Dr Jeff Cornwall

Welcome to the Carnival of Entrepreneurship! Those of you who are regular visitors to my site are familiar with Carnival of the Capitalists. This is a similar project, but this travelling collection focuses just on Entrepreneurship. Each week we pick seven (7) posts, often from sites that you may not have visited before. If you are interested in submitting posts and/or hosting this Carnival in the future, please visit About Entrepreneurs for more information. Thanks to all of you for the great submissions! As always it was hard to pick only seven.
Marketing and Business Relationships
Chris at Adventures in Capitalism lasted longer than I did watching American Inventor. He was reminded in the first episode about the importance of creating real value when introducing a new product or a new service. The “cool” factor is not enough to sustain a new venture over the long-term. You need to think like your customers and truly provide something they need. If it does not create real value to its intended customers, a new business will not have the legs to last.
One was to prove that you offer your customers real value is by letting current customers tell them. Testimonials can be a powerful marketing tool for small businesses trying to demonstrate to the market that they are legitimate and effective player in the market. Small Biz Survival offers an excellent summary of why and how to use testimonials. Even a fairly new business can build testimonials if it provides what the customers really want. Don’t be afraid to ask!
One critical skill that many people overlook when preparing to launch a new business is selling. As much as you’d like to think it will, very few products or services will “sell themselves.” The entrepreneur has to learn to sell not only to new customers, but to prospective investors, lenders, employees, landlords, suppliers, and so forth. David offers his thoughts on how to be more effective at selling at Career Intensity. His main point is to be yourself!
I was reminded of one of my favorite chapter titles from You Have to Be a Little Crazy by Barry Moltz is “Networking is not a Verb” when I read this post from Brain Food Blog. It is an interview by David Teten with Pamela Walker Laird about the power of strategic relationship building (a.k.a. networking with a purpose in mind).
It is amazing to me how little civility there is today in business. Common courtesy is not so common any more. Jason reflects on all of this at A Thought Over Coffee. What people fail to recognize is how inconsiderate behavior toward potential customers ruins so many chances to build their business. Returning phone calls, being honest, building a real relationship are all critically important marketing tools. The good news it that those who are considerate and polite will stand out from the crowd.
Financial Management
The whole idea of budgeting can be overwhelming for a new business. Creating and monitoring a budget can take time and energy away from what you need to do to bring business in the door. Many entrepreneurs fail to keep up with a traditional line item budget from month to month. After all, many of us are our own bookkeepers when we first get started. Firevalt offers a simple approach to get you started on budgeting that gets you to focus on what is really important when your business is getting started: getting to positive cash flow each month.
So why do we need to keep track of our numbers? Michael at Marketing and Entrepreneurship offers a lesson he learned from working out and getting in shape. As he learned in the gym, what gets measured gets improved. Powerful words for any growing business!