Everywhere you look these days, people are attempting to start innovative businesses and nonprofits, working on putting team, product and financing together, and generally trying to change the world - or, at least, their world - through entrepreneurship.

Meanwhile, I strongly suspect that the mortality rate of tech startups is as high as ever (no rigorous scientific tracking there, just common sense and observation - please do share stats if you know of some). In any case, one failed startup is one too many.

Guest author Greg Boutin helps startups and early-stage ventures defy a certain death, through strategy and marketing services. He blogs on entrepreneurship and on semantic technologies. He thanks Arnold Wytenburg, William Mougayar of Eqentia, Fabien Tiburce of Compliantia, and Ceara Scullion for their priceless input on this post.

So, wouldn't it be great if we could align on a guiding set of principles on how not to kill a startup? Think Hippocratic Oath for entrepreneurs - just not strictly an oath, and more in the spirit of "Doing Good" than "Doing No Harm" (or "Doing No Evil" for that matter). After all, unlike humans, doing nothing to a startup is a sure path to death, so we need to be more proactive.

And yes, I know, blanket business principles can sometimes be silly (if you haven't yet, I recommend you read the Halo Effect by Rosenzweig), but as the recent book The Checklist Manifesto argues, situations can also sometimes be improved with the introduction of simple, field-tested guidelines. I can personally tie every startup failure that I know of to the principles below not being respected.

(KANSAS CITY, Mo.), March 9, 2010 – As the American economy continues to send out mixed signals about recovery, job creation has emerged as the country's most pressing economic issue. Not only important for employment itself, job growth also drives recovery in other sectors, including housing. But, while hope for spurring the U.S. economy toward recovery focuses squarely on job creation, policy discussions center primarily on measures that would expand job growth in existing companies.

According to a new study released today by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the current national conversation would be more productively focused on creating a favorable environment for entrepreneurship—and particularly high-growth entrepreneurship—because top-performing companies are the most fertile source of new jobs.

High-Growth Firms and the Future of the American Economy, the third in the Kauffman Foundation Research Series on Firm Formation and Economic Growth, draws on a special tabulation conducted by the Census Bureau at the Kauffman Foundation's request, calculated from the Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) database. Author Dane Stangler, a senior analyst with the Kauffman Foundation, found that in any given year, the top-performing 1 percent of firms generate roughly 40 percent of all new jobs.

WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday approved a $15 billion measure intended to spur job creation by granting tax breaks to businesses that hire workers, as Democrats, bracing for new jobless figures, tried to show that Congress was doing something about stubborn unemployment.

Democrats pushed through the measure on a mainly party-line vote of 217 to 201. They characterized the measure, which also funneled an extra $20 billion into road and bridge construction, as just the first step in a broad legislative push to bolster the economy and encourage hiring.

Representative Bob Etheridge, Democrat of North Carolina, said the bill was “really all about our three most important priorities in this Congress: jobs, jobs, jobs.” He estimated that the measure could create one million jobs.

The venture capital business hasn’t exactly been setting the house on fire in Canada in recent years. The number of successful exits has been tiny, and some funds have all but dried up or stopped making new investments. According to a recent survey released by the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association, investment levels in 2009 were the lowest they’ve been in over a decade. That said, there have been some encouraging signs that money is starting to flow — or may soon begin to flow — into smaller-stage companies: A new $20 million investment fund called Mantella Venture Partners launched this week, and the Quebec government also announced that it’s selected three seed-capital venture funds to receive a total of C$100 million ($96.82 million) in provincial funding.

Mantella Venture Partners is a collaboration between Mantella Corp. — a family-owned real estate development firm based in Toronto — and Basecamp Labs, a technology fund run by Robin Axon and Duncan Hill. Both Axon and Hill were formerly at Vancouver-based Ventures West, and left to set up Basecamp Labs, which they describe as an “accelerator” for early-stage companies. The fund provides financing for startups, but also gets involved in hands-on support, including business development, marketing and team development. Hill says that he feels that the “more passive investment model that is common in Silicon Valley” works there because the Valley has a strong ecosystem of repeat entrepreneurs, but that a more hands-on approach works better in a market like Toronto, where most startups are run by first-timers.

RALEIGH — You may be familiar with the idea that American businesses – especially those tied to technology and engineering – fret that our country is losing its innovative edge on the global stage. And because innovation drives technological advancement and economic growth – one might even say, hegemony – it’s a looming threat that many in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields are scrambling to address.

