Posts Tagged ‘Mistakes’
Do You Make Any of These 5 Common Management Mistakes?
Nobody’s perfect. Especially where small businesses are concerned, even the best managers make mistakes. Today, we’re going to talk about the blunders that are made more often than any other—and how you can avoid making them yourself. You take a lot of pride in your management position. As you should—leadership isn’t something just anybody can…
Read More10 New Venture Strategies That Often Lead to Disaster
Every entrepreneur I know has their favorite excuse for a previous failure—an investor backed out, the economy took a downturn, or a supplier delivered bad quality. These things outside your control do happen, but based on my years of experience as a startup advisor and angel investor, I still see too many strategies leading to…
Read MoreThe 3 Phases of a Tech Startup
Most tech startups go through three phases: 3Fs, Seed and VC/Scale. Understanding these stages, and the objectives for each, is an important factor in strategy development and decision making. Not understanding the stage you’re currently in is one of the most common reason tech startups fail to move forward, or worse, fail. The Three Phases:…
Read More5 Major Mistakes to Avoid Sinking Your Franchise Before You Even Open for Business
If you are thinking about buying a franchise, the decisions you make now could have significant consequences for the success or failure of your business down the road. From choosing the best franchise opportunity for your personal traits to negotiating critical protections into your franchise agreement, the more effort you put into making a smart…
Read MoreWordPress SEO Mistakes That Can Hurt Your Traffic
If you are a business or individual with a website, chances are that you’ve opted for WordPress as your platform. After all, according to w3techs.com, 31% of all websites use some version of WordPress. WordPress makes SEO mistakes avoidable through both the platform itself and the many free plugins that are available for SEO purposes. You…
Read MoreHow to Avoid Building a 20th Century Company in the 21st Century Economy
If you want to start an extremely profitable company today, it needs to be built around patents, trademarks, or customer loyalty to particular lifestyle. This is one of the points Martin Lowy makes in his excellent Seeking Alpha piece, The 2-Track Economy: Employers Versus Moat Builders. The “moat” he mentions in the title of the article…
Read More10 Common Mistakes with Startup Financial Projections
I was glad to be asked about common mistakes with financial projections. I read about 100 business plans a year for angel investment and business plan competitions. Most show unrealistic profitability. More people doing business plans should realize that most startups are unprofitable at the beginning; and that high growth correlates with losses, not profits.…
Read MoreThanks for Training Me Not to Answer My Phone!
I’ve stopped answering my phone—whether it’s my office, mobile, or home phone, I’ve stopped answering it unless: I recognize the phone number and it’s someone I know. I recognize the caller ID and it’s someone I’m willing to talk with—either someone I know or a company/person that I’m willing to talk with. If for some…
Read MoreBad Business Practice: 5 Things Entrepreneurs Do Wrong
When entrepreneurs hang out their shingle and open their doors for the first time, their heads are bursting with pressure. They are pulled in many directions and pushed by many factors. Self-employed though they may be, they find themselves answering to agencies, vendors, and customers. Those first days can shape the business’s direction, and too…
Read MoreAvoid These 3 Bad Habits if You Don’t Want to Damage Your Business
There is a thin line between your image (in front of others) and the image of your business. Your business is a faceless entity; for that reason, when people think about choosing a service or a product, they choose mainly based on how much they like the people behind your services or products. When we…
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