Montana Associated Technology Roundtables. Montana Uses This | Meet some of Montana's incredible innovators and learn how they get stuff done. Job Board | Innovate Montana. Lean is hard and (generally) good for you. I see so much crap being written for and against Lean Startups that I thought it was worth setting my simple thoughts down on what lean means to me. Concepts to be valid need to be used with some form of rigor and consistency. I am not attempting to rewrite Eric Ries but rather to give a layman’s view of lean as an applicable set of principles.
Fact In the real world, most companies do too much development and spend too much money too early (usually to hit some pre-defined plan that is nothing more than a fantasy and / or is not where they need to go to succeed) and find themselves with an impossible task of raising money at uprounds around Series B. So founders get screwed and everyone ends up with a bad taste in their mouth. That’s fundamentally why early stage capital efficiency should matter to you, and why you should at least understand lean concepts. Lean is a hard and disciplined method Lean forces you to get customer feedback early and continuously. The Disclaimers Conclusion. The Most Overlooked Lean Startup Principle | Random Awesomeness – Jonathan Kay. If you Google “Lean start up” you get over 11 million search results. If you were to mention it at any Boston networking event you could instantly find someone who is reading a book about it, someone practicing it right now, and someone who just wants to talk about it.
In fact its become so over taught / talked about that now people are writing books about books that other people have written. (I know that sounded complicated, but seriously…its true) I mean at this point everyone knows the buzz words right? Fail FastEric ReisSteve BlankSteve’s book (that started it all) Four Steps to the EpiphanyCustomer developmentEarlyvangelistsListen to you customersLaunch early Etc….
Over the past year or two I’ve observed that there is one lean startup principle which is terribly difficult to implement and almost always overlooked. When you are starting up a company, creating something, you are putting it all on the line. Stupid. The stereotypical “Roller-coaster” example exists for a reason right? 1. Principles for Managing Strategy and Innovation. Through the years, I have been intrigued by the number of once powerful companies that are no longer around. Darwinian principles seem to apply in business as much as in biology.
When technology and market environments go through major changes, as is certainly the case today, previously successful business strategies will no longer work, no matter how much you try to fix them. Companies that are unable or unwilling to adapt to the changes in such a Darwinian climate will become marginalized or extinct. It is not hard to understand how I come to this somewhat fatalistic view of business. In the IT industry, I have seen many once leading companies disappear altogether or become shadows of their former selves. More recently, Citi, which I joined as strategic advisor in March of 2008, has gone through its own near-death experience as a result of the financial crisis of the past few years. Why is it that some firms are able to go through ups and downs, yet survive and thrive? Principles for Managing Strategy and Innovation. 40 Ways Small Business Owners Waste Their Money. We were curious to see where business owners waste the most money in the early days.
So we reached out and asked what small business owners thought was the #1 biggest money waster for small business owners. Some common answers focused on different aspects of office space, marketing and hiring staff. Hopefully this list can help you avoid some of these mistakes and help you better invest your businesses money. 1. Bad Advertising – Most new small business owners get bombarded people trying to sell ad space. Do your research and determine if your customer profile matches that of the publishers audience. And don’t commit to long term anything. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. Where do you think small business waste the most money in the early days? Awesome People + Awesome Places Travel around the world while making new friends Tags: featured, small business, wasting money.
Three Steps to a Sound Business Model. By Tom Taulli Portero, which operates an online market for luxury goods, secured $6.6 million in venture capital financing earlier this month. In the press release announcing the deal, one of the investors, LFE Capital Chief Executive Leslie FrÉcon, lauded Portero's business model as a "strong competitive advantage. " That sort of comment may just sound like standard-issue boilerplate, and in many cases it can be. But it also points up an underlying truth that entrepreneurs need to understand: All successful ventures need a clear business model, and any qualified investor will want to see it before making an investment.
The poor economic environment means even more emphasis will be placed on your business model. But what is a business model? Customer Value Proposition: A strong customer value proposition means your product or service helps to solve a problem or provide a benefit. While these companies have sophisticated offerings, their customer value propositions are downright simple. Digital Templates. Develop and communicate new business models In addition to the Business Model Kits for brainstorms, you can play around with the digital templates below. The 16 business model blocks are the perfect tool to map out new revenue models, alliance models, and different monetization strategies.
Why care? We all know the drill: You lock up some creative talents in a brainstorm room, feed them enough post-its and flip-charts, and after a few hours you end up with chaotic piles of rough ideas. When your new strategic goals are in there somewhere, you need a method to document them properly for later use. Luckily, our business model icons are available in multiple digital formats! “Amazing how the 16 building blocks of Board of Innovation forces you to get real about an idea” “It’s a great tool to open up the possibilities of business models & also to rethink and/or reshape the ideas you might already have!”
Pitch your business model ideas Professional digital downloads Professional Templates (free) Business Models on the Web | Professor Michael Rappa. Business models are perhaps the most discussed and least understood aspect of the web. There is so much talk about how the web changes traditional business models. But there is little clear-cut evidence of exactly what this means. In the most basic sense, a business model is the method of doing business by which a company can sustain itself -- that is, generate revenue. The business model spells-out how a company makes money by specifying where it is positioned in the value chain. Some models are quite simple. A company produces a good or service and sells it to customers.
