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Category Archives: Ignition! Starting up
Do you want to control your business destiny?
There is nothing quite as thrilling in business as igniting a startup and watching it blossom. Especially when starting a company with personal savings or money from relatives and friends, early signs of success are intoxicating. Each new customer, each … Continue reading
Boy! If I had only learned this before spending a million!
Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. I love absolutes – statements with no wiggle room for gray-area responses. Well, here is one of those, and it deals with market research first and foremost. … Continue reading
Have you set your life and business goals?
We’ve spent several weeks discussing your vision for success, and whether you could be the next Ford, Jobs or Musk. Now it’s time to make this more tangible, more real – by attaching personal goals to this vision we’ve created … Continue reading
Posted in Ignition! Starting up, Positioning
1 Comment
Here are ten vision tests for your success
Your vision for success must be solid and flexible enough to pass several critical tests if it is to guide a business enterprise to greatness. Here in brief are ten tests for your successful vision. Try these on for size, … Continue reading
Posted in Ignition! Starting up, Positioning
2 Comments
Vision for your future success is EVERYTHING!
I love absolute statements. And this is one of my favorites. You’re at the ignition stage of your newest business venture. Of course, you have a vision for what you will do to change the world. Let’s stress test that … Continue reading
Posted in Ignition! Starting up, Positioning
1 Comment
Which is more important: Management quality or a better plan?
So, what do you think is more important? The quality of your management team, or the plan you execute toward success? Checking with professional investors from angels to VC’s, the answer appears to be near unanimous: the quality of the … Continue reading
Startups: What are your odds for success?
Well, the numbers don’t lie, even if there are several sources of these statistics. Starting a company is HARD – in so many ways. And risky too. I read several years ago, that the average startup restaurant lasts only about … Continue reading
Posted in Ignition! Starting up
4 Comments
Do you think you are flexible and coachable?
As an early stage investor, the first test for me is whether “my” entrepreneur is flexible in both the plan and execution of his or her vision (since from experience almost everything about a business plan changes over time), and … Continue reading
After 20 years: Updating the Berkus Method of valuation
Well, it had to happen. Originally created in the mid 1990’s to help with the imprecise problem of how to value early stage companies, especially those in technology, I developed what soon became known as “The Berkus Method” when published … Continue reading
Posted in Ignition! Starting up, Raising money
12 Comments
The best advice startups will never follow
Let me tell you a few short hair-raising stories of entrepreneurs who have raised money and regretted it later. Here are some rules that entrepreneurs almost always ignore to their future peril. Don’t take money from relatives who can’t afford … Continue reading
Posted in Ignition! Starting up, Raising money
5 Comments
