Get Your Business in Shape in 2014

Posted by baileyko under Startups
From http://upandrunning.bplans.com 3752 days ago
Made Hot by: NolanGreen on January 14, 2014 1:15 pm

It’s pretty funny, actually, how well weight loss and fitness advice translates to managing a business and “trimming the fat” out of your company’s operations budget.

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Written by lyceum
3748 days ago

Caroline: Please give my best regards to Tim! I know about LivePlan and my friend and fellow tea enthusiast, Palle Frid Svensson, tested it for a bit some time ago. I have been invited to join a new online venture in the "personal branding" clothing area, as content creator and social media evangelist. I am interested in a free trial for this startup project and then have talk about social media activities. I got very inspired by a Lisa Bruckner's blog post, Starting a Home Business: an honest diary from 2009.

I will send you a message on LinkedIn.

All the Best,

Martin

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Written by carolinecummings
3748 days ago

Thanks Martin for the question. I celebrate my wins in different ways. It depends on what the project or campaign was about. In my last start-up, my lead developer built our entire app (MVP style) in less than 8 months, and we had revenue in under 12 months. It was a definitely celebratory-worthy! I invited in the people who helped us get to where we were as quickly as we did (mentors, business advisors, customers, family, etc). I said a nice little speech recognizing each person individually to point out how their involvement contributed to our success - and we sipped champagne!

By the way - if you're not familiar with what I mean by "MVP" it means Minimum Viable Product. You can read ore here: http://theleanstartup.com/principles It's basically a way to get your product out into the market in the most minimum way where you can learn from your customers before building the entire product to scale.

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Written by carolinecummings
3748 days ago

Hi Martin. The Lean Startup Principles do go hand in hand with the Business Model Generation. And yes - I do work at Palo Alto Software and know Tim very well. :)

Since you're asking about lean tools. We have an app called LivePlan.com and it is a lean pitching, planning, and managing app. I hope this doesn't sound too salesy, but you can create a 1-page business plan, export it into a 10-slide PowerPoint investor pitch deck, write a complete/investor-ready business plan, and then track your financials on the Scoreboard in LivePlan (it also integrates with QuickBooks Windows and Xero/cloud accounting). It's a powerful lean tool. Let me know if you want a free trial. Connect with me on Linkedin and I'll send it to you from there. My Linkedin profile is: www.linkedin.com/in/carolinecummings/

Thanks Martin!

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Written by lyceum
3748 days ago

Thanks for your comment and sharing your celebrations! Do the Lean Startup principles go hand in hand with the lean canvas (version of the business model generation? I would like to talk with you more about this topic.

I see on you LinkedIn profile that you have listed Palo Alto Software. Have you been working together with Tim Berry? I did an interview with him on my podcast show.

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Written by lyceum
3748 days ago

I need to get my business, body and worklife in better shape during this year! The food analogy was fun! :) How do you celebrate your wins?

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