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*Telephone calls throughout the day make you lose effectiveness by the distraction of and loss of concentration. Learn to let the mobile phone in silent and hidden when you have something important to prepare
*Use voice mail to pick up all calls from hidden numbers and numbers that do not know. Save all the phones of people who call you to recognize them in the future.
If someone calls and leaves no message is that it should not be important, send a text message asking if you can help on something
*Whenever you skip the answering machine, leave a detailed voice message saying the reason for your call and the options out there.
Be as specific as you can. There is a message less productive in the world than that of “I wanted to talk to you, call me”
*It brings together all the calls you have to do to make them one after another. You lose less time and more effective if you’re 5 or 10 calls followed that if spread over the morning
*The best time to return calls is at the end of the morning or late in the day, when people have to go to lunch or home is often in a hurry to resolve the issues and get to the point
* People buy products or services primarily to solve a problem. If your business is based on reducing costs or something that simply is more comfortable … care.
Ask yourself what is the problem I am solving? It’s hard to sell a product saying it will produce a small savings to your client. Many customers may see you as a potential source of risks or problems.
Change your product or service to them has a risk: the cost of change. If you want to sell your product based on the cost savings to your customers make sure that those savings is really huge or will not be attractive. No change providers to save a few euros
* Customers who delay a purchase are not slow, are pragmatic, rational and intelligent. Everyone knows that buying is an opportunity to make mistakes, if you can wait, it is reasonable to expect. Your customers will delay buying as long as possible, you must be prepared for lengthy procurement processes. Read the rest of this entry »
* For every euro you spend Aid estimated to need $ 10 more to create the product and $ 100 more for the sales effort. Creating a product is the smallest initial and your business. Sales is where you have to put the bulk of your effort, your energy and resources.
Many entrepreneurs are focused on creating a great product and they forget that the success of a company is selling a great product
* To make a big deal only need two things: a fantastic product and a great sales force. Put all your energy on it. Everything else is secondary.
Think constantly in your sales force. “They are made? Are they motivated? Are the right people? Are they well organized? Do you have the tools they need?
* If you have a sales network, ensure that the remuneration of the sales force is perfectly aligned with what you want for your business. Sales teams maximize your score as you give them incentives. Wrong incentives can cause you many problems such as post-sales
* One of the decisions made happier and less time is the pricing strategy of your business. Many people spend months and months defining your product or services and only a few hours thinking about the price. Arrives later this year and are priced in the year following a rule of thumb and pull miles. Take the time and think about how to systematically collect, why and to whom service. Few decisions are more important than to know to set your prices
* What to you is a huge advantage for your product or service may not be for your clients. Make sure you sell clear and noticeable benefits your customers receive
10 tips to improve your productivity and organizing your time
*Have a good connection, good bandwidth, a powerful computer, a good printer, a good chair and a big screen, double screen better. You can not work without the tools necessary minimum, either at home or at work
*Ten different email accounts for your work and personal life, so you can concentrate on work when you’re working on. The day you leave your work your personal life will be left behind
*Manage the inbox of your email to be left to scratch each day. The inbox is bad place to store phone numbers, files, dos, etc. Separate the information to file it correctly, the remaining tasks to your to-do list, files folders per project. Leave empty inbox every day
*Before a telephone call at least one email exchanges with the other person to detail what you are going to speak and how long the call. If you can save a phone call with an email get more things done day
*Before having a meeting make sure you have talked to the person at least 5 minutes on the phone. If you can save a meeting with a phone call are hours you can use for other tasks
How to Analyze an investment venture capital funds
If you are looking for a venture capital fund to invest in your project the first thing to know is how these funds take their decisions and what criteria they use.
The natural tendency of many entrepreneurs to present their project is much talk of the enormous potential of his idea and perhaps present estimates of cash flows with the expected return on investment, as if talking to the director of a bank for a loan.
But this type of presentation does not conform to the way a VC has to analyze an investment.
Most VCs used in one form or another of these four criteria to analyze an investment:
Vc criteria:
* Team: The most important part of any project, big difference. About are? Where did they come? ” You know what they are doing? Are they going to squander the money or spending it with criterion know? Will they be when there are difficulties, that always there? Read the rest of this entry »
Common Errors
* Start writing a business plan. The business plan is important when seeking funding, to explain to investors what they want to do. But more importantly, before the business plan is to find the computer that you assemble the company.
Without a good team there is no business plan to get funding. Without a good team there is nothing. In August 2006 I wrote a post about how to make a business plan.
* Rush to create the web before getting funding. Many people think that of “I’ll make a beta site for financial understand what I do.” This is a mistake. Without adequate resources, the page that you create is amateur. The investor is startled to see an amateur site and does not invest.
It is much easier to get financing without the page. In my case, the three start-ups which I participated (idealista.com, and 11870.com floresfrescas.com) got funding without showing anything of what it would anywhere. The last thing I want to throw to set up a website and discover, halfway, you need 150,000 euros to do what you wanted. Read the rest of this entry »
*The important legal contracts and capital increases yourself check all calculations and numbers. Many lawyers are lawyers because they did not like math in school.
*In the ideal world, an idea has little initial investment required, positive cash flows from the beginning, real assets, break even close and real barriers to entry.
*Do not worry about getting everything absolutely tied up and well tied. No matter how brilliant an idea is always someone that can come with multiple “what if …”. It is impossible for an idea like the whole world. Even the best opportunities come with risks and things that can go wrong. Read the rest of this entry »
* Starting a business is serious business. It is difficult to do in your spare time or in the evening. If you really want to start a business leave your job, reduce your expenses and devote yourself to it full time. It is the only way to give a chance to succeed in your idea.
* In a project as important is not the idea but the team behind it. Surround yourself the better team in the world and everything will be better. The best idea in the world with a mediocre team does not reach anywhere, but a brilliant team can make a big deal even a mediocre idea.
*Have a serious discussion with your partners on how to allocate capital and what happens if one leaves the ship. Spread half capital and not have a partner agreement is a recipe for conflicts and problems later. Read the rest of this entry »
* Mistakes are how we all learn. Let people make their own mistakes. A cheap and controlled error is a good investment if a lesson well learned. Is better than anyone learn a lesson that is unfortunately not let him do what he wants.
* Treat your employees poorly is always a bad idea, but if your business is up a “people business” where people are key, ill-treat your employees is an idiotic idea.
* Most problems in teams are miscommunication and misunderstanding. Communicate at all times, again and again, with all the equipment which are the priorities, objectives and resources.
It’s amazing how many things you see obvious and the rest of the team has not caught.
* In a team needs diversity. Soloists and chorus. Principal dancers and corps de ballet. You can not treat everyone the same in every situation. Read the rest of this entry »
10 tips to entrepreneurs on how to manage a team in a start-up:
* Brilliant people is not easy to manage. Someone who takes initiative, creativity, and results-oriented leader is usually also curious, rebellious, independent and with their own opinions. The key is to guide and coordinate, not direct and control.
*You need a good working environment to achieve extraordinary results, but the good environment is not an end in itself.
Do everything possible to have a healthy and fun at work but makes clear that the good atmosphere is a means to achieve results above average.
Sometimes you have to accept there is a tension between the “good roll” and the results. All the equipment has to understand that if you have a choice between performance and “good vibes”, the results always win. Read the rest of this entry »