Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Yet, in the interest of full disclosure, and an honest intent to save future entrepreneurs some grief and money, I would remind you that starting any business has key dependencies on at least five major elements, including product design and delivery, the right people on the team, adequate funding, a sizable market opportunity, and marketing.

Entrepreneur 328

Entrepreneur Startup Dividend Flash 328

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

If you think the job of a CEO is to increase sales, then Ballmer did a spectacular job. He tripled Microsoft’s sales to $78 billion and profits more than doubled from $9 billion to $22 billion. They are hard to do in a company that excels at products. They know who their customers are because they spend time talking to them.

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

If you think the job of a CEO is to increase sales, then Ballmer did a spectacular job. He tripled Microsoft’s sales to $78 billion and profits more than doubled from $9 billion to $22 billion. They are hard to do in a company that excels at products. They know who their customers are because they spend time talking to them.

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 5, 2014

Christmas represents a fantastic opportunity to grow sales through targeted direct mail marketing campaigns. Before you start to produce any marketing materials for your direct marketing campaign, you will need to identify who your target customer is. Give your target customers value. Build a mailing list. Write engaging copy.

Sales 187

Sales Marketing Dividend Campaign 187

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 11, 2023

It might ‘exit’ again at a later point (anything from a sale to an IPO), but it’s no long dependent on VC funding. Is it an evolution or a revolution for your business and customers? Our customers were growing and hiring quickly, and as a result our business was growing fast.

Private Equity 77

Private Equity Equity DC Leveraged Buyout 77

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

I love the enthusiasm, the boundless energy and the sense of possibility that comes from having an idea that hasn’t yet been beat up in the marketplace of competing ideas, customer contracts, VC skepticism, jaded journalists or fickle consumers who are on the The New, New Thing. It literally can put you out of business. Board meetings.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

NZ Entrepreneur

OCTOBER 30, 2019

The knowledge you collect from speaking candidly to your customers or clients can be invaluable too. If you have a customer database, consider implementing a quarterly or biannual survey to collect anecdotal feedback. For your customers, the beauty in dealing with a small business can often be that personal touch.

New Zealand 40

New Zealand Software Review Dividend Analytics 40

Duct Tape Marketing

MAY 8, 2024

Exclusive to new customers—upgrade and grow your business with ActiveCampaign today! And if you do a Google search for a product, you say this product versus that product, you get all of these crappy affiliate links and it's all just spam and junk. Now, this offer is limited to new active campaign customers only.

Lean 70

Lean Technical Review ChatGPT Search 70

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 11, 2021

With their affordability, you can invest in several and gain more return by earning customer trust before a sale occurs. They’ve built more trust with their followers, so customers might be more willing and trusting when they check out your website after the micro-influencer recommends you. Photo Credit: Jeanine Duval.

Entrepreneur 125

Entrepreneur Technical Review Social Media Bootstrapping 125

Up and Running

JUNE 12, 2019

Social media, for one, has potential as a digital tool that more than one-third of internet users turn to when they want to learn more about a product or service. Then there’s live chat, which is gaining in popularity for companies looking to outfit their websites with real-time, 24/7 customer support. Custom websites.

Marketing 109

Marketing Social Media SEO Entrepreneur 109

ConversionXL

MAY 1, 2017

One of the greatest threats to long-term success is when companies aren’t vigilant enough about responding to the changes in their market—whether it’s by failing to spot product or channel fatigue, acknowledge new competition, make needed updates to products or marketing adjustments in a timely fashion, or embrace new technology coming online.

Technical Review 127

Technical Review Algorithm Channel Analytics 127

Up and Running

OCTOBER 2, 2012

When considering how to position a product in the market place or developing the ideal go-to-market strategy, a small business owner needs to examine a number of market factors. Chief among those factors will be the product’s primary competitors. This customer had mandated that its suppliers research offshore production.

Offshore 89

Offshore Social Media B2C United States 89

JANUARY 9, 2014

Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle framework “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it” Simon Sinek If your customers believe in your mission, then they’ll warm to you and listen to what you offer and how. Having a clear focus means it’s easier to communicate what your product is and who it’s for. Here are two examples.

