Th e Kn ow -H ow Y ou Need to Lea d Y ou on Y our Pa th to Busin ess Success Volum e 1 , Issue 8, S e p . 20 14

TH E Q U EST FO R TH E“EA SY ” STA RTU P

2 STA RTU P EXPENSES Y O U SH O U LDNEV ER SH O RTCU T

FEA TURED SPO TLIGHT: LEA DERSHIP, MA NA GEMENTA ND MA K ING YO UR STA RTUP A SUC C ESS

Tips from the Startup Fundraising Playbook -by Nathan Beckord

Busting the Lean Startup Myth -by Howard Tullman

80 Ways to Find Your Next Big Startup Idea-by Thomas Oppong

Why Startups Sell For Millions withNo Business Model -by Dev Aujla

9 Lessons From a 10-Time Startup Failure-by Eric T. Wagner

What Does It Mean To Lead With Trust?-by Randy Conley

2 Startup Expenses You Should Never Shortcut -by AJ Agrawal

5 Ways for Bootstrapped Startups to Get Through the First Year -by Zach Cutler

5 Podcasts Every Small Business Owner Should Consider Listening To -by Rob Marsh

Entrepreneur, Fire Thyself -by Kerrie MacPherson

The 14 Steps Needed to Recruit Your Early Startup Team - by Paul Ruderman

3 Ways to Use Social Media to Align Your Team -by Andre Lavoie

Entrepreneurs! Take a Break: It Can Help Your Business -by Cristopher Ramirez

The Three Bandits of Change Leadership -by Jim Haudan

Small Business Tips from a Successful Entrepreneur -by Lyve Alexis Pleshette

Why You Should Never Give Up On Your Dreams -by Adriana Langford

The Quest for the “Easy” Startupby Tabitha Jean Naylor

How to Make Your Product Look Sexy on Facebook -by Aaron Lee

Think You Know What Venture Capitalists Look For In New Start-Ups? Think Again-by Patrick Hanlon

How Good Management Stifles Breakthrough Innovation -by Markus Lorenz

Organize Expenseswith Ease

Goodbye shoebox, helloexpense import

SuccessfulStartup101The Know-How You Need to Lead You On Your Path To Business Success

http://successfulstartup101.com/magazine-plans-free/

By Howard Tullman

Busting the Lean-Startup Myth

If your minimum viable product doesn’t have some meat to it, you’re going to fail. Here are three things to watch out for.

One of the greatest TV commercials of all time featured a crotchety old Chicago woman (Clara Peller) whose plaintive 3-word inquiry (“Where’s the beef?”) became not just a huge advertising home run for Wendy’s but a national catch phrase. Every comedian, late-night television host, news commentator, and politician seized on the expression and couldn’t use it enough.

“Where’s the beef?” is a question that’s still worth asking today, specifically at those many startups that have jumped aboard the latest and greatest craze--”lean” everything. That’s because, when it comes to “lean,” the same question applies: Where, exactly, is the beef?

Is There “V” in Your “MVP”?

I find myself thinking fondly of Clara’s pronouncement whenever I have to sit through another bogus business review session where someone with the bare bones of an idea is trying to convince a group of otherwise intelligent investors that there’s a real business opportunity buried beneath all the B.S., and that (a) all the shortcomings of the story being spun and (b) all the gaps in the gospel aren’t actually problems at all. They’re not bugs, oversights, or misses; they’re the intentional result of trying to be “lean” and trying to launch “something” (not to say, “anything”) to get the ball rolling.

I’m not sure when it got to be OK to try to do the least work possible in developing something that you are seriously trying to do well, but maybe I missed a memo or two. But when people tell me that it’s the minimum viable product (MVP), not the meat of the matter, that actually counts I remember that Clara knew better. This entire lean startup movement not only misleads and misdirects people into building mediocre products and potential services, it’s also much more of a curse than a cure.

We’re encouraging an entire generation of young entrepreneurs to rush things out to prospective customers--to throw a bunch of stuff against the

wall and see what sticks. In the old days, people thought this was a good way to test to see if the spaghetti was al dente, but it actually wasn’t. Pasta that sticks to the wall is most likely overcooked and too gummy to taste good.

Like so many other things in life, there’s no simple shortcut or quick way to do these things right. It takes time and craft and patience to build things that will matter and last. “Quick and dirty and out the door” sucks as a strategy for successful startups. Maybe you can never be too thin or too rich, but a startup can clearly be too lean. The ultimate goal isn’t to build skinny start-ups, it’s to build smart ones.

I understand that it would be naïve to delay your launch until you thought you had every single detail exactly right. We know that even the experts can completely overlook glaring interface flaws or other obvious omissions that the simplest novice user will see right off the bat. And it’s equally arrogant to assume that you can’t learn a single thing from the marketplace or your users. But that’s a different issue.

As I see it, there’s a basic flaw in the common understanding of the “lean startup” concept, and then there are three main problems with the way most young entrepreneurs are trying to adopt and implement it.

The Basic FlawEven the best MVP won’t succeed without an MVA. An MVA is a Minimum Viable Audience (that’s my simple shorthand for a bunch of potential buyers). Long before you start creating your product, crafting your code, and designing your UI you need to find

out if anyone gives a damn about your idea and your proposed solution. This isn’t easy work.

You have to actually get off your butt and get out into the field and find and talk to

actual people--not your co-founders or your folks--about what you’re

hoping to do.

You have to find actual problems that are generating

real pain for a large number of people. You have to determine whether those people recognize the problem, appreciate the pain, are willing to admit that they have the problem, and are willing to pay for a solution. Then you might have a fighting chance to define and build a viable solution.

You have to also recognize that: (a) there’s an infinite

demand for the unavailable (anyone can say they’ll buy

something that you don’t have for sale); and (b) the easiest way for a buyer to get

you to leave them alone is to say “Yes” and “Come see me when your product is ready,” and then show you the door.

Problem 1: They Won’t CareIf you haven’t done your homework and identified the right pain points and the right target customers, you might as well take a hike because no one wants the cure for no known disease; no one is going to invest in solutions in search of problems; and you’ll end up building and wasting a lot of time on the greatest software never sold. The way you start the process determines where you end up, and these businesses are hard enough even for the people who do all the proper research, preparation, and planning. A goal without a plan is just a daydream on someone else’s dime.

Problem 2: They Won’t SufferThe idea that you can dump some partially-baked solution on your first prospects and they will then help you figure things out is another pipe dream. Trying to make your first users into your last beta testers is a waste of everyone’s time because smart users want simple solutions that work right out of the box, not more problems. And it doesn’t really matter what the problems are (implementation, training, support,

stability, or security) because they’re all just more noise and aggravation that busy people don’t need. We are quick to try and even to adopt things that work for us, but we’re much quicker to dump stuff that doesn’t. And while there is an obvious trade-off between the degree of the customer’s pain and the customer’s otherwise heightened expectations, in the end no solution that simply swaps one set of problems for another is going to get out of the gate.

Problem 3: They Won’t WaitAs the Heads & Shoulders people say, you don’t get a second chance today to make a first impression. Customers won’t (and don’t) wait for you to figure things out; if your first attempt falls flat you can bet that they won’t let you come back. It’s ridiculously easy to burn your bridges and impossibly hard to rebuild them when there are fast followers and copycats galore standing by, watching your mistakes. Customers don’t want stories or excuses; they want workable solutions.

The Right WayThere is a right way to do this and it’s pretty simple. Do your homework and find an important unmet market need. Recruit the right early users who are invested (by virtue of their own desires) in your success. Build your MVP to their specifications and with their input and buy-in. And then prepare to enter the perpetual iteration loop.

Launch, Measure, Modify, Re-Launch and Repeat the Process ad nauseam.

Successful solutions today are all the same: moments of mad creativity followed by months of maddening maintenance. Continually raising the bar and improving your offerings is the only way to stay in the game.

About the Author

Howard Tullman is the CEO of 1871 in Chicago where, at the moment, 260 digital startups are building their businesses every day. He is also the general managing partner of G2T3V, LLC and Chicago High Tech Investors – both early-stage venture funds; a member of Mayor Emanuel’s ChicagoNEXT Innovation Council; and Governor Quinn’s Illinois Innovation Council. He is an adviser to many technology businesses, a published hor and an adjunct professor at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Connect @tullman.

* This article originally appeared on Inc.com

I’ve been considering raising a seed round for my startup Foundersuite. So, to

have recently been in the market for capital.

By Nathan Beckord

Tips from the Startup Fundraising Playbook

1. Mine AngelList and CrunchBase to Build a List of Investor TargetsI’m a big fan of AngelList, and whenever I need to build a dataset of target investors, it’s the

homepage, navigate to the “People” tab and use the “Role” header to select the relevant type of investor (seed, angel, VC, etc.). Next,

“e-commerce,” “Digital Media” etc.). Pick out names of people you’ve heard good things about, or who clearly get the space, then add them to a spreadsheet or dedicated CRM product.

approach comes from Dan Martell in an answer on his Clarity site. To paraphrase, he states, “Find other people [on CrunchBase] who have raised money and ask them who they got it

a list of all similar companies that successfully raised money. Next, cold email the CEO/Founder and ask to schedule a call with them for advice. Finally, as you develop a rapport with them, consider asking who their investors are and if they’d be willing to make an intro. 

2. Aim for the Double Opt-In Intro

Richard Goodrum, COO of RaceYourself . The best intros come from warm referrals, but instead of asking your referrer to simply make

she or he would like to take it. For example, send a personalized email to your connector asking for an intro to Ben Horowitz, and instead of making

your note to Ben, asking him if he’d like to take the opportunity.

