Posts Tagged ‘Strategy’
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 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 [...]
Small Business and Startups: Slice & Dice Your Customer Service Data
Mike | October 29th, 2012After every quarter I delve into our customer service data to have a look at a few things: first (and foremost) are we effectively meeting out goal of providing world-class customer service to our community? Next, what is the demand on our system and do we have capacity available to meet it? Third, have we [...]
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 [...]
Startup Tips: Ask Your Customers For Feedback. Then Act.
Mike | October 15th, 2012A few months ago, veteran crowdSPRING Buyers may have noticed something new when they completed wrapup on a project. Instead of just asking them to rate their experience with the winning Creative in their project, we started asking them to also rate us. It’s a simple survey – just 4 questions and a comment box [...]
Small Business and Startups – 13 Great Reads From The Business Press
Mike | September 24th, 2012One of my daily pleasures is to read the paper, the blogs, and the magazines. I typically scan the major stories domestic and international, take a dive into the political coverage, read the opinion pages top to bottom, skim the sports and entertainment sections and then head over to the business section to see what’s [...]
