Stephanie Shateria: How To Look and Feel Authentic On Camera
Key take-aways from a talk today by Stephanie Shaterian on at Women in Consulting event on “How To Look and Feel Authentic On Camera”
Checklist
Key Questions to Answer Before Adding A Feature to Niche Software
A niche software supplier provides expertise and functionality that individual firms in an industry would find more expensive to develop on their own. Managing the feature content and evolution of the feature set requires that a reasonable fraction (for example at least 30-40%) of the customer base needs the feature so that they feel they …
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Extracting Insights From A Competitor’s Software Demo
Edited remarks from a presentation at the Silicon Valley Society for Competitive Analysis on Tue-May-24 on “Extracting Insights From A Competitor’s Software Demo.”
Am I Making A Fool Of Myself?
One of the most common questions I hear in conversations with entrepreneurs at a Bootstrapper Breakfasts, in Office Hours calls, or with clients–and not infrequently from myself when comparing notes with peers–is, “Am I making a fool of myself?” Here are some questions you can use to clarify your situation when you are starting to feel like a …
Delegation Needed For Growth
As entrepreneurs we need to pay attention to the details that matter but to achieve even modest growth or scaling we also need to use delegation. We need to allow other team members to contribute their own strengths, experiences, and insights to the project at hand.
How To Test Your Leap To A Solution
In your early customer discovery conversations to assess demand for a new offering a wide range of customer needs and symptoms can trigger a leap to a solution, which just happens to be yours. Guard against this by probing to understand the root problem–have at least three questions that allow you to dig out the …
Scott Robertson Offers Five Tips on Content Marketing
Scott Robertson had a great post up last month on how to make content marketing work: be relevant, be different, be real, be useful, and be consistent. Here are some excerpts along with additional thoughts and commentary.
Risk Mitigation: If You Predict Rain Build an Ark
Two critical aspects of any plan are risk identification and assessment, but if a team stops there and does not modify the plan to mitigate as much of the risk as possible then it’s pointless. Risk mitigation is what allows you to build a sustainable and enduring business.
Tips For Entrepreneurs On Surviving The Holidays
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 …
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Making Tea
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 …
Q: Can I Be My First Customer?
It’s OK to solve your own problem first, to be the first customer. This at a minimum gets the idea out of your head and reduced to practice where it can be tested. The trick is to use this basic product to spark further discussions about the problem you solved, no your solution.
Good and Bad Reasons to Pivot
Much has been written about a startup making a pivot in direction after Eric Ries first coined the term in a 2009 blog post “Pivot don’t Jump to a New Vision.” The word pivot has attracted almost as much wordplay as the word lean. What follows is a short list of good and bad reasons to …
Q: How To Evaluate Acquiring a Small Software Firm
We recently helped a client frame the exploration of an opportunity for acquiring a small software firm. Here are some questions to consider if you are contemplating the sale or acquisition of small software company.
Checklist for Successful Products
The checklist for successful products has three broad categories of challenges a new product must address: it has to be feasible, it has to be desirable and it has to be profitable.
Q: How Do I Interest People In My Product?
Q: We have a product for bloggers but I am having a lot of trouble getting leads. I have met bloggers from popular media companies at events, I have cold called them, e-mailed them, and e-mailed to on-line groups that I am a member of. None of this has worked. How do I interest people …
Serious Problems With Business Model Canvas For Startups
Q: I’m just about to get out of the building to validate hypotheses and start learning, but I have a problem with the business model canvas. I have been advised to develop detailed hypotheses before starting customer discovery. This is my startup and I have no idea how to fill in the business model canvas …
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Q: Is It Waste To Build A B2B MVP That Inspires Trust?
Build A B2B MVP That Inspires Trust Q: I am preparing to launch a website for my minimum viable product (MVP). It’s a few pages and has has some forms and a file upload capability. Potential customers will be able to explain a particular type of problem that they have and then upload some relevant …
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Q: What Are Critical Tasks In A Startup?
Q: What is the target allocation for each of these critical tasks in a successful startup? Here is my list of critical tasks in a startup and a percentage allocation: Planning 10% Execution 50% Ideation 20% Talking to Potential Customers 15% Recruiting 5% What Is The Real Decision? Can you clarify : At what stage of company? What time frame …
Labor Day 2014: Knowledge Work Productivity
I have not yet internalized the lessons from Daniel Cook‘s “Laws of Productivity: 8 Productivity Experiments You Don’t Need to Repeat” [PDF] so I find myself work–and now blogging–on a holiday. Here are my key take-aways from Cook’s roundup on knowledge work productivity and some additional thoughts on why they are so hard to put …
Map Customer Buying Process Before Sending a Proposal
Map the customer buying process, needs, and situation before you invest time sending a detailed proposal. A quick request can mean you are column fodder. Q: We are still trying to close our first paying customer. We have a website up and have talked to a number of people. More or less out of the blue …
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