Funding and Building your Business

An entrepreneur’s job is all about feeling lost and finding a way back. It’s about, as I’ve discovered in my six years since starting a qualitative research firm, Creative Focus, Inc., maintaining altitude. It’s about…

Smart companies are discovering that you don’t need big budgets to deliver a big message. By cleverly cultivating buzz, small businesses with tiny budgets can level the playing field with established giants.

In his debut column, the world’s top executive coach explains why half of what a leader says may not be worth saying. Marshall Goldsmith FastCompany.com The two men at dinner were clearly on the same…

Researchers have long tried to identify why certain people trade security for a startup’s risks. Now, we may be closer to an answer

It’s not that the business environment is changing. Change is the business environment. And it’s not that every company is undergoing change. Change has overtaken every company. Creating change, managing it, mastering it, and surviving it is the agenda for anyone in business who aims to make a difference.

Enhancing a brand in the name of a social cause can be tricky, but the reward goes beyond the bottom line. First step: Select a cause aligned with your company’s goals.

Now, he says, Silicon Valley can return to what it has always done best: Innovation.

"[Recently] I have seen some of the most remarkable innovation since I’ve been alive," he says. "The people who are here are the people who want to be here, and it just feels a lot simpler."

Every week I talk with business owners who tell me how excited they are about their new product, service or business opportunity. Usually, their comments include something like, "Everybody needs it. I know I’m going…

While you are seeking to open entirely new markets, or sell new products, remember that there is low-hanging fruit all around you ready to be picked. Cultivate this first.

"Over the years, we spent a lot of money trying to get new customers in the door," he said. Now he devotes much less effort at finding new customers and concentrates on keeping the ones he has.