Writing
Notes on business, operations, sales, and entrepreneurship. Written from 2011 to present — some aged better than others.
How to Analyze a Lost Sale
Every lost deal is data. Most businesses throw it away.
A Beginner's Guide to Backward Goal Setting
Start from where you want to end up, then work backward to today.
Clone of Lorem Dolor
Clone of Lorem Ipsum
Get It Right, Then Automate
Automating a broken process just makes the broken thing happen faster.
Lorem Dolor
Lorem Ipsum
Program test
Testing testing
How Do I Scale My Business for Success?
Scaling before you're ready is how you turn a profitable small business into an unprofitable bigger one.
The Value of Struggle
The thing you figure out the hard way stays figured out.
How to Achieve Email Freedom
Email is the one productivity problem everyone has and almost no one has actually solved.
Automated Transcription of Voicemail
Default to Action
A decision made now with incomplete information is almost always better than a perfect decision made too late.
Hiring Tests
What the Contract Says
UI / UX
Serving Small Businesses
Pit Stops Are OK
Valuing a Negative Cash Flow Business
Vacation State of Mind
No it’s Not.
Write it Down
Shiny Happy People
Better vs Not Done
Behavioral Change
Price or Terms... Pick One
Arbitrary Deadlines
Can You Buy The Answer to the Problem
Radical Honesty
Who Wants Used Computers?
What's Your Customers Goal
Time Boxing
Surprise & Delight Isn't Expensive or Hard
Your Go Bag
Stop Doing the Easy Stuff
Using Byproducts and Waste
Doing a Real Test
2 Minute Rule
Value Check
Panna II: What are You Optimizing For?
Help Your Team... Take a Vacation
The Difficult Tax
This is So Simple
Creepy Data Usage
Quit and Stay
Planet Money Video: Why the Price of Coke Didn't Change for 70 Years
Happy Unsubscribe Day
Cheaper Napkins
Approaching with a Fresh Set of Eyes
The Value of Struggle
If One Asks, One Gets
How Long Did That Take?
Learning from Everyone
Show Your Work
Don't Believe the Hype
Focus: The Unfair Advantage
The businesses that win aren't usually the ones with more resources. They're the ones that said no to more things.
The Tradeoff
Where's November 8
Building an Enjoyable Process
Growth or Efficiency?
You can optimize for growth or you can optimize for efficiency. Trying to do both at the same time usually means doing neither well.
Make a Deadline to Be Completely Replacable
Make a Deadline to Be Completely Replaceable
If your business can't run without you for two weeks, you don't own a business — you have a job with extra steps.
Asymmetry of Importance
Blog Challenge
When Freemium Becomes Worthless
Cracking the Mystery of Sales
How to Decrease Attrition (The Right Way)
Secret to Success? Fire Every Quarter
How is the Other End of the Phone?
Turning Points: What Are the Markers in a Relationship?
Using Persuasion Architecture to Drive Sales
A Redesign is Not What's Needed
Pricing Bands
How to Really Make Money on Amazon
What's the Value of the Problem You Solve?
Get Personal
Pilots, Parachutes, and Air Traffic Controllers: Managing Your Business as an Entrepreneur
2 Tools for Structuring Blog Posts
Outsourcing for Success
Setup Your Own Wiki for Documentation
Mindset Shift to Maximize Efficiency
How to Create Feedback Loops for Outsourced Projects
Save time with Autotext on iPhone
Questions to Ask BEFORE Building a Social Media Strategy
How to Best Utilize an Assistant
What Rotten Oranges Can Teach You About Hiring Contractors
Want Your Website to Suck? Follow These 7 Steps
Designing Systems Based on Outliers: Why You're Doing it Wrong.
Retail is Changing: Local Companies Can’t Be Average Anymore
7 Reasons Amazon's Purchase of Whole Foods is Amazing
Pandora Messes with Ratings
What You Need Now Isn't What You Will Need Later
Best Kept SEO Secret: Caring
Our Digital Trails & It's Impact
eCommerce Strategy: Credit Card Checkout
Business Strategy: Perhaps the Answer is Both
Why Do You Need a Business Coach?
