He’s not the only one who thinks so. Mentors, VCs and serial entrepreneurs all say they routinely see new business owners fall prey to a common set of mistakes. So what are they? You should know.
No one would show up to run the Boston Marathon without training first. The same should be true of startups. You need to warm up with some prelaunch training, from getting proper rest and nutrition to shoring up relationships. “You have to be rigorous about making sure you’re ready and that every area of your life is in check,” Kamil says. A startup will take a toll on your life, guaranteed.
If friends and family don’t understand what’s about to happen and aren’t supportive of your vision, they’ll cause personal misery, not to mention a major distraction from the business. Have a candid conversation to manage expectations. “Tell them, ‘I’m going to give this my attention, and while it doesn’t mean you’re not important to me, it may feel that way,’” Kamil says. “You need to be sure these areas are buckled up, because entrepreneurship will shine a light on whatever parts of your personal life are weak.”
In this age of apps, Atlanta-based serial entrepreneur and company strategist Eric Holtzclaw says wannabe ’treps don’t always know how to build upon their success. “A product solves a single need,” he says, “but a real business has something customers will come back for again and again.”
Here’s how to make the distinction: Do you have potential revenue streams beyond the customer’s initial purchase of a product? That’s a key factor for prospective investors, who “want to see what the next thing is and want to make sure there’s some longevity beyond what you’re offering today,” Holtzclaw says. “Are you going to license the technology to someone else? What does the business look like in three or five years? That’s a big concern from an investor perspective, and that will help you determine whether you even have a business at all.”
]]>1. Cultivate spies. Hire your competition’s top salespeople — or at least invite them for lunch, dinner or cocktails. “It’s a great conversational way to find out stuff you may not otherwise be able to,” says Sheetz, author of The Art of War for Small Business.
2. Engage your prospects. When a potential customer declines your business, find out why — and how your offer stacked up. “It’s more important to find out why you lost,” Sheetz says, “than why
you won.”
3. Behold the secret shopper. Intelligence gathering typically involves strolling through competitors’ aisles. No store? No problem. Hire consultants to make phone calls to your competitors, to learn how they operate.
]]>As a general rule, free stock photos are extremely difficult to find. A huge portion of the stock photo market is owned by professional companies like Shutterstock and 123RF, who charge $20 or more for a single photo. Even when you can find free stock photos, most are low resolution, watermarked, blurry and, at best, uninspired.
Lucky for you, there are a few ways to access high-quality stock photos without any hassle or significant cost.
Here’s a lovingly curated list of the world’s best free stock photo websites for designers, business owners and anyone else:
1. Unsplash
Unsplash adds 10 new royalty-free photos every 10 days and they’re almost always of breathtakingly attractive beautiful landscapes. Just scroll down the home page to see foggy rivers, faraway mountain ranges or even battered signs in all their high-resolution glory.
2. Superfamous
Dutch artist Folkert Gorter and his graphic-design peers at SuperFamous curate this collection of incredibly high-resolution images, perfect for use in website design or as desktop backgrounds.
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