Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2022

Even after many years mentoring entrepreneurs and advising businesses, I continue to be surprised by the primary focus on products and processes, and the often incidental attention to hiring and nurturing the right people. Don’t let one incident, observation, rumor, or misunderstanding cause a rush to judgement, or hiring mistake.

Analytics 303

Analytics Hiring Open Source Employee 303

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 15, 2017

Of course, it’s no surprise that most entrepreneurs don’t have a background in hiring teams, and don’t have a budget for training or human resource consultants. He comments that in spite of the digital revolution, the hiring process hasn’t changed from its low priority, last minute, subjective roots.

Hiring 147

Hiring Technical Cofounder Cofounder Retention 147

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2012

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. At any rate, “buzz-worthy” and “viral” are marketing illusions that cost big money to create. Here are three elements of most viral marketing campaigns: Hire brand evangelists.

Viral 238

Viral Cost Marketing SEM 238

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2019

The problem is that more SKUs dramatically increases complexity and cost, when you can least afford it. Buy too much inventory too soon to get unit costs down. Unit costs are important, but don’t forget about the cash flow hit, extra storage costs, and the probability of obsolete inventory due to necessary updates or pivots.

Technical Review 306

Technical Review Metrics Social Media Channel 306

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

Zappos, for example, has earned global accolades for their strategic “ Zappos dollars ” peer-to-peer recognition program, where employees share low-cost, high-frequency rewards with each other. Some experts have estimated that the cost of keeping the wrong person for a given organization can be up to fifteen times his or her annual salary.

Employee 371

Employee Salary Hiring Stock 371

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 11, 2021

Entrepreneurs often put off the hassle and the cost of filing a patent until first funding. This will hold your place in the patent line for a year, and the costs and time for this filing are much less. Do the same for every business partner or employee you may hire. Disclosing inventions before the patent application is filed.

Cost 363

Cost Non-Compete Accredited Investor Cofounder 363

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2019

These approaches allow your startup to grow more rapidly, save costs, but costly mistakes can lead to business failure. Hire and train your own managers for internal and external work projects. Let’s cut costs by outsourcing all from this point forward.” Bored and unmotivated teams are never cost-effective.

Entrepreneur 303

Entrepreneur Philippines Bandwidth Cofounder 303

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.

Technical Review 308

Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Employee 308

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2022

The challenge is to recognize and recruit that ideal partner match early with minimal cost and risk. If one of your core values is exceeding your customer expectations for quality and service, and your potential partner ascribes to the low cost, high profit mantra, a successful partnership is highly unlikely over the long-term.

Partner 385

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Cofounder 385

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2021

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. At any rate, “buzz-worthy” and “viral” are marketing illusions that cost big money to create, and these are only the beginning. Marty Zwilling.

Viral 348

Viral Marketing SEM Campaign 348

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2019

Even after many years mentoring entrepreneurs and advising businesses, I continue to be surprised by the primary focus on products and processes, and the often incidental attention to hiring and nurturing the right people. Don’t let one incident, observation, rumor, or misunderstanding cause a rush to judgement, or hiring mistake.

Analytics 245

Analytics Metrics Employee Open Source 245

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2022

Business agility is defined as the ability to adapt rapidly and cost efficiently. Every organization must constantly review its hiring practices, training, and leadership to make sure the focus is on people who are motivated, open-minded, and empowered. Bureaucracy can appear quickly in startups as well as large companies.

Agile 379

Agile Technical Review Leadership Social Media 379

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2020

This reduces the cost of customer acquisition, allows easy upgrades for service and new features, and improves customer loyalty in the face of new competitors in the market. Minimize permanent hiring and customized operational facilities. Take advantage of low-cost modern tools and automation.

Merger 386

Merger Software Review Acquisition Social Media 386

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 26, 2010

Every time I see a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. At any rate, “buzz-worthy” and “viral” are marketing illusions that cost big money to create. In a business plan these are called marketing campaigns, which continue to rise in cost.

Viral 141

Viral Cost Marketing SEM 141

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Even non-profits need revenue to cover their costs, and continue to provide services. Trying to save money by recruiting family members, or hiring only interns, is a bad risk. Providing everything free, and growing users to the max for years, like Twitter and Facebook, is a high risk approach requiring deep pockets.

Forecast 304

Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 304

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2023

Things will cost more than you expect. Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization. You will make mistakes.

Burn Rate 258

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Management Salary 258

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2023

The return was far greater than the cost. Focus your hiring and training on preparing for the future. Rather than hiring to fill specific current openings, look for people with a broad range of skills, a diverse background, and a learning mindset.

Metrics 178

Metrics Technical Review Agile Hiring 178

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

Select new hires with attention to values. It’s now more intense than ever, with the cost of entry going down, and new players easily able to join the fray from anywhere in the world. Breaking work into bite-size missions and giving teams the autonomy to figure out the “how” leads to faster, better decision-making.

Software Review 355

Software Review Algorithm Global IPO 355

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2022

As a potential investor, I always think of the high rate of failure of disruptive technologies, due to the longer learning curve of customers, infrastructure change consistently required, and higher marketing costs. Be sure to hire and cultivate new talent with the right mindset. Capitalize on free communal initiatives around you.