But STEM fields are facing a crisis of their own – fewer graduates in the jobs pipeline compared to industry demands, and companies hiring foreigners for STEM jobs because they are better qualified.

Friday morning in Raleigh, a group of engineers from industry, academia and even government met to discuss the threat of America losing its global lead in innovation. The panel discussion was part of a Summit on the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges sponsored by N.C. State and Duke universities. (To learn more about the NAE Grand Challenges, go here.) Titled “American Innovation and Competitiveness,” the panel was chaired by Lynn Soby, vice president of innovation and commercialization at RTI International in Research Triangle Park. It was one of seven sessions spanning March 4-5.

Three panelists representing public and private industry and government emphasized that the problem could not be fully addressed unless the nation’s secondary education system is revolutionized.

This week’s list of contests has some great opportunities for recognition and cash prizes. This list of competitions and awards for small businesses is brought to you every other week as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com.

If you see trouble for your startup looming on the horizon, strategically choosing where you make adjustments could mean the difference between success and failure.

In a recent post from Entrepreneur, startup veterans suggest five specific areas of your biz plan where agile changes should offer you the greatest opportunity to save your company:

• Product direction
  
• Cash burn rate
• Business model
• Potential new markets
  
• Management team

Interview - Scott Christopher of "The Levity Effect"

Having Fun with InnovationI had the opportunity to interview Scott Christopher, co-author of "The Levity Effect" about the importance of fun in the workplace, and about how beneficial it can be. But how important is fun to innovation?

A contributing author of the bestseller "A Carrot A Day", a regular columnist for Workplace HR and Safety magazines and a distinguished consultant on recognition, Scott travels the world speaking to leadership groups at conferences, conventions, and on-site customer meetings.

Here is the text from the interview:

1. When it comes to innovation, what is the biggest challenge that you see organizations facing?

Boss-employee relationships. Look, all the truly useful, great ideas come from the workforce because they're the ones that have identified a need and can actually see themselves implementing them. An engaged employee is ten times more likely to contribute his or her time, effort and energies into innovation, but too many managers are missing the engagement boat. They simply assume that, particularly in a rough economy, a paycheck is all the incentive people need to work harder and better while still devising ways to improve the company.

I have stated before that, while I don’t know the guy and have never met him, Marc Andreessen is probably the entrepreneur of my generation that I most admire.

Today I came across a post on TechCrunch where Marc is quoted as saying that Old Media needs to burn the boats. I love this type of bold strategies. When Cortes came to Mexico he burnt the boats so they had no choice but to conquer, Marc says media companies need to do the same thing. The post is short and well worth your read but here’s my favorite quotes.

We got to talking about how media companies are handling the digital disruption of the Internet when he brought up the Cortes analogy. “You gotta burn the boats,” he told me, “you gotta commit.” His point is that if traditional media companies don’t burn their own boats, somebody else will.

In Florida, web search trend charts from Google show that interest in “ethanol”, “biodiesel”, “biofuels” and “jatropha” waned in 2009, but interest in “algae biofuels” and “advanced biofuels” spiked during the year, with “advanced biofuels” tying for the fastest-growing search term associated with “biofuels” during the past 12 months, with a growth rate of 120 percent for March 2010 compared to March 2009.

Overall results are:

Ethanol - down 70 percent from a high point realized in 2006, and showing a decline in 2009 despite a slight surge in the second half of the year.

For many years, I have been famously (or notoriously) anti-Silicon Valley. There's nothing wrong with the place in iteself; what I detested was the snobbish notion that the Valley is the de facto or "best" place to run a startup or be involved with the tech world.

I'm now forced to eat my words as my hetero life mate and I prepare to move into a Burlingame apartment conveniently located a few blocks away from the startup he's now working at;
I have to admit, living in the Bay Area has been amazing so far, in professional and personal terms.

Still, if I were starting a company, would I move from Omaha or Nashville or Boulder to come to the Valley? Would you?

International Women’s Day seems like an appropriate occasion to ask which countries do best by women — and why.

Obviously, the answer depends on how you define “best” — in absolute terms, relative to men, or some combination of the two?

You can choose from at least four different published rankings that consider some aspect of gender inequality that include the United States. None of them places us among the top 10.

I [NANCY FOLBRE] wish I could say which ranking I consider best, but they all have serious limitations. One consistent finding, however, is that public policies have a significant impact on gender equality, regardless of the level of overall economic development.

In 1995, the United Nations Human Development report introduced two measures designed to facilitate cross-country comparisons of the status of women. One, the Gender-Related Development Index (G.D.I.) takes as its starting point a Human Development Index based on life expectancy at birth, enrollment in schools, adult literacy and per capita gross domestic product.

