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  1. Articles from Business & Small Business

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    1. Three Things You Must Know Before Pitching Investors

      Explore Business & Small Business (May 18 2012) Funding , Productivity

      Three Things You Must Know Before Pitching Investors First impressions are always important in business, especially when you're approaching investors to secure funding for your startup. Angel investors and venture capitalists have specific expectations surrounding "the pitch," that charged moment when you try to sell an investor on you and your company. If you're heading into this culture for the first time, you'll need to do more to prepare than just catch a few episodes of "Shark Tank." As part of women's entrepreneurial network Ladies Who Launc (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   New York

    2. Richard Branson on How to Avoid Common Startup Mistakes

      Explore Business & Small Business (Apr 17 2012) Productivity

      Richard Branson on How to Avoid Common Startup Mistakes Editor's Note: Entrepreneur Richard Branson regularly shares his business experience and advice with readers. What follows is the latest edited round of insightful responses. Ask him a question and your query might be the inspiration for a future column. Q: What are some of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make when starting out? -- John Gachiri A: Making mistakes is part of the process of building a company; quickly recovering from them is what's most important. It's all part of the adven (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Larry Page   Google   Richard Branson

    3. Three Tips for Calculating Your Company's Cash 'Runway'

      Explore Business & Small Business (Apr 11 2012)

      Three Tips for Calculating Your Company's Cash 'Runway' Most entrepreneurs spend a lot of time on runways, but not always at the airport. Rather, they're balancing cash runways, which, loosely defined, are the amount of time or money with which they can operate in the red. For example, if a firm that's not generating revenue is burning $20,000 per month and has $100,000 in the bank, it has a "runway" of five months. While the concept is straightforward, the reality is more complicated. Entrepreneurs must understand their personal cash runways, as wel (Read Full Article)

    4. How to Attract Crowdfunding Investors Without Breaking the Law

      Explore Business & Small Business (Apr 10 2012) Funding , Marketing

      How to Attract Crowdfunding Investors Without Breaking the Law As the potential returns from crowdfunding go beyond free T-Shirts and movie passes, the rules were bound to get more complex. Last week, President Barack Obama signed into law the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act. Though the law contains many parts that could free up funds for startups, the most anticipated measure among the entrepreneurial set is the crowdfunding provision that legalizes investing in startups by non-accredited investors. Formerly, only accredited investors -- t (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   SEC   Austin   Texas

    5. Startup Basics: How to Master the Fundamentals

      Explore Business & Small Business (Apr 6 2012) Marketing

      Startup Basics: How to Master the Fundamentals If you've ever played sports or done any sort of training, you know how important it is to master the fundamentals. You might have even had a coach or teacher who emphasized the "fun" in "fundamentals" to encourage you to enjoy the preparation and practice needed to succeed. The same goes for business. But there is so much information these days that it's sometimes hard to focus on the few simple basics you need to make your startup a success. Some entrepreneurs fall victim to what I call "chasi (Read Full Article)

    6. Want to Raise Money With Crowdfunding? Consider These Tips

      Explore Business & Small Business (Apr 4 2012)

      Want to Raise Money With Crowdfunding? Consider These Tips The law that President Obama is set to sign this week is expected to unleash a wave of crowdfunding. That promises to give some startups access to capital they wouldn’t have had otherwise, but it could set up unwary entrepreneurs for a headache. Crowdfunding is a way of raising capital that involves getting small amounts of money from a large number of investors. A new law, called the JOBS Act, changes the formerly donate-to-my-cause-for-a-tote-bag industry into a popular way for small companies (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Boston   Flybridge Capital Partners   Congress

    7. How to Build a Brilliant Team

      Explore Business & Small Business (Mar 15 2012) Marketing

      How to Build a Brilliant Team An innovative idea may inspire a new business, but it takes brilliant people to make that business a success. Michael Crom, executive vice president and chief learning officer of Dale Carnegie Training and co-author of The Leader in You: How to Win Friends, Influence People and Succeed in a Changing World, discusses the first step to startup success: assembling your team. Read on for Crom's advice on finding the best people and filling leadership roles--while still saving some cash. What's the m (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Facebook

    8. 12 Leadership Traits You Need to Thrive in Tough Times

      Explore Business & Small Business (Feb 20 2012)

      12 Leadership Traits You Need to Thrive in Tough Times This is an ideal world but this is unfortunately not important top management. Only figures are. They don't have the feeling, are not conscious that this leads to better results. People is the most important in a company and the goal is to have 100 % of your staff working 100 % for the company and involved in the vision of the company. Bad leadership leads to between 40 and 60 % staff involved and you pay them..... Points eleven and twelve are VITAL. KARTHIGAIYAN Yeah, I strongly agree with Alfr (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   America   India

    9. Five Tools for Naming a Startup

      Explore Business & Small Business (Feb 17 2012)

      Five Tools for Naming a Startup Think about it: Most customers will hear your business name before they know anything about your products or services. Like all first impressions, you only get one, so you better make it count. Leonard Green, professor of entrepreneurship at Babson College, suggests that a name be quick, unique and easy to remember. “You have 10, 15, 20 seconds to catch people’s attention,” he says. “Just get in there and do things differently than what everybody else is trying to do, because that’s where the ho (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Babson College   Google