Generally speaking, people dislike intros being “forced” on them; it creates awkward social pressure if they’re really not interested. Further, if they do say they’d like to take the intro, they’ve already said “yes” once and may be more predisposed to liking the deal. It’s a

3. Create Time Pressure

Y Combinator alumni Shehzad Daredia, who recently closed a round for his startup bop.fm:

high-reward way to take that one step further is

that the VC is probably not well-equipped to make a decision fast enough to meet your

a process to go through, so I understand if you

playful challenge to one VC resulted in them

$2 million – is that fast enough for you?’”

About the Author

TechCrunch.

Nathan Beckord is co-founder and CEO of Foundersuite, a San Francisco-based developer of software tools for entrepreneurs, including an Investor CRM for managing the fundraising process.

By Thomas Oppong

80 Ways to Find your next Big startup idea

You want to build the next big thing? The good news is that it’s not beyond your skills and capabilities if you truly believe you have something great to offer the world. The bad news is that most people don’t get to do it because they make the mistake of trying to solve a problem no one has.

The following quote by Steve Jobs is perhaps one of the greatest quotes that can inspire the creative genius in you.

Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is – everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it.–Steve Jobs

Paul Graham sums it all in this short quote about what to create.

The very best startup ideas tend to have three things in common: they’re something the founders themselves want, that they themselves can build, and that few others realize are worth doing. -Paul Graham

These are the 80 ways to find your next big idea.

01. Ask yourself how is the current product too complicated? What simple little thing could you do to just make it simpler.

02. Ask again-why it doesn’t work better and how to resolve the problem.

03. Don’t wait for a brilliant, paradigm-shifting, disruptive idea, find a real problem people have and solve it.

04. Look for market gaps in the trail of successful concepts. You will likely need fewer resources to launch a market gap plug.

05. What are the biggest challenges your colleagues at work face?

06. Go shopping for a few hours and listen to other shoppers talk about products, complain about processes, and just gab.

07. Look for problems that matches your skill set.

08. Find an industry or situation where the customer is getting frustrated on price and the customer experience is poor.

09. Think about combining two products into one.

10. What tasks take up the most time during your day?

11. Explore something completely foreign to you. The freedom from preconceptions will give you some unique insights.

12. Get people commenting and giving feedback feedback about every possible idea you have.

13. Look for problems not ideas.

14. Go to a startup weekend in your city or near you.

15. What inefficiencies do you notice in your daily routine work.

16. Ask yourself: what abilities do you care about or want to enhance?

17. Live in the future and build what people will need.

18. Look out for cues when reading books or when taking a walk, in the bus, on the train, subway etc.

19. A great start up idea is one you’ll be able to grow continuously. Think long-term.

20. Get your best friends together, complain about life problems, brainstorm solutions, talk it out, and write everything down.

21. Organize a Meetup or find a meetup to share ideas.

22. Many of the great businesses of the next decade will be about making information about our behaviors more visible.-Evan Williams

23. Don’t think about just one niche, stay open to ideas from all industries.

24. Think of something that everyone does with their friends and make it public.

25. Identify tasks that take time/waste your time.

26. Ask yourself what was impossible, or unnecessary a few years ago but with technology is possible today.

27. What activity do you dread the most in a given day?

28. Ask random people that you meet what the biggest annoyances in their lives and jobs are.

29. When you encounter a problem think through all the possible ways of resolving it.

30. Know about different disciplines, and have broad knowledge. Innovation often comes from crossbreeding different disciplines.

31. Ask yourself why it hasn’t been improved in the way you think would work.

32. What frustrates you most about a product, in that frustration is an idea.

33. Stay away from TechCrunch or Mashable and look outside the box

34. Put yourself in a new state of mind. Get out of your demography.

35. It’s hard to make a good product if it doesn’t solve a problem you are personally facing.

37. Maintain a sense of curiosity in the world around you, a mental flexibility to entertain odd possibilities

38. Being creative is a habit you get into, maintain that habit constantly.

39. Search yourself and look for problems you have yourself.

40. Don’t think up startup ideas. Notice them.

41. Ideas with no long term value generally fail. Look for what will still be relevant tomorrow.

42. Transform a situation where people are isolated or lonely by connecting them in a novel way.

43. Find an active forum. Make it easier for someone (or a group) to do something they’re talking about doing there, it could be your next startup

44. Make use of your favorite to-do app consistently and write down your ideas the instant they come to you.

45. Take a different route home.

46. Look for markets that are not sufficiently served.

47. Think about the most normal, expected solution to a problem would be, and then try to imagine the opposite.

48. When you see something that annoys you, think about how to solve it.

49. Talk about your ideas with friends. Get feedback. Tweak and repeat.

50. Be in-the-know about breaking trends.

51. Look at the most commonly searched phrases on Google trends.

52. Look through the customer service sections of websites and find out what people are complaining about.

53. Find product review forums and read about customer frustration about products.

54. Listen when other people complain. Gather it by listening when people tell you what’s ruining their day.

55. Bring an existing idea to a different platform.

56. Study your employer’s business process and build upon it. i.e. improve it.

57. Spend time reading about other companies and their customer pain points

58. Build something you need in your company, chances are others need it too. Think Yammer.

59. Copy business-model ideas from another country that have yet to be imported

60. Taking a trip to a totally different environment is always a great way to spot interesting ideas.

61. Try things: Experiment with everything. You’ll find things you like and things you don’t like.

62. Spend time with successful people in your network and talk about the same issues. Each will have a slightly different way of thinking about things.

63. Create a Twitter list. Add influential users whose ideas can inspire great ideas.

64. You can also go deeper by tracking registered patents. Innovative products are constantly being protected.

65. The key to problem spotting is to capture a long list of problems before you start considering possible solutions.

66. Take a service or approach applied to one market, and apply it to another. Cotap is the Whatsapp for business.

67. Take a task that seems tedious and currently requires humans and automate it.

69. Ask yourself if it’s a product you will personally use.

70. Take a single category out of the many offered by tech giants like eBay or Amazon and make it a simple niche business.

71. Pair up people who don’t normally work together and give them room for brainstorm.

72. The big guys leave a tremendous amount of opportunity on the table. Look for that niche.

73. Think about your skills and whether they might be useful in a new area.

74. Find a category lacking recent innovations. Identify markets that haven’t had many recent innovations.

75. Talk to buyers in a niche and consider sending an online survey to potential customers to learn about their needs and interests.

76. Look into how entrepreneurs are combining social networking with the growing interest in mobile apps.

77. Commit time to specific observation sessions where you stimulate your brain into thinking differently.

78. Surf the Web differently. Search for terms in other industries. Read on creative thinking.

79. Always be curious and never stop looking for answers.

80. Don’t do things better; do things differently.

About the Author

Thomas Oppong is the founder @Alltopstartups. You can reach him at thomas at alltopstartups dot com. Connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Instagram

When entrepreneurs first start their businesses, they are usually involved in everything: running operations, keeping the books, and making sales calls. But as a company grows, one of the smartest things an owner can do is to fire herself from role after role. Letting go of anything critical to business outcomes is a challenge, but successful entrepreneurs have all learned to replace themselves – and serial entrepreneurs even develop it as a skill.

Why be in a hurry to hand off important work? By building a team to handle operational responsibilities, entrepreneurs can find more time to focus on strategic priorities and even bigger goals.

In the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women program I sponsor, which is designed to recognize

high-potential businesses and help their women founders scale them, teaching this process is a priority. “You can’t micromanage your way to growth,” says Dr. Mary Jo Gorman, founder and CEO of Advanced ICU Care, which provides high-quality critical care to patients in intensive care units. A member of the 2011 North American class of Entrepreneurial Winning Women, Gorman says, “This is more than delegating. This is about building a team that allows you to not think so much about the day-to-day, and a team that comes to you with new ideas.”

Gorman’s comment connects well with three warning signs we tell entrepreneurs to heed. You are probably spending too much time working in your business, and not enough on it, if you:

By Kerrie MacPherson

Entrepreneur, Fire Thyself

1. Begin to get overwhelmed with small details of office management, which takes your attention away from the big picture.

2. Find yourself with no one to challenge your thinking, because you’re the only one with all the answers.

3. Are not challenging yourself on a regular basis.

“The whole transition from working in the business to working on the business means letting go of what you’re comfortable doing,” says Gorman. “You always need to be thinking big and challenging yourself.”

What should you do if you want to transition from being a small one-person band to the leader of a high-growth

About the Author

Kerrie MacPherson is a principal at Ernst & Young LLP and executive sponsor of its Entrepreneurial Winning Women program. She has served on EY’s Gender Equity Task Force, is an active leader in its Professional Women’s Network, and is the Diversity and Inclusiveness Champion in the Financial Services Office Advisory Practice.

* This article originally appeared on The Harvard Business Review.

Tactics like these have helped many of the entrepreneurs in the Entrepreneurial Winning Women program build excellent organizations – teams of people who share their entrepreneurial frames of mind and their vision and energy for growing their businesses. At the same time, these entrepreneurs have learned to make strategic use of tools such as business reporting to get a better handle on the state of their companies and determine the best path forward. By stepping outside the day-to-day, they were not only able to grow their revenues and create jobs but also to build a valued team of colleagues who share in the responsibilities and rewards of their ventures.

business? Consider these six tips as you begin the process of building your team – and firing yourself:

DeciDe whAt will Be for your hAnDs only: Your time and attention should be reserved for those few things that only you can accomplish. For many entrepreneurs, this means focusing on the most valuable sales and marketing opportunities — meeting with key prospects and building markets for your product or service. If you, too, need to focus on being the face of the company, then tap into others for help with the rest.

focus on growth: Once you’ve brought in others to handle the tasks you don’t need to perform directly, such as bookkeeping and managing the office, allow yourself to focus more intently on the keys to growing the business. And by the way, there may also be growth-oriented activities, such as consulting services, that you will discover can and should be managed by others.

set the tone: As you delegate to others, set clear goals and responsibilities for each new position from the beginning, and make sure each person you hire understands them. Otherwise, you may find yourself spending too much time managing people instead of the next stage of growth.

hire ahead: Hire people who can grow with the company. If you hire someone who can perform a task required today, but nothing more, you will won’t have the talent needed for the next phase of growth.. “You usually don’t have time to do on-the-job training,” Gorman advises. Make sure the people you hire understand the company’s goals and where you want to take the business over the next three to five years.

