Startups’ Secret: More Are Facing Patent Suits

“A 2012 study from PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the tech industry experienced significant increases in “identified” decisions in patent cases from 2006 through 2011. And according to a study of tech startups and patent suits published last year by Colleen Chien, assistant professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, companies with less than $100 million in annual revenue accounted for at least 66% of unique defendants in such lawsuits, and at least 55% of those defendants had revenue of $10 million a year or less.” (Wall Street Journal)

Small Business Loan Process Could Ease

“The Small Business Administration is hoping to make it easier for small businesses to secure loans. Earlier this year, the SBA proposed several changes to its loan programs designed to “expand program accessibility for more small businesses and streamline the paperwork burden,” says Jeanne Hulit, associate administrator for capital access at the SBA.” (CFO)

How Entrepreneurs Qualify for Funding from Banks

“A common question I get is “How do I get a bank loan to fund my startup?” The default answer is that it probably won’t happen, because most banks just don’t make bank loans to startups. The failure rate is just too high, and startups typically don’t have the assets or revenue stream to back up the loan. That’s why Angel investors are so sought after by entrepreneurs.” (Business Insider)

Lili Balfour: Three Ways Entrepreneurs Can Fail Smarter

“There is no sure-fire way to prevent failure, but one can always fail smarter. Entrepreneurs fail smarter by understanding the basics of their term sheet, understanding how much capital is needed, and having an exit plan.”(Wall Street Journal)

Why Startups Shouldn’t Have a VC Mentality

“If you have a business (or are thinking of starting one) that can only achieve financial security through investor fundraising, you do not have a good business. Worse than that is a good product/service idea that relies on investor funding to make it work. That’s a bad business model.” (NBC Chicago)

The Top 5 Small Business Mistakes

“Nearly half of all new businesses don’t make it past their fifth anniversary, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. That makes it crucial for mom and pops to get basic strategies right from the get-go. Even though economists tell us the recession has been over for four years, banks remain as stingy with business loans as ever. There’s little room for error.” (CNBC)

How startups can get cheap office space

“If you’re running your company from your kitchen table, you probably wish you could get out of the house and find more professional digs. But lining up space in an office building can be pricey.” (CNN Money)

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Bitcoin Startups Begin to Attract Real Cash

“Bitcoin startups are beginning to raise sizable investment capital even as industry leaders warn that hackers are abusing the Internet virtual currency for profit. In the past year, fledgling businesses Coinbase Inc., Coinsetter Inc. and CoinLab Inc. have raised millions of dollars collectively from prominent venture-capital firms and angel investors, adding credibility to a digital currency that isn’t backed by a central bank.” (Wall Street Journal)

Startups need to collaborate with academia more often

“How can entrepreneurs best harness the wisdom from academics, and the energy from students, in order to advance small businesses? Startups are successfully solving big problems, which is why people are moving here, taking risks, starting companies and creating jobs.” (Boston.com)

Why Entrepreneurs Can’t Just Hire A ‘Finance Guy’

“First of all, the all-knowing numbers guru is a myth. And second, entrepreneurial finance is largely about asking the right financial questions at the right time. If you don’t know what questions to ask, your money whiz isn’t going to be able to give you an answer.” (Forbes)

Women Entrepreneurs: ‘Go Oprah, Or Go Home’

“Why do some women-run business rise like helium balloons while others remain tethered to a short string? Businesses with annual income of $1M+ are still only 1.8% women-run, though women own 30% of businesses in the U.S. This is poised to change, as women increasingly are taking part in Accelerators, Incubators and in workshops…” (Forbes)

Startups, here’s your idiot’s guide to video

“Do startups need a video strategy? I’ve been in and around the “video for business” industry for the last six years and I get asked this question by startups quite often. The answer is always yes.” (Venturebeat)

Drawing The Line: Why Startups Are ‘Sexy’ And Small Businesses ‘Meh’

“A new report by the Kauffman Foundation underscores a simmering snobbery in the startup community: no matter which way you spin it, not all new companies are created equal. ‘People who use entrepreneurship as a ‘catch-all’ phase to capture a single economic activity make an important mistake,”” (Forbes)

