Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2021

While you all recognize that reacting to weak market signals is critical to staying in business and staying competitive, I find that many don’t have the skills and focus to trigger change decisions on a timely basis. You may be getting killed today by customer expectations you never worried about just a few years ago.

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TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 9, 2022

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but when it comes to getting ahold of an appointment for your hair or another treatment…that’s a different story: The bespoke nature of a lot of the work has meant that a large swathe of the professionals providing these services have stayed offline when it comes to interfacing with customers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2021

For example, I believe that Starbucks surprised most people by proving that they could take a commodity business, a coffee shop, and make it a worldwide profit winner, just by justifying premium pricing with a quality product, the right locations, personalized service, and appealing to the professional customer personas.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2021

The most effective leaders marshal existing resources and incent people to create innovative yet competitive solutions. A community requires two-way communication and respect – including advisors, partners, and customers. True leaders don’t let their ego or competitive nature create a façade. The time to get started is now.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 23, 2021

For example, a few years ago Wells Fargo seriously damaged its brand trying to grow the business by creating accounts without proper customer consent. This resulted in lawsuits and fines, angered many new customers, and the Wells Fargo brand is still recovering. Yet every change can cause brand dilution or competition you don’t need.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2021

Here are the key reasons that I recommend that aspiring leaders focus on people before process: Customers judge the business by the people quality. Whether it be in person, on the phone, or implied in your marketing, your people and their engagement level is the key driver of customer loyalty, advocacy, and sales growth.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2021

But in addition I’ve always found it helpful to provide a simple checklist for new venture founders and new business owners to make sure they have covered all the key bases correctly, including the following: Define and focus on a single customer segment. Quantify your value proposition for customers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2022

I’ve learned over the years that you need to start with specific goals, a focused strategy , and a motivated and prepared team in order to penetrate competitive defenses. They assume their innovation will overwhelm any competition, anywhere. Capitalize on territory the competition has not penetrated.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2022

This can be customer acquisition cost, revenue growth, profit, or whatever other parameters are key to your success. The depth in which connections can be made with the “audience” or “customers” is far greater than it possibly can be with any other medium. See some recent examples in the 10 of the Top Social Media Campaigns of 2021.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 29, 2021

I’m often surprised when you as an aspiring entrepreneur, looking for investors, tell me your solution is so innovative that you don’t have to worry about differentiating it from competitors, and customers will flock to it without a real marketing campaign. Focus your marketing on real customer value. Perception is better than reality.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

For example, if you have ever watched the Shark Tank show on TV, they always ask about the cost of customer acquisition. It still amazes me that some entrepreneurs seem totally at a loss on this question, or customer retention rate, or even margin expectations. Postulate competitive reactions and your responses.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2021

Most importantly, you have to deal with customers, and understand their wants and needs. It also requires effective communication, and being a role model for the team, investors, and customers. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 08/10/2021. Be willing to make commitments and hard decisions.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 15, 2021

Your strengths are your real competitive advantages, so focus on them. Deliver value to your customer, to accrue value in you. Too many business professionals I know spend more time advertising their own value, rather than making sure their team and their customer recognizes value and becomes their best advocate.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2021

On the other hand, most business professionals and the customers we all need in business recognize that professionals with a healthy self-esteem will always be more resilient, creative, listen better, and treat others with respect. Show that others are an inspiration, not competition. Never degrade others, including competitors.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 24, 2021

A large portion of your competitive advantage and your potential value to investors is the size of your intellectual property portfolio. Significant differences will confuse your customers, and open the door to imitators and scam artists. When someone says Intellectual Property (IP), most entrepreneurs think only of patents.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2022

The new era of highly connected and interactive technology is changing not only how business employees interact with customers, but also how they interact with each other, and with their company. I am happy to see reports that young companies are leading the way in these trends, on both the customer and the employee side. In the U.S.,

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

You need to show you have a “Plan B,” and a never-give-up mindset, in handling any competitive threat or customer reaction. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 09/09/2021. Never underestimate the power of you.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

The rate of new entrepreneurs increased between 2013 and 2021, from 280 to 360 out of 100,000 of the adult population. Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever. The cost of social media done well is low.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2021

Overall, it’s important to remember that business uncertainties lead to the opportunities for you to win competitively, and succeed in the long run. Your challenge is to resolve these challenges more quickly and more effectively for your customers. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 05/27/2021.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2021

Every business I know needs to be on a constant lookout for new ideas, both in what they offer to customers, and in their internal operations, to stay competitive. In business, this means taking a customer view, vendor view, as well as your internal process view. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 11/12/2021.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2021

You must recognize that change is the new norm in business, so problems represent opportunities to learn something new, improve your productivity and competitiveness of the business. Since business is generally not rocket science, relationships with peers, partners, and customers are often more important than skills.

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TechCrunch LA

JUNE 3, 2022

billion company in the brutally competitive beauty industry, especially one with such broad appeal. Glossier’s management has faced well-deserved scrutiny for failing to support members of its retail staff, leaving them to endure racist treatment from customers. Glossier’s commoditized feminism aside, it’s no easy task to launch a $1.8

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2021

The alternative is to create systems and processes , starting before the first customer arrives, and providing the resources, documentation, and training to every team member as they come on board. The real challenge for every business is to keep up with changes in the market, and to maintain growth through new and repeat customers.

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Southern California Edison Blog

DECEMBER 8, 2021

million in 2021, which includes both immediate and long-term effects. A third option is managed wavelength services , which allow startups to keep their data private because the connection isn’t shared with any other customers. Always install the latest software patches and updates to increase security. Data Breaches.

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TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 31, 2022

Despite that apparent hunger, two scooter operators – Lyft and Spin – recently exited the Los Angeles area, blaming a lack of favorable regulations and too much competition, which apparently made it difficult to turn a profit. In 2021, over 1.2 It’s so car dominated and hungry for alternatives to the automobile.”. million car trips.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2020

In reality, crowdfunding has become a major startup funding vehicle, expected to reach $114 billion globally by 2021, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Thus crowdfunding is clearly not the panacea for funding and success that many entrepreneurs envision.

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