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As a long-time business executive and adviser to entrepreneurs, I see a definitive shift away from customer trust in traditional business messages, and the executives who deliver them. I believe that the sooner every entrepreneur and brand builder adapts to this emerging trend, the sooner they will find success.
For decades, efforts to satisfy customers have been built around demographics – capitalizing on race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other attributes. Customer personalities define customer experience, and sets what they love, and what they hate. There is no one set of exceptional experiences that will work for all customers.
Sometimes entrepreneurs are so focused on making change happen for customers that they forget that continually changing themselves and their company is equally important. In his classic book “ Invent, Reinvent, Thrive ,” Lloyd E. Many entrepreneurs get their first taste of success running their own consultancy or practice.
Traditional marketing says you have to “push” your message out to customers, over and over again, to get you remembered. A more effective approach in today’s Internet and interactive culture is to use “pull” technology to bring customers and clients to your story. Refresh it often. Skip the Flash videos. Marty Zwilling.
New entrepreneurs tend to focus only on getting the product right, and assume that the right culture and ethics will come later simply by hiring good people. I saw a good summary of these in the classic book, “ Ethical Leadership ,” by Andrew Leigh, an expert in this area. Business ethics are best left to philosophers and academics.
Many entrepreneurs think that adapting to the new technologies, like smart phones and Internet commerce, are the key to attracting new customers. High-technology product startups, without customers, don’t make a business. During today’s dynamic customer journey, consumers often find themselves at a point of indecision.
Many passionate entrepreneurs fight to add more features into their new products and services, assuming that more function will make the solution more appealing to more customers. Focus is the art of limiting your scope to the key function that really matters for the majority of customers.
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.
Every entrepreneur I know has their favorite excuse for a previous failure – an investor backed out, the economy took a downturn, or a supplier delivered bad quality. In that spirit, I offer my perspective on ten common startup failure sources that rarely get admitted by entrepreneurs: Choose to skip the written business plan.
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. It’s a tough job, and inexperienced entrepreneurs just don’t know where to start, and how to do it.
From my consulting with entrepreneurs in Europe and other countries, I’m convinced that we all could benefit from adapting to meet their environments. I found these challenges and opportunities outlined well in a classic book, “ Out-Innovate ,” by Alexandre Lazarow. Manage risk – don’t just “move fast and break things.”
Every entrepreneur with a new technology tells me that his innovation will be industry-disrupting, meaning that it will render the existing technology obsolete, and create a new market. I suspect that several of these will surprise most entrepreneurs as being counter-intuitive to their thinking.
The rate of new entrepreneurs increased between 2013 and 2019, from 280 out of 100,000 to 310 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.
I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Great businesses begin with a customer problem that has a big and monetizable pain point. Nail the solution. Nail the business model.
I also enjoyed the classic book, “ 63 Innovation Nuggets for Aspiring Innovators ,” by George E. Some of the most common innovation myths that Barbee mentions or I have encountered in my work with entrepreneurs around the world include the following: True innovation can only come from R&D and geniuses.
Moore titled “ Crossing the Chasm ,” but most entrepreneurs have no idea how it relates to them. In fact, it’s all about the “focus” required to get early stage technology products across the deadly chasm from early adopters to mainstream customers. Customer support chasm. Product development chasm.
Entrepreneurs need to be effective team leaders, since no one can transform an idea into a product and a business without some help. The importance and the specifics of practical team leadership were re-confirmed to me a while back in the classic book, “ Unlocked ,” by Robert S. Otherwise, in my experience, the startup will fail.
Most aspiring entrepreneurs believe that a great idea alone will assure business success. Yet in this age when customers have a thousand alternatives, and are overwhelmed by a multitude of messages, sales efforts can make or break a business. You can either find customers for your solution or you can find solutions for your customers.
As an advisor to new hardware entrepreneurs, I often hear the myth that a business plan is no longer required to find an investor, if your idea is good enough. What you don’t realize is these famous investors only deal with entrepreneurs who sold their last company for a $100M dollars or more.
In his classic book, “ The Leadership Capital Index ,” Dave Ulrich, a best-selling author, business consultant, and business school professor, provides some real insights and metrics on what makes up the elements of goodwill in the minds of top valuation experts. I have paraphrased his key points here as follows: Leader personal impact.
Perhaps sparked by the recent pandemic, I’m seeing a new era of the entrepreneur, with startups springing up all around. Based on my own mentoring and investing experience, the best entrepreneurs are pragmatic problem solvers. Listen to your customers to arrive at acceptable and marketable solutions.
You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. How many customers will have any idea what this means to them?
I found a good summary of the most common mistakes in a classic book by Kelly Clifford, “ Profit Rocket ,” written primarily to help you on the other side of the equation – skyrocket your profits. If you expect payment in 30 days, many customers will stretch this period to 45 days or even 90. In startups, cash is king.
