Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2021

Most of the entrepreneurs I meet as an investor and advisor have no shortage of right-brain thinking, showing vision and creativity, but often don’t realize that their potential is being limited by a balancing focus on results, metrics, and customer specifics. Show results with a minimal viable product (MVP).

Technical Review 133

Technical Review Satisfaction Metrics Startup 133

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

Always use multiple methods, including verbal and written, for defining an assignment, including accountability, with checkpoints and follow-up from you along the way. Make sure that metrics and goals are set up front, and not modified as the project progresses. Provide assessments based wholly on facts.

Startup 132

Startup Training Metrics Examples 132

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2023

As a startup investor, I often see business proposals looking for funding that really look like expensive hobbies looking for donations. This is the first business process that every startup needs, that I wouldn’t expect to find for a hobby. Managing to specific goals, priorities, and a plan. Solution development and delivery.

Outsource Development 115

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 115

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2023

For your own happiness and satisfaction, I recommend you start instead working from that higher purpose and passion. The program has led to significant business benefits, including more fulfilled and productive teams, and a large brand boost, promoting CVS to a list of the nation's 50 most community-centric businesses.

Satisfaction 114

Satisfaction Customer Custom Social Media 114

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

In reality, too many choices actually dilutes customer interest in your existing market, and makes your job of production, marketing, and support much more complex. New entrepreneurs, especially technical ones, are excited by early adopters, and tend to focus on their feedback, which will always suggest more product features and options.

Technical Review 160

Technical Review Technical Advisors Startup Mentor 160

TechEmpower

OCTOBER 9, 2023

With Generative AI and LLMs, new avenues for improving operational efficiency and user satisfaction are emerging every day. Enhancing Front-End Product Search We also developed a front-end search tool that revolutionized the way users search for products. This is table stakes for the kinds of solutions we are describing above.

Generative AI 346

Generative AI Artificial Inteligence Tool Knowledge Base 346

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 23, 2021

For example, I commonly see metrics to keep track of revenue per employee, overtime, and absenteeism, but I don’t often see measures of overall customer satisfaction with individual employees. Incentives should be a combination of metrics and recognition to highlight results. Today is the time to start down that road.

Customer 147

Customer Custom Technical Review Metrics 147

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 30, 2021

Based on my own long experience in business, team satisfaction, engagement, and productivity continues to be a challenge. That’s a huge opportunity for productivity in your business, as well as your team well-being. That’s a huge opportunity for productivity in your business, as well as your team well-being.

Satisfaction 168

Satisfaction Coach Resource Tool 168

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2021

Young entrepreneurs and startups, in particular, often remain naively unfocused, despite their passion, of what it takes to provide the high-quality service expected. It’s a tough job, and inexperienced entrepreneurs just don’t know where to start, and how to do it. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved.

Startup 154

Startup Training Customer Custom 154

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2023

Too many founders have learned that passion and free beta products do not imply a sustainable business. Proof of any business model starts with a finished product or solution, sold to a new customer for full price, with high satisfaction for the value received. Start selling it before you build it.

Customer 109

Customer Custom Satisfaction Sales 109

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2020

As a startup investor, I often see business proposals looking for funding that really look like expensive hobbies looking for donations. This is the first business process that every startup needs, that I wouldn’t expect to find for a hobby. Managing to specific goals, priorities, and a plan. Solution development and delivery.

Entrepreneur 131

Entrepreneur Outsource Development Startup Competition 131

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2022

It’s always been tough to start a new business, even when the bottom line was just making a profit to stay alive. The real challenge with the triple bottom line is that these three separate accounts cannot be easily added up. How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics?

Startup 110

Startup Entrepreneur Capital Examples 110

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2017

In my experience advising startups, I have found that the invention is usually the easy part, and the hard part is turning the invention into a business. Too many inventors I know spend their six years or more perfecting the product, and give up in desperation if the business doesn’t then take off overnight.

Ideas 67

Ideas Product Startup Satisfaction 67

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 22, 2021

Your goal must be to make every aspect of a customer interaction a joy to both you and them, starting from the shopping experience, to the sales close, to delivery and service. At every Ritz-Carlton , for example, employees are authorized to spend up to $2,000 per guest to solve any guest issue and make the stay positively memorable.

Customer 114

Customer Custom Satisfaction Metrics 114

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. Five major elements of every business include your people, product, opportunity, money and marketing.

Startup 105

Startup Entrepreneur Marketing Satisfaction 105

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2020

Set up training courses that highlight agility, and adopt agile working practices. The passion and commitment that characterizes startups inevitably fades, particularly if things aren’t always going well. Amazon, for example , “grew up” in the last recession by continuing to expand their range of products and focused on automation.

Metrics 122

Metrics Training Satisfaction IBM 122

InfoChachkie

MARCH 23, 2015

A company''s Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a beloved metric slavishly tracked and reported by product marketing and customer support executives of both established and nascent enterprises. The higher a company’s NPS, allegedly the higher its customer satisfaction. Follow my startup-oriented Twitter feed here: @johngreathouse.

.Net 100

.Net Startup Satisfaction Technical Review 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2023

Of course, starting and running your own business comes with financial and personal risks, so I always recommend that you do your homework first, and follow some tried and proven strategies to improve your odds of success. It’s much easier to pivot before full production and much money has been spent.

