8 Things Your Employees Need Most
Pay is important. But pay only goes so far. Getting a raise is like buying a bigger house; soon, more becomes the new normal. Higher wages won’t cause employees to automatically perform at a higher level. Commitment, work ethic, and motivation are not based on pay. To truly care about your business, your employees need these eight things—and they need them from you: 1. Autonomy and latitude breed engagement and satisfaction. Whenever possible, give your employees the freedom to work they way they work best. 2. Without a goal to shoot for, work is just work. 3. Let employees know what you want to achieve, for your business, for customers, and even your community. Caring starts with knowing what to care about—and why. 4. Few things are more stressful than not knowing what your boss expects from one minute to the next. When standards change make sure you communicate those changes first. 5. Robots don't care. Make it easy for employees to offer suggestions. 6. 7. 8.
You're Pricing It Wrong: Software Pricing Demystified
Advertisement Pricing your own product is always a tricky proposition, and the more critical the price is to your product’s success, the more difficult it is to set. It’s easy to look at another product and say how much you would be willing to pay for it, but how can you know how much people would be willing to pay for yours? There are no absolute truths or perfect formulas for finding the best price, assuming that the “best price” even exists. Riding the Demand Curve When we price a product, our goal (assuming we’re running a business) is to maximize revenue. Economic theory suggests that as we raise the price, the number of sales will drop. The sweet point is where the intersection forms the largest rectangle. This makes sense… until you consider that your clients are people, and people do not often make rational purchasing decisions. Once you’ve determined what your product is, you need to consider its value to your customers. Pricing Higher And Selling More That’s right. 1. 2. 3. 1.
Product Development: 9 Steps for Creative Problem Solving [INFOGRAPHIC]
Ronald Brown is a successful startup CEO with an extensive background in technology and consumer marketing. His new book, Anticipate. The Architecture of Small Team Innovation and Product Success is available via iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Creativity is the main prerequisite for innovation. What constitutes creative thinking? In business, the process of generating and commercializing a good idea has been honed by creative industries for more than a hundred years.
It’s the CEO’s job to email the first 1000 signups
Until you’ve passed a thousand signups, the CEO should be personally emailing every new user. I’m going to cover: PracticalitiesHow to mess it upCommon objectionsGoals, perks & benefits The signup thank you note It’s not a big message. Hey Jackie,Thanks for taking the time to check out STK. The specifics (like the footer) are just my personal preference[1]. What I hope you’ll extract from the example is the casual tone and brevity. How to mess this up There are only two ways to mess this up and they’re both easy to avoid. The first is to be demanding. You’re just politely putting your hand up and saying: Hey, here I am. The second way to mess up is by forgetting common courtesy. Also, make sure you do it every day. I’ve seen some intros come through with a survey, which I [personally] find to be fairly disrespectful toward your new users’ time (aka my time). Common objections This is an easy list to make because I rattled it off to my investors practically every Friday for a year.
Deadly Meetings in the Workplace
How To Build a Web Startup – Lean LaunchPad Edition
If you’re an experienced coder and user interface designer you think nothing is easier than diving into Ruby on Rails, Node.js and Balsamiq and throwing together a web site. (Heck, in Silicon Valley even the waiters can do it.) But for the rest of us mortals whose eyes glaze over at the buzzwords, the questions are, “How do I get my great idea on the web? What are the steps in building a web site?” My first attempt at helping students answer these questions was by putting together the Startup Tools Page - a compilation of available web development tools. So today, I offer my next attempt. How To Build a Web Startup – The Lean LaunchPad Edition Here’s the step-by-step process we suggest our students use in our Lean LaunchPad classes. (Use the Startup Tools Page as the resource for tool choices) Step 1: Set Up Team Logistics Step 2. Write down your 9-business model canvas hypothesisList key features/Minimal Viable product planSize the market opportunity. Step 4: Website Logistics
