...You need to learn how to “draft” your competition to take advantage of their lead until you are ready to pull ahead. [more]

...In “The Incredible Hulk”, mild-mannered scientist Bruce Banner discovered that when he was exposed to “gamma rays” he was transformed into a massive beast that could ferociously muscle his way to victory in any situation. Other than being disfigured, green, and in nothing but his boxer shorts, the Hulk discovered that a single growth factor could drastically change his ability to handle his problems. [more]

...In the popular 1980’s movie “Dune,” man learned that by “folding space” the distance between two points shortened and he could cover those distances faster. Around 1995, we found a substance that could bend time in the business community -- it was called Venture Capital. With enough of it, we could compress the evolution of a startup company from a few decades to a few years. Companies like Amazon, eBay and most recently Google showed us that billion dollar companies could be built in years, not decades. What was more interesting is that these companies began growing faster even as the venture capital markets dried up completely. They found a better approach to growing at a dizzying rate – by compressing time. Compression in Action Compressing time in a business means reducing the time between two salient points of development. For example, reducing the amount of time it takes to acquire a customer. Or reducing the amount of time it takes to service that same customer. Or even better, reducing the amount of time it takes to get paid by that customer! The bane of most business plans is that they quickly fall into the rut of doing what seems obvious, creating a sequential and time-intensive approach to growth. Amazon could have started out with one small store and then built that store out over time. Instead, they conceived (and built) the world’s largest book store from the get-go, and then spent the rest of their time keeping that store in business. They essentially built their company backwards. Google and eBay took a different approach. They realized that in order to grow fast they would have to acquire customers at an alarming rate. They also realized that they would need to acquire millions of free customers in order to get hundreds of paying customers. Their models essentially gave the services away for free in order to compress the timelines of customer acquisition. With a huge network of customers in hand, they can now spend their [more]

...If you’re thinking about starting a company, please don’t write a business plan. Stop, put the keyboard down, and step back. You’re wasting valuable time. [more]

...In this episode, Wil discusses with Jim of MyPersonalBrilliance.com his formula to create an innovate company. Wil also explains how questioning your  [more]

...Wil Schroter discusses with Jim Canterucci of MyPersonalBrilliance.com his definition of success and the difficulties of evaluating the market for [more]

... Sooner or later, no matter how sweet your new startup company is, someone is going to hand in their resignation. It could be the gal you’ve been working with since the day you founded the company, or the person you hired last week. [more]

...I’m not proud to admit it, but I’ve made some dumb business purchases during my career and now I’m ready to come clean. [more]

...In the movie Liar Liar, Jim Carrey plays attorney Fletcher Reede, who’s been cursed with the inability to lie. Every attempt Fletcher makes to lie results in him blurting out the God’s honest truth instead.  [more]

...There is a great book authored by a friend of mine, Keith Ferrazzi, called “Never Eat Alone”. In it, he talks about the power of relationships to get where you want in life. He also talks about the power of gratitude.  [more]

...Interview with Colin Campbell, CEO of Hostopia.com Inc on how to make it as a public company in the U.S. north of the border. [more]

...Leading a startup company is nothing like leading a big, established company. Startups are focused foremost on survival, while big companies direct [more]

...People want to be firemen, policewomen, and teachers. They don’t ever say they want to be an entrepreneur. Why is this? My take is you either are or you aren’t. [more]

...Recently I was asked to define the one thing that’s most important to a business. My answer is two words: competitive advantage. [more]

...Recently I wrote a piece about how to get The First Five Customers, which are so critical for a B2B business. One of the main issues addressed in [more]

...There’s a lot of advice out there that goes against the grain when it comes to what you’re good at. Most people will tell you  [more]

...Thomas Edison’s famous quote, “Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration” is the embodiment of a startup. There is often a lot said about the  [more]

...While starting a company is hard, starting a company when you’re married with children is even more difficult. After having started and run five [more]

...Back in my high school days, I did a lot of sales work at Verizon, Sprint, Sears, Radioshack, Target, and my own service-driven startups. I’ve held th [more]

...Customers are obviously the only reason your business exists, or will exist, or will continue to exist. I mentioned before in What’s In It for Them [more]

