Category Archives: Growth!

Use “switching costs” to your marketing advantage.

Posted on September 11, 2014 by Dave Berkus

Know the cost to move from your existing platform, and estimate the switching costs for moving from a competitor’s product or service to yours. Offer incentives to existing customers to stay, and for competitor’s customers to switch. Protect your base … Continue reading →

Posted in Growth!, Positioning | 2 Comments

Use video whenever possible.

Posted on August 28, 2014 by Dave Berkus

Ninety percent of all traffic on the Internet is in video form. Yes, most of that is from NetFlix and YouTube and others delivering entertainment content. But an increasing amount is now coming from web sites and YouTube videos created … Continue reading →

Posted in Growth!, Positioning | 1 Comment

The “drop dead” question for a customer survey

Posted on August 21, 2014 by Dave Berkus

Sean Ellis, the marketing guru behind DropBox and other successes, advises clients that “The most important question on a survey is, ‘How would you feel if you could no longer use this product?’” He goes on to quantify the response. … Continue reading →

Posted in Growth!, Positioning | 3 Comments

Create a ten percent profit model.

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Dave Berkus

Most entrepreneurs, when starting to model their business operations using a spreadsheet, start with expected revenue by month. Then they calculate cost of sales, and then project their expenses, to find the bottom line profit or loss each projected month. … Continue reading →

Posted in Growth!, Protecting the business | Leave a comment

Craft your roadmap. Plan your trip.

Posted on May 29, 2014 by Dave Berkus

By JJ Richa J.J. Richa is a successful entrepreneur and technologist giving back to the entrepreneurial community in many ways, including his weekly Internet TV program on entrepreneurism, and participation in several mentoring programs.       Business planning is a crucial part … Continue reading →

Posted in Growth!, Ignition! Starting up, Positioning | Leave a comment

Can you finance your company with grants?

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Dave Berkus

First, here’s a link to my recent TEDx talk, “Smiling at success; laughing at failure.”  I am chairman of a company that, as I write this, is twelve years old and has not yet taken a dollar of outside investment. … Continue reading →

Posted in Growth!, Raising money | Leave a comment

Accelerators: a recent and positive trend

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Dave Berkus

Often I see executive summaries from entrepreneurs who have never managed any form of business, or even managed employees in their past life, and who don’t know the first thing about business formation and managing for growth.  I used to … Continue reading →

Posted in Growth!, Raising money, Surrounding yourself with talent | Leave a comment

Can you borrow your way to success?

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Dave Berkus

With help from JJ Richa There are so many ways to finance a small business.  Most of them rely upon some form of debt, often personally guaranteed by the founder(s).  So we investigate the most simple of these methods of … Continue reading →

Posted in Growth!, Raising money | Leave a comment

The “inciting incident:” Movie scripts tell us how and when to look for investment.

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Dave Berkus

By David Steakley If you are a screenplay writer, you are familiar with the dogma of the inciting incident.  In a movie, the inciting incident is the event at the beginning of the story which causes the hero’s life to … Continue reading →

Posted in Growth!, Raising money | 2 Comments

How many innovations are carefully planned?

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Dave Berkus

Most innovations come from responding to a customer’s needs, or finding a niche where products need improvement or extension.  It is rare to innovate using a blank sheet of paper in a room with bare walls and no other contributors. … Continue reading →

Posted in Growth!, Ignition! Starting up | 1 Comment