Priority Cue

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Everyone at a Startup Company Has to be a Salesperson

A startup company has to have three basic skillsets to survive: technical, financial, and sales. If those skills are held by the founders of the company, even better, because it gives the business time to get its footing. A common misconception, however, is that only the salespeople have to get out and sell. For a company to succeed and grow, every person has to internalize and act on the belief that it is their duty to actively promote the products, services, and capabilities of the company they work for, because those efforts are what bring profits to the company that pays their salary. Read the rest of this entry

Secrets to Funding a New Business Without Venture Capital

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There is a myth that if you are going to start a company, you need to get outside funding. It is completely not true and it is harmful to a would be entrepreneur to think that way. There are many ways to get the funds necessary to start and operate a business that don’t involve giving ownership of any of your company to outsiders. Of course it depends on what kind of business you are looking to start, but if you want to start your own business and don’t want to have to get investors it you can get it done. There are three ways to make it possible: Keep expenses down, bring in significant revenue quickly, and use other people’s money. Read the rest of this entry

A Successful New Business Idea Needs a Small Market and Competition

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After getting a new business idea, how will you know if it is something that can work? First thing is to define and analyze the market. Next is to identify any competition, or any way that the need is being fulfilled today, then asking why your way is better. Then stretch your idea into something that is unique and better than the competition.

The market is the group of people that can become customers. If the market is everyone, then it is not a viable business idea.

The best ideas have a very narrowly defined set of potential customers that are their ideal targets. If the ideal target can be serviced well, then subsequently the product of service can be altered to broaden the market appeal. But is it best to go for the most likely customers first. Read the rest of this entry

Coming Up With a New Business Idea

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When you have made the decision that you want to start your own business the choices can be overwhelming. There are so many different things that you can do, so many people offering you advice, it can be tempting to fall into analysis paralysis. There are some basic concepts of new business formation that I have seen and thought about over the years that may provide you a starting point.

One of the most defensible businesses is a combination of product and specialized service that works with local customers who have a need. Retail examples are dry cleaners and restaurants. They each have special equipment like steam boilers or kitchens, have some level of consumables like dry-cleaning fluid or food, and expertise in the staff that make them into good, stable businesses. Although these are good businesses, they are not ones that I would choose to start. There is a lot of competition, profit margins are low, there is a lot of management involved, and there is no clear path to making enough money to fast growth. The combination of product and expert services with local customers is a good one, but it has to be in a more profitable arena. Read the rest of this entry

How Cisco Marketing Gets It Wrong with Cisco CIUS

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Cisco CIUS

Cisco has a reputation as a great marketing organization, but with my years of experience selling Cisco products I have to disagree. One of Cisco’s new and fabulous products, the Cisco CIUS, epitomizes that experience. Maybe the space I sell to, the midmarket of 200 to 2000 users, is not the target of Cisco marketing, and the things I have seen are inconsequential to Cisco executives. But so far, I am very disappointed that most of the customers I have talked to have never heard of the Cisco CIUS, even though it was first announced over a year ago. Read the rest of this entry

Getting More Traffic and Rankings with Article Spinning and Spintext

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One of the best ways to get your website to show up in search rankings is to get many other websites linking to it. And one of the best ways to get other websites to link to you is to create unique and valuable content. The problem is that it takes a long time for others to stumble across your website, and only a small percentage of those will actually create a link to your blog posting. Since most people don’t like to wait on random occurrences like this, it is better to go out and get traffic, which is where Article Spinning comes into play. Read the rest of this entry

Tracking Local Business Website Users to Get Leads

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Getting business to business leads from a website is difficult to do, and even harder to measure results. When it works, however, it is a valuable resource to get leads and new business. Measuring the success of business to business brick and mortar business Internet Marketing efforts can be very difficult. Internet sales businesses have it easy – the more effective the marketing, the more sales they get. Retail businesses likewise have it easy – their websites just have to provide clear information on what they do, why they are the best, and provide contact information so people can call them. It is,however, just about impossible to get a potential business customer to fill out a form, and it is no fun passively waiting for interested customers to call. In many cases businesses just put up a basic presence website and hope for the best. There is, however, a better way. Read the rest of this entry