Early Stage 102

Early Stage Startup Cofounder Design 102

View from Seed

APRIL 21, 2015

Joris Poort , Founder and CEO, Rescale (Software platform and hardware infrastructure to perform scientific and engineering simulations; undisclosed capital raised, per CrunchBase): We spent two and a half years writing custom software to run large-scale simulations on Boeing’s data centers.

Founder 120

Founder Las Vegas Entrepreneur Cofounder 120

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 18, 2017

A CTO will guide your product strategy, market validation, architectural decisions, process optimization, recruiting, and hiring. The Face of the Product and Technology A CTO is often the face of the technology and product. If outward facing, they will attend important sales calls and speak to the technology strategy and vision.

Fractional CTO 54

Fractional CTO CTO Hire CTO Technical Review 54

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

For startups and entrepreneurs, a podcast can be especially attractive due to their low production cost. One of the great things about podcasts is that they can be a very low-risk way to bring a potential lead into your sales funnel. This is especially true if your product or service is expensive. Offer a Lot of Value for Free.

Dividend 195

Dividend Audience Dilution Incubator 195

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

There’s a line of thinking in Silicon Valley that you should build product businesses rather than services businesses. They have created two internal technology “products&# and wanted to figure out how they could turn their services business into a product business that could be financed. This team is talented.

Silicon Valley 332

Silicon Valley IP Dividend Finance 332

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

So spending time thinking about what your leadership style is, whether it’s effective and what you could do to improve it can yield dividends. But putting no time into anchoring your beliefs because you’re too busy executing sales, marketing, support, product & engineering is an easy recipe for leadership drift.

Leadership 150

Leadership Southern California San Diego Hiring 150

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 23, 2016

It’s ideal to be aware of some productive things you should do if you wish to engage in beginning this type of business: Choose a supplier. You will want to choose a reputable company that understands how critical it is to be on time with your deliveries to help meet your customers’ demands. Marketing efforts.

Dividend 100

Dividend Restful Reputation Business Plan 100

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 26, 2018

It’s all well and good having designer office furniture or a swanky shop-front, but potential clients and customers will be more interested in what you have to offer. Reinvest in your products or services and give your clients or customers more value; it will pay dividends in the future.

Dividend 113

Dividend Government Customer Design 113

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 7, 2023

Exclusive to new customers—upgrade and grow your business with ActiveCampaign today! We've been using ActiveCampaign for years here at Duct Tape Marketing to power our subscription forms, email newsletters and sales funnel drip campaigns. 10:25): Now, this offer is limited to new active campaign customers only. Fuel your growth.

Employee 75

Employee Europe Leadership Technical Review 75

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 4, 2017

Accumulating the resources necessary to hire an in-house data and analytics team pays regular dividends as your firm keeps growing. Deliveries can be planned in the most efficient manner ensuring that customer goodwill is acquired or retained through impressive delivery times. Workflow System.

Dividend 176

Dividend Analytics Forecast Algorithm 176

ConversionXL

APRIL 18, 2019

Queries closer to a sale tend to be longer and less ambiguous, too. Categorizing keyword modifiers is especially useful for sites that have hundreds or thousands of similar pages, like review sites with city-specific content or sites with hundreds of similar products. As Kevin Indig notes , longer queries tend to be less ambiguous.

Search 126

Search Aggregator New York SEO 126

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

That’s a win-win-win deal, since the ease-of-use attracts more people to the new site, it enhances the Facebook brand, and it simplifies the customer interaction. Here are the other reasons to use this strategy: It reduces common costs and customer learning curves. There's an opportunity for follow-on sales to existing customers.

Non-disclosure Agreement 120

Non-disclosure Agreement Intellectual Property Non-Compete Startup 120

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 10, 2014

you will notice a big change in your employees’ motivation, commitment, and productivity. Every day, your employees do a lot of “little” things that keep your company running smoothly and customers coming back: Refilling the copier with paper when it’s empty. Smiling at customers after each transaction. I need your help.”.

