The Small Business Checklist

How Entrepreneurs Can Create Their Own Luck Editor’s note: James Altucher is an investor, programmer, author, and entrepreneur. He is Managing Director of Formula Capital and has written 6 books on investing. His latest book is I Was Blind But Now I See. You can follow him @jaltucher. I’m in even worse trouble now. A few weeks ago I had to speak at Barry Ritholz’s conference but that turned out to be “only” a panel. Now I’m speaking for one hour at Defrag in Boulder, Colorado next week on November 9 and I’m terrified. I could open up with the same line I used on Barry’s panel, “When I was walking over here I had an erection. Technically, the title of my talk is “Success is a Sexually Contagious Disease” but I only gave them that title because it sounded neat and it was the title of a blog post I then published. The conference itself is about entrepreneurship. So I guess right now I can see if it was luck or if I learned some lessons. 1) Luck is similar to “being at the right place at the right time”. C) Learn how to negotiate.

Eight Questions To Ask Before You Start A Business ~ PPC Blog - StumbleUpon Are you thinking of starting a web business? Starting a PPC Management agency? Setting up your own site and selling things, or building a web publishing empire? Before you start, ask yourself the following eight questions. 1 . Define what service the business provides. Try to focus. McDonalds could, no doubt, provide up-market meals, but they focus on selling quick, cheap food. That is what they do. 2. Who are your customers? Create a mental image of your typical customer. 3. What is your unique selling proposition? If your customers can buy the same services for less elsewhere, or more easily, they will. There is a tendency to model yourself on others. This is not to say doing something wildly new or different is any guarantee of success. 4. This point is so important, it really should be number one. Businesses may have great ideas. Then the bank manager calls. The overdraft has hit its limit and you can’t meet payroll this week. There is no fooling cashflow. 5. 6. 7. Set company goals. 8.

17 things I wish I’d known when starting my first business (Flickr photo via JMRosenfeld) Growing up I was surrounded by entrepreneurs. All of my uncles on my mom’s side of the family ran successful businesses, and I learned that working for yourself was a great way to improve your lifestyle. No surprise then that I now own a few businesses of my own. But I made lots of mistakes getting started, mistakes I could’ve avoided if I’d known a few things. Here are seventeen mistakes that you should avoid: Sell Something Legal Selling something legal may sound obvious to anyone in business, but trust me, when it comes to wanting to make money you will likely consider a lot of ideas… some legal, some illegal and some in between. While still in high school I sold CDs and black boxes. You don’t want to make a lot of money and then lose it all because you are on the wrong side of the law. Sell Something People Can Afford Neil Patel I once took a job selling high-end vacuums. But these were $1,600 vacuums and most people couldn’t afford them. Make Payments Easy

Alvin Toffler e o "choque do futuro" Alvin Toffler nasceu em 3 de outubro de 1928 e é um escritor norte-americano conhecido pelo seu estilo futurista. É doutorado em Letras, Leis e Ciências e desenvolveu grandes ideias sobre a revolução das comunicações e a revolução digital. Foi professor da Russel Sage Foundation, da Cornell University, e é muito conhecido pelas suas grandes obras famosas (Choque do Futuro e A Terceira Onda). Os seus trabalhos iniciais focavam o impacto da tecnologia e os efeitos de tanta informação, analisando posteriormente as reações das pessoas diante de tanta informação acumulada. O escritor futurista é casado também com uma escritora futurista, chamada Heidi Toffler. Atualmente, Alvin Toffler ainda é muito conhecido pelos seus livros e realiza trabalhos de consultoria de empresas e órgãos do Governo americano, com destaque para atividades desenvolvidas para a NASA. Ideias de Alvin Toffler Obras de Alvin Toffler "Future Shock" (Choque do futuro) – 1970 "The Third Wave" (A Terceira Onda) – 1980

Startup Advice: How Entrepeneurs Gain Credibility While talking with young founders in Europe and the US over the last couple months, I have been asked the same question repeatedly -- how can an entrepreneur just starting out gain the necessary credibility to attract capital? It is an important question because, at its heart, a startup investment is an investment in the entrepreneur. And the earlier stage the investment, the more so this is true. We all know the allure of the elusive "serial entrepreneur" -- the rare breed who has done it before (successfully) and will not fall victim to the same business pitfalls (he'll have to discover new ones). I have backed serial entrepreneurs before and will continue to back them. So how does an entrepreneur with little or no track record gain credibility? When it comes to borrowed credibility, there is perhaps no more important act than the initial introduction you are given to an investor. The other way first time entrepreneurs gain credibility is to earn it.

Starting a Business: Advice from the Tre If you’re like thousands of other designers, programmers and other creative professionals out there, at one point in time you’ve considered starting your own business. Unlike most, you’ve gone against common sense and decided to open shop for yourself. And not just freelance full-time, mind you, but file for the company name, get some stationery, and wade through the legal mumbo-jumbo. Maybe even get a real office with a water cooler. This article offers real-world advice from the trenches of a small start-up, and is applicable to designers, web developers, copywriters, usability experts and all manner of service providers. Write a Business Plan#section1 The most important thing you can do to prepare for starting and operating your own business. Beyond the mental exercises, a good business plan will give you a much better chance of getting a small business loan from a bank than walking in and saying, “I like Photoshop and maybe a can do some websites or something. Funding#section3 Good:

Product Development: 9 Steps for Creative Problem Solving [INFOGRAPHIC] Ronald Brown is a successful startup CEO with an extensive background in technology and consumer marketing. His new book, Anticipate. The Architecture of Small Team Innovation and Product Success is available via iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Creativity is the main prerequisite for innovation. What constitutes creative thinking? In business, the process of generating and commercializing a good idea has been honed by creative industries for more than a hundred years.

StartupNation - Source for Small Business Advice, Help Starting a Business, Entrepreneur Forum - StumbleUpon