Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

It’s great to dream big, but your startup needs a laser focus in the beginning to get market and investor attention. Google did it with search engines, Apple did it with a personal computer, and even Wal-Mart did it through low prices. A business plan I saw recently to combine all the good features of several popular social networks on one site does not do it.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2010

I come from a high-tech software background, and only a few years ago, it would cost at least a million dollars ($1M) for a team of professionals to produce any commercial software product. Now, with open source software components, and low-cost development tools, the same job can be done by one good hacker for a few thousand dollars. Even for low-tech startups, the scope of information available on the Internet, and its global reach, has had a similar financial impact on the many other challeng

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

People with a victim mentality should never be entrepreneurs. We all know the role of starting and running a business is unpredictable, and has a high risk of failure. For people with a victim mentality, this fear of failure alone will almost certainly make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. I’m sure you all know someone who is the perennial victim. The problem is that most of these people aren’t likely to accept your assessment, so it’s hard to help them.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2010

Even though it has been a long haul, it’s nice to see some optimism on the horizon for 2010. Just yesterday, a new study “ U.S. Small Business Outlook 2010: Lessons Learned – A Case for Greater Optimism ,” was published by CIT Group, Inc., in conjunction with Forbes Insights. It shows that small business owners feel more confident and better positioned than ever.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2010

To be an entrepreneur, you have to be navigate lots of unknowns, and the path is fraught with risk. Once you are past a certain mental age, you know too many of the things that can go wrong, so you never start. Sort of like the old saying that if we didn’t have young men to fight our wars, we could achieve world peace in no time. People who are young, or young at heart, don’t know all the negatives, or don’t worry about them.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2010

A while back I found some great product leadership guidance in “ The Secrets of Tuned In Leaders ”, by Craig Stull, Phil Myers & David Meerman Scott. They did a series of interviews with CEOs to understand how technology companies create success, and why most fail. They found many similarities between the companies that are winning in the marketplace and those that are struggling.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

By Ernst Gemassmer Most of us have read that Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, Proctor and Gamble and others derive more than half of their revenues from international activities. We have heard that there are tax advantages in doing business offshore. All this sounds very enticing and many budding entrepreneurs can’t wait to fly to Paris or Shanghai to tap into the international markets.

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