Question: My two friends and I have been working on a new venture for almost a year. Our site is in beta and we actually have a few customers (it’s a subscription-based model). We’ve spoken to a lawyer about incorporating, but we don’t know how to split-up the stock. Should everyone just get one-third?

Answer: Not necessarily… The splitting of equity is a significant business decision, which must be negotiated among the founders based upon their respective contributions to date and their expectations going forward. Simply dividing the shares equally among the three of you may sound fair on its face, but it’s usually not the correct decision.

Factors you need to consider include:

• Whether any of the founders contributed cash and/or intellectual property to the venture – which would warrant a higher percentage for that founder.
• Whether any of the founders will be working part-time or less than the other founders going forward – which would warrant a lower percentage for that founder.
• Whether any of the founders put in more time prior to the incorporation (or actually started the venture) – which would warrant a higher percentage for that founder.
• Whether any of the founders will have greater responsibility or will be adding more value going forward than the other founders – which would warrant a higher percentage for that founder.

This guy has some insane moves; is he the coolest guy in the world?

For entrepreneurs trying to form a startup, one of the first challenges they face that persists throughout the businesses life is how to find and keep talented partners and employees. From finding that first co-founder to finding the prolific programmers to fill your ranks later down the line, talent acquisition is always a major step in any business. Just look at some of the deals that have gone down in the Valley; Facebook didn't buy FriendFeed for their technology, that deal was mostly about getting FriendFeed's talented employees on the Facebook team.

Russo is the CEO of Eno River Associates, Inc., which is a consulting service that helps business executives build better team relationships. Their portfolio of clients includes American Express, Johnson & Johnson, and the CIA. With his new book, Russo outlines the key strategies he has learned over the years as a consultant and human resources executive that has helped him and others create winning teams.

17 Rules CoverThe book doesn't waste any time getting into its 17 rules; after a brief introduction the entirety of the book consists of one chapter per rule. The rules cover a broad base of topics, including the more straightforward rule #4, "Provide Ample and Appropriate Resources," to the more abstract rule #12, "Understand Human Capital." One of the key rules that sticks out to me is #3, "Cultivate Leadership, Not Management, and Know the Difference!"

It is an important week for entrepreneurship in the Middle East. Here in Dubai, two important global summits will be convened by His Excellency, Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, United Arab Emirates Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and Carl Schramm, President of the Kauffman Foundation: The HCT Global Entrepreneurship 2010 Conference (E2010) and the Kauffman Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurship Congress which I will emcee.

There is no doubt about it. The promotion of entrepreneurship as the key economic driver is a burgeoning global phenomenon. These two summits, which run parallel to each other, bring together impressive leaders in entrepreneurship from nearly 100 nations.  Later today, we will be joined here in the UAE by a long list of dignitaries from the Prime Minister of Georgia to the Duchess of York, from prominent academics to high growth startup entrepreneurs such as Tom Scott, who founded Nantucket Nectars.  Also arriving here today are the new movement leaders from nearly every one of the 88 nations participating in Global Entrepreneurship Week. Entrepreneurship is no longer a side-show at the circus. It is increasingly being examined as the engine of new growth around the world.

What This Book Can Do for You
This book covers everything about starting your own business, from life planning and personal finance, to marketing and business plans, to financial management, launching your business, and handling customer complaints.

It is designed to help you set your personal long-term goals, clar- ify your personal and business financial picture, understand your personal strengths and weaknesses, develop timelines for your tran- sition, focus your activities to achieve your transition, set business goals and measures, and anticipate as well as manage obstacles that you will likely come across in your business.

The Power of Planning

This twelve-month planning process is your personal GPS to starting a business and realizing your new life. We’ve all heard the saying, “You can never be too rich or too thin.” In business, “you can never be too organized.” Goals are dreams put to a timeline. Good ideas need well-executed business strategy and a backup plans. Before you write a business plan, you must develop a life plan. This book will help aspiring entrepreneurs understand and draft a solid personal plan and from that derive a strong business plan.

Plan Your Transition

People do not leave a job, they leave people. If you’re sick of your boss and want to work for yourself, you may be tempted to hand in your resignation tomorrow.
Instead of quitting a job in haste, which will significantly impact your household, slow down! Count to ten and start planning your escape from corporate America. Take the time to get your personal house in order so that you can quit your job with a blueprint that will minimize the financial hardship for yourself and your family. As an aspiring entrepreneur this book will help you financially reposition yourself.