Social Media 98

Social Media Metrics Media Tool 98

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 28, 2020

You must never stop looking for ways to get more traction with fewer personal hours, and more productivity, efficiency, and momentum from the team. In my view, it’s really unfortunate that most employees in business are still paid by the hour, regardless of their productivity. Provide incentives to focus everyone on real results.

Metrics 124

Metrics Entrepreneur Satisfaction Study 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2020

It seems like every entrepreneur I meet these days is quick to proclaim themselves a visionary, expecting that will give more credibility to their startup idea, and improve their odds with investors. In reality, I’m one of the majority of investors who believe that startup success is more about the execution than the idea.

Startup 131

Startup Ideas Organization Entrepreneur 131

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2015

Social media is so pervasive in today’s world that every entrepreneur believes instinctively that they know how to use it for their startup. Many soon find that what you do in a personal context doesn’t necessarily translate to your business, and measuring business value is quite different from measuring personal satisfaction.

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Startup Tips 108

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2023

Measure progress through metrics on sales, revenue, and penetration. Seek customer feedback on ways to improve value and satisfaction. These start with your brand image, search visibility and process, and extend to the actual sales transaction. Make sure all team members feel the same way and send the same message.

Customer 91

Customer Custom Marketing Startup 91

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2020

Many of the entrepreneurs like you that I have met in my role as a business advisor are really product creators versus business creators, convinced that a great product will generate a great business. In most businesses, this means selling something, and proving that your product or service has value.

Metrics 140

Metrics Entrepreneur Coach Satisfaction 140

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

For early-stage startups, the goodwill component can easily exceed the size of all the financial elements together, or can just as easily mark a company with good financials as not investable. For startups, the entrepreneur and founder is almost always the face of the company. Performance accountability processes. Marty Zwilling.

Technical Review 129

Technical Review Funding Organization Coach 129

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2022

Like any coach would ask, you need to brainstorm and write down the short list of things that are getting in the way of your joy and satisfaction at work, as well as the single biggest thing that would grow your joy in business and personal life. Open up to growth and refuse to prejudge yourself. Change your “nots” to “not yets.”

Coach 105

Coach Help Satisfaction Metrics 105

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2022

I too often see people who are quick to make excuses, blame failures on peers or customers, or see management as the reason for their lack of productivity. In any business, accountability ideally starts at the top. Accountability requires that you manage your own efforts, as well as keep others up to speed.

Activity 109

Activity Organization Mentor Training 109

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2019

You don’t like it, millennials won’t put up with it, and current productivity levels at work continue to decline. She has lived and worked in five countries, and consulted with major corporations, as well as startups, in transforming their workplaces to be more productive as well as more satisfying. Sophie Wade.

Company 78

Company Companies Coach Satisfaction 78

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2021

Too many founders have learned that passion and free beta products do not imply a sustainable business. Proof of any business model starts with a finished product or solution, sold to a new customer for full price, with high satisfaction for the value received. Start selling it before you build it.

Sales 165

Sales Customer Custom Social Media 165

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2015

Creating an innovative new business is guaranteed to test your skills, patience and determination, and you need to derive satisfaction from the journey, as well as the destination. To do it well requires a focus on several key activities and practices, including the following: Maintain a positive attitude, since startup problems are normal.

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Satisfaction Metrics 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

Almost every entrepreneur and new business owner I mentor is certain that his/her idea has a very high probability of success, and all find it hard to believe that ninety percent of startups ultimately fail. It’s an amazing ride, and there is no satisfaction like creating something out of nothing.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 1, 2021

Your challenge as a leader is to encourage and reward healthy conflicts, while managing them to productive and innovative results. To get you started on the right foot, here are the key principles that I see most often working: Make the resolution a part of a larger process. Don’t let it be just a conflict over graphic design.

Activity 145

Activity Organization Examples Satisfaction 145

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2018

Just as national cultures influence and shape a country, so does the startup culture set by founder strategy drive the future of a new venture. I believe this new focus on culture is a key to startup success today. Once this product-first, customer-second, and employee-last culture is set, it is extremely hard to change.

Metrics 57

Metrics Startup Netflix Customer 57

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2015

Too many founders have learned that passion and free beta products do not imply a sustainable business. Proof of any business model starts with a finished product or solution, sold to a new customer for full price, with high satisfaction for the value received. Start selling it before you build it.

Startup 107

Startup Sales Customer Custom 107

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 28, 2019

It’s always been tough to start a new business, even when the bottom line was just making a profit to stay alive. The real challenge with the triple bottom line is that these three separate accounts cannot be easily added up. How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics?

Startup 93

Startup Entrepreneur Capital Examples 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 24, 2013

Maybe it’s just another example of nature abhorring a vacuum, but I prefer to think it’s a natural evolution of the pervasive social networking communities, where people relate to and expect to interact with businesses and products they like. Startups are the only businesses able to set their culture and values from a clean slate.

Startup 100

Startup Customer Custom Social Network 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2013

Young entrepreneurs and startups, in particular, often remain naively unfocused, despite their passion, of what it takes to provide the high-quality service expected. It’s a tough job, and inexperienced entrepreneurs just don’t know where to start, and how to do it. Know your customers intimately. Set the tone and lead the way.

Customer 92

Customer Custom Startup Services 92

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 10, 2013

Something from a motivational panel, discussing Biz Dev strategies or maybe how to launch a lean start up. Rather, these were the words given in response to the opening question to a panel of product managers to “describe their occupation” in 3 words or less, + an additional word on what their biggest challenge was.

Product 87

Product Fandango Design Startup 87