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The Rules for Entrepreneurs
Venture Files founder and former curator, Steven Fisher, wrote a series last year that remains one of the best of its time. Even though he has moved on and is working with Network Solutions, I think it’s as important now (if not more so) than it was last year at this time. This is a…
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Marketing Plan Series: Part 4 – Objectives
In Part 4, we continue building out the goals that must be accomplished through the marketing plan. This section, called “Objectives” is usually only a page in length and are the milestones that you will achieve as you execute your business on a daily basis. The KnowThis web site has a great explanation of the…
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Marketing Plan Series: Part 3 – Problems and Opportunities
As we discussed in Part 2 – Situational Analysis, there is room for the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis. However, what I like to do is take a separate section that really dives into the opportunities and problems deeper so that they can be addressed by specific marketing strategies. Identifying and Maximizing Opportunities…
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Marketing Plan Series: Part 2 – Situational Analysis
The Situational Analysis is probably one of the hardest sections you will right because you are essentially laying out how the product will function in various environments and how it will be perceived in the marketplace. Current Product Analysis (if you have an existing product) If you already have existing products/services you should start with…
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Marketing Plan Series: Part 1 – Summary
Marketing is a key part of business success. You need to decide which customers to target. You need to work out how you will reach and win new customers. You need to make sure that you keep existing customers happy. And you need to keep reviewing and improving everything you do to stay ahead of…
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Rules for Entrepreneurs: 5 Ways to Avoid Founderitis
What is Founderitis? It is been called “Founders Syndrome” and it is not some type of medical disease but rather a disease that can infect your business if you are not careful. The Wikipedia definition of “Founderitis” is stated as follows: The term “founderitis” or “founder’s syndrome” refers to the unhealthy condition that afflicts many…
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Rules for Entrepreneurs: Pay yourself first
Over the last 9 years and two startups I have learned many things and screwed up royally in some cases. This ongoing series is about providing you best practices of lessons learned and avoiding the mistakes I have already made. In the past, I have had good years and bad years. When you have employees,…
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New Series: Writing a Marketing Plan
Since the Business Plan series came to a close I thought of the next logical step in what you have to do in your business to support the business plan and its operations. This next step is the marketing plan. Logically, your CMO or VP of Marketing would be in charge of this effort but…
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New Series Introduction: Rules for Entrepreneurs
As you all know I just wrapped up my Business Plan Series and will be starting a Marketing Plan Series next week. So I started thinking about what smaller bits of advice I could organize in a great ongoing series of posts. This is where I came up with “Rules for Entrepreneurs”. These rules will…
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Do you really want to work in Venture Capital?
I have heard this from many people I have met “I really want to be a VC”. First, why are you asking me when I am not one and don’t have a desire to be one? Let me direct you to some people in the industry and a few who left it to get a…