Technical Review 252

Technical Review Silicon Valley Software Review Metrics 252

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2018

These approaches allow your startup to grow more rapidly, save costs, but costly mistakes can lead to business failure. Hire and train your own managers for internal and external work projects. Let’s cut costs by outsourcing all from this point forward.” Bored and unmotivated teams are never cost-effective.

Philippines 181

Philippines Bandwidth Cofounder Affiliate 181

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. At any rate, “buzz-worthy” and “viral” are marketing illusions that cost big money to create, and these are only the beginning. Marty Zwilling.

Viral 268

Viral Marketing SEM Campaign 268

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 28, 2017

In the heat of scaling the business, it’s tempting to skip the cost and time of finding qualified job candidates, and enlist those close at hand, without paying them a competitive wage for the hard work and commitment you need. Reduce stress by hiring people who don’t challenge you. Remember the old adage that you get what you pay for.

Cost 180

Cost Advisory Board Entrepreneur Angel Investor 180

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2019

For example, when delivery costs and delays were still a major online sales hurdle, Amazon Prime membership was invented to offer free next day shipping. They help hiring managers raise the bar for every interview. New inventions bring risk and cost, and they don’t see other companies using them until it is too late.

Global 308

Global Marketing Technical Review Algorithm 308

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2016

Business success is all about having the best team, yet the average entrepreneur has little prior experience with hiring people and building top-notch teams. Hiring requirements must be anticipated and implemented with the same precision and tracking as manufacturing volumes, sales leads, and customer service.

Hiring 144

Hiring Matching Cost Entrepreneur 144

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2020

Even non-profits need revenue to cover their costs, and continue to provide services. Trying to save money by recruiting family members, or hiring only interns, is a bad risk. Providing everything free, and growing users to the max for years, like Twitter and Facebook, is a high risk approach requiring deep pockets.

Management 322

Management Entrepreneur Forecast Stock Options 322

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2020

Business agility is defined as the ability to adapt rapidly and cost efficiently. Every organization must constantly review its hiring practices, training, and leadership to make sure the focus is on people who are motivated, open-minded, and empowered. Bureaucracy can appear quickly in startups as well as large companies.

Agile 315

Agile Technical Review Leadership Social Media 315

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Things will cost more than you expect. Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization. You will make mistakes.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Angel Investor 310

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2014

These approaches allow your startup to grow more rapidly, save costs, but costly mistakes can lead to business failure. Hire and train your own managers for internal and external work projects. Let’s cut costs by outsourcing all from this point forward.” Bored and unmotivated teams are never cost-effective.

Entrepreneur 231

Entrepreneur Philippines Bandwidth Cofounder 231

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2019

The challenge is to recognize and recruit that ideal partner match early with minimal cost and risk. If one of your core values is exceeding your customer expectations for quality and service, and your potential partner ascribes to the low cost, high profit mantra, a successful partnership is highly unlikely over the long-term.

Cofounder 221

Cofounder Software Review CTO Hire Founder 221

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 10, 2017

Even after many years mentoring entrepreneurs and advising businesses, I continue to be surprised by the primary focus on products and processes, and the often incidental attention to hiring and nurturing the right people. Don’t let one incident, observation, rumor, or misunderstanding cause a rush to judgement, or hiring mistake.

Management 134

Management Analytics Open Source Hiring 134

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

Ask yourself, “If I were an investor, would I support this effort, given the costs and promised returns?” Provide step-by-step job aids, training, and hiring for critical aspects of the new plan. Will my proposed change actually achieve the desired outcome? It’s important to separate optimism and dreams from market realities.

Metrics 387

Metrics Technical Review Leadership Framework 387

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2019

For example, a “quality first” message is negated if you minimize testing to reduce product costs. Evidence of ineffective hiring and recruiting. The reality is that bad hires are a huge constraint to growth, and they are expensive and time consuming to fix. Ask for feedback from the team to confirm key messages are consistent.

Leadership 217

Leadership Analytics Hiring Operations 217

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2017

That doesn’t mean you need to hire an expensive recruiter for every position, but it does mean that you must put the same time and effort into finding rockstar people, as you do in building a rockstar solution. What percentage of your hires have stayed two years? This is often referred to as the “stick” rate for new hires.

Search 181

Search Technical Review Differentiation Hiring 181

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2016

As a result, repeating any of the following 10 mistakes outlined here won’t get you any credit for intelligence and learning and will cost you dearly in your funding credibility and real cash. Every business takes time to scale and penetrate a market due to organizational growth, hiring, training, brand building and customer adoption.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Forecast Angel Investor 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 28, 2022

Hire the right team. Ask the right questions to identify the innate personality traits in potential new hires, regardless of level and function, to bring on board those most likely to succeed in and shape your organization. They also tend to stay longer with the organization, reducing costs. Doing business is a human process.

Leadership 359

Leadership Early Stage Demand Hiring 359

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2015

These approaches allow your startup to grow more rapidly, save costs, but costly mistakes can lead to business failure. Hire and train your own managers for internal and external work projects. Let’s cut costs by outsourcing all from this point forward.” Bored and unmotivated teams are never cost-effective.

Philippines 120

Philippines Startup Bandwidth Cofounder 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2018

New technology markets and paradigm shifts have traditionally been bad bets when seeking investors, since these were known to take decades to develop, and cost lots of money. It starts with hiring the right people, and building relationships with the right experts, analysts, and investors. New markets don’t have to be disruptive.

Marketing 231

Marketing Demand Campaign Differentiation 231