article thumbnail

10 Tips To Ensure That Your New Venture Is Investable

Startup Professionals Musings

Here are some pragmatic tips on how to make your startup more scalable and investable: If you need investors, start with a scalable idea. Investors will tell you that they love to put money into startups that are scalable, and ready to become the next unicorn. But what does that really mean?

Tips 132
article thumbnail

7 Tips On Written Communications To Startup Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing.

Tips 119
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

article thumbnail

10 Tips For Entering The Startup Community This Year

Startup Professionals Musings

Here are some tips from both his perspective and mine to stave off the coming summer “brain drain” and focus on the next step of employment, or starting a whole new career as an entrepreneur: Create and control your Internet image.

Tips 165
article thumbnail

7 Tips For Scaling Your Business To Long-Term Success

Startup Professionals Musings

As a new business advisor, I am no longer surprised that every new entrepreneur believes the hard part is creating the first product and the business. Perhaps luckily, they have no idea that scaling the business and maintaining vitality as a mature business is even harder.

Tips 170
article thumbnail

6 Tips For Combining Passion And Purpose To Stand Out

Startup Professionals Musings

I recommend his tips for creating and maintaining that sweet spot: Define a personal declaration of purpose. Finding your sweet spot as an entrepreneur needs to start with a meaningful personal purpose that is also a business opportunity.

Tips 174
article thumbnail

10 Tips On Self-Promotion To Solidify Your Leadership

Startup Professionals Musings

During my many years of mentoring professionals and entrepreneurs in business, I more often see people focusing on how to get their ideas heard , than how to promote themselves.

Tips 119
article thumbnail

6 Tips For A Marketing Focus To Match Your Solution

Startup Professionals Musings

To get you started on the right track, I always recommend the following pragmatic tips that you probably already know, but are always worth re-validating with every new initiative: Quantify how your unique features add value.

Tips 154
article thumbnail

5 Tips For Startups Looking For A Great Solution Idea

Startup Professionals Musings

Potential startup founders are always looking for ideas to implement, when they should be looking for problems to solve. Customers pay for solutions, but there is no market for ideas. I’m often approached by people with a “million dollar idea,” but I haven’t seen anyone pay that for one yet.

Ideas 142
article thumbnail

6 Tips For Ramping Up Your Work Culture For Tomorrow

Startup Professionals Musings

Based on my experience as a business advisor, I recommend that every business owner and entrepreneur focus on the following tips to provide a better work culture: Invest in integrating new technology, not just forcing it.

Tips 156
article thumbnail

10 Business Plan Tips Too Many Entrepreneurs Forget

Startup Professionals Musings

business plan simple Tim Berry tips for successIf you want people to invest in your idea, then my best advice is first write a business plan, and keep it simple. Don't confuse your business plan with a doctoral thesis or the back of a napkin. Keep the wording and formatting straightforward, and keep the plan short. For minimum content, see my original article “ These 10 Key Elements Make a Business Plan Fundable.” The overriding principle is that your business plan must be easy to read.

Tips 95
article thumbnail

10 Tips For Managing Work Expectations On Your Time

Startup Professionals Musings

So here are some tips I have learned over the years from strong leaders that can help you say no without damaging current business relationships or future opportunities: Establish boundaries and honor them for all to see.

Tips 155
article thumbnail

10 Tips On Due Diligence On Any Startup Funding Offer

Startup Professionals Musings

Some aspiring entrepreneurs are so desperate for funding, or naïve, that they ignore the obvious signs of scams and rip-offs on the Internet, praying for a windfall. One would think that with all the sad stories and tools published over the past twenty years, this problem would be behind us.

Tips 145
article thumbnail

8 Tips For Getting Your Startup Right The First Time

Startup Professionals Musings

While these tips, and many others from experts like David Rose, may seem like common sense, it has been my experience as a startup advisor that perhaps two thirds of the startups I see are built initially on creaky foundations.

Tips 158
article thumbnail

7 Tips To Raise Your Entrepreneur Instincts In School

Startup Professionals Musings

A popular myth these days is that finishing college only dilutes your entrepreneurial instincts, and the best of the best, including Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, dropped out early to hasten their success. I agree with Robert E.

Tips 146
article thumbnail

5 Tips For New Entrepreneurs Needing Investor Funding

Startup Professionals Musings

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.

Tips 153
article thumbnail

10 Tips For Crafting An Investment Grade Venture Plan

Startup Professionals Musings

If you want people to invest in your idea, then my best advice is first write a business plan, and keep it simple. Don't confuse your business plan with a doctoral thesis or the back of a napkin. Keep the wording and formatting straightforward, and keep the plan short.

