As I grow older I have gained a full appreciation for Laurie Anderson’s observation: “When my father died it was like a whole library burned down.” It’s now 97 months since my father’s death from a heart attack on October 23, 2007 and I still feel the loss.
Surviving the holidays can be hard for entrepreneurs. If you visit family or see old friends few if any may understand what you are doing or going through. You may face a variety of suggestions that essentially treat you as unemployed–strictly speaking it’s an accurate assessment for many early stage bootstrappers–and possibly unemployable–again, strictly speaking, it’s
Tips For Entrepreneurs On Surviving The Holidays Read More »
LinkedIn allows you to post a professional profile and accept professional recommendations, and perform searches of the professional profiles of others you are considering doing business with. But with groups and posts it aspires to host content and be your first stop every morning. The risk is that it can become a time sink.
Don’t Let LinkedIn Become a Time Sink Read More »
Unreasonable entrepreneur is almost redundant. By definition entrepreneurs want to change the status quo, offering better products and services as substitutes for established and successful ones. This often requires an unreasonable amount of effort and persistence, sometimes to the point of stubbornness, in the face of not only opposition but also a concentrated lack of
The Unreasonable Entrepreneur Read More »
TaroWorks announced version 4.2 with this overview video and has scheduled a webinar on Wed-Nov-18-2015 at 10am ET to provide more details and answer questions. Key improvements are the ability to specify context-specific menu options and richer validation of free form input, including bar code scan values.
TaroWorks 4.2 Launches Read More »
George Murray offers a wealth of aphorisms in “Glimpse.” 409 to be exact. It’s a fantastic collection, and definitely worth reading
George Murray’s Glimpse Offers a Wealth of Aphorisms Read More »
Customer discovery interviews are key to discerning if a market exists for a product or service. Honing your discovery skills is essential for scaling.
Newsletter: Customer Discovery Interviews Read More »
I started this blog in October of 2006–3 years after incorporating SKMurphy, Inc. in August of 2003–so this month represents the start of my tenth year of blogging. In the last nine years I have published 1552 posts, which total 871,535 words of writing or the rough equivalent of a dozen novels. What follows are some
Lessons Learned From 9 Years Of Blogging Read More »
James Guida published a hundred page collection of aphorisms in 2009 called “Marbles.” Here are seven that I think entrepreneurs will find thought provoking, by reminding them of an old mistake or helping them to recognize a current shortcoming.
Seven Aphorisms From James Guida’s Marbles Read More »
You can follow @skmurphy to get these quotes for entrepreneurs hot off the mojo wire or wait until they are collected in a blog post at the end of each month. Enter your E-mail address if you would like to have new blog posts sent to you. This month features a flurry of quotes from
Quotes For Entrepreneurs–October 2015 Read More »
Michael J. Riordan is a certified public accountant who has been in business in San Jose for more than 35 years. He gave a crisp briefing on “Bootstrapping a Service Business” at the Thursday Oct 8 PATCA meeting. He gave a great set of tips, here are my notes:
8 Tips For Bootstrapping A Service Business Read More »
In the last decade I have switched to drinking tea from coffee. I came across a neat process description for making tea by George Orwell in “A Nice Cup Of Tea” that mirrored what I do–except for adding milk or cream to my tea. I was struck by how often we think we have come
Roderick Huiskamp (@RoderickH) is a Strategic Marketing Analyst with Fedex in Belgium. In this guest post he offers five ways to explore pricing, with three additional suggestions for the special case of professional services.
Roderick Huiskamp: Five Ways to Explore Pricing Read More »
Adeo Ressi (@adeoressi) is a serial entrepreneur and currently CEO and cofounder of the Founder Institute. At Startupfest 2015, he gave a keynote with the theme: “What you do with your startup is your life’s work, ideally your destiny, and you don’t pivot on the purpose of your life.” Here are four key excerpts from his talk with
Adeo Ressi: Don’t Lose Your Purpose In A Pivot Read More »
Randy Cadieux, founder of V-Speed LLC, started to post some interesting articles in the Lean Startup Circle Group on LinkedIn in June of this year, in particular his “Working on the Edge of Failure.” The high reliability organization as a lot to teach startups so I decided to reach out to him to compare notes. This led
Scaling Up To a High Reliability Organization Read More »
You can follow @skmurphy to get these quotes for entrepreneurs hot off the mojo wire or wait until they are collected in a blog post at the end of each month. Enter your E-mail address if you would like to have new blog posts sent to you.
Quotes For Entrepreneurs–September 2015 Read More »
Our September newsletter on “When and How to Seek Investment” when and how to make the transition from bootstrapping to seek investment.
Newsletter: When and How to Seek Investment Read More »
I recently had a conversation with Bruce La Fetra of La Fetra Consulting on a “Service Factory” concept I have been working on. What follows is a 20 minute audio and edited transcript of some of the key points in our conversation. I have added some hyperlinks for clarity.
Service Factory Conversation with Bruce La Fetra Read More »
I used to think it was the advice I offered that provided the highest value to clients and friends. I talk to a number of people in different or challenging situations. Recently I have come to appreciate that it’s when I focus and listen to someone explain their situation, asking them questions from a caring perspective to
Asking Questions From A Caring Perspective Read More »
I recently did an in depth interview with Jen Berkley Jackson of The Insight Advantage on primary research tools. Jen works with companies to help them make sure that they understand their customers better than any competitor or potential competitor. Her firm performs primary research for clients, using a variety of tools to gather information
Primary Research Tools: Q&A With Jen Berkley Jackson Read More »