If all goes well, the revenues from sales exceed the cost of operation and the company realizes a profit. Internet commerce will give rise to new kinds of business models. Business models have been defined and categorized in many different ways. The basic categories of business models discussed in the table below include: The models are implemented in a variety of ways, as described below with examples. Things to read: Behavioral economics summit for startups. Fighting for the next business model in the pets industry. I had in the last months the chance to apply business model thinking & innovation on several, very diverse industries: the airline and travel industry, the pets industry and some time ago on the media industry, particularly newspaper.
In the upcoming three next posts, I will share some insights I gained from using the business model canvas on these industries. The series will start with the pets industry. A word of warning to all industry experts: I am not an expert for these industries. I’m not a pet industry expert. I am an expert for the process of re-thinking and re-inventing business models. Pets Industry – A revolution in the making The following slide deck is my presentation, I gave on January 27th, 2012 in Berlin at the Pets International conference.
Enjoy also my new design of the business model canvas I have created together with Gottschalk & Ash, a designer with the support of the Wolfsburg AG, an innovation incubator in Germany. Pets are man’s best and dear friends. Small Business Leadership Speaker: Are you as smart as a GOOSE? Small Business Leadership Speaker: Are you as smart as a GOOSE? Posted by Marvin LeBlanc on Fri, Oct 28, 2011 @ 12:16 PM As you’re running your business on a day-to-day basis (yes including all the dirty work, meetings, client calls, hassles, heartaches and headaches)… do you ever stop and wonder if there’s an easier way? Does the thought occur to you – as it has to me oh so many times – that this whole work and business thing should simply NOT be this hard. Finally, has it occurred to you to ask the key question, “How can I make it easier on my team – my customers – and myself?”
Animals can teach humans so much if we simply observe. Take a flock of geese for example. The small business smarts of geese: 1. Ponder these questions about the small business leadership lessons of geese: 1. The Safest Small Business Startup Strategies Are Virtual, Guerrilla, and Flexible. Our continually struggling economy, at least on ground-level, is sending aspiring entrepreneurs mixed messages. On one hand, there’s enormous incentive to stake your claim at a time when competition is low and human resources are high.On the other hand, the still-unknowable future state of our national and global economies is enough to intimidate even the most ardent of entrepreneurs. While we often can’t make up our minds as to whether to invest our capital into budding businesses or stow it away in StorageMart lockers for fear of an economic Armageddon, there are ways to make your enterprising dreams come true while minimizing the risk of these uncertain times: Virtualization The lingering frailty of the real estate market means that at any moment another crisis could lead to rising rent as mortgages skyrocket.
For start-ups renting office space, this could devastate the budget for monthly expenses. Guerrilla Marketing Flexibility Want to be our next guest author? UpStart Bootcamp : Online Course. Perceptions, Biases, & Stereotypes: Accepting Differences in Thinking in Business & Life. Whether or not we like to admit it, we all view the world through the lens of our personal biases and stereotypes. It’s an unavoidable fact of human nature. If you accept it and go with it, you’ll only gain- both in business and in life. Lately, I have come across several provocative articles on the topic of perceptions and stereotypes. Here are a few of the notable ones: Business World Perceptions, Mis-Perceptions and Judging Books by Their Covers: The Curious Case of Dolph Lundgren! In the business world, everything revolves around the perceptions, values, and biases of your customers, employees, and business partners.
Today, being in touch with these attitudes is all the more important as businesses big and small are pushing the geographical boundaries aside to operate in the global marketplace with multicultural, multinational teams, and as the world in general becomes increasingly interconnected. The truth is that our perceptions, biases and stereotypes have a purpose. Blog growth, balance & street smarts | Fastgrowth Advisors - Business Advisors.
It worked for them. Will it work for me? April 17th, 2012 During a recent meeting, I was asked about an early viral video campaign I developed way back in 2006. My client loved what we had accomplished and asked whether he should do the same thing. My answer: “Maybe, maybe not. You’re asking the wrong question.” Marketing discussions should never start with execution. Street Fighting Strategy January 11th, 2012 [excerpt from our ebook, The 13 Deadly Sins of Marketing] On the mean streets of marketing, where thugs lurk in every alley and aisle, your choices are few. What’s Your Innovation Sweet Spot? January 9th, 2012 It is fashionable among innovation writers to scorn Sustaining Innovation (what this blog calls Organic Growth) – the kind of incremental product changes that allow ads to scream “New!
We have argued that the only rational innovation strategy is to balance effort behind both organic sustaining growth and disruptive innovation. May 9th, 2011 - Seth Godin, Linchpin May 5th, 2011. Get big or sell up. Business Blog Rankings From Wikio – Sneak Peek! On the 5th of every month, Wikio.com publishes its updated ranking of blogs, in various categories, including business blogs. This month they gave us a sneak peek at the new rankings for the Business Blog category. For blog rankings, Wikio takes into account the number of tweets and the weight and number of other sites linking to the blogs, among other things. As a result, Wikio generates an up-to-date blog ranking and the Wikio Blog Ranking makes it a place to find blogs to scope out. Thanks to you, dear readers, we were delighted to see that Small Business Trends experienced a nice leap forward in the Wikio Rankings for business blogs and now stands in the top 15 business blogs.