    10. 10 Ways to Get Investors to Listen to Your Business Pitch

      Explore Business & Small Business (Feb 14 2012) Funding , Marketing

      10 Ways to Get Investors to Listen to Your Business Pitch If there's one thing I've learned from a couple decades of talking to small-business owners, it's that entrepreneurs are always excited about their business. But translating that enthusiasm into a pitch that makes investors plunk down their money is a whole different ballgame. Appealing to investors is a skill unto itself, but it can be learned. Here are ten tips on how to craft your investor pitch: 1. Keep it short. You should be able to quickly describe what your company does and why it's inno (Read Full Article)

    11. Turning a Layoff Into a Sweet Startup

      Explore Business & Small Business (Jan 28 2012)

      These days, when hit with a layoff, more people are deciding to take matters into their own (flour-covered) hands and start bakery businesses from scratch. These three entrepreneurs turned lemons into lemon snaps when layoffs forced them to rethink their work futures. Here's a look at their career paths -- along with some advice for anyone considering sweets as an encore career. Then: Worked in the home-building industry for 22 years; laid off in January 2011. Now: Owner of The Last Crumb, a coo (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   New York   Detroit   California

    12. Seven Money Mistakes Young Entrepreneurs Make

      Explore Business & Small Business (Jan 27 2012) Marketing

      Seven Money Mistakes Young Entrepreneurs Make When Hagan Major, 26, started his online-ad buying business more than a decade ago, he didn't know the first thing about finances. "We were funneling all of our money into the business and not taking anything out. . . the company was buying us lunch," says Major, co-founder of YellowHammer Media Group in New York. Further, blurring the line between his personal and business finances wasn't just an organizational headache. "It made taxes really complicated," he says. After accidentally using his (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   New York   Internal Revenue Service   CNN

    13. Mark Cuban's 12 Rules for Startups

      Explore Business & Small Business (Jan 10 2012) Recruiting

      Mark Cuban's 12 Rules for Startups Anyone who has started a business has his or her own rules and guidelines, so I thought I would add to the memo with my own. My "rules" below aren't just for those founding the companies, but for those who are considering going to work for them, as well. 1. Don't start a company unless it's an obsession and something you love. 2. If you have an exit strategy, it's not an obsession. 3. Hire people who you think will love working there. 4. Sales Cure All. Know how your company (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Apple   ABC

    14. Seven Tips for Becoming a Better Boss

      Explore Business & Small Business (Jan 5 2012) Recruiting

      Seven Tips for Becoming a Better Boss Is better hiring and retention high on your to-do list this year? Many people need to do more with less nowadays. A great way to start is with better management and more effective workers. It’s easy to see why companies would want to start building a great workplace. Where to begin can be more difficult to discern. This lack of clarity makes it tough to take focused actions that move a company forward. In some cases, it can even discourage leader if the scope and breadth seems too large to overc (Read Full Article)

    15. How to Tell Your Business Story in 60 Seconds or Less

      Explore Business & Small Business (Dec 20 2011)

      How to Tell Your Business Story in 60 Seconds or Less I recently spoke at LeWeb, a large technology conference in Paris that's filled with entrepreneurs pitching to venture capital investors who are looking for the next big thing. In such situations where many people are vying for attention, the entrepreneurs who stand out are the ones who deliver their pitch in less than a minute, but still make their points quite persuasively. Unfortunately, many small-business owners don't think enough about their company's story and how it comes across. I can s (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Paris

    16. Pivot or Persevere? The Key to Startup Success

      Explore Business & Small Business (Dec 13 2011) Marketing

      Pivot or Persevere? The Key to Startup Success Every entrepreneur eventually faces an overriding challenge in developing a successful product: deciding when to pivot and when to persevere. A pivot is structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, business model and engine of growth. Entrepreneurs periodically must ask themselves a seemingly simple question: Are we making sufficient progress to believe that our original strategic hypothesis is correct, or do we need to make a major change? There (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Henry Ford   Seth Godin   Eric Ries

    17. How to Build a Stellar Team at a High-Potential Startup

      Explore Business & Small Business (Dec 6 2011) Recruiting

      How to Build a Stellar Team at a High-Potential Startup Imagine trying to convince a Yankees star pitcher to join a new, unproven Major League Baseball franchise. An impossible task? Not necessarily. Corey Reese, co-founder and CEO of Ness Computing, took on the tech-world equivalent of the challenge--and succeeded. Reese wanted Apple engineer Scott Goodson, a member of the team that developed the iOS platform for the iPhone and the iPad, to decamp from Apple and join Ness as director of engineering. It was 11 months before Reese got a yes out of Goo (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   University of California   University of Texas   Apple

    18. How to Overcome Startup Fears

      Explore Business & Small Business (Dec 5 2011) Marketing

      How to Overcome Startup Fears While many people dream about starting their own business, far fewer make it happen. Nearly two-thirds of American adults have thought about starting their own business, only about a third of Americans have actually taken the plunge, according to a 2009 FindLaw.com survey. Why? My experience as a management consultant has shown that irrational fears are one of the main factors holding them back. The irony is that those who take responsibility to overcome these mental hurdles and start a business (Read Full Article)