Small businesses accelerate hiring, help drive unemployment down to four-year low

“Slowly but surely, small businesses are starting to accelerate their pace of hiring, helping drive down the overall unemployment rate to a four-year low last month. Small business owners increased employment by an average of 0.14 workers per company in April, according to the latest report from the National Federation of Independent Business.” (Washington Post)

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Survey Finds UK Startups Upbeat On Growth And Revenues, Downbeat On Fundraising

“Startups in the UK are upbeat about the future and usually more profitable (comparatively) than their US counterparts (which tend to focus on growth over revenues). But they find raising Series A money difficult, with 90% of entrepreneurs saying the UK fundraising environment is “challenging” …” (TechCrunch)

Why Your Small Business Needs CRM

“A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is probably one of the most valuable systems that any small business can implement. It is as important as the people that are hired and will have a more significant effect long term than any one employee.” (Forbes)

Five Reasons Startups Should Consider Coworking Spaces

“Co-working schemes are on the rise, which is great news for startups looking for their first office space. They are a fantastic alternative to leasing your own office, which brings with it long term contracts that can be impractically inflexible for a small business.” (TechVibes)

What Startups Need to Understand About The Booming Corporate Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

“Every year, large corporations spend billions of dollars on supporting, investing in, marketing to, and donating to small businesses, startups, and the organizations that support them. These numbers are rising dramatically as interest in the entrepreneurship ecosystem rises. Startups who understand this new landscape stand to save money via discounted products and services, receive money via loans, investments, licensing, procurement, and acquisition, build brand & customer base via partnerships, and access startup support.” (Forbes)

Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans

“Steve Blank pities those poor professors stuck teaching tired business plan courses. ‘I’d be embarrassed if I was on a faculty teaching ‘How to Write a Business Plan for New Ventures,’ says the serial entrepreneur turned business school professor. Blank is at the forefront of a growing movement of B-school professors teaching the next generation of Mark Zuckerbergs. Entrepreneurship, he argues, is about getting out into the world and doing—not simply researching and writing.” (Bloomberg Businessweek)

10 Questions Startups Use to Make Change Happen

“Change is hard. I see entrepreneurs every day who are trying to change the world with a new idea, and startups that are trying to survive their hyper-growth phase by changing processes to meet demand. In both cases, it’s easy for them to become frustrated and give up, since most have never been trained in change management, and don’t even know what questions to ask.” (Forbes)

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Entrepreneurship is Falling—and That’s Great News

“Entrepreneurship is a bit like white blood cells. It’s a good thing, of course, and something we need. But more of it isn’t necessarily good news. It fact, heightened levels of it can be a sign that something is wrong… National media made something of a fetish of entrepreneurs, since this uptick corresponded with a ostensible golden age in Silicon Valley start-ups. But many of them were reluctant entrepreneurs, or last-resort entrepreneurs.”  (The Atlantic)

Entrepreneurs: If You Love Your Family, Don’t Let Them Invest in Your Startup

“When an entrepreneur is starting a new business they usually do not have the cash to fund the startup purely by themselves and will therefore need to find investors. They often think of turning to family and friends for the initial funding, as it is sometimes easier to raise money from them than through other avenues… But it is because of your love for these relationships that you should think it through and have an honest dialogue about the risks of taking money from your friends and family to fund your startup…” (Forbes)

Copy These 10 Things This Startup Founder is Doing Right

“Wonders never cease. Last week I met for coffee with a startup entrepreneur who’s doing a lot of things right. Maybe it’s because he’s not fresh out of school; in his mid-30s, he has held operations positions at companies big and small, so he’s seen what works and what doesn’t. Or maybe it’s just because he has good instincts and laser focus… Here are 10 things I think Bruce is doing right, and that other entrepreneurs can learn from. After all, you may have to compete with him one day.” (The Financial Post)

Where Should You Launch Your Startup?