It is an honor to be in the company of sites like GigaOm, Techdirt, Freakonomics, BusinessInsider War Room and others. Below you will find an early “sneak peek” preview of the very latest list of Wikio’s Top Business Blog Rankings, that is coming out officially tomorrow (May 5, 2011): Ranking from Wikio. OPEN Forum. Joshua D. White | Entrepreneur Development & Business Growth | Strategy, Marketing & Innovation. Blog. 7 Reasons You Shouldn’t Give Up on the Dream | EntrepreneurHeat. The way of the entrepreneur is fraught with danger. You’ve got to climb mountains of skepticism and cross chasms of underfunding, where beneath you the skeletons of ill-fated startups lie… and there’s only that thin rope of your own determination keeping you up there, alive.
Nobody said being an entrepreneur was easy, but I bet some days you didn’t expect it would be quite so hard. You probably didn’t expect you’d be reading words like “fraught” either. Life is just full of little surprises like that. So you’re struggling along; maybe you’re at a low point, believing you really are crazy for dreaming. Maybe that nine-to-fiver is looking really good right about now. Maybe you’re tired of being so dang determined, you’d like to have a real day off, and you’re thinking, Really, is a normal job that bad? [via Young Entrepreneur - Small Business & Entrepreneur Community » Blog] Follow us @entrepreneurht – lists / @blackbolenay Follow us @entrepreneurht - lists / @sectorheat. Chris Ducker | Virtual Assistants | Passive Income | Personal Branding | 4 Hour Work Week.
Bud to Boss. Creating A Blog Is Easy; Building A Community Requires So Much More. Lead Change Group - Leaders Growing Leaders. The Frugal Entrepreneur | Small Business Tips, Resources, & Frugality. Creating Business Value. - Thisisgoingtobebig.com. Solo Entrepreneur Blog | Business Building Resources for the Solo Entrepreneur. Do you: Want a lifestyle business with freedom to enjoy your family, work from anywhere, and take vacations? Want to do work you enjoy, with ideal clients, and make a DIFFERENCE? Enjoy independence and relish making your own decisions? Want to grow your business faster...and further? Seek access to resources you can TRUST? From the desk of Terri Zwierzynski, The Solo-CEO Online Marketing Strategist Dear Freedom-Loving Solopreneur, If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, you're in the right place!
That's exactly what I had in mind when I was laid off after 15 years in Corporate America. I'm not here to sell you on a particular system. If you're ready to... ...consider this: nowhere else on the Web will you find so many PROVEN resources for building a successful, freedom-based business, 100% screened and vetted by a community of successful solopreneurs. Want to learn more? "25+ Entrepreneur Experts ~ 350+ Years of Wisdom Their Must-Know Advice: Priceless" and get started TODAY! Welcome to Innovation America. The Suitcase Entrepreneur. BootstrapBusiness.org | How to Start A Small Business.
Top 10 Most Practical Blogs for Entrepreneurs. The Safest Small Business Startup Strategies Are Virtual, Guerrilla, and Flexible. UpStart Bootcamp : Online Course. Founders. Hiring & HR. From Business Models to "Betterness" Models - Umair Haque - Harv. Challenges of Getting Early Adopters, Acquiring Customers & Monetizing | Femgineer. The 6 Keys To Real Sustainable Competitive Advantage. The Yin And Yang Of Product And Engineering. How To Make Your Product Stand Out Without Going Broke. 5 Tips To Transition From A Free To A Paid Service. Finding And Buying A Domain Name. Are Typosquatters Hijacking Your Brand? - Advertising Age - Digi. Startup Lifecycle. Everybody Wants Their Pound of Flesh (Negotiating with Buyers) Nat Turner (Startup sales strategy) Advice From Founders Who Bootstrapped Their Way to Success. 57 things I’ve learned founding three companies.
How To Pick A Company Name: Tips From The Trenches. Startups: What’s in a name? The 13 Best Business Lessons From "Rework" 5 Questions The Best Networkers Ask. How To Network Like A Pro. How To Turn Personal Posts Into Good Business Blogging. 92 Ways to Get (and Maximize) Press Coverage. Raising Money On AngelList: 21 Tips From Two Active Angels. Behind the Scenes: How Fab Raised $40 million with a lot of data and not much pain. Does Your Startup Have a Good Story? How to nail the five-minute pitch. Raising Money On AngelList: 21 Tips From Two Active Angels. How We Raised $1.3 Million As First-Time Founders.
Small Business Ideas and Resources for Entrepreneurs. Business & Small Business. Forbes. Government. Software. HBR Elevator Pitch Tool. 10 Blogs Entrepreneurs Need to Be Reading | Grasshopper Company Blog. Marketing.