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Whether you’re a business, freelancer, or a PR agency, you’re going to have stories that you need to tell. Hopefully, lots of them – press releases, articles, interviews, blog posts and more.

Of course, there are professionals and plenty of online tools to help with every step of the process, from creating content to publishing, from sharing on social media to tracking results of a campaign. But before you shell out you’re hard earned money or attack each project bit by bit, you should have a look at Prowly.

Prowly is data-driven PR software and content marketing CRM for creating interactive content, distributing content, and measuring results. And the tools work so well that thousands of PR teams have embraced them, including those working...

One of the challenges we've been tackling internally at Startups.com, and I'd imagine lots of other startups, is breaking down how we communicate in a diverse workforce. We feel that diversity shouldn't just be about hiring, it should be about understanding.

In fact, it stands to reason that the more diverse our workforce becomes, the less implicit understanding we will have amongst ourselves. Our backgrounds will become so different that what we say and how we respond will have less and less common ground.

I wanted to share one step we're taking to address this challenge in hopes that others will share their experiences too (by the way, the "reply" button on these goes directly to me, the Founder). One of our focus areas has been creating ...

Productivity is no easy feat, and that’s speaking from personal experience. I’m constantly on the go, and despite working my butt off around the clock and even sticking to a solid routine for productivity, I still have that rare day where it’s a bit of a struggle to stay productive.

It’s an unusual person who can resist the urge to procrastinate from time to time, but those moments can be overcome with some serious determination.

I recently sat down with John Rampton, founder and CEO of Due.com, a service that helps small business owners create invoices and capture payments. He is also a frequent contributor for numerous publications such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Fast Company. Aside from a hectic conference schedule, he’s also a family...

Growth won’t happen without some sacrifices. One of those sacrifices that has to be made is surrendering your ability to do it all (that is, all aspects of your business) by yourself. Tim Ferriss summed it up well when he said, “Focus on being PRODUCTIVE, instead of simply BUSY.”

Productive founders know that in order to scale their businesses, they need to be able to get out of the daily details, and into big picture thinking. But in order to do that, they have to outsource.

From Virtual Assistants, to freelance support, to hiring an expert to handle specific tasks, outsourcing means less hours spent tearing out your hair over tedious tasks, and more time pushing your company forward into the future.

You can do that, too. To help get the ...

It was one of the first gut-check moments where you have to prove to yourself how much you want it.

Corey Egan and his co-Founder Swapnil Bora were feeling pretty good about the direction their company was headed in in summer 2014. ” We had gone through a series of business competitions, we had filed patents, we had built out prototypes,” Corey remembers.

Not only that – when they looked out at the market, Corey says: “We were the first ones we had seen to put anything out there.”

Then one morning, Corey woke up and everything had changed.

“I woke up and I had like ten text messages from folks that I knew saying, ‘Hey Corey, this just launched on Kickstarter today,’ ” Corey remembers. “And it was a crowdfunding campaign for what is now one ...

What's more fair than a 50/50 equity split?

Well, chances are a 50/50 split is a bad deal for one person - the person who will contribute more value over the long haul. The problem comes when we make those determinations of future contribution based on the least we will ever know - where we stand before we start our startup.

Fortunately, there are a few ways to address the split differently, focusing on what our contributions may be over time.

Why should I be concerned about a 50/50 split?

Because the likelihood that both parties will contribute the exact same amount of value over the course of the startup’s life is incredibly low, especially in the formative years.

One person may be contributing a ton of value relative to the moment in t...

Your business plan needs a problem statement, because every great company starts by solving an important problem. The more accurately you articulate the problem, the more valuable the solution will be.

A common founder faux pas is overlooking the importance of giving the problem more weight than the solution. Founders get so excited about their solution that they forget to explain why the problem is so important. A well-articulated problem makes the value of your solution and your entire plan 10x more effective.

For some examples of great business plans [check this out](https://www.startups.com/library/expert-advice/top-4-business-plan-examples).

In many ways, the problem statement is the heart of your concept. It’s what intrigues people a...

A prospective client asked me to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) the other day before we began working together. After agreeing to sign his document, I was promptly shown a boilerplate template of an NDA that the guy had downloaded from the internet.

I had to laugh inside because I always tell my clients to secure an NDA whenever they are showing company information, a business plan and especially financials to anyone, yet I think NDAs are documents produced for honest people to be reminded to be honest.

I’m wondering if anyone else feels NDAs provide a sense of security?

According to Wikipedia, an “NDA creates a confidential relationship between the parties to protect any type of confidential and proprietary information or trade sec...

What is an elevator pitch?

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: a Founder and a VC walk into an elevator…

In all seriousness, if you’ve spent any time swimming in the startup waters, you’re probably familiar with the idea of the elevator pitch. But in case you missed that day in Founder School, the scenario is this:

Say you got in an elevator, and standing in that elevator was the one person that could make or break your business. You have the length of that elevator ride to convince this person to get on board. And no, the electricity can’t suddenly cut out and leave you with a couple of hours to fill instead of a handful of seconds.

Well — What the @#*! do you say?

We’ll get to that.

Why are elevator pitches important?

There’s a reas...

Building a startup that drives our lifestyle choices is incredibly hard, no matter what that carefree Founder's Instagram might suggest.

In order to make our startups work around our lifestyle, we have to make a deliberate choice to bend the fabric of reality to meet our demands.

It's crazy hard. But it can actually be done.

It Starts With Strong Commitments

The foundation for having a startup that supports our dream lifestyles is making really strong commitments to those lifestyle choices. For example, if we're parents and we want to make sure we never miss our kid's soccer game, we have to publicly make that commitment and stick to it.

Sometimes just announcing those commitments is a great way to get the ball rolling. When we launched ...