“There is a lot of buzz lately about entrepreneurship hotspots across the country. We hear about successful startups in many places, from Austin, Tex., to Reston, Va. What does this mean for entrepreneurs? If you’re launching a startup, does it really matter where you locate? Yes, it does matter.” (Forbes)

Ernst & Young Insight: Women Entrepreneurs: Think Big and Be Bold

“Women entrepreneurs have the same set of unique qualities as their male counterparts — a desire to innovate, a willingness to take calculated risks, a knack for turning adversity into opportunity, an ability to see possibilities others don’t. And often times their skills go above and beyond this. They deliver fresh ideas that can ignite change and drive growth for themselves, their businesses and their communities. These are the qualities that make startups successful.” (The Financial Post)

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Entrepreneurs at the Movies: The 10 Best Flicks

“The world of business and entrepreneurship always takes a lot of hard work and dedication. Sometimes it can be tempting to just give up, but perseverance pays off. The movies below provide different perspectives and stories on what the entrepreneurial journey looks like.” (Forbes)

Startups Offer Aid After Boston Marathon Attack

“Following yesterday’s explosions at the Boston Marathon that killed at least three people and injured more than 170, many in the business community are showing their support by facilitating aid and accommodations. Big business is lending a hand. Google made its Person Finder tool available so that the friends and families of runners and spectators could locate their loved ones. Likewise, American Airlines, Delta and British Airways are waiving penalties for customers who need to change their flights into or out of Boston within the next few days. Several startups are also offering support to victims and displaced marathoners…” (Entrepreneur)

Why a Liberal Education Creates Great Entrepreneurs

“When then-Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPad 2 in March 2011, the device and its characteristics weren’t the only things dominating the news cycle. In fact, one particular quote from Jobs’ speech proved to be somewhat controversial. ‘It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough,” he said. “It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing, and nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices.’” (Huffington Post)

Managing the Three Clocks of Small Business

“‘Time Is On My Side,’ is the title of one of the classic rock ’n’ roll songs performed by Mick Jagger and the legendary English band, The Rolling Stones. This bold statement works in a song, but for small businesses … not so much. The reason is because of the complicated dynamic between time and our most precious asset, cash. In the marketplace, there are actually three different clocks at work that every business uses: one for operating expenses, one for sales and one for cash. Let’s take a look at how these three clocks impact your small business.” (Forbes)

How Entrepreneurs Can Push Through Procrastination

One of the toughest challenges of an entrepreneur in building a startup is the fact that there are so many things that you don’t know how to do, or don’t like to do. Things like raising money, building a business plan, or hiring and firing people. These aren’t fun, especially for a visionary. That’s when the curse of procrastination steps in. The result is that certain things just never seem to get done.” (Business Insider)

10 Surprising Assertions From Elite Entrepreneurs

Most people agree that entrepreneurs have to think differently and take risks to have much chance of building a successful business. Yet I have found that serious entrepreneurs usually go way beyond these platitudes in their actions and thinking, and often won’t volunteer their real views, for fear of alienating “regular” people, and being branded a fanatic. In his new book “The Entrepreneur Mind,” by serial entrepreneur Kevin D. Johnson, he outlines 100 essential beliefs, insights, and habits of serious entrepreneurs.” (Forbes)

These Startups are Betting Everything on Bitcoin

“Charlie Shrem knew it would be difficult to convince investors to fund his startup, but he never expected that he’d have to beg on camera to raise the money he needed. Shrem launched an online service in mid-2011 called BitInstant that lets users convert dollars into Bitcoins. This was more than a year before the digital currency’s value skyrocketed into the triple digits and gained an incredible amount of media attention. Most investors — like most of the general public — either didn’t know what a Bitcoin was, or else didn’t take it very seriously.” (Mashable)

Entrepreneurs: If You’re In It For The Long-Term, Investors May Not Be Into You

“I am often asked by first time entrepreneurs with great ideas about when they should raise money, how much and from whom. I typically tell them it’s impossible for me to give guidance without doing a deep dive into their business model and personal financial situation. However, I have developed general thoughts on the subject that each budding entrepreneur can think about relative to their unique situation.” (Forbes)

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How to Get Funding: 3 Ways Successful Entrepreneurs Close Deals Faster

