The value of writing a business plan is often debated in the entrepreneurial community.

For every successful business that was launched with a well-thought-out business plan, it seems you can find an equally successful one that was launched with nothing more than some scribbles on the back of a napkin. In fact, the contrarian approach may be the one you hear most about — i.e., entrepreneurs dismissing a business plan as something they wrote and then stuffed in the bottom of a drawer.

Palo Alto Software founder Tim Berry (a contributor here at Small Business Trends) recently reported on some new data showing the value of business plans.  Palo Alto did a survey that asked thousands of its Business Plan Pro software users questions about their businesses, goals and business planning. The responses showed that those who completed business plans were nearly twice as likely to successfully grow their businesses or obtain capital as those who didn’t write a plan.

5 Fatal Mistakes That Hold Back Start-up Business OwnersThe definition of a sale is when preparation and opportunity meet on the same day. In business, it helps to understand that customers are working to minimize risk when they enter into contracts with small businesses. Some small business owners often loose opportunities because of bad habits and not recognizing that certain things must be in place before they start marketing their products and services. These issues speak directly to trust and credibility for a business owner.

Here are the top five mistakes that hold back start-up entrepreneurs:

1) Not Appreciating Social Intelligence

This is the mistake that small business owners make the most.  Having proper social skills and being in tune with your surroundings will take you a long way in business.

Here are some examples of poor social intelligence:

• Do you have a tendency to talk too much at networking events, or worse, share too much personal information? No one except the banquet manager cares about how hard it was to find a parking space. Keep your networking chat smart.
• Are you dressed like someone that has an executive presence? Or, like you should be serving the meal at the event. Everyone should have signature colors and at least three killer outfits. Men, the tie color and the shoes are very important.

The technology icon stands before a crowd, holding in his hands a prototype that embodies his vision for the future of computing. It's a touch-screen tablet that is thinner than a magazine, has all-day battery life, and sells for less than $800.

But the icon wasn't Steve Jobs and the tablet wasn't the iPad. It was Bill Gates, speaking in 2005 to a crowd of Windows hardware makers in Seattle. The technology enabling such a device was still a few years off, Gates said, but it was time to start working toward that vision.

A year later, Microsoft detailed Project Origami, an effort to commercialize Gates' vision by adding a touch interface on top of Windows XP. Yet, the technology still hadn't caught up with the vision.

To read the full, original article click on this link: How Microsoft foresaw--and still missed--the iPad | Beyond Binary - CNET News

Author: Ina Fried

Venture capital funding took a nosedive in 2009 but is set to come back, especially in the Internet sector, as entrepreneurs look for business opportunities in cloud computing, Web security and social networking.

"Now that the economy has begun to show signs of improvement, we expect to see dollars flow more freely back into those sectors that offered the most promise before the recession began," said Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).��

Venture capitalists invested a total of $17.7 billion in the U.S. in 2009, the lowest level of dollar investment since 1997, according to the MoneyTree report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the NVCA. The collapse of credit markets after the failure of banks like Lehman Brothers in 2008 forced business to stop making capital expenditures on IT, and blocked exit strategies such as IPOs and mergers and acquisitions for venture capitalists.

MENLO PARK, CA--(Marketwire - June 7, 2010) -  Venture capital database VentureDeal is pleased to announce the release of complimentary Venture Capital Funding Quarterly reports.

Covering the first quarter of 2010, the reports provide a combination of notable venture capital transactions involving venture capital companies and startups, insights into trends by industry sector and aggregated data.

Written by VentureDeal staff, the current reports released for Q1 2010 may be found by clicking the links below:

•  Alternative Energy - Clean Technology - Energy - Environmental PDF Report

•  Biotechnology - Pharmaceutical - Medical Devices PDF Report

•  Internet - Digital Media - eCommerce - Software PDF Report

•  Telecom - Wireless - Mobile - Communications PDF Report

Organizations such as professional service firms, technology startup companies and venture capital firms derive benefit from new perspectives on industry trends, discovering new companies being funded and which venture capital firms, angel groups, private equity firms and venture lenders provided the financing.

To view all reports, visit: http://www.venturedeal.com/Reports/Default.aspx.

