Successful Startup 101
Real Startup Advice for Today’s Non-Conventional Entrepreneur
Vol. 1, Issue 10, Dec. 2014
Editor & Publisher Tabitha Jean Naylor
www.successfulstartup101.com
Copyright 2014 by Tabitha Jean Naylor. All Rights Reserved.
Table of contents
* What's the Difference Between Success and Failure? TIME, by Michael I. Kaplan
* How to Explain a Complex Product Quickly & Effectively, by Tom Cox
* How to Know If Your Prospecting Email Message is Effective, by Jill Konrath
* When Adversity Hits, by Jeffery Fry
* 5 Fails Agile Entrepreneurs May Regret and Never Recover, by Taffy Williams
* All You Need To Know About Hiring For A Startup, by Steven Corcoran
* The Marketing Bulls-Eye: What’s Missing from Most Startup Marketing Campaigns
* 5 Ways to Win, presented by EY
* 5 Mistakes Founders and Business Owners Make, by Bill Rice
* The Road to Hell is Paved with Details, by Ian Jackson
* Born Global or Die Local: Building a Regional Startup Playbook, by Steve Blank
* From Zero to Thousands: 5 Steps to Get Your Social Media Up and Running, by Rachel Wisuri
* Startups: Grow Fast or Die Slow [VIDEO], by Ronald Barba
* 4 Signs It's Time for Your Startup to Grow Up, by Robert Sher
* Want to Give Your Startup a Tactical Edge? Go Paperless from the Start, by Ingrid von Stein
* Managing the Numbers of a Seasonal Startup: When to Spend and How Much, by Greg Coleman
* 10 Incentives For Entrepreneurs To Bootstrap Their Startup, by Martin Zwilling
* Are You Suffering from Small Business Success? By Allison Kelly
* Infographic: How to Make the Leap from Employee to Entrepreneur, by The Founder Institute
* Must See Movie For Entrepreneurs: Tommy Boy
* 10 Ways Entrepreneurs Fail Their Way To The Top, by Martin Zwilling.
Letter From The Editor
As the end of December nears, many people are busy and overwhelmed. Whether you’re busy buying Christmas presents or trying to wrap up things for your business to prepare for next year, the end of the year can be hectic.
With all of the chaos and running around, it’s easy to forget about taking a few moments to yourself. Not only is it healthy to take a break, but allowing yourself to take a break can give you the strength to continue forward, accept anything that comes your way and reflect on what a successful year it has been.
Celebrating Victories
During your time of reflection, you should cut yourself some slack and celebrate any victories you may have had the joy of encountering throughout the year.
Celebrate the client who you swayed to say yes instead of no; bask in the fact that you have launched or startup or the fact that you’ve finalized a date for launch; give yourself a pat on the back for gaining 500 new followers on your business’ Facebook page.
Allowing yourself time to celebrate and enjoy some of the victories you’ve had for your business - big or small - will make you feel good about the choices you’re making. It can give you a little inspiration or motivation. End of the year preparation can cause a lot of stress, but knowing what you have to look forward to can open the door to new ideas and excitement.
Whether your successes have been big or small, thinking about them can open up your imagination to a world of possibilities.
Accepting and Learning From Setbacks
Maybe you only had a few victories to celebrate but quite a few setbacks to dwell on. Before you begin dwelling on a failure you’ve had - don’t.
It isn’t healthy or productive to sit and think about why you failed in a certain situation or why something happened to you that shouldn’t have. Regardless of what setbacks you faced in 2014, the only thing you can do is now is allow yourself to learn from your mistakes and move on.
Looking back at some of the setbacks you’ve encountered is healthy if you aren’t dwelling. Ask yourself questions about each situation to help find a better solution. What could you have done differently? If the situation were to occur again, what steps would you take to ensure a better solution? If the issue was with your products, brand or business in general, how have any of these issues changed since then?
Understanding your setbacks and failures can help you look forward instead of dwelling on the past. If a tragic situation occurred in 2014, the chances of it happening to you twice are slim because now you have an effective solution and way of handling things differently.
Whatever failures you may have faced in 2014, you have nowhere to go but up in 2015.
Planning Ahead
As you’re scurrying around buying gifts and getting things ready for 2015, be sure to write a potential plan for the upcoming year.
Planning ahead can allow you to write down any situations you may foresee, possible new products, new marketing tactics and more. If you are hoping to hire more employees or have your startup launch planned in 2015, write a synopsis of how you anticipate each situation will occur. If you begin planning for any future issues or changes, then you will be able to prepare better for when these things actually happen. Some other helpful preparations to include in your plan can be:
* Preparing your business for tax season or hiring a tax professional
* Holding any meetings with your employees or co-founders to get any additional help in planning for a successful year