Newsletter: Customer Discovery Interviews
Customer discovery interviews are key to discerning if a market exists for a product or service. Honing your discovery skills is essential for scaling.
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Lessons Learned From 9 Years Of Blogging
I started this blog in October of 2006–3 years after incorporating SKMurphy, Inc. in August of 2003–so this month represents the start of my tenth year of blogging. In the last nine years I have published 1552 posts, which total 871,535 words of writing or the rough equivalent of a dozen novels. What follows are some
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Seven Aphorisms From James Guida’s Marbles
James Guida published a hundred page collection of aphorisms in 2009 called “Marbles.” Here are seven that I think entrepreneurs will find thought provoking, by reminding them of an old mistake or helping them to recognize a current shortcoming.
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Quotes For Entrepreneurs–October 2015
You can follow @skmurphy to get these quotes for entrepreneurs hot off the mojo wire or wait until they are collected in a blog post at the end of each month. Enter your E-mail address if you would like to have new blog posts sent to you. This month features a flurry of quotes from
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8 Tips For Bootstrapping A Service Business
Michael J. Riordan is a certified public accountant who has been in business in San Jose for more than 35 years. He gave a crisp briefing on “Bootstrapping a Service Business” at the Thursday Oct 8 PATCA meeting. He gave a great set of tips, here are my notes:
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Making Tea
In the last decade I have switched to drinking tea from coffee. I came across a neat process description for making tea by George Orwell in “A Nice Cup Of Tea” that mirrored what I do–except for adding milk or cream to my tea. I was struck by how often we think we have come
Roderick Huiskamp: Five Ways to Explore Pricing
Roderick Huiskamp (@RoderickH) is a Strategic Marketing Analyst with Fedex in Belgium. In this guest post he offers five ways to explore pricing, with three additional suggestions for the special case of professional services.
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Adeo Ressi: Don’t Lose Your Purpose In A Pivot
Adeo Ressi (@adeoressi) is a serial entrepreneur and currently CEO and cofounder of the Founder Institute. At Startupfest 2015, he gave a keynote with the theme: “What you do with your startup is your life’s work, ideally your destiny, and you don’t pivot on the purpose of your life.” Here are four key excerpts from his talk with
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Scaling Up To a High Reliability Organization
Randy Cadieux, founder of V-Speed LLC, started to post some interesting articles in the Lean Startup Circle Group on LinkedIn in June of this year, in particular his “Working on the Edge of Failure.” The high reliability organization as a lot to teach startups so I decided to reach out to him to compare notes. This led
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Quotes For Entrepreneurs–September 2015
You can follow @skmurphy to get these quotes for entrepreneurs hot off the mojo wire or wait until they are collected in a blog post at the end of each month. Enter your E-mail address if you would like to have new blog posts sent to you.
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Newsletter: When and How to Seek Investment
Our September newsletter on “When and How to Seek Investment” when and how to make the transition from bootstrapping to seek investment.
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Service Factory Conversation with Bruce La Fetra
I recently had a conversation with Bruce La Fetra of La Fetra Consulting on a “Service Factory” concept I have been working on. What follows is a 20 minute audio and edited transcript of some of the key points in our conversation. I have added some hyperlinks for clarity.
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Asking Questions From A Caring Perspective
I used to think it was the advice I offered that provided the highest value to clients and friends. I talk to a number of people in different or challenging situations. Recently I have come to appreciate that it’s when I focus and listen to someone explain their situation, asking them questions from a caring perspective to
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Primary Research Tools: Q&A With Jen Berkley Jackson
I recently did an in depth interview with Jen Berkley Jackson of The Insight Advantage on primary research tools. Jen works with companies to help them make sure that they understand their customers better than any competitor or potential competitor. Her firm performs primary research for clients, using a variety of tools to gather information
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Organizing Your Experiment Log
In Chapter 9 of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” Robert Pirsig goes into an extended explanation of the Scientific Method using the metaphor of motorcycle repair. He stresses the value of an experiment log, explaining how to organize it so that you don’t become lost in exploring for solutions to a problem. I have
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Mark Twain on a Dumb Sense of Vast Loss
Mark Twain writes about a “dumb sense of vast loss” upon learning his daughter has died unexpectedly from meningitis in chapter 6 of his autobiography. He offers an analogy to a house burning down causing an overwhelming sense of loss that takes years to process.
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Five Aphorisms from Fabrizio Caramagna
Fabrizio Caramagna curated “The New Italian Aphorists” in 2013, including a selection of his own aphorisms. Here are 5 that entrepreneurs will find useful.
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Joseph Mancuso’s Insights on Entrepreneurship
Joseph Mancuso wrote “How to Start, Finance, and Manage Your Own Small Business” and included an “Entrepreneur’s Quiz” a self-assessment for entrepreneurs. His explanation for the reasons behind some of the questions includes the following nuggets:
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Pearl Harbor to 9-11 to the Panopticon
The instrumentation of advertising-driven firms that sell their audience as the product and government efforts to prevent another 9-11 have combined to put us all in the pervasive surveillance of a panopticon.
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Abigail Miller on Great Demo Workshop Benefits
After every Great Demo! workshop we follow up with every participant to learn What results have you observed from applying the Great Demo! method so far? Do you have any success stories to report or share? Are there any questions you’d like to have addressed regarding the methods or concepts? Have you encountered situations where
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