Business Mistakes

Business Plan Yes, Comprehensive and Detailed, Not So Much

March 25, 2013

Funny how sometimes what sounds like good advice isn’t. I was browsing online when I caught the alleged business plan tip shown here (although I added the red circle over it). It says you should write a “comprehensive, detailed business plan.” And I say probably not; only in special circumstances. Instead, develop a streamlined, flexible, [...]

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Quiz: Can a Business Fail While Profitable?

February 28, 2013

I’ve posted here before on the problem of survivor bias and how hard it is to identify causes of business failure. Where do you find the people who failed? Do they tell you the truth? Do they even know. In Are These Three Critical Threats Weeks Away From Sinking Your Business? on tweakyourbiz.com, post author Janine Gilmour [...]

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5 Signs of Patent Sharks Preying on Your Dream Invention

October 8, 2012

I’m really sorry to be the one to throw a bucket of cold reality splashing over inventors’ dreams. But darn, patents don’t mean what they once did, and businesses preying on patent hopefuls are not ethical businesses. These are shark-filled waters. Be careful. What brings this up is this email I received last week through [...]

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Go Ahead: Disagree. I dare you.

August 10, 2012

This one had me from the moment I saw the title: Dare to Disagree. I clicked, watched, and I love it. Good disagreement is central to progress. She illustrates (sometimes counterintuitively) how the best partners aren’t echo chambers — and how great research teams, relationships and businesses allow people to deeply disagree. I’ve seen this [...]

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3 Incredibly Common Credibility Killers in Business Plan Numbers

July 31, 2012

Business plans are about business decisions. When I read them — and I read hundreds of them every Spring — I’m looking for the concrete specifics, like dates and deadlines and tasks and milestones, that point towards execution. But part of that is reasonable, credible projections. And I am way too familiar, way more than [...]

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Big Mistake: Meaning Mismatch in Marketing

July 25, 2012

Yesterday I discovered, to my surprise, that a good friend who does licensed massage therapy said she doesn’t think of herself as an entrepreneur. In her mind, entrepreneurs want to get outside investment, hire employees, and grow their businesses fast. People like her think of themselves as self employed, sole proprietor maybe, small business owners [...]

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12 Ways Best Blogging Practices Aren’t

July 17, 2012

I like Blogger Brad Shorr’s list of 12 Most Horrible Pieces of Blogging Advice. It’s a good list, well worth reading, good food for thought. More important, in my opinion, is that it’s also an eloquent reminder of the essential case-by-case rule that applies not only to business blogging but also to all of small business, beyond [...]

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Which is Worse: Making a Mistake or Losing an Opportunity?

July 11, 2012

What a great thought: how people approach failure is a key to success. That comes straight from Why Failure Drives Innovation, an article by Baba Shiv, Professor of Marketing, published in the Stanford Graduate School of Business news page. Consider this: “Failure” is a dreaded concept for most business people. But failure can actually be a [...]

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