives and time frames.

Mentor 60

Mentor Startup Summary Satisfaction 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2020

One of the biggest myths in the business world is that startups are no place for Baby Boomers, that aging generation born between 1945 and 1964. Today people over 55 are almost twice as likely to create successful startups as Gen-Y, age 20 to 34. Yet credible reports on current trends tell us just the opposite.

Startup 124

Startup Technical Review Software Review Entrepreneur 124

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2017

In my experience working with startups, the best approach these days is to find and use a good mentor (been there, done that). Of course, mentoring is not new – it’s been the favored way to learn arts and crafts since way back in the middle ages. But I assert that mentoring in business is making a comeback.

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Mentor Technical Review LAMP Coach 61

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2023

Many entrepreneurs have a passion and an idea, or even invent a new product, but are never able to execute to the point of creating a startup. Even fewer are able to grow the startup into a viable business. Startup and development stage. Business owners get their satisfaction from happy customers and happy stakeholders.

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Entrepreneur Startup Ideas Satisfaction 108

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 15, 2015

In fact, I have found from personal experience and mentoring that both of these are necessary, but not sufficient, for building a business. Great leaders learn to listen actively to conversations, so people don’t hold up progress just to be understood. Disruptive office politics start to show.

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Startup Training Coach Entrepreneur 103

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. The reality is that starting a business, as well is working an existing business, has always required perseverance.

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Startup Satisfaction Technical Review Ideas 121