During a recent meeting with one of my business partners, I asked why revenue was flat in a particular channel when everything else was up. My partner looked me directly in the eyes and said, “It’s flat because I messed up.” I smiled on the inside. There are a million different excuses my partner could […]

I rushed into a conference room, out of breath and stressed out after running out of a long meeting. I briefly shook the hand of a candidate before me and abruptly started the interview. The room was full of tension and anxiety. The candidate, who came strongly referred by a trusted source, immediately looked nervous […]

It’s an age-old quandary you face at home daily: Should you rent, or should you buy? Does it make more sense to rent that spacious 2-bedroom apartment you’re now in, or buy a cramped condo on the “other” side of town? Is it better to lease that shiny new BMW 5-Series or buy a used […]

Startups are consistently urged to blog, to the point that the advice starts sounding like a Portlandia sketch, but saying “Put a blog on it!” isn’t as simple as it sounds. Producing a great startup blog requires a lot of hard work and time, so it shouldn’t be something you take on just to check […]

I just got back from a Latin American adventure. On our first night in Panama, my colleague and I went out to a nice dinner and ended up seated next to a diplomat. When asked, I told him what I do for a living, and he said, “Well, how entrepreneurial of you!” My body tensed. I […]

So you’ve heard that your business would benefit from having a social presence online, but you just don’t know where to begin. Or perhaps you’ve set up your networks, but you’re not sure if you’re doing it ‘right.’ Sometimes the thought of managing social media for your brand can seem daunting and overwhelming. Don’t worry. […]

It seems like everyone today is on Kickstarter. The funding platform is reported to have more than 56,000 projects and more than 5.6 million backers on the site. So if you’re thinking of creating a campaign on Kickstarter, you’ll be entering a crowded territory. So how do you set yourself apart?  Kickstarter suggests that a […]

Self Sustaining Business Model Creating a self-sustaining business – it seems too good to be true, right? Not quite. As a founder of a nonprofit sustainability initiative called the Business Leaders in Action for Sustainability Today! (BLAST!), I’ve found some pretty intriguing ways for entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals alike to create businesses that reduce, reuse, and […]

How do you hack offline as rapidly and as effectively as you hack online? Web startups can iterate a product and get it back on the market in a matter of seconds. But as product companies, we’re faced with manufacturing lead times that create a much longer development cycle. Luckily, Ministry of Supply’s co-founders also […]

Are geeks innately cranky? Many have pontificated on the cultural difference between technical and non-technical folks but where does it come from? Could it come from the overly specific word choices, which pass for sarcasm in the scientific community? Could it come from social conventions such as the ritualized kvetch of like-minded professionals? Here are […]

When was the last time your inbox was empty? Sometimes I feel as if I spend the entire day just answering emails, without ever finding the time to get to more important projects and tasks. When it comes to email, there’s an inherent pressure and urgency to the task. It’s easy to feel as if […]

We sat down with CogniTea founder Alex Kravets for this edition of Do What You Love – a series that showcases the entrepreneurs behind startups and small businesses. Seven months ago, the 25-year-old Boston native and co-founder of I Am Hungry and Zaang decided to create an all-natural alternative to coffee and energy drinks. He […]

Workers Compensation Insurance Worker’s compensation (“WC”) insurance is one thing that founders seem to stress about quite a bit. I thought it would be useful to do a very basic guide to WC coverage to ease the tension. Here we go: Do I Need To Have Workers Compensation Insurance Who needs worker’s compensation insurance? The […]

Throughout my career I have often found myself creating proposals for prospects who were not the sole decision maker. In many cases internal stakeholders like HR, Accounting or Operations had a say. When that was the case, I had trouble winning the business. After one such disappointment I sat down with the prospect, a woman […]

A good job is hard to find, but every entrepreneur knows a good employee is even harder to keep. As an entrepreneur, one must ensure his or her company is staffed with people who look forward to coming to work every day for more than a paycheck. Through the years, I found that it was […]

They say that opportunity doesn’t knock twice. The truth is that opportunity may never knock on your door. It might only be a tap on the back window. We often narrow our view of opportunities to our own comfort zones or fields of expertise, but this causes us to miss out on a world of […]

Ever since I wrote about how to get started with freelancing, one question I keep getting is: “how do I get my first client on-board?” It isn’t always easy. After all, with countless consulting groups, agencies and other freelancers out there, not to mention networking events and personal connections, getting your name out there and standing […]

Truth be told, startups and freelancers have a lot in common. By all rights you should have a great working relationship together, given your shared “entrepreneurial spirit” and that common bond of going mile-a-minute and juggling multiple balls simultaneously. However, it’s exactly this crazy environment that can often drive a great client-freelancer relationship right down […]