We’ve all been there. We have come up with an idea for a new product or service that we think we can sell to our customers. We have written what we think is a bullet-proof business plan. We’ve gone ahead and built the new product, or purchased new inventory, or expanded our store assuming that, [...]
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Every year, I spend a lot of time reading and judging business plans for business plan competitions. I have read some great plans and some not-so-great plans, but that is how it always turns out in any business plan competition. I thought it might be useful to talk about the most common deficiencies that have [...]
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As little as 5-6 years ago, computers and cell phones were purely utilitarian devices. That is, they were used to get tasks done. They weren’t always very pretty to look at and certainly not things that you necessarily craved – unless your inner geek needed whatever was the latest and greatest technology. “Sexy” was certainly [...]
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If you’re looking for a little Friday distraction or are curious what it looks like inside a venture-funded startup, set aside a few hours and catch some episodes of Start-Up Junkies on Hulu.com. Start-Up Junkies is very reminiscent of the 2001 movie Startup.com, also a fun technology start-up documentary about the first Internet boom of [...]
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Does your company receive hundreds or even thousands of emails every day? How do you ensure that every correspondent gets a response? The New York Times focused yesterday on the problem of too much email and how to handle it, highlighting a few possible solutions gleaned from both technology leaders of today and from the [...]
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Talking to small businesses and entrepreneurs writing business plans, I find that business owners often wish that they had no competition. Businesses usually are thinking that with no competition, the entire market for their product or service will be theirs. I don’t think that is the case – especially for newstartups that have truly innovative [...]
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The latest series of The Apprentice commenced on BBC 1 on Wednesday last (March 26, 2008) with the latest batch of candidates seeking to work for Sir Alan Sugar, founder of Amstrad. While the programme is both entertaining and dramatic in equal measure, it also provides a wonderful insight into teams, team dynamics, and how [...]
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If you follow the Duct Tape Marketing blog, you’ll know that one of John Jantsch’s core strategies for small business marketing is to define your ideal customer. Today he turns that notion upside down and asks readers to define who you don’t want as your customer. This is good advice. In fact, turning customers away [...]
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You don’t know what’s going to work on your website. What copy is going to work. What layout is going to work. What colors are going to work. Is it going to be better to put a product image at the top of the page or the bottom? Should it be on the left or [...]
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I live and work in the (relatively) small town of Eugene, Oregon. This is a town where supporting local merchants is taken very seriously and where the local Saturday farmers’ market is always crowded. I very much enjoy supporting local merchants and do so whenever I have the option. Buying local has many benefits including [...]
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