John's Music Blog

Paul Gillin was kind enough to meet me for coffee on Friday morning.   Paul and I go back a long way.  He played a key role in the success of TechTarget, and I spoke at one of his first conferences, the highly influential Storage Decisions conference.  When we met for coffee this week, Paul  brought with him an autographed copy of his latest book,  The New Influencers , which I am reading, while on a 3-day holiday in Syracuse, New York.   Who wouldn’t want to be in Syracuse, the land of lake-effect snow, in the middle of winter?  But it’s a great place to go to catch up on reading.

 As part of my New Year’s resolution, I’m determined to become more engaged in the “new social media.”  There are a couple of reasons.  The first is that, while I have an enormous network of contacts, I need a more effective way to maintain communication.  The second is that, I have several clients that need a more effective way to reach potential customers and influencers than traditional marketing approaches provide.  (more…)

I’ve been reminded several times over the past nine months, that one of the most difficult decisions for any entrepreneur is knowing when to walk away.   Yet every entrepreneur is faced with at least four important opportunities to walk away, which, if done thoughtfully and expeditiously, will ultimately strengthen the company.  These are:

1. Walk away from the wrong customers
2. Walk away from the wrong investors
3. Walk away from the wrong employees
4. Walk away from the wrong partners

It may seem odd to talk about building a successful company, while walking away from any resource or opportunity, but, in fact that is often exactly what is needed.  This post focuses on customers.  But why would anyone walk away from a customer? (more…)