Friday, December 17, 2010

Sex Leads Entrepreneurs Who Think and Grow Rich














Marty Zwilling



Saturday, December 11, 2010

Taking Other People’s Money Changes Your Life

By Francine Hardaway, Ph.D.




I always tell them to forget it.















Friday, December 10, 2010

Ten Tips to Kick-Start Your Startup With Twitter


First, I’ll try to answer the most common question I still get from business people “What is Twitter, really?” For business people, it’s a way to put out “sound bites” or tiny ads on the Internet, much like you see them in the mainstream media on TV, but without the cost, to your prime audience.

Actually they are “txt bytes,” like cell phone text messages in length, and they are broadcast to all your followers, or directed at select recipients. People can respond in the same fashion with personal requests or general comments. The important responses are real “business leads.”

A lot of people are doing some very innovate things with Twitter. I won’t cover those here, but I’ll offer some practical tips to get you started:

  1. Offer something of value. Make the relationship a win-win. That means give before you expect to get – free advice, special promotion, pointer to useful information, or sometimes just friendly conversation. Show that you are a real person, sincere and trustworthy.

  2. Search tweets for business leads. With Twitter Search, and a host of free tools on the Internet, you can mine the universe of all tweets for people needing your product or service. Set up filters to find them, and follow-up diligently and politely on every lead.

  3. Use free tools to improve efficiency. Twitter’s native user interface is arcane. Use tools like TweetDeck to set up your control room, SocialOomph to spread out your responses, and WeFollow to find key players in your domain. There are many others.

  4. Create separate account for business. If you like Twitter for personal notes to your friends, use another account for business activity. Your business account should have a name, picture, and tone that reflects your business brand and logo.

  5. Become an authority in your area. One of the challenges of buying things on the Internet is to identify the quality sources from the scammers. Use Twitter to personalize your business, knowledge, integrity, and your leadership. People still buy from people.

  6. Stay top-of-mind with experts. Seek them out, offer interesting links, respond to tweets, and post thoughts for conversation at least a few times a day. Twitter is not like email, where people diligently save and respond to every message. Stand out in the stream.

  7. Follow potential clients. That’s how you tell your potential clients and customers that you exist. They will see you following them, check out your profile, and if you have something they can relate to, they will follow you back. This is “pull” marketing.

  8. Increase size and quality of following. Never stop working to increase your following, by finding others, and improving your offering. A larger following means more credibility, which iteratively attracts more followers. Don’t be afraid to un-follow people who don’t fit.

  9. Re-tweet for double impact. Adding ‘RT @username’ in front of the original tweet forwards it to your followers, and is a double win, if used selectively. It improves your value to your followers, and increases the audience and credibility of the original sender.

  10. Cross link all your web profiles. Make sure people can find you from all directions on the Internet. Your website should have a link to your blog, your Twitter profile, LinkedIn profile, Facebook, and vice versa. This also improves your Google search ranking.

Twitter is merely a constant stream of absolutely current public communication. The good news is you can turn it on or off as often as you like, and mine the database at very low cost for useful information. Even big companies like Dell and HP use it to find customers, and claim million dollar returns. It’s a valuable resource for every startup. Tweet me if you need help.

Marty Zwilling



Monday, December 6, 2010

Be Sure Your Startup Has a Clear Value Proposition

By Joe Bockerstette

As an angel investor who has considered hundreds of startup opportunities, the concept of a value proposition may be the most misunderstood and taken for granted element that I see in newly formed startups. While entrepreneurs freely throw around the term “value proposition,” they rarely offer a thoughtful explanation for the “value” their business is providing and, more importantly, an understanding of who their real customer is and what valuable benefit their customer perceives they are receiving.

To address this gap, I’d like to discuss a basic value proposition definition below.

The value proposition is a short statement that clearly communicates the target customer, the customer’s problem and the pain that it causes, the unique solution that addresses this problem, and the net benefit of this solution from the customer's perspective.

Let’s consider each of the four elements of the value proposition definition above:

  1. The target customer. Many entrepreneurs quote a large market size and impressive dollars spent in the market, but not many entrepreneurs can name specifically who will buy the proposed product or service, and how many of these customers exist. To identify a target customer, it helps to document a customer profile statement, identifying all of the traits known about the customer and what makes them different and unique from the larger market population. Out of this exercise comes a clearer understanding of what makes them a “target” customer. It’s not uncommon that a company serves more than one target customer, leading to a customer profile for each type.

  2. The customer’s problem and the pain that it causes. Entrepreneurs should clearly articulate the customer’s problem that they are addressing in layman’s terms. The problem definition should also include a description of the level of pain it causes. This step is often overlooked, as entrepreneurs frequently assume a pain level that is greater than actually exists for the customer. This hopeful thinking comes from a lack of study and the development of empirical evidence that supports the relative importance of the painful problem. While the pain level can be expressed in dollars, what matters here is the extent to which the target customer desires that the problem be solved relative to current solutions. This step is critical to the potential of the startup enterprise. The more painful the unsolved customer problem, the greater the opportunity is for a startup’s success. Overestimating the pain level of a customer problem causes time, money and talent to be spent on a mission that leads to disappointment and frustration.

  3. The unique solution that addresses this problem. Here, the startup is addressing the core purpose of its new business. What makes the solution worth pursuing? Why is the venture worthy of investment? What has the startup discovered that others in the market before it have missed? When its unique solution solves a customer’s painful problem better than all other available options, the startup has successfully cleared an important early hurdle to a successful venture. Again, evidence here is key. Demonstrating that a customer exists with a painful problem that the company solves better than anyone else makes for a compelling startup beginning.

  4. The net benefit of this solution from the customer’s perspective. Here is where true potential is discovered. First, value is strictly perceived in the eyes of the customer. If the startup sees its solution as very valuable, but the target customer doesn’t, there is no foundation on which to build a company. Second, the benefit of the solution must be weighed against its cost and compared to all other options available to the customer. This is a critical element of understanding in considering growth potential and ultimate market capacity.

The value proposition is a primary foundation characteristic that I consider as an angel investor. When starting a new enterprise, entrepreneurs should offer a strong value proposition case, one that includes empirical evidence that demonstrates you know who your customer is, that they have a painful problem worth solving, and that you offer a unique solution that they perceive provides more net benefit than other available options.

