Entrepreneurship is not a spectator sport. It is action that gets entrepreneurs going—intelligent and adaptive action.

As the famous general, president, and war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “Plans are nothing; planning is everything.” By preparing a plan, you allow yourself to consider new possibilities, envision potential obstacles, and generally get your mind around what you are trying to accomplish.

Based on every detail you’ve uncovered about your product and your customer, it might make sense that your product would be viable; but ultimately a person is going to have to accept your new innovative product and humans are not always rational. Some behavioral economists have made a name for themselves in focusing their research on irrational

There are three core elements necessary to have a Minimum Viable Business Product. All three must be present for this step to be successfully completed. They are: 1. The customer gets value out of use of the product. 2. The customer pays for the product. 3. The product is sufficient to start the customer feedback loop, where the customer can help

Improve Conversion Rates in Sales: Always focus on improving the conversion rates from your leads. As you see in the bottom-up calculations, there is a huge cost associated with chasing deals that you don’t close. Getting higher conversion rates on leads opens up the funnel so more deals get through, increasing your revenue and decreasing your

Automate as Much as Possible: Whenever possible, try to automate the customer acquisition process even if it requires significant investments. If you can promote your product through sites where there are big networks and opportunities to make your message go viral, from Facebook’s and LinkedIn’s network effects to Amazon.com’s preference engine,

A more effective way to calculate an accurate COCA is to tabulate your aggregate sales and marketing expenses over a period of time; then divide that by the total number of new customers you acquire within that time period. Since your COCA(t) will vary over time as your sales process changes and your organization is in the learning curve and you

Make sure to drive upselling based on the needs of your Persona, not just to improve your numbers. Companies that over-upsell can lose track of what value they are creating for their customer and also lose the trust and confidence of the customer.

Finding Additional Real Upselling Opportunities Can Be Very Attractive. Upselling additional products to your customer can significantly improve your profit