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 working–and now blogging–on a holiday. Here are my key takeaways from Cook’s roundup on knowledge work productivity and some additional thoughts on why they are so hard to put […]
Labor Day 2014: Knowledge Work Productivity 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–August 2014 Read More »
I signed up for a free trial of a lean project management tool (I have changed the name of the tool to <LeanTool>). A few days later I got the following nurturing E-Mail. Subject: Are you afraid to manage your project in a lean way? We’ve noticed that you haven’t been signing into <LeanTool> for a
Five Mistakes To Avoid In a Nurturing E-Mail Read More »
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
Map Customer Buying Process Before Sending a Proposal Read More »
Busyness won’t build your business, it closes off your creativity and your luck. Anticipate, or at least acknowledge, missed deadlines and commitments: triage or re-negotiate. Busyness I recently wrote a friend to ask if he wanted to do something this week, and he answered that he didn’t have a lot of time but if something
Busyness Won’t Build Your Business Read More »
Nadia James posted a daily checklist for aligning efforts with goals for your business. It’s a good one, here are suggestions for how to operationalize it.
Nadia James’ Daily Checklist for Aligning Efforts With Goals Read More »
Successful entrepreneurs are fueled by a passion to change the world tempered by prudent risk taking. Many risks have to be managed on an ongoing basis.
Entrepreneurs Blend Passion and Prudent Risk Taking Read More »
By Sunday night the week is over and all of your chips are down. The bets you have been able to place will have to bear fruit, or not. “So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late” Bob Dylan “All along the watchtower“
By Sunday Night Your Chips Are Down For The Week Read More »
In a candid discussion about the challenges of managing your own expectations for a minimum viable product (MVP), Tristan Kromer observed, “It’s psychologically hard to enthusiastically proceed with skepticism.” And that is the challenge, we have to be enthusiastic about our product ideas to persevere to complete them and tell others about them, but we have to
Minimum Viable Product: Enthusiastically Proceed Skeptically Read More »
While truly new markets have no history, their business model parameters can be estimated by what they replace or substitute for.
Q: How Do I Calculate Business Model Parameters For A Novel Product? Read More »
I got the following unsolicited E-mail this morning; I think the marketing term for this is “blogger outreach.” I have redacted the name of the sender (“YYY”) and the name of the firm/product (“XXX”) but “[press kit]” and “[review/checkout]” were included verbatim in the original. There was no footer with an unsubscribe option although phone
Five Blogger Outreach Mistakes To Avoid Read More »
I like this 2009 video by Grasshopper “Entrepreneurs Can Change The World” that portrays the entrepreneur as a change agent and celebrates the freedom and economic opportunities that America has traditionally offered immigrants.
An Entrepreneur Is A Change Agent Read More »
It’s best to act as if everything that you do in a negotiation will become fully know to all of the parties involved or affected by your actions.
Q: Side Payment Requested In Negotiation Read More »
Successful bootstrappers are open to possibilities, including mistakes. Their focus and perseverance to explore many options but say yes to only a few.
Few Against Many Requires Focus and Perseverance Read More »
In the mind of the entrepreneur, the future is imminent and customer adoption risk is tiny. Customer development cuts the risk of a false positive on customer adoption.
David Binetti On The Mind of the Entrepreneur Read More »
It’s not a mistake to accept venture capital if your business merits and requires it for growth. Don’t get distracted seeking it until then. “The seductive narrative of Silicon Valley stars a genius-hero who goes on a journey, overcomes myriad obstacles, has a flash of insight and is rewarded by wise and benevolent investors with
Don’t Get Distracted Raising Venture Capital Read More »
Direct Mail: A Letter With a Stamp Is Not Spam In advertising it pays to be different. Letters and postcards with real stamps get through. With everyone getting some much email SPAM, direct mail can be a way to differentiate yourself. Postcards Work Too We have used postcards to announce events where clients will be
Direct Mail: Letters and Postcards Still Work Read More »
Arun Kumar shares 9 lessons learned from bootstrapping Kerika since 2002. He believes in watching user behavior and getting details right.
Arun Kumar: 9 Lessons Learned Bootstrapping Kerika Read More »
Ilya Semin, founder of Datanyze, joins us at the Palo Alto Bootstrapper Breakfast 7:30am on Fri-Sep-5-2014 at Hobees in Palo Alto. Ilya will share what he learned bootstrapping Datanyze to $1M+ ARR and 9 employees. DataNyze provides competitive intelligence for Web analytics, Widgets, CDN, DNS, and related firms. It can answer questions like “Who are my competitor’s biggest
Ilya Semin on “Bootstrapping DataNyze to $1M/ARR” Sep-5-2014 in Palo Alto Read More »
John Foster McKenna: December 4, 1990 – August 8, 2014 “Man that is born of a woman has but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He comes up, and is cut down, like a flower; he flees as it were a shadow, and never continues in one stay. In the midst
John Foster McKenna 1990-2014 Read More »
