Posts Tagged ‘smallbiz’
What Job Are Your Customers Hiring Your Products To Perform?
Ross | December 18th, 2012If you are an entrepreneur or small business owner developing a new product or service, how can you figure out what jobs people want done that they have difficulty doing? If you have an existing product or service, how can you improve that product or service to increase sales? Clay Christensen suggests an interesting approach: [...]
Small Business and Startups: Dear Santa
Mike | December 17th, 2012Perhaps I am a couple of weeks late with this post, but it just occurred to me that there are some things I would like for Christmas this year and perhaps Santa can find a little spare room on the sleigh. No I am not asking for a new camera or some other gadget-of-the-moment. I have been [...]
10 Things Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Standup Comics
Mike | December 10th, 2012Great entrepreneurs are great observers. They carefully monitor the competition, the market, their team, and their various stakeholders. Great entrepreneurs learn from the world around them and they never, ever stop learning. This is the latest in a series of posts, musing on what we can learn from the most unexpected of sources. Sure we [...]
Small business: The Affordable Care Act, Part II
Mike | December 3rd, 2012Earlier this year, I wrote a post about ways that Obamacare might help small businesses. At the time, the Supreme Court had just released it’s decision upholding most of the Affordable Care Act’s provisions and the dust was still settling on what it would all mean. Last month, President Obama won re-election, effectively removing the threat that [...]
How To Choose A Market For Your Startup Or Small Business
Ross | November 27th, 2012I’m rarely surprised when a young entrepreneur or small business owner hasn’t fully identified how their new business will make money. But I’m always surprised when that entrepreneur or small business owner has a tough time describing the potential customers for their new business’s products and services. After all, without customers, there is no [...]
Small Business and Startups: 3 Essentials for Customer Service
Mike | November 19th, 2012I had (another) bad customer service experience with an airline last week. I know – a shocker. Sometimes I start to think that poor service and unhappy customers are a requirement for the airline industry. That this is a part of meeting some unwritten baseline needed for any entrant in the space. Then I come [...]
Small Business and Startup Tips: Hire and be Human
Mike | November 12th, 2012Last week ago I discussed a great yiddish word in one of my posts and today I want to share another. This is a word many of you may already be familiar with, and that may even inspire some of you in how you live your life. The word is mensch and it describes a good [...]
Is The Only Purpose of Customer Service To Change Feelings?
Ross | October 25th, 2012Seth Godin, in a recent post on his Blog contends that the only purpose of customer service is to “change feelings.” Here’s what Seth wrote: The only purpose of customer service … is to change feelings. Not the facts, but the way your customer feels. The facts might be the price, or a return, or [...]