Thus it behooves every entrepreneur to start watching these things more carefully from the very start. In the classic book, “ Fish Can’t See Water ,” Kai Hammerich and Richard D. Incidentally, I love that book title, which seems to me applicable to most aspects of business (and even people), as well as business culture.
For decades, efforts to satisfy customers have been built around demographics – capitalizing on race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other attributes. Customer personalities define customer experience, and sets what they love, and what they hate. There is no one set of exceptional experiences that will work for all customers.
What they should be doing is hiring only “entrepreneurs,” meaning people who think and act as if this is their own business. This commitment to hire people who think like entrepreneurs, or instill an “owner’s mindset” in every employee, should be a high priority in every business. Employees will lose focus on their work.”
Many passionate entrepreneurs fight to add more features into their new products and services, assuming that more function will make the solution more appealing to more customers. Focus is the art of limiting your scope to the key function that really matters for the majority of customers.
On the other hand, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. In his classic book “ The 3rd American Dream ,” thought leader Suresh Sharma summarizes the large corporate accomplishments of the 19 th and 20 th centuries, and then lays out the potential of a new entrepreneurial business ecosystem for the 21 st century.
Every entrepreneur I know has their favorite excuse for a previous failure – an investor backed out, the economy took a downturn, or a supplier delivered bad quality. In that spirit, I offer my perspective on ten common startup failure sources that rarely get admitted by entrepreneurs: Choose to skip the written business plan.
Some entrepreneurs forget that talking is not communicating. Then, hopefully, come customers, distribution channels, and going public or merging with an attractive buy-out candidate. From an entrepreneur perspective, here are the key barrier-to-understanding elements: Unclear frame of reference. Stereotyping and biases.
Today more than ever, the evidence is clear that business people need to find and communicate a purpose that goes beyond making a profit, in order to ensure customer engagement, as well as your own, and drive results in the marketplace. As you grow, so will your team and customers. Driven to reduce personal hardship and suffering.
In my role as an advisor to entrepreneurs, I often find founders who have such conviction and passion for their new idea, that they can’t believe anyone could challenge it. They bristle quickly when investors or even potential customers raise issues with real value, competition, risk, and sustainability.
With real-time online reviews and feedback via the Internet, and instant relationships via social media, a voice from the top that is inconsistent with what is heard from the firing line defines a dysfunctional and noncompetitive company for today’s customer. Thus team makeup is the critical success factor.
Every entrepreneur and business leader I know realizes that it takes a dedicated team to build and run a successful business, and nurturing that team is one of your most important priorities. Thus I was pleased to see a much more complete and broader perspective of employee support recommendations in a new book, “ Employees First! ”
As an investor in startups, I most often see entrepreneurs who are technologists, or at least have a real passion for a specific product. While these investors, and early customers, will always argue that they found you, I’m convinced that there is no substitute for aggressive networking on your part.
Did you ever wonder why some entrepreneurs always seem to have all the luck and success, while others never seem to catch a break? As I was reminded again by the classic book from Dennis Perkins, “ Leading at the Edge ,” this isn’t a new concept. He also famously said," We don't do strategic planning. It's a waste of time."
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. It’s a tough job, and inexperienced entrepreneurs just don’t know where to start, and how to do it.
Even after many years mentoring entrepreneurs and advising businesses, I continue to be surprised by the primary focus on products and processes, and the often incidental attention to hiring and nurturing the right people. It’s the same for customers and products, where analytics have long proven their value.
In my experience as an advisor and mentor to entrepreneurs in business, one of the biggest failures I see is a lack of self-leadership. For example, I often hear from aspiring entrepreneurs that “I had that idea first, and he stole it, and is now making money on my idea.” Values are your most valuable assets.
Darryl Rosen, in the classic book “ Table for Three? Managers who speak critically of team members, customers, friends or family members, have something going on within them that needs to be examined. Entrepreneurs or managers who claim to be able to do multiple things at a time must never use this as an excuse for poor quality.
Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first fifteen minutes. Remember you are pitching to investors, not customers. Some entrepreneurs seem to think that their product pitch is also their investor pitch. The average length of a funding pitch to angel investors is ten minutes.
As a startup mentor, I’m always amazed that some entrepreneurs seem to be an immediate hit with investors, while others struggle to get any attention at all. Some entrepreneurs love to talk and produce videos, but hate to write anything down. Message delivery must be customized for each investor.
I know entrepreneurs who have suffered from premature execution often associated with the ready-fire-aim quick-to-market approach. Sciambi, in his classic book, “ Secrets to Entrepreneurial Success ,” reminds me that premature execution will doom even a good ready-aim-fire plan. But Lonnie L. Be prepared for pivots and mistakes.
This point was highlighted well in the classic book, “ Disrupting Digital Business ,” by R “Ray” Wang, CEO and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research. Communications that traditionally could only be broadcast to all can now be done on a customized person-to-person level, interactively.
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