Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2021

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved. You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen.

Startup 154

Startup Training Custom Customer 154

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 15, 2017

Have you ever noticed that some of your business owner friends get all the bad customers, and yours all seem fairly reasonable? I’m always amazed that, in my role as a business advisor, bad customers somehow seem to gang up on certain businesses. Being unreasonably demanding of others. Or is it the other way around?

Customer 89

Customer Custom Demand Pricing 89

Berkonomics

MAY 3, 2018

Many executives and managers have made the mistake of using the financial and sales forecast to plan and execute hiring of new employees – so that they could be trained and up to speed when the demand arrives. The balance between preparedness and cost. We’ll assume that you don’t have the freedom to do so when cash is tight.

Training 226

Training Layoffs Demand Resource 226

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 21, 2022

As an entrepreneur, it’s never too early to set the culture you need for a thriving business, as well as thriving employees, customers, partners, and vendors. Start with only the very best people, demand excellence, and train them to stay ahead of the pack. Reframe selling as an activity that improves customer’s lives.

Training 127

Training Customer Custom Social Media 127

socalTECH

AUGUST 6, 2012

Santa Monica-based Demand Media (www.demandmedia.com) has seen its share of ups and downs as one of the highest visibility technology and media companies to come out of Southern California's technology ecosystem in recent years. What is Demand Media doing nowadays? For Legalzoom, it's a very different model.

Demand 240

Demand Media eHow Content 240

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2022

In my experience, there will always be growth challenges that you can’t predict, including new technologies, economic downturns, and political changes, but I’m talking here about changes in the market that every good business leader should anticipate, including the following: Your targeted customer segment has a limit.

Marketing 110

Marketing Pricing Startup Customer 110

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 28, 2022

Employees and customers alike are looking for meaning, not simply employment and commodity prices. Create an environment that unleashes these competencies and trains and pushes them to the fore. Doing good opens the door to a broader customer base. Customer loyalty and trust go up for companies with a purpose culture.

Organization 143

Organization Startup Pricing Customer 143

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2022

There is more and more evidence that a more human-centered or heart-centered leadership yields the best results with your team and with customers in the long run. Demand for coaching, counseling, and discipline training is high. The most-used workplace training programs are really about matters of the heart.

Training 142

Training Coach Startup Entrepreneur 142

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2022

You may think it’s great that demand exceeds your supply chain, but customers only remember it as a loss of your credibility, and will tell others. Proactive customer communication should be your first recourse, followed by cost and service concessions. Hire the best, and provide necessary training and tools.

Startup 134

Startup Training Tool Demand 134

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

Many entrepreneurs I have mentored make big mistakes in this area, by hiring low-cost friends and family, with minimal skills or training, and expecting them to have the same work ethic , passion, and business knowledge as the founder. Direct customer-facing non-technical roles should be the last ones outsourced. with experience.

Outsource 123

Outsource Startup Technical Review Training 123

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2020

You need a faster and more flexible on-demand hiring strategy, based on the current gig-economy of remote freelancers, contract personnel, and specialists. Freelancers and consultants have to demonstrate results, without training and mentoring, so they can help you more quickly and probably at a lower total cost.

Competition 168

Competition Startup Demand Training 168

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 28, 2020

As an entrepreneur, it’s never too early to set the culture you need for a thriving business, as well as thriving employees, customers, partners, and vendors. Start with only the very best people, demand excellence, and train them to stay ahead of the pack. Reframe selling as an activity that improves customer’s lives.

Startup 122

Startup Training Customer Custom 122

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2022

How good are you and everyone on your team at proactively scanning the environment for opportunities, emerging trends, and customer feedback? Imbue customer change focus. Provide direct customer contact to everyone, as well as training. Increase change agility.

Startup 116

Startup Training Statistics Summary 116

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2014

There is more and more evidence that a more human-centered or heart-centered leadership yields the best results with your team and with customers in the long run. Demand for coaching, counseling, and discipline training is high. The most-used workplace training programs are really about matters of the heart.

Demand 92

Demand Entrepreneur Startup Training 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2013

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience continues to decline. You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen.

Customer 92

Customer Custom Startup Services 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2022

If you aren’t yet adapting to the market and your customers, you are falling behind. I define business agility for my consulting clients as the ability to change your business rapidly to meet customer and environmental changes, with minimal organizational disruption and cost. Demand and reward speedy analysis and execution.

Competition 148

Competition Metrics Demand Customer 148

Tech.Co

OCTOBER 27, 2023

As part of the latter deal, Amazon employees and cloud customers will get early access to the technology. It is trained on over 137 billion text and code parameters – the same as Meta's Llama 2. trained on 175 billion parameters – so it’s not that much larger than Claude 2. What is Claude AI? trillion parameters.

ChatGPT 128

ChatGPT Artificial Inteligence Training Startup 128

socalTECH

MAY 28, 2015

Los Angeles-based HelloTech (www.hellotech.com) wants to be the service that you refer all of your friends and family to, instead--by offering up low cost, on-demand, in-home technical support. First and foremost, it's an on-demand, in -home technical support service. I think the big challenge is going to be customer acquisition.

Demand 100

Demand Technical Support Startup Seed Funding 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2016

If you can’t provide a memorable customer experience, your startup won’t survive very long these days. You now need more than loyalty from your customers -- they need to be your best advocates. The days of pushing new and marginal performers into customer service are gone. Every job on your team drives your customer experience.