Whether you buy into the hype or not, it’s plain fact that 3D is everywhere these days. From movies and games to laptops and handhelds, pretty much every screen in the house is going to be 3D-capable in a year or so, even if you opt not to display any 3D content on it. Those of you who choose that path may stop reading now, and come back a little later when you change your mind. Because if you have kids or enjoy movies and games, there will be a point where you’re convinced, perhaps by a single standout piece of media, that 3D is worth it at least some of the time.

But 3D isn’t as easy to get used to as, say, getting a surround-sound system or moving from 4:3 to widescreen. Why is that? Well, it’s complicated, but worth taking the time to understand. Moreover, like any other new technology, 3D is not without its potential risks, and of course studies will have to be done to determine the long-term effects of usage, if any. For now, though, it must be sufficient to inform yourself of the principles behind it and make your own decision.

We’ve been developing a theory of business over the last few years, based on our work with a number of companies. The theory is less about innovation tools and techniques and more about the structure of a firm’s workforce. What’s become apparent is that the mix of skills drives a lot of innovation success. While you can take a fairly conservative culture and rally it to an occasional innovation effort, that conservative organization will revert to its comfort zone over time. To innovate consistently and effectively, a firm needs a supportive culture, a committed management team and the right mix of skills, interests and perspectives to sustain innovation.

Are you over 40 and wondering if it’s too late for you to write your Great American Novel?

Hey, don’t worry.

Despite New York Times Book Review editor Sam Tanenhaus’ essay last week on the “essential truth about fiction writers,” that they “often compose their best and most lasting work when they are young,” you may still have time to create your masterpiece.

And that goes for those of you whose creative muse inhabits a non-literary field, say, painting or composing or even biology.

“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.  And that is why I succeed.”

WITH the Bay Area Council opening its first overseas office in Yangpu District, local entrepreneurs and companies will have access to some of the biggest high-tech multinational firms in the world, Fei Lai reports.

This week the spotlight is on Yangpu District, focusing on building its economy around innovative industries. The district has attracted the Bay Area Council of San Francisco, California, to open its first overseas office in Shanghai.

"The office opening is part of a long cooperation between the Bay Area Council and Yangpu in support of our innovation urban development plan," said Chen Yin, Party secretary of Yangpu District. "Yangpu's emphasis on technology, innovation and a transformation to business through financial supports and services makes the Bay Area an obvious partner."

Located in the district's Knowledge and Innovation Community, the council's office now serves to encourage trade and investment between China and the Bay Area, and assist Bay Area companies in bringing bright minds and technologies to bear in China's development.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a bill to close the carried interest "loophole" for private equity investors. Currently, these investors pay capital gains tax rather than income tax on the upside they receive if their investments do well. Most private equity investors don't favor the new legislation, as it severely increases the tax they will pay on their profits.

The legislation will affect both buy-out investors and venture capitalists. (Many people, including many in the press, misuse the term "private equity" to refer only to buy-out investing, but strictly speaking, it applies to both.) Venture capitalists buy minority positions in young companies they think will grow quickly; buy-out investors buy most or all of companies they think can be turned around by fixing a few basic things.

In the early days of a startup it’s common and necessary for the founder(s) to be involved in every decision. From the strategic to the mundane.

Some love it and others do it out of necessity. 

But as the company grows the founder(s) have a decision to make. Do they keep a very tight reign or do they delegate responsibility across the company?

And the question is how and when do they make those decisions.

Unfortunately there isn’t a good general answer that works for every situation. 

The folks at Behance and Cool Hunting asked me to talk at their 99% Conference a couple months ago. The 99% conference is aimed at creative professionals and is focused on Edison's "99% perspiration." 

And in the spirit of how to get your ideas to happen, they asked me to talk about entrepreneurship and the myriad ways you can "be your own boss." There are way more than 10 ways you can do that, but I only had twenty minutes so I focused on 10 of them. The point being that "You don't have to be Twitter or Foursquare to be your own boss and do what you're passionate about."

Here's the talk

Fred Wilson: 10 Ways to Be Your Own Boss from 99% on Vimeo.