Digital Marketing Tactics to Avoid
Marketing Strategy for Small Business
Brand Management – Lessons for Small Business
Elevating the Conversation
SEO Strategy: Everything is White Hat in Hindsight
Process Improvement: Sometimes Perception is Good Enough
Customer Acquisition System
How Complicated is it for me to Pay You?
Being Shy is Not an Option
Netflix Recommendation Engine Algorithm Improvement
Best Outcomes / Better Outcomes / Good Outcomes
Converting Fixed Costs to Variable Costs to Raise Prifits
Sentiment as a Currency
Truly Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Who are your Front Line PR People?
The Client Experience
Has Technology Changed Music for the Better?
Don’t Decorate the Apartment You Don’t Have
Ad Revenue on the Web? Don’t Count On It
15 Years’ Experience in Mobile App Development? I Don’t Think So
Sell to who your customers Want to be
Catch Up Day
Words to Live By
The Importance of a Good User Interface (UI Design)
How Startup Weekend Didn’t Change My Life
Good Financial Sense?
The Shifting Landscape of Real Estate
Expedia is acting like a Big Bad C
Promote, But Promote Smart
Don’t be a Commodity
The Dry Cleaning Dilemma
Is Passion Really Needed: The Power of Passion
Password Tips: The Art of Cryptography
Delivering Quality – First
Be Bold
The Future of Work: Results Only Work Environment (ROWE)
Why Less is More: 10% x 10 ≠ 1
New Technology: Risk or Opportunity?
When the ‘Daily Deal’ Isn’t a Good Deal
Future of Entertainment & Hollywood
How Studios Encourage Piracy
Successful Non-College Dropouts
Write Copy so Projection can Occur
Consumption vs Creation Devices
Raising Capital from a VC Pitch Tip
Changing Education Paradigms
Why are you rushing me?
It Doesn't Feel that Way
Deep Discounting & It's Effects
If you never finish, you can't fail
Solar Power Business
Consultative Selling of Services: Smell the Roses
When a Start Up Company is No Longer a Start Up
The Negative Impact of Social Media Relations
Product Marketing
Technology in Business
Management Styles: Are You A City Or A Town?
Can you Avoid Becoming a Commodity?
Live Crab Vending Machine
Employee Stock Options
Business Technology: Not Always The Solution
10 Business Software Startups to Avoid
Business Negotiations
Defeatist Thinking
Business Networking
Work Smarter, Not Harder
Optimizing Business Revenue
Being Proactive: The Secret to Success
Building Trust With Your Employees
The Echo Chamber: Constructive Criticism in Business
10 Rules for Partnering with Group Buying Sites
Is My Start-Up Successful Because I Worry?
Continuity of Brand, Part III
Continuity of Service, Part II
Continuity of Operations, Part I
Deepening the Customer Relationship
Creating Start-Up Champions
The Cost of Mental Energy
Seth Godin: This is Broken
Improving Customer Service: How to Improve Call Centers
Testing a Brand's Staying Power
Patterns in Relationships
Setting Goals: Starting with the End in Mind
Local Businesses and Social Media
Why the MBA Mentality Sucks
1:17 Motivational Video
Brand Strategy & Customer Experience
What are the times when a customer would defect, deepen or increase the emotional connection to your brand and how can you improve them?
Brand Perception: The Customers Truth is all that Matters
Lacoste Customer Experience: How to Anger Customers
Lacoste Clothing company is awful and has painful customer service. How to lose customers efficiently.
How to Succeed with Virtual Assistants
When Deals Go Bad
Who Cares About Email Trends?
"I'm seeing lots of new services and lots of articles on graphing your inbox and such. Stuff about analytics. What's the point?" This is the start of the journey. This is online email meeting FireFox's add-on platform of years ago.
Chat Roulette
Marketing Ideas
FatFree CRM & QuickBooks
Welcome
Matt Mandell, a successful entrepreneur who has built, operated and exited a few startups in my twenty and some change years. First blog post.