Entrepreneurship Tips — Business Tips

A Perfect Metaphor For A Startup I use many airplane and military metaphors, not because I was ever in the military, though I am a pilot, but because there are so many special-purpose planes that can be used to show an exact point or purpose just like a market niche. One of the best models I have seen on how to run a start-up was the development of the SR-71 spy plane by Lockheed’s skunkworks. The SR-71 spy plane was so far ahead of its time, that 30 years after its initial design and development, it was still the fastest plane on...

Strategic Planning - Not Just For Fortune 2000 Companies Generally, if you have more than about a dozen people in your company, you need to have an annual strategic planning process.  With a small management team of three or four people, it is not very difficult, and will likely go quickly because you discuss these things daily.  The trick is to look at the longer-term (at least a year out, preferably three years) in the context of a 3 to 5 year vision for the company.  As the company gets bigger the time invested will get bigger too, but either...

So many to choose from that deceive people and can even cause the failure of a company. Here are just a sample: 1. Your “idea is worth millions”. There is no such thing. As by definition, anyone can steal an “idea” and do it better, with more capital and/or a better team. Anyone with just an idea will not raise any capital. You need a team, plan, traction. Even a patent (exclusive on the implementation of an idea, not an idea) only gets 5% royalty. The other 95% goes to the people who invest and execute. How many people had the...

The short answer is you never should. You should slightly adjust your business model or target market to be differentiated. Read this article to learn how.  A startup should never really have a direct competitor. Its target market, where it can do something that others cannot, must be unique at the start to establish a beachhead in a niche. You need to target another niche market (often an intersection and application and industry sector) where you have a Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA). Sometimes geography can be this difference if a service is delivered locally, or you are going after a country where...

This is sort of like asking, “How do I create a masterpiece of art?”. The answer is so complex it involves years, maybe decades for most, of experience in strategy, product development, intellectual property, operational excellence and more. Creating Sustainable Competitive Advantage, which is the only thing that drives higher exit values, is art. And involves many disciplines. I created a web page titled The Entrepreneur's Journey which lays out the 25+ skills, and arts really, that are required to build a valuable company that can grow rapidly and provide a strong exit for investors here: The Entrepreneur's Journey If you...