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The Art of Customer Service, Part II

I found a very good follow-up to my posting called The Art of Customer Service. This is by Doug Hanna, and the entire text plus some other postings about customer service are available here: http://snipurl.com/p3w5 1. Use their name. Though it may seem obvious, you’d be surprised how much of a difference addressing a customer [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:27:46-07:00April 12th, 2006|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |26 Comments

The Art of the Executive Summary

Several people have asked me for a blog entry about executive summaries. My colleague at Garage, Bill Reichert, wrote this explanation, and it's as good as it gets. Writing a Compelling Executive Summary By now, you’ve probably already read several articles, web pages—even books—about writing the perfect executive summary. Most of them offer a wealth [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:27:56-07:00April 2nd, 2006|Categories: Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Sales, Venture Capital|Tags: |33 Comments

The Art of Sucking Down

A friend who worked at O'Hare International Airport told me this story. He once watched a passenger absolutely scream at an airline ticket agent. The ticket agent, however, remained completely calm. After the tirade was over, my friend asked her how she could remain so calm, and she said, “That's easy. He's going to Paris, [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:28:06-07:00March 18th, 2006|Categories: Marketing and Sales|Tags: |0 Comments

What’s Your EQ (entrepreneurial quotient)?

Here's a quiz to determine your “entrepreneurial quotient.” My intent is to test a person's knowledge of entrepreneurship. However, scoring high doesn't mean you're the next Steve Jobs, and scoring low doesn't mean you're not. Some answers are debatable, so there will be many comments. #10, in particular, is tricky so read it very carefully. [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:28:11-07:00March 9th, 2006|Categories: Entrepreneurship|Tags: , , |52 Comments

How To Be a Great Moderator

How many times have you watched a panel and thought that it was entertaining and informative? Your answer is probably a small number. Moderating a panel is deceptively hard--harder, in fact, than keynoting because the quality of the panelists is usually beyond your control. Here's how to be a great moderator. Don't over-prepare the panelists. [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:28:15-07:00March 7th, 2006|Categories: Pitching and Presenting|Tags: |40 Comments

The Art of Execution

If my memory isn't failing me, after the Robert Redford character gets elected in The Candidate, he whispers to one of his supporters, “Now what?” Raising money ls like running for office: it's very exciting and even fun if you get the money. But after you raise the money, now what? The good news is [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:29:08-07:00January 28th, 2006|Categories: Entrepreneurship, Innovation|Tags: |0 Comments

The Zen of Business Plans

In my day job, I not only hear a lot of PowerPoint pitches, but I also read a lot of business plans. The PowerPoint pitches explain my Ménière's disease, but the business plans explain my recent need for reading glasses. One of my goals for blogging is to reduce the external factors that are causing [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:29:22-07:00January 21st, 2006|Categories: Entrepreneurship|Tags: |0 Comments

The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs

(Since I've antagonized the venture capital community with last week's blog, I thought I would complete the picture and “out” entrepreneurs to begin this week. The hard part about writing this blog was narrowing down these lies to ten. Luckily, my partner, Bill Reichert, had already documented this list of the top ten lies of [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:29:35-07:00January 8th, 2006|Categories: Entrepreneurship|Tags: , , |0 Comments

The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint

I suffer from something called Ménière’s disease—don’t worry, you cannot get it from reading my blog. The symptoms of Ménière’s include hearing loss, tinnitus (a constant ringing sound), and vertigo. There are many medical theories about its cause: too much salt, caffeine, or alcohol in one’s diet, too much stress, and allergies. Thus, I’ve worked [...]

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