Leads: Bad to Worse

Of course you are aiming for a YES. But when you get a NO, remember, all NOs are not the same.

Jack of All Trades or Master of One?

If you are launching a service business, you have choices: 

1. Be everything to everyone
2. Be very targeted with a niche service to a small subset
3. Be some combination of the above

Target the Low Hanging Fruit

The most important step in a new business is finding the first customer. And then finding the next customer after that and the one after that...

True Lies: Building a Reputation

New entrepreneurs are overflowing with enthusiasm. They are creating their reputation, often from scratch.  

Interesting vs. Interested: Which one are you?

"I do this. And I also do that."

Forgo a Logo

In the first month of starting a business, the most important task is to validate your customer problems and find a paying customer. 

Customer Pipeline Dreams

Tossing and turning? Trying to figure out how to grow your business, and you glance at the clock and see it is 4 am?  Creating a self sustaining customer acquisition strategy is one way to feel more confident about the future and sleep easier.

This contains little to no spam. Promise.

As alluring as social media is, it is fleeting and many people never see the posts more than once if at all.

Email provides one of the highest conversions in online marketing because everyone checks their emails – even if only looking at the subject line, and it is always in their inbox until deletion. Catching folks on social media is hit-or- miss.

Symptoms of Customer Acquisition Procrastination Syndrome

It's an epidemic out there in the entrepreneurial world. 

Anyone out there suffering from CAPS (Customer Acquisition Procrastination Syndrome)? Symptoms include the eager urge to work on ANYTHING and EVERYTHING except finding customers to build a new business. Your doctor (or mentor) doesn't need to tell you that building a business is contingent on finding paying customers, yet new entrepreneurs often dive into the more fun, less important tasks first!

Crowdfunder Blunder: Leverage Crowdfunding or Waste of Time?

Have you ever heard aspiring entrepreneurs casually say: "Oh I'll just put it on Kickstarter".   I've heard that quite a bit recently and I thought I'd investigate.

Outreach Out of Hand: The Social Media Vortex

Beware of the gigantic social media time vortex.

15 tweets, 6 updates and 8 status messages later, you realize your whole day has disappeared! The lure of social media is hard to resist. Instant gratification, constant validation, and the illusion of productivity make the channel irresistible. It's also so easy! So you can understand why many first-time entrepreneurs, even without a product or customer, turn to the social media first. I was definitely guilty of this: before I had a concrete business idea, a paying customer, or a vision, I created 3 twitter accounts supporting my future business endeavors! What a waste of time, in retrospect.