“Freedom lies in being bold.” ― Robert Frost

1. Study: There’s Never Been a Better Time for Entrepreneurship

As an experienced entrepreneur, I believe there has never been a better time to get in the game and start your own business, and if you’ve already done so, no better time to invest in powerful resources. Now is the time to be bold! Read more

2. Risky Business: You’re Not an Entrepreneur If You Don’t Take Risks

Are you truly an entrepreneur if you don’t take risks? My simple answer… “No.” It’s a bold fact — not a theory or opinion. In application, observation and retrospect – I’ve learned that you can’t truly consider yourself to be an entrepreneur if you have not, do not and will not ever take a risk. Read more

3. The Fearless Entrepreneur: Say Goodbye to Good Intentions

Good intentions will put your life on hold. The best intentions will not equip you for success. Personal fulfillment is looking at your life and seeing results. If you don’t see results, is it possible that you stopped making decisions? The main reasons entrepreneurs delay decisions is fear of the unknown or a perceived deficiency in some area or another. Read more

4. 5 Ways to Increase Risk Tolerance and Become a More Successful Entrepreneur

Young entrepreneurs are self-motivated and confident, but still lack some of the real world risk tolerance seasoned entrepreneurs have. The Entrepreneurship Alliance (EA) at the University of Missouri is an initiative to foster a culture of innovation and pushes to close the gap between young and veteran entrepreneurs. Read more

5. Business Risks: Why You’re (Potentially) Running a Little Shop of Horrors

We’ve all heard startup urban legends, or mind-bending stories of companies that suffered legal, operational or internal nightmares. And it’s easy to assume that potential problems are out of sight and conveniently out of mind. But unintentionally, your blissful business could be harvesting potentially devastating horrors … small missteps or blind spots that could cause unnecessary frustration down the road. Read more

Dear Vasavi: As a small business owner, how can I take more action on a consistent basis?

Answer: No action equals no results. So, why is it so difficult to take action sometimes?

What holds many small business owners back is fear, self-doubt and a lack of confidence. What really holds most entrepreneurs back in business is this: they are waiting to increase their capacity to take action.

Essentially, they are waiting to be “ready” to take the next step. But, I have learned that there’s no such thing as being ready. You have to do it, be willing to fail, and get back up and do it again.

Here are four simple yet effective tips to help you take more consistent action in your business:

1. Have a vision.

When you can see where you’re going, the right action to take becomes much clearer.

2. Do the uncomfortable.

Take the action you tend to avoid. Get out of your comfort zone. It’s all about shifting your mindset on what’s possible.

3. Reconnect with your purpose.

If you’re feeling stuck, you need to get back to “why” you’re doing what you’re doing. Sometimes, you just need to remind yourself why you went into business in the first place.

4. Find an accountability partner.

Often times as a small business owner we need someone that cares (just as much or) more than we do. It is easy to let yourself off the hook, so hiring a coach or being part of the right community can make all the difference.

Remember: the bottom line is—no action, no results. Period.

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Photo: Vasavi Kumar

Often times the only thing that holds entrepreneurs back from launching a startup, scaling a profitable small business or going after new customers is the fear of failure — the proposition of risking it all. However, learning to cope with, manage and overcome fear and failure in business can ultimately make you a better leader and entrepreneur.

Here are ten of our favorite articles designed to inspire you to overcome fear, face failure and tackle risky business:

1. Never Give Up, Fail Early, Fail Often: An Open Letter to Entrepreneurs

Contrary to popular belief, success and failure sometimes go hand in hand. If you want to succeed, you must be prepared to fail. On the road to success, you may face different challenges that if taken for face value, could deter you from your goals. Frustration from financial problems, slow business, and low sales may cause you to want to throw in the towel, but should you give up and quit? Absolutely not. Read more

2. Eliminating Entrepreneurship Fear: 5 Things to Consider Before You Take the Plunge

It’s safe to say that one of the biggest things that hold a person back from pursuing their entrepreneurial ambitions is fear of failure. But what are you really afraid of? When reflecting on your own personal failures, you probably remember the lessons you learned from it rather than being hung up on the fact that you failed. The truth is, what failure implies is what really holds you back. Read more

3. Help! I’ve Failed and I Can’t Get Up: 3 Ways to Recover From a Business Setback

Every successful entrepreneur has failed at some point in business. With success comes mistakes, and as Einstein puts it, “Failure is only an opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” However, that doesn’t make failure any easier to handle. It can be tough to recover from–but it’s not impossible. Everyone is capable of bouncing back after a setback, but it is up to you to make the choice to pick yourself up and keep going. Read more

