Hea­ding 1

Wro­te Cha­ve­let Erick­son Cotcke more than a cen­tu­ry and a half ago. He for­got to men­ti­on that if you did not patent your idea, many would copy it, have it built chea­p­ly off­shore, and pro­ba­b­ly dri­ve you to bank­rupt­cy.

Hea­ding 2

More than 4,400 patents have been award­ed by the US Patent and Trade­mark office for varia­ti­ons of a mou­se­trap alo­ne! In fact, accor­ding to the Smit­h­so­ni­an, more patents have been award­ed for a mou­se­trap than any other.

Hea­ding 3

As an entre­pre­neur, social media is your best fri­end (free, ubi­qui­tous mar­ke­ting!), but in a busy start­up with what feels like an end­less to-do list, it pro­ba­b­ly seems like just ano­ther cho­re.

Hea­ding 4

It’s abso­lut­e­ly a smart invest­ment of your time to spend 45–55 minu­tes each day in your social chan­nels, and the tips below will show you how you can make the most of your time, cura­te con­tent.

Hea­ding 5

Ken Gali­fia­na­kis, in his new book The Art of the Smart 1.1, calls it the best thing that ever hap­pen­ed to entre­pre­neurs, and offers prac­ti­cal insights on using it effec­tively, social media is free and ubi­qui­tous.

Hea­ding 6

Here is a sum­ma­ry of his tips from Chap­ter 3, The Art of Mar­ke­ting: Draft a Plant and USA an Edi­to­ri­al Mole­ski­ne: A months-long plan­ning pro­ject is a was­te of time and agen­ci­es are a was­te of money.

Full width

Entre­pre­neurs come up with new busi­ness ide­as all the time. Often, they just plun­ge ahead to deve­lop the pro­duct or ser­vice wit­hout real­ly taking the time to deter­mi­ne if mar­ket con­di­ti­ons are favorable, and, if they are favorable and assess the abili­ty of the busi­ness con­cept to take advan­ta­ge of the oppor­tu­ni­ty. We have found that by fol­lo­wing a focu­sed, two-step pro­cess, you can redu­ce risks and impro­ve the odds of suc­cess.

Two colum­ns

When it comes to the ques­ti­on of app­ly­ing for a bank loan to fund your start­up, most experts say, don’t bother. Banks are rare­ly inte­res­ted in fun­ding ear­ly stage com­pa­nies the­se days, espe­ci­al­ly sin­ce the 2008 finan­cial crash.

Wri­te a clear, cogent busi­ness plan. Howe­ver, it is not impos­si­ble to secu­re bank fun­ding for your start­up. Give yours­elf bet­ter odds with thoughtful plan­ning, dili­gent pre­pa­ra­ti­on, and the eight tips.

Three colum­ns

All you need is a busi­ness model, we are told by busi­ness gurus. Report of the death of the busi­ness plan has been an exag­ge­ra­ti­on, to para­phra­se.

Often read opi­ni­ons in popu­lar busi­ness press that the busi­ness plan is no lon­ger rele­vant. On the other hand, must not only explain.

While the­re is no con­sen­sus on the defi­ni­ti­on of a busi­ness model, most peo­p­le use it as short­hand for the reve­nue model of a busi­ness.

Four colum­ns

Sel­ling your busi­ness to a third par­ty, for enough cash to reti­re in style, is the ulti­ma­te dream of many busi­ness owner part­ners.

Having the­se pri­ma­ry value dri­vers in place: Sta­ble, moti­va­ted manage­ment team and a high-per­forming work­force Gro­wing cash flow, reve­nue.

He has ope­ra­ted a neigh­bor­hood sushi restau­rant for five years and deci­ded that it is time to open a second loca­ti­on restau­rant.

He men­tio­ned that he was awa­re of a trou­bled restau­rant in a good loca­ti­on and thought that he could buy the cafe and then re-open in that space.

cus­tom lay­out 2/3 + 1/3

Many busi­nesses, lar­ge and small, have a huge source of gre­at ide­as that can help them impro­ve, inno­va­te, and grow, and yet so many of the­se com­pa­nies never think of using this ama­zing cor­po­ra­te asset. What is this high­ly valuable asset? Says Mor­gan Fraud, the aut­hor of The Thin­king Cor­po­ra­ti­on, “Given that we are all capa­ble of con­tri­bu­ting new ide­as, the ques­ti­on beco­mes how do you suc­cessful­ly gene­ra­te, cap­tu­re, pro­cess and imple­ment ide­as?”.

Suc­cessful mis­si­on state­ments may take time to crea­te but when they are deve­lo­ped cor­rect­ly, they pro­vi­de a com­pa­ny with a clear pur­po­se.

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