“When looking for investors, entrepreneurs used to have a tendency to sign with the first VC who came through the door with money. Today, that’s seldom the case. Instead, startups and entrepreneurs weigh a number of options when choosing an investor, namely operational expertise, the extent of their network, access to customers, financial partners and industry expertise. Consequently, private equity and venture capitalists have to build capabilities to complement their financial resources in order to stand out from the crowd and attract the best companies to their portfolio…” (The Huffington Post)

5 Lessons From Managing Our Startup’s Rapid Growth

“Within our first month of publicly launching Ministry of Supply in June 2012, we sold more than 6,000 shirts and gained 4,000 customers. Our company grew fast because it had to. We were an adolescent trapped in a baby’s body and we had to learn how to sprint before we could learn how to walk, and we had some serious growing pains as we tried to scale production from 300 to 6,000 shirts a month. However, we quickly realized that by empowering our customers and empowering everyone at our company, we could truly grow the way we wanted.” (Forbes)

Outsourcing Frees Small Business Owners to Focus

“Small business owners like to think they can do it all, but even the most organized business owners sometimes need some help running their businesses. To get that help, many business owners have turned to outsourcing.  While the word may evoke images of sending work overseas, small business owners can actually use outsourcing to their advantage by sending work-related functions to companies that have the professional expertise to handle them.” (Fox Small Business Center)

Crowdfunding Expands Access to Capital for Women, Minority Entrepreneurs

“The growing popularity of crowdfunding has created a new fundraising mechanism for women and minority entrepreneurs, groups that have at times felt ostracized by the more traditional ways of raising money to start or grow a business… Crowdfunding requires an entrepreneur to mine his or her social networks and use online marketing to collect small sums of money from a large pool of individual investors. There are no credit barriers to clear or wealthy contacts to tap.” (Wall Street Journal)

5 Bootstrap Ways to Fund Your Startup

“Whether your million-dollar idea is selling granola or software, you likely share a common fear with new business owners across the world: money. It’s not easy to cover bills and expenses as you build your startup to success. And startups are rarely profitable from the get-go. But plenty of entrepreneurs have found creative ways to self-fund their businesses. Try one of these methods to bootstrap your own startup without going broke and follow in the footsteps of other successful entrepreneurs…” (Business Insider)

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55 Point Checklist to Grade Entrepreneurs

“The following checklist is my comprehensive criteria for how to grade entrepreneurs.  I’ve developed it over the years by running Docstoc and helping thousands of folks start and grow their businesses. As I was once told in grammar school, the following exercise will test ‘your ability to carry out directions.’  I, like many entrepreneurs, never followed directions that well.  But sometimes there’s a great deal of value in beginning with the end in mind.” (Forbes)

Empowering Women Through Entrepreneurial Education

“Many early-stage entrepreneurs find themselves in this place: you have a great idea and the passion to move it forward but, at a certain point, you hit a wall. What is your strategic plan for growth? When should you hire someone to help you? How do you analyze a P&L statement? And why do you need to do an operational audit? …With that in mind, my team and I launched the Tory Burch Foundation in 2009 to support the economic empowerment of women entrepreneurs and their families in the U.S. through small business loans and mentorship…” (The Huffington Post)

6 Words Entrepreneurs Need to Retire—and Their Replacements

“[April 1], as you know, [was] the beginning of Q2, and depending on the stage of your business, that information is enough to make anyone take time to reflect upon how they’re going about their work. And so, in this time of rebirth and blooming in a fresh season, I urge entrepreneurs everywhere to retire the following words and phrases. Think of it as much-needed spring cleaning for your mouth. Well, you know what I mean.” (Forbes)

Chris Moody: Focus on What Matters Most and Delegate

“When it comes to early stage startups and work-life balance, it’s important to face some facts. First off, if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you are going to have to work hard. Damn hard. In the early days of your company, there will certainly be stressful moments where achieving a breakthrough success or avoiding a devastating failure will require extended periods of sustained effort.” (Wall Street Journal)

Startups Clear Out Cash Registers to Usher in Retail Revolution

“The cash register is a relic of the Civil War era and has reigned as an icon of American commerce ever since. Walking into a business, selecting what you would like to purchase, and paying for it at a register is an American ritual. However, the average point-of-sale (POS) system is expensive and costly to maintain, inconvenient to set up and manage, and not connected to the Internet. Despite the fact that these types of transactions occur millions of times every day, the last significant shift occurred in the 1950s when credit cards and terminals entered the scene.” (Venture Beat)