This morning, as I was waiting for my laptop to grind through its startup process I started wondering why I had a laptop. I travel a lot and had it with me in San Francisco and Los Angeles this week, but hardly used it. And, when I did, I was frustrated with how long I had to wait for it to “get started”.

Today, while I was waiting for my laptop to sync email (Outlook 2010) I grabbed my iPad, opened mail, and read/reply/deleted all of the email that came in over night. I was finished processing the email before my laptop was ready to be used.

I had this same experience yesterday morning in LA. Except then I processed all of my overnight email on my HTC EVO phone which was also acting as the hotspot for my laptop to connect. And, throughout the day, I just did email on my phone instead of firing up my laptop.

Every time humans invent better ways of doing things, the economy gets a little bigger.

This is a simple idea. The cave dwellers discovered that they did not have to travel as much hunting and gathering if they could sharpen a rock enough to chop a tree down for firewood, or for spearing animals.

That same tool helped them to dig holes to plant seeds. By growing food and domestication animals, they could stay in one place and conserve energy. By living in cities, the division of labor led to more efficiency as the farmer, metal smith and rancher bartered their services. Enough surpluses were created so that a leisure class was free to develop philosophical thought leading to early scientific principals.

Although the Obama Administration has asserted that it wants to support and strengthen nonprofit organizations, it has neither understood the vastness, diversity and needs of the nonprofit community nor launched a serious initiative to provide the resources required to sustain nonprofits in trying financial times.

Instead of coming up with a major substantial program, it has produced a “mouse,” the Social Innovation Fund, financed by an insignificant $50 million a year for several years. The Fund, alas, is the Administration’s pilot ship in strengthening the nonprofit sector. Why such a puny effort, and one that doesn’t target the significant problems facing the sector?

The Fund plans initially to award seven to ten grants of $1-10 million to intermediary organizations which, in turn, will redistribute the money to nonprofit groups that are making innovative efforts to improve the conditions of needy people in neighborhoods and communities throughout the country. Both the intermediary and local recipient groups will have to match the federal grants.

“Economic Gardening”. Leading business recruitment, hands-on. Leading business recruitment, but deferring. Granting of job training funding ...
www.nga.org/Files/pdf/1006ECONROUNDTABLEDIAL.PDF

Why Are States Reorganizing Economic Development?

• State economic challenges 
• Lost confidence in State economic development agencies over many years
  
• Agencies are too bureaucratic and political 
• Little engagement from private sector in state agency 
• Regional economic groups becoming more effective 
• Legislatures want ROI 
• Change in the roles of statewide economic development agencies
  

SITTING in their cubicles, rolling their eyes over the latest bureaucratic slowdown or marveling at the near-incompetence of higher-ups, some employees are thinking: If only I were my own boss, I wouldn’t have these problems.

No, they wouldn’t. They’d have a host of different problems. Still, some people make the leap to self-employment and find it was worth the risk.

How can a salaried employee with some savings tell if the idea of becoming self-employed is a viable option and not just an escape fantasy? And how can a recently laid-off employee with some severance pay determine whether this is the right time to pursue her dream of being an entrepreneur?

CAPE MAY — When Jeff Stewart captains daily boat tours on the Spirit of Cape May, he considers the weather, the waves and the wind. But one thing he can't account for: the whales.

“There’s a 68 percent chance you’ll see a whale,” he said last week as he prepared for an afternoon trip on the 110-foot-long whale-watching vessel.

Odds are more likely passengers will see a pod of dolphins — he puts that chance at 99 percent — so people rarely walk off without having glimpsed any marine mammals.

The gamble of not knowing what to expect is one familiar to entrepreneurs trying to stay in business, including the Stewart family, who began operating Cape May Whale Watcher in 1993.

A decade ago, tech IPOs ruled the stock markets and Silicon Valley. They were the end-all and be-all for ambitious entrepreneurs and venture capitalists looking to become instant billionaires, or at least millionaires. That was many booms and busts ago. The IPO market never came back, and the multiple financial meltdowns which brought on Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulations made going public even less appealing to shoot-from-the-hip entrepreneurs. The founders of the most successful tech companies today—Facebook, Skype, LinkedIn—are pushing off the inevitable IPO for as long as possible. And for smaller tech companies, IPOs seem hardly worth the bother.