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The most valuable assets of a new startup are the people on the team, and the most challenging task of the entrepreneur and team leaders is to spend their leadership time and energy productively. Cash isn’t always the scarcest resource startups have to invest – more often it’s the leadership capita Read More

I may be old fashioned, but the term consultant still conjures up an image of a self-proclaimed expert who can make great presentations, generate recommendations and leave you to do the hard work of implementation. This may work for big companies who have specialized staffs, but it doesn’t work for Read More

Since the recession, and at least partially sparked by it, I’m seeing a real resurgence of entrepreneurial spirit, and more startup activity than ever before. I believe the days of the “job work” mentality are thankfully waning, with more people looking to get satisfaction by making the world a bet Read More

As a mentor to startups and new entrepreneurs, I continue to hear the refrain that business plans are no longer required for a new startup, since investors never read them anyway. People cite sources like this BusinessWeek story a while back “Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans,” or even Read More

In my years of working with entrepreneurs, I have heard many times the promise that their new idea will create the next Amazon or Apple, but I rarely hear the more important promise that the founder will practice all the good habits of winning entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs. You see, Read More

Every entrepreneur I know is short on resources, including time, money, and skills. The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Waste in a startup is any activity that spends resources, but creates no value Read More

One of the simplest questions I get from aspiring entrepreneurs, and ironically one of the hardest, is “How do I start?” I want to tell them to just start anywhere, but I realize that most have no idea where anywhere is. They just aren’t prepared for the life they want, and are really asking me how Read More

As a mentor and advisor to entrepreneurs, I find it’s easy to recognize “street smarts” when I see them, but it’s hard to explain the specifics to someone on the other end of the spectrum, even if they are willing to learn. Some people argue that street smarts are only a natural born skill, but I d Read More

One of the most popular and least successful models I see in new business plans for startups is the so-called Facebook model, providing free services to users while collecting revenue from ads to offset costs and grow the business. To make this work, you need heavy traffic on your site -- probably Read More

Every new baby gets a name before it is introduced to the world, and yet some entrepreneurs continue to send me business plans with TBD (to be determined) in place of a business name on the front page. They don’t realize that the name they choose, or lack of it, sets an initial perception of the bu Read More