Month: March 2015

Entrepreneurs are told to talk to customers, talk to customers. Talk to customers to know the pain they experience and to identify the problem. Talk to customers to get feedback on the solution and confirm a problem-solution fit. Soliciting feedback from potential customers is not a straight forward exercise. Good feedback is received when persons believe the outcome is possible and they have a material stake in the solution.

Persons must experience pain or discomfort which allows them to identify with the problem. The degree to which the pain is experienced differs from person to person. Persons may experience pain but the problem may seldom occur. Hence, the discomfort is short lived and really not worth the time and effort searching for a solution or investing in one.

Some may encounter the problem more frequently and thus experience a higher pain level. The displeasure causes these persons to search for a solution. They investigate options but may not have adopted any solution for several reasons. Potential reasons are a lack of understanding of how the solution works, no immediate help, or a high learning curve.

There are those who experience acute pain and have adopted a solution. However, the solution may not be ideal and leave them wanting something that fits like a hand in glove. They continue to search for something better.

Obviously, the persons who have searched for a solution are your target customers. Finding them is a challenge. However, getting their attention is a bigger challenge. These persons are likely to be risk averse. Most likely, they seek a solution from an established and trusted entity. They want something that works from a reputable supplier. Getting a foot in the door is difficult for startups.

In order to get their attention startups first have to develop credibility. This can be achieved in several ways. Partnerships with reputable firms can alleviate this concern. Another tactic is framing your value proposition in such a way that usage is low risk or risk free. In propositioning your customers you must address the key credibility concerns. Can you deliver? Are you reliable? Are you safe? For businesses these are major concerns since they have to trust your service or product in their business processes.

People don’t have the time for you. They are busy and have enough on their plate, especially, when the engagement may be a continuous dialogue or a series of activities over a period. They want something to implement now. This does not mean that you cannot get their attention. To get their attention it must be worth their while. There must be something material in it for them; if not immediately, then certainly at the end of the process. Otherwise, they can simply wait for the final solution.

There are several ways you can answer the question: What’s in it for me? Use rewards to solicit meaningful involvement. Recognition is a powerful motivation. Crowd funding sites reward contributors with mentions or credits for their involvement. Rewards can be tangible with significant upside. One site offers a small share of equity in the business for persons who aid in key tasks. Information is a valuable tool. For example, in return for participating in surveys a firm conducting the survey offers participant a free copy of the survey report. Another approach is to convince persons of new business opportunities which they can take advantage of.

However you talk to your customers, you must first connect with them so that you get priority. Needless to say you have to be creative. Otherwise, you are simply wasting your time.

I just counted the number of apps that I use; 30. They include the popular mainstay apps such as Gmail and WordPress and also the relatively new like Tempo and Wave. Don’t get put off by the headline. I am not suggesting that apps should replace employees. Like employees, apps can help you accomplish certain key tasks.

For startups the decision to hire staff is usually postponed until resources permit. Until such time the job still has to be done. In that case, hire an app. Apps allow entrepreneurs to do more with the little resources they have; especially time and money. In many instances, apps lower the expertise requirement and allow the entrepreneur to achieve more with basic knowledge.

Apps can be free or paid. There are good free apps. One of my favorites is Wave. Wave is a free accounting package. If you can post a transaction you can use this app.

A mainstay is Elance. I use Elance to find freelancers from lawyers to graphic designers online.

Recently, I began using the indispensible Google Contacts. It will take a while to organize your contacts at first but it’s worth it. Emails are normally the first point of meaningful contact and the main basis on which communication occurs.

Google Contacts create the base contact record from the email information. Hence, providing the basic by which other contact information can be readily added. Since many persons have Gmail email addresses building the contact record is made easier.

The main point is to organize your contacts. Categorize them into groups or circles. Trust me your contacts spread across business cards, emails and on your address book become a gold mine for marketing when sanitized into one place.

Recently, I discovered Hootsuite. I write blogs and post articles to different social media. Previously, I posted the articles on several social media platforms and forums therein, one at a time. This took a few minutes well. With Hootsuite, I can post several many platforms from one source and get insightful metrics. This saves time.

For calendar and appointments management I use Tempo. Tempo is intelligent. For example, you can say ‘Call John Doe’ and Tempo will insert the contact information of John Doe from your address book into the appointment. So the phone number is right at your fingertips at the time to call.

Evernote is another mainstay. I use it to make notes, organize my ideas and maintain my to-do-list. It’s accessible on all devices and the information is synced across accounts.

For a CRM I just started using Insightly. I like this app because it is free and integrates into Google applications.  It’s available on mobile too.

Bannersnack makes internet advertising easy. It has a really cool interface to create your own banners; powerful stuff at your fingertips!

A must have is Dropbox, the cloud based file storage system. Dropbox is becoming ubiquitous being integrated into more and more apps daily. This makes files accessible over a larger number of your favorite apps on different devices.

Other apps of interest are Optimizely, Google Analytics, Unbounce, and Pingdom. Check them out.

Each person needs are different so a different suite of apps may apply to you. To find great apps I use Get Apps. Many times I stumble across new apps while browsing the internet and from blogs that I follow. 

The bias is always to get the free stuff. While some great apps are free the real benefits of others have a price tag. Many use a subscription model that keeps the price low and allows you to manage without necessarily hiring staff.