Framework of Fortitude

Do you have the courage, persistence, confidence, skills, work ethic, and focus needed to succeed as an entrepreneur? On top of that, do you have the ability to do all the jobs entrepreneurs must do? As your own boss, you’ll be chief salesperson, secretary, payroll clerk, IT technician, and HR manager. Once you make a sale, then you must service the customer, too. This book explains the skills you need to have or learn make your dream a business reality.

Turn Your “Notion” into Knowledge

Most people dream about owning and running a business. You may have had a “notion” for years that someday you would be presi- dent of a company, successful beyond your wildest dreams. Turning that dream into reality is an evolutionary process. It involves not only having a solid business idea but also knowing the “business of running a business.” You will need to get your arms around stuff like accounting principles, legal issues, operation requirements, banking relationships and processes, and the needed human, branding, and financial management skills. This book will reduce your learning curve about starting and running your small business.

Identify Your Niche Market

Too many small business owners make the mistake of trying to sell from too big a basket of goods and services. Make sure your bas- ket is just big enough so that you can cater to your customers’ needs while realizing a profit.

Sometimes you’ll have to turn down business if it doesn’t fit in with your core business. Given limited time and resources, a niche focus is the best and most efficient strategy for a small business. Focus- ing on a specific customer/industry allows you to make the most of your marketing dollars. This book will help you develop a targeted marketing plan that will increase your probability of success.

Focus on Finance

If you are not thinking about your enterprise making money everyday, then you have an expensive hobby. Too many small busi- nesses operate at a net loss and do not realize this until it’s too late. A large number of small firms fail because they do not operate pro- fessionally or employ strict fiscal discipline. There are many money- draining traps that can snare small business owners. Like it or not, the money you make is your report card and there is no room for an “F.” This book will tell you about pricing strategy and managing cash flow in and out of your business.

Solutions for Success

Business success is rarely a straight line to the top. It is not enough to have a plan “A”; you must be flexible. You need a plan “B” and even a plan “C” to sidestep obstacles in your business. Problems are inevitable. Anything can happen—from needing alternative sup- pliers, changing your product mix, or adjusting your prices to new competition or reinventing your value proposition. “Solution” think- ing is the only remedy. When you are a start-up business, two things can quickly take down your business: lack of planning and lack of experience. This book will make you aware of the common mistakes that can snare a start-up entrepreneur.

The timeline I lay out in this book is ideal; it is not meant to be restrictive. If you have strong financial reserves you might fly through this book and start your business in six months. Or it could take you eighteen months to follow the steps. It doesn’t matter as long as you have a plan.

To achieve success as a small business owner you need to be flex- ible, pay close attention to your market and figure out what you do not know about running a business. To start, you need a plan—one for yourself and one for your new enterprise.

***

About the Author:  
Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as Twitter's “@smallbizlady,” is a seasoned entrepreneur who has spent the last ten years of her career as a professional speaker and small business coach. Her areas of expertise include small business start-up, business development and social media marketing.  She is also the founder and CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, an award-winning strategic communications and digital media company. Her clients have included Johnson & Johnson, Verizon, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Comcast. Emerson was named one of the Top 50 Women in Business in Pennsylvania, one of Top 30 Leaders of the Future by Ebony magazine and the National Association of Women Business Owners gave her the Woman of Distinction Award. She lives in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania.

Contact:  Melinda F. Emerson,  
610-352-0680 o  610-256-8719 c  
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

MELINDA IS A FRIEND AND IS A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR THAT PRACTICES WHAT SHE PREACHES.THIS IS A GOOD HOW TO AND A GOOD READ.............RICH BENDIS

Reauthorizing the American COMPETES Act provides an opportunity to continue policies the U.S. needs to compete in the innovation-based global economy, but more can and should be done. In this report, ITIF President Rob Atkinson outlines eight ideas to improve the U.S. innovation system by leveraging non-federal resources and spurring education, technology commercialization, and institutional reforms at the federal level.

UK Government innovation policy should be refocused to reflect the crucial role played by customers in stimulating and funding the development of new hi-tech companies, claims a major new report on the Cambridge hi-tech cluster.

For many years, the “Cambridge Phenomenon” has been associated in most peoples’ minds with academic spin-off firms, established to develop new products based on intellectual property created within their university laboratories, and with Silicon Valley style venture capital providing the finance. But a two year research study at Cambridge University has found that the key to the success of hi-tech firms generating the most employment lies in developing solutions to customer problems. [...]