Entrepreneurs and small business owners often feel lonely and precarious on their perch as the leader of their business. Keeping the team and themselves motivated despite seemingly overwhelming challenges can be a daunting and draining daily task. Putting on a brave face and smiling can go a long way in keeping the team working. You may be convinced that they would bolt if they were to comprehend just a small fraction of your fears. No matter how hard you try to maintain a po

You spent many hours and weeks refining your thirty-five page business plan, paying particular attention to developing a focus on your target customers. You know their demographics, problems, desires for a solution and the best methods for marketing to them. Then you launched your business and within a short time, you are celebrating the successful engagement of five new customers. These customers needed the services you provide and they willingly paid you for it. After these

Many budding entrepreneurs cultivate ideas for a business and as they share their idea with friends and family, their enthusiasm grows. When they eventually realize they need help, their passion for conquering the world in their chosen domain is intense. Ready to charge and knock down anything in their way, their minds are not open to suggestions that appear to slow them down. This is often true even if the suggested action is precisely what is required for them to succeed. O

Entrepreneurs must deal with a wide array of tasks and decisions each day, varying in significance from impressing investors to checking social media interactions. Many creative entrepreneurs bristle at the suggestion of establishing a routine. They suggest that a routine will stifle creativity, suppress ideas and interrupt important creative and problem-solving processes. Unfortunately, by not establishing a routine for all of the mundane and regular activities that require

A new entrepreneur starting up a first business is often required to learn and embed new behaviors to marshal the business from idea to launch and beyond. The switch from idea generation and evaluation mode to constructive project management to develop products, marketing, teams and partnerships requires an entirely different skillset. All entrepreneurs, and in fact all business leaders, can benefit greatly from a team of advisors available to consult on various subjects at a

Suppliers play a very important role in the production of your products with materials and components that you need to build complete offerings. Suppliers may also have services and operations that can enhance your own operational efficiency or expose you to new channel opportunities. Wise entrepreneurs learn to look past the simple supply of components when developing supplier relationships. Instead, they establish a collaborative relationship whereby the supplier’s business

The idea formation stage of a startup business includes months researching and brainstorming the concept for your business. How many times have you heard, “Why don’t you do…?” Each new idea occupies a lot of your precious time and brainpower. Over time, ideas with no sense of relevance, priority or timing accumulate in your brain to form a confusing morass. You are stuck with no clear direction and a business concept that is now so far too large and complex. A simple mind map

Many entrepreneurs have learned that their dreams and the hundreds of ideas that need to be executed to accomplish them are simply too big. This leads to a dramatic narrowing down process designed to help them enter the market with a product that can be developed quickly and that customers want to buy. Essentially, the goal is to define the minimum viable product to enter the market. This does not mean giving up on the big dream and vision for creating a new future. Instead,

Getting support for a new idea can frustrate an entrepreneur immensely. Many people seem to say “Yes, but…” to every idea or suggestion you put forward. This vexing response leads you to conclude that these individuals are not interested in supporting or encouraging you to pursue your dream. Instead, they seem focused on rejecting it or convincing you that it will not work. Many of these individuals may actually be trying to help. If you listen to what comes after the words “

Entrepreneurs are self-motivated and often drive themselves to work harder and longer than otherwise employed individuals. The pressure to make the dream happen is intense, and the lack of resources to help accomplish many different tasks along the way adds to the demand on a budding business owner’s time. At times, the hard work seems to be accomplishing nothing and the entrepreneur feels stuck in a rut with wheels spinning away. The natural inclination for most entrepreneur