MAnAge exPectAtions: Be careful not to give employees inflated titles. Entrepreneurs are often inclined to give a new hire an executive title, such as vice president, in lieu of a high salary or an equity stake in the company. But if the person is not equal to the demands of that role in a larger company, then your growth will force you to bring in someone above him or her. Why set yourself up for conflict that may distract you from the bigger picture?

finD ADvisors who will KeeP you thinKing: Consider setting up an advisory board to help you secure talent and determine the overall structure and strategy of your business. You need others to infuse new thinking and to help you figure out how to delegate your responsibilities.

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5 Podcasts Every Small Business Owner Should Consider Listening To

By Rob Marsh

We know. You don’t have time for this. It’s yet another thing to add to the already long list of stuff you do every day. Hold on a minute and hear us out.

Building a new business or keeping your existing business running smoothly is tough. It takes a lot of time, effort, and money. And often it feels like you’re all alone on your journey. That’s where the podcasts come in.

Start-ups for the Rest of Us: This is a fantastic podcast presented by Rob Walling and Mike Taber who talk about their own experiences with the start-ups they’re running. There’s a lot of good stuff in these shows and we highly recommend them.

TechZing: This podcast is an informal chat show hosted by Justin Vincent and Jason Roberts. Each week they do one interview show and a second discussion show. It’s a little techy, but if you have a software business, you may want to check it out.

Seth Godin’s Start-Up School: We’ve mentioned this podcast before. It isn’t a traditional podcast, but rather a recording of marketing guru Seth Godin sharing his thoughts on start-ups with a group of small business owners. It’s motivational but it will get you thinking about your business, or rather what you might do differently to improve.

Monday Morning Memo: If you’re not familiar with Roy Williams, the Wizard of Ads, you are missing out. This short weekly podcast offers up ideas that will not just

get you thinking, but innovating. Mr. Williams shares anecdotes, ideas, and other wisdom about business and marketing that is easy to devour (each one is about 5 minutes) and put into action. It is occasionally promotional (Mr. Williams runs an advertising school for business owners) but it’s worth putting up with the promotions to get the ideas.

SEO 101:

This podcast from Ross Dunn and John Carcutt is very tactical, but if you advertise your business online, it’s well worth the time. Unfortunately, it is a Webmaster Radio production, so there are a lot of annoying ads throughout the show, but the information is very valuable if you do SEO. There are several other SEO oriented podcasts that are also good. Check the Apple iTunes Store for a bunch of others.

Those should keep you busy with plenty of ideas and stuff to think about. If that’s not enough, check out the TED talks podcast (actually there are about 20 iTunes U courses), the Harvard Business Review Ideacast, and Founder’s Talk, all of which are both entertaining and thought provoking.

Try adding a podcast to your week. Check out the iTunes store for others that might fit in with what you are building. And let us know if there are other podcasts worth adding to our list.

There are about a half dozen small business podcasts that share new ideas, strategies, and ways to solve problems. Most of them are created by small business owners like you who want to share their experiences. We’ve found that when we take the time to listen to 2-3 podcasts a week, we almost never fail to come up with a new idea we want to try.

We’re not recommending that you block out an hour a day to listen to podcasts. But there are smart ways to fit a podcast into your already busy day—do you have a commute? Turn off the radio and listen to a podcast instead. Taking a break for lunch? Grab your iPod and head phones. On the treadmill at the gym? Turn off CNN and grab a podcast. By repurposing just a couple of hours a week, you can find time to add these valuable resources to your day.

So wHAT podcASTS do we lIke BeST?

About the Author

This article was written by Rob Marsh and originally posted on the Logomaker blog.

By AJ Agrawal

2 STARTUP EXPENSES YOU SHOULD NEVER SHORTCUT

You won’t feel the pain until it’s too late. Your startup will be catching fire and then all a sudden everything will come to a screeching halt. This is what happens when you take shortcuts with important expenses.

With that said, there are two costs you should never try to cut or sidestep: legal and accounting. Too many startups neglect these expenses when they start their companies. Over time, it ends up becoming their worst nightmare. Here’s how can make sure you have your legal and accounting in order.

Get a lawyerAs soon as you start your company, you need to start looking for a lawyer. I’ve seen many entrepreneurs try to shortcut this by printing documents they find on the Internet. Most times, it ends up being a disaster. As you continue down this path, you’ll start trying to make major contract edits yourself. By the time you get a lawyer, you’ll have to go back, pay a fortune, and fix all your damage.

Instead, find a lawyer who has experience in startups. When we started Alumnify, we didn’t have enough funds to afford a lawyer. So, we gave up a few shares of our company for deferred legal fees until we raised our seed round. This is a great way for you to make sure your legal work is in order without using all your initial cash.

If you do go this route, make sure you are checking in on how your lawyer is billing you. Some will try adding extra hours because they are getting paid in deferred fees. Make sure you set expectations of what you’re looking for up front and get an estimated price before getting into the actual deal. The last thing you want is to close your next round of funding and give it all to your legal counsel.

Never take moNey without paperworkWhen you start your company, many times you’ll begin by taking money from friends and family. Your best friend will hear your pitch, trust in you, and then hand you over a check. Understand that many investors you bring in from the friends and family round will not know about the paperwork. In other cases, your early investors will say they trust you and they don’t need to sign anything. While that’s a nice gesture, you’re the one who’s going to pay the price in the long run. Once you raise money from a seasoned investor, they’re going to expect paperwork for every previous dollar you took in. If you don’t have that and can’t get it in place, kiss the investment goodbye.

use QuickBooks or Get aN accouNtaNtHere’s a way to think about raising money that will help you whenever you start looking for investment. When you take money from an investor, think of it as loan. You have to pay that money back, with interest. It doesn’t matter whether you take money for equity or as a convertible note; someone is trusting you with their funds.

Now let’s say you borrowed money from your friend and two months later he asks to see where his money was spent. Would it be fair for you to say, “I don’t know” to him? Of course not. That would raise major concerns. That is part of the reason you need to be a stickler when it comes to the books. Eventually, you’ll go through intense audits. The longer you go to get your accounting right, the worse those audits will be for you.

Another reason not to shortcut accounting is that if you don’t know where your money is being spent, you don’t know your burn rate. And if you don’t know your burn rate, you don’t know how long your runway is. Finally, if you don’t know how long

your runway is, you’ll have no idea when you’re going to be out of business. Not knowing this information makes it impossible to lead a company effectively.

If you haven’t done so already, start getting used to QuickBooks. Your other option is to hire an accountant. Many entrepreneurs think doing the latter will cost too much money. In reality, you can find someone to do basic accounting for you for a few hundred dollars a month. If that’s out of your budget, try doing an equity deal. Keep in mind that accountants are less likely to take an equity deal than lawyers or employees. Either way, put something in place early, or you’ll have major consequences down the line.

about the author

AJ Agrawal is an entrepreneur, writer, and speaker. He is the CEO and co-founder of Alumnify Inc.

In the eyes of an investor, a bootstrapped startup that has proven stable and successful within the first year is powerful. It not only raises confidence in the product and the leadership behind it, but also indicates that any invested money will likely not be thrown away.

Ultimately, when it comes to working with investors, it’s important to prove that a startup and the people behind it not only know how to spend money, but know how to bring in additional money.

To successfully bootstrap a company in its first year, it’s important to consider a few things:

1. Cut the nonessentials and focus on immediate needs. There is nothing more important to startup success than the talent that makes it all possible. Avoid any unnecessary expenses, such as office overhead or “frills,” to free up money to invest in better talent.

Virtual offices will allow team members to work together from anywhere in the world and are extremely cost-effective. Ultimately, cutting costs wherever possible will more likely enable worthwhile investment in a larger team, which will be the catalyst to growth for the company.

By Zach Cutler

5 Ways for Bootstrapped Startups to Get Through

the First Year

2. Focus on two types of talent: engineering and marketing.An innovative and savvy engineer knows the ins and outs of mobile apps and understands what users truly want and need. An intelligent and driven marketing professional understands the market and how to reach the desired target audience.

With these two power talents working side by side, any product has a good chance to be successful.

3. Don’t cut corners. Investors need to know the business and its leadership are stable and legit, so do everything by the book. Once they get involved, investors will want to see paperwork, as well as profits and losses and balance sheet reports right off the bat. This should be a priority from day one.

Find an accountant and purchase good accounting software to ensure that records are clear and corners are not cut. This will also allow for extra time to tend to other important matters within the startup.

4. Cover the legalities before it’s too late. It’s critical to ensure the product or app is covered and that there are no loopholes that

would allow someone to steal its name or intellectual property once it takes off.

During the planning phases, when speaking to potential investors, partners, or developers, it’s also wise to use a confidentiality agreement to ensure everything stays within the four walls. Additionally, copyright any sketches, mockups or documentation of the product during development stages.

5. Utilize freelance consultants. Skilled freelance consultants offer additional niche talent only when it’s needed. Build and keep a solid list of trusted and intelligent freelancers who can be utilized when the time is right. With the extra cash flow freelancers provide, startups have more ability to hire the best full-time staff needed for success.

It’s no secret that the first year for a bootstrapped startup will have many highs and lows. Despite the uncertainty and exhilaration that comes with those highs and lows, it’s important to stay focused on what’s needed to get to the next step.

