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“Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.” — Patrick Lencioni

One of the most under-appreciated and underrated attributions to a quickly growing company is this: business infrastructure.

For most entrepreneurs just entering the space, for any many naive executives, business infrastructure comes secondary before everything else.

Sure, your team is important. Your customers and users are critical. Your branding is key to having that lasting impression you want everyone to have.

I don’t want us ever to miscommunicate and state those aren’t important.

However, the real secret sauce to running a successful company comes down to the partnerships and trust you have, not ...

Entrepreneurs are classic risk-takers. They are continually assessing the world around them, seeking to identify problems in need of a solution. They work hard to address these problems, and transform them into opportunities to improve their world. However, in their haste to identify and seize those opportunities, many entrepreneurs rush into their businesses and forget to establish a long-term vision.

The history of the business world is littered with the empty shells of failed startups that burst onto the scene, but were unable to sustain their business model after their initial appeal wore off. Many of these businesses were started by well-intentioned entrepreneurs who were able to cast a compelling vision for the startup phase. But thos...

Over the last 7 years, Docstoc, an electronic document repository for financial and legal documents, has become a top resource for people looking to start small businesses.

Jason Nazar, Docstoc’s founder, grew the team to 50 people and led the company through a sale to Intuit in December 2013.

The sale generated buzz from virtually every tech journal – TechCrunch, Pando Daily, All Things D, and Forbes all covered the deal from Intuit’s perspective – that it was smart strategic planning for the Silicon Valley software giant to invest in such a valuable asset for small business owners.

What we wanted to see, however, was Nazar’s personal side to the story – what he learned from the business acquisition experience and what advice he would pro...

At first, it seemed like a match made in heaven. The book’s big, bold title grabbed your attention. The subtitle promised to solve one of the many challenges you’re facing right now. The glowing testimonials from CEOs and respected peers confirmed that it was the missing piece for anyone who hoped to be successful.

But by the time you got to chapter three it felt like a bad Tinder date. The author was repeating different versions of the same humorless anecdotes and displaying a brazen disregard for your time and attention span.

He was out of things to say.

You closed your eyes and whispered through clenched teeth:

“This should have been a blog post.” 😑

This is the big gripe readers have with business books — that they’re 90% fluff. They’re...

A recent study done by for Fusion called the Massive Millennial Poll — which included 1,000 people between the ages of 18-34 — found that a firm 50 percent of millennials don’t think that there are only two genders.

Instead, people are viewing as gender and sex as two related but different things: Sex being a person’s biology (including genitals, chromosomes, and hormones) and gender being someone’s identity (including how they present themselves to the world and which pronouns they choose to use). While most people fall within the binary of “male” or “female,” there’s a growing portion of people who simply don’t.

And another cultural shift — online dating — is happening concurrently with this change in how we view gender. While online dati...

The mobile internet has been both a blessing and a curse for startups and small businesses looking to build their brands from the ground up.

Never before in history has achieving awareness and influence been so democratized. Truly any brand can have their 15 seconds of fame – or more. However, that’s also the curse. There is more noise than ever before to stand out from and drive awareness.

Therefore it’s not a surprise that when we recently asked over 500 startup & small business owners what their primary digital marketing objective was — their number one priority was to increase company and product awareness. It even beat out driving inbound leads and customers — go figure.

In order to achieve brand awareness in this new mobile-driven, ...

When startup founders hear the word “lean” in reference to business, we usually think “lean startup.” But Eric Ries wasn’t the first person to apply the word “lean” to a business philosophy. Here’s a look at what lean means, how it applies in business versus manufacturing, and a quick explanation of lean startup.

1. What is lean business?

“Lean,” at its essence, is about using fewer resources in order to provide a great product to your customers. A company that’s implementing a lean system is focusing on streamlining its systems in order to reduce waste, ideally to the point of creating no waste at all.

One big advantage of adopting a lean business model the ability to change course quickly when the needs of your customer base change. When...

Back in 2005, some of you may know I ran a website called Great Adventure Online, a fan site for the popular New Jersey theme park, Six Flags Great Adventure. It was so popular, that for awhile when you Googled the theme park, my website would be ranked higher than the actual official site to Six Flags.

I managed to grow this site to an active online community of over 2,500 daily fans with over 40,000 hits a month; and even larger during peak season.

When you’re 12–14 years old, this is an unfathomable number.

I still remember clearly the advice given to me by then park president, Mark Kane. He asked me how I was making money on this.

I told him I wasn’t.

He was shocked, and immediately followed up with a stern, why not?

I couldn’t compreh...

This is a bit of a different piece of content for me. In his brilliant book “The Tipping Point” Malcolm Gladwell defines 3 archetypes of people – Salesmen, Connectors and Mavens.

Though I see a bit of all 3 in me, relentless Maven. According to Gladwell, Mavens are “information specialists”, or “people we rely upon to connect us with new information.” He goes on to say: “Mavens are really information brokers, sharing and trading what they know.”

When I discover great things it’s hard for me not to share it with others. I simply can’t help myself. When a company has done such great work developing a product that it becomes an integral part of my work life (or personal life) they deserve to have others know about it.

We all lead busy lives, ...

There are five main types of business loans that are relevant for startups: SBA small business loans, business credit lines, short term loans, invoice financing, and merchant cash advances. Let’s take a closer look at each one.

SBA Small Business Loans

A SBA small business loan is a loan that is backed by the Small Business Administration (SBA). Founded in 1953, the SBA is a federal government program that provides support to small business owners in the form of mentorship, workshops, counseling, and small business loans.

While the loans are backed by the SBA, they don’t come directly from the SBA. You’ll have to find a local lender who provides SBA loans in order to access the funding.

Who qualifies?

There are three main types of SBA small...