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Don’t bash the competition. Every investor knows how vulnerable a new startup is to competitors, so investors always ask about your sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. How an entrepreneur answers this question speaks volumes about their knowledge of business realities, customers, Read More

These days, it is almost impossible to find a small business where everything is done by full-time employees, in the office or at home. We are in the age of outsourcing, by any of many popular names, including subcontracting, freelancing, and virtual assistants. These approaches allow your startup Read More

If you are a new business owner or entrepreneur, you are likely to be creative and willing to take a risk, and you probably assume that most potential team members have the same mindset. Unfortunately, the reality is that not everyone has that mindset, and one of your toughest jobs is to find the r Read More

With the current volatile economy, as an active startup mentor, I’m seeing a new surge of entrepreneurs and startups, with the commensurate scramble for funding. There just aren’t enough angel investors and VCs to go around. Thus I’m getting more questions on new mechanisms, like crowd funding, or Read More

In my experience, one of the biggest mistakes I see you make as a startup or new business owner is to create a business that is totally dependent on you. That means you are the only one who knows how the business works, you make all decisions, and progress grinds to a halt when you are away. That m Read More

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this Read More

Maybe starting a new business isn’t your passion, but in these days of rapid change, where everyone is dealing with uncertainty, I believe that thinking and acting like entrepreneurs will help you get ahead in any profession. In simple terms this means taking control of your life, going after somet Read More

As a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, the most common question I get is, “I want to be an entrepreneur -- how do I start?” The obvious answer is that you need an idea first, but I’ve come to realize that the process is really much more complex than that. Many people with great ideas never make it Read More

Providing business leadership is a challenge under the best of circumstances, but it is especially difficult in times of market and customer crises. That’s when you most need your team to be engaged and supportive, at a time when they may not fully understand the issues, and fear for their own futu Read More

As a business consultant, I often have to remind small business owners that their marketing needs to be more interactive, versus the traditional “push” model, where you broadcast your message to as many people as possible. New generations of customers respond better to the “participative” approach, Read More