Start ups
5 thoughts for small business on delivering efficiency
Mike | March 22nd, 2010In his book “The Goal,” Eliyahu Goldratt tells the story of a Boy Scout troop out for a hike. The goal of the hike is to cover 10 miles in 5 hours, in other words to keep the troop moving at an average speed of 2 miles per hour. As the troop works its way [...]
5 thoughts for startups and small business: numbers count
Mike | March 8th, 2010Photo: tifotter Einstein famously said, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted” while Count Von Count (pictured above) said “That’s TWO! Two worried frogs! Ha ha ha ha!” Einstein was right in so many ways, but I believe that in the context of small businesses and startups, [...]
Startups and small biz at SXSW: ideas on how to spend your time at the conference!
Mike | March 1st, 2010Ross and I will be speaking at South by Southwest again this year and hope that you’ll join us there for our talk titled “Third Coast: How to Be a Startup Outside of Silicon Valley.” We should have a really nice crowd of entrepreneurs, designers, and funders there and expect a great discussion. It is [...]
Search Engine Optimization Tips For Startups
Ross | February 24th, 2010Search engine optimization (SEO) can provide low cost opportunities for a startup to market its products and/or services. However, many startup founders don’t appreciate the difficulty of executing an effective SEO strategy when you have a new company and a new domain. There are SEO experts, of course, and some are outstanding (follow Danny Sullivan [...]
SXSW – Third Coast: How to be a Startup Outside of Silicon Valley
Mike | February 22nd, 2010Ross and I have been invited to speak at South by Southwest next month and we hope that you’ll join us there! They also asked us to produce a podcast to give a taste of our discussion at SXSW. Enjoy the podcast and see you in Austin!
How I Stay Efficient – My Three Hour Rule
Ross | February 16th, 2010Some people are more efficient than others. There are many reasons for this: ability to focus, complexity of the work, distractions, etc. But while some have unique skills and intellect to get things done quickly, most people must develop systems to help them improve their efficiency and balance many diverse tasks. Some rely on to-do [...]
5 thoughts for startups and small business on managing the work vs. home wrestling match
Mike | February 15th, 2010Well today is Valentines Day and, being the tool that I am, I’m sitting at the computer writing tomorrow’s post. Like many startup entrepreneurs I gave up much to follow the dream, and friends and family have definitely taken a hit. Ross and I work seven day weeks, have little vacation time, and have essentially [...]
Choosing Technologies for Your Web Startup (Part 2)
Tal | February 9th, 2010In Part 1 of this blog series, I presented a rather dysfunctional conversation going on between software consultants and you, their client. I explained what consultants mean when they use the word “productivity,” why it gets convoluted, and how understanding this can lead you to making better choices for your company. I originally promised that [...]
Micro marketing: 5 tips for small business and startups
Mike | February 8th, 2010crowdSPRING is a B2B venture tapping into the ever-fragmented SMB market. This presents us with some specific challenges, including how to better convert the curious first time visitor to the site into a customer and how to continuously deliver value to existing customers to build long-lasting relationships. We use a “micro-conversion” approach that we believe [...]
Bootstrapping Your Startup or Small Business
Ross | February 3rd, 2010I spent this past weekend talking with 100 brilliant people at ORD Camp in Chicago. ORD Camp is an invitation-only unconference, loosely based on Foo Camp. During the conference, I participated, among many other things (including an awesome presentation about roasting a pig!), in two discussions about startups. Although Mike (Thoughts for small businesses and [...]