Employee 212

Employee Massachusetts Dividend Campaign 212

YoungUpstarts

JULY 7, 2017

Does this expense drive customer satisfaction? For example, it’s not surprising that when store shelves are flooded with new products launched in pursuit of incremental market share and sales, supply chain suffers. Does this expense build relationships (instead of transactions) with customers? As Hershey’s CEO J.

Green 133

Green Demand Dividend Metrics 133

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 25, 2020

Carl was also worldwide head of stores at Home Depot when Hurricane Katrina hit, running sales out of the backs of trucks and accepting IOUs for payment. 7:01) The importance of both customer and employee experience, brand building, and pivoting to anticipate the new normal that's coming. (9:33) Then they've gotten to work.

Technical Review 148

Technical Review Balance Sheet Texas Austin 148

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 31, 2016

There are two possible outcomes when deciding on a social media campaign, the first is that you reach millions of people with your company slogan and logo thus creating interest and sales, the second is that your information gets lost in the sea of other companies and businesses that are jostling for space on a news feed. E-Mail Marketing.

Social Media 100

Social Media Marketing Dividend Campaign 100

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

In my experience, the majority of changes we made to products have no effect at all on customer behavior. Thats when this approach can pay huge dividends. The report is set up to show you what happened to customers who registered in that period (a so-called cohort analysis ). First of all, why split-test?

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

paulgraham.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

A barbershop serves customers in person, and few will travel far for a haircut. When a startup both begins with an idea exposed by technological change and makes a product consisting of technology in the narrower sense (what used to be called "high technology"), its easy to conflate the two. Almost everyone needs their hair cut.

Startup 111

Startup Technical Review Software Review Acquisition 111

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 1, 2017

In my CD-ROM company in the early 90’s we developed a golf instruction product with Jack Nicklaus’ production company, which was then based in Santa Monica. A little personal energy might pay you a dividend, and peons can easily become peers or superiors in the future. You win customers with energy.

Georgia 48

Georgia Dividend Atlanta Texas 48

Small Business Force

MARCH 15, 2013

At the end of the day, sales are what makes or breaks a small business. Yet many entrepreneurs, especially those who are the product gurus in their company, never fully grasp either their importance or the process that drives them. Basically, the product practically sells itself. Basically, the product practically sells itself.

Sales 37

Sales Product Dividend Reputation 37

YoungUpstarts

MAY 5, 2015

This is incredibly important for enterprise owners wanting to improve their footprint or increase worldwide sales. But in order to ensure that the 70 million customers it serves every day are treated with cultural respect, this fast food giant entrusts regional responsibilities to local managers. Examples of cultural understanding.

Samoa 100

Samoa New Zealand Fiji Germany 100

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 7, 2017

Business owners, organization leaders, and hiring managers all want to choose the best job candidates so their companies can experience more productivity and less turnover. If it’s for a sales role, the candidate joins you on a sales call. Investing just a few minutes each day in referral recon pays off in dividends.

Hiring 149

Hiring Dividend Employee Networking 149

ConversionXL

AUGUST 12, 2020

Then, you turn up to people’s desks like an unwelcome door-to-door salesperson, trying to convince them of the virtues of customer-centricity. So how do you convince people with little motivation—throughout the entire business—to focus more on your customers? So how can data help you? Challenge opinions. Show the financial impact.

Customer 74

Customer Conversion Dividend Software Review 74

Small Business Force

JANUARY 9, 2012

Like your first customer. But, by and large, it's that small contract win, that customer endorsement or that new customer account that helps your company grown, year in and year out. The first sale by your newest account rep. The first defect-free delivery month for your new production guy. You know the ones.

Small Business 36

Small Business Dividend Development Team Review Security 36

ConversionXL

MAY 27, 2022

Sales intelligence platform Cognism cut their lead generation efforts by 90% in 2021. This value-based model bringing all the right customers to their yard is called demand generation. This value-based model bringing all the right customers to their yard is called demand generation. But when executed right, it pays dividends.

Demand 124

Demand B2B Distribution Channel 124