Archive for May 12th, 2004
Dave Bayless identifies five types of startups: Most new businesses lack a competitive differentiation. They don’t really earn a significant profit; they provide a wage to their proprietors. These marginal businesses — most consulting practices, contractors, cleaning services, restaurants, beauty salons, and the like — make up 90% to 95% of business startups. The cost [...]
An Entrepreneur’s Life: “A lesson new entrepreneurs often find difficult to take is this: No matter what you do or how well you do it, there will be people who criticize you, do not like you, do not like the way you do business, and do not like your product. This is a truth of [...]
The Entrepreneurial Mind: There are now hundreds of college-based programs for start-up entrepreneurs as seen in the ranking article at Entrepreneur.com. Twenty years ago there was only a handful. These programs work with every type of business venture from small start-ups to high-tech, high growth ventures. Universities have developed co-curricular programs to provide experience in [...]
Brain Brew Espresso:”Customers are creatures of habit. Breaking their buying habits requires you to overtly, specifically, and directly articulate the benefit of your offering. To get customers to listen, you must give them a dramatic reason. A study of over 901 marketing messages for new products found that when the sales messages specifically stated the [...]
Inc.: “Looks matter more than ever. We’ve all heard critics and consumers wax poetic about iMacs, iPods, and even Target toilet brushes. Interior design has become a national pastime, and shows such as Trading Spaces , Extreme Makeover: Home Edition , and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy enjoy a popularity that Bob Vila could [...]
