Isn’t it amazing that some people you know always seem to be working hard, but never seem to get anything done? As an entrepreneur, you need to avoid partnering with these people or hiring them into your startup. The challenge is to find people who get things done, as well as work hard. LinkedIn profiles […]
Shortcuts For Simplifying How To Think, Act, and Lead
The cost of entry to the entrepreneur lifestyle is at an all-time low, but the challenge of winning and success is at an all-time high. Anyone can build a new website, or publish a smartphone app for a few thousand dollars, but getting market penetration requires a lot more. Customers have come to expect disruptive […]
5 Strategy Realities For Running Your Small Business
As an advisor and mentor for many startups and small business founders, following my initial career in big business, I realize that the key strategies to achieve success in small businesses are often different from those that make larger businesses successful. The primary difference is the amount of time you have to spend working in the business […]
Early Adopters Are Not Enough To Assure Your Success
Every technical entrepreneur is an early adopter of technology, so naturally, they build things with people like themselves in mind. Unfortunately, for most solution markets, early adopters represent only 10 to 15 percent of the total opportunity, so it’s easy to get mislead on the real requirements of mainstream customers. Psychologists call this the confirmation bias. […]
8 Keys To Market Delivery Of Innovative Technologies
I always get excited when founders pitch their new innovation as “disruptive,” meaning that it is so unique that it will create a new market and disrupt the existing value network, displacing established products and markets. Unfortunately, I have learned that investors and customers are wary that big changes will take a long time, and cost more mone
5 Market Obstacles That Kill Even Compelling Products
I often spend hours with them brainstorming on all the possible barriers that may slow adoption rates, and how to plan or modify the business model to work around these obstacles.
Apply Hospitality-Driven Thinking to Your New Venture
I just finished a new book by Stephen J. Cloobeck, “Checking In: Hospitality-Driven Thinking, Business, and You”. As a self-made entrepreneur and former chairman of Diamond Resorts International, he asserts that the five biggest companies by market value today, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, aren’t really tech, but hospitality companies. Tech may be the […]
Make Yourself A Key Sustainable Competitive Advantage
The most successful entrepreneurs and business owners I know are humble, and they don’t have an inflated sense of self. When you have some success behind you as a manager, executive, founder, or CEO, it’s easy to become less open to the advice and signals around you, and believe you should just continue doing what […]
7 Ways College Degrees Can Expedite Startup Success
A popular myth these days is that finishing college only dilutes your entrepreneurial instincts, and the best of the best, including Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, dropped out early to hasten their success. I agree with Robert E. Litan, former VP of research at the Kauffman Foundation, that these are exceptions to the […]
Effective Marketing Today Begins With A Conversation
As a long-time advisor to small businesses and startups, I still find many who think marketing is still primarily broadcasting your message to as many customers as possible, hitting them again and again, until it sticks. They don’t realize that customers today are looking for relationships, meaning two-way conversations with your business. They ignore all […]
7 Strategies To Create Your Own Market And Win Bigger
It takes proactive strategies and key actions to create new demand where none exists. Here are the specifics that I recommend to improve your odds of success.