BizSugar.com › User › martinzwilling › Published

Most business advisors I know will say that writing a business plan is the first step to starting your own business, but I believe that a better first step is to do a self-analysis of your real drivers, strengths, and assumptions before committing to this lifestyle. As a result, you may tune your p Read More

As a business consultant and angel investor, I often ask for your own assessment of marketing ROI, or customer acquisition cost (CAC). While I realize that a high level of certainty in these numbers is an elusive goal, the value of doing the work, and benchmarking your business against competitors Read More

There comes a time in the life of every business owner when you need to move on to something new, retire, or let your business go to someone with new energy and ideas. As a business advisor, I always have qualms about recommending this move, because the process of selling your business can generate Read More

Traditionally, the majority of entrepreneurs have been logical thinkers, problem solvers, with full attention to details. These are the stereotypical left-brain engineers. Yet I see a big shift from the knowledge age, with its left-brain foundation, to a critical focus today on visualization, creat Read More

As a business advisor, I strongly believe that continuous innovation and design thinking are the keys to long-term viability and success. A classic survey of design professionals shows strong agreement, but 92 percent expressed some lack of confidence in their organization’s design vision. They are Read More

During my many years of mentoring professionals and entrepreneurs in business, I more often see people focusing on how to get their ideas heard, than how to promote themselves. I’m convinced that great results are better than great ideas, and a great perception of you as a person is better than bot Read More

A tidal wave of valuable data is surging from the Internet and connected devices today, and the volume is growing exponentially each year. It’s enough to drown any business which tries to fight it or ignore it, and it’s an opportunity to ride higher and faster than even the successes of Google and Read More

How is it that only a few business leaders and entrepreneurs seem to drive exceptional results and disruptive innovation in this rapidly changing market economy (marketquake)? These few seem more adept at executing market and technology turns, not just incremental evolution. They consistently take Read More

Even in this age of globalization and virtualization, the geographic area where you choose to live and work can still make or break your startup business. I still have to tell some entrepreneurs that even with the best idea, they have to move to Silicon Valley to find the investors they need, or th Read More

In my experience, some of the best businesses have multiple partners, with complementary strengths. Starting and running a business requires many different skills and interests, and not many of us have all of them. For example, I’m an introverted product guy who doesn’t care so much about building Read More