Customer 55

Customer Custom Startup Coach 55

socalTECH

APRIL 13, 2021

The NSF determined eight to ten years ago that the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants they were funding to academic teams, to commercialize technology, they were losing, because not many academics had the background to understand how to go out and source customers, and did not know how to run a startup.

Marina Del Rey 150

Marina Del Rey Startup USC Incubator 150

Berkonomics

MARCH 26, 2020

These include ensuring the continued health of the organization, setting the moral compass for your stakeholders, providing for succession by training and documenting, leading the effort in compliance of regulations and safety needs, and … elimination of all possible bottlenecks that impede the efficiency of your organization.

Organization 156

Organization Demand Satisfaction Training 156

socalTECH

OCTOBER 26, 2015

Los Angeles is the capital of on-demand apps, for just about anything you want. One of those areas that combines LA's passion for on-demand apps, and its active lifestyle, is Fitspot (www.fitspotapp.com), which brings athletic trainers to you or your local fitness center. Ninety percent of our customers are on packages.

Training 100

Training Startup Orange County Malibu 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2022

Assess customer demand. Do customers really need what you want to do, or might they see it as “nice to have?” Education and training roadblocks. Does your dream require additional time and money for training or academic credentials? What resources do you have, skills and functions, and what do you do best?

Startup 115

Startup Resource Training Ideas 115

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2021

Every one of you business leaders I know struggles with the competing demands of finding and keeping employees motivated and satisfied, versus building and enforcing a set of repeatable processes that work. Leaders who focus on team communication are also more successful in dealing with partners and customers.

Satisfaction 154

Satisfaction Demand Resource Competition 154

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2022

It’s what every customer looks for in every transaction. I like how she was able to motivate, train, and reward employees, including the implementation of an incentive program to get every member of the team actively involved in generating new business. Again, you get what you demand and reward. You become the bottleneck.

Startup 134

Startup Training Sales Entrepreneur 134

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 9, 2020

There could be more demand for electric vehicles post COVID-19 crisis, believes Energica founder Livia Cevolini. One of those is greater demand for EVs after the pandemic. Before the health crisis shutdown most of Italy, Energica had already seen larger demand for its high-performance e-motos, with a price range of $17,000 to $23,000.

Technical Review 277

Technical Review Competition Demand Sales 277

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2016

Having the best solution is a good start these days, but a solution alone is no longer enough to keep customer attention and loyalty. Start with feedback from real customers, set measurable objectives, and make sure rewards and incentives are tempered by customer experiences, rather than only internal thresholds.

Customer 56

Customer Custom Startup Competition 56

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

He closed stores for a day to update employee racial-bias training. If you demand accountability, but expect to make every decision, both of you will fail. Delegating control means having the right information, the right tools, and the right training to make the right decisions. Effective communication of your expectations.

Startup 132

Startup Training Metrics Examples 132

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2022

The next phase of evolution will demand device independence, enabling an uninterrupted computing experience as we move from device to device throughout our daily lives. Every entrepreneur needs to leverage social media for better marketing, requirements, and customer service. Cloud Computing. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

Technology 133

Technology Cloud Computing Social Media Networking 133

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2022

I’m convinced that the reason for the high rate of startup failures , with well over half not lasting five years, is not that the solutions are not innovative, but that the entrepreneur focuses on the product, rather than the business of attracting and managing customers. No one else can do the solution delivery like you can.

Satisfaction 92

Satisfaction Training Customer Custom 92

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

In other words, how do you recognize the challenges that really need your leadership , versus the less critical demands that seem to always bubble to the top? Customer feedback in the form of online reviews and poor customer service is often rationalized as unreasonable expectations or one or two crazy individuals.

Coach 120

Coach Satisfaction Customer Custom 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2022

Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. They steal a share of your market, slow down customer buying decisions, making it harder to close new business, and put the brakes quickly on your exponential growth. Customer acquisition gets harder and more expensive.

Startup 106

Startup Pricing Cloud Computing Customer 106

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 23, 2019

Employees and customers alike are looking for meaning, not simply employment and commodity prices. Create an environment that unleashes these competencies and trains and pushes them to the fore. Doing good opens the door to a broader customer base. Customer loyalty and trust go up for companies with a purpose culture.

Organization 128

Organization Startup Pricing Customer 128

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 8, 2019

A recent high-profile one, Theranos , the blood-testing company, had no trouble getting customers, but promised more than their technology could deliver, Another, Shyp , an early on-demand delivery platform, blamed their demise on premature scaling. Demand continuous innovation to keep up with change.

Startup 88

Startup Demand Training Customer 88

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2023

External investors will demand a financial forecast, but it’s equally valuable to you, even if bootstrapping. Projecting financials is a natural extension of the homework every entrepreneur needs to do on customer opportunity size, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value. Calculate investment amounts and timing.

Startup 116

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 116

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 21, 2019

There is more and more evidence that a more human-centered or heart-centered leadership yields the best results with your team and with customers in the long run. Demand for coaching, counseling, and discipline training is high. The most-used workplace training programs are really about matters of the heart.

Training 123

Training Coach Startup Entrepreneur 123

Berkonomics

MARCH 7, 2011

Many companies have made the mistake of using the forecast to plan and executive hiring of new employees so that they could be trained and up to speed when the demand arrives. There are periods in any economy or industry segment when growth seems steady and there are few warning flags ahead.

Training 159

Training Layoffs Demand Resource 159