Tag Archives: entrepreneur

Marketing – looking for the secret sauce

Posted by on

When you launch a new company, you wear many hats. When we launched StarBridge Advisors in 2016, I agreed to be responsible for marketing, social media and the website among other things. Why me? I canstockphoto17892303 (1) marketingwas the most social media savvy of the three principals. But “savvy” is a relative term.

I have learned much these past few years and have much more to learn. Fortunately, there is no lack of resources for learning in this continually evolving space. Our website, blog, social media presence on LinkedIn and Twitter, and collateral continue to evolve as we learn what works and what doesn’t.

I listen to Whitney Cole’s Mission Marketing podcast for interviews with marketing experts. I read articles on how best to leverage social media. I tap into the experience of marketing experts I know. And I get ideas from what I see other firms doing.

This week I had the opportunity to attend a portion of the 6th annual HITMC (Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference). I was asked to be on a panel sharing the customer perspective – drawing on many years as a CIO and buyer of products and services. Of course, being on the other side now selling and marketing our health IT advisory services, I was also excited to learn from others.

From the customer perspective my advice was build relationships with prospective clients, provide content that they are interested in, avoid gimmicks, and avoid being the pushy salesperson no one likes. Know your target market and your prospective clients – think “precision marketing”.

After a day immersed in marketing topics with the healthcare IT marketing community, here are a few of my takeaways: Continue reading →

8 tips for start-ups

Posted by on

Are you used to working in a large organization with a lot of support departments, established policies and procedures, and administrative systems? If so, you may complain about some of it as being bureaucratic,Landscape of wooden pathway with the changing environment too slow and burdensome. You may take a lot of it for granted. But it also helps you get your work done most days.

Before you think the grass is greener on the other side as the saying goes, remember that start-ups don’t have any of this day one. By the end of the first year they probably have the basics in place. As they grow and scale, they create the new systems and processes they need.

I am one of those people who worked my entire career in very large organizations. I’ve been on the start-up side with StarBridge Advisors now for a year and a half. We were fortunate to have basic back office functions available day one through a shared service agreement. But there has still been a lot of new to create.

Based on this new world for me, it’s probably no surprise that I have some lessons and tips to pass along. Here goes:

Create standard templates – Whether it’s administrative tools to reuse such as your master services agreement (MSA) and statement of work (SOW) or tools for client work such as interview forms and assessment outlines, you need to create and continually evolve them. It will make you more efficient and provide consistency for your team and your clients. Our Toolkit for Interim IT Leaders is one example of those tools.

Establish repeatable processes – That old saying “no need to re-invent the wheel” is applicable here. But first you need to create your “wheels” for different processes then regularly revisit them to ensure they are as streamlined as possible.

Share documents – Creating a document repository with good version control should be a first order of business for even the smallest of firms. After all, you need a place for all those templates and documented processes.

Don’t duplicate efforts – Be clear who is responsible for what and who owns what. Collaborate and get feedback from one another but don’t trip over each other. You have a small team and limited hours so every minute counts. Continue reading →

2017 lessons from an entrepreneur

Posted by on

If 2016 was a year of transition for me, then 2017 was the year of settling into the new. That is, if launching a new business and working with new clients can be called settling in. As 2018 looms, it’s time canstockphoto46064496 (002)to reflect on lessons from 2017.

2017 has been a year of learning what it takes to grow a business and gain the trust of clients. I covered this in the post, “One year anniversary, how are we doing?” It’s also been a year of learning how to spend more time with family – my retired husband, my daughters and grandkids. But that will have to wait for a future post.

My most important business lessons this year:

Do what you love and are good at – Yes, it’s important to have stretch goals and get out of your comfort zone. But if you truly love what you do, you are going to get better all the time. Our client work at StarBridge Advisors involves a range of IT consulting, interim management and leadership coaching. As an operations type person and change agent, I enjoy being an interim CIO. To work for a period with a new team and figure out how best to help them succeed is challenging and rewarding. And to work with someone as an executive coach as they learn about themselves, identify their development needs and goals, and work through their action plan is also very challenging and rewarding.

Relationships are everything – Whether it’s our clients or channel partners, developing and sustaining honest, open and trusting relationships is critical to success. Continue reading →