Choosing a name is often one of the first decisions a company makes, and it has far-reaching consequences. The wrong name can limit your growth, and the right name can accelerate it.

The Type of Name You Choose Determines how to Best Market Your Product

A technical name may appeal to early adopters, but a technically named product will have trouble crossing over into mainstream markets. The PocketLink was wisely given the friendlier and more accessible borrowed name BlackBerry before going to market.

Borrowed names—existing words used in a new context—come preloaded with connotations and emotions, giving people a hint at the product’s characteristics and making the name easier to spread. These are often a good choice for a focused product.

Synthetic or “made-up” names are empty vessels that can be filled with anything and are infinitely expandable. However they are often cold and sterile, and will need a large advertising effort to educate consumers about their meaning.
– From The Startup Daily

Of course, we all remember where we were on that fateful day, even where we were at the very moment evil struck.

We were preparing for a networking get-together at a furniture store in Tempe AZ under the auspices of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. Upon reaching the site barely a couple of hours after those planes flew into the World Trade Center and forever onto the pages of infamy, I encountered a group of people who were in shock . . . as was I.

As we exchanged our hollow greetings and nervous glances, there nonetheless was a certain positive resolve that settled over the room. After all, we were American business people doing what American entrepreneurs do best: promote business. Though it was not stated in so many words, no terrorist cabal was going to keep us from our task of communing with our business friends as we stepped over the threshold of promising opportunities.

Surely we may only have only been going through the motions, but isn’t that the point? There WERE motions, as opposed to the opposite, which is the paralysis – physical and emotional – that the terrorists had wished upon us. Here we were, business people doing “our thing” amidst an economy and within a system of free enterprise that even today is a model for all to emulate.

Now, 10 years later, we find ourselves in a confusing environment of another type; one having nothing to do with that dark day in our past. Though the current conundrum is one clearly of our system’s own making, surely as the sun will rise tomorrow, so eventually will the best traditions and bountiful gifts of capitalism. And these wonders will once again be borne upon the backs of individual small business owners whom neither aero bombs nor the greedy denizens of Wall Street can permanently bend.

While remembering that awful day with the solemnity it deserves, let us be no less inclined to anticipate with optimism the dawning of a new decade of opportunity. It will be powered, not by government, but, rather, the honest sweat, innovative thinking and resolute dignity of American business people doing their thing.

Storytelling is an effective way to convey what your business is about. But there is one story that has a special significance.

The Story of Your Company’s Birth is One of Your Most Important Marketing Tools

Founders are often inspired to start a business by a specific personal experience. The story of this experience gives you authenticity. Stories like this act as a magnet for others who share the same values.

Record, refine, and retell your founder’s story. It may become the folklore that inspires your customers and employees for years to come.
– From the Startup Daily

Fans that will evangelize your product are valuable, but customers who invest the time to learn all of your product’s nuances will stick around even longer.

Experts are More Loyal than Evangelists

Evangelists will cheer for you as long as you can hold their attention, experts will cheer forever.

The expert has become internally motivated. For as long as the knowledge stays with them, the expert will seek out new opportunities to put their expertise to use.
– From The Startup Daily

Most business plans are based on banker wisdom—a good understanding of money, markets, and numbers. But be wary of any plan that puts too much distance between the founders and the customers.
– From The Startup Daily

The Best Founders Have a Shopkeeper’s Mindset

Shopkeepers are passionate about understanding the needs of their customers. The numbers have to work, but for a shopkeeper the customer’s experience comes first.

In the long-term, customer-focused innovation trumps numbers-driven innovation every time.

The unexpected will get people to stand up and pay attention, but if you want to keep their attention you need more than just something shocking.

Make Them Say Huh?

To hold someone’s attention, create a mystery. Mysteries create a need for closure. If you can make someone say Huh?, then they will stick around for quite a while to get to the Aha!
– From The Startup Daily

A high energy leader can motivate people, but the gains are short term. This type of motivation is a manipulation, and it does not inspire loyalty.

Energy Motivates but Charisma Inspires

This is the difference between Steve Balmer and Bill Gates.

A charismatic leader doesn’t need to be high energy and he doesn’t need to be a great public speaker. Charisma comes from having conviction and an unwavering belief in something larger than yourself. It comes from understanding why what you are doing matters and being able to share that vision with others.
– From The Startup Daily

Don’t spend your time and energy chasing the competition. When you let others set the pace your thinking becomes limited by herd mentality. Your attention is on your competitors and not your customers.

Ignore the Competition and Focus on Providing the Best Solution You Can

When you stop competing you are no longer limited by the agreed upon norms, rules, and traditions of the industry. Only then can you start doing the things that the competition can’t or wont do, and lead the industry.
– From The Startup Daily

Hard work is one of the key ingredients to success. But it is a modern paradox that people often fail not because they aren’t working hard enough, but because they are working too hard.

People Cannot Perform at their Best When They are Overloaded

When people try to do too much they start falling short in all areas. A frantic, frenzied atmosphere leads to the kind of stress that kills performance and causes people to enter survival mode. Imagination shuts down, ideas don’t come, and problems don’t get tackled with depth.

To achieve peak performance, limit the amount of information you are taking in, avoid distractions, and preserve a positive mental state. Protect your time think deeply, and leave space for your imagination to work.
– From The Startup Daily

Most businesses don’t understand what they are really selling, and therefore they use the wrong sales pitch.

Nike doesn’t sell sports apparel, they sell “winning.” DeBeers doesn’t sell diamonds, they sell “forever.”

People Don’t Want Products—they Want their Problems Solved, their Dreams Realized, and Peace of Mind

When you stop a pain, help someone become a better person, or help people sleep at night, then you are providing value that people are happy to pay for. Just make sure that is what you offer in your sales pitch.
– From The Startup Daily