Customer Service is Your Brand

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Building a brand and differentiating yourself from competition are one of the key challenges facing startup businesses.   Committing to quality customer service can be a key and achievable tool in the success of your business.  While this may seem obvious, it frequently loses prioritization when other issues strain the business.  For Quality Service Builds Brandsexample, the following is obvious:

• Satisfied customers, repeat customers, positive social media, and referrals are the best and least expensive marketing a business can have.   There is no substitute for a satisfied customer.
• In contrast, dissatisfied customers, poor service, and negative referrals can offset the best marketing efforts.
• Avoiding problems with great products and service is the most productive strategy to execute great customer service.
• “You only have one chance to make a first impression.”
• Response time is becoming a key measure affecting sales, profitability, and excellence.  It is wasteful to not promptly answer customer requests, have long lines, run out of inventory, etc. [Read more…]

Experience and Expertise are Critical to Startup Success

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In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell became famous for arguing,Experience and expertise combine for startup success

“10,000 hours of practice is required to become a world-class expert.”

I am not sure it is 10,000 hours, but my experience indicates that experience and expertise are probably the most important factors in successful startups.   That doesn’t mean you need expertise in everything, but it does mean you need to have some hook into the effort you are pursuing.  In fact, one of the related facts of this approach is you frequently acquire skills in areas where they are lacking.  Two examples that illustrate this are as follows: [Read more…]

Goals and Measurement

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Measure SuccessWe all understand the importance of goals, purpose, direction and measurement in establishing commitment, success, team work, and coordination.  Somehow between that understanding and the execution things often go awry.

One of the key mantras of a relatively new industry, direct marketing, has been the focus on setting goals and measurement.  Google Analytics, and products like it, have quickly become business tools of choice for companies seeking to set goals and measure results.  These new direct marketing tools are so effective and relatively easy to use that businesses both large and small can now instantly measure and observe results.

One typical reason goals are often not set correctly is that it can be a difficult process.  One of the advantages of professional sports is that the goal of winning is simple, clear, and easy. It is not always quite that simple in other businesses. [Read more…]

What’s a Real Entrepreneur?

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In talking to entrepreneurs about starting a business there is a great deal of variety in energy, ideas, skills, experience, money, commitment, young entrepreneur and business planand time required. If you have none of these, we suggest not wasting your time starting until you figure some of them out. If you have at least some of them, it is generally worth the effort to determine the potential and think about a program. Even with this advice, we frequently hear numerous frustrations with the process:

“Doing a startup mostly s…ks.  It’s hard in every way.  You have to do all the sh…y work no one in a big company wants to do, especially you with your fancy degree and overblown ego. You work long hours.  You make s..t for money. You worry about paying rent. But, above all, it’s hard emotionally.  You’re a failure until you’re not.” [Read more…]

The Power of Positive Thinking

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Positive Thinking is Vital to Startup SuccessHave you ever watched one year olds learn to walk?  If you have, you are sure to notice a number of similar experiences.  While every child learns how to walk in a similar way, each one’s experience is unique as they get up, fall down, get up, and keep trying. What is amazing is their determination, lack of fear, commitment, practice, and continuing efforts to test the situation.   That’s the power of positive thinking.  As a startup and turnaround business consultant, I constantly hear, read advice, and see comments focused on worries, concerns, caution, in essence, all the old paradigms related to bringing about business success. While some of these perceptions may have validity in certain situations, they’re generally not productive. [Read more…]

Avoiding the Hockey Stick Plan

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Avoiding the Hockey Stick PlanAfter counseling over 1,500 clients seeking to start new businesses, it’s troubling so many of them seem possessed with what can be called the Zuckerberg, venture capital, or hockey stick plan to starting a business.

I typically read 3 to 5 startup business plans a week.  So many are simply outrageous just because of the projected growth curves.

Everyone thinks they are the next multi-million or billion dollar startup.  They find the need to project $15-20 million of revenue in a couple of years to get funding.  This was illustrated recently by the response of a client.  I asked her the basis of her forecast which showed a sales growth rate of 15-20% per week.  When asked about her assumptions she said,

“That’s what the venture capital firms say they want.”

In contrast, many studies of entrepreneurs from IDEO to Malcolm Gladwell contend that slow but steady, multiple product developments, experience, and testing are the best predictors of success. [Read more…]