Tips 133
article thumbnail

Best Tips for Working from Home Effectively

Tech.Co

The post Best Tips for Working from Home Effectively appeared first on Tech.co. The coronavirus outbreak has many businesses urgently considering their work-from-home policies.

Tips 157
article thumbnail

6 Tips To Avoid Being Blindsided By A New Competitor

Startup Professionals Musings

Every entrepreneur and business executive knows that continuous innovation is required to survive, but most struggle with this more than any other challenge they face.

Tips 157
article thumbnail

8 Tips For Startups Preparing For The Media Spotlight

Startup Professionals Musings

Not so long ago, training to meet the press and television reporters was a realm reserved for top business executives only. Now, even the earliest stage startup can rise to visibility or be forever lost by their first media spotlight, so it behooves us all to know the rules early.

Tips 114
article thumbnail

7 Tips To Getting A Bank Interested In Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

Many entrepreneurs are convinced that banks are not worth the effort for startups, especially early-stage ones that still don’t have a revenue stream, or collateral to back up their financing needs.

Tips 159
article thumbnail

Karmacoin Takes On Virtual Currency Tipping Via Twitter

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Karmacoin has rolled out a new, virtual currency, and a service to let users "tip" and reward other users using Twitter. karmacoin bitcoin virtual currency rewards tipping According to the company, its new service lets anyone send other people its digital currency on Twitter, with the idea that people can pay for micro content and make micro donations using the popular social networking and communications service.

Tips 171
article thumbnail

Insights: Five Essential Crowdfunding Success Tips

SoCal Tech Calendar

For today's Insights and Opinions article, we have Melinda Moore , author of How to Raise Money: The Ultimate Guide to Crowdfunding , who gives us some tips on crowdfunding. Here are 5 key tips on crowdfunding. Read the rest of Melinda's five tips: Five Essential Crowdfunding Success Tips.

Tips 189
article thumbnail

5 Due Diligence Tips Before You Invest In A Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

Here are some common sense tips: Get financial statements and verify.

Tips 138
article thumbnail

7 Tips On Advancing Your Career To Being A Great Boss

Startup Professionals Musings

A common complaint I hear in my business consulting is that your boss is the problem , and you could fix the business if you only had the opportunity. When I ask what you are doing to prepare for that role , I usually only hear frustration and a lack of specifics or an action plan.

Tips 121
article thumbnail

8 Tips For How And Why To Say ‘No’ To Most Requests

Startup Professionals Musings

So here are some tips that I have accumulated over the years that can help you say the right thing the right way: Give yourself time to think. Entrepreneurs have to know when and how to say ‘no,’ and be good at delivering the message.

Tips 163
article thumbnail

Quick Practical, Tactical Tips for Presentations

Both Sides of the Table

In the past I’ve given some tips for handling meetings effectively, covering topics like: - How not to let your meeting go down a rat hole ; - Dealing with the elephant in the room ; - Dealing with skeletons in your closet ; - How to make meetings discussions, not “pitches&#. -

Tips 392
article thumbnail

Local SEO Tips For Small Startups

AllTopStartups

Millions of competitors and millions of prospective customers all in one… The post Local SEO Tips For Small Startups appeared first on AllTopStartups. If you imagine the internet as one big shopping mall, it’s easy to see why SEO is so important.

SEO 59
article thumbnail

10 Tips On Selling Yourself As Well As Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

Too many entrepreneurs I know still believe that that their great idea will carry the startup, and they may even minimize their own value, especially if they have introvert tendencies. Yet most investors agree that the “idea” is worth nothing alone, and it’s the entrepreneur execution that counts.

Tips 130
article thumbnail

6 Tips To Market Your Idea Before Building A Solution

Startup Professionals Musings

Savvy entrepreneurs start testing their ideas on potential customers even before the concept is fully cooked.

Ideas 123
article thumbnail

7 Tips For Expediting The Scaling Of Your New Venture

Startup Professionals Musings

The military has long recognized that machine guns are force multipliers for rifles, but businesses have been slow to capitalize on this concept. Sometimes all the planning in the world isn’t enough for business survival, when things change as fast as they do today.

Tips 123
article thumbnail

6 Tips On Where And When To Look For Startup Funding

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the biggest myths I have found in the entrepreneur community is that every startup needs one or more outside investors for credibility and success, and perhaps is even entitled to at least one.