Eventually, those steps will likely lead to talking with investors to get the startup to the next level. Cutting no corners from the very first day, bringing on the best talent and preparing for failure and success will prove to an investor that the product and those behind it have what it takes to succeed.

About the Author

Zach Cutler is an entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Cutler, a tech PR agency in New York and Tel Aviv. An avid tech enthusiast and angel investor, Cutler specializes in crafting social and traditional PR campaigns to

help tech startups thrive. He can be reached at zach@cutlergrp.com.

* This article originally appeared on Entrepreneur.

Why Startups Sell For Millions with No Business Model

By Dev Aujla

For the last three years I have been immersed in the startup world. Many of my friends work for startup companies, I’ve written a book that covered many startups that trend towards the social good spectrum, and I have been recruiting and working for many of the companies myself, here in New York.

During this time, I felt like I was missing something--some major point that everyone else understood but me. I wondered what purpose all of these startup served, and wrestled with understanding how so many of these businesses could be sold for millions, or even billions of dollars, when most made little to no profit and lacked concrete business models.

I kept quiet about my questions, afraid to admit that I just didn’t get. When I shared my feeling with close friends I boiled it down to an impression that it must simply be all pretend. It must be one of those ideas that will eventually self-correct and everyone will then realize they have been believing in a fake shared reality. It was a philosophical response that I obviously didn’t share with many.

Then, I had the chance to work with a 50+ billion dollar company on a short term consultancy and I heard the board members and C-suite employees talk about acquiring and investing extensively in these small, profitless startups, as well as the venture capital funds that fund them. I finally got it: It’s all about research and development.

It isn’t pretend at all. It is a simple value proposition that doesn’t rely on the companies having a business model but rather relies on the knowledge they learned. It is outsourced research and development. All these calls to “disrupt” industries at the end of the day is different language for what used to be called R+D.

Let’s look at it more closely. It would cost a large car company, for example, $100 million dollars to research and develop the best new LED light bulb themselves. For the record, this isn’t an obscene amount of money within the scope of a multi-billion dollar company.

Then you have a VC firm that has a look at the industry and notices that it costs this manufacturing company $100 million to do this R+D work, and they figure out how they can do it cheaper. How? They put $25 million into a whole portfolio of LED light companies. Let’s say one of those companies develop the best new LED bulb, in which case the business can be sold to the car company for $75 million, and the car company still saved $25 million they would have spent if they did the R+D in house. Of course the numbers are made up but you get the idea.

Large companies buy VC-backed start-ups without real ways to make money for three reasons:

To Learn Something The cheapest and only way for big corporations to learn everything they can about their industry and to inform their future investments is to invest in startups that are at the forefront of research and innovation in their field. The same way we as individuals would go to University to gain access to and absorb information, big companies gain an immense amount of knowledge from groundbreaking startups. Often they will buy companies only for the learning in order to inform future investments. It can also be as a way of laying the groundwork so they can investigate if they want to start building a product pipeline in this new area.

To Fill Their Product PipelineCompanies need a steady stream of new potential products to sell or integrate into their core products. Although most of these acquisitions won’t end up being used, a few will make it through the funnel and become real, sellable products. For internet companies this product pipeline looks like new ways to acquire users, and new ways to monetize markets. For car companies it would look like LED light bulbs.

To Acquire the Team This is a form of corporate headhunting and simple way for big companies to “recruit” new talent and get them working in house.

Of course every start up hopes to be that magical unicorn that becomes big enough themselves to start buying other companies or investing in research and development but for most... it’s definitely not pretend. It is just outsourced R+D.If you want to build a company and sell it maybe it is time to do what the VC’s do and analyze where you can provide value as an outsourced R+D department and get hustling.

About the AuthorDev Aujla runs Catalog, an agency which provides strategic advisory and recruiting services to companies that make money and do good. He is also the founder of DreamNow, a charitable organization which has helped over 50 thousand young people organize and start community projects.

Special Spotlight Feature:Leadership, Management and Making Your Startup A Success

What Does It Mean To Lead With Trust

By Randy Conley

I’m convinced that leadership is much more about who you are than what you do. As such, there is nothing that speaks more to the quality of your character and leadership than the amount of trust people place in you.

But what does it mean to lead with trust? The presentation below, far from being a complete treatise on the subject, lays the foundation of leading with trust. I would love for you to leave a comment to add your thoughts on what leading with trust means to you.

About the Author

Randy Conley is the Vice President of Client Services and Trust Practice Leader at The Ken Blanchard Companies (www.kenblanchard.com). You can read his blog, Leading with Trust, at http://leadingwithtrust.com and follow him on Twitter @RandyConley.

Connect with us for even more great startup information

By Eric T. Wagner

Well spoken by Kiyosaki.

But what’s it like to live through 10 failed startups and still come out with a 3 million dollar company?

Meet Kurt Theobald, Co-Founder and CEO of Classy Llama.

Yes — Theobald started 10 businesses over the span of 5 years. Each one a failed mess. But herein lies the beauty from ashes — he nailed it on his 11th try.

Now ranked at #454 on Inc’s Top 500 Fastest

Growing Companies in the U.S. for 2013, Theobald’s latest creation (with the help of co-founder Erik Hansen and a team of 23) is on target to reach $3 million in revenue this year.

As luck would have it, Theobald and I were able to sit down for a 60 minute rapid-fire chat where I did everything I could to extract the secrets of his success.

Pull up a chair and take notes, because Theobald reveals 9 valuable lessons you can take to the bank today, which I now gift to you:

9 Lessons from a 10-Time sTarTup faiLure

Nine out of ten businesses fail; so I came up with a foolproof plan — create ten businesses.”— Robert Kiyosaki“

Lesson 1: Opportunistic vs. Strategic Entrepreneur: One Of These Is Fatal

Look up ‘shiny object syndrome’ in an older dictionary, up pops a picture of Theobald. He had the disease and it wasn’t pretty.

“That was really just a big mistake on my part. If it looked interesting, I’d pursue it. It was just like whatever came my way. Just chased multiple opportunities and never was strategic about any of it. That in itself led to many failures.”

Lesson? Act strategic. Don’t just chase every opportunity walking by in a pretty skirt. Understand your core competencies, your ‘North Star’ purpose and learn what ‘opportunity discernment’ means.

Lesson 2: Fail Fast… But Not Too Fast

Sweeping the startup world is the mantra ‘fail fast’. And yes — this is sound advice for every startup. But is there a case when it can go too far?

Ten failures in 5 years — I’ll let Theobald tell you: “It may not be entirely redeemable to let go so fast. I’m an impatient person and it’s a leading weakness. I’m very quick to let go — sometimes too fast to let go. Sometimes the most successful entrepreneurs will stick with it, try from different angles and then it eventually takes off. They stick it out and get the formula right.”

Lesson? Yes — take on the ‘fail fast’ approach. But balance it with tenacity and dogged determination. You don’t want to be the miner who stops digging 6 inches away from the vein of gold.

Lesson 3: Find Your Formula

Every successful business on the face of the planet has this in common: they’ve figured out their ‘secret sauce’ and are now scaling it. But you can’t scale until you find your formula first.

Theobald on one of his 10 failures: “By the time it came to close, there wasn’t enough revenue to sustain the (business) model. It just wasn’t viable and the formula wasn’t right at a fundamental level. It wasn’t too long after that I went and filed personal bankruptcy.”

Lesson? Nail first, scale second. Nathan Furr and Paul Ahlstrom drive this home hard in their book ‘Nail It, Then Scale It’. Do this in the wrong order and you’ll drive off a 500-ft cliff.

Lesson 4: Know Who You Are

You’re either an entrepreneur or you’re not. Period. No half-way point. No being a ‘little bit’ pregnant. The entrepreneurs who recognize who they are at their core are most likely to figure it out and succeed in the long run.

Theobald explained it this way: “I wrote two things in my journal: One, when I fall, I am getting up. Every single time. And two; I get up because it’s who I am as an entrepreneur. Therefore to not get up is to betray who I am. And so that’s what kept me going through all the failure. You can’t stop. You don’t really have a choice because if you choose that then you might as well sacrifice your whole life.”

Lesson? Write it down. If you truly believe you’re an entrepreneur, commit right now to that as your identity. Claim it and live by it. I did when I was 14. You may think I’m a writer, but I’m an entrepreneur. Period. And I never quit.

Lesson 5: You Must Have A Deeper Why

Simon Sinek nails this in his infamous TED Talk speech. If you’ve never listened to this thing, do so after finishing this article.

Theobald; “I believe the most successful entrepreneurs have a deeper why. They have a deeper purpose for what they’re doing. The most contemporary and best example I can think of is Steve Jobs who came back (to Apple) with no ownership and taking only a dollar for his salary. Just because he cared about delivering greatness. He just wanted to be insanely great and make a dent in the world. That mentality is what changed things for me. It’s the key difference between exceptionally successful entrepreneurs and marginally successful entrepreneurs.”

Lesson? Dig deep and find the deeper why. If you’re just in this for the collateral benefits of possible wealth, freedom and independence, I predict an eventual train wreck for you.

Lesson 6: It’s Not About You

Grasp the meaning behind the deeper why? If yes — then you’ll automatically recognize entrepreneurship is not about you.

Theobald explains it this way: “When you chase opportunities, it’s all about you trying to get something for yourself. I started experiencing success when I made a significant shift in my thinking. My role changed from looking out for myself to focusing on making other people successful. This mindset generated significantly different results.”

Lesson? Jump 180 degrees to the other side. Stand in the shoes of your _______ . (Yes — fill it in. Customer. Team member. Supplier. Partner. Whoever.) Let your focus be on making them successful. Internet entrepreneur Jeff Walker calls it spreading the ‘abundance juice’. Do it and you’ll never once have to worry about your own well-being.

