Whether you’ve raised a few million or you’ve bootstrapped your way into business, your responsibility as a founder is to leverage your company’s resources for maximum gains.
A mediocre founder spends money to maintain the status quo. A smart founder knows that every dollar coming out of their pocket needs to be justified by a healthy ROI.
While the reality is a little more complex than “you gotta spend money to make money,” these five investments have proven themselves to have high returns in the short and long-term for growing businesses.
If headline-grabbing IPO blunders and startup lawsuits have taught us anything, it’s that quality legal advice is an invaluable asset to any startup. When y...
Next we're going to analyze our financial statements and operating expenses to see if they accurately reflect all of the financial transactions we just inputted. If you're using your own accounting software to update your company's income statement that works too.
The nice thing about our handy Income Statement is that once we plug in all the values, the story from there is essentially told. All of our columns add up and ultimately tell us the honest truth – “did we make any money?”
How we use this information is key. The Analysis step here is about getting all the troops rallied (assuming we have troops to rally) and ask:
“What did we just learn, and what changes do we need to make?”
Unlike a Profit and Loss Statement, ou...
The following post is an excerpt is from Chapter 10 of the book Startup Seed Funding for the Rest of Us: How to Raise $1 Million for Your Startup – Even Outside of Silicon Valley, by Mike Belsito. This chapter focuses on the steps that people can take to build up their network, even if they don’t already have a strong set of connections within the venture community. Using tools available to everybody along with a little bit of hustle, any entrepreneur can build a strong network.
Some people quickly dismiss the idea of raising capital for their startup because of a saying that they’ve heard time and time again: “It’s all about who you know.” They make excuses such as:
“I’m not that well connected, I don’t even know any investors.”
“I don’t ...
I’ve been a part of many brand launches over the years. Some have gone smoothly and some haven’t. Looking back, the most successful ones in my mind kept it simple. In doing so, they really focused on three basic areas and how they interact with one another.
When developing an image, I advise people to focus on a few key areas to start with. If you try to tackle everything that a big agency would tackle, you quickly find yourself knee-deep in templates, acronyms, and exercises that are time-consuming and confusing. The tips below are the natural conclusions you’d reach wading through that confusion — keep reading to save yourself some time and suffering.
Whenever I sit down with a soon-to-be startup founder or a prospective employee at my startup, I always ask one fundamental question:
“Is your spouse cool with what you’re about to do?”
In my book, it’s all that matters. Having the support of your spouse can make or break an entrepreneur or anyone working in the startup world.
Or, said differently, not having their support is a recipe for disaster.
You Can’t Fight Two Wars
Working at a startup is a grind that takes every ounce of your energy to create something from nothing. If you come home with even an ounce of energy to spare, it’s a gift.
So, if you walk through the door at home, and you’re presented with an entirely new war to fight, it sucks.
No one has enough energy to fight one batt...
“Did you hear about XYZ.com? I just read about them yesterday. They raised a $5 million round from a top tier venture firm at a crazy valuation. It’s like they popped up overnight!”
Ah, the familiar refrain of “instant success.” The press loves you, investors love you, everyone wants to high five you and join your mission. You’re on your way to becoming the next Google, right?
Not exactly.
Well, unless in that same minuscule time period you’ve managed to build a profitable business with a sustainable customer base and cornered your market, you haven’t proven anything.
Success doesn’t come instantly, and it sure as heck doesn’t come from big announcements. It comes from a long term dedication toward building something real.
Launching Isn’t S...
In this digital age it can be easy to convince yourself that all your business needs can be met online, from the comfort of your home office. But the reality is that meeting people face-to-face will never go out of style. Be sure you’re making the time and taking the effort to meet new people and keep in touch with your existing social and professional networks.
We’ve combed through various studies and surveys to share with you some of the most revealing stats about networking, as well as our top tips for making every networking event a success. Check out the infographic below to learn more about the impact networking could have on your business!
Have any other tips to share? Give us a shout out at @startupsco.
On April 21st, 2015, Google will roll out an update that will make mobile friendliness a bigger part of its algorithm. If you don’t think this is a big deal, think again.
Why? Because Google is saying the mobile update will have a bigger impact than its Panda update.
Should you be worried? Yes!
Here’s why, and here are some ways to take full advantage of this update.
It’s generally not the best idea to create a separate website just for mobile visitors. The main reason you will want to avoid this approach is because updates to your main site won’t appear on your mobile site.
With responsive design, this is no longer a concern. A responsive design will automatically adapt your site to the size of a perso...
Question: What is one major challenge I should be aware of before manufacturing my product abroad?
The following answers are provided by members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance is a popular topic when it comes to manufacturing abroad, and for good reason. It is very easy to lose product quality while manufacturing elsewhere. Things usually start off OK, yet as time goes on, the quality can fade without your awareness. To better prevent this from happ...
Brian Wong is the CEO and Founder of Kiip, a mobile app rewards platform that lets brands and companies give real world rewards for in-game achievements. We had the chance to sit down with him and he shared his tips on how to make the most of PR and branding for your startup.
Focus on Your Personal Brand
Ideas are a dime a dozen, what investors are really looking at are the people who came up with them. Have a good idea? Great. Have a good team? Even better. If someone is going to fund your idea, they want to make sure you can execute it, so pay attention to the image you portray to potential backers.
Stand Out from the Crowd
Find what makes you unique, and use it to your advantage. Whether it’s what you studied, what you do for fun, or jus...