Tips 173
article thumbnail

5 Tips To Keep Your Startup Productive, Not Just Busy

Startup Professionals Musings

If you want to make a great first impression on a startup investor or an advisor like me, don’t try to convince me or show me how busy you are. For some reason, too many aspiring entrepreneurs I know seem to focus on “actions” rather than “results.”

Tips 122
article thumbnail

7 Tips For Building Millennials Into Next-Gen Leaders

Startup Professionals Musings

Millennials have come a long way in business since I started writing about them nearly ten years ago. They started out as that spoiled generation of kids, born between about 1982 and 2004, who had everything, and could care less about business.

Tips 126
article thumbnail

6 Tips For When And How To Disclose Your Startup Idea

Startup Professionals Musings

Most entrepreneurs I meet are reluctant to disclose anything about their idea to investors before getting a signed confidential disclosure agreement (CDA).

Ideas 156
article thumbnail

8 Tips For Success In Turning A Dream Into A Business

Startup Professionals Musings

As an advisor to business professionals and entrepreneurs, I often hear about an innovative new solution that could lead to business growth or a new business. Unfortunately, in my experience, it takes much more than an innovative idea to launch a successful business today.

Tips 78
article thumbnail

Serious Presentation Tips From Standup Comics

InfoChachkie

Comedic Tips. The post Serious Presentation Tips From Standup Comics appeared first on infoChachkie A version of this article previously appeared on Inc. The worlds of standup comedy and business presentations are not as disparate as they may appear at first glance. Comedians are entrepreneurs. They often write their own material, book their gigs, arrange their travel and negotiate and collect their compensation from club owners.

Tips 241
article thumbnail

4 Tips to Maximize Internet Bandwidth

Southern California Edison Blog

The post 4 Tips to Maximize Internet Bandwidth appeared first on Edison. In the modern age, businesses rely heavily on networks to host and run their daily processes and applications, allowing employees to be productive and efficient.

Tips 59
article thumbnail

23 Startup Tips From Oprah Winfrey

InfoChachkie

This article previously appeared in Forbes. Note: This is an installment in the Iconic Advice series. Other installments include: Jeff Bezos , Steve Jobs , Mark Cuban , Richard Branson , Walt Disney , Mark Zuckerberg , Michael Dell and Larry Ellison. Oprah Winfrey is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of her generation. Raised by her grandmother in rural Mississippi until age six and then by her mother, who worked as a maid in Milwaukee, Ms.

Tips 279
article thumbnail

Eleven Startup Tips From Mark Cuban

InfoChachkie

Article first published as Eleven Startup Tips From Mark Cuban on Technorati. Mark’s Startup Tips. Note: This is an installment in the Iconic Advice series. Other installments include: Jeff Bezos , Steve Jobs and Richard Branson. Mark Cuban is a lifelong serial entrepreneur, launching his startup career with a variety of teenage schemes, including buying and selling collectable stamps to pay for college.

Tips 274
article thumbnail

Five Startup Tips From The Beatles

InfoChachkie

Article first published as Five Business Tips From The Beatles on Technorati. In the list below, I have compiled some of my favorite lessons from Come Together , combined them with a few of my own Beatles inspired startup tips. This part one of a two part series; you can access part two HERE. Note: This is an installment in the Iconic Advice series.

Tips 259
article thumbnail

Ten Startup Tips From Steve Jobs

InfoChachkie

Steve’s Startup Tips. Note: This is an installment in the Iconic Advice series. Other installments include: Words of startup wisdom from Jeff Bezos. In the course of my recent interview with Guy Kawasaki , author and former Apple Evangelist, Guy describes Steve Jobs as: “… the world’s greatest CEO, ever. He did more for Apple’s shareholders, customers and employees than any other CEO has ever done for their shareholders, customers and employees.

Tips 279
article thumbnail

5 Time-Tested Success Tips From Amazon Founder, Jeff Bezos

InfoChachkie

During the intervening 20-years, Jeff has offered business executives numerous valuable tips, including the following: If you haven''t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly JohnGreathouse.com articles! Some people are internally focused, and if they reach critical mass, they can tip the whole company.”. The post 5 Time-Tested Success Tips From Amazon Founder, Jeff Bezos appeared first on John Greathouse A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes.

Tips 239
article thumbnail

7 Tips On Advancing Your Career To Being A Great Boss

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the things I’ve learned in working with aspiring entrepreneurs is that managing and leading a team is a scary venture into the unknown for many people, even if they have worked as a business professional for years.

Tips 148