4. Startup Sabotage: 5 Ways to Stop Self-Sabotage in Business

One common thread that fledging entrepreneurs and their pre-launch or launch stage businesses is the “launch roadblock” of self-sabotage. After the excitement of a new endeavor has subsided, the overwhelming feeling of fear, doubt, and vulnerability take over. It’s scary revealing you and your idea to the world; what if no one likes it? What if it fails? Read more

5. Business Stress: How to Deal With Disappointment as an Entrepreneur

The reality of life is that things don’t always go as we hope or plan. The feeling of disappointment hits home for small business owners at some point or another. Sometimes that press release may not garner as much media attention as you had hoped, or a big client you were banking on may get cold feet, and disappointment and anguish flood your emotions. However, as an entrepreneur you cannot allow disappointment to knock you off track. Read more

In my first venture, a web-based financial tech startup, our team raised $250,000. Our startup was built to educate and assist investors with the develop of asset management strategies in order to self-manage their own capital in various financial markets.

Our business and revenue model was strong.

The company had several key revenue streams, and after nine months of pre-launch development and another nine months of post-launch operations, the company finally began to make money. Then six months later the company largely broke even.

Finally, 24 months later the company began to make enough money to make the venture worthwhile.

The Most Important Startup Lessons I Learned

Through the life of our company, our team learned a myriad of lessons, but one particular lesson has stuck with me above most.

A successful entrepreneur is characterized by many attributes, but an essential element of successful entrepreneurship is the ability to manage risk. Most people never even consider this aspect of business, but the ability to actively manage risk is oftentimes the difference between entrepreneurs who have a great idea and entrepreneurs who actually build successful companies.

The Greatest Startup Risk of All

The absolute, single greatest risk for any entrepreneur is the risk of running out of cash.

By definition, a business fails when it runs out of cash, or available credit. If a business spends more than it makes per month, then that burn rate will eventually cause the business to fail once all cash is spent and available credit is used up.

Therefore, every entrepreneur should be relentlessly concentrated and fixated on controlling costs and managing this risk.

Let’s discuss two key points that will empower entrepreneurs to successfully manage the risk of cash flow.

1. Cut Out The Non-Necessities

When you start a business it can be tempting to spend money on non-essentials, such as nice office space, beautiful office furniture, expensive computers, administrative staff, etc. However, this is a black hole of lost cash.

There’s something that many of us tend to forget about business and entrepreneurship. Everyone has started where they were. And while the starting point is different for all of us, the journey and pursuit of excellence (something greater than you and me) is shared.

And in our shared journey a simple lesson is revealed. Once success is obtained; by whichever measure you define it, there must be something more. Sooner or later, you’ll realize that success wasn’t your true destination after all – instead, lingering in the shadows, awaiting its glory is … greatness.

Greatness in business is less about me and more about you. Think about leaders, innovators, and change agents that inspire you. It’s likely that, to you, they represent epic entrepreneurship … and somehow they transformed their success into something more than themselves – into something truly great.

How did they do it? Turn their passions into success and great achievements that reach and impact the world around us?

Success leaves clues. Here are four simple ways to unleash your greatness into the world, starting – right – now!

1. Get clear about who you are and what you want in life.

Who are you? Answer this simple (yet challenging) question and then the true work begins. Because how you see yourself (self-esteem) will impact everything – including the life and business choices you make. Everything you think, say and do is filtered by your personal assessment of “who you are.”

This is why personal development is essential. If you were perfect, you wouldn’t need to improve yourself, but since no one is (perfect) – we could all benefit from activities that improve our self awareness, identity, talents and potential.

And once you gain clarity about “who you are,” you’re poised to confidently identify what you truly want.

Think again.

We’ve all heard startup urban legends, or mind-bending stories of companies that suffered legal, operational or internal nightmares. And it’s easy to assume that potential problems are out of sight and conveniently out of mind. But unintentionally, your blissful business could be harvesting potentially devastating horrors … small missteps or blind spots that could cause unnecessary frustration down the road.

Preclude potential business horrors by paying close attention to these four danger zones:

1. Prevent data loss and move everything to the cloud.

Move business data to cloud nine. When it comes to access and peace of mind, cloud-based services are priceless.

If you lack the infrastructure to manage and protect company data, bring in a specialist. Google Drive, Dropbox and MediaFire Express are three of the tools we use to ensure that if anyone has a PC meltdown or a sad Mac experience, all is not lost … because it’s in the cloud.

2. Disarm your marketing mine field and prove your message.

Do your products and services live up to your marketing claims? If not, regroup and revise. We live in a notoriously litigious society, where consumers can and do sue companies for some of the most preposterous things.

If you’re caught making false and misleading claims, a class action lawsuit may not be far behind. Preclude such horrors and ensure your marketing messages are backed up by data or legal due diligence.