Lesson 7: To Really Crush It; You Must Cede Control

Want the real secret to success? Empower others, support their success while giving up control. ‘What? Give up control? No way. This is my baby and I own it. I control it. Besides, I fled my job because I was sick of not having control.’

Theobald counters with this; “Control is a dangerous thing. You actually gain more control by giving up control. You want to share it with others and allow them part of that stake in making decisions and moving forward. You are simply not smart enough to be successful on your own.”

Lesson? Empower others by giving up some control. The only real element you should control in your business is the vision, purpose (deeper why) and core values.

Lesson 8: Focus On Effectiveness Instead Of Your ‘Rake’

Yes — you need to be profitable. Yes — you need to generate coin. But by solely focusing on your rake (read: moolah); you miss the bigger opportunity.

Theobald put it like this; “When you become more effective, it’s characterized as increasing the size of the whole pie so your slice is bigger. Leveraging the goods you been given and submitting yourself to others and team, your rake will actually be better in the end. So focus on being effective, and not so much on what your ultimate rake is because you’ll be much further down the road.”

Lesson? Stop thinking of your own wallet. Again, it’s not about you. Focus on how to empower others, cede control and in the process, focus your time and energy on being effective in those areas. The result? You eat a much bigger piece of pie.

Lesson 9: You’re Doing It Wrong…

Theobald also wrote a book named ‘Finding Truth At The Bottom’. He shot me a copy and I’ll wrap this thing up with my favorite quote from the book. The context is a guy who struggles mightily, but keeps doing things the same way. His wise mentor pretty much socks it to him straight in this quote:

“Nothing’s going to give if you keep doing the same thing you’ve been doing. If you keep banging your head against the concrete wall, the wall doesn’t suddenly give way. Instead, you end up knocking yourself out. You need to pick a different approach.”

I’ve just extracted and delivered 9 things from Theobald you can look to change in your own business. Don’t just read it. Take action and fix what’s broken. Otherwise, you’re unconscious and slumped at the bottom of the concrete wall with no one to blame but yourself.

Don’t let this be you.

About the Author

I am a life-long entrepreneur and startup expert living in Sisters, Oregon and I am the Founder and CEO of Mighty Wise Academy: A Virtual Academy

For Entrepreneurship. I am also a mentor and advisor for multiple startup companies. If you’d like to learn what it really takes to become a successful entrepreneur, you can connect with me here >>.

By far the hardest and most exasperating part of launching a successful startup is recruiting an all-star team. At first, it will seem near impossible. Part of it is simple math: There is a limited number of truly exceptional people out there. Of those people, only a small percentage will have the skills, experience, drive and character that you are looking for. And of those people, only a fraction will fit personality-wise with you and your early team.

To find your all-stars, so much has to go right. Every ounce of persistence you can muster up is essential to giving you a chance at finding your dream team. To find the people who’ve joined me and are now the core of UpdateZen, I went through quite a journey (and 84 interviews). At times exhilarating and inspiring, and at other times frustrating and energy-sucking, and full of more ups and downs than you can possibly imagine.

Th e 14 STepS N eeded

To RecRu iT You R

eaRlY STaRTu p Team

By Paul Ruderman

That said, I seem to have cracked the code and lived to tell. So in the interest of helping others recruit exceptional early teams, I’m going to document here how I did it. It is part art and part science, but fully replicable.

This guide below assumes you are a founder of a startup, you’re bootstrapping as best you can, you don’t have unlimited resources to pay 25% recruiting fees, you won’t settle for B players, and you know what you’re looking for. If so, read on.

1. HAVE A CLEAR VISION FOR WHAT YOUR COMPANY WILL LOOK LIKE

Know what you want your company to look like once you fill all the early positions you’ve earmarked as essential.

2. KNOW YOUR NON-NEGOTIABLES.

Have an unmistakable sense for what each position requires. I needed two full-stack developers (one iOS-focused and one web-focused), one designer, and eventually one marketer. I needed people near Montclair, NJ (or NYC) with unimpeachable character.

3. CLEAR YOUR DESK.

Once you’ve decided you’re ready to hire for a position, clear your desk of everything else you think you have to take on, so that you are free to commit 90% of your waking hours to searching, networking and recruiting for that position. You cannot recruit key early positions in your “free time.” First of all, you have no free time. Secondly, it will take every ounce of your being to go from here to hire!

4. WRITE A WELL-WRITTEN JOB DESCRIPTION.

Write an EXCEPTIONALLY articulate, unique, and distinguishing Job Description. Be as specific as you can

about the kind of person and talent you are looking for. The more specific you are, the more likely that you will (a) attract top candidates who feel they are a fit for your unique startup, and (b) disincentivize ill-fitting candidates from applying and thereby wasting their and your time.

5. LOOK AT LINKEDIN PROFILES.

Require candidates to send you their LinkedIn profiles, not resumes. Resumes are dry, static documents. A good LinkedIn profile contains everything a resume does, and then some, including written references from past/current colleagues, their number of LinkedIn connections, their photo in a suit or backwards baseball cap getting drunk with their buddies in a bar.

6. REQUIRE CANDIDATES TO SUBMIT PERSONALIZED COVER EMAILS

Have them explain why your startup interests them and why they are the best candidate for the job. If they don’t take the time to write this personalized cover email, don’t even look at their LinkedIn profile. They’re not serious. And they probably can’t write.

7. NETWORK ON LINKEDIN.

Search and network extensively on LinkedIn. Send well-crafted and short LinkedIn InMails to your ideal candidates regardless whether (a) you have a personal connection to them, or (b) they claim to be “looking” for new opportunities. Everyone’s available for the right opportunity.

8. USE RECRUITERS INTELLIGENTLY.

Recruiters can be your best friend, or they can suck up your time and take all the money you don’t have. Find great ones and convince them to take far less than 25% in the interest of receiving lots of new job postings as you grow. I negotiated a flat fee of $8000 with several great recruiters.

9. FLOOD THE MARKET WITH OUTREACH.

I post job descriptions everywhere that is even remotely relevant… wherever a great candidate might go. Angel List. LinkedIn. Monster. Dice. Hired.com. Employment Crossing. Craigslist. Dribbble. Behance. Stackoverflow. You NEVER know where your eventual candidate might be, so plant your seeds in many places. And of course, ask your network. All you need is that ONE great candidate. I found Stefan, my brilliant web developer, on a tiny site called Startuphire.com.

10. WORK QUICKLY.

Review each interested candidate’s profile instantly. The great people get snatched up quickly.

11. REFINE YOUR PITCH.

You need to SELL these great candidates. Just like you’re going to sell your early customers. If you believe in your product,

your vision, your team, and yourself, then this part should be a breeze.

12. CONDUCT YOUR INITIAL INTERVIEW VIA VIDEO.

No audio-only calls. A 30-minute video call is all you need to figure out if it’s worth setting up an in-person interview.

13. CALL REFERENCES.

This is not a formaility. Conduct 2-3 reference calls. DO THIS! You can obtain phenomenal “color” on the candidate — how they optimally work, what makes them tick, what challenges they need to overcome, what they are better at than anyone else, how much did their colleagues like them, and most importantly, what kind of character and integrity does the candidate have?

14. SOMETIMES A DONE DEAL JUST AIN’T A DONE DEAL.

You may get pretty deep into the process of finding, interviewing, recruiting, selling, offering, hiring and starting a new person… and then BAM, it just doesn’t work out. It happens sometimes. Get angry and get over it. Hit the recruiting “pavement” the next morning with new energy!

And that’s it! No, hiring an early team of A players is not easy, and it ain’t for the faint of heart. But yes, it is possible and there’s even a method to the madness. The most important thing… persist! Never give up.

About the Author

Paul Ruderman is the Founder of UpdateZen, a simple status reporting solution for executives, managers and business owners.

By Andre Lavoie

Can social media really be utilized to help companies align and engage their employees? It sure can.

According to the 2014 Social Recruitment Monitor Survey by Maximum EMG, companies from a wide variety of industries are using social media as a way to provide real-time information to customers and employees.

Social media is becoming an increasingly important medium for organizations of all sizes to keep employees aligned and engaged. It is also a key factor in achieving internal transparency.

Here are some ways to utilize social media to better align organizations and teams:

3 Ways to Use social M edia to align yoU r teaM

1. Keep employees updated on all company news and customer interactions.

One of the benefits of having an active social-media presence is the ability to engage and interact with a desired audience. This is not only helpful in marketing your company externally, but also when used to align internal teams and entire organizations.

Leaders should encourage everyone on their teams to follow, like or connect with the company’s social-media channels. This way, employees can stay updated on company news or customer conversations that may not warrant a mention in a meeting or newsletter.

It’s also important to let employees know they can, and should, contribute to these conversations. Doing so reflects positively on the company when potential recruits or customers see that the people behind the company truly support it.

2. Recognize employees doing great things on social media.

Recognition is an important factor to employee alignment, and social media can be an effective way to spread the word about great work employees are doing.

Taking the time to not only recognize an employee for their efforts, but also share it with the public is significant. Use content that encourages comments and make sure to tag the employee so all of their network sees the post.

Before moving forward with any of this, check with the employee and make sure they are comfortable with public recognition. Some employees will prefer a more internal tactic, which should always be respected.

3. Remain transparent and lenient on social-media guidelines.

Giving employees the opportunity to become brand advocates for the company can help the company reach an extremely expansive audience. However, this also opens up the company to more vulnerabilities and potential issues.

Instead of providing strict rules and guidelines for employees, lead by example. Remain honest and transparent internally about what is being and will be said on social media. Ask that employees respect this and explain why some things are withheld so they understand why they must remain quiet on certain topics.