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College Startups: The “New Master’s Degree”

“Professors and classmates say they hunger to be their own bosses. More undergraduate business students than ever before are launching startups right after graduation—or sometimes while still at school, say administrators. A query to the top 20 undergraduate business schools asking for contacts with promising startups launched by students, or by very recent graduates, resulted in at least 100 responses. The popularity of entrepreneurship courses is skyrocketing.” (Businessweek)

Women Make Terrific Lifestyle Entrepreneurs

“Turns out, women make terrific lifestyle entrepreneurs. They are smart, focused, intuitive and, if they’re moms, able to put the rest of us to shame with superhero efficacy of two-hour blocks otherwise known as nap-time. Best of all, more and more women are leaning in to the opportunities they create for themselves, using principles, like those outlined in Tim Ferris’ Four-Hour Workweek, to guide their efforts.” (Forbes)

3 Ways to Get Your Small Business Ready for Mobile

“According to research by Pew Internet, 55% of U.S. adult cell phone owners use their mobile phones to access the internet, nearly double the rate from three years ago. This means that more than half of your prospective customers may interact with your business while they’re on the go. Mobile users are also becoming more engaged: a study by digital ad management company Marin Software revealed that its clients saw Google paid-search clicks on mobile devices rise from 14.2% to 23.4% over the course of 2012. Is your small business set up to connect with today’s mobile consumer? If not, here are three easy ways to get ready.” (Mashable)

Why Are Entrepreneurs Nearly Always Sexier Than CEOs?

“It used to be that receiving a CEO title—and the corner office and tufted-leather sofa that came with it—was the acme of professional success. It was the recognition of a lifetime of hard work, of moving up the ranks, of following the path to its pinnacle. Once you’d arrived there, where else could you possibly go? What’s much more appealing now is entrepreneurship. It connotes adventure, fearlessness, rule breaking and rebellion. Entrepreneurs are mavericks and innovators. It’s much sexier than winning the C-prize after a lifetime of corporate service. And it’s accessible to anyone, anytime…” (Forbes)

How to Convince People to Join Your Startup

“When you’re first getting your startup off the ground, finding and reeling in awesome team members can be one of your biggest challenges. Once you’ve found the right employees, how do you convince them to drop what they’re doing and join your company? There are a few key factors that matter most to early stage startup employees, and these are often the reasons that employees join startups in the first place. So, if you can show your top candidates how you can offer them those things, you’ll have a much better chance of people coming on board.” (Mashable)

Startups Must Adapt to New Customer Buying Dynamics

“Many entrepreneurs think that adapting to the new technologies, like smart phones and Internet commerce, are the key to attracting new customers. In fact, businesses need to adapt just as completely to the changes in the buying and social behavior of consumers. High-technology product startups, without customers, don’t make a business. Today’s customer buying dynamics are all about “user experience,” according to Brian Solis, in his new book “What’s the Future of Business?.” (Forbes)

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How to Stay Happy at a Startup

“There’s a widely held belief that startups are fun places to work and all employees become overnight millionaires. But once you get over some of the perks –- like free snacks and no meetings before 10 a.m. –- it becomes clear that startups are actually a grind. And for every Instagram or Airbnb that seems to materialize out of thin air, there’s tons more startups that trudge along slowly. In fact, the median time from initial VC investment to IPO is 10 years. That leaves a lot of time for workplace politics, blunders, boredom, and mistakes. Here’s how I’ve learned to stay happy along the journey…” (Venture Beat)

The Young Entrepreneur Advantage

“Young entrepreneurs have it made. While most start-ups are struggling to find resources, funding, mentorship, and talented employees, college start-ups have no shortage of incubators, accelerators, college entrepreneurial programs, and a pool of super-talented classmates to help them get off the ground… But, of course, every business won’t succeed. There will inevitably be a few standouts that have that magic combination of skill, resources, intelligence, drive, and resilience to create and run a scalable business.” (CNBC.com)