...Business to Business (B2B) startups can have an easier time getting funded than other types of businesses, most notably Business to Consumer (B2C) on [more]

...We speak to a lot of entrepreneurs like you every day. One of the questions we like to ask is – “What’s keeping you up at night?” [more]

...Have you ever wondered what makes some startups successful and leaves others selling off their furniture? As an entrepreneur, I’ve always wondered how it happens. [more]

...Introduction to your new guest bloggers on the Go BIG Network.  [more]

...The formative years of a startup company are like an aspiring sports rookie about to go pro. All of their potential is still ahead of them, and they  [more]

...If you’re an entrepreneur currently considering selling or merging your company into a larger entity, you’ve invariably heard the phrase, “It’s better [more]

...OK, so no one has written you a check to fund your startup.  What are you doing while you're waiting for that check? If the answer is "nothing" a [more]

...In the last post I discussed how making $1 million in net income on a company with $3 million in revenues would make life pretty amazing.  I'm ho [more]

...Isn't it strange that no matter what industry you are in, from selling photo copiers to selling pharmaceuticals, to selling kid's toys, there's always [more]

...Ten years from now when we reminisce about the 00's and laugh about Web 2.0 companies, one of the lamest company pitches we are going to remember is t [more]

...Most of us bust our asses so that when we can finally get over the hump of not getting paid, not seeing our friends/family, and not sleeping for more  [more]

...Alright, enough of this "I have ten idea I'm working on" crap. You'll be lucky if you can get one idea to work successfully, why in the world would yo [more]

... There are countless examples of highly successful business partnerships. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created Apple Computer. Bill Gates and Paul All [more]

...After tearing through Jessica Livingston's new book, Founders at Work, I was happy to see that of the 30+ companies that were profiled, just about all [more]

...WANTED: Young, smart, ambitious talent willing to put in 16-hour days, utilize untapped skills in programming, marketing, and/or grunt work, and get e [more]

... Are you trying to figure out how to make your startup company experience a little less painful? Do you think you can avoid some of the stresses and t [more]

...They say every great solution is the response to a greater problem. So how do you know your solution has a real problem? [more]

...Aside from the obvious wealth, what separates Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and those Google Guys from the rest of us? I would say "better timing."  [more]

...Let's face it, if you're at work right now and you're reading this, it's probably because your job sucks. [more]

...HOTorNOT.com is hiring it's 7th employee. Take a look at how incredible this opportunity is. [more]

The question: "When should a growing company slow down its sales function and focus solely on delivery?" The answer: “Never!” When fast growth is the focus of your company, the only constant is that you will always, (more...)

One of hardest things a young company can do is say the word “no” to a paying opportunity, even if it’s a crappy one. Saying no to a crappy gig during tough times is like saying no to glass of spoiled milk while stranded in the desert. You know it’s  (more...)

In “The Incredible Hulk”, mild-mannered scientist Bruce Banner discovered that when he was exposed to “gamma rays” he was transformed into a massive beast that could ferociously muscle his way to victory in any situation. Other than being (more...)

It’s funny that no matter how many times you go into startup mode, it always feels like doing it again for the first time. There’s the wild-eyed enthusiasm of the brilliant new idea, quickly followed up by the sleep-deprived anxiety of ha (more...)

In the popular 1980’s movie “Dune,” man learned that by “folding space” the distance between two points shortened and he could cover those distances faster. Around 1995, we found a substance that could bend time in the business community  (more...)

If you want to learn how to race with the big boys, watch NASCAR. In NASCAR racing, each car leading another is the first to encounter and break through air resistance. As they do this, they create a pocket of air to the sides  (more...)

...The Go BIG Network, the world’s largest community of startup companies and entrepreneurs, estimates an as expected decrease for funding in December. [more]

I was spending some time with a few friends from the first company that I started back in 1994. We started reminiscing about how great our “glory years” of being a startup were. It got me thinking about what those days were actually like (versus how (more...)

I hear endless pitches from entrepreneurs about their next BIG Web site idea. They take a look at all of the sites that are out there and decide that they have the one feature on their site that no one else has thought of. They think that the market (more...)