He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.

Sun Tzu’s first rule for victory in The Art of War.
Although he was writing about war in the 6th Century BC, Sun Tzu’s advice applies to small businesses. As a small business owner/manager you are almost certainly resource constrained. Typically either lacking [...]

I’ve been reading and interesting new paper recently: How entrepreneurs acquire the capacity to excel: insights from research on expert performance which argues that success as an entrepreneur does not depend on innate talent, but on deliberate practice.

Deliberate practices is defined as participation in intense, prolonged and highly focused efforts to improve current performance in [...]

Daniel Isenberg, a Professor of Management Practice at Babson College recently described his entrepreneur test on the Harvard Business Review blog.

Here’s the 20 questions in his ‘Isenberg Entrepreneur Test’:

I don’t like being told what to do by people who are less capable than I am.
I like challenging myself.
I like to win.
I like being my own [...]

The image of the entrepreneur as a risk taker is pervasive.
It’s also a myth.
Sure by starting a business and becoming an entrepreneur you are taking on a risk, in particular you’re taking on the risk that you’ll have no pay cheque at the end of the month. Though if you’ve ever been made [...]

In the post Getting Rich As An Entrepreneur I answered a question asked by a reader, who remarked that they:
… could easily make more working as an employee, and with less risk.

To which I replied sarcastically, suggesting that they, shut down their business and go get a job, because you would have to be a [...]

I’ve had quite a few self proclaimed business ‘experts’ want a mention on this blog recently. Usually they tell me how they are special, generous or different because they “don’t expect to be paid”, instead they “work for equity”.
I think you should avoid them at all costs!
Why?
Firstly I question either their expertise or their honesty. [...]

I’ve recently been looking for a multi-tool and naturally I’ve ended up looking at both Leatherman and Gerber’s offerings. As the market leaders it’s hard to avoid them! Both appear to offer excellent products but so far it’s Leatherman that I’ve decided to buy.
However what caught my attention today was the corporate history of Gerber [...]

It’s no secret that most new business fail.
It won’t take long to find numerous web pages listing the top 5, 7 or 10 reasons that businesses fail. Here’s such list:

Management in Complete Denial
Over-expansion.
Poor Capital Structure.
Failure to Control the Controllable Costs.
Failure to Prepare for Volatility of Uncontrollable Costs.
Add New Products or Divisions that Drag Down [...]

One way of securing investment for your company is by finding and using an Angel Investor. These are people (usually entrepreneurs and successful businesspeople) who have money to invest. The funding these angels provide can range from a few thousand to millions.
In another post we will look at how to find an Angel, and how [...]

In January 2007 I decided that the business to business magazine I’d started during 2006 wasn’t the right business idea for me to be pursuing. As I’d had some interest in the magazine from a potential buyer I didn’t want to just fold the business if it could be sold (or even given) to another [...]