Starting
3 tips for landing a lucrative partner When I was trying to get noticed after I launched NuKitchen, the online diet service, I tried just about everything to generate sales. One sure technique that I ‘discovered’- which kept a pipeline of new customers coming in the door- was a partnership with a more established business. [...]
Know When to Say “No” Raising money has been one of the most challenging experiences of building my businesses. The ‘ask’ has always been difficult for me, even though I made a nice return for investors from my last business. Clearly, I believe in the business idea- and put my own money in. This has [...]
Continue reading about Finance: Turning down an Investor $$$
The “Real” Questions Your Biz Plan Should Answer Taking lots of time to carefully map out your business vision is totally overrated. Many entrepreneurs can write detailed business plans that describe where their company is going. Once a year, they even go “off site” for a day to refine that vision and reformulate their strategies. [...]
Continue reading about Starting: Why Your Business Vision Stinks
Avoid Cutting Important Corners Many bootstrapping and aspiring entrepreneurs want to save money on legal costs. It’s no wonder when legal fees can potentially eat up thousands and thousands of precious startup dollars. There are many great sites to help you incorporate online, like CorpNet.com or get basic legal documents such as an NDA, like [...]
Continue reading about Starting: When it Pays to Pay for Legal Services
The Spouse of an Entrepreneur It’s hard to start and run your own business. The daily ups and downs challenge every entrepreneur’s passion and dedication. This is what we all sign up for when we take the leap to run a company. However, leading your own company isn’t just difficult for you. It affects your [...]
Get to Know Your Industry Thinking about starting a business? Try moonlighting first. I’m not talking about watching episodes of the 80’s sitcom with Cybil Shephard … I’m referring to working part-time, either after hours or weekends in the field or industry of the business that you want to start. Doing this will help you [...]
Get Started Today! Every business needs a plan of action; at the very least a 12-month roadmap of where you’re going. Now, if you’ve got a great idea and you’re just getting the business up and running then a plan is even more essential. The value of a business plan has been debated but the [...]
Continue reading about Starting: A Great Business Plan Template to Get You Going
Read three great success stories from this year’s chapter of the year winner, SCORE East Central Iowa. The influx of big box stores with lower quality lower priced items in Linda Jacks Victor, IA community, was sure to threaten the success of her small business specialty store, Flower Connection. SCORE East Central Iowa was able [...]
Continue reading about Success: SCORE East Central Iowa Success Stories
Eric Kuhn of The Founder’s Card Many entrepreneurs, including myself, think big- really big. Everyone has ideas and some of them are actually quite good but usually they’re too big and broad to actually execute. If you’re serious about building a great business, you’ll need to be incredibly focused to make it happen. Otherwise, your [...]
Continue reading about Starting: 3 Things That Make A Startup Work
