The best way for startups to avoid mistakes during the venture capital fundraising process is to know what those mistakes are. Is it a problem with your positioning? Was your messaging unclear? Jason at A Smart Bear sat through hundreds of VC pitches and came up with these common errors: Invalid competitive advantages Lacking an unfair advantage No one said they’d buy the product in the first place Believing that uniqueness cancels out competition Defining the company by the competition instead of constructing an individual message No significant route to customers Hyperlinks…
Do you know when to give out 1099 forms or the tax law behind them? VentureBeat as a quick financial FAQ to help you through this pesky tax season. The 1099 goes to everyone you pay, except if: the recipient is a corporation you included the payment in a W-2 form (to an employee) the payment is for a tangible product (office supplies, computers, etc), or the total payments during the calendar year were less than $600. Know who’s a corporation: Did you know that AWS (Amazon Web Services LLC)…
A contract can provide a lot of insight to the belief system of a company, depending on how it’s worded. More specifically, a transparently worded contract will invoke the feelings of trust and assurance in a transaction. The opposite, however, is also true. If you have a jargon-laced contract that comes off as obscure or convoluted, this will stress a transaction. It’s easy to see when a contract is being worked-over. As a result, technology trends in the industry have led to a move away from obscurity and towards transparency. When it comes to technology and law, there is more…
At the heart of the matter, change is an emotional issue.
Change usually stems from an event that is just as tied to your impulses as it is to your logical brain. This makes change hard to quantify and understand in exact terms. One thing that is certain about change is that it’s unavoidable. Everybody, at some point in their professional and personal lives, has to deal with change. Furthermore, change depends on the given situation. How we perceive it will vastly be impacted by the situation in which we encounter it.…
Telecommuting has gotten a bad rap. Many employers think that work-from-home employees sit around in their jammies, personifying low productivity. But new research has shown that flexible work programs may actually boost employee retention rates and employee job satisfaction. Research conducted last year by management consultancy Bain & Co. found that flexible work arrangements could increase retention rates by up to 40% amongst women and 25% amongst men, The Work Buzz reported. Work Buzz also asked Henry G. Jackson, interim president and chief executive officer of SHRM, his thoughts on telecommuting: “Workplace…
We all know that diversity in the workplace is essential—but did you know it can help foster innovation amongst teams as well? Bill Swann, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, studied diversity and found: “… expressing personal identities in groups seems to have beneficial effects because those who express themselves are more likely to feel known and understood, because they actually are better known and understood. Feeling known and understood causes people to open up, which can foster creative solutions to problems confronting the group.” While you…
Strategic coherence is vital to connecting to your customers and developing your business. Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi explain what strategic coherence is: Connecting what you sell with your unique capabilities—all within the framework of your way of creating value for your customers. Here are 2 of Allahcentric’s 5 ways to get strategic coherence now: Treat strategy, capabilities and cost together Find an attractive market that values what you do best Think about every item of cost as an investment Disproportionately allocate your costs to your essential capabilities and streamline the remaining…
Sales managers, take note—here’s your new credo: To achieve consistently superior results through the performance of every key individual. Now … how do you increase the sales productivity of your team? Ask yourself Jonathan Farrington’s 7 questions: Do you understand their motivators? Do you have visibility of their numbers—year to date, forecast vs. required performance? Are they working hard and smart enough? Are they deeply engaging with their prospects/accounts? Are they capable of delivering an appropriate message at the right level? Are they only spending time on deals where they can compete and…
Other companies are growing so quickly—how can you speed up your company growth and business value? If you’re looking to overhaul your economic model and grow rapidly, Marty O’Neill has the strategy for you. Here are the first 3 steps in Marty’s 5 Steps to Accelerate the Growth of Your Firm: Specialize A narrow focus makes faster growth easier to attain. When you’re trying to be a one-stop shop for everyone, you lose the ability to differentiate yourself from the crowd, and nobody’ll find you special. See the World Through the Eyes of…
A best estimated selling price can be a crucial tool to help you manage a revenue stream and your product positioning. With it, you can accurately calculate pricing based on your company’s business growth strategies. In order to create a best estimated selling price, you need to consider how much of a profit margin you’re looking to reach. Additionally, you need to establish a baseline model that you will go to for future pricing estimates. Using a selling price estimate, you’re able to gauge how your product should sell and what it should sell for. As a result, you’re going…
