Startup tip 57: Celebrate your achievements

Do you celebrate your achievements? Not only the big ones, but the little steps you take consistently day by day? In a startup, our to-do list never ends and it’s important to lift our nose from the grindstone and acknowledge that we are making progress. A few weeks ago, I was feeling really frustrated. I […]

Startup Tip 53: How big does your business really need to be? Small may be big enough

How big does your business really need to be? We hear stories all the time about startups that have raised millions or been sold for millions.  The media is currently obssessed with it. Our society tends to emphaise that bigger is better and that success in business is building something that is sold for millions […]

Startup Tip 51: Set a failure point and stick to it

This is a guest post by Carolyn Kane. Failure isn’t something you want to think about for your startup, but it’s going to be essential to your success. I have never seen a startup that didn’t have at least one failed strategy or idea. The people who are still in business benefitted from their failures […]

Startup Tip 42: Decide to actually do, what it will actually take, to achieve what you want

That’s it! The headline says it all. Action: Get your head out of the minutiae of stuff that needs to be done and give yourself the luxury (and necessity) of an hour or two to plan. Decide what you want, work out what action it will take and then do it. Review your plan regularly. Further Reading: […]

Startup Tip 39: Keep good company records – even when it’s just you!

This is a guest post by Andrew Dubinsky.    Entrepreneurs typically fall into two groups: You’re either the sales-and-marketing-type or the brainy-investor-type. As the sales-and-marketing-type you excel at the creative side of business, (company records be damned.) The problem is, that from day one, you’ll be closely monitored and scrutinized by these (oftentimes quite boring) […]

The one thing that could make the difference between a successful biz and a failure

Okay! So it’s a bit of a dramatic title. But I want to get your attention because my topic today may sound boring but is really, really important to get to grips with if you want to build a successful business. Creating a startup is all about working in uncertainty. There are no guarantees and […]

Startup Tip 32: Feeling stuck? Create change to come up with new solutions

Sometimes even the best of us get stuck. It might be in something small like how to deal with the paper piling up on our desk or something big that really affects our business – like achieving product-market fit. And all of us are prone to inertia. Which means that when we get stuck, we tend to keeping spinning […]

Steps to starting a business: Part 3 – Planning and taking action

In the previous post of this series, we discussed how the concept of testing your idea to make sure there is demand for it. Now that you know there is, you want to plan a business that will take full advantage of that demand. Planning will make you aware of the issues and give you the foundation to take the consistent focused action your business will need to be successful.