Your purpose as a start-up sales executive, client acquisition manager, or even as the CEO is to acquire new clients. Your role is to sell your services to organisations in your target market. In start-up sales, you need to set…
Selling is tough. It is a daunting task. It's often the most under rated and acknowledged skill in business. But for any startup company to be successful, it needs to be done. We all need to embrace sales. We've collected…
Starting a business is easy, but getting a venture to a state where it can trade successfully, on a profitable sustainable basis is difficult. Even after taking in rounds of investment, haveing a venture you can IPO or sell, the…
We’ve long understood the concept of ‘crossing the chasm’. The task of established start-ups who have found the repeatable business model, but can’t get to that next step – the step of scaling up. Great products, cool brand, nice looking…
Business innovation in startups and small businesses is often high risk and cost intensive. In many countries, governments put in policies to support technology innovation. If you are actively carrying out business innovation projects you need to invest some time…
Engaging an audience and looking for support for your business idea is easy, but gaining funding or a green light to take your idea forward is the challenge in which so many fail to achieve. Good slides, nice numbers, and…
Over the past few years, there has been a shift in the way mainstream companies regard innovation. Innovation within regular companies is endless meetings, financial approval, and various different stakeholders. All, of course, slow down innovation. When these companies look…
You’ve formed a company, built your product, validated the market, and received early interest from a small number of potential clients. So what are the next steps? Sales in the startup. That’s the next step. It’s that time when…
Crowdfunding has taken the start-up ecosystem by storm. Companies like Kickstarter, Seedrs and Crowdcube have become a funding choice for entrepreneurs. What may have seemed slightly risky or too unconventional for a mainstream business, have now become established and a…
As true startup people, we look back with pride and gratitude at our role in working with InterTradeIreland to establish the HBAN investment network in Ireland. Back in 2010, our programme team, led by Diane Roberts, started with a blank sheet and,…
We took a chance and followed our own advice and tested our market with a lean approach. Was the market ready for something different? Could we sell enough tickets to make the idea viable? Is it possible to run a…
We’ve put together 10 innovation initiatives to take look at. 1. External Startup Accelerator. An external startup accelerator is a company initiative to support, grow and evaluate external startups over a defined period of time (say 3-12 months). The aim…
Sales management of your opportunities requires different attention and investment by you, dependent on where you deem them to be in the sales funnel. The incorrect sales approach - at the wrong time - will damage your chances of moving…
We had the honour of hosting our first networking event this week. We coined it the 'CoffeeClub', not because we have any real passion for coffee, but its usually a reason we use to meet up with contacts and share…
Business innovation managers and startup entrepreneurs beware, the following 26 pieces of jargon are here with us to stay. Enjoy. My first experience of business jargon was back in the early 1990s, where I was asked to run an idea…
Finding a product/market fit is the most important task a new business idea has. Forget branding, marketing, selling, or getting press coverage - that means you are simply spending money and time you cant afford to. A central part of…
Ideas are things that come and go too often. Without a framework to capture and develop ideas in your business you are possibly losing out on potential new products or new ways of operating. The really great ideas usually spring…
Ideation is the creative process of generating, developing, and communicating new ideas, where an idea is understood as a basic element of thought that can be either visual, concrete, or abstract. Ideation comprises all stages of a thought cycle, from…
What’s the key advantage that start-ups consistently hold over big businesses when it comes to innovation? We take a look at 6 ways startups innovate, and see what they can teach big companies. 1. Agility. Start-ups have to be agile…
Incubator, accelerator, and co-working space are three common terms in the startup world. However, if like me you have ever felt you don’t really understand the difference between them, then we are not alone. The difference is not always as clear…
At the very early stage of entrepreneurship, there is a real gap between the first-time entrepreneur—who lacks the experience to steer their business in what will be choppy waters—and the usually inexperienced friends and family who offer 90% of the…
There has never been more avenues to secure grant funding from regional and national state bodies. Yet they are not simple to get. Your startup business might be entitled to apply for a grant if it carries out eligible projects or…
Eight out of ten entrepreneurs who start businesses fail within the first 18 months, accounting for an incredible 80% failure rate. But why is this the case? Why do startups fail at such a high rate? The number one reason…
We all need some inspiration to improve ourselves, and there is no better alternative than motivational quotes to inspire our corporate innovation projects. 1. Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works…