Transparency provides extremely strong alignment between employees and their employers and allows social media to be a much more powerful tool that truly impacts a company’s bottom line.

About the AuthorAndre Lavoie is the CEO of ClearCompany, the first talent-alignment platform that aims to bridge the gap between talent management and business strategy by contextualizing employees’ work around a company’s vision and goals.

* This article originally appeared on Entrepreneur.

By Cristopher Ramirez

ENTREPRENEURS! TAKE A BREAK: IT CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS

We, as entrepreneurs, know that in order to grow our businesses we have to work tirelessly, not only in the beginning but always. And when we love what we do it doesn’t seem like work, but this workaholic attitude is cool when it is controlled. Excess can be dangerous, for your health and your business.y

I’m not talking about taking a full time vacation for a week or so. I mean during your workweek, schedule a few minutes a day to just relax and clear your mind.

I know, the idea of having less time to do the work of a day can be a little stressful, but see it in a positive way, it can make you focus in the real work that has to be done. Better efficiency.

But also, taking a break entails great benefits, here’s a list of some of them:

1. RecoveR fRom woRk:The first benefit is the obvious one. Taking a break helps to regain strengths and focus. I highly recommend taking a nap, maybe not every day but on those days when you are feeling more exhausted. In a few days you will feel the difference. If you don’t believe I invite to read this article about napping.

2. IsolatIng the Really ImpoRtant thIngs to do:When you take a break, you can focus on the really important things. Analyzing what’s best for your business and the tasks you have to be doing. Than after that little break you can focus on all those things, making you feel your work was way more productive.

3. RemembeR thIngs that you haven’t done:There are tasks that sometimes we forget to do, more often than you think. Maybe buy something, pay something, send an email or even make a call at certain hour. Taking a break makes your mind clear, it’s like when you go to bed at night and then you just remember everything you had to do, but without the inconvenience of “it’s already night!”

4. oppoRtunIty to keep In touch:Disconnected from all the work, you have the opportunity to make some calls or send a text to your friends you haven’t seen, to call your family or whoever you miss and want to call. To maintain your relationships when you become an entrepreneur is

sometimes hard, but always try to keep in touch with the people that have always been there for you.

5. fIndIng new Ideas:This happens to me a lot, doesn’t matter if I’m taking a break or enjoying my weekend, there’s always a new idea that pops up onto my head. To be honest not always the idea has something to do with work, but the few ideas that pops out have helped me in changing my business model and create more value to my customers. Taking a break allows your brain to generate new ideas

and new concepts can at the end can benefit your business a lot more than keep working non-stop.

Taking a break, it sounds counterproductive but really it isn’t. It has great benefits for you (health, focus, helps maintain relationships) and your business (gets work done, help creating more value). The next time you’re working like

there is no tomorrow and you feel a little sleepy or exhausted remember these 5 benefits and don’t feel guilty after.

About the AuthorCristopher Ramírez is a Mexican entrepreneur and small business investor. Passionate writer in entrepreneurship and motivation articles for local papers, college magazine and the blog he funded. He is also the author of Imperio Emprendedor. You can follow him in Twitter.

* This article originally appeared on Under30CEO.com

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By Jim Haudan

Successful businesses are constantly changing. They’re introducing new offerings based on customer demand, making product updates to improve their bottom line, expanding into new markets, promoting employees and more. But unfortunately not everyone is always ready to adapt. In fact, for every supporter of change, leaders will be challenged by those who are resistant or scared to embrace the new, the unknown. And because of the disharmony caused by the change-adverse, the leadership, and possibly the whole organization, is put at risk for failure.

The Three Bandits of Change Leadership

Why? Three change bandits – “The Other Guy,” “Adversity,” and “Discomfort” – can be viewed as keeping even the best-intentioned leaders from being successful. It is important to consider that change is not a left-brain rational act, but a right-brain emotional choice. The ability to lead and influence change is based on how we feel and how we make others feel. It is these feelings and how we process them that ultimately allow for successful change leadership. So taking the Three Bandits of Change Leadership head-on is a critical component to successfully leading a team, or an organization, through a change that will result in a better business for all.

What are the change bandits doing to cause problems for the leaders of change? They’re feeding on the emotional conclusions that the “other guy” needs to change, “adversity” should be avoided, and “discomfort” is incompetence in disguise. Here is a more in-depth look at each.

1. THE OTHER GUYHis voice of fear and limitations can easily change a mindset focused on being better to one consumed with being bitter. “The other guy did this to me.” “The other guy needs to go first before I can do anything.” “The other guy is keeping me from being successful.”

A number of years ago, I worked with a psychologist and business coach who started working in prisons. He spoke to prisoners one on one, asking them the same question: How did you get here? In each cell, the prisoner would say, “It wasn’t me; it was the other guy.” They told him elaborate stories – “my friends took me along,” “my cousin looks just like me, and they got the wrong guy,” or “I had a terrible lawyer and was never defended properly.” The coach quickly concluded if we caught this illusive “other guy,” we could empty our prisons. When he began working in corporate America, he conducted interviews with executives on what was holding back their performance. Amazingly, the “other guy” showed up here too. Operations said Marketing and Sales were selling things they couldn’t produce, and Marketing claimed that operating processes were so complex that it took extraordinary human effort to get ordinary results. The notes from the interviews

captured beliefs like, “the other guy’s new structure doesn’t set us up for success,” “the other guy doesn’t hold people accountable,” “the other guy needs to go first,” “the other guy doesn’t listen,” and “his ‘send’ button is stuck, and his ‘receive’ button is broken.” This “other guy” syndrome causes us to give away control of our future to others; the Other Guy Bandit must be sent off before he derails any change effort. When we keep control within ourselves, we can achieve our goals.

2. ADVERSITYThe #1 roadblock to change is not addressing the areas of conflict or adversity that are critical to success. I’ve found that teams have extreme difficulty separating issues from individuals and stepping into the areas they fear may offend others. This is especially true the higher you go in an organization where adversity-laced conflict is talked about in the hall or at the bar, instead of as a team that must change to truly address the challenge.

Research shows that adversity is one of the most critical ingredients for personal and team growth. As adversity and conflict go away, people stop growing and begin a slow decline in capability. The goal is to hug adversity and embrace conflict to promote true change leadership.

3. DISCOMFORTYou can’t lead if you are comfortable. Humility, vulnerability, and discomfort are the traits of change leadership. So how do we get comfortable with discomfort and realize that feeling like a dumbass can be the example of leading change? The secret is to create a new mindset that helps people feel and know they should not flee the discomfort, but see it as a sign of genuine leadership. Hug the indignity. Celebrate the clumsy. And remember the mindset that change is beginning again.

All three bandits – the “Other Guy,” “Adversity,” and “Discomfort” – must all be addressed in order to build and create a business for the future that is compelling and worth the risk.

About the Author

Jim Haudan is a different kind of CEO, with a passion that goes beyond leading Root to success. For more than 20 years, he has been helping organizations unleash hidden potential by fully engaging their people to deliver on the strategies of the business. With his background as a coach, it’s not a stretch that the company Jim co-founded focuses on tapping employees’ discretionary efforts – the kind that produces winning results.

Jim is a frequent speaker on leadership alignment, strategy execution, employee engagement, business transformation, change management, and accelerated learning. He has spoken at TEDx BGSU, the Conference Board events, and numerous client meetings. He also contributes regularly to business publications and blogs. He lives in Sylvania with his wife, Michelle. They have three children, Brad, Brooke, and Blake. When he’s not traveling the globe visiting clients, he enjoys relaxing with his family at their lake cottage, golfing, fishing, photography, and attending Jimmy Buffett concerts.

By Markus Lorenz

We hear a lot these days about how big companies fail to innovate, but the truth is more complicated. A lot of companies excel at developing better products, yet these improvements are incremental. They’re not the breakthrough offerings that can jump-start growth and profitability. And companies’ success at cranking out these enhancements hampers them from getting better at the radical projects.

If you closely analyze unsuccessful attempts at developing breakthrough products, perhaps the most common trouble you find is not one of the usual suspects, such as lack of top-management commitment. Instead, you’ll see

that efficiency-minded project managers are inadvertently discouraging the explorations – and therefore the learning – that make radical ideas practical.

There’s a history behind this problem. Frustrated by inefficient R&D, companies in the 1980s started applying standard project-management techniques such as phase-gates and key performance indicators.

Textbooks on innovation advised them to allow some flexibility in the phase-gates. Yet control-minded project managers have tended to chart strongly linear paths that discourage distractions – depriving their teams of the

How Good Management Stifles Breakthrough Innovation

agility and openness needed for new thinking. As development teams became more productive and their initiatives more predictable, incremental improvements soared, project managers got promoted – and radical innovation declined.

Companies soon began spending less and less time on breakthrough ideas. At BCG we’ve found that radical projects nowadays account for roughly 10% of an average company’s innovation portfolio, down from twice that in the early 1990s. (Josh Lerner cites the narrow focus of corporate R&D in his October HBR piece on corporate venturing.)

The lesson is clear. It’s not enough for executives to proclaim their commitment to innovation, develop an innovation mind-set, or even put more money into breakthroughs. Companies also need to make changes at the ground level.

They can start by treating radical projects differently, but it isn’t enough to just let these teams loose. Without some discipline, initiatives will become money pits, or nervous project managers will fall back on their conventional habits of control.

The solution is for project managers to devote less effort to predicting and directing innovation, and more effort to managing the inevitable uncertainties. They should worry less about the schedule and more about ways to reduce risk – by partnering with outside companies, say, or getting advance commitments from customers. Or they can invest in multiple options for the marketplace, rather than rushing through a single big bet.

They should certainly expand the key performance indicators to include vital insights on technology or customers, so that a worthwhile project can keep going even if it is far from a serviceable prototype.

