Sales, Marketing, and Strategy
The Top Ten Mistakes First Time Entrepreneurs Make
“You’re a first time CEO. You’re going to make mistakes.” That’s what investors say about first time CEOs. And, you know what, investors are right, you’re going to make mistakes. However, why make business mistakes when you can avoid them. In today’s video, I’ll walk you through the top ten mistakes entrepreneurs make. Plus, I’ll…
Read MoreHow Fast Is Too Fast For Your Startup To Grow?
“We are going to grow our earnings by one penny per share per quarter,” Jack Gifford, Maxim Integrated Products founding CEO, regularly said to public market sell side analysts. And every quarter, like a clock, the company grew earnings at one penny per quarter or better. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I…
Read MoreHow Do You Determine Your Total Available Market?
Understanding how big your total available market is a critical step in building your startup, and understanding your TAM is a critical slide when you’re fundraising. Yet most entrepreneurs get their total available market slide wrong. Part of the problem is should you present your TAM or your SAM? Or, maybe you should you present…
Read MoreHow Often Should You Call A Big Potential Customer?
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received was from a mentor I had named Lew. Lew was an old school sales guy, trained by the legendary Don Valentine at Fairchild Semiconductor back in the day. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. After working at Fairchild,…
Read MoreThe Right Way For You To Handle A Competitive Threat
When I worked at Maxim Integrated Products, we used to have our planning meetings over at the Peppermill restaurant in Cupertino. I think it’s gone now, but it was a great venue for us to meet at. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] The Peppermill was great because,…
Read MoreHow Do You Build An Innovative Startup?
James Carville, Bill Clinton’s chief strategist when Clinton ran for president in 1992 famously described their pitch to voters in one simple phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Clinton and Carville’s relentless focus on the economy. Clinton’s opponent, President George Bush, didn’t focus on the economy and he paid the price, losing to Clinton. [Do you…
Read MoreThe Real Reasons Your Startup Isn’t Scaling
You launched your startup’s first product, and, now that it’s been in the market for a while, you can see it’s not scaling and you just don’t know why? In today’s video, I’m going to explain the likely reasons why your having trouble scaling and what you can do to fix it. I’ve launched hundreds…
Read MoreWhen Should You Fire Your VP Sales?
You just hired your new VP Sales six months ago, and now you’re beginning to wonder if you made a mistake. Your previous VP Sales only lasted three months, and now you’re worried that your board is going to lose confidence in you too. What should you do? In today’s video, we go through this…
Read MoreHow Do You Deal With A Problem Customer?
Your largest customer, representing over 80 percent of your revenue, threatens they are not going to work with you anymore. Making matters worse, your startup is in the middle of fundraising. What should you do? In today’s video, I’m going to go over this real life problem that a startup CEO I’m advising, “Gary”, is…
Read MoreWhat Should You Do When Your Revenue Isn’t Growing?
“Revenue is always a lagging indicator of success,” I said to “Kevin.” [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] We were reviewing his progress, and he was behind plan. But I was seeing progress, and I wanted to remind Kevin. “What do you mean?” Kevin asked me. “Revenue is…
Read More