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7 Key Entrepreneur Habits Highlight Execution Ability

Startup Professionals Musings

As a small business and startup advisor, I find that entrepreneurs often love to talk about their latest idea, but not their execution. For example, Elon Musk is recognized as a visionary entrepreneur, but his fortune and his impact has come from the great companies he has built, including SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and PayPal.

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Traction Metrics Seed Real Startup Funding And Growth

Startup Professionals Musings

Almost every entrepreneur looking for outside investors has heard the annoying rejection, “You are just too early – come back when you have more traction.” That should make you wonder - how do you measure traction in a metric? A useful traction metric is how many constraints have been removed, with resolution times.

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When Did Profit Become A Bad Word For Entrepreneurs?

Startup Professionals Musings

As a startup advisor and investor, I find that more and more entrepreneurs avoid using the term “profit” in pitching their new venture. Thus I was pleased and a bit surprised to see a new book, “ The Purpose Is Profit ,” by Ed “Skip” McLaughlin, an entrepreneur who has both succeeded and failed in starting multiple businesses.

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How To Move From An Entrepreneur To Manager Or Fail

Startup Professionals Musings

As a business advisor, I have too often seen technical entrepreneurs get a product or service off the ground with ease, but then struggle mightily when their business reaches a couple of million in annual sales, or the employee count grows beyond a handful. True entrepreneurs love the tactical and problem solving challenges.

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Think Like An Entrepreneur For Business Longevity

Startup Professionals Musings

The many ways that great firms can slip away from entrepreneurial thinking were highlighted in a new book, “ Achieving Longevity ,” by Jim Dewald, based on his own experiences as a corporate executive, entrepreneur, and Dean of the Haskayne School of Business. Marty Zwilling First published on Forbes on 07/06/2016.

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5 Engagement Principles Now Drive Business Leadership

Startup Professionals Musings

In the same way, great entrepreneurs and company leaders should no longer rely on faceless and nameless processes to drive business strategy and innovation to stay competitive. Here is my adaptation of his engagement principles for all the aspiring entrepreneurs I advise: Learn to adopt an outsider’s perspective.

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8 Key Principles To Keep Up With The Speed of Change

Startup Professionals Musings

Things change so fast these days in business that your first priority as an entrepreneur is to stay current, by talking to customers, peers, and experts. Smart entrepreneurs overtly plan every month to re-sync their vision and objectives with newly-learned market realities. Define and use market metrics to tune your plan.