Posts Tagged ‘start-up’
Online marketing for Startups: back to basics – p+p+p+p
Mike | May 17th, 2010As a Kellogg alum (worlds greatest marketing school, after all, uh huh) I would be remiss not to write occasionally about marketing in the context of our world: online entrepreneurs. At crowdSPRING, we are constantly evaluating our own mix of marketing strategy, tactics, and resources and the “debates” can get extreme. Like many small companies [...]
New-to-the-world: strategic marketing for startups and small business
Mike | April 26th, 2010strategy |?strat?j?|noun: a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim. Many Internet startups reside in new market segments that are still evolving and have yet to be fully defined. In our case “crowdsourced creative services” is a new category in an old (and very large) market. It could be defined as a “alternative method for sourcing creative services, in [...]
Small business and customer service: 3 tips for creating a virtuous loop.
Mike | April 12th, 2010At crowdSPRING we place a great deal of emphasis on customer service: quality, accuracy, and timeliness are critical measures of our ability to deliver this to our users. Customers are the life-blood of any business and small businesses particularly must focus on listening to their customers, responding, and making adjustments based on the feedback received. [...]
Thoughts on being a startup in Chicago: 3 tips for entrepreneurs
Mike | January 25th, 2010In March, Ross and I will be hosting a talk at South by Southwest; it’s called “Third Coast: How to be a Startup Outside of Silicon Valley.” We have been thinking a lot about this lately and discussing the challenges we have faced on our own path. When we first conceived of the idea that [...]
PR for Start ups – Green Eyed Monster or Underdog?
Bethany | November 11th, 2009In the past few months, I have attended more networking events for PR, startups and social media than I ever thought even existed. At each event I feel like I’ve learned something, taken away some great tips and even made some great connections with other PR professionals in Chicago. When talking about my position and [...]
Thoughts for small businesses and startups on raising capital
Mike | October 6th, 2009So you have a great idea, right? You’ve written a fantastic business plan, researched the market extensively, have a deep understanding of the competitive landscape, and have a watertight financial model that shows how you can reach profitability even in the worst-case scenario. Now it’s time to get out there and find your funding. Easy, [...]
10 thoughts for small businesses and startups: how to write a great business plan
Mike | September 16th, 2009In the past 5 years, I have written or co-written at least 10 business plans. With each one it got a bit easier, and each one got a bit better as I practiced writing in “biz plan” style and learned what information was important to include and what information was extraneous. My first experience with [...]
Start-up tips: 10 Tips For Evaluating Your Competitors
Ross | August 3rd, 2009If you’re working on a start-up or have an established company, there will come a time when you’ll need to evaluate your competitors. There are three components to a good competitive analysis: (1) defining the metrics and identifying the competitors you’re comparing, (2) gathering the data, and (3) the analysis. [NOTE: This post is a [...]
