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There you are: Standing at the edge of the metaphorical startup cliff. You want to cannonball into the abyss that is Founder-hood… But, you’re scared as hell that you might be jumping in too soon.

What do you do?

Are you asking yourself the right questions? How do you evaluate whether this very moment is the one to take the plunge? Are you sure?

Every startup Founder goes through this inner battle, yet few know what to look for.

While everyone’s situation is unique in their own way, there are three critical indicators that can help you determine if the timing is right— before making the leap.

Critical Indicator #1: Customers are buying — constantly

The moment you start seeing real revenue from a consistent stream of customers, it’s time to...

With Amazon disrupting and dominating more and more industries, how can your business thrive? Unless your name is Walmart, I don’t recommend competing directly against Amazon. Instead of going head-to-head with Amazon, I suggest focusing on how you can out-flank them.

Start by defining Amazon’s strengths so you know what areas to avoid. For example, price.

Due to Amazon’s massive scale and efficient distribution channels, it is generally the low-price leader.

And it has demonstrated its willingness to sell products below cost for an extended period of time in order to kill off competitors that engage them in a price battle. So trying to compete with Amazon by charging less is probably a recipe for disaster.

Another area where Amazon domina...

To maintain a competitive edge in today’s fast-paced and increasingly remote world, companies must find efficient ways to educate their extended networks. Keeping remote vendors, franchisees, investors, and sales representatives up-to-date on products and services is necessary to survive in our hypercompetitive global economy.

In decades past, keeping external partners in the loop required printed training materials, on-site presentations, and travel expenses. Today, an extended enterprise learning management system (LMS) enables companies to quickly and conveniently educate team members on products, services, compliance policies, and company standards.

A Gallup report found that 74 percent of employees don’t feel engaged or informed at wo...

Trying to figure out a way to make those big startup business goals reachable? Not a fan of visual mapping or assigning each of your goals to a hierarchy?

Well, you’re in luck. Setting S.M.A.R.T goals is a tried and true method that has worked for a lot of people.

The idea of S.M.A.R.T. goals traces back to 1981 — so the meaning has changed a little big over the years. Originally, the acronym stood for

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant

Time bound

Over the years, different meanings have been added to those letters, but we’re going to stick with the old school, for now.

Specific

Let’s start with “Specific.” When you’re figuring out if your goal is specific enough, ask yourself the five “W” questions: Who, why, what, where and which. Fo...

Running a non-profit can be a tremendous challenge. Those who are deep in the planning and execution of campaigns understand the magnitude of their efforts – and the consequences of poor execution.

Day in and day out, organizations are struggling to move the mission forward, encouraging their volunteers to raise donations and bring in more support. It’s an uphill battle, as evidenced by the steady decline in charitable giving since 2015, per the Blackbaud Index.

Growing an organization in our digital age, when contributions are down, is a challenge that requires a more tactical approach than just marketing. It requires a complete audit of operational processes, while also looking at ways to streamline donor outreach.

Because so much of what...

What if we defined success by what we DON'T have to do anymore?

What if we didn't have to work with people we don't like? What if we never had to miss dinner with our kids? What if we never had to think twice about taking a vacation?

Does this sound like startup Shangri-la? I thought so, too, until 8 years ago. I decided to build Startups.com based on everything I never wanted to do again.

It fundamentally changed my life.

The List of "No" is Life Changing

It turns out that making a list of things we don't want to ever do is actually much easier than a list of things we are trying to accomplish.

That's because saying "no" is more immediate. We can say, "I'll take more vacations when I'm really rich" (the "someday" paradox), or we can say,...

Today we’re announcing the launch of Bizplan– a modern business planning software platform that we think you’re going to love.

We’ve learned a lot in the last few years about how startup Founders do their early planning, or in lots of cases, avoid it altogether. Everyone seemed to want a plan, but the tools that helped them digest the process were just painful.

So we came up with a better way to help startups think through business planning efficiently, and by way of that, put together a platform they can rally behind.

SOLVING THE BUSINESS PLAN PROBLEM

Most founders associate business planning with some long-form academic exercise that feels like a college term paper assignment. We wanted nothing to do with that.

What we wanted, was to ...

What is a Corp?

“Corp” stands for “corporation.” If you see it after the name of a company, it means that company is legally incorporated in at least one state. The founders have filled out all the paperwork, paid all the fees, and is viewed as a Corporation by the government and the IRS.

Is a Corp different from an Inc?

Corps and Incs. are virtually interchangeable when it comes to legal structure, compliance obligations, limited liability or tax structure. But that doesn’t mean you can use the terms interchangeably! Once you register as either a Corp or an Inc, you have to use the term you registered with on all of your legal paperwork.

How does a Corp work?

[H3] Structure of a Corporation Let’s look a the structure of a Corporation. Cor...

Getting an angel investor meeting is one of the high points of being a founder. After all, tracking down one of these illusive investors can be a serious hassle. But don’t worry — we’ve got you covered on how to find angel investors, how to get an angel investor meetings, and what to do once you’re in the room.

What is an angel investor?

Angel investors are typically high net worth individuals who invest very early into the formation of a new startup company, usually in exchange for convertible debt or equity. The role of angel investors serves as a critical bridge between the startup financing needs of a company and their larger capital needs later on.

Where do you find angel investors?

If you want to [find angel investors](https://www.sta...

As I’m writing, it’s the day after Apple’s Special Event. The Steve Jobs Theater has a public event under its belt. We’re past figuring out how to pronounce iPhone X, and we’re done caring what happened to iPhone 9. Even the Face ID demo fail is already yesterday’s news.

If you watched the live stream of Apple’s Keynote as a normal part of your job like I did, you need to know that customer centricity is under attack.

I have a few suggestions how to respond:

“One more thing”

I have to say I’ve always enjoyed Apple’s Keynote events. I’d bet you agree. There’s a fun element of the big reveal. Were our predictions right? Were the leaks accurate?

And the events suit our sense of humor too. There’s a fine line between the reality of Apple on st...