6 Reasons Startups Should Consider Selling to Small Businesses, Not Big Enterprises

“With all the buzz these days about how sexy and cool the enterprise has become, there is a segment of business customers that startups are overlooking: small businesses. Small businesses tend to have far less capital than large enterprises, but as customers, they offer startups a number of advantages that make them ideal customers to focus on… The interests of your target are often quite different from one context to the next. If your business is built to serve them, you will need a sales approach that is designed to address their main concerns head-on.” (Venture Beat)

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Likes: Visual Media Tips for Small Businesses

“From blogs to short 140-character tweets to pictures, social media content is transforming from text to images. In 2012, visual pinboard site Pinterest saw the largest year-over-year increase of any social network, says the Nielsen 2012 Social Media Report. Here are some tips for how small businesses can make their social media more visual:” (Forbes)

The Future of E-Commerce for Small Businesses

“The future of e-commerce looks promising for small businesses. Let’s take a closer look at how independent merchants can continue to sell more and stand out in competition with big-box retailers who also have moved online. Consumers are adopting new technologies quicker than ever. According to a recent study by Pew Internet Research, nearly half of all Americans now own a smartphone. That’s a 28.5 percent increase versus 2011 – and the market still has great potential for growth.” (Forbes)

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Are Startups the Solution to Work-Life Balance?

“It was from that privileged perch that Ostrow made a bold proclamation at a Monday afternoon South By Southwest panel in Austin… “We’ve seen it play out,” he says. “If you have employees who can’t leave to take care of emergencies at home–whether it’s a kid emergency or a dishwasher one–you’re going to have a resentful workforce.” Resentment, of course, is antithetical to the sort of hyper-productivity startups rely on in their early stages and as they begin to scale.” (Forbes)

Entrepreneurs Downplay the Role of Luck in Their Success

“Business owners are not buying the old saying that being lucky is better than being good. In fact, business owners say that luck is among the smallest factors in the success of their business. Business owners instead list persistence and hard work as the top factor in their business success. However, they also credit business connections, networking, good hiring decisions and timing before luck in accounting for their successes in business.” (Fox Small Business Center)

The AirBnB Advantage: How to Avoid Competition and Become a Multi-Billion Dollar Startup

“Technology startups are disruptive because they are driven by a desire to solve an unsolved problem in a unique way and create new value. Most large and established companies, in contrast, are driven by a desire to defeat competition and protect their market turf. Consider the problem of traveler accommodation… AirBnB applied Platform Thinking to solve the problem of traveler accommodation. It didn’t compete on features. Instead, it created a platform that allowed anyone with a spare room, apartment or island to start running a B&B with access to a global market of travelers.” (The Next Web)

How Great Entrepreneurs Create Sustainable Success

“Very few entrepreneurs intend to sacrifice their family, health and happiness. Yet most do. Divorce, heart attacks, anxiety, burnout — there are dozens of issues that just seem to come with the territory. In contrast, truly great entrepreneurs also have great lives. Not because they’ve magically created more success with less responsibility, but because they’ve managed to overcome the addiction that’s at the root of their problems.” (The Huffington Post)

Understanding Employee Equity: Every Startup’s Secret Weapon

“At an afternoon session of South By Southwest Interactive Friday, [Bill] Harris–the current founder and CEO of Personal Capital–schooled a conference room of would-be millionaires and billionaires, young founders hoping to become the next Zuckerberg. Stock options aren’t just a pathway to wealth, he says, but the most powerful tool at their disposal in building a successful business. ‘The people you want to attract to your business are the people who want equity,’ he says. ‘You need people who are willing to take risks. And then you need to reward them.’’” (Forbes)

Do Troubled Teenagers Make Successful Entrepreneurs?

“Is ‘entrepreneur’ just a euphemism for erstwhile troublemaker? A new study exploring the personality traits of successful entrepreneurs suggests that people like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg might share checkered pasts as well as hefty salaries. The University of California, Berkeley study, which focused on debunking the myth that entrepreneurship doesn’t pay off for most, found that entrepreneurs actually earn about 50 percent more than their salaried counterparts working in the same industry with the same level of education.” (Yahoo! News)

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