But like venture firms, they need to terminate projects that exceed a predetermined “affordable loss.” (For more on the framework BCG has developed, see this paper.)

Take, for example, a photo-technology company my colleagues and I worked with. Digital printing promised to greatly expand the designs of ceramics, furniture, and other nonpaper products, and the company hoped to pioneer the sale of industrial printers in these sectors. Its first printer was a dud, so the company rethought its efforts, creating a new development team that included marketing people as well as engineers. With this broadened perspective – and the time to explore how customers would actually use this new technology – the team realized that usage would vary greatly across industries. The project manager recognized the insight and secured funding to develop multiple kinds of printheads and other functionality. Those steps improved the likelihood of marketplace acceptance, and the resulting printer quickly won over buyers.

The combination of flexible techniques and a manager who tolerates uncertainty created something that’s increasingly rare and valuable these days: a radically new product that creates a whole new market space.

About the Author

Markus Lorenz is a partner and managing director in the Munich office of the Boston Consulting Group.

* This article originally appeared on the Harvard Business Review.

Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. - Joshua J. Marine

“”

By Lyve Alexis Pleshette

Small BuSi n eSS Ti pS from a SucceSSful enTrepreneur

Ruth Ellen Miller, Co-Founder and President of NoUVIR Lighting www.nouvir.com based in Delaware, is a successful entrepreneur who saw her business grow out of her living room to become a million dollar enterprise.

Nouvir Lighting is a manufacturer of fiber optic lighting, producing pure-white fiber-optic light capable of minimizing photochemical damage. Nouvir’s lighting systems are used in museums including historic documents and memorabilia such as Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten draft of the Declaration of Independence to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, from the Bill of Rights to The Louisiana Purchase, the Magna Carta and hundreds of other priceless documents. Through Ruth Ellen’s leadership, Nouvir Lighting has become a booming business that embodies her passion and creativity.

As a testament to her contribution in the community and her business success, the Small Business Administration named Ruth Ellen as the Small Business Person of the Year for the State of Delaware in May 2000.

Here are her tips to would-be entrepreneurs, particularly small business manufacturers:

1. Plan Big.“Entrepreneurs need to plan the manufacturing and marketing of profitable, proprietary products; not generic, me-too, low-bid business. Plan how you will market, how you will grow, how you will advertise and where you will be a year from now, three years and five years from now. Keep your goal worthy and in sight.”

“NoUVIR has 16 U.S. Patents protecting its proprietary products. Our fiber optic lighting has unmatched performance and is superior in technology. We win any head-to-head contest with any competitor no matter how big a conglomerate we face. They cannot

imitate or copy us, because we planned big. The cash for the new computers was planned. We added a new building to make NoUVIR more responsive to customers; produce better products, and create a better quality of life. The cost of the new building was planned, and it was completed right on budget.”

2. Start Small.“Live tactically on rabbits, while planning strategically to hunt elephants. Small sales build a company. Tiny offices, obsolete equipment, used furniture; temporary employees, small production spaces, etc. let you put dollars towards more important things like R&D that help you grow.”

“Those small sales of one fiber optic lighting system have grown into lighting whole galleries and floors. The tiny single ad is now a modest ad campaign. We continue to work on a small scale, prove it, keep the process efficient and then grow according to the plan into bigger things.”

3. Don’t Borrow.“Monitor cash flow so your profits build your new building, not your bank’s.”

“There is no trouble in spending extra if there is a need to correct something. I have the financial freedom to give a customer little extra something extra as a customer service. Many big companies can’t say that.”

About the Author

Lyve Alexis Pleshette is a writer for PowerHomebiz.com. She writes on various topics pertaining home businesses, from startup to managing a home-based business. For a step-by-step guide to starting a business, order the downloadable ebook “Checklist for Starting a Small Business” from PowerHomebiz.com

Think You Know What Venture Capitalists Look For In New Start-Ups? Think Again

Everyone talks about how entrepreneurs and innovators get their famous “aha!” moments.

But no one really talks about when the VCs who fund them get their big idea to finance fledgling entrepreneurs with the capital that turns ideas into industry and headlines.

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Chi-Hua Chien has had a long career investing in Silicon Valley companies including Spotify, Twitter, and Facebook. When his firm Goodwater Capital was looking at a

new investment in the Imoji app, all their financial research was boiled down into a human moment.

“My 5-year old daughter wanted to play with Imoji rather than have her bedtime story,” laughs Chien.

Not every investment is so close to home.

Eurie Kim is a principal at Forerunner Ventures, the company that has helped bring us Warby Parker, Bonobos and Birchbox.

By Patrick Hanlon

“Often, we see several similar ideas come to us all around the same time. Sometimes it’s two or three of the same general concept, sometimes even five or six,” says Kim.

“We are always doing our own research to explore categories and themes we think are interesting and have pain points that, if addressed, could open up big new market opportunities. But the ‘aha!’ moment happens when a founder comes in to pitch and every aspect of their approach seems to addresses all question marks in our minds.

“Every time we invest, it’s a ‘zing’ moment,” Kim continues. “The stars seem to align with a stellar team that has great chemistry and relevant experience, a unique brand that has potential to inspire consumers, a differentiated product that stands to disrupt existing options—and that unmistakable connection we feel when we just have to be in business with someone.”

“I think back to 1994,” says Stuart Rudick of Mindfull Investors. “When Sky Dayton had the idea of creating an Internet service provider. (I didn’t know what an ISP was at that moment.) I said ‘no’ during the first round of investment.

“My ‘aha!’ moment was when he came back three months later and showed me the growth of the business—which was 3X what he showed me the first time,” says Rudick. “He was getting traction, the number of users, and he had beat what his projections were.”

The company back in 1994, of course, was called Earthlink.

Rudick’s latest pick is Atheer Labs. Atheer has technology imbedded in glasswear for augmented reality. The Atheer software development kit allows developers to create fully immersive and interactive 3D enterprise apps on the Android platform.

“When I saw the power and ability to do it in real life and real applications in medical, entertainment, auto industry,” says Rudick, “it really made me think this is something that will truly change our lives.”

What venture partners look for is part economics, part science, and part gut instinct. Generally, every firm begins with a robust decision framework that includes key ingredients.

The founder is passionate about their idea.

They have past experience that makes them credible.

The world is dying for their idea, even if they don’t know it yet.

The founder has an unfair advantage.

FOMO. The investor has a fear of missing out on something big.

And finally, what will the exit be? When does the investor get their money back—hopefully several times the size of their original investment.

It is the purpose of all brands—especially those in the fledgling, start-up stage—to surround themselves with a community of fans. At first, that community lives on the inside, the nucleus of founder(s) and Employee #2. Over time, the tenets of community expand, spread, and embrace the world at large. In order for the brand to survive and become a Brand (capital B), the essentials of community must be communicated, differentiated, and spread across a diverse set of media from packaging, point of purchase, out-of-home, experience, home page, social media and (yes) the pitch deck.

The beliefs of the Brand must seep into the world of venture capitalism where, hopefully, the idea is transformed from another meaningless pitch, into a product enriched with enough purpose and meaning for someone to click the “Like” button.

Mark Goldstein of Camiolog has funded dozens of Silicon Valley ventures. He admits that while the business

fundamentals must be in place, sometimes that “aha!” moment is already staring you in the face.

An instance. A few years ago, Goldstein found himself sitting in a bar. The bar was full, but he noticed something peculiar. “I looked up,” he says, “and no one was talking. Instead, everyone was on their cell phone. So I dove in and funded only mobile-first companies!”

In the end, it boils down to basics. “We assess the potential opportunity,” says Eric Kim of Goodwater. “And the rate of return for investors.”

And sometimes, the VCs just don’t get it. Example. Neil Young’s high resolution music ecosystem Pono was turned down by VCs, so Young turned to his millions of fans. His subsequent crowdfunding campaign raised $20 million on a $50 million valuation.

Effectively giving VCs an entirely different kind of “aha!” moment.

About the Author

Patrick Hanlon is ceo and founder of THINKTOPIA® and one of the leading branding practitioners in the world. His book Primal Branding: Create Zealots For Your Brand, Your Company And Your Future (Simon & Schuster, 2006), is recommended by YouTube, the larg-est social engagement platform on the

planet. His new book The Social Code helps startup (and grown up) entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes understand how to create a community of fans who are so passionate about your success, they are willing to create it themselves.

* This article originally ran on Forbes.com

By Aaron Lee

HOW TO MAKE YOUR PRODUCT LOOK SEXY ON FACEBOOK

Do you want to learn how to spice up your product and make it sexy on Facebook?

To be honest with you, I’ve heard it all before. People have told me that their products are too boring or that they work in an industry that’s not interesting enough to be on Facebook.

I, on the other hand, believe that any business can be on Facebook.

A little creativity is what it takes to make it work. I’ve seen countless unique pages —everything from swimming pool accessories to poultry products, and even a horse farm — that have built great communities on Facebook simply because their competitors are not represented there.

You can do this too!

1. Show what it represents.What is your product to you and to your customers?

Other than simply solving your customers’ problem, you could show them what your product represents.

For companies like GoPro, it’s all about “the adventure.” For others’ pages it’s about fun, freedom, love, God, etc.

Quest Nutrition hopes their product will represent clean eating and a healthy lifestyle. To reinforce this idea, they constantly share photos of fans who have worked hard to lose weight, and they’ve had great success in doing so.

2. Dress it up.I only have one tip in this area and that is to get out of the studio! A professional product photo with a white background is pretty. It’s great if you’re selling it on your website, but if you do that on Facebook, it’s just not sexy.

Take your product, take yourself, get out of the studio, and capture your product it in a different environment. Now that makes it sexy!

Just take a look at how sexy these pretzels are.

3. Have some fun.If it fits the tone that you want to convey on Facebook, go and have fun. You’re not required to be professional all the time. Many businesses limit themselves here by being too professional and they forget that social networks like Facebook are very personal.

A few simple ideas:

Add a meme to your brand

Share a joke

Show fun people working in your company

4. Show the ways you can use it.How do you use your products? Instead of simply posting and trying to sell based on the product’s specifications, demonstrate to your fans the ways that they can use your products.

Facebook is a great platform for this type of sharing: you can make a step- by-step infographic, a video tutorial or simply a daily or weekly tip.

One of the best examples that I’ve seen came from Duck Tape. Duck Tape! Who would have guessed adhesives could be so compelling on Facebook? Not me!

5. CustomersThere’s nothing sexier than having your customers do the selling for you. You can do this by getting your fans to send photos of them with your products.

Ask them to share a photo with you by submitting it through an app, comments section, or even on Instagram through the use of a hashtag. Share the best couple of photos and reward your fans.

I love how Quest Nutrition does this on Facebook. For me Quest Nutrition ticks all the boxes for really marketing on Facebook.

6. Make it currentThe trick to using current events in your Facebook marketing is to predict what current events will be relevant to your fans. An easy example would be events like the Super Bowl, but others could be more niche, like the Teen Choice Awards. For Fitness enthusiasts there are events like the Crossfit games.

Know what your fans love, and then use it as a topic to engage with them. You could even have a subtle product placement inside the visuals that you use. It doesn’t have to be too direct.

7. Show the human sideThis last one is perhaps the most important, and will connect everything mentioned above. Showing the human side of the business will make your product sexy because it makes your page more memorable, especially when compared to the thousands of other pages constantly bombarding their fans with ads and corporate messages.

You can do this by showing what happens at your workplace. Perhaps give your fans an idea of the people that run your daily operations.

Summing up!To really succeed in this space, you have to be honest and, most importantly, be yourself. The best practices are fine, but allowing your unique personality to show through is what will really help distinguish you from the pack.

It’s your turn. I would love to hear your thoughts on how you would make your product look sexier on Facebook.

About the Author

Aaron Lee is the Grand Master of Customer Delight at Post Planner, a platform that makes it easy to increase Facebook engagement. During his free time, he shares his fun adventures at AskAaronLee.com.

Trust

Autumn is the season where we reap the benefits of the seeds that we planted in the spring according to the great philosopher Jim Rohn. I wanted to

touch base with the entrepreneurial community on why you should never, ever, give up on your dreams.

Last Labor day as many of us celebrated American workers with family and friends or looked upon the upcoming new season with regret or disappointment for the things we want to achieve or feel that we should have already achieved, Diana Nyad, a 64 year old endurance swimmer became the first swimmer to cross the 110 mile journey from Cuba to Key west without the protection of a shark cage. This was Ms. Nyad’s fifth attempt to reach her goal in 35 years and she finally made it.

After Ms. Nyad completed her journey, she gave us three simple but powerful messages that I want to share with you to show you how this applies to us as individuals as well as entrepreneurs, myself included. Diana’s three messages were:

Why You Should Never Give Up On Your Dreams

By Adriana Langford

We should never, ever give up

Think of all the situations that you have been through, how bad you fought for the dream you wanted the most, and most importantly for those of you that are still struggling to reach their destination this is not the time to quit. Ms. Nyad tried this five times and each time before there was an obstacle in her way. Storms, stinging jellyfish, and terrifying sharks. I can’t think of one person in my life that would do what she did, can you? You could be that person.

You are never too old to chase Your dreams

Whether you’re 35 or 53 chances are deep down inside there is something burning you on the inside. Maybe this goal is something you dreamed of doing twenty years ago . It could be the dream of working for yourself or the dream of finally getting that MBA title that you may not even need but want to have it make you feel complete. Ms. Nyad showed us all that it’s really never too late. All you need is perseverance and determination to succeed.

it looks like a solitarY sport, but it takes a team

This lesson was actually my favorite. I confess! It’s my favorite because I’m running a company, as are many of you,

and we both know that doing it ourselves is just a crock of you know what. If it weren’t for my team I honestly don’t know how I would do it. A well-balanced team makes all the difference.

If you are running your business alone this really applies to you. Think about all of the things you would be able to achieve if you developed your A team. After so many attempts Ms. Nyad knew what she had to do and whom she had to consult to make this journey a success. On one occasion she had a severe asthma attack that stopped her journey, which prompted her to call a pulmonologist. After being severely stung by a swarm of jellyfish, she called in a jellyfish expert. Sharks are usually an absolute menace so she called in shark divers. After each lesson she learned exactly whom she needed to succeed and you must do the same.

We are living in an age where anything is possible, including the outrageous dreams you have in your head. So today as we reflect on Diana Nyad’s successful journey, I want you to continue telling yourself, IT’S POSSIBLE!

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about the author

adriana langford is The Chic Entrepreneur Coach. Founder and executive editor at www.shelovesmarketing.com and creator of the Marketing makeover toolbox. Adriana teaches women entrepreneurs how to makeover their marketing to attract their ideal clients to live their ideal lifestyles.

THE QUEST FOR THE “EASY” STARTUPTabitha Jean Naylor

If you’ve ever played video games, you have heard the word quest on a regular basis. You are often completing quests in order to save the princess or find the missing dragon. If you haven’t noticed, these adventures are not real.

The ‘easy’ startup is also a fantasy.

For some reason, there are many myths that are involved with running a startup. Who thinks these fantasies up and spreads them around like wildfire? Nobody knows. Often these rumors are started by those who have never experienced running their own business. These myths are also created by those who assume they know the answers to running a startup.

The truth is, many people have dreams of beginning a startup but are too afraid to move on it. Moving past your fear is the first step to beginning a startup.

Before you truly begin, you must learn the truth behind many of the myths that follow an ‘easy’ startup.

If your startup fails,

you’ve failed.For some reason, people associate failure with two ideas: that your product must not be worth purchasing or that you should quit altogether. This is absolutely incorrect.

Many successful startups have failed numerous times. If you need proof, look at one of the cofounders of Paypal – he launched 4 startups; 3 failed and one did “okay”.

Failure is more of a state of mind than anything else. Yes, it means that something needs to be changed because you did not reach success, but success is also not a journey. Many people need to fail to learn and grow, because failure teaches lessons.

If you’re facing a failure with your startup, find out why – what needs to be changed? What areas of your startup were successful?

There are many questions you can ask yourself to turn these negative issues into positive opportunities.

Expectations: Expect to fail. Failure will allow you to alter your business in ways that will eventually benefit your company in the future and open the doors for success when you come out for round 2. If your startup is successful from the get go, work hard to ensure that it continues to thrive.

A new product will obviously mean immediate customers.Unless you’re lucky enough to have a TV infomercial that advertises your product line, immediate customers is definitely a fantasy.

Just because you have created something

great does not mean customers are going to flock to your business. In fact, many people may not even know – or care – about your business.

Whatever services or products you are trying to sell are irrelevant; even if it’s something that has never hit the market before. Unless it is an absolutely breakthrough in science, it needs to be properly marketed and given a purpose.

Customers need to be given a reason to care about your product and know that it serves a purpose for them that no other product can serve.

Expectations: You’re going to spend a lot of time marketing and advertising through social media and be reliant on word of mouth, including your own, to spread the news about your business. Even after you’ve spent hours and hours marketing, customers are still going to be far and few. It may be months before you begin to see a rise in customers, so don’t get discouraged.

Passion will keep your business alive.Did you know that passion doesn’t actually run your business? It is extremely important to be passionate about your company and brand. You must care about your products and what you’re going to be giving back to the public, yes, but it is not what is going to keep your business thriving.

Passion is not going to sell or market your product. It isn’t going to spread the word through friends and family. Once your products have been sampled or used, the excitement in customers may sell your product to others, but it is not passion that will get it there.

Many startup founders get distracted with their passion because they believe that their product is good enough to sell itself. While it is vital to having faith in your own products, you must be able to see your products from the customer’s point of view.

Expectations: You have to allow yourself to see things from an outside perspective. Being able to accept criticism and make changes is what is going to help keep your business going. If you’re too passionate about your services or products, it may be detrimental to your company. The dreams you have of succeeding and selling an unbelievable product should not trump your intelligence or attention to details. Every product has flaws – don’t let your vision blind you from seeing them.

If you don’t know, get a cofounder who does.It’s obvious you cannot do it all. While being the jack of all trades is ideal, it’s often unrealistic.

Getting a cofounder can help reduce some of your workload, but if you’re getting one for the wrong reasons, your startup may still fail. Because you aren’t familiar with the technical details of running a startup is not reason enough to find a cofounder to help your business.

You may be asking yourself why you need to know something if you have a cofounder who knows already.

Expectations: You should have some knowledge in every aspect of your startup. There will obviously be large holes in your knowledge because some business areas require a lot of education, such as software programming or the financials, but having some knowledge in each department is helpful. This can provide you with some insight as to what is going on in your business; this way, you aren’t completely oblivious if something happens. If your cofounder is busy or out of town, you must be able to step up to the plate and know who to call if something breaks or what the next step to take is to find a solution.

A good business plan is the key to success.For some reason, people in general think having a plan is the best solution to avoiding chaos.

Then, when something goes awry you can panic and have absolutely no idea what to do next.

Yes, a business plan can help lay things out and begin a startup successfully. Depending what kind of business you’re starting, a plan can help you maintain a guideline as to how things are supposed to be done or what your prediction may be for the future.

Expectations: Stay realistic and remember: a business plan is simply full of predictions. The future can never be known even if you do everything in your power to control it. Expect your business plan to be a guideline rather than something that is set in stone. Things can always go in different directions and creating a new business plan every time something changes is absurd.

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